We have the wrong Trudeau as Prime Minister. Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms enshrined our right of free expression as a foundational law of the land. Section 2(b) states that “Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: (b) freedom of thought, bel…

Last week Premier Legault stated that an expansion of Bill 101 was coming and that since he understands that elements may violate the Canadian constitution he may use the notwithstanding clause to enforce it. In a time of pandemic and fear it is unconscionable, divisive and even if nothing m…

We’ve all had our views — often divergent — on many of the tactics used in combatting this pandemic. There are legitimate issues still to be resolved not the least of which are questions of civil rights and the rule of law. How far can a government be allowed to act in an emergency? How litt…

Almost every week, politics and public administration in our city and our province provide examples that make Jim Carrey’s movie pale by comparison. The past week was no exception.

This has been a week of mourning and remembrance in Montreal and throughout Quebec. We had been informed for months by medical and government spokespeople that the lockdown and isolation measures necessitated by the Covid crisis have driven up rates of divorce, conjugal violence, mental inst…

Last week,for the second consecutive year, Mayor Valerie Plante has blocked Montreal City Council from adopting a motion from Ensemble Montreal interim Leader and leader of the Official Opposition at City Hall Lionel Perez calling on Montreal to adopt the definition of anti-Semitism authored…

March 15 is know historically as “The Ides of March.” Under the Roman Empire it corresponded to the 74th day on its calendar and was the traditional date for settling debts.

We have warned several times that as important as it is to protect ourselves against Covid, it is just as important that we remember that civil rights have not been repealed and that rule of law has not been suspended. We need to be able to recognize ourselves on the other side of this.

We’ve all had our views — often divergent — on many of the policies used in combatting this pandemic. There are legitimate issues still to be resolved not the least of which are questions of civil rights and the rule of law. How far can a government be allowed to act with no basis in law? Ho…

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.

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.

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…

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.

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…

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…