Aylmer, Quebec news

• Vernon Adams hopes his shot to start at QB comes with return to Als

  27-06-2018 23:17 via montrealgazette.com
  If his brief time in the Canadian Football League has taught Vernon Adams anything, it’s this — rent, don’t buy.
  Only in his third pro season, the quarterback has gone from British Columbia’s negotiation list to the Alouettes; from the Als to Saskatchewan; from the Roughriders to Hamilton. And this week, after being released by the Tiger-Cats, he has been repatriated by Montreal, signing a one-year contract on Tuesday.
  “It’s the CFL. You never know what’
  
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• Man suspected of murdering elderly woman spotted in Lanaudière region

  27-06-2018 23:13 via montrealgazette.com
  A man wanted in connection with the murder of a 71-year-old woman was spotted in St-Jean-de-Matha last Saturday, according to Laval police.
  Police said Christophe Oliviera was seen at a McDonald’s in the town on the evening of June 23, the same day the woman’s body was found outside her home in Laval. St-Jean-de-Matha is an hour and a half north of Montreal.
  Laval police have been searching for Oliviera, who is 31, since Saturday.
  Police believe he killed the woman. They had lived to
  
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• Man shot in Laval is a suspected loan shark tied to West End Gang

  27-06-2018 22:29 via montrealgazette.com
  A man who was shot in broad daylight outside a gym in Laval on Tuesday is an alleged loan shark with ties to the West End Gang.
  A police source confirmed a published report that the victim of the attempted murder was John McKenzie, 48, a Laval resident whose luxury home in the Duvernay district was set on fire on Jan. 1, 2017.
  Laval police spokesperson Constable Stephanie Beshara would not confirm the victim’s identity, but said his condition continued to be monitored on Wednesday after he
  
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• Man who manufactured firearms used in Mob hits awaits sentence

  27-06-2018 22:26 via montrealgazette.com
  The owner of a factory in LaSalle who was convicted last month of trafficking in prohibited semi-automatic pistols will learn on Thursday how much time he will have to serve behind bars for producing firearms that made their way into the hands of organized crime figures.
  Jean-Pierre Huot, 62, was convicted by a jury on six charges that his company, Perfection Métal, sold Tec-9-type semi-automatic pistols despite claiming he was merely making paintball guns — even though they were eq
  
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• Woman seriously injured in underground parking lot accident

  27-06-2018 21:54 via montrealgazette.com
  A woman in her 80s is in critical condition after she was stuck between her car and a concrete pillar in an underground parking lot on Macdonald Ave. near Isabella Ave. in Côte-St-Luc.
  Witnesses speculated that the woman parked her car, but possibly left it in reverse rather than in park, Montreal police said.
  After she got out of the vehicle, it rolled and knocked her into the pillar.
  Emergency services were called just after 9 a.m. and were able to free the woman, but she was badly injur
  
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• Worker injured in argon gas leak at the CHUM

  27-06-2018 21:43 via montrealgazette.com
  The Montreal fire department said one person was injured following an argon gas leak in a radiology room at the CHUM.
  Ten people had to leave the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal just after 10 a.m. Wednesday.
  Argon is an inert gas — it doesn’t react with anything — but it is kept cold for storage reasons. One of the hospital workers came into contact with the gas and suffered chemical burns on an arm.
  Fifteen vehicles and 50 fire
  
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• Police find van sought in connection with Terrebonne shooting death

  27-06-2018 21:34 via montrealgazette.com
  A vehicle connected to the slaying of a man in Terrebonne on Monday was found in Montreal Tuesday evening, the Sûreté du Québec said.
  The minivan with chrome finishes was found on Notre-Dame St. E.
  The 18-year-old man who died from a gunshot wound was identified as Nicolas Lavoie-Cloutier. He was reportedly from the area.
  No arrests have been made.
  
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• Montreal Museum of Fine Arts raising curtain on new cinema this fall

  27-06-2018 21:10 via montrealgazette.com
  Talk about art-house cinema. Montreal’s Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is getting into the movie business with a new theatre coming to its premises this fall.
  The Cinéma du Musée has a tentative launch date of Sept. 24. The MMFA’s 294-seat Maxwell Cummings Auditorium will undergo a complete overhaul this summer and become a downtown hub for independent film.
  The theatre will have its own separate entrance. Renovations are being made to the reception area, which will be turn
  
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• Mediagrif to develop e-commerce cannabis site for Quebec

  27-06-2018 20:50 via montrealgazette.com
  Quebecers are one step closer to being able to purchase cannabis online. The SAQ has officially enlisted Technologies Interactives Mediagrif to develop an e-commerce website for its subsidiary, the Société québécoise du cannabis.
  The SQDC’s e-commerce site should be up and running when recreational cannabis is legalized on Oct. 17, the Crown corporation announced on Wednesday. It said the web platform will “respond perfectly to retail challenges involved w
  
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• Patriquin: Canada's vaunted tolerance wanes as asylum seekers enter

  27-06-2018 20:36 via montrealgazette.com
  Canadians are a tolerant people.
  This truism, long ossified into stereotype, might as well be on our coat of arms. We hear it constantly, from everybody. We use it ourselves as a knee-jerk bromide to differentiate ourselves from whatever the Americans are doing: starting wars, perpetuating racism, practising for-profit medicine.
  Yet as acceptance’s miserly cousin, tolerance isn’t a measure of generosity, but a limit on how much we are willing to take. And there is necessarily a finit
  
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• Analyze This: Slim pickings for Canadiens at NHL free agent buffet

  27-06-2018 20:31 via montrealgazette.com
  With the recent news that the Canadiens requested, and were refused, a meeting with coveted star centre John Tavares, the team finds itself in a very precarious position.
  Betting on an elite NHL free agent signing with a struggling franchise is the epitome of a long shot, but the positive side effect of that reality check is that the Canadiens can focus on other targets, and perhaps change their entire view of building a hockey team.
  There are other centres available, although, as is tradition i
  
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• Montreal targets 'key areas' to develop economic hubs, improve mobility

  27-06-2018 17:27 via montrealgazette.com
  The city of Montreal says it will spend $106.4 million to encourage economic development in “key geographic areas” over the next four years.
  The administration says its action plan will encourage the development of economic hubs in specific geographic areas.
  The plan will support investments in sustainable development and will focus on “high potential” sectors.
  The plan will also focus on improving mobility and the ease of transporting goods within the city.
  This is one o
  
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• Woman gravely injured in underground parking lot accident

  27-06-2018 17:12 via montrealgazette.com
  A woman in her 80s is in critical condition after she was stuck between her car and a concrete pillar in an underground parking lot on Macdonald Ave. near Isabella Ave. in Côte-Saint-Luc.
  Witnesses speculated that the woman parked her car, but possibly left it in reverse rather than in park, Montreal police said.
  After she got out of the vehicle, it rolled and knocked her into a concrete pillar.
  Emergency services were called just after 9 a.m. and were able to free the woman but she is bad
  
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• Quebecers' relationship with their smartphones has deepened, study suggests

  27-06-2018 17:00 via montrealgazette.com
  You walk into a store and find a pair of headphones you like. Do you buy them right away or mull over the purchase a little bit longer?
  According to a new study, Quebecers are increasingly moving toward the latter. Forty-seven per cent of adults in the province turn to their phones while shopping, says the Centre facilitating research and innovation in organizations’ annual NETendances 2017 survey.
  “In stores, adults from Quebec are becoming more inclined to use their cellphones to r
  
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• Riverdale High School students launch prize-winning canoe

  27-06-2018 16:42 via montrealgazette.com
  The air was steamy and the water calm when five Grade 11 students from Riverdale High School in Pierrefonds-Roxboro gathered at the shore in Parc de Île-de-Roxboro with teacher Peter Oland and guidance councillor Ian Spencer, last week.
  Spencer floated offshore in his red kayak, waiting, while a glistening, 15-foot Prospector canoe built by 80 woodworking students over two years was slipped into the waters of Rivière des Prairies for its maiden voyage.
  “Who’s coming with
  
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• Unlucky squirrel caused power outage, MUHC network failure

  27-06-2018 15:02 via montrealgazette.com
  A curious squirrel caused the power failure that knocked out the computer system at the MUHC Tuesday.
  A Hydro-Québec worker found the unfortunate rodent dead in the McGill University Health Centre’s circuit breaker box on de Maisonneuve Blvd.
  The squirrel damaged equipment and was electrocuted.
  The MUHC had advised Montrealers to avoid their emergency departments for non-urgent issues on Tuesday afternoon. Power was restored just after 6 p.m.
  
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• Montreal traffic: Commute a mess with Mercier Bridge down to 2 lanes

  27-06-2018 14:12 via montrealgazette.com
  A two-hour delay to get onto the Mercier Bridge is frustrating commuters coming from the South Shore Wednesday morning.
  A five-kilometre lineup of cars trying to get into the city extends along Route 132 on the southbound side of the span according to the JCCBI, the corporation responsible for the Mercier Bridge.
  The delays are also effecting the Champlain and Jacques-Cartier bridges — traffic is heavy getting onto both those spans. There is no delay on the Île-aux-tourtes and Galipe
  
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• While you were sleeping: Protest, concussions and messy, screeching peafowl

  27-06-2018 14:05 via montrealgazette.com
  A few things you might have missed while you were sleeping.
  Jazz fest protest: About 75 protesters shouted “shame” to evening diners at a sunny terrasse outside a theatre that was hosting a show directed by a white man, featuring a white woman singing songs composed by black slaves. The sold-out show SLAV by Quebec director Robert Lepage for Montreal’s International Jazz Festival is a racist appropriation of black culture, said the hip-hop artist who organized the protest. 
  
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• Montreal is headed for a heat wave, Environment Canada says

  27-06-2018 13:37 via montrealgazette.com
  Stifling heat is likely to effect Canada Day activities, according to Environment Canada.
  The agency issued a special weather statement Wednesday morning for the greater Montreal area, saying rain showers this evening and Thursday are expected to clear by the weekend as a warm and humid air mass moves into the province.
  Temperatures are forecast to hit 27 degrees Celsius Wednesday with increasing cloudiness. The UV index is 8 — very high.
  The heat wave will last into next week. Daytime hig
  
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• Montreal commute a mess with Mercier Bridge down to 2 lanes

  27-06-2018 13:32 via montrealgazette.com
  A two-hour delay to get onto the Mercier Bridge is frustrating commuters coming from the South Shore Wednesday morning.
  A five-kilometre lineup of cars trying to get into the city extends along Route 132 on the southbound side of the span according to the JCCBI, the corporation responsible for the Mercier Bridge.
  The delays are also effecting the Champlain and Jacques-Cartier bridges — traffic is heavy getting onto both those spans. There is no delay on the Île-aux-tourtes and Galipe
  
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• Bistro Nolah in Dollard earns national ranking for its terrasse

  27-06-2018 13:30 via montrealgazette.com
  A popular West Island restaurant has made a list of 100 best terrasses in Canada.
  Bistro Nolah, in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, is one of seven Montreal restaurants that made the list compiled by OpenTable, which calls itself “the world’s leading online restaurant booking site.”
  Richard Taitt, part-owner of Bistro Nolah, takes pride in making the list, considering his southern-style resto is located in the Blue Haven shopping mall on St-Jean Blvd.
  He said the bistro patio, which seats
  
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• Review: Shania Twain proves she's still the one, hints at new direction

  27-06-2018 13:24 via montrealgazette.com
  The word “comeback” is never spoken, but clearly that’s what this is.
  Shania Twain’s Now Tour show in front of 13,700 fans at the Bell Centre on Tuesday night was a lesson in the double-edged nature of grand-scale popularity: it never really goes away, but it can make forward progress tricky.
  It’s worth reminding ourselves just how astoundingly, unprecedentedly big Shania Twain was at her peak. In Canada she has three of the 10 best-selling albums of all time. Those
  
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• Mother delivers powerful message in wake of son's death

  27-06-2018 13:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Shaney has always had his own agenda. We could educate him, talk to him, yell at him, warn him, scare him . . . but the rest is ultimately up to him.
  Excerpt from Elayne Weigensberg’s eulogy at her son Shane’s funeral
  When Elayne Weigensberg speaks about her son Shane, she uses the present tense. She speaks of his enthusiasm for life, his generosity and his boundless energy.
  Shane Weigensberg died May 18. The police investigation is still active, but a witness has said Shane was spee
  
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• Canada Day fireworks set for West Island

  27-06-2018 12:55 via montrealgazette.com
  Canada Day celebrations are planned for across the West Island on Sunday, July 1.
  In Pointe-Claire, activities are scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. at Stewart Hall. A citizenship ceremony will take place there from 2-3 p.m., while “Fun and Games” for the family are planned from 2 to 6 p.m.
  The weather forecast calls for a hot, humid weather. If you need to cool off, there is a public free swim at Pointe-Claire Village Pool in Bourgeau Park, from 2 to 6 p,m,
  The climax of the day’s
  
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• Young: Hats off to Greenwood museum in Hudson

  27-06-2018 12:30 via montrealgazette.com
  Hats off to Greenwood! It’s been 22 years since Phoebe Hyde bequeathed to the Canadian Heritage of Quebec, her family home with instructions that all buildings and grounds, including contents, be preserved and shared with the community in Hudson.
  Hats off to Greenwood’s founding planning committee for overseeing the estate’s ordered transition from private residence to today’s thriving Greenwood Centre for Living History.
  Hats off to Greenwood’s gifted staff and vol
  
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• Pointe-Claire mayor says talk is cheap with efforts to save Pioneer

  27-06-2018 12:15 via montrealgazette.com
  West Island landmark or public eyesore?
  The Pioneer resto-bar, in its various incarnations, has stood on the corner Lakeshore Rd. and Ste-Anne Ave. in Pointe-Claire since about 1900. A former hotel, it has served as a local watering hole and live concert venue since the late 1970s for generations of West Islanders, particularly those coming of age — or nearly of age.
  But recent plans to demolish the iconic building to make way for a luxury condo project has some local residents up in
  
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• Housing benefit makes MUHC CEO highest-paid hospital administrator

  27-06-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Dr. Pierre Gfeller, the new CEO of the financially strapped McGill University Health Centre, is the highest-paid hospital administrator in the province after having negotiated a nearly $15,000-a-year housing allowance, the Montreal Gazette has learned.
  Gfeller is the sole hospital administrator in Quebec to receive the housing benefit — a rare perk among the highest-echelon civil servants. When Gfeller headed the health organization of the CIUSSS du Nord‐de‐l’Île
  
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• English, French hold differing views on integration of newcomers: poll

  27-06-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  As the nation celebrates Canadian Multiculturalism Day on Wednesday, a new survey finds that anglophone and francophone Quebecers hold very different views on how newcomers should integrate, and particularly on whether female police officers should be allowed to wear hijabs.
  While a majority of both groups said they held positive views of immigrants, francophones were more likely to respond in the affirmative when asked whether immigrants should give up their customs and traditions, or if the in
  
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• St-Lazare fibre artist offers natural dye workshops

  27-06-2018 11:30 via montrealgazette.com
  A local fibre artist hopes to pass on her knowledge of traditional natural dye techniques to knitters, spinners and sewers this summer in two full-day workshops at her home this summer.
  St-Lazare crafter Andrea Belcham dyes yarn and fabric with plants and other natural materials, most of which she forages from forests, fields and the weedy borders of suburban roads, or grows in her dye garden at home.
  “It’s something I can do with my kids. They’re natural foragers. They like he
  
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• Condos key to limiting urban sprawl in West Island, Off-Island

  27-06-2018 11:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Whenever I think about urban sprawl it reminds me of a song Arcade Fire wrote, describing the suburbs as a place where “dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains / and there’s no end in sight.”
  I feel fortunate to live Off-Island, near the suburban edge, beyond all those shopping malls. But the Montreal area is growing, and even semi-rural communities like mine will have to allow new developments to accommodate that growth. The question is how to manage that grow
  
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• Four Deux-Montagnes trains cancelled for light-rail construction

  27-06-2018 05:35 via montrealgazette.com
  Four departures on the Deux Montagnes commuter train line have been cancelled.
  The train line has been disrupted because of construction on the Réseau express métropolitain. As a result of work on the new light-rail, the Deux Montagnes and Mascouche train lines will have to run mainly on one track, according to Exo (formerly the Réseau de transport métropolitain).
  The following train routes will no longer be in service:Train 914 leaving Roxboro-Pierrefonds s
  
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• Gas price watch: Prices hit $1.45 a litre at the pump for Montrealers on June 26

  27-06-2018 05:12 via montrealgazette.com
  Gas prices jumped late Tuesday at Montreal-area gas stations to hit a high of $1.45 a litre.
  Earlier in the day, prices varied from a low of $1.254 a litre at a Petro-Canada station in Saint-Laurent borough, to a high late Tuesday of $1.45 at a Shell station on Masson St. in Rosemont, according to essencemontreal.com.
  The price of a barrel of crude oil was US$70.75 at the end of the trading day on the NYMEX index, in New York on Tuesday.
  
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• In case you missed it, here's what happened in Montreal on June 26

  27-06-2018 05:02 via montrealgazette.com
  A look at the day’s events in and around Montreal:
  Undercover cops wore masks at protests, Montreal public hearing told
  The SPVM will no longer have undercover police wearing masks at protests, they told the city’s Public Safety Commission — just one of the revelations that came out at a historic public hearing Tuesday on the force’s tactics at demonstrations.
  It was a rare admission by Pascal Richard, the police inspector in charge of operational planning, that the Montr
  
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• Cavalia's Odysseo gallops back into Montreal

  27-06-2018 04:22 via montrealgazette.com
  Odysseo’s big top has been set up on Ste-Catherine St. E., just east of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge in Montreal. Odysseo, created by Cavalia founder Normand Latourelle, traces the powerful relationship between man and horse.
  The show, which features 70 horses and 50 riders, acrobats, dancers and musicians, runs July 25 to Sept. 3.
  Cavalia said in a statement that it will donate half of the profits from VIP ticket sales to Fondation Charles-Bruneau, which is dedicated to pediatric
  
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• Protesters denounce predominantly white performance at Montreal jazz festival

  27-06-2018 03:48 via montrealgazette.com
  About 75 protesters shouted “shame” to evening diners on Tuesday at a sunny terrasse outside a downtown theatre that was hosting a show directed by a white man, featuring a white woman singing songs composed by black slaves.
  The sold-out show by Quebec director Robert Lepage for Montreal’s International Jazz Festival is a racist appropriation of black culture, said Lucas Charlie Rose, a hip-hop artist who organized the protest.
  White people should not be profiting from the hist
  
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• Undercover cops wore masks at protests, Montreal public hearing told

  27-06-2018 02:44 via montrealgazette.com
  The SPVM will no longer have undercover police wearing masks at protests, they told the city’s Public Safety Commission — just one of the revelations that came out at a historic public hearing Tuesday on the force’s tactics at demonstrations.
  It was a rare admission by Pascal Richard, the police inspector in charge of operational planning, that the Montreal police had, in fact, used undercover officers posing as protesters in recent years, during and perhaps after the student p
  
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• Habs development camp: Kotkaniemi and Poehling in the spotlight

  27-06-2018 02:43 via montrealgazette.com
  Canadiens fans can get their first look at No. 3 overall draft pick Jesperi Kotkaniemi this week when 40 prospects descend on the Bell Sports Complex in Brossard for a four-day development camp.
  The players will undergo physical exams and fitness testing behind closed doors on Thursday and hit the ice for public consumption Friday.
  The invited players are a mix of drafted players from previous years, undrafted players who were invited for tryout and nine of the 11 players the Canadiens drafted t
  
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• Man shot in Laval gym parking lot

  27-06-2018 02:41 via montrealgazette.com
  A man was shot in the parking lot of Centre Sportif Extrême Évolution, a gym in the Fabreville area of Laval, according to Laval police.
  Laval police received the call around 4 p.m. Tuesday.
  The victim is in his late 40s. He was taken to a hospital. Police are waiting for updates about his condition.
   
  
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• Computer issue at MUHC fixed

  27-06-2018 02:39 via montrealgazette.com
  A computer network issue at McGill University Health Centre has been resolved.
  The MUHC had advised Montrealers to avoid their emergency departments for non-urgent issues on Tuesday afternoon as issues stemming from an electrical failure affected the health centre.
  
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• Quebec drivers pass school buses illegally 30,000 times a day, report finds

  27-06-2018 02:29 via montrealgazette.com
  Quebec drivers are breaking the law 30,000 times a day by driving past school buses as they flash stop signs, according to a report issued by the company BusPatrol.
  Quebec’s Transport ministry announced in February that BusPatrol would conduct the study as part of a pilot project.
  BusPatrol installed cameras on 13 school buses that then went about their regular business in eight Quebec cities for 45 days starting early in March.
  The study looked at how many times a vehicle completely passe
  
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• Pat Hickey: 5 Lessons learned about the Canadiens from the NHL draft

  27-06-2018 02:24 via montrealgazette.com
  Here are five things we learned on NHL draft weekend:
  Marc Bergevin isn’t committed to drafting the best player available: The Canadiens used the third overall pick to select Finnish centre Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who was not the best player available on Friday night. But Kotkaniemi was the best centre available and the Canadiens are betting that, when the draft is evaluated down the line, Kotkaniemi will stand out as one of the elite platers.
  For the time being, Kotkaniemi is a prospect.
  
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• Time to relax? Not for Montreal's Laurent Duvernay-Tardif

  27-06-2018 02:03 via montrealgazette.com
  When Laurent Duvernay-Tardif collected his medical degree from McGill this month, his mother said she was glad he was going to get a chance to relax after four years of juggling medical school and his career as an offensive guard with the NFL Kansas City Chiefs.
  But relaxation doesn’t appear to be part of his DNA.
  The day after he graduated, Duvernay-Tardif was back in Kansas City for a Chiefs’ training camp.
  He returned to Montreal on June 15, and the following day he was at Concord
  
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• Concordia's sexual misconduct task force calls for more education

  27-06-2018 01:03 via montrealgazette.com
  A Concordia University task force set up in the wake of highly-publicized complaints of chronic sexual misconduct by certain professors in the university’s creative writing program has issued dozens of recommendations to try to ensure that such a toxic environment is not allowed to fester on campus in the future.
  “I truly believe that this is an integral step in our continuous goal to foster an educational and working environment free from any form of sexual misconduct or sexual viol
  
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• Point-St-Charles loses its 'heart and soul' with death of Joe Mell

  27-06-2018 00:32 via montrealgazette.com
  It was early in Marc Miller’s run for office when he got the fateful call.
  Joe Mell had heard he’d be on the ticket for the Liberals and decided to offer Miller some advice. Even in his mid-80s, Mell was the man to see about winning Irish votes in the working-class neighbourhood of Point-St-Charles.
  So Miller agreed to meet with the unofficial mayor of The Point at a senior’s residence south of downtown.
  “He said, ‘I know the guy who’ll put up your electi
  
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