Aylmer, Quebec news

• Alan Shepard will step down as Concordia's president in 2019

  29-11-2018 23:57 via montrealgazette.com
  Alan Shepard has announced he will step down as president and vice-chancellor of Concordia University in June 2019 to accept a position as president of Western University.
  “It is with mixed emotions that I announce that I have accepted the presidency of Western University,” Shepard wrote in an open letter to Concordia students and faculty that was posted on the university’s website on Thursday.
  “Our achievements together are reflected in many ways — our record
  
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• TV listings: Personalize your program guide here

  29-11-2018 23:43 via montrealgazette.com
  Wondering what’s on the tube tonight?
  How about which hockey games will be broadcast next week or when a certain show will be broadcast?
  Perhaps you are still subscribing to a print TV guide, such as the one offered by the Montreal Gazette on Saturdays, and complement it by searching the channel guide offered by your service provider.
  Or perhaps, like many, you rely solely on the service provider’s guide.
  There’s a faster and simpler option: the TV listings service availab
  
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• Allison Hanes: The war on cars is the war on climate change

  29-11-2018 23:13 via montrealgazette.com
  First we’re given a name for the helplessness and hopelessness many of us are feeling over climate change (it’s called ecological grief, FYI). Now we’re given even more reason to feel helpless and hopeless.
  Quebec released its official greenhouse gas inventory for 2016 Thursday, and the news certainly made it seem like we’re fighting a losing battle. The report card on our emissions confirmed what Coalition Avenir Québec Premier François Legault has been hin
  
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• Adonis Stevenson aims to retain his boxing title with 'one punch'

  29-11-2018 22:42 via montrealgazette.com
  QUEBEC — Blainville boxer Adonis (Superman) Stevenson says he needs “just one punch” to defeat Oleksandr Gvozdyk, while the Ukrainian believes playing the long game will lead him to victory.
  The two will fight for the WBC light heavyweight championship Saturday at the Videotron Centre in Quebec City. Stevenson comes into the fight as the champion, while Gvozdyk is the interim champion and the mandatory challenger for the title.
  Stevenson (29-1-1, 24 KOs), knows Gvozdyk (15-0, 1
  
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• Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques pumped for lengthy space mission

  29-11-2018 22:36 via montrealgazette.com
  David Saint-Jacques is currently in quarantine in the Kazakhstan outpost of Baikonur. On the surface, that might not sound like the most exhilarating of experiences.
  But that will change Monday, when the Canadian Space Agency astronaut leaves the Earth’s surface, lifting off in a Soyuz spacecraft from Kazakhstan and heading for a six-month scientific fact-finding mission aboard the International Space Station. He’s been training the last two years for this mission.
  Getting to the spa
  
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• Quebec pulls video that may contravene cannabis advertising law

  29-11-2018 22:07 via montrealgazette.com
  Quebec’s cannabis retailer on Thursday pulled the plug at least temporarily on a video visible by people walking by its stores that outlined the effects of marijuana using words such as calming, relaxing, energizing and euphoric.
  The video was being shown on display screens set up in such a way that they could be seen from outside at all 12 Société québécoise du cannabis stores across the province.
  The removal came as the province’s Health D
  
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• Canadiens Notebook: Victor Mete sent down to AHL's Laval Rocket

  29-11-2018 22:07 via montrealgazette.com
  Victor Mete has never played a game in the AHL, but that’s about to change.
  The Canadiens announced after practice Thursday at the Bell Sports Complex in Brossard that Mete has been assigned to the AHL’s Laval Rocket. Last season, Mete went directly from the junior London Knights to the NHL, making the Canadiens as a 19-year-old. But the 5-foot-9, 183-pounder has struggled at times during his second season, posting 0-4-4 totals and a plus-5 in 23 games while averaging 15:10 of ice ti
  
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• Restaurant review: Impasto remains an authentic Italian powerhouse

  29-11-2018 22:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Impasto
  ★★★ out of ★★★★
  $$$
  Address: 48 Dante St. (Near St-Dominique St.)
  Phone: 514-508-6508
  Website: impastomtl.ca
  Open: Lunch Thurs.-Fri. 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; dinner Tues.-Sat. 5 to 11 p.m.
  Reservations: Essential
  Wheelchair access: No
  Cards: All major
  Vegetarian-friendly: Yes
  Parking: On the street with meters; difficult on busy nights
  Price range: Starters $9-$19; pastas $19-$28; main courses $33-$36; desserts $8-$12; four-course tasting
  
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• City of Montreal, community groups team up to help homeless in winter

  29-11-2018 22:00 via montrealgazette.com
  The city of Montreal and the provincial health authority for the Centre-Sud district on Thursday unveiled the measures in place this winter to protect local homeless from the cold.
  In total, Montreal will have 957 spots available for emergency accommodation to shelter men, woman and children who are homeless — 32 beds more than last year.
  There will be beds available for 752 men at the Maison du Père, Mission Bon Accueil, the Old Brewery Mission, Projets autochtones du Québec
  
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• Quebec First Nations take control of youth protection

  29-11-2018 21:41 via montrealgazette.com
  Constant Awashish says it often felt like the provincial agency charged with protecting kids on Atikamekw territory did more harm than good.
  The grand chief paints a dire picture: parents and children being separated, cases inevitably ending up in court and kids wasting away in the foster care system. Nothing seemed to change, the caseload never lightened.
  And so, 18 years ago, the Atikamekw First Nation banded together and came up with a solution.
  They would partner with the Quebec government a
  
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• MUHC bribery scandal: Ex-SNC-Lavalin CEO heads to trial in February

  29-11-2018 21:40 via montrealgazette.com
  The last remaining person to be tried in connection with the MUHC superhospital bribery scandal, Pierre Duhaime, will head to trial in early February, it was decided Thursday.
  Duhaime, 64, was SNC-Lavalin’s CEO when key decisions were made in the project. His trial had been scheduled to begin in January but will now start on Feb. 4. It’s expected to last at least four months.
  First arrested in November 2012, Duhaime faces charges of fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud an
  
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• Quebec's public nursing homes a disgrace, ombudsman says

  29-11-2018 21:18 via montrealgazette.com
  QUEBEC — The way some people are treated in Quebec’s public nursing homes “is tantamount to maltreatment,” says the province’s ombudsman.
  In a blistering report tabled Thursday in the National Assembly, Marie Rinfret says “deficient and flawed” services  for the elderly or persons living with disabilities in long-term care homes were again the main source of complaints to her office in 2017-’18.
  Owing to chronic shortages, the staff working on
  
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• Former Saint-Hyacinthe teacher arrested in connection with sexual assaults

  29-11-2018 18:31 via montrealgazette.com
  The major crimes division of the Sûreté du Québec has arrested a former Saint-Hyacinthe resident in connection with a series of sexual assaults committed nearly four decades ago.
  Gilles Robineau, 68, was arrested at his current residence in the Mauricie region on Wednesday and is expected to appear in court in Saint-Hyacinthe on Thursday.
  Police allege that between 1979 and 1981 Robineau, then a teacher in Saint-Hyacinthe, committed sexual assaults on minor girls.
  He is
  
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• MUHC bribery scandal: Former SNC-Lavalin CEO heads to trial in February

  29-11-2018 18:22 via montrealgazette.com
  One of the last remaining court cases linked to the MUHC superhospital bribery scandal will head to trial in early February, it was decided Thursday.
  The trial of Pierre Duhaime, SNC-Lavalin’s CEO when key decisions were made in the project, will begin Feb. 4 and is expected to last at least four months.
  Duhaime, 64, was initially scheduled to go to trial on Jan. 8. First arrested in November 2012, he faces charges of fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud and using forged documents.
  During a c
  
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• A bath a week, maybe, remains a reality for some Quebec seniors: report

  29-11-2018 18:09 via montrealgazette.com
  In certain long-term-care facilities, called CHSLDs in Quebec, getting a bath once a week is asking for too much, according to the Quebec ombudsman’s report for 2017-18.
  The report, made public Thursday, says that lack of staff in CHSLDs is at crisis proportions, so much so that it is occasionally impossible to maintain the basic hygiene of residents, a clientele that includes seniors, the disabled and some of the most vulnerable in Quebec society.
  And ombudsman Marie Rinfret notes that by
  
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• It looks like greenhouse gas reduction targets are out of Quebec's reach

  29-11-2018 17:27 via montrealgazette.com
  Quebec seems on course to miss reaching its target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GGE), which have dropped by just 9.1 per cent between 1990 and 2016 despite a goal of 20 per cent by 2020.
  The provincial Environment Ministry on Thursday published an inventory of GGE levels and sources. None of its data were very encouraging considering the objectives of Quebec’s climate change plan for 2013-2020.
  The waste, industrial and residential and commercial heating sectors have all managed
  
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• CAQ’s Bill 1: Heads of UPAC and SQ to be chosen by National Assembly

  29-11-2018 17:23 via montrealgazette.com
  QUEBEC — The Coalition Avenir Québec government has tabled legislation giving the power to name heads of key agencies, including the anti-corruption commissioner and the provincial police to politicians.
  Acting on a key election promise, Public Security Minister Geneviève Guilbault Thursday tabled Bill 1, the CAQ’s first piece of legislation since winning the election, in the National Assembly.
  The bill amends the mode of appointment and dismissal of the anti-corruption
  
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• Five things to do in Montreal this weekend, Nov. 30-Dec. 2

  29-11-2018 17:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Story Untold & Selfish Things
  Montreal-based pop-rock quintet Story Untold‘s tour with Selfish Things makes a hometown stop at Le Ministère on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. (doors open at 6:30). It’s Story Untold’s final gig in the city this year. Also performing: Hometown Lights.Image + Nation
  The 31st edition of this LGBTQ film festival continues until Sunday. In his preview of the fest, the Gazette’s T’Cha Dunlevy points to Eva + Candela (Como T
  
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• Canadiens’ ability to finish needs more polish | HI/O Show

  29-11-2018 16:34 via montrealgazette.com
  On this week’s show, our panelists — Gazette columnist Stu Cowan, CBC Daybreak’s Jessica Rusnak, Dan Robertson of TSN 690 and host Adam Susser — take a look at the Habs’ recent struggle to score goals and the return of team captain Shea Weber.
  Also discussed:Karl Alzner’s demotion was a strategic move
  Michael Chaput jumps Matthew Peca on depth chart
  Reaching the post-season will be a battle
  Mike Reilly, Victor Mete fit best with Shea WeberRelated
  Last wee
  
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• After months of controversy, Quebec Human Rights Commission boss resigns

  29-11-2018 16:33 via montrealgazette.com
  After months of controversy, Tamara Thermitus, president of the Quebec Human Rights Commission, has resigned, the Presse Canadienne has learned.
  Named to the position by the National Assembly, Thermitus made headlines after her management style came under fire from those working in the commission. She had been off work since October and submitted her resignation on Thursday.
  The provincial ombudsman opened an investigation into allegations of poor management and abuse of power on the part o
  
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• While you were sleeping: Teen stuck in bank vault that isn't the good place

  29-11-2018 14:02 via montrealgazette.com
  Here’s what happened while you were dreaming of Friday.
  In an appearance at the Bell Centre, Bill and Hillary Clinton said the U.S. should follow Canada’s model of diversity. “Canada has done such a good job of both managing its contemporary diversity and it has a very interesting immigration system,” Bill said. Hillary Clinton, who was defeated by Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election, also held up Canada as a kind of antidote to the divisive and autho
  
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• Is Quebec breaking its own cannabis law?

  29-11-2018 14:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Quebec’s health department is looking into whether the province is breaking its own law by advertising marijuana in a video visible to people walking by its Société québécoise du cannabis stores.
  The health ministry “did not specifically approve this video,” department spokesperson Noémie Vanheuverzwijn said Wednesday after reviewing footage of the video messages from the Montreal Gazette.
  “As with any situation brought to our
  
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• Bombardier plant chief in Belfast backs Theresa May's Brexit plan

  29-11-2018 14:00 via montrealgazette.com
  The chief of Northern Ireland’s biggest manufacturer backed Theresa May’s Brexit plan, providing a boost for the embattled premier from a part of the U.K. where opposition to the deal with the European Union could derail the accord.
  Michael Ryan, the head of Bombardier Inc.’s Belfast plane plant, said in an interview Wednesday that the so-called backstop laid out in the deal is a workable arrangement that he could live with if necessary, and infinitely preferable to a no-deal s
  
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• Couple arrested on suspicion of beating another couple in Quebec City

  29-11-2018 13:52 via montrealgazette.com
  A man and a woman in their 30s were seriously injured early Thursday after being attacked and beaten with a blunt object in the Saint-Sauveur district of Quebec City.
  The victims, whose injuries are deemed not to be life-threatening, were attacked at 2:45 a.m. on Saint-Vallier St.
  Meanwhile, police have arrested a man and a woman, also in their 30s, in connection with the incident and expect to question the pair later on Thursday.
  The motive for the assault remains unknown but it appears the vic
  
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• Jean-Michel Blais laments Mile End gentrification on Eviction Sessions

  29-11-2018 13:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Jean-Michel Blais’s Eviction Sessions is many things. The mini-album is the latest example of the evocative magic the Montreal neoclassical musician creates on the piano. He likes to say it’s a live album that’s not a normal live album. Yes, it’s a snapshot of a live performance, but there’s no clapping from the 30 or so people who were there, and it was recorded in his apartment on Hutchison St. near Bernard Ave.
  Perhaps most important, the five-song collection is
  
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• Safe road-sharing is best option for Mount Royal, opposition argues

  29-11-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Rather than banning vehicles from crossing over Mount Royal, the city should make it safe for all kinds of users to share the road safely by slowing traffic and building dedicated bike and pedestrian paths, the municipal opposition proposes in a brief to Montreal’s consultation bureau.
  In a report to be presented to the L’Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) on Thursday evening, obtained by the Montreal Gazette, the Ensemble Montréal party suggests reducin
  
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• Quebec may be flouting own law outside cannabis stores

  29-11-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Quebec’s health department is looking into whether the province is breaking its own law by advertising marijuana in a video visible to people walking by its Société québécoise du cannabis stores.
  The health ministry “did not specifically approve this video,” department spokesperson Noémie Vanheuverzwijn said Wednesday after reviewing footage of the video messages from the Montreal Gazette.
  “As with any situation brought to our
  
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• Montreal weather: A brighter day

  29-11-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Yes, we’ll see some sunshine today, if the forecast holds up.
  Environment Canada is calling for a mix of sun and cloud with a high of plus 2.
  Tonight: Cloudy periods with a low of minus 1.
  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 file. Today’s photo was posted on Instagram by @commeavecnous.
  Quote of the day:A fresh and vigorous weed, alwa
  
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• Gazette Christmas Fund: Paralysis reconnects Sylvie with her passions

  29-11-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Over the last five years, 48-year-old Sylvie has learned to slow down.
  In her early adulthood, she said she always found an excuse to not take time for herself: She needed to work, household chores were waiting to be done, her son needed help with his homework.
  So when her legs became paralyzed due to abscesses on her spinal column five years ago, she found different ways to keep herself busy.
  “I can’t use my legs, but I still have my arms, I have my head” she laughed. “I
  
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• Brownstein: New TV series looks at Montreal as a mecca for U.S. wits

  29-11-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Frank Sinatra famously crooned in his tune New York, New York: “If I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.”
  But for many American comics, New Yorkers among them, the dream is actually making it in Montreal, at Just for Laughs — “the mecca of the comedy world,” according to Howie Mandel.
  Such is the premise of the highly insightful, six-part docu-series, Inside Jokes, which starts streaming Friday on Amazon Prime Video. The series follows seven U.S. standup
  
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• Allison Hanes: Navigating Montreal's two new solitudes

  29-11-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Perhaps nothing illustrates the emergence of two new solitudes in Montreal like the recent kerfuffle over the new Pierrefonds Library.
  For local residents and Pierrefonds-Roxboro Mayor Jim Beis, the inclusion of a drive-thru book drop-off in the modern $24.4-million facility slated to open next spring is a time-saving convenience for families on the go.
  To Christine Gosselin, the Montreal executive committee member in charge of culture, the drive-thru is “an aberration,” as she told
  
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• Beaconsfield mayor says city to help fight climate change

  29-11-2018 11:11 via montrealgazette.com
  The city of Beaconsfield announced the launch of a climate change initiative that will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
  The i3P Project, slated for 2019, will enable the Beaconsfield and the community to “identify model and innovative projects, accelerate the implementation of sustainable and ecological projects, increase knowledge and skills at the regional level, and build partnerships with local experts to combat climate change and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.”
  &ldq
  
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• U.S. should follow Canada's model of diversity, Clintons say in Montreal

  29-11-2018 04:40 via montrealgazette.com
  The United States is making a mistake by moving in the opposite direction of Canada on cultural diversity, immigration and social harmony, former U.S. president Bill Clinton told a receptive audience in Montreal on Wednesday night.
  “Canada has done such a good job of both managing its contemporary diversity and it has a very interesting immigration system,” he said at the Bell Centre, where he and his wife, former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, made their second stop
  
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• Karl Alzner scores in Rocket win over Senators

  29-11-2018 04:31 via montrealgazette.com
  LAVAL — Defenceman Karl Alzner scored in his first game in the American Hockey League in more than eight years and the Laval Rocket ended a five-game losing streak by beating the Belleville Senators 2- 1 on Wednesday.
  Alzner was demoted by the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday after being ignored by the other 30 NHL teams. He had played only eight of the first 24 games of the Habs.
  Alzner’s last game in the AHL was June 14, 2010,  in a 4-0 victory over the Hershey Bears to win the C
  
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• #ICYMI: Legault speech, family sues city, more news

  29-11-2018 03:35 via montrealgazette.com
  In Case You Missed It (#ICYMI) is a daily feature highlighting news in and around Montreal.
  Premier François Legault has pledged to govern Quebec with “pride and audacity” and dared Quebecers to embrace the kind of change he says Quebec needs. And he reached out to English-speaking Quebecers —  in English — inviting them “to define our common future together.”
  Philip Authier files this report: Premier Legault dares Quebecers to embrace ch
  
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• City of Montreal is looking into banning Publisacs

  29-11-2018 02:46 via montrealgazette.com
  Montreal will look into the possibility of banning Publisacs — those plastic bags of weekly flyers that often end up in the recycling bin.
  The recommendation was in a report by the city’s finance and administration committee on Montreal’s 2019 budget, which was adopted by city council Wednesday.
  The committee, which submitted its report Tuesday after studying the $5.7-billion budget over two weeks, said the city should “evaluate the environmental and financial costs of th
  
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• Devastated family will sue city of Montreal, CSDM over son's drowning

  29-11-2018 02:06 via montrealgazette.com
  The family of Blessing Claudevy Moukoko, the 14-year-old Montreal boy who died after spending 38 minutes underwater, unnoticed, during his school swim class, announced Wednesday they intend to sue city of Montreal and the Commission scolaire de Montréal for negligence.
  Moukoko died on Feb. 21, six days after the drowning in a municipal pool at the Centre Père-Marquette in the Rosemont—La-Petite-Patrie borough that left him with terminal brain damage due to oxygen depriva
  
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• Stu Cowan: Road to NHL went through Milwaukee for Habs' Shea Weber

  29-11-2018 01:45 via montrealgazette.com
  During a news conference after he was named captain of the Canadiens before the start of this season, Shea Weber talked about some of the people who influenced him early in his pro hockey career.
  “My first time living by myself and a guy by the name of Rick Berry and his family and Greg Zanon lived in the same building,” Weber recalled about starting the 2005-06 season with the AHL’s Milwaukee Admirals after being selected by the Nashville Predators in the second round (49
  
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• After seven-year hunt for sexual predator, suspect arrested in Quebec

  29-11-2018 01:13 via montrealgazette.com
  A 40-year-old man suspected of several break-ins and sexual assaults over a seven-year period was arrested Tuesday by Quebec City police.
  Charles Sylvain-Trépanier is alleged to have committed the first attack in August 2011 in the Cap-Rouge district, when he allegedly assaulted a woman in her 40s. A second incident occurred in 2013 in the Sillery district and involved a 90-year-old victim. The most recent assault occurred in July 2017 and saw a woman in her 70s attacked.
  In all three cas
  
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• MUHC bribery scandal: A timeline of 'the biggest fraud in Canadian history'

  29-11-2018 00:23 via montrealgazette.com
  Nine people in all were charged in Project Lauréat, the UPAC investigation of the MUHC superhospital bribery scandal. Only three people have been convicted and the key player in the scheme, Arthur Porter, died before he could face justice at the Montreal courthouse. Four people who once faced charges alleging they were part of what one police investigator described as “the biggest fraud corruption in the history of Canada” ultimately saw the accusations be withdrawn. Pierre Du
  
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• Judge to decide Dec. 17 if ex-MUHC exec must pay millions in damages

  29-11-2018 00:23 via montrealgazette.com
  A Quebec Court judge will decide next month whether Yanaï Elbaz must pay damages to the McGill University Health Centre for his role in rigging the bid to build the superhospital.
  Judge Claude Leblond said he will deliberate on the issue after engaging in a long debate on Wednesday with MUHC lawyer Alexander De Zordo at the Montreal courthouse. Among the many questions posed by Leblond is whether the MUHC’s request will destabilize the agreement reached between defence lawyer Nadine T
  
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• Plante administration hails newly adopted 'unifying budget'

  29-11-2018 00:20 via montrealgazette.com
  The Valérie Plante administration adopted its 2019 budget and three-year capital works program Wednesday, hailing it as one that satisfies business groups, community organizations and environmental groups.
  “It’s a unifying budget,” Benoît Dorais, the chairman of the city’s executive committee, said just before council approved the $5.7-billion budget by 37 to 19.
  Residential property tax bills will rise next year by an average of 1.7 per cent under the $5.7-b
  
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