Days before Premier Legault announced the curfew — as always preceded by the statement that he was following public health directives — Public Health Director Dr. Horacio Arruda stated that, “there is no medical or scientific data to support a conclusion that curfews slow the spread of covid…
Public policy has rules. Both intuitive and instructive. Those in public office should have mastered them. If they haven’t what are they doing there? Because if they don’t master them, and lose them in translation, the people suffer. That is too high a price to pay just to endure mediocrity.
The recent dramatic cuts in newsrooms by BellMedia must give all Canadians who value a free and diverse flow of information as a bedrock of an informed democracy reason to pause and reflect. Bell cut over 200 news jobs and shuttered the newsrooms of its radio stations in the major markets of…
Just two months ago, in this space, we called on Premier Legault to fire Minister Responsible for the French Language Simon Jolin-Barrette. He had thrown another grenade into the language arms stockpile by announcing that he plans to present a bill this year to expand Bill 101.
Last week’s announcement by Prime Minister Trudeau that returning air travellers will have to pay some $2000 to spend three days in a hotel while their Covid test results come in is incomprehensible. It is discriminatory in its retroactivity and punitive in its intent. For both reasons it br…
It is said that the quality of a society is judged by how it treats its most vulnerable. We have some questions for M. Legault and Mme. Plante on this theme.
Sometimes an injustice is perpetrated that is so venal, that it demands an extra effort of resolve just to overcome the initial despair. That is the case with our front page exclusive this week on the possible Quebec Ministerial Decree that would order cutting Critical Care to our most vulne…
It is just over a half century ago that Quebecers last had to endure curfews. That was during the October Crisis that saw the FLQ kidnap British Trade Commissioner James Cross and kill Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte. That bloody October unfolded against a background of mailbox bombs a…
In the midst of the pandemic last August, we released a special issue saluting frontline heroes. But as the year progressed, different types of heroes emerged. Community volunteerism soared. It seemed no one was going to be left behind and no need unmet. So we dedicate this special theme iss…
Well it’s been quite the year. But now is the time for some perspective. We live in an era of instant gratification. Instant solutions. And instant communications feeding it all. The end of the year is a good time to reflect back.
Perhaps the most important asset that a community newspaper like The Suburban brings to its 200,000 readers is the sure knowledge that none of you are alone. In a year as challenging as this, providing some relief from alienation and fear is critical to the health of us all. We have been you…
The fact that you can only do a little is no excuse for,doing nothing. So much of our time and advocacy at this paper are spent on issues of poverty. Particularly at this time of year. So many stories highlighting initiatives on collection and distribution of everything from food to clothing…
“Israel was not created in order to disappear. Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom.”
He’s at it again. Minister Responsible for the French Language Simon Jolin-Barrette threw another grenade into the language arms stockpile last week. In a press conference he disclosed that in the New Year he will be presenting a bill to expand Bill 101.
We have reported and editorialized about this Covid crisis with a view to balancing information you need about the health risks while reflecting the real human, social and economic costs of some of the measures governments have taken.
Since she was elected as a young teacher in her late twenties in the last Federal election, St. Laurent Liberal MP Emmanuella Lambropoulos has been a voice of clarity and courage for minority language rights. She was assigned a seat on the House of Commons Committee on Official Languages.
There are weeks when the news floods you from all sides. Not earth-shattering drama. Just the kind of troubling brews of failure that you know will affect our lives for the worse. Last week was such a week.
Today is Remembrance Day. A sacred day in and of itself made all the more poignant this year as we commemorated the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII. Remembrance Day this week was preceded by two other heart-wrenching hallmarks of history. Yesterday, Nov.10th, was the end of the commemora…
This will be a very different Remembrance Day this year. It is also a very special one.
The venality and arrogance of the OQLF reached a new height over the past ten days. Days after receiving a questionable $5 million boost in its budget from the government, it started a new campaign of harassment against small business owners with a stupidity that brings back memories of the …
Last Saturday night was the annual ‘Night for the Homeless.’ It is an initiative started several years ago to shed light on the tragedy of Montreal’s growing numbers of homeless. Estimates of those on the streets range from 3,000-5,000. Another estimated 20,000 have no residence but are shar…
We rarely use this space to comment on a foreign matter. But Covid knows no boundaries. And possible solutions to dealing with it and mitigating it should know none either.
The news cycle today is entirely focused only on Covid and Trump. But there are atrocities occurring in the world today. Not talking about wars, or skirmishes, we are talking about ethnic cleansing again.
There is much to fault China about today. But nothing, not even Covid, can match the horror being inflicted by the People’s Republic on what was 20 million of it’s people. The Uyghurs (pronounced Wegurs.) This Muslim community is located in the East Turkestan area and China calls it the Xinj…
For the third time since 1992 Azerbaijan has attacked Armenia and the Artsakh Republic (Nagorno-Karabakh) that lies between the two former Soviet states. Armenia is a robust Parliamentary democracy allied with the West and one of the few post-Soviet era success stories in Eastern Europe and …
The rush to make the Greater Montreal Area, Quebec City and Chaudière-Appalache “Red Zones” less than a week after they went “Orange” and the onerous conditions imposed, demands that certain questions be asked. Five million Quebecers from Montreal, Laval and Quebec City will now be living un…
Over the past week we have seen the number of Covid infections rise to the 400-600 rate per day. A small percentage of those are actually sick. Public Health Director Horacio Arruda has even warned that we are in a “second wave.” It is important to continue to keep all safety measures in pla…
We have used this space some dozen times to criticize the Plante administration’s traffic,construction and anti-car policies. We were gratified to hear her words last week that she “hears the frustration” of Montrealers over road, traffic and construction conditions and that she plans to bri…
Today, we are at an important decision point in our lives and society. We are two days after Labour Day and two weeks before the end of the CERB. We’ve written before of the urgency for all of us to get back to work and restart our society.
The sight of street thugs pulling down and decapitating the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald was stomach-turning. It was a rape of the first principle of a civilized society. We decide matters by ballot not by bully. The rule of law is paramount. If the law is bad we work to change it. But we…
Here we go again. A recent survey of Montreal’s businesses demonstrated that some 60% either required a proficiency in English or suggested it would be a benefit for certain positions. It didn’t take long for the French panic propagators to start the drumrolls of division and discord.
Oscar Peterson was an iconic Quebecer for all the best reasons. Abbé Lionel Groulx was iconic to too many for all the wrong reasons. Peterson’s music and spirit brought people together around the world. Groulx’s racist writings sowed division and discord for decades in the period known as “L…
Last week we ran a story on the 10,000 person March of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Liberties. The march was called to protest the mandatory mask regulations, the $6,000 fines that enforce them, the possibility of mandatory vaccinations and the unprecedented power that the provin…
Just as we respond with generosity and empathy in a time of natural disasters, we must respond in the same way to the disaster that has befallen Beirut and with it the nation of Lebanon. In the oped on the facing page - co-authored by former Canadian Secretary of State for Asia Pacific The H…
This was a week of numbers in which we see a troubling road ahead in our recovery. Contradictory signals are not helping. Indeed they are confusing and are doing nothing to stop the fear even as Quebec’s daily Covid infection numbers stays at record lows of just over 100 down from over 1300 …
So between Covid and Mayor Plante’s continuing reduction of parking spaces and traffic lanes, is this finally the time to allow “Right on Red” and bring Montreal in line with most other North American cities? Summer seems to be the time for experiments in this city. And we’ve seen some bad o…
The most ancient of hatreds, that against the Jews, did not go into lockdown and did not self-isolate during Covid. Just before the pandemic hit, the League for Human Rights released it’s annual survey of anti-semitic incidents for 2019. It demonstrated a doubling of incidents nationally and…
In writing “1984” George Orwell warned of government power encroaching in all areas of our lives with an all-seeing and all-knowing “Big Brother” state. Privacy rights were to be forgotten. Individual prerogative beaten into submission.
We have used this space more than once to caution about needless and punitive police ticketing during this Covid pandemic. Now the Canadian Civil Liberties Association has confirmed in a study that aside from Covid, the past few months have seen an “ugly ticketing pandemic” in the words of e…
“Israel was not created in order to disappear. Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom.”~ President John Fitzger…
Extraordinary sacrifices have been made to protect our health system during the Covid virus outbreak. For the first time in history, economic and social civilization was closed down. Now, for the first time in three months, extraordinary efforts are being made to restart an economy in the wo…
Despite all the caution Quebec is using in gradually restarting our economy, we know that many of you are scared. Most understand the necessity and are ready for the challenge. But everyone has a tiny speck of concern in our minds.
At this time of needed and urgent recovery, the one essential element from government — particularly at the local level which most touches us — is reason and coherence. Instead, the past week has given us dogma, confusion and incoherence. Demand better — by calls or emails or physical presen…
It took hard words and harder numbers to change us. Lockdowns are not normal. Neither is social isolation. Many of those words and numbers have been proven wrong. They are now being changed as new facts are coming to light. Now that we are beginning a social and economic reboot, we must act …
Some of the concern over re-engaging after the lockdown has to do with the numbers. Every day only the total numbers of cases, hospitalizations and deaths are reported. And each death is tragic make no mistake. But it is also important to remember that numbers must be taken in perspective. Y…
Commerce will restart on Monday. Montreal’s numbers are coming down. We have had under 50 deaths a day from Covid all this week. The lowest numbers in almost two months. But many habits won’t change quickly if at all. Many will continue to work most of their week from home. You’re reading on…
Montreal mayor Valerie Plante decided earlier in the week to allow restaurants to open terraces without the usual exorbitantly high fees demanded by the city. Some went as high as $30,000 for the season.
We wrote last week,of all the reasons why this is the right time for a gradual reopening. And of all the things we will be changing to assure the safety and success of our societal reboot. But all the rules and comforting words can only go so far. We understand that concerns remain. Sometime…
No, these New Rules are not a replay of Bill Maher. But we are rolling out our society again. To paraphrase one of this week’s correspondents Henri Bybelezer, we are awakening and arising. And though it’s not going to be as tough as leaving a Higgins boat and landing on Omaha Beach, we are g…
Premier François Legault this week outlined a gradual plan for restoring education and business in Quebec as we report on our front page . We understand that many are still concerned. But the reality is that there is no measure that can absolutely protect anyone from catching Corona. As deva…
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