Aylmer, Quebec news

• Poll: Does excluding cars from an access road to W.I. REM station make sense?

  12-07-2018 23:41 via montrealgazette.com
  Some Montrealers living in the West Island have been fuming ever since they learned that Mayor Valérie Plante’s administration plans to exclude cars from using the access road connecting Pierrefonds and Kirkland to the new light rail system (REM).
  Many West Island residents use their vehicles, with public transit in their particular area not being great.
  Forcing residents to use transit to get to the REM station would probably increase their commute time substantially
  
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• Beloeil man's parole eligibility set at 12 years in girlfriend's death

  12-07-2018 23:10 via montrealgazette.com
  A man who killed his pregnant girlfriend in 2015 was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 12 years on Thursday at the Ste-Hyacinthe courthouse.
  Alexandre Gendron was convicted of second-degree murder for strangling his girlfriend, Cheryl Bau-Tremblay, in early August 2015. She was four months pregnant at the time.
  Court documents revealed that Gendron was a recovering alcoholic who relapsed in July 2015. He was apparently drinking beer constantly.
  During his trial, the j
  
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• Revenue Quebec wants Montreal World Film Festival to pay up or shut down

  12-07-2018 22:28 via montrealgazette.com
  The Montreal World Film Festival is in deep trouble with Quebec’s tax man.
  An injunction filed by Revenue Quebec on June 27 asked the Quebec Superior Court to shut down the festival due to unpaid taxes.
  Court documents revealed that as of May 23, 2018, the festival owes $499,000 in unpaid taxes to Revenue Quebec.
  The injunction may prevent the festival from staging its 42nd edition, currently scheduled to take place from Aug. 23 to Sept. 3, 2018.
  The festival’s debt has been pil
  
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• Laval rolls out electric bike-sharing program

  12-07-2018 22:26 via montrealgazette.com
  Montreal can keep its Bixis.
  Laval has a brand-new bike-sharing program, and those bikes have electric pedal assist.
  The city unveiled a pilot project on Thursday to provide 40 electric bicycles, stationed at the Montmorency, Cartier and De La Concorde métro stations, as well as the Carrefour Laval bus terminal.
  “This is a great way for our loyal users to enjoy the summer weather, be active and enjoy a bike ride,” said David De Cotis, the president of the Sociét&ea
  
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• Watch: This Montreal family is sailing alone to the Caribbean

  12-07-2018 22:16 via montrealgazette.com
  Moving your young family out of its home, buying a sailboat and embarking on a year-long solo excursion to the Caribbean is the kind of thing lots of people talk about but few actually do.
  Carole Plouffe and her husband, Benoit Plamondon, are the rare members of that latter category.
  They’re currently living on a 35-foot-long sailboat in Montreal’s La Ronde marina with their two youngest kids, 12-year-old Ludvik and eight-year-old Kilian, before setting off on their big adventur
  
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• Cerebral Alouette Henoc Muamba sees parallels between football and life

  12-07-2018 22:05 via montrealgazette.com
  TORONTO — Henoc Muamba has emerged as one of the CFL’s top defensive players, but he didn’t always enjoy the physical nature of football.
  In fact early on, the Montreal Alouettes’ star linebacker went to great lengths to avoid contact. Muamba’s first love was basketball and when he took up football in Grade 10 in Mississauga, Ont., as a running back he actively steered clear of getting hit to save himself for the hardwood.
  “I hated the contact ironically enoug
  
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• Restaurant reviews: Add Ssense and Colette cafés to your shopping list

  12-07-2018 22:00 via montrealgazette.com
  From the magnificent Harrods Food Hall in London to the impossibly chic Freds at Barneys in New York, department store dining has always been a treat. Montrealers have long enjoyed such noshing. Eaton’s Ninth Floor Restaurant, that still-shuttered art deco palace, is the epitome of the genre, and the classic Woolworth’s lunch counter a distant but fun memory for those of us who watched Laverne & Shirley and bought ice cream at Perrette (ask your parents). Despite the obvious demi
  
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• Montreal real estate: Griffintown condo tower to get a 21-storey mural

  12-07-2018 22:00 via montrealgazette.com
  A new condo project under construction in Griffintown won’t be just be another boring tower. It will be a large-scale work of art, with the building itself as the canvas.
  Val-David artist René Derouin has been commissioned to transform the façade of the MaryRobert into a 62-metre-high mural imprinted on the glass of the condominiums’ balconies, creating what will be Quebec’s largest public art project in a real-estate development project.
  “I am very lucky to
  
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• Montreal company partners with Mercedes-Benz for high-end road bike

  12-07-2018 21:36 via montrealgazette.com
  “Oh lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz bike.”
  OK, that’s not quite how the song goes, but there may soon be cause for a locally updated cover version of the Janis Joplin classic — hello, Arcade Fire?
  Montreal cycling company Argon 18 is partnering with Mercedes-Benz to offer a high-end road bike that will be in stores this fall.
  “It’s a big step for us,” said Argon 18 president and co-founder Gervais Rioux, a former Olympic cyclist and three-ti
  
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• New English language TV newscast to launch in Montreal this fall

  12-07-2018 19:41 via montrealgazette.com
  A new nightly news program in English is coming to Montreal this September.
  Rogers Media announced it will launch CityNews Montreal, one of six local programs in cities across the country, on Sept. 3.
  CityNews Montreal will feature two one-hour-long TV broadcasts every night of the week: CityNews at Six and CityNews Tonight at 11.
  CityNews Montreal announced that four journalists had joined their team: Akil Alleyne, Andrew Brennan, Emily Campbell and Giordano Cescutti will work as vide
  
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• Wedding bells in Quebec: Cultural imperatives trump common-law norm

  12-07-2018 19:37 via montrealgazette.com
  When Eluza Maria Gomes came from Brazil to Quebec she adapted quickly to her new society. She learned to speak fluent French, studied to become a special-education teacher, and, because she was dating a French-Canadian dairy farmer, the former literature professor found herself helping to care for 60 cows that reside on a farm 90 minutes outside of Montreal.
  But there was one cultural norm distinct to Quebec she was not prepared to adopt: common-law union.
  “In Brazil, we get married,&rdquo
  
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• Brownstein: Neuroses rule at Just for Laugh's Ethnic Show

  12-07-2018 19:32 via montrealgazette.com
  Neurotics pretty much always rock in comedy, regardless of the context of the show. Such was the case once again as the 36th Just for Laughs fest kicked off with its ever-popular Ethnic Show series Wednesday night at Club Soda.
  Show closer Orny Adams, whose Jewish roots are incidental to his act, was worth the price of admission alone as the veteran New York City standup unravelled hysterically, to the delight of the crowd.
  Adams claimed that every bad decision he had made in his life was the re
  
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• Baby cheetahs: Four new furry faces at Parc Safari

  12-07-2018 19:03 via montrealgazette.com
  Quebec’s cheetah population continues to grow following the birth of four cheetah cubs at Parc Safari in Hemmingford on May 3.
  The new additions, females Imani and Ilanga and males Bemba and Malik, joined the 13 felines already housed in the park’s Cheetah Research and Reproduction Centre, and will be on public display for the first time on Saturday, July 21. They were named in honour of the animal’s African heritage.
  The Quebec zoo took in eight animals from South Africa in 20
  
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• Montreal VR studio teams up with NASA, Russia to send you into space

  12-07-2018 19:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Felix & Paul Studios, the happening Montreal-based virtual-reality producer, premieres the second episode of Space Explorers on Thursday.
  “Space Explorers is probably (Felix & Paul’s) most ambitious endeavour in terms of the complexity of the production and the scope of the production,” said Félix Lajeunesse, the studio’s co-founder and creative director as well as one of the directors of Space Explorers. The show is also directed by the studio’s othe
  
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• Fariha Naqvi-Mohamed: Mayor out to lunch with REM plan for West Island

  12-07-2018 18:58 via montrealgazette.com
  West Islanders are reeling after learning the administration of Mayor Valérie Plante plans to exclude cars from the access road connecting Pierrefonds and Kirkland to the new light rail system (REM).
  The decision is entirely out of touch with the reality of living on the West Island, where transit is good but not great — and where residents rely heavily on their vehicles.
  As someone born and raised in the West Island, I have longed for a quicker way to get downtown. There are some g
  
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• Tiny balloon catheter stops bleeding, can help save lives of trauma patients

  12-07-2018 18:42 via montrealgazette.com
  TORONTO — By the time Gaven Mayo got to a Montreal hospital after a bullet from a high-powered rifle ripped through his thigh, he had lost a massive amount of blood and by his own account was hovering between life and death.
  But the 27-year-old from the Kahnawake First Nation attributes the fact that he didn’t die to a simple device that can immediately arrest severe bleeding, giving surgeons time to repair the damage from traumatic injuries and saving lives that otherwise might have
  
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• Half of pediatricians say their young patients have used cannabis: survey

  12-07-2018 18:35 via montrealgazette.com
  TORONTO — About half of pediatric doctors surveyed about cannabis say they’ve encountered a young patient who had used marijuana for a medical reason.
  The questionnaire for the Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program found 419 of 835 respondents had a patient who had used either authorized or unauthorized cannabis for some sort of medical relief.
  The one-time study did not detail how many cases involved unauthorized use, the nature of the condition being treated nor the ages of the
  
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• 18 crazy films at 22nd Fantasia festival, from Nicolas Cage to kung fu

  12-07-2018 18:10 via montrealgazette.com
  Be afraid. Be very afraid. But also be enthralled, absorbed and thoroughly entertained by the 22nd Fantasia International Film Festival, which brings 125 features and 220 shorts to the screens of Concordia University, from Thursday, July 12 to Thursday, Aug. 2.
  To help you wade through the barrage of horror films, thrillers, action flicks, skewed comedies and off-the-wall Asian fare, the Montreal Gazette asked Fantasia programmers to reveal their top picks from this year’s crop.
  For t
  
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• Canadiens extend training-camp invitation to defenceman Simon Després

  12-07-2018 18:00 via montrealgazette.com
  The Montreal Canadiens announced Thursday that they have invited defenceman Simon Després to take part in their training camp on a professional tryout.
  The 26-year-old native of Laval spent the 2017-18 season in the Kontinental Hockey League with Bratislava Slovan, where he had four goals, seven assists, a minus-13 rating and 84 penalty minutes in 44 games.
  A native of Laval, Després was Pittsburgh’s first-round pick (No. 30 overall) in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.
  In 193 career
  
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• Checking In: Two Maine resorts offer the best of two worlds

  12-07-2018 17:59 via montrealgazette.com
  It’s summer in Goose Rocks Beach, Maine, and a sojourn is proposed in glorious, pastoral lodging. Designer decor, family ambience, a chance to reconnect with nature — I’m in.
  But here’s the hard part. Two outstanding establishments, two kilometres apart, fit the description. Their roots are the same, but they’re totally different.
  Hidden Pond is a luxurious resort village of private cottages with gourmet dining at Earth, restorative treatments at the Tree Spa and tw
  
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• Ian McGillis: Geneviève Castrée's A Bubble is a mother's lasting gift

  12-07-2018 17:31 via montrealgazette.com
  In 2015, Quebec-born writer, comics artist and musician Geneviève Castrée went to see a doctor. It was thought to be a standard postpartum checkup, not long after she had given birth to her first child. Instead, Castrée got something completely unexpected: a diagnosis of fourth-stage inoperable pancreatic cancer.She and husband Phil Elverum initiated crowdfunding to help with her care, but within a year the cancer claimed her. In the months leading up to her death, faced wit
  
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• Construction magnate Antonio Accurso will be freed pending collusion appeals

  12-07-2018 17:26 via montrealgazette.com
  Jailed construction magnate Antonio Accurso has been granted his release while appealing his recent conviction and four-year prison sentence.
  Quebec Court of Appeal Judge Manon Savard rendered her nine-page decision Thursday after hearing arguments from the Crown and defence this week.
  Accurso, detained since last week, will need to respect several conditions while released, including not leaving the province of Quebec.
  Last month, a jury found Accurso, 66, actively participated in a system
  
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• Bedbugs in your books: Many public places in Montreal are infested, expert says

  12-07-2018 17:13 via montrealgazette.com
  A bedbug infestation at Montreal’s Grande Bibliothèque points to a larger, city-wide problem, an exterminator says after the library had to close four sections and temporarily replace 300 fabric chairs with plastic ones. 
  Danielle Chagnon, the general director of the Bibliothèque et Archives nationale du Québec (BAnQ), said the problem began at the end of June. The library brought in an exterminator on June 22, at which point Chagnon said they realized the in
  
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• Michelin picks up Magog farm-tire-maker Camso for $1.45 billion

  12-07-2018 17:05 via montrealgazette.com
  Michelin agreed to buy Camso, a Canadian producer of rubber tracks for farm equipment and snowmobiles, for $1.45 billion as the French tiremaker bolsters its specialty-equipment business.
  The two companies’ off-road operations will be combined and run from Camso’s headquarters in Magog, Michelin said in a statement Thursday. Closely held Camso, which also makes tires for material-handling equipment, has sales of $1 billion.
  “This acquisition is a wonderful mutual opportunity,&r
  
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• Five things to do in Montreal: July 13-15, explosive artistry abounds

  12-07-2018 16:10 via montrealgazette.com
  Long weekend season may be over, but it’s still a busy time of year in Montreal.
  Here are five ideas to make the most of your weekend.
  Montréal Complètement Cirque
  The city’s annual celebration of the circus arts comes to an end this weekend, and it’s going out in style. Stop by Jardins Gamelin at either 7:15 or 10:15 p.m. every day for a free performance of the original show Phénix. When that’s over, walk around the neighbourhood and take in a variet
  
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• Montreal house prices reached new high in June: Teranet-National Bank

  12-07-2018 15:45 via montrealgazette.com
  The resale price of residential properties in the Montreal region reached a new high in June, according to an index that tracks housing prices.
  The Teranet-National Bank house price index for Montreal rose 0.7 per cent from May to June.
  It was up 3.59 per cent from June 2017, reaching 169.24.
  The index uses June 2005 as a base, suggesting that house prices in the Montreal region have risen 69.24 per cent since then.
  It is calculated by comparing the selling prices of hou
  
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• Quebec police arrest 3, seize $20,000 worth of heroin in drug crackdown

  12-07-2018 14:50 via montrealgazette.com
  Two men and a woman are in custody and could face drug charges after being arrested Wednesday night in a raid aimed at curbing the drug trade in Quebec City.
  The investigation, conducted in concert with Montreal police, found that the suspects were allegedly supplying heroin to other regions of the province.
  The three people arrested, two 36-year-old men and a 38-year-old woman, were taken into custody after a SWAT team conducted the raid in Quebec City’s Val-Bélair sector. A search
  
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• While you were sleeping: Stormy Daniels arrested at strip club and Quebec man stuck in Cuba

  12-07-2018 14:08 via montrealgazette.com
  Stormy Daniels arrested at Ohio strip club
  While Daniels was performing Wednesday night at Sirens, a strip club in Columbus, some patrons touched her in a “non-sexual” way, her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, told The Associated Press.
  An Ohio law known as the Community Defence Act prohibits anyone who isn’t a family member to touch a nude or semi-nude dancer.
  Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, was in police custody early Thursday morning and was expected to face a misde
  
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• Opinion: How to cure wait times in Quebec emergency rooms

  12-07-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  “Quebec brings order to emergency rooms; no patient will stay more than 48 hours.”
  This headline from La Presse could have been written last year, as suggested by the spring 2017 ultimatum from Health Minister Gaétan Barrette. It actually appeared on March 11, 1980. So where do things stand today?
  Earlier this year, many rejoiced over the news that waiting times had declined. For the 2017-18 fiscal year, the average stay in Quebec emergency rooms overall was 7.3 hours, compare
  
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• Montreal weather: Are we in California?

  12-07-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Sunny and warm again, no complaining please.
  Environment Canada predicts a high of 27 Celsius, a Humidex of 29 and a UV index of 8 or very high.
  Tonight: Clear and expect an overnight low of 18 C.
  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 @camcam088x.
  Quote of the day:
  The opinion which oth
  
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• Art therapy at the MUHC: Drawing a safe space around cancer patients

  12-07-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Theirs is a community founded in cancer and art. In coming together in weekly art therapy groups, patients who were treated at the Cedars Cancer Centre of the McGill University Health Centre are seeking meaning in what happened to them and starting to heal.
  “We find that patients require therapy and a sense of community long after their cancer diagnosis and treatments as they strive to re-integrate into their life, having been deeply changed by cancer,” said art therapist Katelyn Bri
  
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• Impact's four-game win streak comes to an end at Yankee Stadium

  12-07-2018 05:07 via montrealgazette.com
  There is no team in Major League Soccer that has a bigger home-field advantage than New York City FC.
  Actually, no team has a smaller home-field advantage — but it’s a big thing.
  So, it’s not a surprise that NYCFC beat the Impact 3-0 Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium on goals by Jesus Medina in the 60th minute, Ronald Matarrita in the 65th and Jonathan Lewis in the 76th to remain unbeaten at home (9-0-1) and improve their overall record this season to 11-4-4. The Impact saw the
  
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• Head-on collision leaves one dead in the Laurentians

  12-07-2018 04:59 via montrealgazette.com
  RIVIÈRE-ROUGE — A head-on collision between two vehicles resulted in a death Wednesday just before 5 p.m. on Route 117 in Rivière-Rouge, in the Laurentians.
  According to the Sûreté du Québec, the driver of a truck hit an SUV that was driving in his lane, coming in the opposite direction.
  First responders had to pull the driver out of the SUV with the aid of the Jaws of Life.
  The driver was unconscious, and the SQ confirmed his death later in the evening.
  T
  
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• Longueuil police arrest seven more in anti-drug "Saccage" operation

  12-07-2018 04:10 via montrealgazette.com
  Longueuil police arrested seven people, aged 31 to 41, early Wednesday as part of an anti-drug campaign that began last May.
  A total of 30 officers participated in Wednesday’s operation. The arrests are a continuation of the “Saccage” operation that saw $259,000 worth of cannabis, cocaine, methamphetamines, cash and drug-processing equipment seized in raids across the city last May.
  According to police, the seven men arrested were known to authorities, but not for infractions r
  
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• City stands pat as merchants, opposition decry Jean-Talon project

  12-07-2018 04:01 via montrealgazette.com
  The municipal opposition slammed Mayor Valérie Plante’s administration Wednesday for turning a parking lot at Jean-Talon Market into a public square without adequate consultation.
  During a news conference in the market, Ensemble Montréal Leader Lionel Perez accused the administration of dogmatism, and warned the project could kill the open-air farmers’ market.
  The project will eliminate 10 parking spots and make the west side of the market less accessible to people with
  
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• Haitians in Montreal seek halt to deportations as violence rocks nation

  12-07-2018 02:27 via montrealgazette.com
  A coalition of local Haitian organizations is calling on the Canadian government to put a temporary halt to the deportation of hundreds of Haitians because of the rioting that has shaken their country during the last week.
  “We do not think that given the violent protests there, that families should be forced to return at this time,” said Marjorie Villefranche, director of the Maison d’Haiti. “There are many asylum seekers whose requests have been refused who are due to be
  
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• Université de Montréal study looks at concrete ideas about urban design

  12-07-2018 02:16 via montrealgazette.com
  Urban settings — from parks and bicycle lanes to green alleyways and pedestrian walkways — can have a huge impact on residents’ social and physical activities, well-being and health.
  But which urban design elements are best? How much depends on density, accessibility by public transport to services, green and public spaces? Are there differences from one neighbourhood to another?
  These are some of the questions that the Université de Montréal is seeking to an
  
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• Crime is down in Laval, but deadly motor vehicle collisions are up

  12-07-2018 02:06 via montrealgazette.com
  Laval’s crime rate dipped to the lowest it has been in five years in 2017, according to police department statistics released Wednesday, but that city’s ever-burgeoning car culture translated into a significant increase in deadly road accidents.
  “The year 2017 was remarkable for its low crime rate, attaining the lowest level in five years, and a reduction of 16 per cent since 2013,” said Laval Police chief Pierre Brochet.
  Over the past five years, crimes against people ha
  
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• Mascouche man's conviction overturned in Cuba, but he can't leave: wife

  12-07-2018 01:52 via montrealgazette.com
  A Quebec man who was sentenced to four years in a Cuban jail following a boating accident that killed a fellow tourist isn’t being allowed to return to Canada even though his conviction has been overturned, his wife said Wednesday.
  Kahina Bensaadi says her husband, Toufik Benhamiche, is no longer charged with any crime, but has not been allowed to leave the country because the case is still under investigation.
  “He’s no longer convicted, he’s no longer charged, he’s
  
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• Anjou mayor fears Plante administration may scuttle $2.3B project

  12-07-2018 01:04 via montrealgazette.com
  The mayor of Anjou says the Valérie Plante administration’s focus on expanding green space is standing in the way of a US$2.3-billion project that could create 1,000 jobs in his east-end borough.
  “It’s 1,000 direct jobs,” Luis Miranda said Wednesday.
  “Are we willing to say ‘No, we don’t want that?’ ”
  Miranda made the comments after a U.K.-based high-tech company called Solargise announced it is interested in building a manufacturing pl
  
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• Montreal a favourite location for international conferences in 2017

  12-07-2018 00:37 via montrealgazette.com
  Montreal hosted more international conferences than any other city in the Americas in 2017, according to Tourisme Montréal and the Palais des congrès de Montréal, citing data from the Union of International Associations.
  The city played host to 149 international conferences in 2017 — 61 per cent of all international conferences held in Canada during the year.
  That’s more than twice as many international conferences held in Washington D.C., which ra
  
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