Advocacy
Advocacy
Broken promises: The Ala Morales affair (DATE DE PARUTION 19 MARS 2008)
By Beryl Wajsman on June 18, 2009
Before we take on an advocacy issue that revolves around a single individual, it must meet one important criteria. The story must have within it a multiplicity of elements that affect us all. It is in that context that you should understand the headline of the story of Ala Morales.
Justice for Anas? (DATE DE PARUTION 30 OCTOBRE 2008)
By Jessica Murphy on June 18, 2009
Bizarre circumstances surround the shooting death by police of Mohamed Anas Bennis on Dec. 1, 2005.
This summer, the family, who has been fighting for almost three years against government stonewalling, thought they would finally learn the facts about that day in Cote-des-Neiges...
The ‘killing’ of Justin St-Aubin (DATE DE PARUTION 7 AOÛT 2008)
By Jessica Murphy on June 18, 2009
Justin Scott St-Aubin was 25 when he died of a heart attack in the Rivieres des Prairies detention centre in Nov. 2007. The young Montrealer had been held in isolation for five days, never receiving the emergency psychiatric care recommended by two doctors...
Boroughs gone bonkers (DATE DE PARUTION 13 NOVEMBRE 2008)
By Jessica Murphy on June 18, 2009
Last September, The Metropolitain reported on merchants along Parc. Ave being hit with a number of fines under Montreal’s cleanliness bylaws. At the time, property owner Bill Vasilios Karidogiannis complained that the street was in disrepair despite merchants pressuring the borough to contribute to its upkeep. So when the borough sent a team of workers to clean the streets a couple of weeks later, he was overjoyed.
What he didn’t realize was that he would have to foot the bill...
Political Correctness--the Curse of Civilization (DATE DE PARUTION 15 JANVIER 2009)
By David T. Jones on June 18, 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?
The New Lilliputians — Prohibit now, discuss never (DATE DE PARUTION 15 JANVIER 2009)
By David T. Jones on June 18, 2009
There are basic needs for human beings: the obvious are food; shelter; sex. And then it becomes complicated for societies where the basics are “givens,” and needs become more abstract. Are the freedoms enumerated in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (and the U.S. Constitution) “freedoms”—or limitations on the actions that a citizen might take otherwise?
Tout dire (DATE DE PARUTION 1 MAI 2008)
By Marc Lebuis on June 18, 2009
Le saviez-vous? Le Conseil des droits de l’homme de l’ONU (CDH) vient de limiter le principe de la liberté d’expression au nom de la protection du « droit » des religions. Reporters sans frontières (RSF) annonce que : « La modification du mandat du rapporteur spécial (des Nations Unies) sur la liberté d’expression est dramatique. Elle fait d’un défenseur de la liberté d’opinion un procureur qui a pour mission de traquer ceux qui abusent de cette liberté ». Vous avez bien lu. Il est bien question d’abus de liberté. On croirait faire un bond de 300 ans en arrière.
Don’t clean weeds and butts? You pay! (DATE DE PARUTION 4 SEPTEMBRE 2009)
By Jessica Murphy on June 18, 2009
Montreal merchants say they’re being fined under the cleanliness bylaws while the City remains in disrepair.
Bill Vasilios Karidogiannis, a property owner on Avenue du Parc, is the recipient of one of those fines - $260 for not maintaining the weeds around a city tree. The weeds in front of his property had grown higher then the 20 centimeters allowed under a Plateau bylaw.
Weedbusters! Judge overturns abusive fines
By Beryl Wajsman on June 18, 2009
Remember our story on business owner Chris Karidogiannis who received an unwelcome present from the city last year? He, and dozens of other Park Ave. merchants were served with $260 fines for not trimming weeds around city-owned trees in front of their businesses. The fine, in Chris’ case, was retroactive to the time when Karidogiannis had asked the city to do something about the weeds..
Government’s not the solution to our problems; government is the problem (DATE DE PARUTION 19 MARS 200)
By Mischa Popoff on June 18, 2009
The late English historian A.J.P. Taylor elucidated in 1965 on the intrusion of the state into the private lives of its citizens.“ Until August 1914 a sensible, law-abiding Englishman could pass through life and hardly notice the existence of the state. All this was changed by the impact of the Great War. The state established a hold over its citizens which though relaxed in peace time, was never to be removed and which the Second World War was again to increase. The history of the English people and the English State merged for the first time.”
Where will it STOP? (DATE DE PARUTION 12 JUIN 2008)
By Isaak Olson on June 18, 2009
Tobacco products vanished from shelves June 1 as store owners across Quebec struggled to meet the demands of a new law that requires all smoke-related merchandise be kept from public view. By the end of the year, all Canadians, with the exception of Newfoundlanders, will be seeing the change put into action in an attempt described by anti-tobacco lobbyists as a means to “de-normalize” the product and prevent children from being exposed to advertising.
New tolls proposal could spell disaster (DATE DE PARUTION 26 JUIN 2008)
By Isaak Olson on June 18, 2009
On June 16, Montreal’s city council voted overwhelmingly in favor of Mayor Gérald Tremblay’s plan to revitalize the city’s transportation system – a plan that could potentially use region-wide tolls to help fund the $8.1 billion, 20-year project...
Let’s not forget Labonté’s lair (DATE DE PARUTION 1 MAI 2008)
By Beryl Wajsman on June 18, 2009
When Ville-Marie borough Mayor Benoit Labonté declared himself to be a candidate for the leadership of Pierre Bourque’s municipal party-Vision Montréal. He said “This city needs a mayor,” he said, “…not a steward (intendant)”...
What happened to the honour system? (DATE DE PARUTION 2 OCTOBRE 2008)
By Jessica Murphy on June 18, 2009
Revenu Quebec has played hardball for far too long. According to a partner and chartered accountant with a prominent Canadian financial management firm, the provincial revenue ministry has dropped the honour system and started to treat the average citizen like a crook...
Decorated restaurateur spotlighted for extending a helping hand (DATE DE PARUTION 2 OCTOBRE 2008)
By Dan Delmar on June 18, 2009
When the owner of a chic Parisian bistro hired Jean Lafleur, convicted in the wake of the sponsorship inquiry, to work as a sous-chef, he never imagined that his face would be plastered on the front cover of the Journal de Montréal shortly thereafter...
Criminalizing the homeless (DATE DE PARUTION 10 JUILLET 2008)
By Jessica Murphy on June 18, 2009
Despite recent steps by Montreal and the Ville Marie borough to alleviate problems surrounding homelessness downtown, ongoing policies continue to marginalize the very people they’re trying to help...
Parking revenues double in 2007 (DATE DE PARUTION 12 JUIN 2008)
By Dan Delmar on June 18, 2009
Montreal made almost twice as much in 2007 from parking revenues as it did the previous year and City Hall says: mission accomplished...
Ticketing our trash (DATE DE PARUTION 10 JUILLET 2008)
By P.A. Sévigny on June 18, 2009
Last December, shortly before taking a taxi to the airport for an early-morning flight, Montreal writer Alan Hustak dropped a small bag of garbage into one of the city’s garbage cans in Old Montreal. Only a few days after he came back from his Christmas holiday, he received a letter from the Ville Marie borough authorities with included a $187 ticket for having broken one of the borough’s new municipal garbage by-laws...
Les priorités, les bonnes… (DATE DE PARUTION 1 MAI 2008)
By Daniel Romano on June 18, 2009
Depuis les années 80, plusieurs paliers gouvernementaux au canada et dans certains autres pays du monde, ont systématiquement dirigé leurs pouvoirs législatifs vers la vie privée des citoyens. Provoqués par des groupes d’intérêt et par leurs propres départements et ministères de la santé, ces gouvernements ont produit une série de lois envahissantes visant à protéger l’individu de lui-même. De nouvelles lois ont été adoptées portant de l’interdiction du tabac au port du casque de sécurité en vélo et ce en plus de la taxation abusive sur les produits susceptibles à nuire à la santé, tels que le tabac, l’alcool et probablement dans un avenir rapproché, la malbouffe...
Un peu de dignité SVP ! (DATE DE PARUTION 30 OCTOBRE 2008)
By Louise V. Labrecque on June 18, 2009
C’était un soir d’automne, un jeudi soir qui aurait pu être banal. Je marchais en direction du théâtre St-Denis. J’étais en avance au rendez-vous, un concert-bénéfice de la Fondation Garceau fondé e par Brigitte Garceau et l’Institut des affaires publiques de Beryl Wajsman, venant en aide aux démunis, notamment des enfants. Je décidai d’entrer dans un café, et là, près de la fenêtre, je bus un allongé, en regardant la rue et les gens...
Sovereign individuals (DATE DE PARUTION 1 MAI 2008)
By Julius Grey on June 18, 2009
John Peter Humphrey lived a public life showered with honors, including a Canadian postage stamp in his name. But his private life was full of trials and tribulations. His parents died early, he lost an arm in a fire during childhood, and his first wife, to whom he was deeply attached, was a semi-invalid most of her life. His career, which now appears dazzling, also had many ups and downs...
“Arrogants, vulgaires et disgracieux!” (DATE DE PARUTION 9 AVRIL 2009)
By Dan Delmar on June 18, 2009
Some downtown business-owners came out swinging on Wednesday, saying the Tremblay administration has lost control over its employees and is driving people out of the heart of the city with overbearing regulations...
La nouvelle prohibition (DATE DE PARUTION 29 MAI 2008)
By Vincent Geloso on June 18, 2009
À la fin du 19ème siècle, alors qu’autour de la prohibition de l’alcool se dresse de véritables mouvements politiques partout en Amérique du Nord, le Québec s’inscrit à contre-courant en votant à deux occasions référendaires contre la prohibition. À cette époque, même l’Église s’opposait à la prohibition prêchant plutôt la modération...