Aylmer, Quebec news

• Quebec bishops maintain crucifix is a religious symbol, not a souvenir

  12-10-2018 23:55 via montrealgazette.com
  Almost exactly five years ago, at the height of the first furor over the crucifix at the National Assembly, Catholic bishops of Quebec put out a statement to clarify how they felt about the issue.
  If democratically elected MNAs decide to remove the crucifix from the halls of power, they said, they will respect that.
  But the crucifix is most assuredly a religious symbol of the Catholic faith, the October 2013 statement continued — “not a museum artifact or just a souvenir of the past
  
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• Update: Deadly shooting in Laval 'could be linked to organized crime'

  12-10-2018 23:20 via montrealgazette.com
  The Sûreté du Québec is investigating the death of a young man who was gunned down just before closing time at the car dealership in Laval where he worked as a sales manager for the business owned by his family.
  A spokesperson for the Laval police said its officers were alerted to the shooting at 8:50 p.m. Thursday after someone called 911 to report gunfire at Automobile Vinci Inc., on Lévesque Blvd. W. near the corner of 91st Ave. in the city’s Ste-Dorothé
  
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• Breaking down Quebec parties' positions on religious symbols, crucifix

  12-10-2018 22:50 via montrealgazette.com
  Premier-designate François Legault says his position on barring some government workers from wearing religious symbols is supported by two other Quebec parties. And he cites the Bouchard-Taylor Commission as evidence of a consensus in Quebec.
  “I had a clear mandate, and it’s the consensus of Quebecers and Bouchard-Taylor,” Legault told an interviewer soon after his Oct. 1 election victory.
  “We have three parties out of four at the National Assembly that agree
  
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• Mafia leader Francesco Del Balso charged with threatening TVA reporter

  12-10-2018 22:38 via montrealgazette.com
  A Montreal Mafia leader already well known for his ability to intimidate and threaten people has been charged with threatening a TVA reporter who recently did a story about him.
  Project Colisée, a lengthy police investigation in the Montreal Mafia, not only revealed that Francesco (Chit) Del Balso, 48, was a leader in the Rizzuto organization (before his arrest in 2006) but that he was also very adept at threatening people. Several conversations recorded during the investigation involved
  
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• Michel Tremblay's Les Belles-soeurs still singing at 50

  12-10-2018 21:41 via montrealgazette.com
  It has been 50 years since the 15 ladies of Michel Tremblay’s Les Belles-soeurs began lamenting their “maudite vie plate” in a Rue Fabre apartment. Since that first production, directed by André Brassard in August 1968 at Théâtre du Rideau Vert, the show has played all over the world in countless languages, including Yiddish, Japanese and Scots, the latter in a celebrated 1989 version called The Guid Sisters (which Serge Denoncourt directed in Edinburgh in 2
  
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• Canadiens coach Claude Julien starts juggling his lines

  12-10-2018 21:26 via montrealgazette.com
  It’s only three games into the season and Canadiens coach Claude Julien is already juggling his lines.
  The main reason is the fact Jonathan Drouin is still looking for his first point after being moved from centre to wing this season and has only five shots on goal with a minus-1 while averaging 16:38 of ice time per game. Drouin was also held pointless in the four pre-season games he played while going minus-6.
  Drouin started the season playing left wing on a line with rookie centre Jespe
  
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• Caisse de dépôt, Engie plan to offer up to $9B for Petrobras pipeline

  12-10-2018 20:40 via montrealgazette.com
  The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and French utility Engie SA plan to offer as much as $9 billion for Petrobras’s natural gas pipeline network, potentially a $1-billion boost from their initial bid, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
  Petroleo Brasileiro SA is now finalizing terms with Engie and pension fund manager the Caisse, the people said, asking not to be named because the talks are private. Petrobras then plans to touch base with other grou
  
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• Canadiens Notebook: Some high praise for former GM Serge Savard

  12-10-2018 19:36 via montrealgazette.com
  The Canadiens honoured their 1993 Stanley Cup championship team before Thursday night’s home opener against the Los Angeles Kings at the Bell Centre.
  The Canadiens haven’t won another Cup since and Lyle Odelein — a defenceman on that 1993 team — thinks he knows why.
  “The Montreal Canadiens, to me, they should never have got rid of (general manager) Serge Savard for one thing,” Odelein said. “The team has never been the same since. This guy was by fa
  
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• What the Puck: Habs' wheels come off as Price struggles in home opener

  12-10-2018 19:31 via montrealgazette.com
  The dream is over. That’s it for the honeymoon.
  Two games in, there was an unusual sentiment among Canadiens fans, something I hadn’t heard for a while. People were enthusiastic, even mildly optimistic. Three points out of four on a road trip against two top-tier teams in the Toronto Maple Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins. We weren’t planning the parade, but there was a lot of talk about how this was fun hockey to watch, that Les Boys were hard to play against.
  Then the big boys c
  
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• Editorial: 'It's not the voting … it's the counting'

  12-10-2018 19:19 via montrealgazette.com
  “It’s not the voting that’s democracy, it’s the counting.”
  — Playwright Tom Stoppard, in Jumpers
  Quebec’s director-general of elections, Pierre Reid, says he plans to act with “rigour and speed” to get to the bottom of vote-counting irregularities in the riding of Gaspé and will take whatever action is necessary. Quebecers expect no less.
  In the meantime, a judicial recount has overturned what had first been announced as a narrow Liber
  
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• Macpherson: Unravelling the CAQ's proposed hijab-and-kippah ban

  12-10-2018 18:43 via montrealgazette.com
  François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec government-elect hasn’t been sworn in yet, let alone faced the National Assembly. And already, its proposed hijab-and-kippah ban is unravelling like the proverbial cheap sweater, every time somebody picks at another loose thread.
  The CAQ would forbid provincial government employees in “positions of authority,” including teachers, from wearing religious symbols at work, such as the head scarf worn by some Muslim wome
  
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• Jonathan Bettez acquitted of all child pornography charges

  12-10-2018 18:17 via montrealgazette.com
  TROIS-RIVIÈRES – Jonathan Bettez was acquitted Friday morning on all child pornography charges he was facing.
  Quebec Court Judge Jacques Lacoursière also quashed search warrants that police used to seize electronic materials belonging to Bettez, which were part of the evidence used against him.
  Crown prosecutor Jean-Marc Poirier said Friday he will review the judge’s decision before deciding whether to appeal.
  Bettez’s lawyer, Marc-Antoine Carette, said he was sat
  
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• Rufus Wainwright reaches for operatic heights with Hadrian

  12-10-2018 18:15 via montrealgazette.com
  “Today?” Rufus Wainwright said when asked to name his three favourite operas.
  A slight pause.
  “Don Carlos,” he started, specifying through his pronunciation the original French version of Verdi’s grand opera.
  “Salome,” he continued, referring to Richard Strauss’s one-act biblical shocker.
  “And I’m a big fan of Jenůfa.” That would be Janáček’s heartbreaking tale of a single mother in a Moravian village.
  It is
  
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• Update: Équiterre founder steps down, won't rule out running for office

  12-10-2018 18:01 via montrealgazette.com
  One of Quebec’s best-known environmentalists is leaving the organization he helped found 25 years ago.
  Steven Guilbeault announced Friday that he is stepping down as senior director and spokesperson for Montreal-based Équiterre.
  Guilbeault and a group of environmentalists founded the citizens’ group in 1993. It now has more than 20,000 members. He left the group to work with Greenpeace for 10 years, but returned to assume the leadership of Équiterre in 2007.
  “Over
  
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• Domi exceeds expectations at centre | HI/O Bonus

  12-10-2018 18:00 via montrealgazette.com
  In this bonus episode, Gazette sports columnist Stu Cowan, CBC Daybreak’s Jessica Rusnak, former Canadien Chris Nilan and host Adam Susser weigh in on Max Domi’s first two games at centre with the Canadiens.
  Related
  Canadiens rookie Kotkaniemi showing rare poise at centre | HI/O ShowJoin the Hockey Inside/Out Facebook group
  
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• Bill Zacharkiw: Planting the future of Armenia’s wine industry

  12-10-2018 18:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Last week I wrote about Armenia’s wine history, which can be traced back to 4000 BC. But the modern Armenian wine industry “is not 6,000 years old — it’s closer to six,” quips Yeraz Gharibian, co-owner of Zorah, one of my favourite Armenian wineries.“Our culture, our transcripts, our songs are filled with references to wine,” explains Gharibian. “But up until recently, there was no wine.”
  This puts the country in an interesting place wit
  
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• Watch: Beyond the Plate with Raegan Steinberg and Alex Cohen

  12-10-2018 16:34 via montrealgazette.com
  In the sixth instalment of Beyond the Plate, host Heidi Small speaks with chefs Raegan Steinberg and Alex Cohen of Arthurs Nosh Bar on Notre-Dame St. W. in St-Henri.
  During her visit, Small reports, Sonny and Cher’s I Got You Babe was looping in her head. Like the lyrics of that iconic song, she says, the story of the two chefs is built on a foundation of support.
  Steinberg and Cohen share a passion for food, hard work and a prevailing attitude that, even with life’s curveb
  
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• Environmentalist Steven Guilbeault steps down from Équiterre

  12-10-2018 15:54 via montrealgazette.com
  One of Quebec’s best-known environmentalists is leaving the organization he helped found 25 years ago.
  Steven Guilbeault announced Friday that he is stepping down as senior director and spokesperson for Montreal-based Équiterre.
  Guilbeault and a group of environmentalists founded the citizens’ group Équiterre in 1993. It now has more than 20,000 members.
  “Over the past 25 years, I have never been very far from Équiterre, and this decision was one of the har
  
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• Two men arrested in the killing of Ophélie Martin-Cyr, 19

  12-10-2018 15:35 via montrealgazette.com
  Two men were arrested Wednesday in connection with the killing of a 19-year-old woman in Yamachiche, Mauricie.
  The body of Ophélie Martin-Cyr, which showed signs of violence, was discovered in a field Wednesday morning. The investigation is being led by the Sûreté du Québec.
  René Kègle was arrested overnight Thursday in Repentigny when he was spotted by municipal patrol officers. Francis Martel, who was also wanted in connection with the homicid
  
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• While you were sleeping: Habs drop opener, Francophonie drops Jean

  12-10-2018 14:37 via montrealgazette.com
  Here’s what happened while you were sleeping.
  The Canadiens had plenty of time to rest and prepare for Thursday night’s home opener against the Los Angeles Kings — maybe too much time.
  That was coach Claude Julien’s suggestion, anyway, when he said his team looked rusty in a 3-0 loss to the Kings.
  “No doubt we were rusty,” Julien said. “Where we were used to making one or two passes to get out of our own end, there were pucks in the skates or weren&rsquo
  
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• STM's bus, métro drivers to sign 7-year contract

  12-10-2018 14:06 via montrealgazette.com
  Bus drivers and métro operators have finally ratified the tentative agreement that had been reached with the Société de transport de Montréal for the renewal of their collective agreement.
  The 4,500 STM bus drivers and métro train operators have accepted an exceptionally long, seven-year collective agreement. They had been without a contract since January.
  They voted 82-per-cent in favour of the agreement in principle at two general meetings held on Thursday.
  T
  
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• Deadly shooting in Laval could be linked to organized crime

  12-10-2018 13:22 via montrealgazette.com
  The Sûreté du Québec has taken over the investigation of a shooting that left a man dead at a car dealership in Laval Thursday night.
  A spokesperson for the Laval police said its officers were alerted to the shooting at 8:50 p.m. Thursday after someone called 911 to report gunfire at Automobile Vinci Inc., on Lévesque Blvd. W., near the corner of 91st Ave. in the city’s Ste-Dorothée district.
  The victim, a 31-year-old man, was unresponsive when first respo
  
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• Montreal real estate: H3C project targets families, first time buyers

  12-10-2018 12:04 via montrealgazette.com
  Montreal’s bullish real estate market has been good news for the one-third of Montrealers who own their homes. But for renters who dream of home ownership, it means the barrier to entry is getting higher.
  A new project to be completed next summer in Griffintown is designed to offer a leg up to first-time buyers, as well as families who need more space to raise their children. Through a made-in-Montreal program, condos in H3C, located at the Bassins du Nouveau-Havre site at 1606  Ottaw
  
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• Tips on how to ease gridlock — from a guy who should know

  12-10-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  “Common sense, that’s all it is,” Mohammad El Rez bellows.
  The object of El Rez’s indignation is a construction site on Sherbrooke St. W. that has reduced traffic to one lane in either direction and has created massive gridlock. And this is before rush hour, when it will get exponentially worse.
  “A few weeks ago, the same area was blocked up when they were working on the sidewalks there,” El Rez says. “So why wouldn’t it occur to someone to have do
  
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• Montreal weather: A cool autumn day

  12-10-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  We’re in for a bit of a mixed bag today.
  The forecast calls for a mix of sun and cloud with a 40-per-cent chance of showers in the morning. Wind west 20 km/h gusting to 40. Temperature falling to 10 in the afternoon. UV index 4 or moderate.
  Tonight: Partly cloudy. Becoming cloudy near midnight. Low 6.
  Don’t forget to submit your photos of Montreal via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by tagging them with #ThisMtl. We’ll feature one per day right here in the morning fil
  
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• Canadiens drop home opener to Kings, but Kotkaniemi proves he belongs

  12-10-2018 06:02 via montrealgazette.com
  Let there be no more talk about sending rookie Jesperi Kotkaniemi back to Finland.
  Forget any suggestion he could use some time with the Laval Rocket.
  And there’s no reason to give him a Christmas vacation at the world junior championships.in British Columbia.
  Kotkaniemi is an NHL player and he proved it again Thursday night when he was one of the Canadiens’ most effective players in a 3-0 loss to the Los Angeles Kings.
  There might have been some butterflies for the home opener, whic
  
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• In the Habs' Room: Rust, lack of execution spell doom vs. Kings

  12-10-2018 06:01 via montrealgazette.com
  The Canadiens had plenty of time to rest and prepare for Thursday night’s home opener against the Los Angeles Kings?
  Too much time, perhaps?
  That was coach Claude Julien’s suggestion when he said his team looked rusty in their 3-0 loss to the Kings.
  “There was no doubt we were rusty,” said Julien. “Where we were used to making one or two passes to get out of our own end, there were pucks in the skates or weren’t on the tape. It was a little tougher night tonig
  
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• Canadiens Game Day: Kings pop Habs' balloon in home opener

  12-10-2018 05:51 via montrealgazette.com
  Canadiens Game Day is a new feature this season in which we will follow the Habs during every home game from the morning skate in Brossard through the post-game interviews at the Bell Centre, updating throughout the day with all the news, quotes, notes and opinion you’re looking for:
  Pow!
  That’s the sound of the Los Angeles Kings breaking the Canadiens’ early-season balloon in their home opener Thursday night at the Bell Centre with a 3-0 victory.
  The Canadiens had gotten off t
  
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• Stu Cowan: Jacques Demers led a band of brothers to the Stanley Cup

  12-10-2018 05:44 via montrealgazette.com
  It was beautiful to see Jacques Demers at the Bell Centre Thursday night.
  It was also sad.
  Demers, the last coach to win a Stanley Cup with the Canadiens, was honoured along with other members of that 1993 championship team before the Habs’ home opener against the Los Angeles Kings. The players were shown on the giant screen while standing in entrances to the rink around the building, all wearing Canadiens sweaters. Demers, unfortunately, can no longer stand since suffering a stroke two ye
  
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• Mathieu Schneider thought Canadiens' 1993 Cup would be first of many

  12-10-2018 04:59 via montrealgazette.com
  Defenceman Mathieu Schneider was three days shy of his 24th birthday when he helped the Canadiens win their last Stanley Cup in 1993. He figured it would be the first of many in his NHL career.
  He was wrong.
  “I thought I was going to win it probably 10 more times,” Schneider said just over an hour before the 1993 team was honoured Thursday night at the Bell Centre during pre-game ceremonies before the Canadiens’ home opener against the Los Angeles Kings. “I was 23 when I
  
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• Weekend traffic: Accessing Mercier, Champlain bridges sure to be a pain

  12-10-2018 04:03 via montrealgazette.com
  It will be tough for drivers heading in or out of Montreal this Oct 12-14 weekend, as construction is expected to wreak havoc for drivers heading to the Champlain and Mercier bridges.
  Turcot Interchange
  Because of work on the new Champlain Bridge and its corridor, access to Highway 15 South off the southbound Décarie Expressway will be closed. The Atwater Ave. and Gaétan-Laberge Blvd. entrances to Highway 15 South will also be closed. The highway will be accessible from Nuns’
  
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• Molson has put its historic brewery up for sale

  12-10-2018 02:47 via montrealgazette.com
  For sale: one 232-year-old building. It’s a bit of a fixer-upper and the buyer will have heritage obligations, but the seller may throw in a vat or two of beer.
  Molson-Coors has put its brewery up for sale, according to several news reports, as the company plans to move its brewing operations to Longueuil.
  Last year, the company said it would be moving its brewing operations to the South Shore borough of St-Hubert because it would be too complicated to modernize th
  
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• #ICYMI: A bridge that soars, Cohen skewers Kanye, more news

  12-10-2018 02:07 via montrealgazette.com
  In Case You Missed It (#ICYMI) is a daily feature highlighting news in and around Montreal.
  If you’ve noticed the large white spire soaring above the almost finished St-Jacques Bridge in western N.D.G., you’ve made the designers happy, because that was the idea.
  Read more here: Soaring St-Jacques Bridge spire a beacon of hope for traffic relief
  ***
  Art heals.
  That’s the philosophy behind a new initiative from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, which will allow doctors
  
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• Fake news? Visa lottery scam? Facebook fact checker has daunting task

  12-10-2018 02:06 via montrealgazette.com
  This week, Immigration Canada was inundated with calls from people who wanted to know how to get on the list for a new visa lottery.
  Immigration Canada doesn’t hold a lottery for entry into the country, and has no plans to do so. However, a false story making the rounds in Ghana and Nigeria misled thousands into thinking they could be picked at random for Canadian citizenship.
  The job of debunking that so-called fake news fell to Montreal-based Louis Baudoin-Laarman, Facebook’s lone
  
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• Canadiens Game Day: Shea Weber back on skates and holding torch

  12-10-2018 02:01 via montrealgazette.com
  Canadiens Game Day is a new feature this season in which we will follow the Habs during every home game from the morning skate in Brossard through the post-game interviews at the Bell Centre, updating throughout the day with all the news, quotes, notes and opinion you’re looking for:
  Shea Weber has officially carried the Canadiens’ famous torch.
  The new Canadiens captain skated Thursday morning at the Bell Sports Complex in Brossard for the first time since having arthroscopic surger
  
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• Opposition calls for Montreal to get ISO anti-bribery certification

  12-10-2018 01:52 via montrealgazette.com
  The opposition at Montreal city hall says it wants the city to add one more tool to its arsenal in the war on corruption.
  Lionel Perez, the interim leader of Ensemble Montréal, says his party plans to table a motion at the next council meeting in late October calling for the city to apply for ISO 37001 certification, an international standard for fighting bribery that was introduced two years ago.
  “We believe it will benefit the city of Montreal to implement such a standard,”
  
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• Watch: Trump, Kanye meet in Oval Office spectacle

  12-10-2018 00:31 via montrealgazette.com
  Declaring that his red “MAGA” hat makes him “feel like Superman,” rapper Kanye West made a free-styling appearance in the Oval Office Thursday.
  Related
  'This hat, it gives me power': Kanye's freestyle riffs and MAGA headgear steal the show in Oval Office visit with TrumpBrendan Kelly: Newly-published Leonard Cohen poem skewers Kanye West
  
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• Brendan Kelly: Newly-published Leonard Cohen poem skewers Kanye West

  12-10-2018 00:30 via montrealgazette.com
  It turns out that Leonard Cohen wrote a poem about Kanye West. Let’s be polite and say Cohen seems to have liked Kanye about as much as Taylor Swift does — as in, not very much.
  The Cohen poem was written in March 2015 and has been published for the first time in the new book The Flame, a posthumous collection of poetry and lyrics.
  Here’s the poem:
  Kanye West is not PicassoI am PicassoKanye West is not EdisonI am EdisonI am TeslaJay-Z is not the Dylan of anythingI am the Dylan
  
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