Authors > Alan Hustak
Alan Hustak
Neil McKenty 1924-2012: broadcaster, author, and former Jesuit.
By Alan Hustak on May 12, 2012
The irreverent Jesuit who left the priesthood and went on to become the cornerstone of Montreal talk radio died Saturday morning at the age of 87. During his 14 years as a CJAD telephone talk show host in the 70’s and 80’s he brought a degree of civility to the charged political atmosphere in province after the election of the Parti Quebecois in 1976, and in the referendum that followed. In its heyday, his program, Exchange, attracted as many as 85,000 listeners or more than a quarter of the city’s English-speaking audience.
Madeleine Parent
By Alan Hustak on April 2, 2012
Madeleine Parent was a diminutive but fearless union organizer, labour leader and community activist who devoted her life to improving the cause of working women and to the creation of uniquely Canadian labour unions. Parent, who was 93 when she died March 12 helped to create the Candian Textile and Chemical Workers Union, organized women in Ontario, was active in the Féderation des femmes du Québec, fought for abortion on demand in the 1950s, and championed the rights of aboriginal women.
Marc Gervais: Jesuit champion of cinema. 1929-2012
By Alan Hustak on March 28, 2012
Rev. Marc Gervais was a charismatic Jesuit priest, teacher and movie critic who rattled Vatican authorities in the late 1960s by championing Teorma, a homoerotic film by a Communist film maker Pierre Pasolini which celebrated the healing power of human sexuality. Rev. Gervais taught cinema and communication arts at Concordia University in Montreal for 25 years where he influenced the careers of students such as Clark Johnson, who plays in the HBO television series, The Wire, Oscar winning Quebec film maker, Denys Arcand , producer Kevin Tierney (Good Cop, Bad Cop) and the CBC television journalist Hannah Gartner. Admired as a leading authority on the films of Ingmar Bergman, whom he knew, Gervais died Sunday (march 25) at a retirement home in Pickering, Ont. He was 82 .
Heard the one about the priest, the Rabbi and the Imam?
By Alan Hustak on March 12, 2012
It’s no joke, but there is a punch line: faithblender.com. The new inter-faith blog which went on line three weeks ago (Feb 14) features postings by Montreal broadcaster and Roman Catholic priest John Walsh, Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, and Imam Ziyad Delic of Ottawa, who is considered to be among the world’s 500 most influential Muslims.
KNUT HAMMARSKJOLD, DIPLOMAT 1922-2012
By Alan Hustak on March 12, 2012
Knut Hammarskjöld was the Swedish diplomat who served in Montreal for 18 years as the second executive director of the International Air Transport Association, which regulates the interests of most of the world’s commercial airlines. Hammarskjöld was the nephew of the United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, who was killed in a mysterious plane crash in Africa in 1961. Knut Hammerskjold, who died at his home in Lidingo on Jan. 3, two weeks shy of his 90th birthday, considered his distinguished uncle as a second father.
Irving Layton
By Alan Hustak on March 12, 2012
Irving Layton wrote more than 50 books of poetry during his lifetime. When he died seven years ago Leonard Cohen eulogised him as “our greatest poet and our greatest champion of poetry.” Had Layton lived, he would be 100 on March 12. To mark the centennial of his birth in Tirgu Neamt, Romania there will be poetry readings from his work in 20 cities across Canada, including Montreal. “This is the first time that Canada will be connected through poetry,” said Elias Letelier, co-founder of the online magazine, Poetry Quebec, which is sponsoring the event.
Charles Dickens: The man who gave us Christmas
By Alan Hustak on December 16, 2011
In the spring of 1842 Charles Dickens took a steamboat from Kingston, Ont. and sailed down the St. Lawrence intoMontreal with his wife, Catherine, and found the town “full of life and bustle.” Dickens was 30 and had already written six books, including Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby. No other novelist has had such a spectacular success. Two hundred years after he was born in 1812, Dickens remains as immortal as Shakespeare. It is probably fair to say more people know of Oliver Twist, the artful dodger, Syndey Carton, Miss Havisham, Micawber, Scrooge and Tiny Tim from the endless television mini-series, movies and Broadway musicals based on his novels than they do from reading his books.
Jack Layton, a happy warrior
By Alan Hustak on August 26, 2011
There can be no argument that Jack Layton built a place in history. “Bon Jack”, was today’s NDP.
A cheerful political warrior, Layton’s always positive, often too sunny demeanour resonated with many. In the recent federal election Quebecers felt, because of Jack, that the NDP was a comfortable pace to park their votes and propelled him into the Opposition leader’s seat. And this year, many Ontario Liberals abandoned their leader to become, at least for one election, “Layton Liberals.”
Caravaggio the outcast and artist
By Alan Hustak on August 26, 2011
The National Gallery in Ottawa has scored a coup with its blockbuster Caraviggo exhibition that runs until Sept. 11.
Caravaggio and His Followers in Rome features ten paintings never before seen in North America, two that have, and another 50 paintings by artists who were influenced by his work. In view of the fact that only 70 of the artists works known to exist, and many of them are altar pieces that cannot be moved, it’s an extraordinary collection.
GRIFFITH BREWER 1922-2011 Theatre Stalwart
By Alan Hustak on August 2, 2011
Griffith Brewer was a mainstay of Montreal s English- speaking theatre for almost 80 years. He was an unassuming supporting actor, properties master, director, carpenter and all around handyman who rarely let his ego interfere with his love of the stage. Even after he retired and lost his sight and roles for senior actors became harder to find he was content to play a corpse.
The Blogging Bishop
By Alan Hustak on July 18, 2011
Canada’s newest and youngest Roman Catholic bishop-elect, Thomas Dowd, is a media savy priest who says his appointment as auxiliary bishop of Montreal signals a generational shift in the thinking of the church.
Dowd is expected to shoulder some of the workload now being done by Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte. Among his duties, Dowd will be responsible for the city’s 250,000 English-speaking Catholics who have been without a bishop of their own since Anthony Mancini left four years ago to become Archbishop of Halifax.
Claude Léveillée 1932-2011
By Alan Hustak on June 16, 2011
Claude Léveillée, who died June 9th at the age of 78, was one of Quebec`s most alluring singers and a poet in the tradition of Felix Leclerc and Gilles Vigneault. Léveillée worked with and wrote 25 songs for the legendary French singer Edith Piaf and another 30 with Gilles Vigneault. Among his best known melodies are Fréderic, Elle Tournera la Terre, Quelques arpents de neiges, Piano Méchanique. His best known hit, perhaps, was Roger Williams recording of Leveillee’s Pour les Amants as Only for Lovers. Léveillée was also an actor seen in Denys Arcand`s Jésus de Montréal and played the character of Émile Rosseau in the 1990 French-language television series Scoop.
Election analysis: What Harper hath wrought
By Alan Hustak on June 10, 2011
The True North is undeniably stronger for Conservative supporters following the recent election but is perhaps a little less free for those who believe that liberalism and social justice still matter.
The Harper government’s 15-seat majority puts an end to political uncertainty for the next four years. But the untimely collapse of the Liberal party leaves the country without a voice for non-dogmatic policies, a less invasive government and a fidelity to executive federalism.
JEAN-PIERRE GOYER: Born in Ville St. Laurent, long-time MP for Dollard was architect of prison reform
By Alan Hustak on June 10, 2011
As Solicitor General in Pierre Trudeau’s government, Jean-Pierre Goyer was the architect of prison reform in Canada. Concerned about both the cost of keeping a prisoner in jail and the rate of recidivism, Goyer promoted a more humane approach to incarceration. During the 1970’s heintroduced better haircuts and better clothing for inmates, inaugurated new housing arrangements that permitted conjugal visits, and made it easier for prisoners to work and go to school. If society really was to be protected, prison he argued, should offer inmates a “more rehabilitative atmosphere.”
A temple of art and music
By Alan Hustak on June 10, 2011
From the natural light that floods the fourth floor Inuit sculpture gallery to the luminous glow of the Tiffany stained glass windows in its concert hall, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts newest pavilion is as calm and as uplifting as ….. well, a church. Which it once was. The old Erskine American Church, a brownstone Sherbrooke St. landmark since 1894, has been converted into a $40-million temple of art and music known as the Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavillion.
Maynard Gertler: Editor, publisher, pacifist, farmer and activist (1916-2011)
By Alan Hustak on April 27, 2011
Maynard Gertler was an innovative farmer, civil libertarian, and the headstrong Montreal publisher who was the first to market books by French-Canadian authors in English Canada during the Quiet Revolution so the rest of the country could appreciate what was happening in Quebec in the 60s and 70s.
Gertler was the founding editor of Harvest House Ltd , once described as “a one man university press,” Harvest House was the first to translate the works of Quebec writers such as Jacques Ferron, Victor-Levy Beaulieu, Anne Hébert, Yves Thériault and the poet Emile Nelligan.
...THIS YEAR IN JERUSALEM
By Alan Hustak on April 21, 2011
A trip to Jerusalem is an act of faith no matter what your convictions.
Jerusalem is the capital of Israel but it is not by any stretch of the imagination, an exclusively Jewish city. It throbs with a brash energy, pulsates with Semitic and Slavic rhythms and resonates with a sense of shared history unequalled in any other place on earth.
In the words of one writer, it remains “a golden object of desire,” a site for pleasure, prayer and pilgrimage.
New palliative care unit facility
By Alan Hustak on April 21, 2011
Plans to convert the church of St. Raphael the Archangel in Outremont into a 12-bed palliative care unit and day centre have moved into high gear. The church on Lajoie Ave. opposite the Sanctuaire apartment complex, served an English-speaking congregation for almost eight decades until it closed in June 2008.
The Montreal Dialogues: Solutions for the post-crisis world New School of Athens global initiative brings leaders to Montreal on April 14th at ICAO
By Alan Hustak on March 27, 2011
Politicians, economists, political scientists and sociologists will be gathering in Montreal on April 14th to examine the flaws in the world’s financial and social policies and at the same time consider why some countries, Canada in particular, have weathered the recent economic meltdown better than others.The Canadian Model: Strategic lessons for the post-crisis world, is the second of nine global conferrences sponsored by the New School of Athens and is aimed at determining what about globalization works and what doesn’t.
May Cutler 1923-2011
By Alan Hustak on March 6, 2011
Not only was May Cutler the fearless Quebec champion of kids lit who pioneered the market for quality children’s books in Canada through her publishing house Tundra Books she was also the girl from the other side of the tracks, the outsider, who in 1987 became the hell-raising Mayor of Westmount, the first woman elected to run the tony Montreal suburb.
NAOMI BRONSTEIN, CANADA’s SWEARING MOTHER TERESA: 1945-2010
By Alan Hustak on January 2, 2011
Naomi Bronstein, who died in Guatemala City on Dec. 23 at the age of 65, was a humanitarian, Children’s aid worker and a non-conformist whose abrasive personality earned her a reputation as the swearing Mother Teresa.
1500 mercredis consécutifs!
By Alan Hustak on December 27, 2010
Ce n’est peut être pas impressionnant si vous le dites rapidement, mais contemplez le nombre pour un instant et il est en effet impressionnant.
Since David and Diana Nicholson held their first salon in February, 1982, we’ve gone through seven Canadian Prime Ministers, five United States Presidents, ten premiers of Quebec, eight periods of negative economic growth, four economic recessions, and two Quebec referendums. The ramifications all of which have been either debated, dissected, discussed or dismissed by those who have kept the flame of friendship burning at their table for 28 years. There have been Wednesday nights on Christmas Eve, even on a Leap Year a Wednesday in 1992. Through it all there has never been an occasion when no one has shown up.
Reseau Liberté-Québec! Quebec`s freedom network is born
By Alan Hustak on November 4, 2010
You may not have heard of the Quebec Freedom Network, but you will now. They turned people away at the door so full was its opening meeting in Quebec City this past weekend. Over 500 people listened to Ezra Levant, Tasha Kheiriddin, Adam Daifallah and Eric Duhaime advocate for a freer, less invasive Quebec state with a dramatically reduced bureaucracy and a greater emphasis on self-reliance. The next gathering of the Reseau Liberte- Quebec will be in Montreal, perhaps even on the West Island
Vera 1944-2010
By Alan Hustak on November 4, 2010
Vera Danyluk’s anger over the attempted rape of a young teenager in Montreal’s quiet, upscale Town of Mount Royal neighbourhood 40 years ago led her into a life of public service when she co-founded a Women’s Committee on Public Safety. The committee began demanding better police protection, and it helped launch her distinguished career in public service. She went on to win a seat on council, four elections as mayor of Town of Mount Royal, today a municipality in Montreal’s recently re-constituted system of municipal government, and served for eight years as Chairman of the Montreal Urban Community’s now defunct regional authority.
JFK bust moved
By Alan Hustak on November 4, 2010
The bust of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy that has stood outside the Place des Arts metro station since 1986 is no longer there. Because he public square in which it stood is being rebuilt as part of the new Symphony Hall project, the statue has been taken away and JFK Square has been renamed Promenade des Artistes.
Death and Decadance: Otto Dix
By Alan Hustak on November 4, 2010
“I never give any information about me in writing because you can tell at a glance my paintings contain the most accurate information about me. I have no intention of revealing to the astonished bourgeois and contemporaries the depths and abyss within my soul,” the German artist Otto Dix once wrote to a friend. That may explain why the engrossing exhibition running until January at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Rouge Cabaret, A terrifying and Beautiful World, is both an immersive experience and a revelation. Not only do the 220 works on display examine the career of Otto Dix but follow a chronology that emphasizes the peculiar mix of decadence and despair which not only represents “the abyss within” his soul, but the dehumanizing times through which he lived.
The silly season
By Alan Hustak on September 9, 2010
Summer traditionally is considered the silly season in the news business and it doesn’t get any sillier than in Quebec. There may be dumber regulatory jurisdictions in the world, but you would be hard pressed to find them. Just when you thought nothing could be sillier than the language police, or the garbage police, the tobacco police appear. You didn’t know we have tobacco police? Either did I until the Journal de Montreal broke the story that they were on the march, out in full force during the Grand Prix weekend.
Harsh justice for whom?
By Alan Hustak on September 9, 2010
There are bleeding-heart liberals who are said to be soft on crime and then there are the hardliners who would have us believe that, despite all evidence pointing to the contrary, crime is on the rise in Canada and the only fix is to lock up more Canadians.
About 120 out of every 100,000 Canadians, about 14,000 inmates, are doing time in Canada’s 58 federal prisons. The Harper administration now proposes to spend $2-billion to incarcerate another 4,000 because, there are supposedly perpetrators guilty of unreported crimes running loose on the streets. While it wants to build more prisons, the government also proposes an equally misguided policy that would close the country’s six prison farms which were designed, in part, to help integrate inmates back into society.
Otto Joachim: A majestic legacy
By Alan Hustak on September 9, 2010
During the First World War Otto Joachim was still a boy taking music lessons at the Buths-Neitzel conservatory. In Dusseldorf each day he passed a house that once belonged to Johannes Brahms. That, he said, gave him an inspiration, if he needed any, to think, “Hey, are you going to be a composer some day?”
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.
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.
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.”
Send in the clowns: Canada at Shanghai’s world’s fair
By Alan Hustak on April 23, 2010
Too little thought has been given to Canada’s national pavilion at the World Exposition in Shanghai, opening May 1. Whatever one may think about the previous Canadian government’s decision to take part in the Shanghai World’s Fair which just opened as yet another showcase for the totalitarian Communist regime, once a sovereign nation has signed onto to an agreement it is customary that it is an obligation on future administrations of whatever party. It is not like the Olympics. This is a state commitment to put Canada’s best foot forward.
PHILIPPE CASGRAIN A renaissance man passes
By Alan Hustak on March 25, 2010
If Philippe Casgrain hadn’t gone into law he might have been actor.
Mr. Casgrain, who died Feb . 28 at 82 was one of those cultivated, old-world figures with a sense of panache. A specialist in commercial and environmental law, he often relied on his natural charm to argue a case. “I’m always anxious for the judge to take his seat in the courtroom so I can put on a show for him,” he once told a reporter, “You have to be as well prepared as any actor if you are going to be convincing and win any sympathy for your client.”
