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Une réflexion sur le départ du Cardinal Ouellet
By Mike Medeiros on July 22, 2010
Le prêtre catholique le plus haut gradé du Canada a récemment reçu une promotion. Le Cardinal Marc Ouellet a été nommé à la tête le de la Congrégation pour les évêques du Vatican; essentiellement, le département des ressources humaines pour le cercle intime du pape. Alors, il quittera sous peu le Québec et ira au Vatican.
Cette nomination au Vatican du Cardinal Ouellet a suscitée une gamme d’émotions chez de nombreux Québécois et Canadiens.
Resurrecting Chabanel
By Jessica Murphy on July 22, 2010
Five years ago, textile and apparel quotas were completely eliminated for all WTO member countries, including Canada.
Montreal - alongside New York and Los Angeles - is one of the top three fashion production hubs in North America and the city has been scrambling to ensure the industry’s continued existence despite the pressure of loosening trade regulations.
It launched a glitzy campaign to showcase Montreal as a ‘fashion city’ filled with a creativity and passion for the craft.
The Iranian threat: A clear and present danger
By l'Hon. Irwin Cotler on July 22, 2010
Ahmadinejad’s Iran – a term used to distinguish the regime from the people and publics of Iran who are themselves the targets of massive domestic repression – has emerged as a clear and present danger to international peace and security, to regional and Mid-East stability, and increasingly – and alarmingly so – to its own people.
Simply put, we are witnessing in Ahmadinejad’s Iran the toxic convergence of four distinct – yet interrelated – dangers – the nuclear threat; the genocidal incitement threat; state-sponsored terrorism; and the systematic and widespread violations of the rights of the Iranian people.
Auschwitz- Birkenau and Confronting Contemporary Antisemitism
By The Hon. David Kilgour on July 22, 2010
Recently, my wife Laura and I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau before attending a conference on democratic governance in nearby Krakow. The two large camps, about four kilometres apart and preserved by the Polish Parliament in 1947 as monuments to the Holocaust/Shoah, are undoubtedly the most inhuman scenes we visitors from around the world had ever seen.
Our guide told us many things, including the fact that last year alone the two sites received about 1.2 million visitors. If only many more people of all ages from everywhere, including Canada, would come, some of the world's Holocaust deniers might mute at least this feature of their antisemitism.
Chinese money
By Prof. Thomas Velk on July 22, 2010
On June 19th China’s central bank, called The People’s Bank of China, announced that it will “increase the renminbi’s “exchange-rate flexibility”, meaning that the U.S. dollar cost of buying Chinese money (also termed “Yuan”) might go up. And so everything that the West buys from China, ranging from computer parts, TVs, heavy machinery and plastic toys to edamame (the Chinese supplied “Japanese” soy beans you eat in Asian restaurants) and London Cabs (the firm is owned by China’s Geeley company) may cost a bit more.
Ben and Barry: Just a few New Flavors
By David Solway on July 22, 2010
Benjamin Netanyahu can count himself lucky. The press has made much of the humiliation he suffered at the hands of Barry (aka Barack) Obama who, during their recent encounter, left him to stew for an hour in the White House reception room while the president enjoyed a leisurely dinner “with Michelle and the girls.” This was plainly no way to treat a visiting head of government, but let’s face it, it could have been much worse.
Stimulate or Decimate? A post-summit briefing note for the G20 leadership
By Robert Presser on July 22, 2010
Dear G20 leaders,
First of all, congratulations are in order for emerging with anything resembling a commitment to fiscal restraint at all, given the differing economic environments you are all facing. The message was simple and direct: cut deficits in half by 2013 and stabilize debt to GDP ratios by 2016. Boy, are you lucky that the majority of populist journalists ran to file the story before they read the fine print, because otherwise the solidarity you displayed in the group photo would look more like Swiss cheese. Japan gets an exemption from the debt level targets because they are still fighting deflation leftover from the last recession, and the US federal government is busy spending more, not less, to compensate for state budgets that are being slashed to the bone.
300,000 abused?
By Barbara Kay on July 22, 2010
“A bad statistic,” says sociologist Joel Best, “is harder to kill than a vampire.” Bad statistics come from bad intellectual faith. And in no field does bad intellectual faith run more rampant than that of domestic violence.
In an up-to-date example of the phenomenon, we find the “World Soccer Abuse Nightmare” out of England, in which the British Home Office carelessly endorsed a bogus study put forward by England’s Association of Chief Police Officers, purporting to find that a full 30 per cent increase in domestic violence (DV) during the World Cup. A subsequent investigation by reliable scholars found the so-called study to be riddled with errors and corrupt methodology.
What Hampstead can learn from Syria and Tunisia
By Dan Delmar on July 22, 2010
In their fight to prevent the Quebec government from passing Bill 94, niqab and burqa-wearing Muslim women have found support in the most unusual of places: The most heavily Jewish town, statistically, in the entire province.
The face veil – the dehumanization of women – is where most reasonable people would draw the line. And evidently leaders in jurisdictions like France, Belgium, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and Egypt agree, having adopted various sorts of niqab restrictions. Why does Hampstead purport to know what is better for Muslim women than a growing number of Muslim nations?
Armageddon or no Armageddon, Secularists need to remain vigilant
By Anthony Philbin on July 22, 2010
The recent publishing of Marci McDonald’s The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada, was timed to coincide with Canada’s annual National Prayer Breakfast (NPB). Though the first occurrence of the prayer breakfast took place when The Beatles arrived on North American soil, back in 1964, I have to say I’d probably still be in the dark about it if not for the clever marketing ploy by McDonald’s publisher.
Message to environmentalists: ‘Humankind needs energy!’
By Mischa Popoff on July 22, 2010
Humankind needs energy; always has, always will.
The emails from East Anglia University revealed that global-warming data were all fudged – plain and simple. This led to the collapse of a global-warming industry that had sprung up after the signing of the Kyoto Protocol. But die-hard environmentalists were never bothered by not having a leg to stand on. Not only do they still want us to quit driving our cars, they want us to quit taking flights.
Le Monde de Piperberg
By Roy Piperberg on July 22, 2010
Surviving Broadway
By Sharman Yarnell on July 22, 2010
NEW YORK, NY - Although the past few months have seen some closures of those “sure-fire hits,” Broadway is alive, well and high-kicking through the summer and into the fall. However, the Bard’s claim, "the play’s the thing,” should probably read “the revival’s the thing.”
Most of the draws at the box office, except for a couple, are all tried and true productions from the past. Where are the writers, the lyricists, the great librettists of yore?
Public spaces I - Circling the Square
By Alan Hustak on July 22, 2010
The $14-million redesign of Place d’Armes in Old Montreal gives new meaning to the expression tearing up the city. Ongoing construction for more than a year has turned the historic ground in front of Notre Dame basilica into a no man’s land. Tourists expecting to see the statue of Montreal’s founder, Paul de Chomedey, sieur de Maisonneuve, are greeted instead by bulldozers. Making your way up Beaver Hall hill into Notre Dame or into any of the office buildings around the square means running an obstacle course around the massive excavation.
Public spaces II - Bulldozing the Bonaventure
By Alan Hustak on July 22, 2010
The plans to bulldoze the Bonaventure expressway and replace it with a ground level boulevard, for example, have gone back to the drawing board. The Office de consultation publique de montréal was right to doubt the wisdom of the entire $260-million redevelopment scheme initially proposed by the Societe du Havre de Montreal, and to recommend a second look at the whole idea.
The people at City Hall responsible for the ambitious project might learn a thing or two from Boston’s experience.
Remembering D-Day 66 years later
By Robert J. Galbraith on June 10, 2010
La Révolution tranquille expliquée aux jeunes
By Pierre K. Malouf on June 10, 2010
En préparation pour ce numéro, j’ai rencontré une étudiante, qui m’a interrogé sur la Révolution tranquille. Voici, sous forme de questions et réponses, une synthèse de nos échanges.
Alice : Merci de répondre à mes questions. Vous avez vécu la Révolution tranquille. Pourriez-vous nous situer dans le temps?
Moi : Avec plaisir, mademoiselle.
Résister aux comparaisons / To withstand comparisons
By Beryl Wajsman on June 10, 2010
Vous lirez beaucoup dans ce numéro au sujet de l’héritage de la Révolution tranquille dans notre vie politique, notre place sur la scène internationale, notre économie, nos mœurs sociales et nos arts. Ma réflexion dans cet espace est au sujet de ce que la Révolution tranquille - et l’extraordinaire révolutionnaire tranquille Paul Gérin-Lajoie - peut encore nous enseigner aujourd'hui et demain.
Une révolution bien plus que québécoise
By Mike Medeiros on June 10, 2010
Ce mois de juin marque le cinquantième anniversaire de l’élection du premier gouvernement de Jean Lesage. L’importance de cet événement va bien au-delà de la célébration des profonds changements apporter par Jean Lesage, elle signifie le début de la Révolution tranquille. Cette période représente une série de grands changements qu’a subis le Québec. Cette révolution apporta au Québec des transformations radicales sociales, culturelles, politiques, et économiques. Nul ne peut en douter que depuis cinquante ans le Québec a fondamentalement changé.
GÉRIN-LAJOIE: RÉFORMER ET RENOUVELER
By Alan Hustak on June 10, 2010
Une collection amusante d’une centaine d’hiboux ornementaux remplit un cabinet dans l’appartement spacieux de Paul Gérin-Lajoie - une centaine d’hiboux en cristal, porcelaine, verre, bronze et argent. Les hiboux, dans toutes les formes et tailles, sont des cadeaux qu’il a reçus au cours des années des amis qui le considèrent un vieil oiseau sage qui, comme un hibou, travail tard, et bat des paupières en reconnaissance tranquille de tout ce qu’il voit.
THE QUIET REVOLUTION: A PERSONAL REFLECTION
By Graeme Decarie on June 10, 2010
When Quebec was conquered by the British in 1763, most of its secular leaders – those around the Governor, the military, and many of the wealthy - returned to France. And very reasonably so. Their futures and their connections were in France, not in a British colony. The only French institution remaining was the Roman Catholic Church.
Georges-Emile Lapalme
By Alan Hustak on June 10, 2010
Revolutions, quiet or otherwise, rarely go according to plan. Georges Emile Lapalme might have been premier instead of Jean Lesage, had events not conspired against him “Lapalme was the main brain behind everything,” agrees Paul Gerin Lajoe, “There were others who contributed, but he was the chief engineer behind the 1960 election victory.”
La place du Québec dans le monde: Les liens existants et non-utilisés!
By Alain-Michel de Perlicroix on June 10, 2010
« Le Québec est et sera une Nation à jamais »! Si ma mémoire ne me trahit pas, ce sont les paroles de feu Robert Bourassa à la suite de l’échec des pourparlers du Lac Meech. Loin de toute politique politicienne et me considérant cet immigrant, né dans un pays tiers, élevé en Europe et installé au Canada depuis plus de vingt ans, je ne peux que considérer cette phrase réaliste et vraie. Oui, le Québec est une Nation à part entière. Quant au choix de rester au sein du Canada ou de prendre son indépendance, ce sera aux Québécois et aux Canadiens de le décider ensembles. En ce qui me concerne, je me tiendrai dans cet article d’opinion à expliciter ma vision du Québec que j’aime et les efforts additionnels qu’il devrait entreprendre pour le rendre plus solide sur la scène internationale comme le voulait Paul Gérin-Lajoie.
Fifty years later: A View from Washington
By David T. Jones on June 10, 2010
As a truth in writing caveat, one must admit up front that Washington is paying no attention to Quebec. It barely pays attention to Canada (except during this time of year as a possible destination for a vacation/fishing trip); it notices Quebec only when the province is in extremis: in the throes of a "tear the country apart" referendum or, perhaps, with a dramatic winter storm with great media visuals of marching files of ice-toppled hydroelectric towers.
How to Respond to Free Gaza Flotillas
By David Solway on June 10, 2010
So much has already been written in the wake of the Free Gaza flotilla fiasco of May 31 that little remains to be said, other than to repeat the obvious: that Israel was set up, that the world’s chancelleries and the United Nations would collaborate in the usual bacchanal of condemnation, that Israel’s enemies would be gloating over yet another propaganda victory, and that Jew-haters and anti-Zionists everywhere would cite the trap into which Israel blindly stumbled as incontrovertible proof of the Jewish state’s innate savagery.
Towards a new quiet economic revolution
By Prof. Thomas Velk on June 10, 2010
The fundamental notion that lay at the heart of the economic Quiet Revolution in Quebec was that central state planning, management and control would pay off in effective delivery of vital services at affordable prices to privileged and vulnerable alike and give society an appropriate return as well. This actually succeeded, in large part, in two and possibly three sectors that are keys to Quebec’s future: hydro power, finance and (to a lesser degree) education. We followed, somewhat, the model of America’s Alexander Hamilton, who, knowing full well the benefits of free trade and private markets, nonetheless advocated a protective tariff for domestic industry, a home-grown big banking system and strong guarantees for full payment of public debt.
Chinese money
By Prof. Thomas Velk on June 10, 2010
On June 19th China’s central bank, called The People’s Bank of China, announced that it will “increase the renminbi’s “exchange-rate flexibility”, meaning that the U.S. dollar cost of buying Chinese money (also termed “Yuan”) might go up. And so everything that the West buys from China, ranging from computer parts, TVs, heavy machinery and plastic toys to edamame (the Chinese supplied “Japanese” soy beans you eat in Asian restaurants) and London Cabs (the firm is owned by China’s Geeley company) may cost a bit more.
What do the Chinese think of the Great Recession and the Euro Crisis?
By Robert Presser on June 10, 2010
Visiting Shanghai in 2010 is the ultimate experience in Modern urban infrastructure. At the nearly-new international airport, you can take a MagLev (magnetic levitation) train that whisks you into Pudong at a top speed of 430 km/h. You then transfer to a modern subway system with 400 kilometers of track, 200 of which opened within the last year. Or, if you prefer, you can grab a cheap, new taxi from Pudong and travel into Shanghai across modern six-lane expressways and impressive new bridges that cross the river, one every few kilometers. This is the kind of town that big money, government money, buys for its citizenry when the state is wealthy and wants to show off to the world for the 2010 Shanghai Expo, the world’s fair now underway.
How soccer might save the world
By Anthony Philbin on June 10, 2010
FIFA, the body governing the sport of soccer globally, counts some 207 countries as members. As Kofi Anan humbly admitted in a recent World Cup press release, the UN has only 191 members. This, and a number of other observations on what has become The World’s Game, were at the heart of Mr. Anan’s obvious soccer-envy in his latest message.
Fifty years after – The Church today
By P.A. Sévigny on June 10, 2010
As one of the city’s more successful antique dealers, the late Conrad Martin used to tell stories about how he started out as a ‘picker’ when he used to go up into the Gaspé and the Lac St. Jean districts to buy up whatever he could find once the province’s Catholic Church began to close up its empty churches and assorted convent properties.
“I used to make sure I had big rolls of cash,” said Martin. “I would go up to see the Abbess of the convent, put the money on her desk and make the deal right then and there before calling in the boys to load up the truck.”
La pensée de Tariq Ramadan selon Gregory Baum
By Pierre Brassard on June 10, 2010
Le théologien Gregory Baum, professeur émérite de la Faculté des sciences religieuses de l’Université McGill vient de publier: Islam et modernité : la pensée de Tariq Ramadan (Édition Bellarmin, 2010). À mon avis, son livre comporte de profondes lacunes.
Le Monde de Piperberg
By Roy Piperberg on June 10, 2010
Quebec’s Celluloid Revolution
By Jessica Murphy on June 10, 2010
“Film is a vision, a point of view,” said Quebec director Michel Brault in 2003.
Brault and his peers - Quebec cultural giants the lot - were at the forefront in helping the province establish a national cinema distinct from the rest of Canada. They told stories from the viewpoint of les Quebecois. They gave a nation a voice in its own language on screens big and small.
Démocratie et égalité des sexes
By Louise V. Labrecque on June 10, 2010
Ce n’est même pas une question. Plus que jamais il faut repenser le féminisme afin de mieux comprendre la condition féminine actuelle. Diane Guilbault, l’auteure de cet extraordinaire petit livre : « Démocratie et égalité des sexes », interroge les liens complexes unissant le corps, la société, les religions, les cultes, les systèmes et les politiques, notamment les accommodements dit raisonnables. L’éducation des filles, depuis toujours, englobe le corps et cerne tout particulièrement le sexe, organe de procréation. Ce faux pouvoir, les femmes l’ont appris par cœur, au travers des siècles de silence, de mimétisme, de séduction.
Shrug! Trudeau Stories at the Centaur until June 6.
By Alidor Aucoin on May 12, 2010
Keep a diary long enough, no matter how inconsequential, and it might end up keeping you.
Brooke Johnson met Pierre Trudeau at a dance at the National Theatre School in 1985 when she was a 23-year- old aspiring actress. He danced with her, took her out for a drinks a few times, invited her for a walk in the country...
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