Lettres - Letters
By readers on February 26, 2009
Thérapie pour les traumatisés de 1759
By Pierre K. Malouf on February 26, 2009
Sarkozy a traité de sectaires certains nationalistes québécois. Le mot était peut-être exagéré. « Bornés » aurait suffi. Ou peut-être « obscurantistes ». Falardeau, par exemple, est un obscurantiste. L’énergumène écrivait récemment que l’historien Marcel Trudel aurait « vanté les mérites de la défaite », chanté « les louanges du conquérant ».
La Mer et ses sirènes
By Phillipe Allard on February 26, 2009
La raison la plus fréquemment invoquée par les nationalistes de toute tendance pour justifier leur nationalisme est le voisinage entre la majorité francophone du Québec et ce qu’ils appellent, dans un élan si poétique, « une mer d’anglophones ». D’un air entendu, nos patriarches, intellectuels et autres bien-pensants nationalistes ont l’habitude d’inaugurer quasi unanimement leurs discours de cette subtile métaphore. Tout juste si la « mer » ne fait pas partie des « attendus que » de la Loi 101...
A 3.5 million dollar miracle on Hickmore St.
By P.A. Sévigny on February 26, 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
By Dan Delmar on February 26, 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
By Julius Grey on February 26, 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?
By Jessica Murphy on February 26, 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...
World Parliamentary Alliance against Anti-Semitism meets in London
By Beryl Wajsman on February 26, 2009
Over 100 parliamentarians from 35 different countries gathered in in London from February 15-17th for the founding conference of the International Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism (ICCA) hosted by the UK Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office.
The London Declaration on Combating Antisemitism
By ICCA on February 26, 2009
"I am pleased that the British Foreign Office hosted the founding Summit of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism. The event brought together 125 MPs from 40 different counties and led to this important/powerful? Declaration that I’m honoured to sign today. So many of the principles it enshrines are already things we are doing here in Britain and while I’m proud of the bold action Britain has taken to combat anti-Semitism such as improved reporting, prosecutions for antisemitic internet hate and the funding of Holocaust Education in schools, there is no room for complacency. Within a month the DCLG are organising for an away day event at Beth Shalom, the Holocaust Centre, to look in detail at how the Government can implement the London Declaration. I encourage other Heads of Government to become signatories to this historic agreement - together our renewed efforts can rid the world of this ancient virus."
The Hon. Jason Kenney’s address at Lancaster House
By Hon. Jason Kenney on February 26, 2009
Mesdames et Messieurs, merci bien pour votre collaboration et j’aimerais commencer en félicitant John et ses collègues pour avoir organisé cet colloque historique et très important...
The curious Canadian care for Khadr
By David T. Jones on February 26, 2009
It must be tedious and frustrating to be a "concerned Canadian." So many errors to be corrected; so many problems to be resolved; so many wrong directions to be set straight...
Global Antisemitism: Assault on Human Rights
By l'Hon. Irwin Cotler on February 26, 2009
Keynote Address by the Honourable Irwin Cotler at the founding conference of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism (ICCA)
Professor Cotler is the co-founder of ICCA with UK MP John Mann.
He is the former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada and is the Liberal MP for the Montreal riding of Mount Royal...
Piperberg's World
By Roy Piperberg on February 26, 2009
Surfing the Kondratieff Economic Long Wave
By Robert Presser on February 26, 2009
As the world collectively suffers the hangover of economic excesses propagated by excessive debt, greed and deregulation, many wonder if all or any of this could have been avoided. Fans of Nikolai Kondratieff will tell you that this era of falling prices, deleveraging of excessive debt and increased unemployment was both predictable and unavoidable. We are suffering through the Winter, or final season of an economic long wave that lasts from forty to sixty years, and that we can expect that it will last for years to come...
Quel avenir pour l’agriculture québécoise ?
By Jean-François Minardi on February 26, 2009
L’agriculture québécoise est étouffée par un certain nombre de politiques publiques mal conçues qui ne servent en définitive ni les intérêts des agriculteurs, ni celui des consommateurs, ni celui des contribuables. ..
Madoff’s Montreal effect
By Jessica Murphy on February 26, 2009
Among the victims of Bernie Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme were a number of prominent Canadians, including former Westmount resident Phil Robinson.
Robinson, part-owner of the Gray Rocks and Mont Blanc ski resorts, lost about $4 million to the accused Wall Street swindler, according to a report by The Globe and Mail newspaper. His extended family lost upwards of $13 million...
« Plus le mensonge est gros, plus il passe »
By Germain Belzile on February 26, 2009
Les signataires du présent article veulent faire savoir aux dirigeants de Radio-Canada leur indignation. Celle des citoyens trompés et à qui est dénié le droit vital à l’information mise dans son contexte. Les reportages de Radio-Canada sur les représailles contre les tirs de mortier, de roquettes Kassam et Grad, qui ont terrorisé jusqu’à un demi-million de civils israéliens pendant huit ans nuit et jour à raison de trois alertes quotidiennes, sont indignes d’une société d’État dans un pays libre et démocratique...
Buried Child was best of Segal series so far
By Alidor Aucoin on February 26, 2009
The National Art Centre’s production of Sam Shepard’s loopy nightmare, Buried Child at the Leanor and Alvin Segal Theatre was a thriller that walked a tightrope between the real and the surreal...
Oscars – The First Reality Show
By Sharman Yarnell on February 26, 2009
From a dark eyed boy scrounging off the streets of India and a baby born an old man, to a shamed American president, a martyr of the gays rights movement, and, finally, a young man's love affair with an SS concentration camp guard. Now that's pretty eclectic!..
