Aylmer, Quebec news

• Allison Hanes: Just wait until President Trump hears about Parti 51

  05-09-2018 23:55 via montrealgazette.com
  The existential angst over whether Quebec should separate from Canada and become its own country had mercifully been absent from the campaign trail in 2018, with pro-sovereignty parties staying mum on the national question to avoid obliteration at the ballot box.
  That is until a new party surfaced with a pledge to take Quebec out of Canada — and make it part of the United States.
  Parti 51, as it’s called, isn’t your typical brand of separatism. It doesn’t want statehood s
  
  Read more

• Quebec election blog Sept. 5: These questionable candidates are dogging the PQ and CAQ

  05-09-2018 23:51 via montrealgazette.com
  This was the Montreal Gazette’s live blog on the Quebec provincial election for Wednesday, Sept. 5.5:10 p.m.: That’s a wrap
  Join us again tomorrow for more election coverage5 p.m.: PQ candidate gets court date
  There are reports that PQ candidate and incumbent MNA Guy Leclair has been formally charged with drunk driving and refusing a breathalyzer. And PQ leader Jean-François Lisée now says Leclair will not sit in the PQ caucus until the case is settled.
  Confirmation du
  
  Read more

• Quebec election notebook: Some candidates with baggage kept safely on board

  05-09-2018 23:49 via montrealgazette.com
  Jean-François Lisée and François Legault have thrown some questionable candidates overboard while keeping others safely on board.
  Here’s how the Coalition Avenir Québec and Parti Québécois leaders have handled seven recent candidate controversies.
  Parti Québécois
  Name: Muguette PailléRole: Personally recruited by Lisée to be a candidate in Maskinongé riding.Issue: An anti-extremist blogger exposed her online footp
  
  Read more

• Live – Quebec election blog: These questionable candidates are dogging the PQ and CAQ

  05-09-2018 22:00 via montrealgazette.com
  This is the Montreal Gazette’s live blog on the Quebec provincial election for Wednesday, Sept. 5. It will be updated throughout the day. Email me at [email protected]:50 p.m.: Some races to watch
  You can bet much of Montreal will be Liberal red on election night.
  But Montreal Island ridings are too close to call at the moment – Rosemont, Pointe-aux-Trembles, Maurice-Richard and Sainte-Marie—Saint-Jacques,
  In an analysis, colleague Phil Authier loo
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• Quebec election: Lisée promises $800 million for seniors' housing

  05-09-2018 20:55 via montrealgazette.com
  RIVIÈRE DU LOUP — After a summer in which heat waves rolled across Quebec, killing dozens of seniors, Jean-François Lisée says it’s time for the government to take action.
  The Parti Québécois leader pledged Wednesday to have air-conditioning in all provincially run elder care centres by next summer. He says the measure will save lives and would cost the government about $100 million.
  “From the moment we form a government, we’re calling t
  
  Read more

• Martin Patriquin: McGill should stop investing in fossil fuels

  05-09-2018 20:49 via montrealgazette.com
  Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government came to power in 2015 thanks in large part to a blatant contradiction, promising at once to fight climate change while allowing, even cheerleading, the construction of the very pipeline infrastructure perpetuating it.
  Though perhaps the most brazen, the current federal government is hardly alone in engaging in this rather expedient bit of doublethink. Consider the case of Trudeau’s alma mater, McGill University. Like many high-minded institutions c
  
  Read more

• Montreal cop suspended after bruising deaf visually impaired senior

  05-09-2018 20:05 via montrealgazette.com
  A Montreal police officer has been suspended for four days without pay for using unnecessary force and illegally detaining a partially deaf 72-year-old man.
  According to a recent Quebec Police Ethics Committee, SPVM officer David Bouffard was six months into the job when he responded to a distress call in May 2015.
  The 911 call was concerning a man who allegedly hit a neighbour in the leg with a shovel during a dispute over who could use part of a yard for gardening purposes.
  Bouffard arrived at
  
  Read more

• Suspect in kidnapping of Chez Cora chief was in financial trouble

  05-09-2018 20:04 via montrealgazette.com
  A Laval man charged with kidnapping the president of the popular Chez Cora chain of breakfast restaurants will remain detained for at least two more days for a a bail hearing scheduled for Friday.
  Paul Zaidan, 49, made a brief appearance before a judge at the Laval courthouse on Thursday. He entered a not guilty plea to some of the charges he faces.
  Zaidan, who was arrested on Tuesday as a suspect in last year’s kidnapping, was recently declared bankrupt and was facing the possibility
  
  Read more

• Advertisement

• scribble test

  05-09-2018 20:03 via montrealgazette.com
  Perhaps this will be more effective.
  
  Read more

• Quebec election: Would-be health ministers square off in debate

  05-09-2018 20:01 via montrealgazette.com
  In the first debate of the Quebec election campaign, candidates for the four main political parties squared off Wednesday afternoon on the subject of health care at the headquarters of the province’s largest nurses’ federation.
  Absent from the debate was Health Minister Gaétan Barrette, whose controversial cost-cutting reforms have drawn criticism from nurses and other health professionals. Debating in his place was star Liberal candidate Gertrude Bourdon, the executive d
  
  Read more

• Quebec election: Québec solidaire would invest in schools

  05-09-2018 19:59 via montrealgazette.com
  Québec solidaire says it wants to rebuild the Quebec school system by reducing the number of students in a class, hiring more support staff and renovating public schools in the province.
  The party is pledging to invest close to $2 billion in schools, if it wins on Oct. 1.
  Party spokesperson Manon Massé blamed former premier Jean Charest and current Liberal Premier Philippe Couillard for the poor state of public schools.
  “They filled classrooms so much that many students are c
  
  Read more

• Live – Quebec election blog: Questionable candidates dog PQ, CAQ

  05-09-2018 19:58 via montrealgazette.com
  This is the Montreal Gazette’s live blog on the Quebec provincial election for Wednesday, Sept. 5. It will be updated throughout the day. Email me at [email protected] p.m.: Leaders talk immigration, retirees and drunk driving
  Here’s what the parties have been up to so far today:
  François Legault is talking immigration, saying a Coalition Avenir Québec government would cut the number of immigrants admitted to Quebec by 20 per cent in 2019. That contradicts wha
  
  Read more

• Quebec election: Liberals offer more money to retirees, working seniors

  05-09-2018 19:43 via montrealgazette.com
  SHERBROOKE — Quebec’s shortage of labour has been a major theme of Philippe Couillard’s campaign. The Liberal leader has said repeatedly that the need for more workers is the biggest economic challenge facing the province.
  But immigration is not the only solution to the labour shortage, Couillard says.
  He also wants to get seniors to stay in the workforce — and retirees to return to it.
  On Wednesday, Couillard promised that if his government is re-elected it would allow r
  
  Read more

• Quebec election: Lisée lauds 'victory' for controversial play Kanata

  05-09-2018 19:28 via montrealgazette.com
  RIVIERE DU LOUP — Jean-François Lisée celebrated “a victory for free speech” Wednesday after learning that a production of the controversial play Kanata will be staged in France this fall.
  Quebec director Robert Lepage, who will direct the play, announced he would abandon the project this summer after protesters decried his use of white actors to play Indigenous characters.The protesters included survivors of Canada’s residential school system and
  
  Read more

• Quebec election: Lisée knew on Aug. 24 about PQ drunk driving arrest

  05-09-2018 19:05 via montrealgazette.com
  RIMOUSKI — Why did Jean-François Lisée wait 12 days before confirming news that one of his candidates was arrested for drunk driving earlier this summer?
  One day after the election kicked off, on Aug. 24, the Parti Québécois leader found out that his candidate in Beauharnois had been arrested during a July 13 traffic stop. Police allege PQ candidate Guy Leclair twice refused to take a sobriety test that night.
  But Lisée, who has repeatedly calle
  
  Read more

• Quebec election: CAQ's immigration cuts could affect refugees, family unification

  05-09-2018 18:45 via montrealgazette.com
  When François Legault talks about cutting the number of immigrants, he includes asylum seekers and people wanting to join with their families already here.
  Taking his plan up a notch as the mid-campaign point nears, Legault, the leader of the Coalition Avenir Québec, revealed for the first time Wednesday that when he says a 20 per cent immigration cut, he means 20 per cent in each category of people arriving.
  “Ideally, it will be proportional: 20 per cent in each category,&rd
  
  Read more

• Quebec election: CAQ would cut number of immigrants allowed in first year

  05-09-2018 18:45 via montrealgazette.com
  SAINT-CLOTILDE — If the Coalition Avenir Québec takes power, it will reduce the number of immigrants admitted to Quebec by 20 per cent in 2019.
  The number would drop from 50,000 a year to 40,000, officials in the CAQ campaign confirmed Wednesday shortly after party leader François Legault toured a greenhouse which relies heavily on foreign temporary workers.
  Of the 250 workers at Les Serres Lefort, 170 are workers on temporary contracts.
  As Legault’s news conference was
  
  Read more

• Lepage's controversial play Kanata to be performed in Paris on Dec. 15

  05-09-2018 18:31 via montrealgazette.com
  Kanata, the controversial play by Robert Lepage, will finally be performed later this year at the Théâtre du Soleil in Paris.
  In a communiqué made public Wednesday, the theatre announced that, with Lepage’s consent, it had decided “to continue with him the creation of the show and to perform it publicly” under the title Kanata — Épisode 1 — The Controversy.
  Ex Machina, Lepage’s theatre company, announced earlier in the summer that th
  
  Read more

• Pilots in St-Bruno plane crash violated altitude restrictions: report

  05-09-2018 17:55 via montrealgazette.com
  The student pilots of two planes that collided above a St-Bruno shopping centre in 2017 did not respect altitude restrictions, according to an investigation by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.
  Just before the collision, the two pilots deviated from altitude restrictions approved by the air traffic control tower. The pilots did not see each other in time to avoid colliding, said the report released Wednesday.
  One pilot died in the collision and the second was seriously injured. Both wer
  
  Read more

• Longueuil cops arrest attempted murder suspect after man stabbed in neck

  05-09-2018 17:54 via montrealgazette.com
  A 28-year-old man is in the custody of Longueuil police and expected to face a charge of attempted murder in the wake of an incident early Wednesday that saw a man stabbed in the neck in the Longueuil borough of St-Hubert.
  The incident occurred at 7:30 a.m. on Grand Blvd. after an altercation broke out between two men. A 23-year-old man was taken to hospital while the suspect was taken into custody.
  This story will be updated.
   
  
  Read more

• ‘Amazing numbers’ at Canadian banks are no match for Trump's tax cuts

  05-09-2018 16:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Canadian banks are scoring back-to-back record earnings, beating big U.S. lenders on profitability, productivity and dividend yields. They still can’t outperform U.S. banks on the stock market.
  Toronto-Dominion Bank, Royal Bank of Canada and the nation’s other six large lenders collectively boosted profit 10 per cent to a record $11.7 billion in the fiscal third quarter. Still, that’s no match for a U.S. economy seen having more runway than Canada, thanks in part to President D
  
  Read more

• While you were sleeping: Employment choices, sex ed and — a toilet in the kitchen?

  05-09-2018 14:37 via montrealgazette.com
  Here are a few things you might have missed while you were sleeping.
  Immigrants in the workforce: Even as employers complain about a shortage of job candidates, they remain hesitant to hire immigrants, a survey conducted by the Business Development Bank of Canada suggests. The survey finds that while 39 per cent of employers say it has been difficult to find personnel over the past year, they prefer to hire less qualified candidates, younger candidates who can be trained on the job or retirees r
  
  Read more

• Updated: Quebec man missing since Sunday found in Kamouraska

  05-09-2018 14:19 via montrealgazette.com
  The Sûreté du Québec said on Wednesday that a 34-year-old man missing from his residence in the Montérégie since Sunday has been found.
  He had last been seen at his home in St-Édouard-de-Napierville around 4:30 p.m. The SQ announced that he had been found Tuesday night in the municipal region of Kamouraska and was safe and sound.
  The missing persons alert was issued after those close to the man said they were worried for his safety.
   
  
  Read more

• Suspect in kidnapping of Chez Cora chief was in serious financial trouble

  05-09-2018 14:16 via montrealgazette.com
  The man arrested on Tuesday as a suspect in the kidnapping of the president of the Chez Cora chain of restaurants was recently declared bankrupt and was facing the possibility of losing his home.
  Paul Zaidan, a 49-year-old resident of Laval’s Chomedey district, is scheduled to make his first court appearance on Wednesday at the Laval courthouse where he faces a total of seven charges in connection with the March 8, 2017, kidnapping of Nicholas Tsouflidis, the president of Chez Cora, t
  
  Read more

• Montreal's Irish Embassy Bar & Grill hopes to reopen by St. Patrick's Day

  05-09-2018 14:01 via montrealgazette.com
  If you think the summer has been long and hot, imagine what it has been like for the owners of the Irish Embassy Pub & Grill, dealing with their own issues, delays and red tape for more than five months.
  “It’s been tough. You have to accept what it is. There’s been down days and up days. I try to keep positive about it,” co-owner Paul Quinn said.
  The bustling Bishop St. landmark, which has played host to Canadian prime ministers and other political figures, is still w
  
  Read more

• Canadian employers need workers but balk at hiring immigrants: survey

  05-09-2018 13:49 via montrealgazette.com
  Even as employers complain about a shortage of job candidates, they remain hesitant to hire immigrants, a survey conducted by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) suggests.
  The findings are contained in a poll of more than 1,000 Canadian businesses by the BDC and obtained by the Presse Canadienne. The survey finds that while 39 per cent of employers say it has been difficult to find personnel over the past year, they prefer to hire less qualified candidates, younger candidates who can b
  
  Read more

• Concert review: Drake salutes his 'second home' at Montreal's Bell Centre

  05-09-2018 13:16 via montrealgazette.com
  Tuesday night at a sold out Bell Centre, Toronto rapper Drake walked on water. And palm trees. And lava. And a giant iPhone screen.
  Imagine a rectangular stage comparable in shape to a basketball court in the middle of the arena. Drake performed atop that for over 90 minutes, while accompanying visuals raced underneath him. The low stage allowed the affable Canuck to get ever so closer to his admiring throngs in the pit while providing a feast for the senses to the filled stands further up.
  It w
  
  Read more

• Crafty moms offer a new twist on ladies’ nights out

  05-09-2018 13:00 via montrealgazette.com
  A new series of ladies’ nights out events with a crafty twist are coming up this fall in various locations in the West Island and Off-Island.
  The brainchild of a pair of women from Hudson and St-Lazare, LaughDrinkCreate offers trendy jewelry-making workshops held in bars and restaurants in Vaudreuil-Dorion, Hudson and Kirkland, where women can try a new hobby, meet some new friends and unwind with a glass of wine.
  The business was launched this summer by Melanie Garon-Duong and Cynthia Mas
  
  Read more

• Montreal heat warning: Hot as H-E-double-hockey sticks

  05-09-2018 12:56 via montrealgazette.com
  It’s gonna get hotter’n a blister bug in a pepper patch, as they say in the South.
  A heat warning from Environment Canada advises that Wednesday’s humidex values could reach 40 degrees Celsius.
  A sweltering, humid air mass from the Great Lakes is making its way toward southern Quebec, trapping hot air over the region.
  The good and bad news is that a cold front is directly behind it, bringing “more seasonal temperatures and humidity levels on Thursday morning. This front c
  
  Read more

• Quebec election: CAQ trying to rock Liberal boat in West Island

  05-09-2018 12:30 via montrealgazette.com
  Angela Rapoport, the Coalition Avenir Québec candidate for Nelligan, is hoping West Island voters will give the CAQ some consideration in the Oct. 1 provincial election.
  Although West Island ridings have traditionally voted Liberal in provincial elections, Rapoport said the CAQ offers voters an alternative to the Liberals and Parti Québécois, two parties that have dominated Quebec’s political landscape for nearly half a century.
  Rapoport will face a stiff challenge fro
  
  Read more

• St.-Lazare homebrewer wins a chance to brew big

  05-09-2018 12:11 via montrealgazette.com
  A St.-Lazare homebrewer got a chance to brew with the big boys last month, after winning a chance to collaborate with the brewmaster at Beau’s Brewing to make beer at a commercial scale.
  Frank Schneidawind beat out 477 other entrants to win the Vankleek Hill brewery’s Best of Show prize at a homebrewers competition held last fall to coincide with Beaus’ annual Oktoberfest event.
  As the winner of the competition, Schneidawind got to sit down with the brewmaster and create a new
  
  Read more

• A look at the riding of Marquette by numbers

  05-09-2018 12:11 via montrealgazette.com
  The electoral district of Marquette is one of four West Island ridings gearing up for the Quebec elections, Oct. 1. Here is a look at the riding by numbers:
  Marquette is comprised of Lachine, Dorval and l’Île-Dorval. As a result of a change to the electoral map in 2011, Marquette lost a portion of LaSalle to the Marguerite-Bourgeoys riding.
  The original electoral district was created in 1981 by merging portions of the Jacques-Cartier, Marguerite-Bourgeoys and Notre-Dame-de-Grace ridi
  
  Read more

• Quebec election: 10 interesting riding races to watch for on Oct. 1

  05-09-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  QUEBEC — It’s easy to overlook — with all the hoopla over the party leaders and the big issues of the day — but when it comes down to it, elections are won on a riding-by-riding basis.
  And on Oct. 1, voters will be witnessing some hot races in many of the 125 ridings scattered across Quebec including, for the first time in years, the island of Montreal.
  With about four weeks to go until the vote and the latest Montreal Gazette-Le Devor Léger poll showing it’s
  
  Read more

• Boisé Pearson condo project focuses on saving woodland

  05-09-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Senneville town council sent a clear message during a recent public consultation about the Boisé Pearson condo project. Saving the Boisé Pearson woods is the priority.
  The densely-treed triangle owned by developer Jacques Belisle is zoned for single-family detached homes, but Belisle wants to build two condo buildings. The shift in land-use requires a zoning change which leaves the plan open to the possible launch of a referendum on the subject.
  The original condo plan was rejected
  
  Read more

• Allison Hanes: Will air-conditioned Montreal schools become inevitable?

  05-09-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  The new school year is only in its second week, but for the second time already, Montreal is under a severe heat warning that is turning classrooms into saunas.
  Shortly after noon Tuesday, the temperature climbed to 25 C. With the humidex, it felt more like 40 C. Wednesday is expected to be just as hot, if not hotter. It was the same scenario for the first part of last week, as well.
  While many adults have the luxury of retreating to chilled offices, workplaces, retail outlets or vehicles, our k
  
  Read more

• OCPM releases report card on proposed project for Lachine convent

  05-09-2018 11:30 via montrealgazette.com
  Last week, Montreal’s public consultation body released its report on the proposed transformation of the Soeurs de Ste-Anne convent in Lachine into residential housing and one of the report’s 12 recommendations took those steering the project by surprise.
  To make the project financially viable, the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) recommends densifying the project by adding another multi-storey building.
  “(The OCPM chair) told me she’s never seen
  
  Read more

• Gas price watch: No significant change on Tuesday night

  05-09-2018 04:43 via montrealgazette.com
  The average price of gas in Quebec was sitting at $1.324 a litre Tuesday night.
  The afternoon price range in the Montreal area was $1.289 to $1.489, according to essencemontreal.com.
  The price of a barrel of crude oil was US$69.50 at the end of the trading day on the NYMEX index in New York on Tuesday.
  
  Read more

• #ICYMI: Parti 51 wants Quebec to join U.S., arrest in Chez Cora case, and more

  05-09-2018 03:08 via montrealgazette.com
  In Case You Missed It (ICYMI) is a daily feature highlighting news in and around Montreal.
  And now for something completely different: Hans Mercier, the leader of Parti 51, an authorized provincial party, wants Quebec to separate from Canada and become a “sovereign state member of the United States.”
  No, we’re not kidding.
  The Gazette’s Andy Riga has the details in his election notebook.
  Read more here: Quebec election notebook: It’s time to become th
  
  Read more

• Quebec election: Lisée won't turf PQ candidate charged with drunk driving

  05-09-2018 02:01 via montrealgazette.com
  RIMOUSKI — Parti Québécois Leader Jean-François Lisée said Tuesday he will not ask an embattled candidate to resign after revelations that he was arrested and charged with drunk driving in July.
  “He has the right to the presumption of innocence,” Lisée said, outside a rally in Rimouski. “There’s the police officer’s version, there’s Mr. Leclair’s version and he has a witness.”
  On Tuesday, Radio-Canada report
  
  Read more

• Montreal cop suspended for using unnecessary force against 72-year-old

  05-09-2018 01:37 via montrealgazette.com
  A Montreal police officer has been suspended for four days without pay for using unnecessary force and illegally detaining a partially deaf 72-year-old man.
  According to a recent Quebec Police Ethics Committee, SPVM officer David Bouffard was six months into the job when he responded to a distress call in May 2015.
  The 911 call was concerning a man who allegedly hit a neighbour in the leg with a shovel during a dispute over who could use part of a yard for gardening purposes.
  Bouffard arrived at
  
  Read more

• Montreal firefighters rescue woman on Champlain Bridge

  05-09-2018 01:19 via montrealgazette.com
  The Montreal fire department’s specialized rescue team have completed a delicate operation below the Champlain Bridge, extricating a woman who had fallen onto a metal platform below the deck of the span.
  The woman suffered injuries to her wrist and chest and was taken to a hospital after being hoisted back up onto the span by the department’s vertical rescue team, also known as “Spidermen.”
  The effort led to a monster traffic jam as their emergency vehicles and the woman&
  
  Read more

• Quebec election: Couillard says Apuiat wind farm is “critical”

  05-09-2018 01:16 via montrealgazette.com
  SEPT-ÎLES — The Apuiat wind farm is “critical” and should go ahead — even if there is a net cost for Hydro-Québec, Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard said after meeting with Innu leaders on Tuesday.
  The 200-megawatt project on Quebec’s North Shore is being developed thorough a partnership among three Innu communities and Boralex, a private company.
  However, a leaked letter from Hydro-Québec President Eric Martel suggested the project could cost th
  
  Read more

• CAQ candidate for Saint-Jean forced out for 'lack of transparency'

  05-09-2018 01:16 via montrealgazette.com
  Stéphane Laroche, the Coalition Avenir Québec candidate for Saint-Jean, has withdrawn his candidacy after revelations surfaced that he owned a bar that admitted minors and paid female staff members less than their male counterparts.
  The CAQ said via communiqué Tuesday evening that Laroche was not transparent during the application to be a candidate and was asked to withdraw from the election campaign.
  “The lack of transparency and the lack of respect for pay equity hav
  
  Read more

• SQ makes arrest in 2017 kidnapping of Chez Cora chief

  05-09-2018 00:55 via montrealgazette.com
  A failed franchise owner of Chez Cora restaurants is expected to be charged Wednesday with the kidnapping and forcible confinement of the president of the breakfast chain, Nicholas Tsouflidis, 18 months ago.
  Paul Zaidan, 49, who is believed to have lost his franchise in 2014, allegedly used a fake gun to force Tsouflidis out of his home in Mirabel and into the trunk of a car, in an alleged bid to hold him for ransom.
  Tsouflidis, the youngest son of company founder Cora Mussely Tsouflidou, w
  
  Read more

• Quebec election notebook: It's time to become the 51st state, new party says

  05-09-2018 00:22 via montrealgazette.com
  Do you want Donald Trump to be Quebec’s president?
  If Hans Mercier prevails, that would happen. The leader of Parti 51, an authorized provincial party, wants Quebec to separate from Canada and become a “sovereign state member of the United States.”
  “We tell people that you can’t judge a party by its leader,” Mercier said in an interview Tuesday, adding that his party has as many pro-Trump members as it has Trump haters.
  “The current presidency
  
  Read more

• Quebec election: Radio-Canada, PQ fight over a French phrase

  05-09-2018 00:17 via montrealgazette.com
  In what may be the most unusual scandal of the 13-day-old provincial election, Radio-Canada and the Parti Québécois are feuding over the use of the phrase “À la semaine prochaine.”
  Some context.
  In the PQ’s new radio ad, a voice actor sets up a joke by asking, “What does a long-term care centre resident say after taking a bath? See you next week (À la semaine prochaine).”
  “No seriously, it’s not funny,” the actor co
  
  Read more

Follow @AylmerQuebecnws on Twitter!