Aylmer, Quebec news

• Former Montreal police spokesperson Ian Lafrenière to run for CAQ: party source

  07-08-2018 23:23 via montrealgazette.com
  MONTREAL — The surging Coalition Avenir Quebec has nabbed a highly visible member of the Montreal police force to run for the party in the upcoming provincial election campaign.
  Ian Lafrenière, who has spent nearly two decades as one of the department’s most prominent faces, will make the announcement official in the coming days, a party source told The Canadian Press on Tuesday.
  Lafrenière is an inspector who ran the communications department and is currently on leave
  
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• Céline Dion generously posed with a fan in Australia

  07-08-2018 23:10 via montrealgazette.com
  Céline Dion took some time off in Australia over the weekend to take in a show and pose with a lucky fan.
  The Quebec icon is currently in the midst of a summer tour of the Asia-Pacific region.
  Whether with couples getting engaged or drunken concertgoers, Dion has acquired a reputation as the kind of star who will take the time to pose with fans.
  So it comes as no surprise that Dion once again agreed to take a picture with a fan lucky enough to be in her presence.
  We should all be this luc
  
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• Cop charged with fraud suing the SQ and the DPCP

  07-08-2018 22:57 via montrealgazette.com
  A Sûreté du Québec officer accused of fraud is suing the officers who investigated him and the prosecutors who charged him.
  Nicolas Landry was charged with fraud in August 2015. Prosecutors alleged that he lied about his health to remain on sick leave while working another job.
  He is suing the SQ and the Quebec office of criminal prosecutions (DPCP) for over $2 million.
  In two lawsuits deposited at the Montreal courthouse on Friday, one against the prosecutors working his cas
  
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• Montrealers Lawrence Stroll, André Desmarais part of group acquiring Force India F1 team

  07-08-2018 22:56 via montrealgazette.com
  The future of the Force India F1 racing team has been secured after the announcement that a consortium of investors led by Montreal businessman Lawrence Stroll has reached a deal to take over the team. Stroll is the father of F1 driver Lance Stroll, who is part of the competing Williams team.
  The deal allows Force India to exit creditor protection, pay its creditors and secure its 405 employees, and to gain access to funds that will re-establish the company’s solvency.
  As a result, the tea
  
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• Allison Hanes: Saudi regime shows its true colours in diplomatic row

  07-08-2018 22:56 via montrealgazette.com
  For the second time in as many months, Canada finds itself the target of bullying on the world stage.
  This week, Saudi Arabia took umbrage at a seemingly innocuous tweet by Global Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, denouncing the detention of women’s rights activists Samar Badawi and Nassima al-Sada. Echoed by the Twitter account of the Global Affairs Canada department, it was the kind of fare that is usually simply ignored by authoritarian regimes that routinely run roughshod over the ri
  
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• Montreal police shoot man in Villeray–St-Michel–Parc-Extension

  07-08-2018 22:52 via montrealgazette.com
  Montreal police shot a man in the Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension borough on Tuesday.
  Police received a 911 call around 1:45 p.m. about a conflict between two people who had guns, according to the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI).
  Two police officers went to the scene and spoke with a witness who said that an armed man was in an alley, the BEI said. Police then fired at him, according to the BEI.
  The man is in hospital but authorities do not fear for his
  
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• Environmental protection fund for municipalities gets provincial funding

  07-08-2018 22:34 via montrealgazette.com
  The provincial government says it will spend $2.6 million, over the next five years, to support a program intended to encourage municipalities to protect the natural environment.
  Launched in 2017 by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and the Fondation de la faune du Québec, the Fonds des municipalités pour la biodiversité sees participating municipalities pledge to put $1 per household per year into a dedicated fund that will be used for environmental protection
  
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• Vacances Sinorama loses travel agency permit

  07-08-2018 20:49 via montrealgazette.com
  Vacances Sinorama inc. no longer has a travel agency permit in Quebec, the Office de la protection du consommateur announced on Tuesday.
  The decision to not renew the permit takes effect immediately.
  The company, which offers inexpensive trips to China, was advised by the OPC on July 24 that its permit would not be renewed when it was set to expire on July 31, because it found that the company was not in a position to comply with provisions of the Travel Agents Act related to its management
  
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• Opinion: Reducing the size of Montreal city council would be a mistake

  07-08-2018 20:34 via montrealgazette.com
  Doug Ford’s decision to reduce the size of the elected municipal council of Canada’s largest city raises the question: Would a Quebec premier dare do the same to Montreal?
  Such a proposal might not go over too well. Montrealers have fought hard for their representative democracy and have a permanent reminder of what life was like when things were very different: The Big O remains a monument to the overspending and corruption that can occur when executive power goes unchecked. Wh
  
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• West Island Mission gears up for Back-to-School backpack distribution

  07-08-2018 20:12 via montrealgazette.com
  The West Island Mission is gearing up for its annual back-to-school distribution event, Aug. 11. Volunteers will distribute backpacks filled with school supplies to children ranging in age from 5 to 17 years old.
  The need for donations is ongoing. People are invited to donate to the outreach organization’s Sponsor a Backpack program in increments of $20 – $20 for one backpack, $40 for two, $60 for three and so on.
  Operations manager Wendy Gariepy said the need has increased this year
  
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• Quebec songwriter Jim Corcoran leaves CBC Radio's À Propos

  07-08-2018 20:03 via montrealgazette.com
  Famed Quebec singer-songwriter Jim Corcoran is leaving his long-running CBC Radio show À Propos in September.
  After 30 years, A Propos host Jim Corcoran is bidding farewell to his long-running show. Read his goodbye letter: https://t.co/0RNQFR6x46 pic.twitter.com/sXTI0gOfVQ
  — CBC Music (@CBCMusic) August 7, 2018À Propos, which has been on the air across Canada for 30 years, features music from francophone artists, largely highlighting the Quebec music scene.
  “Now, after
  
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• Was that a tornado? Environment Canada investigating Monday's storm

  07-08-2018 18:15 via montrealgazette.com
  After issuing a tornado warning Monday evening for western Quebec, Environment Canada will investigate whether or not a twister actually touched down in the province.
  The severe thunderstorms that swept through the province, leaving thousands without electricity, had all the ingredients for the formation of a twister according to Steve Boily, a meteorologist with Environment Canada.
  He said rotational clouds observed on the agency’s weather radar prompted the agency to issue a tornado warn
  
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• Six O'Clock Solution: Cheesy Broccoli Gratin

  07-08-2018 17:59 via montrealgazette.com
  If you spread food out in a single layer and bake it, you’ll get toasty food with the ingredients evenly distributed. U.S. cookbook author Raquel Pelzel has made a specialty of this kind of cooking. Pelzel has blue chip credentials. She was an editor at Cook’s Illustrated and has written more than 20 cookbooks.  Her new cookbook, Sheet Pan Suppers Meatless (Workman/Thomas Allen, $25.95), should help the cook who needs to create dinner in a big hurry. Its 100 recipes show the ver
  
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• July a boom month for Montreal-area residential real estate sales

  07-08-2018 17:48 via montrealgazette.com
  Residential real estate sales in the Montreal area rose in July by one per cent compared with the same period in 2017, reaching the highest level recorded in eight years for a month of July, the Greater Montreal Real Estate Board (GMREB) announced on Tuesday.
  The board says that 3,201 transactions were completed in July, giving the local real estate market its 41st consecutive month of growth.
  “After a strong start to the year, sales continue to increase in the Montreal area but at a
  
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• Quebec City police probe fatal electrocution by razor

  07-08-2018 17:01 via montrealgazette.com
  A Quebec City man is dead after apparently electrocuting himself with his own razor early Tuesday.
  The local police received a call at about 12:15 a.m. concerning a man found unconscious in an apartment building on Marie-de-l’Incarnation St.
  Once at the scene, police found a 25-year-old man suffering burns to his torso. A police spokesperson said attempts to resuscitate the man were made on site and paramedics then transported him to hospital where he was declared dead.
  An investigation is
  
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• Former Montreal police spokesperson to run for CAQ, reports say

  07-08-2018 16:11 via montrealgazette.com
  Ian Lafrenière, a longtime spokesperson for the Montreal police department, will run as a candidate for the Coalition Avenir Québec in the South Shore riding of Vachon, according to several news reports posted on Tuesday.
  Rumours that Lafrenière, who reportedly left the force last Friday, would enter politics with the CAQ had been swirling for the past few weeks. But when asked last month to comment on his future, Lafrenière said his priority was to deal with his resp
  
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• ‘Get moving’ on wet shelters for Montreal’s homeless, advocates demand

  07-08-2018 15:46 via montrealgazette.com
  Robert Vaughn says it’s a miracle he survived on the streets of Montreal for so many years.
  By the time he landed in rehab, in 2015, his drinking had nearly killed him a handful of times. It wasn’t unusual for Vaughn’s friends to see him carted off in an ambulance without any guarantee he’d ever return.
  At Vaughn’s lowest point, he woke up in a hospital bed where a doctor informed him his heart had stopped beating the night before.
  “It’s hard to explain
  
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• Péladeau rethinks guilty plea because of implication for Québecor

  07-08-2018 15:31 via montrealgazette.com
  Quebec media mogul Pierre Karl Péladeau says he will appeal his guilty plea to an infraction of Quebec’s electoral law now that he realizes the “extent of the possible consequences (the plea) has for Québecor, for its shareholders and for its employees.”
  The former head of the Parti Québécois pleaded guilty last month to violating Quebec’s electoral law after he personally paid off the debts accumulated during his campaign for the party leaders
  
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• Dorval Celebrates festivities to include outdoor concert

  07-08-2018 15:31 via montrealgazette.com
  Dorval Celebrates will be held this Saturday on the grounds near the Dorval Library and the Peter B. Yeomans Cultural Centre, located at 1401 Lakeshore Drive.
  The event is free and runs from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m
  “Dorval Celebrates is all about fun and games for kids, a wide array of family activities, topped off with arts and novelties for the grown-ups,“ the city said in a statement.
  A concert by The Day Dreamers will be presented in the Library garden square starting at 8 p.m.
  (The ci
  
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• 'Disappointment reigns' as Île Perrot aquatic centre funding falls through

  07-08-2018 14:45 via montrealgazette.com
  As far back as summer of 2015 I asked if future projects of the Régie des équipements en loisirs de L’Île-Perrot (RELIP) would sink or swim.
  Now, as citizens swelter under this summer’s extraordinary heat and humidity, the local community will be disappointed that an important project for a planned aquatic centre will not happen. The pool project, whereby members of RELIP would have shared initial and ongoing costs with support the government will not go forward,
  
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• Research on Chinese wartime labour draws accolades for Beaconsfield student

  07-08-2018 14:25 via montrealgazette.com
  Standford Li is a 16-year-old with a love of history. His curiosity about events that have helped shape the world resulted in the Beaconsfield student winning the Beaverbrook Vimy Prize.
  Li is one of 16 students from Canada, the United Kingdom and France — selected from hundreds of applicants ranging in age from 15 to 17 — who won the prize and will head to Europe Thursday for a two-week all-expenses-paid trip that will take them to First and Second World War sites and memorials in E
  
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• While you were sleeping: Avatar therapy, Amish Uber and 'WORLD PEACE'

  07-08-2018 14:20 via montrealgazette.com
  Fighting hallucinations with hallucinations 
  The Canadian Institutes of Health Research has awarded Montreal psychiatrist Alexandre Dumais $650,000 to run a six-year study on the benefits of treating schizophrenia with virtual reality compared to the more typical cognitive behavioural therapy. This follows the completion of a pilot study using virtual reality led Dumais that “produced significant improvements” in patients in whom every other treatment had failed, and w
  
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• Naqvi-Mohamed: Local South Asian community to be feted at Dorval gala

  07-08-2018 14:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Stars from the international stage will descend on the West Island this Friday for the Canada Pakistan Affiliated Chamber of Trade (CPACT) awards ceremony honouring local South Asian talent.
  The idea for the awards gala came about as a response to the lack of Canadian South Asian groups promoting local businesses and professionals excelling in their respective fields of interest. They approached members of Montreal’s South Asian community to nominate their own and created an event with the
  
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• Don’t demo the Pioneer, restore its magnificence: Quebec heritage group

  07-08-2018 13:53 via montrealgazette.com
  One of Quebec’s leading historical associations has added its voice to a local grassroots effort to halt the city of Pointe-Claire’s demolition request of the Pioneer bar, a 117-year-old building formerly known as the Pointe-Claire Hotel.
  In an open letter sent to the city’s Demolition Committee on Friday, Clément Locat, president of the heritage committee for the Fédération Histoire Québec (FHQ), also sharply stated the proposed condo project does n
  
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• People with schizophrenia learn to fight their demons with virtual reality

  07-08-2018 13:33 via montrealgazette.com
  They popped up out of nowhere, telling Richard Breton how he was nothing, nothing but a bad father, a nasty husband, and had no friends because he was disgusting.
  For 30 years the debilitating voices and hallucinations came 15 times a day. His head reverberated with voices shouting the worst scenarios: “The car driving down the road is going to swerve on the sidewalk and smash into you. A bomb will explode, or someone armed with a gun is going to shoot everyone,” he recalle
  
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• The morning after: Thousands are still without power across Quebec

  07-08-2018 13:20 via montrealgazette.com
  A string of storms Monday night left thousands of Hydro-Québec customers in the Montérégie and Outaouais regions without power.
  And at daybreak Tuesday, while the situation had improved, almost 4,700 clients in the Montérégie and 1,100 in the Outaouais remained without electricity, while the total number of blacked out clients in Quebec was close to 9,000.
  Winds gusting to 82 km/h were reported Monday night in the Montreal area. In Rigaud and several other Mont
  
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• Pincourt's annual Firemen's Day features fireworks, free music

  07-08-2018 13:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Pincourt Day and the annual Firemen’s Day celebrations are set for Aug. 10-12 weekend at Bellevue Park.
  The site will open at 5:30 p.m. Friday, and festival-goers will have access to a canteen.
  At 7 p.m., Génération 5, a musical group from Ecole Chêne-Bleu, will perform for the crowd, accompanied by professional rock group Rock Zone.
  Pincourt’s traditional Firemen’s Day, now in its 38th year will take place Saturday. A parade of emergency vehicles will start
  
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• Dorval Celebrates to include evening concert behind library

  07-08-2018 13:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Dorval Celebrates will be held this Saturday on the grounds near the Dorval Library and the Peter B. Yeomans Cultural Centre, located at 1401 Lakeshore Drive.
  The event is free and runs from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m
  “Dorval Celebrates is all about fun and games for kids, a wide array of family activities, topped off with arts and novelties for the grown-ups,“ the city said in a statement.
  A concert by The Day Dreamers will be presented in the Library garden square starting at 8 p.m.
  (The ci
  
  Read more

• Quebec heritage association asks Pointe-Claire to halt Pioneer demo

  07-08-2018 12:30 via montrealgazette.com
  One of Quebec’s leading historical associations has added its voice to a local grassroots effort to halt the city of Pointe-Claire’s demolition request of the Pioneer bar, a 117-year-old building formerly known as the Pointe-Claire Hotel
  In an open letter sent to the city’s Demolition Committee on Friday, Clément Locat, president of the heritage committee for the Fédération Histoire Québec (FHQ), also sharply stated the proposed condo project does no
  
  Read more

• Duncan: Government funding for proposed aquatic centre denied

  07-08-2018 12:30 via montrealgazette.com
  As far back as summer of 2015 I asked if future projects of the Régie des équipements en loisirs de L’Île-Perrot (RELIP) would sink or swim.
  Now, as citizens swelter under this summer’s extraordinary heat and humidity, local residents and the community will be disappointed that an important project for a planned aquatic centre will not happen. The pool project, whereby members of RELIP would have shared initial and ongoing costs with support by government funding
  
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• Screens eating your kids? Montrealer's KoloKidz is a new box of tricks

  07-08-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Louis McKenzie found himself facing a situation familiar to many parents, last year, when his daughter Zoe, then almost 4, became increasingly interested in his iPhone.
  “She was at the age where we started being more lenient toward the use of our phones,” he said, from his home in Dollard-des-Ormeaux. “Within a couple of weeks, we noticed our daughter was 100 per cent addicted to the phone. It was a wake-up call.”
  It was also the beginning of a business idea for McKenzie
  
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• Montreal weather: Cloudy with chance of showers

  07-08-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Mainly cloudy and expect a 40 per cent chance of showers.
  Winds blowing southwest at 20 km/h, gusting to 40 km/h and becoming light in the afternoon.
  Environment Canada predicts a high of 27 Celsius, a Humidex of 35 and a UV index of 7 or high.
  Tonight: Clear and expect an overnight low of 19 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. Toda
  
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• Montreal researcher has patients fighting their demons with virtual reality

  07-08-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  They popped up out of nowhere, telling Richard Breton how he was nothing, nothing but a bad father, a nasty husband, and had no friends because he was disgusting. For 30 years the debilitating voices and hallucinations came 15 times a day. His head reverberated with voices shouting the worst scenarios: “The car driving down the road is going to swerve on the sidewalk and smash into you. A bomb will explode, or someone armed with gun is going to shoot everyone,” he recalled.
  
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• Allison Hanes: Disconnecting from the social media dystopia

  07-08-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  A small item caught my eye as I hurriedly scanned the news Monday morning, trying to catch up with happenings in Montreal during the two weeks I was vacationing on a remote island with sketchy cellphone reception.
  “Granby mayor signs off Facebook ‘jungle’ for good” read the headline in the Montreal Gazette print edition. Pascal Bonin, the mayor in question, told La Presse Canadienne that he was sick of spending up to 10 hours per week immersed in online debate. But more t
  
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• Rogers Cup Day 1: Venus Williams advances, but no one defeats the storm

  07-08-2018 04:50 via montrealgazette.com
  Venus Williams lives in Florida and is accustomed to playing tennis in hot weather, but she said that the conditions at the Rogers Cup Monday caught her attention.
  “It was pretty hot out there and as players, you have to prepare for it, hydrate, eat,” Williams said after she beat fellow American Caroline Dolehide 7-5, 6-0 in a first-round match in IGA Stadium. “It’s even warmer in Florida but I’m on the court at 7 a.m. and I try to be off by 9.”
  The temperatur
  
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• In case you missed it, here's what happened in Montreal on Aug. 6

  07-08-2018 04:11 via montrealgazette.com
  A look at the day’s events in and around Montreal:
  Revenu Québec employees to strike this weekend
  Approximately 4,600 Revenu Québec employees will be on strike this weekend, pushing for salary increases.
  The strikers, which include accountants, financial management officers and analysts, are represented by the Syndicat des professionels du gouvernment du Québec. Their last collective agreement expired on March 31, 2015.
  Because the work stoppage is taking place over a
  
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• Thunderstorm prompts brief tornado warning for western Quebec

  07-08-2018 04:09 via montrealgazette.com
  A thunderstorm that hit southern Quebec Monday evening put thousands of people in the Montreal region out of power and prompted Environment Canada to issue a tornado warning for western Quebec.
  Environment Canada said “a severe thunderstorm that is possibly producing a tornado” was near Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette, 35 kilometres northeast of Gatineau, and imoving towards the northeast. The warning was issued at 9:20 p.m. and again at 9:50 p.m., and cancelled at 10:04 p.m.
  In t
  
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• Body of a 26-year-old man found

  07-08-2018 03:27 via montrealgazette.com
  The body of a 26-year-old man reported missing on Monday has been found, police report. He had been missing since Saturday afternoon.
  
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• Future of Saudi students at Montreal universities in the air

  07-08-2018 03:04 via montrealgazette.com
  Almost 400 students in Montreal might be transferred other countries after the Saudi government announced its plans to withdraw its students from Canadian institutions in retaliation for Canada expressing concerns about civil rights in the kingdom.
  While the plan to relocate students in Canada is still unclear, The Globe and Mail reported that a government official said those who are studying in Canada on scholarships, grants or in trainee programs funded by the kingdom will be transfe
  
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• Sympathy, free membership for Montreal powerlifter attacked in gym

  07-08-2018 03:02 via montrealgazette.com
  A 19-year-old man whose powerlifting workout at a Montreal-area gym was aggressively curtailed by another member for being too loud in an incident that has gone viral online has been offered a year’s free membership at a South Shore strength-training gym.
  And Charles-Antoine Lalonde will be in good company at the SSP Barbell Club, where powerlifting is popular and where everyone is loud, said co-owner Steve Dubé. “Strength training is noisy … If I don’t hear anyth
  
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• Thunderstorm knocks out power for thousands in Montreal region

  07-08-2018 02:12 via montrealgazette.com
  Thousands are without power in the Montreal region Monday evening as a thunderstorm roars overhead.
  According to Hydro-Québec, almost 17,600 Montrealers lost electricity, while more than 15,000 in the Montérégie region are also affected. About 3,100 customers in the Laurentians and 2,200 in Laval are also in the dark.
  In most regions, Hydro-Québec says power should be restored by 11 p.m. Check the company’s outage map for details on power interruptions in your a
  
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• Quebec to launch "cluster" to help modernize construction industry

  07-08-2018 01:28 via montrealgazette.com
  The Quebec government is launching a new program aimed at making the province’s construction industry more competitive.
  The construction industry “cluster,” which will launch officially in early 2019, is intended to provide a platform for industry members to discuss sector-wide issues and work together on areas of mutual interest.
  “We want to make sure that this industry can really co-ordinate its efforts to modernize itself, to think about innovation, to implement new pr
  
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• Parti Québécois tries self-deprecating humour in new ad campaign

  07-08-2018 00:53 via montrealgazette.com
  The Parti Québécois has challenges to overcome, but is also able to surprise, says the political party’s latest humour-themed ad campaign.
  “What’s the difference between a péquiste and a dentist? There aren’t any! Both are struggling, but are working for your well-being,” is one of the slogans Quebecers will soon be able to read on billboards. Similar slogans can already be found online on the separatist party’s digital platforms.
  Oth
  
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• Lesley Chesterman: The culinary perfectionism of Joël Robuchon

  07-08-2018 00:51 via montrealgazette.com
  Less than seven months after the death of chef Paul Bocuse came the news yesterday that Joël Robuchon had passed away. He was 73 years old. The cause was pancreatic cancer. 
  Robuchon, Bocuse and the Swiss chef Frédy Girardet formed a trio the Gault & Millau guide named “chefs of the century” in 1990. Robuchon held the coveted titles of Meilleur Ouvrier de France and Compagnon du Tour de France, before racking up more than 30 Michelin stars. His international empi
  
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• Poll: Does it bother you when other people are loud when lifting weights?

  07-08-2018 00:37 via montrealgazette.com
  A member of a Montreal-area gym, who hit another member because he was making too much noise while powerlifting, has been barred from the facility.
  A video of the incident was posted on a YouTube channel on Thursday evening. By Monday the video had already surpassed 1.5 million views.
  So we’re asking readers if they’re bothered by other gym members when they train lifting weights.
   Take Our Poll
   
  
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