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13,000 Montrealers took part in the 62nd Israel Independence Day rally on Tuesday, April 20.
By . on April 23, 2010
La triste réalité
By Pierre K. Malouf on April 23, 2010
La popularité du gouvernement est au plus bas. Il y a à cela d’excellentes raisons. Il y en a de très mauvaises. Parmi ces dernières, en voici une qui saute aux yeux : le dernier budget du ministre Bachand. Les Québécois sont décidément incapables de voir la réalité en face.
L’Histoire d’Amal «Tout ce que je veux savoir c’est pourquoi?»
By Beryl Wajsman on April 23, 2010
Le nom arabe Amal signifie trois choses. L’espoir, l’anticipation, et l’aspiration. Ces trois mots sont une bonne synthèse de ce qu’une résidante de Pointe Claire et étudiante à l’Université Concordia en relations humaines et psychologie Amal Asmar ose rêver ces jours-ci après que la police l'ait harcelée, malmenée et laissée avec quelques 1 000$ en amendes. Elle espère pour la justice; anticipe des excuses et aspire à une réponse à sa demande sincère de : « tous ce que je veux savoir c’est pourquoi? ». Alors qu’elle achève ses études et continue sa recherche pour un emploi, les cicatrices mentales qu'elle a toujours l'obligent à maintenir ce rêve vivant. Ses « crimes ? ».
Shocking traffic stats scream ‘Big Brother!’
By Dan Delmar on April 23, 2010
This year, Montreal will issue one traffic ticket for almost every man, woman and child in the city - and that, believe it or not, is a conservative estimate based on information from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal. Most people aren’t aware of it, or if they are, they accept the ticketing as fair punishment for bad behaviour. If so many of us are breaking the law on such a regular basis, it begs the question: Are we guilty of delinquent behaviour, or are we victims of municipal persecution?
Peuple québécois, puis-je compter sur ta solidarité?
By Djemila Benhabib on April 23, 2010
Vous avez été très nombreux, à travers tout le Québec et même au-delà, à me témoigner votre appui dès la parution de mon livre Ma vie à contre-Coran, une femme témoigne sur les islamistes pour saluer mon courage et ma détermination face à mon combat contre l’hydre islamiste et ses tentacules. J’ai rencontré plusieurs d’entre vous, d’un bout à l’autre du Québec, pour partager mes réflexions et mes aspirations. Je parcours des milliers de kilomètres pour honorer vos invitations et échanger de grands et de petits moments de bonheur.
Un bâillon contre la liberté d’expression au Québec
By Daniel Romano on April 23, 2010
Une poursuite-bâillon est une poursuite stratégique contre la mobilisation publique. C'est un nouvel instrument insidieux qui est de plus en plus utilisé en Amérique du Nord. Utilisé par des gouvernements à tous les niveaux, ça essaye d’écraser colère publique sous la menace de poursuites diffamatoires.
Coulter and the Camel
By David Solway on April 23, 2010
The camel is a noble animal. Had it not existed, Islamic civilization would never have gotten off the ground, just as, in the absence of the horse, we in the West would still be lugging barrows and scraping along in donkey-hauled slipes. The camel is perhaps even preferable to the horse. It is fast, carries its own water, and provides what SUV manufacturers call “command seating,” rivaled only by the elephant. Indeed, Mark Twain understood the inherently exalted nature of the creature when he introduced the cameleopard in Huckleberry Finn. Of course, the cameleopard, or “Royal Nonesuch,” is really a giraffe (Arabic: ziraffah, “tallest one”), but it sounds like a camel with a temper and enviable velocity, a beast that demands respect.
The leaking begging bowl
By Jessica Murphy on April 23, 2010
Ottawa spends some $5 billion on foreign aid every year. Countless numbers of people also give millions in personal donations to global relief efforts. It's no wonder generous Canadians want to know where their money goes. A spate of recent news stories has cast doubt on the accountability and transparency of humanitarian aid.
Israel under siege—again. The dilemma of mutually assured discomfort
By David T. Jones on April 23, 2010
Washington, DC - Having just returned from a Middle East trip that included travel in Israel, I am prompted to muse over the current imbroglio roiling U.S.-Israeli relations. Over the past several weeks, there has been renewed incentive to fault find Israel for offenses that sometimes more in the mind of the beholder than in reality. Indeed, it is far easier to find unloving critics than uncritical lovers in the current environment. For example, the tour group with which I traveled had two briefers: An articulate representative of the Palestinian Authority who (predictably) found fault with all elements of Israeli policy and an Israeli from a local NGO who was also critical of the GOI. But the absence of "balance" went unremarked.
The skittish consumer: Sustaining the recovery depends on their spending – can they afford it?
By Robert Presser on April 23, 2010
After a year and a half of misery, things are looking up for the Canadian and U.S. economies. The stock markets are up over 70 per cent from their lows of March 2009, both economies put out five per cent annualized growth rates in the last quarter of 2009, and consumer spending is on a tear. In Canada, consumer spending rose at a four per cent annualized rate in Q4 2009 and in the U.S., spending was up 1.6 per cent month to month in March, including a whopping one per cent due to sales of autos and parts alone. Economists and governments are now debating the sustainability of such encouraging results as they plan monetary and fiscal policy for the year to come.
Enlevons les «ombrages» du gouvernement
By Beryl Wajsman on April 23, 2010
Il y a un contrat social entre les gouverneurs et les gouvernés. Nous le peuple acceptons d'abandonner une partie de nos libertés et de notre trésor en échange de prestation de services qui rendent nos vies meilleures. Des services que même le plus fort parmi nous ne pourrait pas se fournir à soi-même. Quand nous sommes sortis des jungles et des forêts et avons créé des habitats, nous nous sommes rendus compte qu’en repoussant les loups ensemble, nous aurions le time de vivre. Pour grandir. Pour aimer. Pour engager nos passions et nos poésies et réaliser la pleine capacité de notre individualité.
PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain) II and the Greek crisis
By Robert Elman on April 23, 2010
Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany is being confronted with some very difficult choices. Does she participate in an active bailout of Greece and incur the wrath of the German electorate or does she commit German funds, and possibly save the EU from collapse. For a collapse of the EU means the disappearance of the once mighty Euro.
Religious daycare: Pick your cultural battles
By Barbara Kay on April 23, 2010
Quebec is the most militantly secular of all Canada’s provinces. Its intellectuals and cultural elites are resolutely committed to the ideal of a lay society. References to the Church in the media positively bristle with thinly-sheathed scorn. Yet the Quebec government is inconsistent when it comes to religious instruction in publicly funded institutions.
A Neighbourhood’s Rebirth: Shaughnessy Village
By Sharman Yarnell on April 23, 2010
It’s springtime in Shaughnessy Village and the residents are out-and-about after a long hibernation. It has a wealth of cultural diversity. What an amazing mixture, a true melting pot, of not only cultures, but people from different social status. On one block alone there are Indians, Germans, Ukrainians, Italians, Haitians and Irish. Anyone thinking of purchasing property in the area would be joining actors, lawyers, architects, authors, a dentist, an opera singer and a playwright.
Namur Jean-Talon: An eco-utopic condoville?
By Dan Delmar on April 23, 2010
Car dealerships, cheap office space, a cemetery, barren lots and a handful of sub-par apartment buildings; such is the makeup of the neighbourhood becoming known as NJT – Namur Jean-Talon. Within ten years, it is expected to undergo a complete transformation and the worth of the area is expected to increase tenfold. NJT is a project twice as valuable to the city as Griffintown, but without the high profile and ensuing scepticism.
Griffintown: The limits of loss
By P.A. Sévigny on April 23, 2010
Decades after there will be nothing left of Montreal’s Griffintown except for the name and Mary Gallagher’s headless ghost, more than a few urban planners will continue to wonder why so little was done with such a magnificent opportunity for truly sustained and modern urban development. “This is such an incredible opportunity to build a real 21st century city,” said Montreal urban activist Judith Bauer. “Why can’t these people think of empty urban space as something more than just another opportunity to build another pile of condos?”
Le Monde de Piperberg
By Roy Piperberg on April 23, 2010
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.
Macabre Madonna
By Alidor Aucoin on April 23, 2010
The Madonna Painter, The Birth of Painting at the Centaur, is a richly imagined, sacrilegiously macabre, exercise in which playwright Michel-Marc Bouchard delves into long-discarded French-Canadian Catholic ritual and rural ignorance, “the way a flea market hawker displays sacred objects that have been stolen and disguised for resale.”
Bunny Good Time
By Alidor Aucoin on April 23, 2010
The good news about the Segal Centre’s revival of Harvey, the play about an absentminded man who befriends an imaginary a six foot tall rabbit is that it is a hare brained delight.
The not so good news, is that it only runs until until May 9th.
Nominations sought for Laurie Normand-Starr award
By . on March 25, 2010
It’s been almost a year since community volunteer Laurie Normand-Starr died.
To honour her memory, a humanitarian award in her name will be presented to deserving individual yet to be chosen during a dinner at the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth Hotel on May 3. The selection committee, headed by her husband and her son, is soliciting nominations for the award.
Pour un Québec scandinave
By Pierre K. Malouf on March 25, 2010
Les Québécois comprennent enfin que l’heure est grave. Ramenés au réalisme grâce au leadership exemplaire du premier ministre, ils sont prêts à payer leur électricité au prix du marché, à débourser quelques dollars supplémentaires pour faire garder leurs enfants dans les CPE, à voir augmenter la TVQ de 1%, à dépenser davantage pour envoyer leur progéniture à l’université, à être à jamais les citoyens les plus taxés en Amérique du Nord. Ils voient aussi venir d’un bon oeil les mesures d’austérité qui seront prises pour ralentir l’augmentation des dépenses publiques. Le bon exemple nous est fourni par les employés de l’État, qui, de bon coeur, vont se contenter de modestes augmentations.
Nous n’avons pas à tolérer l’intolérable
By Djemila Benhabib on March 25, 2010
S’il y a une chose qu’a révélée au grand jour cette épisode de la jeune femme égyptienne en burqa qui s’est auto-exclue d’un cours de francisation à cause de son attitude sectaire, c’est la grande incapacité d’un bon nombre de journalistes à décrypter le discours, les symboles ainsi que l’activisme des tenants de l’obscurantisme le plus réactionnaire du monde musulman, à savoir le salafisme.
Adding to the World’s Misery The Travesty of “Israel Apartheid week”
By Noga Emmanuel on March 25, 2010
Last month an ugly ritual event replayed itself: “Israel Apartheid week”. In Montreal, 500 local artists signed a letter in support of an international campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against the Jewish state: "to protest the Israeli state's ongoing denial of the inalienable rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties, [as] well as Israel's ongoing occupation and colonization of the West Bank (including Jerusalem) and Gaza, which also constitutes a violation of international law and multiple United Nations resolutions".
Afghan detainees – the real issue
By Mischa Popoff on March 25, 2010
In politics there are issues you can bludgeon your enemies with, but every now and then an issue arises that through its repetition will turn against you because a deeper issue lies within it. What the Liberals and NDP fail to appreciate as they attack the Conservatives over the Afghan detainee issue is that at a visceral level Canadians just don’t care about Afghan detainees because they’re the enemy. There, I said it.
Down and out in downtown Montreal
By P.A. Sévigny on March 25, 2010
As an advocate for some of the more vulnerable people across the nation, Liberal MP Marc Garneau couldn’t do much better than to use the downtown core’s Sac à dos to mount his campaign for sustained government support to help the poor, the sick and the destitute who live in the city’s downtown core. “Sustainable funding is crucial to the continued operation of organizations in Montreal like Sac à dos,” said Garneau,”…and everybody knows the demand for their services is increasing by the day. More and more people are using the city’s food banks and line-ups for the shelters keep getting longer and longer.”
“…more than just a meal”
By P.A. Sévigny on March 25, 2010
After twenty years on the front lines in the war against poverty on the mean streets of Cote Des Neiges, people at the MultiCaf project are still working hard to provide basic food security and social support networks for the district’s poor. Decades after the organization first opened its doors, MultiCaf is still working hard to help empower the local residents through an assortment of social action initiatives with a number of new programs aimed at feeding the poor and the disabled. As one of the borough’s foremost social and economic activists, Outremont businessman Francois Pilon said he was more than impressed with everything the MultiCaf people were doing in their district.
Israël n’a pas le choix
By Germain Belzile on March 25, 2010
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.
Les vraies vérités sur Israël
By Beryl Wajsman on March 25, 2010
Over the past month – from that annual hatefest called Israel Apartheid Week to the needless row over the Jerusalem buildings – we have witnessed a viral and venal campaign of disinformation about our one democratic ally in a a sea of theocratic tyranny. We want to devote this front page to setting the record straight. To fight the teachings of contempt. Here’s the real deal on Israel.
During IAW we saw the usual collection of Islamist apologists and their fellow-travelers in academic, political and diplomatic circles seeking to portray Israel as an apartheid-era South Africa in relation to its Arab citizens.
We must not abandon Afghanistan
By Lauryn Oates on March 25, 2010
In the recent speech from the throne on March 3, Afghanistan was mentioned in only two instances, and not mentioned at all in the budget speech the following day, strangely sidestepping the subject of the country in which we have engaged with so closely for the last seven years.
This is perhaps not surprising, given the inability of any of the three political parties to take any leadership on what a Canadian contribution to Afghanistan after 2011 might look like, and the Afghanistan fatigue that sadly characterizes Canadian public opinion.
Canada can help imprisoned Chinese hero Gao Zhisheng
By The Hon. David Kilgour on March 25, 2010
Members of Gao Zhisheng's international legal team, on which I am privileged to work, have submitted a petition to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, urging the UN to declare that the Chinese government's detention of Gao violates international law. Our team hopes that the UN will decide accordingly, but also that the Harper government and opposition party leaders will speak out on behalf of this extraordinary human rights lawyer, who 'was disappeared' by the Chinese party-state over a year ago.
A Conservative Budget
By Robert Presser on March 25, 2010
The game changing 1995 federal budget slashed transfers to the provinces and set in place five years of spending restraint. The resulting limited growth in federal government spending, coupled with falling interest rates that reduced the interest burden on Canada’s existing debt, allowed the federal government to move into surplus before the millennium and post a decade of surpluses which ended in 2009. The great shame of this period of fiscal nirvana is that it could have been even better for the Canadian taxpayer. The Liberals consistently under-estimated their surpluses and even after an orgy of last-minute spending in the final quarter of every fiscal year up until their defeat in 2006, they still exceeded their surplus predictions.
GREECE THE SKIDS
By Robert Elman on March 25, 2010
The “Canary in the coal mine,” is Greece, but is there an “ Elephant in the room?” Greece, like most of the PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain) has spent in a profligate manner, and has been less than humble in its demeanour. As you will later read , Greece’s dealing with her partners have been brought into serious question.
Greece became a member of the EU in 1993 with the signing of the Maastricht Treaty. There were very clear stipulations regarding Debt to GDP, Capital accounts, deficit to GDP and so on.
Piperberg's World
By Roy Piperberg on March 25, 2010
The private lives of public people
By Dan Delmar on March 25, 2010
Over one decade after American conservatives tried to demonize oral sex in the oval office, public figures are still being unfairly chastised for behaviour that should have remained private; behaviour that likely has no negative impact on their roles as politicians or professional athletes; behaviour that, while not admirable, is completely natural and may understandably result from attaining a certain level of success.
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