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Vol.2 No.12 - The Métropolitain

Tehran protestors in downtown Montreal.

By Alan Hustak on July 2, 2009

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Les héritiers (suite) : cadavre à bord

By Pierre K. Malouf on July 2, 2009

Minoritaire, voire marginal, le rejet du capitalisme constitue au Québec une tradition plus que séculaire, dont je donnais dans mon dernier Brasse-camarade deux menus échantillons tirés au sort à l’époque de la « Grande noirceur » : Gérard Filion directeur du Devoir, Mgr Desranleau, archevêque de Sherbrooke.  J’aurais pu trouver mieux chez les ultramontains de la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle ou parmi les élites traditionnelles des années vingt à quarante du XXe, qui voyaient d’un bon oeil les régimes d’extrême droite qui sévissaient  en Europe...

Le vrai fondateur d’Hydro-Québec, c’est lui

By Daniel Laprès on July 2, 2009

Le 11 juin dernier, dans le « blogue de l’éditorial » sur Cyberpresse, André Pratte répétait un mythe qui, bien que grotesque, est savamment entretenu par les indépendantistes. 
En effet, Pratte affirme que « Jacques-Parizeau-est-l’un-des-architectes-du-Québec-moderne », ce qui, soit dit en passant, est l’une des nombreuses hyperboles complètement ridicules auxquelles les nationalistes nous ont habitués quand il s’agit de mousser la gloire des semi-divinités qui trônent dans leur Panthéon imaginaire...

Montreal’s war on cars endangers citizens

By Dan Delmar on July 2, 2009

With a municipal election only months away, anti-car policies are being forced on citizens, notably in the borough of Côte-des-Neiges-NDG, where merchants are left scratching their heads..

Heed Neda's ‘call’! Tehran matters

By Beryl Wajsman on July 2, 2009

Neda_non_graphic.jpgThe pictures flood us. They flood us with pride, poignancy and pathos. A people struggling to be free. The images come from around the world. From citizens of Tehran confronting the terror of theocratic tyrants, to students marching in the streets of Paris to Montrealers — some using walkers — standing up and being counted. The palpable reality of mankind’s transcendent yearning for redemptive change...



Open letter to the people of Iran

By Nazanin Afshin-Jam on July 2, 2009

To my fellow compatriots, the brave Iranian men and women, who for the last few weeks have unleashed a spirit of energy that has been repressed for 30 years under an oppressive and undemocratic regime... we love, admire and support you.

Oh how we, living in exile, wish we could be at your side at this critical juncture in history...

Iran's revolt; Grassroots green

By The Hon. David Kilgour on July 2, 2009

Among many e-messages coming from Iran in recent days, I found one from a woman especially moving: "...this is the most authentic, grassroots and beautiful movement from the people, by the people and for the people." 
Iranians have spoken, with defiant demonstrations in the hundreds of thousands, and in rallies elsewhere, including one last weekend near Paris of 90,000, in protest against widespread election fraud and the fist of a regime unleashing terror..

Of Persians and power

By Akil Alleyne on July 2, 2009

In politics as in so much else, talk is cheap; it is deeds that have coinage. This has been one of my key criticisms of US President Barack Obama since the spring of 2008, when the luster of his political ascendancy began to fade in my eyes as his gaseous campaign rhetoric burrowed deeper and deeper under my skin. I looked askance as his handlers and speechwriters set him up in one vainglorious set-piece after another—promising to “heal the planet” and “slow the rise of the oceans” after the last Democratic primary, speaking in front of a row of ridiculous Roman columns at the Democratic National Convention, and so on. Windy rhetoric in politics has never sat well with me, no matter how young, intelligent or charismatic the politician...

Human dignity, religious rights, and Obama

By The Hon. David Kilgour on July 2, 2009

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948 without dissent. It proclaimed: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.....Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."..

Montrealers take to streets to support Iran’s people

By P.A. Sévigny on July 2, 2009

Over the past 10 days thousands of Montrealers have marched through the downtown core to protest what they described as a “stolen election” and Iran’s “Islamic coup d’état”. As the march made its way through the downtown core on its way to the Guy Favreau complex on Réné Lévesque Blvd, many participants told The Métropolitain they were there to support all their friends and relatives who were facing gas, water cannon and police bullets on the streets of Iran’s capital city, Teheran...

The Abousfian Abdelrazik Puzzle

By David T. Jones on July 2, 2009

What was I missing?  What was it that I didn‘t understand?
The continuing saga of Abousfian Abdelrazik, marooned in the Canadian embassy in Khartoum for over a year, had a “Kafkaesque Catch 22” quality to it that sounds more like the opening scene of some comedy/suspense thriller than a “we’re telling you this with a straight face” diplomatic explanation.  Even with his return it leaves an outside observer head shaking...

Save Our Suburbans! How the Obama Administration is going to change what and how you drive

By Robert Presser on July 2, 2009

GMC-Yukon-XL.jpgVisitors to Havana marvel at the American automobiles of the 1950’s that have survived five decades of revolutionary communist rule to continue to ply its streets.  Some are still running due to modified Russian auto parts, while other have had their lives extended by craftsmen who lovingly reproduce each fallen piece of chrome so that the autos appear as pristine as they did on Batista’s last day in the Presidential Palace...


Will you get your money’s worth from “green” food?

By Mischa Popoff on July 2, 2009

There are three basic types of “green” farming. On June 30th, one of them will receive the golden stamp of approval from the federal government. Will this have a positive impact for farmers, consumers and the planet? Sadly, no...

Piperberg's World

By Roy Piperberg on July 2, 2009

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“Montreal needs the main”

By Jessica Murphy on July 2, 2009

Surrounding Cabaret Café Cleopatre is a sex store and a nightclub, a vacant lot and sagging, boarded-up buildings with decades of grime ground deep into concrete and stone. On cloudy days the corner looks squalid. Sunny days don’t suit it. 
To get inside, you push through a gaggle of tough-talking strippers on a smoke break and through the music and black lights filtering from their ground floor establishment...

City taxi bureau’s RCG 08-022

By P.A. Sévigny on July 2, 2009

As the poorest of the city’s working poor, Montreal’s cab drivers are caught between a rock and a hard place. Once a cab driver gets behind the wheel and puts the key into the ignition, city by-law RCG08-022 will define the next 12 hours of his working life. In section 1 of the city by-law, article #59 defines a working taxi as any vehicle on the road with a dome, a working meter, a working radio and a visible pocket number. As article #59 draws the line between the city’s working taxis and everybody else on the road, city cab drivers are warning city authorities there could be serious trouble if police don’t stop their discrimination against them and their business. While everybody is supposed to be equal under the law, several city cab drivers say the city’s by-law turns them into second class citizens subject to a series of rules and regulations which is ruining their business and their means to make a living...

The Unintended Consequences of Buy American

By Robert Presser on July 2, 2009

Last October this column reviewed the possibility of a trade war between the US and Canada if Obama were to take the White House.  While the exact form of the dispute was not known at the time, some form of economic nationalism was inevitable as the US rustbelt demanded payback for delivering the electoral votes required to secure a decisive victory in the Electoral College.  Congress crafted a stimulus package designed to create US jobs related to infrastructure and manufacturing, and in their expedient haste to curry political favour with their constituents they created the Buy American (BA) provision that related to municipal investment projects...

Wasserman’s Yiddish festival a North American first

By Alidor Aucoin on July 2, 2009

It was touch and go whether the troupe from Poland would make it; translating two dozen Yiddish plays into French and  English proved to be a bit of a headache  and the logistics of meeting the specific requirements of eight theatre companies and 200 actors, artists, musicians and scholars from around the world was an enormous challenge. Still, in spite of a few last minute glitches, and some anxious moments, all of the world’s major Yiddish players came together under one roof in Montreal for last week’s opening  of the International Yiddish Theatre Festival which wrapped up Friday June 25. “We’ve learned a lot, and I think we’re going to put that knowledge to use,” said  Bryna Wasseman,  artistic director of the Segal Centre for the Performing Arts who came up with the audacious idea...

Un éléphant dans un magasin de porcelaine

By Sébastien Dhavernas on July 2, 2009

Radio Canada-CBC et ses artisans traversent en ce moment des jours sombres et qui doivent susciter une réflexion et un débat de fond au sein de la société civile québécoise et canadienne.
Monsieur Bernard Derome honoré   pour sa grande contribution au métier de journaliste à l’antenne de Radio Canada a lancé un appel en ce sens et je tiens à l’en remercier et à répondre présent à ce cri du cœur d’un homme réputé pour sa  réserve, sa rigueur et sa crédibilité...

The Lure of Victorian Landscapes, the MMFA goes Green.

By Alan Hustak on July 2, 2009

Who would have imagined that so many fusty, gilt-edged landscapes that have been out of fashion for so long could be so resonant to our times?  Expanding Horizons, a terrific summer exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts combines painting and photographs of the North American wilderness done, for the most part,  in the last half of the 19th century. Taken together, these bucolic, dreamlike vistas have been restored to their rightful position as potent masterworks. Such an exhibition could hardly be more appropriate...


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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