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Vol. 2 No. 4 - The Métropolitain

Days that sear our souls

By Beryl Wajsman on January 15, 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

By Pierre K. Malouf on January 15, 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

By Jacques Brassard on January 15, 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

By Germain Belzile on January 15, 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

By Beryl Wajsman on January 15, 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

By Duff Conacher on January 15, 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

By P.A. Sévigny on January 15, 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...

Lettre à Gaza...

By Alain-Michel Ayache on January 15, 2009

Pauvre Proche-Orient ! Pauvre Gaza ! Pauvres Palestiniens ! Pauvre peuple en perdition… Comme si le destin continue de s’acharner contre toi pour faire parvenir un message à l’ensemble des pays de la région, et particulièrement à tes « frères » arabes. ..

Keep real Gaza facts in mind

By Leo Adler on January 15, 2009

As the situation between Israel and Hamas continues to dominate headlines, and the calls for Canada to have an "even-handed" approach and to condemn Israel's "disproportionate" policies are renewed, it might be appropriate to step back a bit and review a few indisputable facts...

The Inaugural Inspiration

By Alidor Aucoin on January 15, 2009

All US presidents eventually reveal their flaws, but the ones who are remembered in spite of their flaws are those who inspire Americans -  and by extension all free people - to serve and make a difference...

Israel is disproportionate. Disproportionately restrained.

By David Solway on January 15, 2009

The recent outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Hamas should give us an opportunity to reflect, once again, not only on the current belligerents, but on the role of the obligatory third party to the conflict. I refer to the ground troops of the armies of the liberal-left, aka the Western media, who inevitably tilt the balance of the war they are “covering” in favor of their confederates or, what amounts to the same thing, against the side they reprove.

Political Correctness--the Curse of Civilization

By David T. Jones on January 15, 2009

We can be confident that, as soon as our long ago ancestors started living in caves, there was "correctness"--social, political, tribal, etc.  Just where do you throw your bones after cracking them open and sucking out the marrow?  Just where do you perform your bodily functions?  Or who speaks (grunts?) in what order in the group meeting?..

Secteur automobile : une aide éhontée

By Vincent Geloso on January 15, 2009

Depuis plusieurs mois, les accusations à l’effet que le marché serait incapable de se corriger seul se multiplient et appellent à l’intervention massive de l’État.  L’accusation est ridicule puisque, depuis des mois, les gouvernements multiplient les interventions qui empêchent le marché de se corriger...

Quebec at the crossroads: the recession as Charest’s Odyssey

By Robert Presser on January 15, 2009

Many Quebeckers remain fixated on the economic problems in the United States and their spillover effect into Canada, notably the potential bankruptcy of one or more of the Big Three US automakers and the devastation this would wreak on central Canadian manufacturing...

Piperberg's World

By Roy Piperberg on January 15, 2009

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The New Frugality

By Jessica Murphy on January 15, 2009

Will 2009 be the year we finally learn financial common sense? History and the emerging field of behavioural finance suggests that we won't..,

Humanity 2009

By David Simard on January 15, 2009

The sum of human knowledge doubles every 18 months or so. Our understanding of everything is moving along in leaps and bounds. There are more scientists per capita than at any other time. These men and women are working in fields such as nanotechnology, the human genome and renewable energies...

Federal employees DO NOT earn more than private workers!

By Michèle Demers on January 15, 2009

For the fifth time in a row, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business has issued a flawed analysis alleging “widening gaps” between public and private-sector employee compensation...

King Jack

By Alidor Aucoin on January 15, 2009

As  one of Canada¹s richest industrialists and media barons, a biography of John Wilson McConnell, the President of St. Lawrence Sugar Refineries who once owned Holt Renfrew and the Montreal Star newspaper is certainly  long overdue...

The Childrens’ Theatre turns 75

By Sharman Yarnell on January 15, 2009

When I interviewed him at a Montreal Actra Awards ceremony, William Shatner recognized a number of Montreal theatre icons as being instrumental in creating a strong foundation for his career in acting...

Nous sommes tous Kafka

By Louise V. Labrecque on January 15, 2009

On commence à ouvrir les yeux lentement sur les vrais rapports qui lient l’auteure à Kafka, et cela, dès la première page.  Les métamorphoses, c’est bien connu, s’opèrent lentement, de fil en aiguille ; mais pas ici.  C’en est presque frustrant, car déjà on sait que le suicide, réellement la mort, est imminente, à la toute fin...


Editorial Staff

Beryl P. Wajsman

Redacteur en chef et Editeur

Alan Hustak

Senior Editor

Daniel Laprès

Redacteur-adjoint

Robert J. Galbraith

Photojournaliste

Roy Piberberg

Editorial Artwork

Mike Medeiros

Copy and Translation

Val Prudnikov

IT Director and Web Design

Editorial Contributors
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