Aylmer, Quebec news

• T'Cha Dunlevy: What's next for SLĀV?

  09-07-2018 23:52 via montrealgazette.com
  The SLĀV saga is dying down, with the end of the 39th Montreal International Jazz Festival, but we may not have heard the last of the controversial production.
  Singer Betty Bonifassi issued a statement, Saturday, echoing one emitted by director Robert Lepage on Friday in which the director brushed off criticism and proclaimed his determination to forge ahead despite the naysayers.
  Bonifassi’s words were recounted to La Presse journalist Véronique Lauzon from her hospital bed, w
  
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• Public is asked to vote on design of REM trains

  09-07-2018 23:40 via montrealgazette.com
  The public is being asked to help choose the final design of the region’s future commuter train network.
  Important step for the REM today: we are revealing 3 design options for REM cars and we want to hear your opinion. Your comments will help us make the final choice. First departures in 2021! https://t.co/npefcD0Zxh#designREM pic.twitter.com/kGM8vy2rO2
  — REM – Réseau express métropolitain (@REMgrandmtl) July 9, 2018Construction on the $6.3-billion Réseau
  
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• Bill Brownstein: Sugar Sammy making big waves on other continents

  09-07-2018 23:33 via montrealgazette.com
  On the surface, it would seem that Sugar Sammy has his signals crossed. The mantra for most comics on this planet is: Go west, young wit.
  But not Sugar Sammy. Much of the comedy world’s attention may now be focused on Montreal with the 36th edition of Just for Laughs — the largest chuckles gathering in this dimension — kicking off on Wednesday. But Sugar Sammy, once again marching to the beat of his own drummer and compass, has taken his act east.
  On the weekend, Sugar Sammy we
  
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• Allison Hanes: Last week's smothering heat a wake-up call for Montreal

  09-07-2018 23:13 via montrealgazette.com
  Montrealers spend much of the year longing for the dog days of summer to keep us going through the deep freeze of winter.
  So when the city sizzles through an oppressive hot spell, many of us just shut up and sweat it out, since summer is as fleeting as it is occasionally unbearable.
  But last week’s punishing heat wave, when the mercury soared about 30 degrees and stayed stuck there for seven days, was a wake-up call for citizens of this winter city. For starters, it was a tragedy, blamed f
  
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• Moisson Montréal launches annual summer fundraiser, food drive

  09-07-2018 23:04 via montrealgazette.com
  Moisson Montréal launched their third annual fundraiser and food drive on Monday, setting a goal of amassing $60,000 within one month.
  According to the food bank, approximately 39,000 Montrealers between the ages of three and 17 rely on some form of food assistance. Without school food aid or other relief programs during the summer, some families have fewer resources to fall back on.
  For eight weeks this summer, Moisson Montréal is also aiming to donate snacks or lunches to 11 summ
  
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• Montreal MP who beat ex-Bloc leader twice won’t run again

  09-07-2018 22:36 via montrealgazette.com
  Hélène Laverdière, a self-described “accidental” NDP MP who defeated Gilles Duceppe in both the 2011 and 2015 elections, has announced she won’t run again next year.
  She surprised political pundits by first beating Duceppe in the Montreal riding of Laurier-Sainte-Marie when he was Bloc Québécois leader in 2011.
  Laverdière, 63, admits that even she was a bit surprised when she grabbed more than 46 per cent of the vote that year to oust D
  
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• Brendan Kelly: 'I'm excited about the future,' Geoff Molson says of Habs

  09-07-2018 22:25 via montrealgazette.com
  Montreal Canadiens president and owner Geoff Molson defended his team’s decision to wait more than two weeks before revealing that Habs star defenceman Shea Weber underwent knee surgery that will force him to sit out until at least mid-December.
  The decision to withhold the information was widely criticized last week, with many noting that it seemed at odds with Molson’s forceful statements at his post-season press conference that the Canadiens were going to be committed to being ful
  
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• Shakespeare-in-the-Park bends genders in Romeo and Juliet

  09-07-2018 21:57 via montrealgazette.com
  Repercussion Theatre celebrates its 30th Shakespeare-in-the-Park with a 30-stop tour of a gender-bending production of Romeo and Juliet: Love is Love.
  Gender is a flexible concept in today’s world and in this production, both Romeo and Juliet are played by women. However, the core narrative does not shift. Two families, distanced by generations of conflict, ultimately destroy what is most precious to them.
  Showtime is 7 p.m. Bring a lawn chair and bug spray. The show will only be cancelled
  
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• Montreal police constable suspended for eight days after accident

  09-07-2018 21:39 via montrealgazette.com
  A Montreal police constable has been suspended for eight days without pay after the province’s ethics commission found he had not used police equipment — in this case, the police van he was driving — with “caution and discernment.”
  The sanction follows an incident in March 2016 that saw Const. Michael Fournier-Langelier lose control of the van he was driving and collide with an oncoming car on a night when weather and road conditions were clearly treacherous.
  While
  
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• Montreal car-sharing services seeing a spike in usage

  09-07-2018 21:12 via montrealgazette.com
  Thanks to its densely populated neighbourhoods, low rates of vehicle ownership and openness to varied modes of public transportation, Montreal boasts one of the highest rates of usage of car-sharing services of any city in North America.
  Record recruitment figures and a new city administration that is an enthusiastic cheerleader of sustainable mobility indicate Montreal’s position as a top car-sharing city will endure. But car-sharing firms note that the cultural shift away from car owners
  
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• CPTAQ wants to protect quality farmland

  09-07-2018 19:49 via montrealgazette.com
  The site of the future Vaudreuil-Soulanges Hospital will result in the loss of valuable farmland, according to the Commission for the Protection of Agricultural Land in Quebec (CPTAQ).
  The CPTAQ said the construction of a hospital in Vaudreuil-Soulanges would result in the loss of nearly 25 hectares of farmland.
  “Nobody questions the relevance of building a hospital to serve the population of this territory,” said Christian St-Jacques, president of Union des Producteurs Agricoles (UP
  
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• Montreal police constable suspended for eight days after collision

  09-07-2018 18:30 via montrealgazette.com
  A Montreal police constable has been suspended for eight days without pay after the province’s ethics commission found he had not used police equipment — in this case, the police van he was driving — with “caution and discernment.”
  The sanction follows an incident in March 2016 that saw Const. Michael Fournier-Langelier lose control of the van he was driving and collide with an oncoming car on a night when weather and road conditions were clearly treacherous.
  While
  
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• Watch: Montreal’s Carifiesta parade a true island celebration

  09-07-2018 18:06 via montrealgazette.com
  Thousands of people lined René-Lévesque Blvd. in downtown Montreal on Saturday to watch and dance during the annual Carifiesta parade.
  The parade, a celebration of Caribbean music and culture, featured bright costumes with lots of feathers and jewels and a family-party atmosphere.
  Grenadian Arlene Lewis explains why she shows up for the parade every year: “It’s important to me, as a mom, to expose my daughter to our culture and what our family is about and what the
  
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• Poll: Are the Décarie bottlenecks the 'worst of the traffic congestion'?

  09-07-2018 17:39 via montrealgazette.com
  The first day of construction work on Highway 15 and the Décarie Expressway northbound resulted in massive bottlenecks Monday morning, with traffic backed up as far as the Champlain Bridge all the way to Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, more than five kilometres back.
  “This will be the worst of the traffic congestion” caused by work on the Turcot Interchange, Transport Quebec said.Take Our Poll
   
  
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• Lise Ravary: No one in French Canada cares about Trudeau ‘groping’

  09-07-2018 17:34 via montrealgazette.com
  While the English-language media in Canada are getting their knickers twisted in a knot over what Justin Trudeau did or did not do to a young female reporter 18 years ago, francophone media have been going out of their way to ignore the story.
  Or give it as little coverage as possible.
  Meanwhile, the CBC reports on a “very brief touch on the rear end” and the New York Times refers to the incident as “sexual in nature.”
  When I Google “Justin Trudeau inconduite sexuel
  
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• Canadiens hire Luke Richardson as an assistant coach

  09-07-2018 17:33 via montrealgazette.com
  The Canadiens filled out their coaching staff for next season on Monday morning with the announcement that Luke Richardson has been hired to coach the defence.
  Richardson played 1,417 games in the NHL after being selected by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round (seventh overall) at the 1987 NHL Draft. He played for the Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Tampa Bay Lightning and the Ottawa Senators, posting 35-166-201 totals along with 2,055 penalty min
  
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• Community vows to rebuild after Kanesatake youth centre burns down

  09-07-2018 17:28 via montrealgazette.com
  Just hours after the Kanesatake youth centre burned to the ground Sunday, Grand Chief Serge Simon vowed to rebuild a bigger, better facility in its place.
  The fire started sometime after 11 p.m. Sunday. Simon said his wife roused him from bed late that evening in a panic.
  “She said ‘The youth centre is on fire, the youth centre is on fire!’ So I threw on some shorts and ran out the door,” said Simon, the grand chief of the Mohawk Council of Kanesatake.
  “I could
  
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• Carey Price's father says goalie remains loyal to the Canadiens

  09-07-2018 17:08 via montrealgazette.com
  Carey Price’s father says the Canadiens goalie has “always been a very loyal person” and doesn’t think he would be interested in playing for another NHL team.
  “He’s spent 13 years … he’s kind of approaching half his life he’s been in the Habs organization,” Jerry Price said about his son during an interview Saturday with Matthew Ross on his Weekend Game Plan show on TSN 690 Radio.
  “He loves the organization, he loves the fans,&rd
  
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• SUV driver dies after head-on collision in Lac St-Jean region

  09-07-2018 17:07 via montrealgazette.com
  A 45-year-old Alma resident died Sunday afternoon after the SUV he was driving collided with a truck on Highway 169 near Hébertville in the Lac St-Jean region.
  The impact of the crash, which occurred at around 5:15 p.m., was such that the SUV was sliced in two.First responders needed hydraulic pliers to free the SUV driver from what was left of his vehicle. He later died of the injuries sustained in the crash.
  Provincial police said it appears the SUV drifted into the lane for oncomi
  
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• Dunlevy: SLĀV, the heat wave and other standout moments at the jazz fest

  09-07-2018 15:48 via montrealgazette.com
  Was that so hard?
  In its annual closing news conference, Saturday, the Montreal International Jazz Festival did what neither SLĀV director Robert Lepage nor singer Betty Bonifassi appeared able to over the past two weeks: they apologized.
  For more than 30 minutes, jazz fest president and general director Jacques-André Dupont sat before reporters, fielded questions, and admitted that mistakes had been made in the festival’s reaction to the uproar surrounding the controversial pr
  
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• Woman's body discovered in Lac Saint-Pierre, near Trois-Rivières

  09-07-2018 14:37 via montrealgazette.com
  The body of a woman was discovered early Monday in the waters of Lac Saint-Pierre near Trois-Rivières.
  The discovery was made by two boaters, according to the Sûreté du Québec.
  Police will try to identify the body and conduct checks “to find out if anyone has been listed as missing over the past few days or weeks” said SQ spokesperson Marc Tessier.
  
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• Décarie Expressway construction sparks Monday morning traffic mayhem

  09-07-2018 14:25 via montrealgazette.com
  The first day of construction work on Highway 15 and the Décarie Expressway northbound resulted in massive bottlenecks Monday morning, with traffic backed up as far as the Champlain Bridge all the way to Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, more than five kilometres back.
  Commuters were at a crawl until after the lane closures finished at the Notre-Dame-de-Grace tunnel on the Décarie. Traffic delays of at least 15 minutes were reported south of the Décarie Expressway as early as 6 a.m
  
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• While you were sleeping: Starbucks straws, Inuktut Facebook, and the dangers of cornhole

  09-07-2018 13:33 via montrealgazette.com
  Here are a few things you might have missed while you were sleeping.
  Turtles heave a collective sigh of relief: Starbucks says it will eliminate plastic straws from its stores globally by 2020, a nod to the growing push for businesses to be more environmentally friendly. It will instead use straws made from other materials, and lids designed not to need straws. McDonald’s also recently said it would switch to paper straws in the United Kingdom and Ireland by next year, and test alternative
  
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• Bill Young: Pure Art in Hudson and around the globe

  09-07-2018 13:30 via montrealgazette.com
  Their story opens 11 years ago, when the Mckinnon family first travelled to Peru with their five children. There, as the youngsters freely pointed out, “here are children the world has forgotten,” and then, turning to their parents, asked, “What are we going to do about it?”
  “It began as a simple idea,” Pure Art co-founder Robert Mckinnon told me recently over breakfast at Hudson’s Café Gratitude. “Just the notion of helping the impover
  
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• Woman, 19, struck by car in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve

  09-07-2018 12:33 via montrealgazette.com
  A 19-year-old woman was in stable condition in hospital Monday morning after being struck by a car in Montreal’s Hochelega-Maisonneuve district hours earlier.
  The incident occurred at 11 p.m. at the corner of Hochelaga and Chambly Sts. The victim was reported to have been struck while she was crossing south across Hochelaga St.
  Police were questioning the driver and the investigation is continuing.
  
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• Traffic alert: Cartier Ave. in Pointe-Claire closed evenings

  09-07-2018 12:10 via montrealgazette.com
  Cartier Ave. in Pointe-Claire will be closed during evenings and overnights this week — from July 9 to 13 — because of infrastructure work.
  The city of Pointe-Claire said the work will be done between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. in order to limit the impact on traffic.
  Construction crews will be doing work on road pavement, sidewalks, curbs and a new bicycle path.
  The work will be done in two phases:
  From the evening of July 9 till the morning of July 10, work will be done on a section between
  
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• Probe into West Island drug trafficking ring was sparked by gangland murder

  09-07-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Three summers ago, West Island resident Darrell (Dutch) Van Elk was alleged to be the head of a very active cocaine trafficking network operating in western Montreal.
  When he and eleven other people were arrested following an investigation by the Montreal police the Dollard-des-Ormeaux resident faced drug trafficking and firearms-related charges that could have resulted in him being placed behind bars for years. But, on Nov. 27, Van Elk, 52, saw the most serious accusation he faced, a drug traff
  
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• Montreal weather: Remember when days like this were noteworthily hot?

  09-07-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  This week is getting its heat in early.
  Environment Canada is forecasting a daytime high of 31 degrees on Monday with a humidex of 36.
  The sky will get cloudier at night, when the low is forecast to be 22 degrees.
  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 @armandoibanz.
  Quote of the day:
  When I&rsquo
  
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• In case you missed it, here's what happened in Montreal on July 8

  09-07-2018 04:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Busy day? Here’s what you might have missed. 
  A 2-year-old boy who had bee missing since late Saturday was found safe and sound in Dundee, 100 Kilometres southwest of Montreal. The child, whose name is Ryland Muehleisen got away from his parents, at the family home about 8 p.m. The Sûreté du Québec launched a vast search operation, including dogs, search experts and a helicopter. RCMP officers and U.S. firefighters also joined the search around Dunde
  
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• Dunlevy: Hot spots and highlights of Montreal's 39th jazz fest

  09-07-2018 01:11 via montrealgazette.com
  Was that so hard?
  In its annual closing news conference, Saturday, the Montreal International Jazz Festival did what neither SLĀV director Robert Lepage nor singer Betty Bonifassi appeared able to over the past two weeks: they apologized.
  For more than 30 minutes, jazz fest president and general director Jacques-André Dupont sat before reporters, fielded questions, and admitted that mistakes had been made in the festival’s reaction to the uproar surrounding the controversial pr
  
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• Watch: How to help pets stay cool and safe during intense heat

  09-07-2018 00:50 via montrealgazette.com
  Paige Theng doused her dog Duke in cold water multiple times on each walk they took during last week’s heat wave in Montreal. She bought an air conditioner for her N.D.G. home — something she wouldn’t have done had it not been for Duke. But the dog still got diarrhea and struggled through the record-breaking temperatures.
  Furry animals like dogs and cats have a limited capacity to sweat, according to Dr. Carole-Anne Laurin, a veterinarian at SPCA Montreal. That leaves them more
  
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