Aylmer, Quebec news

• Woman, 26, gets three years for fatal crash in Île-Bizard

  14-11-2018 22:44 via montrealgazette.com
  Driving while impaired is like pointing a loaded gun at someone, a Quebec Court judge said Wednesday before handing a three-year jail term to a 26-year-old woman who struck and killed a father of two in Île-Bizard last year.
  “Such conduct is a scourge and reminds one more or less of Russian roulette,” Judge Karine Giguère said as she sentenced Marie-Michele Benjamin to prison and ordered that the Île-Perrot resident not be allowed to drive for six years.
  “Des
  
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• Quebec government plans to create lower, more uniform school tax rate

  14-11-2018 21:54 via montrealgazette.com
  The Legault government will table legislation this autumn aimed at lowering school taxes and establishing a uniform school tax rate, Quebec’s finance minister said Wednesday.
  Éric Girard told reporters in Quebec City that the move will be the first on the part of the provincial government to reduce the tax burden of Quebecers.
  The National Assembly reconvenes Nov. 27 for just two weeks before recessing for the holidays, meaning that very few laws can be tabled in so narrow a time fr
  
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• Most Quebecers favour raising the minimum age for cannabis use

  14-11-2018 21:50 via montrealgazette.com
  The Legault government seems essentially to be on the right side of public opinion in Quebec when it comes raising the minimum legal age for cannabis consumption to 21 from 18, a new survey suggests.
  An Angus-Reid poll of 1,500 respondents found that only 27 per cent of Canadians favoured a minimum age of 18, while another 21 per cent felt 19 was a more appropriate age and three per cent felt the minimum age should be 20.
  But the survey also found that 27 per cent of those polled nationally felt
  
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• Longueuil set to start dumping raw sewage into the St. Lawrence

  14-11-2018 21:49 via montrealgazette.com
  Longueuil is set to begin dumping raw sewage in the St. Lawrence River on Thursday.
  Why is this being done?
  Longueuil says it must remove and replace two six-metre-long sections of a sewage pipe at the bottom of the river that carries effluent from the mainland to a water-treatment plant on Île Charron. Workers discovered a leak in the 90-centimetre pipe in June. The cause is under investigation. Installed in 1990, the pipe was supposed to have a lifespan of 60 to 80 years.
  Where is t
  
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• Bixi closes its 10th season with a request and prizes

  14-11-2018 21:29 via montrealgazette.com
  Thursday is the last day of the year you can ride on a Bixi, the city’s bicycle-sharing service.
  For the first time in its 10-year history, Bixi is asking users to help bring its bikes in for storage at its head office at 5945 de Gaspé Ave., and is enticing them with prizes.
  The first 100 people who ride Bixi bicycles to the head office after 4 p.m. on Thursday will get a free tuque and gloves in the colours of Manulife, Bixi’s official sponsor, as well as an STM transit ticke
  
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• Montreal merchants hit by construction eligible for up to $30K

  14-11-2018 21:27 via montrealgazette.com
  Businesses that have seen their revenue drop by more than 15 per due to major construction work will be eligible for up to $30,000 a year in compensation, the municipal administration said Wednesday.
  The city says it expects a municipal bylaw to be passed in December and that it will be able to start accepting applications for the program in January.
  The long-awaited plan to compensate merchants affected by major roadwork will be retroactive to Jan. 1, 2016 for work done by the city of Montreal,
  
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• Teens charged in what police suspect was bungled robbery on Nuns' Island

  14-11-2018 21:19 via montrealgazette.com
  Two teenagers have been charged with second-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of a 17-year-old student, whose body was found Monday on Nuns’ Island.
  The teens — a male and a female, both also 17 years old — appeared in Youth Court on Wednesday afternoon, the day after being arrested by Montreal police.
  The judge placed a publication ban on the names and photos of the victim and the two accused.
  Prosecutor Sophie Lamarre has filed a request to have the accused senten
  
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• Obesity problem grows larger, costs Quebec $3B annually

  14-11-2018 21:19 via montrealgazette.com
  The popularity of fast food, recreational activities that involve sitting on a couch and increased automobile use are taking their toll: obesity has been gaining ground in Quebec for the past 40 years, and the associated medical costs have now been put at $3 billion a year.
  The Institut national de la santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) has produced a timeline to analyze the problem and assess its progress over the years. For the purposes of the study, obesity is defined by a bod
  
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• Cirque du Soleil artists unhappy about tour stop in Saudi Arabia

  14-11-2018 20:05 via montrealgazette.com
  Recent international criticism focusing on Saudi Arabia has proven insufficient to convince the Cirque du Soleil to cancel shows scheduled there next month, and some artists with the world famous troupe are not happy.
  After stops in Italy, Germany and Croatia, the Quebec troupe is to stop in Riyadh from Dec. 17 to 29 and present 17 performances of Toruk, The First Flight, a show inspired by the James Cameron film Avatar.
  Cirque president and CEO Daniel Lamarre is to be on hand for the show.
  But
  
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• Martin Patriquin: The car has met its match in Projet Montréal

  14-11-2018 19:25 via montrealgazette.com
  Observing Montreal Island’s governing structure without plucking one’s eyes out requires an appreciation of dysfunction, a love of the absurd and possibly some very good drugs.
  It takes 103 elected officials, about as many as Toronto and New York City combined, to govern the roughly 89 per cent of its population that lives in the city of Montreal. To understand exactly why the remaining 11 per cent of the island’s population in the on-island suburbs needs an additional 113 elec
  
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• ‘Another bad day for a black man’: Shopper says he was profiled at The Bay

  14-11-2018 19:15 via montrealgazette.com
  A Montreal man is accusing The Bay of racial profiling after being detained and interrogated for two hours inside the store on suspicion of credit card fraud.
  Michael Bryan, 52, was doing some Sunday shopping downtown with a friend, when he decided to look for a watch at The Bay. After about half an hour he went to make a purchase and was asked whether he wanted to sign up for a Hudson’s Bay Company credit card, which would give him a discount. He says he agreed and handed over his driver&
  
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• Opinion: Religious-symbol ban for teachers would be bad for students

  14-11-2018 18:54 via montrealgazette.com
  The new Coalition Avenir Québec government seems determined to ban publicly employed authority figures from wearing visible religious symbols such as the hijab or kippah on the job. But doing so would harm Quebec’s next generation. In particular, banning teachers from expressing their identity at work could undermine our children and youth’s academic outcomes, as well as their feeling of belonging, safety and happiness in the classroom.
  If the Legault government carries out it
  
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• Quebec government plans to create lower, uniform school tax rate

  14-11-2018 18:34 via montrealgazette.com
  The Legault government will table legislation this autumn aimed at lowering school taxes and establishing a uniform school tax rate, Quebec’s finance minister said Wednesday.
  Éric Girard told reporters in Quebec City that the move will be the first on the part of the provincial government to reduce the tax burden of Quebecers.
  The National Assembly reconvenes Nov. 27 for just two weeks before recessing for the holidays, meaning that very few laws can be tabled in so narrow a time fr
  
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• A week after re-election, Vermont governor in Montreal to talk trade

  14-11-2018 17:47 via montrealgazette.com
  Vermont Governor Phil Scott said his relationship with Quebec goes back to long before he entered politics.
  “I started racing snowmobiles early in life, so I raced at places like Valcourt, Thetford Mines, right here in Montreal, Olympic Stadium,” he said.
  After moving on to stock cars, he continued to race in small towns across southern Quebec.
  “I established a lot of relationships while here and understood the value of that,” he said.
  And he learned that “the
  
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• Yet another Quebec sporting goods store robbed of handguns

  14-11-2018 17:32 via montrealgazette.com
  For the third time in a month, a Quebec sporting goods store has been targeted by thieves who made off with a haul of handguns.
  The latest incident occurred around 11 p.m. Tuesday at a Pronature store on Sherbrooke St. in Magog in the Eastern Townships.
  Mickael Laroche of the local regional police said an alarm sounded when a back door of the store was forced open.
  According to the store’s owners, the thieves made off with more than a dozen handguns after shattering the glass display case
  
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• Most Quebecers favour increasing the minimum age for cannabis use

  14-11-2018 17:14 via montrealgazette.com
  The Legault government seems essentially to be on the right side of public opinion in Quebec when it comes raising the minimum legal age for cannabis consumption to 21 from 18, a new survey suggests.
  An Angus-Reid poll of 1,500 respondents found that only 27 per cent of Canadians favoured a minimum age of 18, while another 21 per cent felt 19 was a more appropriate age and three per cent felt the minimum age should be 20.
  But the survey also found that 27 per cent of those polled nationally felt
  
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• Theatre: The mom returns as A Doll’s House, Part 2 comes to the Segal

  14-11-2018 17:00 via montrealgazette.com
  It’s the most famous door in theatrical history, and Ibsen’s proto-feminist heroine Nora definitely didn’t let it hit her on the way out of a stifling bourgeois marriage, circa 1879.
  Fifteen years after the events of A Doll’s House, Nora is back, insistently knocking at that same door in Lucas Hnath’s mischievous and phenomenally successful sequel, A Doll’s House, Part 2, which plays at Segal Centre from Nov. 18 to Dec. 9.
  As sequels go, it’s not the mos
  
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• Montreal police suspect killing of Nuns' Island teen was bungled robbery

  14-11-2018 15:47 via montrealgazette.com
  Montreal police have arrested two suspects in connection with the murder of a 17-year-old boy whose body was found Monday in Nuns’ Island.
  The suspects, a male and female both aged 17, are scheduled to appear in Youth Court on Wednesday. Police say their investigation suggests the killing occurred during a bungled armed robbery attempt.
  An administrator with the Al Jazira Islamic Centre said the victim was a very happy young man, who worked part time while attending CEGEP.
  In an interview
  
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• Laval man suspected of exposing himself to joggers, groping a woman

  14-11-2018 15:31 via montrealgazette.com
  Laval police have turned to the public in an effort to find potential victims of a sex crime suspect who has been in custody since Oct. 18.
  Hamza Sabr, 23, was arrested after allegedly exposing himself before several victims who were jogging along a local bicycle path. He is also alleged to have groped a woman after offering her a cigarette.
  Police say they have reason to believe Sabr, who is already facing charges of sexual assault and indecent acts, had other victims and are urging them to cal
  
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• UFOs might have been extra-terrestrial vehicles: retired McGill prof

  14-11-2018 15:15 via montrealgazette.com
  Just as Harvard scientists weigh in on that massive thingamajig that zipped past the sun last year — the flat, elongated ‘Oumuamua’ was possibly a probe sent to Earth by “an alien civilization,” they said — British pilots flying home from Montreal have reported other UFOs off the coast of Ireland.
  This time, the unidentified objects were bright lights, heading north, at “Mach 2” speed, they told air-traffic controllers.
  But they might also have bee
  
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• Montreal police arrest two in connection with murder of Nuns' Island teen

  14-11-2018 14:22 via montrealgazette.com
  Montreal police have arrested two suspects in connection with the murder of a 17-year-old boy whose body was found Monday in Nuns’ Island.
  The suspects, a male and female both aged 17, are scheduled to appear in Youth Court on Wednesday. Police say their investigation suggests the killing occurred during a bungled armed robbery attempt.
  The victim’s body was discovered Monday in a wooded area near De Gaspè St. Initially, police suspected the death was accidental, but an autops
  
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• West Island mayors weigh in on pay increases

  14-11-2018 14:11 via montrealgazette.com
  Like all West Island municipalities, Kirkland recently went through the exercise of deciding what adjustments should be made to remunerations for elected officials.
  When the proposed numbers came in, Kirkland council voted. It was not unanimous. During the Nov. 5 council meeting, District 5 councillor Stephen Bouchard, District 3 councillor Sam Rother and District 1 councillor Michael Brown all voted against the raise.
  “Stephen and Sam both said they didn’t feel right about giving th
  
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• A look at remuneration increases for West Island mayors

  14-11-2018 14:00 via montrealgazette.com
  Remunerations for elected officials have not been adjusted since 2015, so pay hikes are being adopted by councils throughout the province. The methods being used to calculate a fair pay increase can vary from municipality to municipality.
  A number of municipalities applied the calculation tool supplied by the Union des municipalités du Québec (UMQ). This calculation takes into account population, real estate wealth, the sorts of services the municipality has within its boundar
  
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• While you were sleeping: Man alerts court to drug theft by crashing into it

  14-11-2018 13:47 via montrealgazette.com
  Here’s what happened while it got seriously cold outside.
  Montreal police officers responding discovered a car with bullets holes in it but no victims. SPVM spokesperson Andrée-Anne Picard said witnesses who heard shots fired in Montreal called 911 shortly after 5 p.m. When police officers arrived, they found a parked car that had been damaged by bullets as well as spent shell casings and a firearm near the damaged vehicle. Picard said that witnesses reported seeing a &ldq
  
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• Kramberger: Poll indicates it’s time to ice Tempo car-shelter bans

  14-11-2018 12:26 via montrealgazette.com
  Based on the opinion poll I launched last week, two-thirds of readers believe West Island cities should reconsider car shelters bans that have been in place for decades.
  Of the 765 poll clicks (as of early Tuesday), around 66 per cent said West Island cities should lift their ban, with about 34 per cent voting to continue prohibiting the unsightly temporary shelters.
  It should be clear this poll was open to all, so the results might not necessarily reflect the position of the majority of residen
  
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• Intergenerational homes keep family close — but not too close

  14-11-2018 12:05 via montrealgazette.com
  When aging parents reach a point where they need help to get around, have health issues that need close monitoring, or are just too lonely on their own, intergenerational homes can offer a way to keep family members close without driving each other crazy.
  After all, no matter how much we love our parents, there is such a thing as being too close. And it’s pretty likely our parents feel the same way about us too. We all crave our own space.
  For Giovanna Di Tirro, who has lived with her moth
  
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• Oscar- and Emmy-winning studio Pixomondo plans Montreal expansion

  14-11-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  A visual effects studio that won three Emmy Awards for its work on the dragons in the HBO series Game of Thrones and an Oscar for a Martin Scorsese film is expanding to Montreal.
  This will be Pixomondo’s third studio in Canada and its eighth worldwide.
  “We’re planning to have the office specialize in traditional VFX as well as cutting-edge technologies in virtual reality, AI animation and gaming as well,” said Sara Mustafa, Pixomondo’s vice-president of gl
  
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• Opinion: A prescription for Quebec's health-care system

  14-11-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  On Oct. 22, 2018, a panel of experts convened at McGill University’s Department of Family Medicine for a round-table discussion on the state of primary care in Quebec. Three former Quebec cabinet ministers — Claude Castonguay, Jean Rochon and Michel Clair — as well as professor of political science and health policy scholar Antonia Maioni offered their views on the actions required to improve the Quebec health-care system. Despite marked differences in their professional backgr
  
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• Montreal weather: Bundle up!

  14-11-2018 12:00 via montrealgazette.com
  “Wind chill.”
  Those are two words we don’t normally worry about much in mid-November.
  But if you’re heading outdoors today, you need to dress for “unseasonably cold weather,” as Environment Canada is putting it in a special statement. And if you’re driving, think black ice.
  Environment Canada is calling for mainly sunny conditions with a west wind of 30 km/h gusting to 50. High minus 6. The wind chill will be minus 19 in the morning and minus 14 in the a
  
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• This girl genius might be the smartest kid in Canada

  14-11-2018 11:56 via montrealgazette.com
  Sandra Nitchi is a musician and an artist and in the midst of completing her first novel. She is torn between pursuing a career as an aeronautical engineer or an actress, or maybe even an urban designer or a politician.
  She’ll probably end up doing all four.
  Sandra is all of 11 years old, and to label her simply as an over-achiever is to dramatically understate.
  Sandra is also the only Montrealer to be competing on the first season of Canada’s Smartest Person Junior, a six-week serie
  
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• West Island mayors can live with Montreal's 2019 agglo budget

  14-11-2018 11:55 via montrealgazette.com
  Kirkland Mayor Michel Gibson says he can live with the city of Montreal’s 2019 budget.
  “It was a fair budget. There is still some room in future budgets, but it’s reasonable.”
  Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante tabled the city’s $5.7 billion budget last Thursday. The city of Montreal’s budget has a financial impact on the island’s suburbs, which share policing, firefighting, transit and other regional services with Montreal.
  Montreal’s 15 de
  
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• It ‘validates what we all have done,’ Myeloma Canada founder says of award

  14-11-2018 11:11 via montrealgazette.com
  Aldo Del Col is beating the odds. The former marketing executive from Beaconsfield was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2002 and given three to five years to live.
  Last week, Del Col was invited to Rideau Hall in Ottawa to receive the Meritorious Service Medal from Governor General Julie Payette.
  He received the honour for his work establishing Myeloma Canada, a resource organization for medical professionals, patients and their families battling multiple myeloma. Del Col co-founded Myeloma Ca
  
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• In the Habs Room: 'By far the worst game of the year'

  14-11-2018 07:25 via montrealgazette.com
  EDMONTON — Canadiens coach Claude Julien called it a no-show.
  Well, at least goalie Antti Niemi showed up and kept his team in the game for two periods, but he couldn’t do it alone and the Canadiens lost 6-2 to the Edmonton Oilers, who ended their four-game losing streak after scoring three third-period goals.
  The Oilers outshot the Canadiens 43-29 with Connor McDavid picking up three assists and linemate Leon Draisaitl scoring a goal and adding two assists. The Oilers also got three
  
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• Canadiens' Antti Niemi wilts under barrage of shots from Oilers

  14-11-2018 07:01 via montrealgazette.com
  EDMONTON — Antti Niemi didn’t get a win for the Canadiens Tuesday night, but he kept them in the game for two periods.
  Starting for the second straight game in place of the struggling Carey Price, Niemi stopped 37 of the 43 shots he faced, but it wasn’t enough as the Canadiens lost 6-2 to the Edmonton Oilers. Niemi stopped 17 of 18 shots in the second period alone to keep the score 3-2.
  The Canadiens saw their record drop to 9-6-3, while Niemi is now 4-2-0.
  “Well, he gave
  
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• About last night … Edmonton easily tops Canadiens 6-2

  14-11-2018 05:57 via montrealgazette.com
  Let’s just be happy Carey Price didn’t have to endure that.
  Memo to Shea Weber: No rush, but can you be ready by Thursday?
  The pillar of the Canadiens’ defence is urgently needed by a team that looked awfully lacking in pillars during their 6-2 loss in Edmonton Tuesday night.
  The final score is deceptive.
  It wasn’t that close.
  The home team had 42 shots on Antti Niemi. And were it not for some superb saves by the Canadiens’ backup ‘tender, the Oilers would hav
  
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• Liveblog: Edmonton romps to 6-2 win

  14-11-2018 05:35 via montrealgazette.com
  Ryan Nugent-Hopkins snapped home a wrister six minutes into the third to give the home team a two-goal lead.
  Then Kris Russell scored from the point to put the game out of reach. And Connor McDavid set up Darnell Nurse for a sixth.
  Andrew Shaw had evened it up at 2-2 early in the second period. But Drake Caggiula restored the home team’s lead two minutes later.
  McDavid set up Leon Draisaitl for the 2-1 go-ahead goal, late in the first period.
  Matt Benning got the home team on the boar
  
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• Seniors can improve their health by taking art workshops, study shows

  14-11-2018 04:41 via montrealgazette.com
  Research has already shown that participating in art workshops can improve seniors’ moods or sense of well-being, but a new study out of Montreal suggests a surprisingly positive effect on the physical health of seniors.
  Launched last December, the study measured the impact on 150 people aged 65 to 94 who participated in weekly painting and drawing workshops at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts over a three-month period.
  The participants were relatively healthy seniors, living in their own
  
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• Montreal police find bullet holes, but no victims in Montreal North shooting

  14-11-2018 02:58 via montrealgazette.com
  Montreal police officers responding to a call about shots fired in Montreal North on Tuesday discovered a car with bullets holes in it but no victims.
  Montreal police spokesperson Andrée-Anne Picard said witnesses who heard shots fired called 911 shortly after 5 p.m. When police officers arrived they found a car parked on George-Pichet Ave., near the corner of Industriel Blvd. that had been damaged by bullets. Spent shell casings and a firearm were found near the damaged vehicle.
  Picard s
  
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• MUHC foundation to pump $11 million into new research

  14-11-2018 02:52 via montrealgazette.com
  Aiming to push the boundaries of science and clinical care, the foundation of the McGill University Health Centre announced Tuesday it will award a $100,000 annual grant to scientists who have won a competition for the most outstanding “out-of-the-box” research project.
  Although the U.S. National Institutes of Health routinely funds such high-risk, high-reward projects, the MUHC competition is believed to be the first of its kind in Canada, said Dr. Donald Vinh, a top scientist at th
  
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• Finance committee examines rising cost of composting plants

  14-11-2018 02:52 via montrealgazette.com
  Montreal must investigate why the projected cost of five organic waste treatment plants to be built in the next seven years has soared, opposition councillor and St-Laurent Mayor Alan DeSousa said Tuesday.
  Budgeted at $237.5 million five years ago, the five plants will now cost $589 million, the Montreal Gazette reported last week.
  “It’s a quantum leap,” DeSousa said at a session of the city’s finance and administration committee, which is studying the 2019
  
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• #ICYMI: Landry funeral, UFOs, city buses, more news

  14-11-2018 02:42 via montrealgazette.com
  In Case You Missed It (#ICYMI) is a daily feature highlighting news in and around Montreal.
  Several thousand people filled the pews of Notre Dame Basilica Tuesday for a final farewell to former premier Bernard Landry.
  Philip Authier files this report: Who’s who of Quebec politics bids final farewell to Bernard Landry
  ***
  Just as Harvard scientists weigh in on that massive thingamajig that zipped past the sun last year — the flat, elongated ‘Oumuamua’ was possibl
  
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• Views from two cities: Vancouverites and Montrealers talk about rainy weather

  14-11-2018 01:15 via montrealgazette.com
  Montrealers talk about the grey, rainy fall we’ve had this year and get some advice from people in Vancouver, one of the rainiest cities in Canada, on how best to weather what some there call ‘liquid sunshine.’
  
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• Adele Sorella's murder trial views crime-scene photos of girls' bodies

  14-11-2018 01:05 via montrealgazette.com
  LAVAL — One of the first things Éric Coïa could see when he entered Adele Sorella’s home was a small pair of pink winter boots in the entrance hall, next to a large granite statue.
  On the ground nearby were two school bags decorated with floral patterns. On benches above them were two children’s coats, pink and red.
  Coïa, then a crime scene technician with the Laval police, continued making his way through the lavishly decorated house, photographing everything
  
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• Stu Cowan: Among NHL's scoring leaders, Habs' Max Domi keeps his cool

  14-11-2018 00:55 via montrealgazette.com
  EDMONTON — After Tuesday’s morning skate at Rogers Place, I asked the Canadiens’ Max Domi if he ever looks at the list of NHL scoring leaders.
  “No, not all,” he said.
  When informed that heading into Tuesday night’s game against the Edmonton Oilers he ranked 11th in the NHL with 9-12-21 totals in 17 games — only one point out of the top 10 — Domi said: “Oh, really? Cool.”
  Does he know who the last Canadiens player was to finish a se
  
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• Parents shouldn't worry if infants can't sleep through night: McGill study

  14-11-2018 00:13 via montrealgazette.com
  A new study by researchers at McGill University should ease the concerns of new parents who often worry when their babies don’t sleep through the night.
  The expectation of most parents is that by around six months of age, their baby should be able to get six to eight hours of uninterrupted sleep per night, according to the study to be published in the December edition of the medical journal Pediatrics.
  However, the researchers discovered that a large percentage of babies don’t reach
  
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• Kelly: Bringing anglo authors to Salon du livre is no threat to French

  14-11-2018 00:09 via montrealgazette.com
  Any time someone tries to bring together the two solitudes ici, I tend to think of it as a good thing and that seems to be Olivier Gougeon’s philosophy too.
  He is the new executive director of the Salon du livre de Montréal, one of the largest francophone book fairs in the world, and is the man behind the initiative to invite English-language Quebec publishers to the event for the first time in over a decade.
  What’s not to like right? The salon will showcase events with local
  
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