La Patrie
A 3.5 million dollar miracle on Hickmore St.
Par P.A. Sévigny le 26 février 2009
All of the pallets measure four by four by four feet high full of shrink-wrapped cases of macaroni and cheese, soup, pickles and jam. Rented cube vans wait patiently for their turn at the loading docks while lift trucks race around the warehouse piled high with crates full of broccoli, potatoes, onions and apples. In the back under the lights, at least two dozen volunteers are sorting through thousands of oranges as the bad ones are tossed into a loader at the end of the table...
A neighbourhood or a casino? The future of the Hippodrome
Par Dan Delmar le 26 février 2009
Montreal housing groups scored a major victory last week when the provincial government announced that it has reversed its decision to fund a video lottery terminal and off-track betting centre on land around the Hippodrome de Montréal...
On Quebec and identity
Par Julius Grey le 26 février 2009
Voices have been heard again in Montreal’s English Community calling for action if the Quebec government tries to overturn a successful Bill 104 challenge through use of the “notwithstanding clause”. At the same time, criticism has been leveled against Quebec Ministers Kathleen Weil and Yolande James for not insisting more on the protection of English identity. A new round of English complaints is unjustified, whatever happens to Bill 104, and the two ministers are clearly right in rejecting an exclusive English identity...
Who controls the Internet in Canada?
Par Jessica Murphy le 26 février 2009
Net neutrality hasn't yet made an imprint in Canada’s national dialogue, but the controvery addresses nothing less than who acts as the gatekeeper to the most powerful communication tool we have. Net throttling – also called traffic shaping – can be defined as the control of computer network traffic in order to optimize performance, or the alteration of traffic on a particular connection to increase efficiency throughout the network...
Stimulate this!
Par Beryl Wajsman le 5 février 2009
The current frenzy of economic stimulus packages sweeping around us like so many forest fires will not — and more importantly, should not — work. The reasons are threefold. First, they are stimulating the perpetuation of a false economy that has caused nightmares for tens of millions. Second, the packages are based on outdated Depression-era models without taking into consideration today’s much different realities. And third, they provide insufficient protection to get people through the tough three to seven years that are to come...
VOICES OF A GENERATION in The Métropolitain
Par Alain-Michel Ayache le 5 février 2009
Being a student is not often an easy task. Between part-time work to be able to pay the tuition, and often five courses each semester, to deal with, a student can barely see the end...
Voices of a generation: Media, ethics and bailouts
Par Alana Vineberg le 5 février 2009
As a young woman edging my way closer to graduation and onto the job scene, I cannot help but feel pessimistic about the future...
Voices of a generation: What of Quebec’s Future?
Par Kaoutar Belaaziz le 5 février 2009
The drums sounded in December calling on Quebecers to decide who was best suited govern. As amusing as the rivalries were to many political junkies, the recent Quebec election did not spark much interest in the general public as he U.S. presidential election did. What Quebec needs are leaders willing to forget petty politics, abandon narrow rivalries and commit o end excluding people. What Quebec needs is an Obama Effect...
Voices of a generation: Pay equity: how much of a real gap exists
Par Sonia Sangregorio le 5 février 2009
In the year 2009, we still ask ourselves are men being paid a higher wage to do the exact same job as women. When answering the question the obvious answer is yes and many believe that women are being discriminated in the work place when it comes to promotions, salaries and what we refer to as statistical discrimination. We refer to statistical discrimination when a person applying for a job is not taken into consideration because she or he is not part of what statistics show to be the more productive group in the society...
Voices of a generation: Our Land is Your Land...or Something
Par Bethea Clarke le 5 février 2009
Our society’s frightening reliance on fossil fuels has been lamented ad nauseam. Frankly, we are all tired of hearing about Alberta, and if one more granola-eating hipster drops the word “sustainable” into a sentence just for kicks... well
Voices of a generation: What does it take to be Canadian?
Par Chantel Lattimore-Durant le 5 février 2009
What does it take to be Canadian? Will citizenship ever be enough? Or will we continue to ask people, “where are you from?” the infamous question that visible minorities must hear at least twice a month. The response “Canada” is never enough; it is almost always accompanied with a look of shock or disapproval, followed by “No I mean where is your family from?” ...
Voices of a generation: The independence of crossing the floor
Par Ali Khan Lalani & Mark Small le 5 février 2009
It is always fun to watch when a politician crosses the floor. Whatever side is losing a member waves their arms at the injustice, the thwarting of democracy, the cynical self-interest that motivated the move, and whatever side is gaining the new member welcomes the new MP with open arms and speaks about sticking up for ones beliefs and the courage it takes to cross the floor.,,
Traffic cops rack up record city revenue
Par P.A. Sévigny le 5 février 2009
For the third year in a row, the city broke its own record as police and parking authorities managed to rack up almost $200M for assorted parking and driving code offenses committed on the island and in the city. Based upon a 6% increase over the number of tickets issued during the previous year, informed critics and more than a few outraged drivers believe the city’s draconian parking policies are nothing less than a “hidden tax”.,,
Echoes of darker evils
Par Beryl Wajsman le 5 février 2009
The next time labour leaders in Canada want to know why there is such antipathy to their agenda in many quarters, they need look no further than the Canadian Union of Public Employees’ Ontario wing. Over the past ten days its president, Sid Ryan, has been up to his anti-Israel agitation for the second time in 30 months. This time he wants a boycott of t Israeli academic institutions.,,
So-So-So-Solidarité – with Palestine
Par Dan Delmar le 5 février 2009
Pro-Palestinian marchers now weave their way through Montreal’s downtown core on a weekly basis since Israel began its military operation in Gaza last month. To say the crowds are diverse would be an understatement. Aside from groups whose main purpose is to defend the Palestinian cause, there are pockets supporters who wouldn’t normally be associated with that movement: New MNA Amir Khadir and his Québec Solidaire party, la Fédération des femmes du Québec, housing rights group FRAPRU, the neo-Rhinoceros party, Christian groups and even the Raëlians...
Une autre occasion manquée: Les dernières contestations de la loi 101
Par Phillipe Allard le 5 février 2009
En décembre dernier, la Cour suprême a entendu de nouvelles contestations de la Charte québécoise de la langue française. Elles avaient pour objet la loi 104, adoptée en 2002 par l’Assemblée nationale, qui visait à « colmater une brèche » dans la loi 101, par laquelle les élèves allophones pouvaient fréquenter l’école publique anglaise s’ils avaient fréquenté une école anglaise privée non subventionnée pendant au moins un an...
L’affaire Burns-Rafay et le terrorisme islamiste
Par Daniel Laprès le 5 février 2009
Dans l’édition du Métropolitain du 27 novembre dernier, je présentais les grandes lignes des tactiques appliquées par la GRC pour contraindre, en laissant planer des menaces graves, des innocents à s’auto-déclarer coupables de crimes violents. La cause de Sebastian Burns et d’Atif Rafay (voir www.rafayburnsappeal.com), par laquelle j’ai pu illustrer ces méthodes policières plus que douteuses, comporte également l’implication potentielle d’un groupe islamiste relativement peu connu, nommé Al Fuqra, une organisation désignée en 1999 comme terroriste dans un rapport du Département d’État américain, intitulé Patterns of Global Terrorism (pour plus d’informations, voir www.alfuqraexposed.com)...
The “Shit Happens” factor
Par Dan Delmar le 5 février 2009
If you will forgive the vulgarity, I would like to expand on a theme that this newspaper’s editor touches on frequently: The seemingly instinctive desire for politicians to enact laws that attempt to prevent the unpreventable, covering all possible bases to make sure that we all behave like good little boys and girls, while leaving us with the impression that they are earning their salaries...
Days that sear our souls
Par Beryl Wajsman le 15 janvier 2009
This week and next, we would do well to pause and reflect on the solemn and universal backdrop against which this period of time unfolds every year...
La routine
Par Pierre K. Malouf le 15 janvier 2009
L’année 2009 nous réserve-t-elle quelque surprise ? Au Canada, et au Québec en particulier, se produira-t-il quelque événement inattendu qui ferait dire aux générations futures que nous venons de vivre un moment-clé de notre évolution ?
Le combat d’Israël pour sa survie, c’est aussi notre combat
Par Jacques Brassard le 15 janvier 2009
Pendant quelques instants, envisagez la situation suivante : à partir de Larouche et de St-Bruno, une organisation terroriste lance sur Alma, quotidiennement, des dizaines de roquettes et de missiles et cela, pendant des années. Et ces engins meurtriers sont tirés à l'aveuglette. Ils peuvent tomber n'importe où : sur un centre d'achat, sur une école, sur des résidences, sur une église...
Israel n'a pas le choix
Par Germain Belzile le 15 janvier 2009
Quelque 7000 obus de mortiers et roquettes tirés sur le territoire d'Israël depuis 2001. Des dizaines de milliers de civils israéliens ciblés par des attaques quotidiennes. Les alertes plus que quotidiennes qui terrorisent les enfants dans leurs écoles et leurs garderies. Quel gouvernement peut tolérer cela ? Depuis sept ans, les brigades d'Al-Aqsa (branche du Fatah), le Djihad islamique et le Hamas se sont armés pour atteindre leur but : détruire l'État d'Israël.
Hate in the streets
Par Beryl Wajsman le 15 janvier 2009
It was the images as much as the issues that got to you. You couldn’t intellectualize in your own mind what you were seeing. You wanted to ask the demonstrators questions...
New financial consumer watchdog groups needed to watch banks and investment industry
Par Duff Conacher le 15 janvier 2009
OTTAWA - With Canada's big banks reporting a total of $16 billion dollars in losses and writedowns mainly because of their irresponsibly risky investments, Canada's leading bank accountability coalition called on federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to work with opposition parties and protect financial consumers by requiring banks to prove their credit card, other consumer and small- and medium-sized business loan interest rates and service charges do not amount to gouging, empowering the Competition Bureau to evaluate the lending record and competition level in basic banking services nation-wide, and requiring banks and other financial institutions to facilitate the creation of watchdog groups...
City still working on anti-poverty initiative with Quebec
Par P.A. Sévigny le 15 janvier 2009
Just before Christmas the ruling majority at City Hall voted down a request for an emergency $500 000 donation to the city’s desperate food banks...
The Ignatieff ascendancy
Par Beryl Wajsman le 18 décembre 2008
Many have speculated what a Michael Ignatieff Liberal Party will look like. With his ascendancy we will soon find out. After the turbulent events of the past few weeks this country needs what Harry Truman once called some “plain speaking”. Not just for the sake of Michael Ignatieff’s party but for the sake of conscience and for the sake of this country. Without fidelity to conscience, public men are of little use......
Deux râteliers valent mieux qu`un
Par Pierre K. Malouf le 18 décembre 2008
La culture, dit le Petit Robert, c’est l’ « ensemble des aspects intellectuels propres à une civilisation, une nation ». Définissent et distinguent la culture d’un groupe ou d’une société, précise le Petit Larousse, ses usages, ses coutumes, ses manifestations artistiques, religieuses, intellectuelles. Au Québec, du moins dans le monde politique (ailleurs, je ne sais pas), ces définitions ne sont que partiellement vraies. Au Québec, on n’a que faire de la civilisation, seule compte la nation. Au Québec, point de culture en dehors des arts et des traditions.........
No moral high ground for Canada’s political parties
Par Duff Conacher le 18 décembre 2008
All federal political parties should have been working toward a democratic compromise over the Conservative minority government's economic and political finance proposals, instead of continuing their poorly timed games....
A very Canadian coup
Par Beryl Wajsman le 18 décembre 2008
Let us make no mistake about what happened in our land this month. The political posturing, particularly of the NDP and the Bloc, created a crisis far more acute and far-reaching than any economic challenges we may face...
The Charest legacy
Par Beryl Wajsman le 18 décembre 2008
Jean Charest won an historic third consecutive election victory. And he won it with a majority. We will not be among those indulging in over analysis of the numbers...
Decision Quebec: winners and losers
Par Dan Delmar le 18 décembre 2008
After an election where the story was not so much who voted for whom, but who did not vote at all, Premier Jean Charest may find himself taking on a familiar role; that of Captain Canada, ready to fight a resurgent sovereignist movement...
No charges to be laid against Mtl. North police
Par P.A. Sévigny le 18 décembre 2008
Following a two-month investigation and the intensive SQ (Sureté du Québec) inquiry into the shooting death of 18 year-old Montreal North teenager Freddy Villanueva, Québec Justice Official Louis Drouin recently confirmed no charges would be laid against SPVM constables Jean-Loup Lapointe and his partner, Stéphanie Pilote...
Élections pour les nuls
Par Pierre K. Malouf le 27 novembre 2008
Je regarde aller M. Charest, M. Dumont, Mme Marois (voire Mme David et son acolyte), et je me pâme !..
“It’s a matter of dignity”
Par Jessica Murphy le 27 novembre 2008
When Quebec’s 38th legislature was dissolved on Nov. 5, the work by the national assembly’s standing committee on social affairs came to a halt...
Trivializing Hate
Par Beryl Wajsman le 27 novembre 2008
This week Rouba Elmerhebi Fahd, mother of the United Talmud Torah fire bomber, received a sentence of only twelve months probation after having been found guilty in September of being an accessory after the fact in the firebombing. The trial judge qualified the attack on the Jewish school as a terrorist act...
