Readers' Letters 

Premier Legault is not only hurting the Anglophones, he is also hurting a lot of Francophones who prefer their communication in English.  
   

But as long as there are votes to be gotten from anti-English, statements and policies, whether they make sense or not, Legault will keep doing what he is doing.
   

There are better ways to run Quebec. There are more important issues to deal with for the people of Quebec.

Carl Hager
Gatineau / Aylmer

You recently called on Canadians to engage in democratic life "with optimism", against a backdrop of indifference to political parties in general... and especially a swing in voting intentions towards the Conservative Party of Canada.  
   

BUT for there to be democracy, parliament must faithfully represent the citizens, whereas thanks to the current system, you were elected with 25% of registered citizens. Continuing to promote a two-party system (or almost) - when you promised to modernize it - is an insult to democracy and only feeds the cynicism of Canadians.
   

Liberals, are you afraid of seeing everything you've done since 2015 to "create economic growth while fighting climate change" disappear? 
   

BUT the growth you're talking about is questionable in itself, from a sustainable development perspective; and it's anemic, especially in Quebec, with the strong likelihood of a recession in the months ahead. 
   

As for the climate crisis, your policies are like your recent decision to exempt the Maritime provinces from the carbon tax: one step forward, two steps back, with far more words and (unkept) promises than deeds or achievements. Canada is not decarbonizing, our greenhouse gas emissions are still a long way from projected targets, and we still don't see how they'll reach them in the future! 
   

Canadians disapprove of your handling of the economy, Aboriginal issues and the climate crisis. You're worn out and your party hasn't delivered the goods. Apart from electioneering measures, you're not proposing anything.  To suggest that there is no progressive alternative to the right-wing Conservatives other than the Liberals is downright dishonest.  
   

The Green Party of Canada is progressive and ecological. It is an alternative that is more necessary than ever, and one that many other countries, particularly in Europe, trust. Your climate plan is a dead letter, and progress is still slow in coming. 
   

The Green Party is the only one that dares to propose the necessary measures, some of them unpopular, but for the happiness of the generations that follow us! Claims to the contrary are pure lies... or denial. It's time for the Liberal Party to hand over the reins.

Green Party of Canada Electoral District Association
of the Green Party of Canada in Hull-Aylmer

Would a "separate" Quebec be more French-speaking? Would we have more nurses? Would we have more family doctors? Would we have more teachers? Would there be fewer dropouts? Would young people speak better French? Would the media broadcast more French songs and ditties? Is music in shopping malls, restaurants, shopping places become French rather than American? Would NETFLIX, CRAVE and the others have more French and Quebec films? Will the Internet become more French?     We should start by putting our internal affairs in order, and really safeguarding and promoting the French language and Quebec French culture, imposing the Charter of the French Language at the CEGEP level and allowing access to English-language CEGEPs exclusively to English-speaking CEGEPs to students born to English-speaking parents from Quebec or Canada; As a result, Francophones would only have access to English-language institutions at the university level. This would eliminate the sad results of two levels of CEGEP graduates, those throughout the regions in the Province and those in Montreal, the Eastern Townships and the Outaouais. 
   

Quebec has shaped Canada and since 1867, seven MPs elected in Quebec have become leaders of political parties and "Prime Minister of Canada" - Wilfrid Laurier, Louis St-Laurent, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Brian Mulroney, Jean Chrétien, Paul Martin, Justin Trudeau. They have influenced the development of this country. The Official Languages Act may not be perfect, but without them, it would never have seen the light of day. 
   

Unfortunately, over the years, the governments of Quebec have not understood the importance of the Canadian Francophonie and the "leadership" role they could and should have played in all of the country's francophone issues: supporting the survival of Laurentian University in Sudbury, supporting the survival of Collège St-Jean in Edmonton, supporting the survival of Ottawa's Montfort Hospital, making the recognition of official bilingualism in our own federal capital Ottawa. Offer its support to the demands of Francophones in New Brunswick. Safeguarding the French language, not only in Quebec but across Canada, has been our business since 1867. 
   

Paul-Gérin Lajoie understood this well. As the first Quebec Ministry of Education minister, he saw Quebec's national and international role in the Canadian and international Francophonie. PGL Dictation remains a simple proof of his impact. But Operation 55, the creation of CEGEPs and the Réseau des Universités du Québec were initiatives aimed at strengthening the status and preservation of Quebec's Francophone community in Canada, America and the world. Montreal was once the second largest French-speaking city in the world after Paris. Quebec must get its act together if it wants to save its francophone existence. Separation is absolutely not necessary for this.
     

I would add that under the leadership of Jean Charest, starting in 2003, Benoît Pelletier PhD, then Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, and of La Francophonie, was able to take after Gérin-Lajoie and re-establish ties with Canada's francophone populations and was able to conclude various interprovincial agreements, including an agreement on health that highlighted the possibility of Quebec's asymmetry within a united Canada. He was also the instigator of the Council of the Federation, which the other Canadian provinces, as well as Quebec, found to be a progressive platform within the Canadian Federation.  
 

Antoine L. Normand

One day after the end of the parliamentary commission, housing committees and tenants will take the road as part of a car caravan to oppose Bill 31. The caravan will cross the north shore and visit the offices of CAQ ministers, notably Éric Girard, Pierre Fitzgibbon and François Legault.
   

The action is taking place as pressure mounts on the Legault government surrounding Bill 31, which aims to take away tenants’ right to lease transfer- one of the few existing means for tenants to keep rents affordable and to circumvent housing discrimination. Should the bill pass, it would also normalize evictions in a context where rents and evictions are skyrocketing. A report released last week found that homelessness in Québec has nearly doubled since 2018--- with evictions emerging as the most frequent cause. 
   

Tenants and housing committees will be demand that the CAQ backtrack on Bill 31 and instead, a rent freeze, plus measures to stop evictions, and a massive reinvestment in social housing. 

Amy Darwish, Comité d’action de Parc-Extension 
Montréal

Abusive restrictions leading to a morbid dependence on electricity: “You should not put all your eggs in one basket”. My father, an astute farmer, kept his horses for a long time after acquiring a tractor. You never know ... When he sold his horses, he reluctantly bought a second tractor. In case.  Likewise, his farm did not have monoculture. It is dangerous to be overly dependent on one source of income. 
   

Having become an urban owner, I unconsciously followed this rule. A heating problem that continues (mechanical breakdown, power outage) is serious. The oil boiler was combined with a wood stove. Oil was replaced by dual energy (natural gas boiler with electric element, stove, fireplace and gas water heater). This made it possible to produce heat without electricity if necessary. Camping equipment remaining at hand, enough to survive independently, so as not to seek refuge elsewhere during an ice storm or a tornado. 
   

You will understand that I feel a certain unease about the evolution of contemporary society. Through standards and decrees we are making me totally dependent on a single source of energy. The ancient wisdom has become a defect. Combustion engines are doomed to disappear in the short term. Wood? It pollutes terribly. The natural gas whose merits were praised? Source of GHGs and worse, it poisons your kitchen. Prohibited for cooking in new constructions. What remains? Electricity, but use sparingly. With parsimony because by eliminating all alternatives, from authority or in the name of the new environmental religion, electricity takes on disproportionate importance. 
   

And as these new policies create exponential demand, production will have to be doubled. There you go, the trap is closed. In recent days MM. Legault, Fitzgibbons and Sabia tell us without laughing that prices will have to increase. It is the art of sabotaging our heritage.

(Translation)

G. Laurin
Aylmer

Some days I think I understand the world around us! I read the newspapers, I listen to the radio news, I keep up with news online – I especially watch the migration of birds & bugs in my fields, the changing of leaves and it all makes me think I know what’s going on around me.

Then I get my property tax evaluation! Honestly, what is happening? I live outside Gatineau and have retired to a small piece of paradise. I planned out this time of my life, thinking I could gently cultivate my world in modest comfort.
Well – newsflash! Life is getting more expensive and nothing else is changing in terms of services or quality of life – just costs more, that’s all. I suppose the idea is I am to sell this off and move farther away?

Lorraine McCully
La Pêche

The Conservative party passed two motions at their convention attacking the rights of the queer and trans community. The first motion would prevent trans youth from accessing gender-affirming care, and the second would prevent trans women from accessing key public services. These motions, if passed into law, make life "less safe" for queer and trans people.  
Providing gender-affirming care to trans and gender-diverse youth is linked to better mental health outcomes and overall well-being. From personal experience with a family member, I know that Gender-affirming care literally saves lives. 
Queer and trans people deserve to exist in spaces that correspond with their gender.   Taking that option away does nothing but make life less safe for people already facing daily discrimination.  
The majority of Canadians want to see action on the cost-of-living crisis and climate change. These hateful policies exclude marginalized communities and distract from the real issues impacting Canadians. 

Lyndee Wolf 
Ottawa (rural)

Hello West Quebec Post: You’ll find my subscription fee attached but want to note that I’ve been also enjoying the new website. Way to go! I wonder what Bob Phillips would have said about it? I think he would have enjoyed it very much. And so would Ernie Mahoney, he would surely fill the website with all sorts of interesting photographs and wacky stories.

Ah the old days! Keep up the good work, team of the West Quebec Post. And please know that just because you have a website, it doesn’t mean your readers don’t want more paper news! We do! Print more, please!

Susan Wilkinson
La Pêche

One in four children live in places affected by conflict and disaster, many displaced from their homes, living in refugee camps.  Over 500,000,000 children have no access to the fundamental rights many of us take for granted, like access to quality education, health, nutrition, and safety from violence.  Climate change and conflicts dragging on for decades mean, without action, limited options for many.  
   

Canada, please renew and maintain investment in quality education by committing $500,000,000 over five years at the Global Refugee Forum in December to restore access to quality education for the most marginalized learners. It would fulfill Canada’s commitment to invest new resources to support access to education for girls, refugees, internally displaced children, and those living with disabilities or in emergencies.  
   

Canada, please ...

Marnie Shaw
Calgary, Alb

One day after the end of the parliamentary commission, housing committees and tenants will take the road as part of a car caravan to oppose Bill 31. The caravan will cross the north shore and visit the offices of CAQ ministers, notably Éric Girard, Pierre Fitzgibbon and François Legault.
   

The action is taking place as pressure mounts on the Legault government surrounding Bill 31, which aims to take away tenants’ right to lease transfer- one of the few existing means for tenants to keep rents affordable and to circumvent housing discrimination. Should the bill pass, it would also normalize evictions in a context where rents and evictions are skyrocketing. A report released last week found that homelessness in Québec has nearly doubled since 2018--- with evictions emerging as the most frequent cause. 
   

Tenants and housing committees will be demand that the CAQ backtrack on Bill 31 and instead, a rent freeze, plus measures to stop evictions, and a massive reinvestment in social housing. 

Amy Darwish, Comité d’action de Parc-Extension 
Montréal

The government of India has declared that Canada is not a safe place for Indians.  This is not true! 
  

 On the contrary, we, members of the Indian diaspora in Canada are very concerned about the safety of minorities in India and South Asia – Muslims, Dalits, Christians, Adivasis/Indigenous, Sikhs, and human rights defenders, who suffer violence, persecution and death at the hands of the state, or with state complicity and silence. 

India is on the world's genocide watch list.  
    

We are community organizations and individuals who have lived and worked together for decades in harmony in Montreal, irrespective of our individual religious affiliations and backgrounds.  What unites us together is our commitment to justice and democracy, our work for equality, our work against racism, for gender justice, for rights for workers and migrants and status for all migrants.  If there are issues of safety, they come from being racialized, not because we're Indian. 
    

We Indian and South Asian communities and allies stand together to strongly denounce and oppose this fallacious fear-mongering and politics of hate.  And we link our arms in solidarity with each other.  


CERAS (Centre sur l’asie du sud) 
IWC (Immigrant Workers’ Centre) 
SAWCC (South Asian Women’s Community Centre)  
And others 

John Egan, elected to Aylmer’s first council in 1847, and chosen to serve as Mayor, will be remembered on Saturday, September 9 at 11 am at the unveiling of a memorial granite bench to honour a remarkable pioneer.  The ceremony will take place at 161 rue Principale, Gatineau (Aylmer) in the grounds of Chartwell Monastère Aylmer, close to Egan’s former home, the mansion Mount Pleasant, (now a Montessori school).

Egan descendants will be at the unveiling together with dignitaries and local businesses who have sponsored the bench.  John Egan was a native of Ireland, and Ireland’s Ambassador to Canada, Dr. Eamonn McKee, will speak of his interest in John Egan`s legacy. The public is invited to the ceremony.

The event marks the culmination of the year-long activities of Aylmer Heritage Association to mark the 175^th anniversary of Aylmer’s incorporation as a village, separate from Hull Township, in 1847.

Lumber baron, Member of Parliament and entrepreneur, John Egan’s part in the development of the steamboat service made Aylmer a thriving regional transportation centre in the mid-19^th century; it is fitting that John Egan’s legacy as a nation-builder will continue to be remembered.

No rain date. People are encouraged to bring umbrellas, if needed.

Parking is available at St. Mark`s Catholic Church, 160 rue Principale, Aylmer.

Aylmer Heritage Association

Gatineau / Aylmer

The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is seeking volunteers who want to get involved in the protection of natural areas in the Outaouais. The not-for-profit conservation organization invites citizens to a clean-up on Saturday, September 16th, 2023.     

Conservation Volunteers are needed to help protect habitat on Kettle Island by helping clean up its banks. Picking up trash along its shores and volunteers with a boat are also needed to help transport volunteers to the island and to help bring back waste.

Kettle Island is the third-largest island in the Ottawa River, after Île aux Allumettes and Grand-Calumet. Almost entirely covered by moist forest, the island is home to a silver maple grove as well as stands of basswood and hackberry, a species likely to be designated threatened or vulnerable in Quebec. There are also several swamp areas, which are preferred habitat for species such as northern watersnake, map turtle and butternut tree. This island acquisition for protected area purposes has been funded through the private stewardship assistance programs of the Gouvernement du Québec.   

Saturday, September 16th from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.with meeting points:  he Ottawa Riverkeeper River House and  Pointe Duval (southwestern tip of the island) for those with boats

To sign up: Registration deadline: September 13th, 2023.  Visit: natureconservancy.ca       

Ania Wurster,   NCC - Quebec

Gatineau

This is a warning to future graduates of Philemon Wright High School: pay to rent your graduation gown, even if you will not be attending your graduation ceremony. We experienced exclusion from Philemon Wright High School firsthand this year as our daughter could not attend her graduation ceremony due to her commitment to her sport and to a Quebec sports championship being held in Montreal the week of the graduation ceremony. Our daughter was excluded from the list of 2022-2023 graduates because she did not pay for a graduation gown. The list had the title, “2022-2023 Graduates”. It did not have the title, “2022-2023 Graduates Attending the Ceremony”. Our daughter was also excluded from seeing the notation of Career Principal’s List beside her name when she was one of only a handful of the graduates listed earning that distinction. The principal’s response was that, “The graduation program is created to reflect the graduation ceremony. The secretary will create the program with the information she receives from me with respect to the script but them cross references it with the students who bought a gown and confirmed their attendance. This is done in advance so we can photocopy all the programs and prepare.”

Principal Dodie Payne may think she is inclusive, but her actions very much exclude students. Maybe next year the administration at Philemon Wright High School could prepare and photocopy a full potential graduates list and just delete the names of graduates not attending from the administrators’ list as this would be much more inclusive and likely much less time consuming.

Karen Smith

Gatineau

We hear a lot of bad things about our residential and long-term care centres (CHSLDs). Personally, I have nothing but praise for the CHSLD Lionel-Émond. My parents-in-law spent the rest of their lives there and received excellent care. Every effort was made to respect their human dignity and to provide them with the constant care they needed, as they both suffer from Alzheimer's disease.

Despite the pandemic, our visiting rights were always respected, subject to the necessary health precautions. What's more, the management of the CHSLD was very transparent, keeping us regularly informed of the situation through virtual information sessions.

We must pay tribute to the volunteers and staff who are devoting themselves body and soul to meeting the needs of patients and ensuring their well-being, despite the shortage of staff and the many administrative constraints.

All in all, we are fortunate to have such an institution to take over from private residences, which unfortunately do not adequately meet the needs of elderly people who are not self-sufficient.

Long live Le Foyer du Bonheur!

Bernard Cournoyer

Gatineau

(Trans.)

We wanted to share with you and Mr. Rock (columnist) that our open letter is addressed to our federal Pontiac Member of Parliament, Ms. Sophie Chatel.  

We drafted this letter in response to her statements made to local media in early June.  In one article entitled "Federal language law amendment good for English and French says Pontiac MP" she states that Bill C-13 "invests in the minority language community..." and further specifies "the investment of $137 million in excess of existing funding to promote minority language education in the Pontiac and across Quebec,".  

We felt it vital that she, and the federal government, understand the current educational reality of English-speaking residents of our community (and our unique journey over the last 10-12 years) from the perspective of local, veteran educators, as government contemplates the allocation of said funds prior to the bill completing its third reading in the Senate.  

While education falls squarely under provincial jurisdiction, the protection of minority official language residents' rights to security (education and healthcare) are guaranteed in the Official Language Act of the Charter, and thus, within the purview of the federal  government.  From preschool programs through to post-secondary Cegep programming (and now access vis a vis transportation to and from) there is much to be considered as an urgent need.  

Gillian Patenaude and Concerned Teachers of McDowell  School

Shawville, Qc

I attended the Energy from Waste town meeting in Shawville last month as I am following the waste problem.  Several people at the meeting objected, and thought the MRC-Pontiac's emphasis should be on reducing waste at its source -- our kitchens and backyards.  That sounds great, win-win, but consider this example.  My family just returned from a week's camping in an Ontario government provincial campgrounds.  Despite all the recycle/re-use talk, there was only one type of trash container for all campers, "waste". We had been sorting out our food waste to compost -- but where?  Take it all back home?  Maybe.  But shouldn't the province put its money where it's mouth claims to be : compost collection and processing into soil, via separate recyclable waste cans ... we all know the best route, but what will it take for a little spending by the province, any province and all of them! 

Jay Anderson

Clarendon

The article of August 16 regarding the NCC’s announcement of parkway closures caught my eye.  As a member of the area’s Wakefield Walkers since 2008, I am perplexed and dismayed that the NCC closes the parkways which lead us to natural and historic sites (eg Champlain Lookout, Mackenzie King Estate) and so many of the favourite trailheads for our hikes.

The parkways are closed to private vehicles 4 out of 5 week days. The extra traffic is dumped onto the local roads (eg Kingsmere Rd.,Notch Rd. and Meech Lake Rd.). Couched as a conservation measure, the NCC’s closure of the parkways discriminates against all of us who do not have the ability to access the key sites in the southern sector of the park.

Adding insult to injury, no shuttles run on the 4 weekdays when automobiles are banned.

The NCC is discriminatory in its policy and dishonest in its presentation of the facts.  

Meriel Beament Bradford

Member Wakefield Walkers

Chelsea QC

If you think MPs do little ....

When I read the following agenda for the House of Commons, I thought this info should go into our local paper.  Many people have little good to say about the work of MPs and about their work habits (i.e. they are off now of until mid-September).  I ask my neighbours, read this list, and tell us if you still think a politician's life is easy!

• Bill C-33, the Strengthening the Port System and Railway Safety in Canada Act, second reading. 
• Bill C-35, the Canada Early Learning and Childcare Act, third reading. 
• Bill C-244, Amending the Copyright Act (diagnosis, maintenance and repair), third reading. 
• Bill C-252, Amending the Food and Drugs Act (prohibition of food and beverage marketing directed at children), third reading. 
• Bill C-26, cybersecurity, amending the Telecommunications Act, and others, in committee. 
• Bill C-40, amending the Criminal Code, second reading. 
• Bill S-8, amending the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, report stage. 
• Bill C-18, on online communications platforms; the House of Commons is considering Senate amendments. 

Committee Updates 

• CIIT dicusses Canadian mining firms abroad today. 
• CIMM discusses an exploitation scheme targeting some international students.
• CACN discussing Canada-People’s Republic of China Relations. 
• ENVI  discussing clean technologies in Canada. 
• FINA  pre-budget consultations in advance of the 2024 Budget. 

In the Senate 

• Bill C-13, amending the Official Languages Act, third reading. 
• Bill C-47, Budget Implementation Act, third reading. 

Committee Updates 

• RIDR  issues relating to human rights generally. 
• AOVS will report on the Senate’s internal and external audits, etc.

ICYMI 

• Ministers Wilkinson and O’Regan tabled the government’s Sustainable Jobs Bill -- planning for jobs in the energy sector alongside the green transition. (Premier Smith claimed that this plan is a threat to Alberta’s oil and gas industry.)
• The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the "Safe Third Country Agreement" is constitutional. The pact with the USA (2004), seeks to control the flow of asylum seekers across the shared border. 
• Prime Minister Trudeau and deputy Freeland visited Kyiv, Ukraine, last weekend. The PM met with President Zelenskyy to reaffirm Canada’s support, and announced new measures and investments to support Ukraine, including $500 million more in military assistance.
• Prime Minister Trudeau spoke with President Biden to discuss the current wildfires and their impact on air quality.

If so, please write in: are MPs (and MLAs) just on the gravy train?

Ronald Sears

Aylmer

What can we do, having only one news source inside an eco-sphere of fake news, when the commercial sector is truly awful, really a disgrace to an educated people...?  We worry about China or Russia or even the Wagner manipulating our news diet, while there's a slo-mo landslide of media manipulation bearing down upon us from below our border?  We "investigate" (this means we complain) about foreign influence but refuse --REFUSE!-- to consider that US intervention and funding is far more influential and effective?   Will Mr Poilievre tell us he wants an investigation of US intervention and manipulation in our elections?  Oh, is he really a comedian?

Manuel Melgoza

Aylmer

The federal government has unveiled its long-promised Sustainable Jobs Act, but the bill had no specifics, no urgency, and no mention of a just transition. With wildfires raging across nearly every province and territory and climate scientists calling for radical action, this inadequate plan to make a plan is simply unacceptable.
    We need the federal government to act with the courage necessary to tackle the climate emergency. We need the federal government to act with the courage necessary to tackle the climate emergency. That’s why we’re working with 350 Canada to invite communities across the country to take action on June 28th and make it impossible for our federal leaders to ignore the urgency of this moment.
   

Together, we will show up at as many MP offices as possible and demand federal action to:
 Stop the fossil fuel industry: no more subsidies, no new projects, and no more industry influence over our politics.
 

Enact a just transition: urgently shift us to 100 per cent renewables while generating millions of unionized jobs, following Indigenous leadership, and aligning with climate science.
   

Please help us bring these demands to your MP?

Dylan Penner, Company of Canadians
Ottawa

Are you a member of a residents' association? If you have upcoming events, if you are recruiting helpers or looking for signatures – make use of your local newspaper! Every week, by 4 p.m. on Thursdays, you can send us your association's news in a maximum of 150 words.

Please make sure to include a signature and contact information as well as the name of the association.

The editor

More than 17,000 residents of long-term care in Canada died because of COVID. Early in the pandemic, 80 per cent of deaths took place in long-term care homes, giving Canada the distinction of having the highest such numbers among nations in the OECD. 
Those who lost loved ones haven’t forgotten about commitments made at the height of the pandemic by all levels of government and by the sector itself to right these systemic wrongs.  I was pleased to see the recent release of national standards for long-term care and to see feedback from the National Association of Federal Retirees reflected in the final standards.  
The problem, however, is that the standards are still voluntary. Enforceability and regulation are needed to have a real impact. 
Now is the time to implement enforced principles and national standards for long-term care. As part of a national seniors strategy these standards must specify conditions and criteria the provinces and territories must meet to receive federal health and social transfer payments, with repercussions for failing to meet the standards. This will ensure equitable and consistent quality care across the country, and adequate levels of funding for these types of care. It will also ensure greater public accountability of government delivery of long-term care. 

I urge all Canadians to call on the government to implement and enforce principles and national standards for long-term care. The time for this is now.

Lisette M Wallingford

Ottawa

Many of us at one time or another have sold a property. When doing so one needs a surveyor. I sold a property in 2021 and hired a surveyor. 

The lack of professionalism of this individual was simply appalling. He did not show for agreed meetings and did not bother to advise of his cancellation.  He did not offer a written contract and assured me that the price quoted covered all expenses. He later reneged saying that it did not include the corner markers. 

I did the Google review and filed a complaint ( in 2021) with the surveyors' association. No results, just more justifications and… Maybe the association is overwhelmed with complaints and can’t cope. Maybe the association is understaffed. Maybe the association is exercising strategies known in the corporate world as “Dark Patterns”; using different methods of discouraging complainers to pursue and encouraging them to abandon.

My big mistake was to not demand a written contract, not all professionals are born equal, some are, though competent, arrogant and irresponsible and frustrating.

J.R.F

Pontiac

s

Is there a petition I can sign somewhere? About the rotten service at the SAAQ? I was in line for 2.5 hours recently. The woman behind me said she had to take the morning off work to be in line. She said the service by the government in Quebec is worse than in her home country, in central Africa.

Sometimes we, in Quebec get passive and think that things are better here than elsewhere. But she is right, the woman I shared my morning with. Now I want the Ombudsman to take a good look at the failure in the SAAQ service.

It would be okay for a week or two while the new system was onboarded back in February. But now it is June. The lovely person who served me mentioned I could have made an appointment. I tried – the next available appointment is at the end of July!!! The woman behind me said the same, and that her license is about to expire.

Can the Bulletin do a deep investigation into this problem? Are the same managers from our degenerating health care system now running the auto licensing bureau?

Audrey Levesque

Chelsea

In an effort to reduce the number of wildfires this spring, the Society for the Protection of Forests Against Fire (SOPFEU) is launching its annual awareness campaign, debunking some of the myths about the subject. A series of educational vignettes and two animated videos will be released through the end of spring, primarily via social media. The objective of this campaign is to remind people that contrary to popular belief, it is in the spring that the majority of forest fires in Quebec occur, notably due to the loss of control of many brush fires initiated by residents.

SOPFEU points out that in the spring, municipal firefighters and SOPFEU forest firefighters intervene on an average of 275 fires affecting the forest. At this time of the year, despite the cool weather and the still wet soils, the risk of fire is often very high.  In fact, before foliage and greenery appear, the fuel on the ground consists of wilted grasses, dead leaves and dry brush, which are highly flammable. It only takes a few hours of sunlight and a little wind for the dead vegetation to dry out quickly and the level of fire danger rises substantially. A fire can then spread over a good distance and threaten the forest as well as nearby buildings.  (Translated)

Melanie Morin, SOPFEU
Messines

What strange bedfellows right-wing politics and evangelical religion make. And Canadian conservatism is right there under the duvet.

On Feb. 12, 2022 former prime minister Stephen Harper gave an address to the Universal Peace Federation World Summit 2022 taking place in Seoul, South Korea. The UPF is the political arm of the Unification Church, founded by Sun Myung Moon and now headed by his wife Hak Ja Han Moon.

Harper’s remarks were focused on the role of religious freedom “in our grand objective, the peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula.” Even Harper admitted that some of his remarks “may sound bizarre” in praising the Universal Peace Federation ...

 
Michael Duffy
Cyber-space

 Bravo to the National Gallery for owning up to their recent ransomware attack. I wish that more places would do so. 

I know that the attacks are happening every day. I deal with two different banks in our business, and have both been attacked. Unfortunately my information was captured by whoever generated the attack. But, apparently, the attackers did not know that galleries are impoverished for the most part.

Do you get any reports of this on our side of the river?


Lizi Grey
Gatineau

Thank you team West Quebec Post, the edition in early May was such a good read. It always surprises me that spring is a time of forest fires – and even house fires! I read all this in the Post. With water all around us, feeling like we are entirely water-logged, it really is startling that we have fires. But the good news was on Page 1, with the Heritage CEGEP Basketball boys – what a fine group! The future looks good, thanks for delivering the news.

Julie Levesque
Chelsea

In response to all the letters pro and con about CBC and its funding through our tax dollars, I wonder if those against the CBC are really interested in quality news. Wouldn't they just listen to something else?  That's what most of us do, and if it costs us $7 each on our taxes every year - are we each going to go through the federal budget to decide if we want to pay for everything from new ice-breakers to rehab centres and universities?  I believe these nay-sayers are speaking politically, nothing about the CBC at all.  The Conservatives have made this one of their rallying calls, because it fits so nicely with their conspiracy-thinking. 

Having said that, I must add that I too am very disappointed in CBC-radio.  Not because it costs me $7 or $100 but because their news services are of such poor quality, rarely prompt, and appear to be totally taken from US foreign policy statements. CBC-news sits square in the middle of those drumming for another war -- with Russia or China. We get no, absolutely no, objective analysis or background for any of these issues.  "Us good; them bad": that's CBC news' depth analysis!  But they use a crying mother or injured baby to make their point.

My proposal is that we unite and ask for BETTER CBC news, journalism and programming, not less, and certainly not more dependent upon private advertising.  That's a genuine Canadian response: improvements, not cancellations.  CBC, please wake up!

Thank you, Bulletin, for providing this public forum.

Albert Bis
Gatineau

The Chalk River labs is still planning its untested, first-in-the-world sized nuclear dump, seven football fields of toxic waste, upstream from the Pontiac, Ottawa, Gatineau and beyond.

Stephan Harper, seeing the expense of dealing with these toxic wastes, privatized the job to reduce the federal government's legal liability for accidents.  The waste will last for tousands of years; by the time any accidents began, the corporate managers will be gone -- or living in places where they cannot be sued by us.  And what if they were convicted?  Do they have the billions of dollars needed to fix any disaster? Can anyone fix the potential deaths and disease?

No, this nuclear dump is a very bad deal for the Pontiac. But when has a federal Liberal government ever not supported the corporate sector (examples: SNC  Lavalin, Transmountain Pipeline and the Rodgers cable deal).

Good for MRC-Pontiac for objecting. We must keep up our protests, even if if our liberal MP, Ms Chatel, has said it's a done deal.

Kenneth Poirier
Iles des Allumettes, Pontiac

In response to Susan Gauhier’ letter to the Bulletin, Mar 15, 2023:  "Pesticide control in Gatineau", we thank her for her interest in the Bti issue, a pesticide massively sprayed by our municipality to kill mosquitoe and black fly larvae. We also appreciate that she wishes that “the citizens make an informed decision before asking city councillors to vote on our behalf regarding this issue” at their next meeting in Aylmer.   Gatineau citizens must learn of the negative impacts of this pesticide on birds, fish, frogs and dragonflies, and that they be aware that it’s been sprayed by our city for close to 30 years in wetlands, ponds and streams in 7 districts in the East side of Gatineau.

A multitude of studies in the last 15 years have shown how Bti affects the whole food chain in these fragile ecosystems; since 2019 the Ministère de la faune recommends this insecticide be avoided by cities (precautionary principle). We recommend a CBC May 21 interview in which Professor Marc Belisle (Sherbrooke University, specialized in insectivorous bird declines), explains, in a nutshell, what is Bti and what are its impacts.  

If your family enjoys eating outside all summer long in Aylmer, you might be happy that there is no anti-larvae spraying in Aylmer (there never was). Our group is asking that citizens from all districts of Gatineau make it clear to city council on  April 18 (Robert-Middlemiss Pavillion at the Marina- 19H00) that we want Bti banned from our territory in Gatineau to preserve what is left of our regional biodiversity. See Petition Non au Bti dans nos marais à Gatineau.  I hope all readers will join us!

France Gagnon, FB Gatineau Sans Pesticides
Aylmer

I would like to urge West Quebec Post readers to check out a brand-new news source on Alberta's frothey political world and its strategy to privatize health care and the educational system, the result of a new party -- and an ambitious effort to even further radicalize Alberta nationalists within that party.  Sound new .... to us living in Legault's Quebec?

This news source, the Alberta Edge, is produced by the Tyee -- a nationally recognized online news source for news from Canada's western half, especially the West Coast.  It is free and comes weekly (as does the Tyee). Check out The Tyee's website. No obligations as far as I can see. It's a bit like looking at our own province in a distorting mirror.

Fred Ryan
MRC-Pontiac

Dear Prime Minister, I am writing to express the profound concerns of the English-speaking community of Quebec about the current discussions in Committee over revisions to the Official Languages Act, Bill C-13. My organization represents thousands of Canadians, who support a moderate approach to language policy in Quebec.

As you know, the Act was passed in 1969 by your father's government after the extensive national discussions of the Bilingualism and Biculturalism Commission, spearheaded by your father's mentor, Frank Scott. The purpose of the law then and now was to ensure services to minority linguistic communities across the country and support their capacity to work in their official language.

Since that time, the English-speaking community and its institutions have worked collaboratively with francophone minority communities to support one another. In fights for Francophone school boards, provincial laws, and support for the status of the French Language, there has been solidarity.

Bill C-13 has many redeeming qualities, not the least of which is the effort to encourage the flourishing of the French Language in the rest of Canada. However, by encouraging the idea there is only one minority language group in Canada worth supporting, you are not only abandoning the Anglophone community of Quebec in the short term, you are opening up a Pandora's Box which could lead to the elimination of jobs for English Quebecers in the federal public service and federally-regulated businesses, the elimination of English school boards via loss of Section 23 rights, and the continued marginalization of a community of 1.25 million Canadian citizens.

Your government has also managed to incorporate the egregious provincial law 96, and its unethical pre-emptive use of the notwithstanding clause, into federal legislation. Law 96 is nothing but a vengeful attack on our community. It does nothing to promote the French language and instead emphasizes the creation of a separate, ethnocentric, French speaking nation-state in Quebec. This is the precursor of the independence of Quebec and the end of Canada as we know it.

While incorporating Law 96 into Bill C-13 might have been seen as a clever political ploy to appeal to so-called "soft nationalists," it is unprecedented and appalling. By collaborating with the Bloc Québécois, the Conservatives and NDP have shown their own lack of concern for Canada's future. The only true leaders emerging from this mess are the handful of dissenting Liberal MPs with the courage to speak out for Canadian values, notably Marc Garneau, Marc Miller, Anthony Housefather and Emmanuella Lambropoulos.

In short, your government's actions and those of Premier François Legault, have put the English-speaking community of Quebec, Canadian official bilingualism, and the unity of Canada, in crisis.

Consequently, I call upon you to regain control of the legislative process, remove the references to the Charter of the French Language and reverse the harmful amendments being imposed by the opposition parties. If that is not possible, withdraw this extremely troubling legislation. Then you should call a national meeting of leaders of minority linguistic communities and create a path for understanding and solidarity between our communities that leads to a stronger, more equitable Official Languages Act.

Andrew Caddell,

President Comité spécial sur la politique linguistique / Task Force on Linguistic Policy

I am very concerned with what’s happening to our health care system (in Ontario). Doug Ford is doing his best to privatize it, and we cannot allow that. It is written in our Constitution that we have a right to health care. The long waiting lists and hours of wait times in ERs is not health care. We must stand up to Doug Ford and not allow him to continue dismantling our health care system. 

Aline S, 
Ottawa, Ont

After Veterinarian confirmation, my question is what is being spread on our rural roads? All 4 paws were affected, raw affecting sensitivity plus mobility for days. The Municipality to date did not answer what chemicals are being spread upon request. Raising awareness in hopes no other dog gets affected in our Community. 

Pontiac, QC 

Have you noticed that every time we talk about the prestige, status, and influence of the French language in Quebec, we divert attention from the quality of French? It's an old strategy!

Not that it's not an important issue, but it's mainly the consequence of a guilt-inducing strategy that diverts attention from issues of prestige, status, legal and regulatory frameworks, and government obligations! 
 
This campaign "Au Québec, le français est en déclin" can also be understood to mean "Au Québec, les gens parlent mal!" In its own way, this publicity is hurtful, demeaning to a people whose survival, growth and influence are the result of an admirable collective strength and past, given its history, geography and English and Canadian dominance over Quebec. A positive, not demeaning campaign would have been HIGHLY preferable. Moreover, how will plural Quebec react to this campaign, in its own denigrating and distancing way?" The intention was good, but!!!
This vast societal promotional campaign is, moreover, produced and widely disseminated by our government in the traditional and social media!
 
Instead of targeting "the decline of French" through the use of anglicisms, this advertisement would have been much better suited if it had targeted:
- The language of work,
- The language of welcome and service,
- The common language of diversity,
- The integration of allophone and anglophone newcomers,
- Access to post-secondary education in French,
- Obtaining, for Quebec, the exclusive competencies of immigration, education, culture, language. (Translated)

 
Jean-Paul Perreault
President
Impératif français
Aylmer

I am writing this on behalf of my teenage son, on his dare. We read the Post, especially the letters. Almost every week there are letters about climate change, and according to him these letters are mostly complaints about what others are not doing, in our efforts to slow climate disintegration. They all have advice for others, lots of criticism about governments, but he wants to hear what these people are actually doing themselves. He sees very little being done (we both do) by our friends and relatives and he finds this hypocritical.

Driving is his big complaint: have people actually cut their fuel emissions by changing their driving habits?  Or do they still "jump in the car" whenever any little thing is missing or needed.  Or in our homes. Have people actually reduced their water usage (and sewage production)?  Dishwashers are very wasteful of water and heat, yet every house has one and they seem to be used all the time.  Laundry, especially driers, all are especially wasteful, and we should all be angry about people washing their driveways and cars -- even their whole houses. All the tree-cutting around town is also so depressing --- it's like there are people who seem totally unaware of the effects of their actions, as long as they can make money somewhere in the process. Frankly I cannot disagree with him, but this pessimism which also seems so common only makes things worse.            

There, I've written his letter. Does anybody have a reaction?

Robert Hunstle

Aylmer

In response to the letter from J.R.F. from the Pontiac: I agree completely with him.  Legault’s government expects all government workers to pass a written as well as oral French test and if results do not amount to 75% they will not be hired. 

However, we do watch TVA news at 5:58 nightly and English words are included regularly in their broadcasts i.e., stocker, leader, manager, stopper, leadership, player, feeling, party, coach, mon scoop, etc.  Both official Canadian languages must be respected in Quebec, as they are in the other provinces.  English-speaking Quebeckers should have as many rights as French-speaking ones. 

K.R.C.

Gatineau

I'm Roland Montpellier, a grandfather of four. I've been active in the climate movement for 15 years. Millions of people around the world are working hard to pressure their leaders to take the climate action that aligns with the gravity and the scope of the crisis. But our emissions keep rising. We are losing the war. 
           

The oil and gas sector is the largest and fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada, so we can’t meet our climate targets without reducing these emissions.  Yet Canada continues to use taxpayers’ dollars to subsidize and finance the oil and gas sector despite its obscene profits — which have increased by 1,000 per cent in Canada since 2019. 
           

Renewable energy prices are more stable and predictable than oil and gas prices. If we want energy security, reliability and affordability, renewables are the way forward.  We need to do more to save our world. 
 

Roland Montpellier

Gatineau

With the theme "Prevention is Better than Death," the 33rd edition of Suicide Prevention Week reminds us that suicide is not inevitable. To reduce suicide rates, it is important to open up a dialogue on the topic.

Talking about suicide is an essential starting point for prevention that is within everyone’s reach. If you would like to participate, join AQPS to raise awareness through motivational messages and information about resources in your community :DareToTalkAboutSuicide.com

Connexions

Gatineau

Joshua Frank's genuinely unsettling book, "Atomic Days: The Untold Story of the Most Toxic Place in America", was dubbed one of the best books of 2022 (by The Progressive magazine), writing: "Joshua Frank blows the lid off  'the U.S. government’s gargantuan plutonium operation' that 'churned out nearly all of the radioactive fuel used in the country’s nuclear arsenal....'  

The award-winning journalist makes a compelling case that Hanford has become  'the costliest environmental remediation project the world has ever seen, and arguably the most contaminated place on the entire planet...'"           

As some turn to nuclear power as a supposed solution to the climate emergency, "Atomic Days" reminds readers of the perils of nuclear waste and its difficult disposal.

Tom Greenberg

Cyberspace

Survivors and victims of mass killings who have been campaigning for decades to ban assault weapons are shocked by the unanimous withdrawal of amendments G-4 and G- 46 aimed at banning assault weapons by the Standing Committee on Public Safety. It is clear that the misinformation propagated by Conservative MPs and the gun lobby has won.           

The only glimmer of hope lies in the Minister’s commitment to continue to “work with our parliamentary colleagues to craft a new, clear solution that will keep assault-style weapons off our streets” and the possibility of reintroducing new amendments based on the additional consultations that have simultaneously been voted on, especially if these will clarify the true impact of the proposed measures and effectively counter the rampant disinformation.           

We are especially eager to hear from opposition parties with respect to the next steps, especially the Bloc Québécois. The government needs only one opposition party to deliver on their promise to ban assault weapons and it would be unthinkable for the Bloc not to collaborate in this regard. 

Nathalie Provost, PolySeSouvient

Montreal

Recent patients have died unexpectedly in emergency departments in New Brunswick and  Ontario. CHEO has opened a second ICU. Due to exhaustion, burnout, and poor working conditions, many health-care workers have quit, forcing emergency departments across Canada to close temporarily. About five million Canadians have no family physician, only walk-in clinics. No wonder health care has surpassed inflation as the top national issue, according to Nanos polling.           

Manitoba's Premier has reiterated her request that Ottawa increase the Canada Health Transfer from 22% to 35%. But Federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos refuses to (talk additional money until the provinces guarantee its uses). He wants them to focus on recruiting and retaining professionals -- not good enough say the premiers.           

What can be done? Medical and nursing school enrolment is increasing. B.C. is tripling places for foreign-trained physicians to obtain their licence; other provinces are fast-tracking foreign nursing and medical graduates. The Canadian Medical Association proposes a nationally portable medical licensure. Others also propose team-based care with salaries and fringe benefits for physicians.           

We need incentives to keep older physicians working , say, reduced annual licence fees.  Over 15-16% of our family physicians and specialists are 65 or over.           

Physicians may be off work for weeks to months due to heart attacks, severe infection like COVID-19, resection of tumors, prostate or cardiac surgery, depression, knee or hip replacement, etc. This may end in retirement. Private disability insurance is usually unobtainable past age 65.           

All provinces have had different benefits such as medical leaves.  Younger physicians are mobile, and attracted by these benefits. Nationally portable medical licenses would pressure all provinces for benefits such as short-term disability for older physicians.           

I therefore propose that Quebec and all jurisdictions provide the following:           

Practicing physicians and surgeons covered, age 65 to 80, without delays: MDs would receive 70-80% of their average monthly billings for 60, or preferably 90 days.           

For Ottawa to directly subsidize such a program would be an example of targeted health transfers which should be agreeable to Duclos and welcomed by most provinces. Yet by claiming "exclusive provincial jurisdiction", Quebec could protest these “strings attached” to federal funds. Ottawa could then pay the doctors directly! Recall that the Interim Federal Health Program pays physicians treating refugees directly, or for treating federal prisoners, and, until 2013, for members of the RCMP.           

Short-term disability coverage would help keep older physicians working, even part time. For example, 80% of patients in emergency departments could be managed by family physicians, lessening the burden on these overcrowded, understaffed facilities.

Charles S. Shaver, MD

Ottawa

At the UN Conference on Biodiversity (COP15) in December, Indigenous peoples reminded us of their long history of sustainably managing diverse and abundant ecosystems, as is the case with Anishnabe people in La Verendrye Wildlife Park. They specifically rely on moose for healthy food, clothing, and ceremony.           

The community has noted a sharp decline in the moose population in the last 15 years. The Quebec government’s  study shows that moose numbers in the Park have dropped by 35% in the last 12 years, butt the government has failed to take adequate action to address it. In response to this  decline in a once stable population, the Anishnabe communities in and around the Park came together to form the Anishnabe Moose Committee in 2021, and conducted the most in-depth study to date on the region’s moose population. The report pointed to sport hunting, logging, and climate change as causes of the population collapse.           

This steep decline in the moose population raises a number of questions: What economic, political, and social forces have contributed to the decline in the moose population? Where can we go from here?  This study explores the role that forestry, mining, sport hunting, and resource management by colonial governments has played on this ecosystem and the moose – and people – that have lived here for millennia.

Vi Bui,  The Council of Canadians Ontario, Quebec, Nunavut Regions

Ottawa

A number of social issues are clouding the future of people in West Quebec. Besides the need for a new hospital and better medical care, housing prices and lack of housing accessibility are a dead weight on the aspirations of young people.           

Successive Liberal and Conservative governments have reneged on their responsibility to ensure that housing as a human right is kept as part of the social contract with citizens in Canada. Instead, they have enacted policies that passed the torch of housing to market forces.           

Market forces have one over-arching goal: making profits. The needs of first time home-buyers, senior citizens and their special needs, and families with children, are not the focus of people who see housing as an investment for profit making.            

The Pontiac NDP is hosting a round table January 14, at 2 pm on housing, at UQO, on Tache Blvd in Hull. The session promises to be a much needed and interesting event, open to the public.

Carl Hager

Gatineau / Aylmer

It is clear that due to out of control spending and poor negotiation,  federal and most provincial bureaucracies' salaries in Canada have ballooned.  In Ontario, the amount of workers on the Sunshine List  (those making over $100,000 a year) has grown from 4,494  in 1996 to a whopping 244,390 making that amount last year. There are 54 times more people on the list now. As a result of the government essentially printing money to pay such salaries, inflation has gone up and up.           

Ontario's recent Education Workers strike/political action highlighted the poorest government workers, but what about these 250k workers at the top?  Do they need access to a food bank, like the poorest education workers, or can we assume that they are  swimming in money? I assume the latter.  So cut their salaries drastically!            

Make the poor richer, and make the rich poorer, this is the mantra of a progressive taxation system that takes more from the wealthy. But what is taken from the rich 250,000 government of Ontario employees? Nothing (except tax). There should be a "sunshine surcharge". All moneys earned over $100k should be considered excessive, so that 20k over $100k in one year, should be considered like $100K minus 20k the next year. So every employee who made $120k last year should receive $80k this year for the same amount of work. This is to make up for the 20k they shouldn't have been paid.           

If they leave or retire, then more room for younger employees.  And don't rehire. Down with the bureaucracy sucking off the fat of taxpayers, off with their parasitic ways, off with their monopolistic self-interested control of the civil service.           

Take the universities ... an English professor made $100k 20 years ago, but then steadily increased to $200k a year. Are his skills so in demand and hard to find that you need to pay him 2 million of the course of 20 years? No. Pay the professor $60,000 and you will get the same result. There is no qualitative improvement  from spending more than $60k on a professor, or on any course instructor. If all educational institutions lowered their salaries, it would save billions with no effect on the quality of education.           

I call for a province- and Canada-wide pay freeze and pay reduction. The current salary of an Ontario MPP is $116,500, which makes the MPP earn less than probably 200,000 other government employees. At the rate in which salaries are increasing, the janitor who cleans the washroom floor, the stablemate who collects dung from horses, and the Bovine Semen Collector will be making more than MPPs.           

Cut these employees, cut the salaries, put the salaries into reverse, make those earning over $100k taste what it feels like to be like the low-paying worker that the vast majority are.  Convert rich bureaucrats into common workers.           

In fact, restart the salaries of the entire bureaucracy! $40k start, $50 for special, $60 for extra special. And it's that simple. Collect the $20 or $30 or $100 billion in savings.  If they don't like it they can quit, go to the U.S.            

The only high paying jobs are for those where genuine brain drain can occur -- doctors and specialists who can go to the U.S. or elsewhere for more salary. If anyone can do their job, that job starts at 40k. Time to turn back the clock on government salaries, it is 1990 all over again.  Pay 1990 salaries to reduce inflation to 1990 levels!

Robert Nelly

Westmeath, Ont

The average interest rate over the last 200 years has been about 9% or so, yet interest rates in the decade after 2008 were about zero.  Whilst this might seem good for business, institutions like pension funds and insurance companies can't make a profit on bonds below 8%, so, as time passed, they moved their portfolios out of safe government bonds and into socks and derivatives that were as stable as an angry psychopath with a shotgun.            

In 2016 or so, I sat down with M.P. Greg Fergus and pleaded for the government to raise interest rates, but all I got for my trouble was some jivetalk along the lines of "so far so good".            

Now with the rising inflation and interest rates, big box stores' unsold inventory is piling up, governments are crippled with unserviceable debt and the low, fixed rate interest bonds are worth little more than soiled toilet tissue.           

In the coming months, I  expect to see massive layoffs in retail, collapsing stock prices, pension funds folding and crippling increases in taxes as governments fight to escape the quicksands of monumental debt service.           

From all those about to be made unemployed, lose their pensions and die of hyperthermia, a big thanks to our MPs and their pals for arrogantly ignoring six years of warnings. 

Robert L Thompsett

Gatineau

Our citizens are facing a major housing crisis. In order to learn more about this crisis and possible solutions, the NDP Pontiac Riding Association has invited several experts for an important discussion.           

This roundtable discussion on the right to housing and the reality of the current crisis in Pontiac, Gatineau and the surrounding MRCs.  This event will bring housing activists such as Jenny Kwan, NDP MP for Vancouver and housing critic, Celine Brault, former President of Chelsea Housing Corporation, François Roy, long-time activist and coordinator of the advocacy group Logemen'Occupe as well as Latonya Ludford, manager for the Canada Project at The Shift.            

This bilingual event is open to the public,  including questions and answers. This will be an opportunity for citizens to better understand the issues related to the housing crisis and propose short, medium and long term solutions :  Saturday, January 14, 2023, at 2:00 PM,  at the Université du Québec en Outaouais (Pavillon Alexandre-Taché).  Note that date!

Catherine Emond-Provencher, NDP

Gatineau / Pontiac

I hope you can get this in this week's paper .... my husband and I have been glued to the screen watching the commission in Ottawa studying the imposition of the Emergency Powers Act.  Here was high drama that really, really matters.           

I urge your readers to watch the proceedings. They will actually learn something, contrary to so much political chatter, these days.           

And if any of them share the protesters' outrage at the federal government -- for everything, from Covid restrictions to paying carbon taxes -- this should be required watching. They will learn that, first, we should be proud to be Canadians with these people we have put in charge -- our government's leaders and civil servants are clearly intelligent and thoughtful people, when they have to be.  And that's contrary to the convoy's lawyers and  reps, who, without exception, seemed both unprepared and unconcerned, really, with the real issues at stake.  They appeared unconcerned and even unable to understand the real freedoms we do enjoy and, obviously, must protect.  They did not know their files and seemed to think just making a claim was enough -- no support or proofs needed!           

The protestors' claims to just be having a big friendly street party came across as ridiculous -- the convoy's belief that they could actually overthrow the government and give over the entire government of Canada to unelected protestors, plus the Governor-General, was clearly on display as ridiculous. The existence of several other forces at work  besides the "truckers" -- groups and conspirators, including a few armed groups who actually had stockpiles of arms at alternative sites in Ottawa and Coutts, Alberta, was made clear many times -- and these were not denied by their lawyers, just ignored!           

The convoy leaders messed up with their "I can't remember" and "I never noticed that..." responses to legitimate questions made their case all the weaker. Ms Leach's claim that she couldn't remember any truck horns or excessive noise  just made everyone roll their eyes.           

We were surprised that no one on either side pursued the question of why Trudeau did not at least try to negotiate with the convoy leaders -- but really, did anyone expect Trudeau to walk out and be nice with guys shaking signs reading, "F••K Trudeau!"?  Would you?           

This whole investigation and the hearings sure make Trudeau and Justice Minister Lametti shine. Trudeau comes out of this affair looking intelligent and firm, fair and wise -- and I say this, having never voted for him or the federal Liberals.           

All in all, these hearings ought to be incorporated into our classrooms' civics classes - and if we no longer teach "civics" they demonstrate that we should be doing so, because there are serious threats to democratic principles and government right here in our own country.           

I am sure my remarks will bring me a lot of on-line hate-mail, but I ask these folks to first watch the hearings and then send me (or this newspaper) their reactions, but only then. And I apologize for this long letter, but the subject is serious -- and also remarkably positive.

Leila Anderson
Municipality of Pontiac

Following the settlement of a long-standing class action lawsuit with Visa and MasterCard, Canadian businesses can now charge their customers for using credit cards. The lawsuit was launched by Canadian businesses in 2011, alleging that credit card companies were conspiring with banks to prevent businesses from charging customers for using credit cards.      

The credit card companies admitted no fault, but agreed to refund the companies hundreds of millions of dollars worth of surcharge fees. The settlement also gave businesses permission to pass surcharge fees – 1.5 per cent on average – on to customers, which they weren’t allowed to do before October of this year.

Laurence Ashworth, Queen’s University (via FCEI)
Kingston, Ont

Just as parents found out which program or school their children werfe admitted to this year, a new IRIS study reveals that the Quebec education system remains highly unequal, despite efforts to reduce the exodus of students to the private system. In fact, in 2021, nearly half (44%) of high school students were withdrawn from the regular classes of the public system to be enrolled in private schools or in a particular program. Given its growth in recent years, the phenomenon of three-tier schools should be of concern to the next Minister of Education.      

Over the past twenty years, the number of students attending private elementary and secondary schools in Quebec has jumped by almost 20%. During the same period, public school enrolment has decreased by 4%. By funding approximately 60% of the cost of educational services in private schools, the Quebec government is encouraging the migration of people from affluent backgrounds to private schools and contributing to the segregation of students in the Quebec school system based on socio-economic status and academic performance. In addition to reproducing existing inequalities, this phenomenon results in a transfer of resources to the private sector and contributes to the deterioration of services offered in the public system. 

An education system that reinforces regional inequalities       

Because of the greater presence of private schools in the most profitable markets for them, the proportion of students enrolled in the private network is much greater in urban centers. At the secondary level, this proportion reaches 34% in Montreal and 24% in the Capitale-Nationale region, while it is only 5% on the North Shore and in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean. Moreover, no elementary or secondary students attend the private network in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Nord-du-Québec and Gaspésie-Îles-de-la-Madeleine regions. 

Special programs: a form of elitism within the public network      

While special programs were created to retain students in public schools and increase their attractiveness, their place within the public system has increased in recent years. In 2021, nearly a quarter (23%) of high school students were removed from "regular classes" to be enrolled in special programs in the public sector such as Sport-études, Arts-études or International Education, a proportion that has increased by 50% over the past 20 years.       

The study shows, however, that these programs perpetuate inequalities within the public schools themselves, since they are very often reserved for the most privileged and high-achieving students. Indeed, many of these specialized programs require the selection of students through admission tests, and 76% of them require a parental contribution, which averages $1,220 per year and can sometimes reach $14,000.       

By participating in this way in the "skimming of the cream" of regular classes, which take in a higher proportion of students from disadvantaged backgrounds or with learning difficulties, the public network contributes fully to the reproduction of inequalities. It is therefore imperative to thoroughly rethink the organization and financing of school services in order to put an end to three-tier schools and to the selection of students in primary and secondary schools.  (Translated)

Anne Plourde, IRIS

Montreal

I heartily agree with the opinion expressed by one of your letter-writers (I think) that if Premier Legault proceeds to enact Law 96, which effectively withdraws certain essential government services from citizens who do not speak the majority language, then those citizens should see their personal taxes reduced significantly since the government is no longer offering them these standard services due all citizens.  Shouldn't taxes rise for those who do receive public health care, etc.,

            I also believe that nationalism and the protection of certain cultures over other cultures is right out of the playbook of autocrats and semi-fascists like Hungary's Orban or the USA's di Santis  and Bannon.  Is this the company Mr Legault wishes to keep?  Is this how he and his party wish to go into the history books?   And, if so, do we have to follow them?

Tony Selkirk

Aylmer

Connexions is looking for a motivated and passionate individual who lives in the Outaouais to join our Board of Directors!

As a member, you will have the opportunity to play a significant role as a driver of change towards improving and contributing to the health and well-being of the English-speaking community in the Outaouais.

For more information about this opportunity, send us an email by October 28. To explore our activities and initiatives, visit our website.

Connexions

Gatineau

Trudeau letting in an unlimited number of Ukrainian refugees begs the “what about” question, why isn't he doing the same for Afghans, Syrians, etc., refugees? Draw your own conclusions!             

"What about" questions are far from ambivalent. Moral clarity requires disruptive conversations—uncomfortable ones. Here's an example -- the virtues of U.S. force projection. Based on their actions Democrat and Republican presidents seem to have a fondness for bombing poor people in distant lands. Pundits love it. Western foreign policy establishments love it. Western mainstream media love it.           

Yet it's utter insanity. If bombing Americans is wrong, then bombing the people of Yemen is wrong. No one disagrees with condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine. However, ignoring that the U.S. has been violating other nations' sovereignty—Chile, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Argentina, Iraq, Iran, Brazil, Angola, Zaire, Cuba, Libya, Afghanistan, China -- to name a few— is hypocritical.             

Ethical standards must be universal. The Ukrainian resistance and its civilian victims are given very sympathetic coverage by Western media. This raises the "what about" question of why there hasn't been a comparable response when the victims aren't white, Christian Europeans -- or when the aggressor is the U.S. or a U.S. ally? The double standards and resulting hypocrisy coming out of Washington, and the West, is obvious!           

A recent example: President Biden asserted that "nations have a right to sovereignty and territorial integrity." He is 100% on point!  However, the U.S. is also the only government to formally recognize Israel's illegal occupation of Syria's Golan Heights and Morocco's annexation of the entire nation of Western Sahara, both seized by force in defiance of the United Nations. See any hypocrisy?           

Another example: Despite Biden's decree on October 7, 2021, Washington didn't condemn Turkey's attacks on Syrian civilians sheltering in Rojava. Blatant hypocrisy, or what?  Self-interest, all dressed up?

Nick Kossovan

Toronto

This is a rare opportunity for Canadians to decide the future of their political hierarchy. Do they want to continue be “ruled” from England or do they want their head of state to be a Canadian? I opt for a Canadian.           

First, this is about institutions, not personalities. ... not about Charles. It is about figureheads of Canadian democracy.          

A British king as head of state no longer reflects Canadian democracy, our independent state or our ethnic diversity. How can new citizens comprehend Canada when they must swear allegiance to someone from England?  Using the British monarch as our head of state inhibits the development of Canadian identity.  As the Canadian Bar Association  reported (1979), “... if we want to promote confidence, pride and a sense of belonging, the head of state should be a Canadian.”          

We need Canadian figureheads who will represent the country’s bilingual and multicultural attributes, be models for our youth, and project Canadian values on the international scene.           

The British monarch should remain titular head of the Commonwealth — of which Canada would remain a leading member. The royal family could continue to be invited to visit Canada.           

The Governor General should become our head of state. This fine, descriptive title has been part of Canada’s tradition. All the Crown’s rights in Canada, both in the written Constitution and by convention, would be transferred to the Governor General, avoiding a debilitating debate over their definition.           

It is politically useful to maintain a separate institution of “head of state,” one distinct from the position of prime minister as the “head of government.” The head of state also fulfils other functions such as: naming a new prime minister in times of political ambiguity; relieving the prime minister of many ceremonial duties; acting as both a “humbling presence” and a sounding board for the prime minister; and reminding citizens there is a state that persists even if they do not like the party in power.  It would be beneficial to have a relatively long term of office, say five years, renewable once. Experience, recognition and wisdom will be important.           

New Governors General should not be elected, to avoid  duplication and conflict between the offices of governor general and prime minister.           

As one newspaper has suggested, the Officers of the Order of Canada might operate as a nominating committee for a short list of candidates. A nomination coming from the Order would add prestige, legitimacy and merit to the position. The Order of Canada’s list of candidates should be submitted to an “electoral college” — a joint, federal-provincial, electoral group formed of MPs and members of provincial legislatures. The eventual governor general would require ratification by two-thirds of this group for some degree of all-party approval.            

This new regime, a “constitutional democracy” rather than a “republic”, would  emphasize our tradition of balancing constitutional protection of “peace, order and good government” with popular democracy “by the people.”           

This change of regime will require care with the details -- a national learning process.  Canadian leaders should discuss these possibilities among themselves. Neither their policies nor their ideologies are endangered.  As I am doing here, no “politicking.”            

Amending our Constitution would be too long, complex -- and cantankerous. But it need not be so.  Our political leaders could request a neutral body – say the Royal Society – to provide names for a commission of experts to address this, then agree to implement its recommendations. I repeat: there is no need to politicize this.           

In the end, we would well and truly be a government for and by Canadians. 
(abridged on request from the Ottawa Citizen)

John E Trent, ret
Chelsea

Our party, the Canadian Party of Quebec (CaPQ) is running in our first election campaign and wants to represent Quebecers who feel they have been taken for granted for far too long. Our leader, Mr. Colin Standish, is steadfast in his advocacy for fundamental human rights, the integrity of the Canadian Constitution, and equality between Canada’s two official languages.           

During the 2018 election, Quebec’s four major parties held an English-language TV debate for the first time in Quebec’s history. This allowed English-speaking Quebecers to hear vital issues and concerns addressed in their mother tongue.           

It also looked like there would be an English-language debate in this campaign.  However, in May, both Premier Legault and the PQ leader decided not to participate in an English language debate.  As a result, the English-language media consortium canceled the debate  scheduled for September 20th.           

In the CaPQ’s opinion, such a flagrant disregard for Quebec’s official language minority is disrespectful and unbecoming of both party leaders. How dare they be so dismissive of English-speaking Quebecers who - like their francophone neighbours - deserve an opportunity to hear directly from them?           

Close to 1.25 million people in Quebec identify as English-speaking Quebecers or 14.9% of the population.  We are urging the media to invite seven of Quebec’s party leaders - including Mr. Standish and Bloc Montréal’s leader, Mr. Balarama Holness - to an English language debate.           

If Premier Legault and Mr. Plamondon still refuse, we propose a five party leaders’ debate with Quebec Liberal Party leader Dominique Anglade, Québec Solidaire co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, Parti conservateur du Québec leader Éric Duhaime, Bloc Montreal leader Mr. Holness, and CaPQ leader Mr. Standish.

Noah Weinberger, the Canadian Party of Quebe 

Montreal

After Ontario Premier Doug Ford spent days rallying conservative government’s across the country around “all options” for the healthcare crisis, his government  showed its hand. A Ford-linked pollster has started surveying Ontarians about whether they would like to pay for “better service” in healthcare. Meanwhile, Ford’s Conservatives are ramming through Bill C-7, an act to allow patient transfers from our Public Hospitals to private Long-Term Care Facilities without the consent of patients.      

The same Long-Term Care Facilities that rocked the world in 2020 in the bombshell military report on neglect.  The same Long-Term Care Facilities Ford protected with Legal Immunity during COVID-19.       

This isn’t about easing the healthcare crisis, this isn’t even to wet the beak of a few Long-Term Care executives. This is an opportunistic, permanent undermining of our public model that will only accelerate the crisis. Industry lobbyists and the Conservative movement are more mobilized for privatization of healthcare than ever.

Mikey Temple, Broadbent Institute

Ottawa

Mr. Polievre has won the leadership of the federal Conservative Party.  I'm not a Conservative but some of their platform could benefit Canadians. However I also see danger when he tells us he is fighting for our “freedom”.           

Statistics or “real news” tells us Canada is one of the best places to live.  Why do you think this is so?           

We have areas that need to be improved -- universal childcare / dental care -- but there is so much that we do have. Universal health care is no doubt the number one area that makes our country unique. My family and friends in the USA tell me health care is their number one concern.  Families there can pay out thousands of dollars per month for health insurance, so when looking for work or changing jobs, health care insurance is their number one priority in work contracts. I recently had surgery costing hundreds of thousands of dollars; while recuperating, I didn’t have the worry of hospital bills. I was also equipped with the necessary mobility aids, free of charge. Something we Canadians don’t think about.             

Out of work or laid off in this country, there are programs to help us financially i.e. - employment insurance or welfare. Single moms can apply to these services and stay home until the child enters school. Women have the “freedom” to terminate a pregnancy without legal consequences.           

We complain about taxes, but services cost money and a lot more money could be coming out of our pockets, because paying as a country rather than an individual costs less.   Those who choose the “freedom” of working  “under the table” -- our health care or welfare services are there for them as well. It comes down to what you consider important in your life when you look at the idea of “freedom”.  When we are young, healthy, and with a good paying job, we may not see how universal services benefit us. The day that your family needs help these services become very important.           

The icing on the cake is if you don’t like the government in power, VOTE, which I'm finding out many people don’t do. Our most important freedom is our right to vote.  This is NOT a right in every country and NOT a right of women in many countries.           When Canadian politicians claim our freedoms are being infringed upon, beware! Generations of Canadians know when these rights and privileges were being fought for and became law. My mother was a young woman when she voted in her first provincial election Instilling in her family the importance of exercising one’s right and expression of choice through voting was paramount.           

Technology plays a prominent role in our lives, and it has great benefits. During Covid Canadians struggled with confinement and isolation. The internet became even more prominent. This gave us greater exposer to a culture that does not fact-find and where there's much deliberate misinformation.           

This is not a time for politicians to divide Canadians but a time to bring us together and highlight the privileges and freedoms we have. Politicians have a due diligence to  provide Canadians with information based on facts. My hope for Mr. Polievre is that he does not fall into the trap of making the disenfranchised of our country believe that he can make them freer than they already are. That's a Trumpian attitude, taking advantage of the misinformed to get elected. He must help all Canadians by running his campaign on truth and on  understanding how our country’s “Freedoms” really work. He owes us that much!

Kathryn Dupuis

Fort-Coulone

Pierre Poilievre is the new leader of the Conservative party. That's bad news for  Canadian healthcare—if Poilievre becomes Canada’s next Prime Minister or even starts influencing policy. He wants to move us to privatized health services that prioritize the wealthy, the elite.            

Poilievre has made it clear he intends to allow provinces to open the door to more private companies looking for profits when we need care. That's scary.  Conservative premiers across the country are already pushing privatization -- hard. Doug Ford in Ontario, Blaine Higgs in New Brunswick, and Jason Kenney in Alberta are all opening the door to for-profit companies who only cater to a fraction of Canadians.           

Our health care crisis is nothing new—it’s by design. For decades our medicare has been hacked and slashed by conservative lobbyists and politicians trying to kick the feet out from under it so they can present a private health model as the only viable option. That’s why we need to act—before it’s too late.           

Our health care system must be public, well funded, and accessible to all. Instead of lining the pockets of private companies, we need to focus on reducing inequitable access and making sure healthcare workers have what they need.           

Sixty years ago this summer, Canadians fought and won the campaign for Medicare. It wasn’t easy and we’ve had to defend it ever since. Our public health care system is a fixture of Canada’s social democracy and we can’t stop defending it now

Devon Crick, Broadbent Institute
Ottawa


I am absolutely in agreement (with the West Quebec Post's  July 15  editorial that we should drop the archaic reference to peoples' gender in all respects). I even see it as a small step towards training equality into our youth.

Recently wed, I chose my best friend to be my “best man”. She happily accepted. Our grandkids, 2 girls and a boy, were offered up as flower girls and ring-bearer. Others were worried the boy, 2 years old, would drop the rings. Not at all, he’ll be a flower person, and the eldest girl the ring bearer, simple. Why do so many people still gender-identify so many roles?

Dale Marecak

Kingston, Ont

As we prepare for another election, this time for Quebec, I am trying to list three to five things which every person running for office should comment on or even commit to, if they are elected.  I see that Alberta is picking a new premier, the leader of the governing party.  In this campaign, one of the big issues is "will you clamp down with another lockdown, or not?"  Never a lockdown?  Is that for real? These are not politicians from the lunatic fringe - none that I heard were on the Truckers Convoy last winter!

So if Covid roars back or some new variation -- we already have Monkeypox appearing -- so no matter how bad it gets, the new premier of Alberta will not shut down social meetings, etc??  These politicians do not do "democracy" any favours by going to such extremes. They just show that we can't trust people to elect good leaders.  I hope our candidates here do not go to such extremes.  I hope this newspaper and its readers also hold their candidates to clearly state their promises, especially on big issue like the mega-hospital in Gatineau, which is supposed to help us who live hours and hours from it! 

Jonny Thorpe

Allumettes Island (Pontiac)

Our party, the Canadian Party of Quebec (CaPQ) is running in our first election campaign and wants to represent Quebecers who feel they have been taken for granted for far too long. Our leader, Mr. Colin Standish, is steadfast in his advocacy for fundamental human rights, the integrity of the Canadian Constitution, and equality between Canada’s two official languages.           

During the 2018 election, Quebec’s four major parties held an English-language TV debate for the first time in Quebec’s history. This allowed English-speaking Quebecers to hear vital issues and concerns addressed in their mother tongue.           

It also looked like there would be an English-language debate in this campaign.  However, in May, both Premier Legault and the PQ leader decided not to participate in an English language debate.  As a result, the English-language media consortium canceled the debate  scheduled for September 20th.           

In the CaPQ’s opinion, such a flagrant disregard for Quebec’s official language minority is disrespectful and unbecoming of both party leaders. How dare they be so dismissive of English-speaking Quebecers who - like their francophone neighbours - deserve an opportunity to hear directly from them?           

Close to 1.25 million people in Quebec identify as English-speaking Quebecers or 14.9% of the population.  We are urging the media to invite seven of Quebec’s party leaders - including Mr. Standish and Bloc Montréal’s leader, Mr. Balarama Holness - to an English language debate.           

If Premier Legault and Mr. Plamondon still refuse, we propose a five party leaders’ debate with Quebec Liberal Party leader Dominique Anglade, Québec Solidaire co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, Parti conservateur du Québec leader Éric Duhaime, Bloc Montreal leader Mr. Holness, and CaPQ leader

Mr. Standish.

Noah Weinberger, he Canadian Party of Quebe 

Montreal

Ward 10 By-Election: School board voters needed

           
Most of us do a pretty good job showing up to vote in federal and provincial elections.  Unfortunately, this is not true in local elections.  The percentage of eligible voters that actually vote drops to about 15% at the municipal level.  That number goes down even farther for school board elections.

           
So here is my request:  Ward 10 eligible voters, let’s do better!  Why?  The role of commissioner is one that helps set policy and direction for the school board.  They dedicate their time to set guidelines ranging from school safety to budget allocations.  Through them, parents and citizens can make their voices heard. 

           
Students have a variety of learning styles.  Teachers have a variety of teaching methods. When the two are in sync success is the result.  Add in the pandemic: parents had to scramble to have the right tech at home. Internet access was often a challenge.  Families with more than one child had a balancing act supervising and allocating resources (including themselves).  Not all students learn effectively on-line.  The commissioners need to offer insightful ideas concerning education in the endemic phase that we have now entered.

           
Ward 10 voters need to first of all vote.  It will probably only take 30 minutes, driving time included.

           
Second, support the candidate with the experience and knowledge to do the best job.  Your opportunity to vote awaits on June 19 at the WQSB office.

           
Finally, a thank-you to all who choose to vote. It does matter.

Cathy Goldsbrough, candidate for Ward 10 Commissioner (WQSB)

Aylmer

The tenth of shame

           
In addition to charging an exorbitant amount for their gasoline, the oil companies are making a mockery of the consumer by adding tenths of a cent (most often 0.9) to the posted prices. When they sell a liter of gasoline at more than two dollars, do they really believe that a tenth more or less will influence the choice of the banner. Do they fear bankruptcy.

We have rightly rid our wallets of the cumbersome black pennies, why add a dime to an already high price. Will they have to wait until gasoline reaches ten dollars a liter before they are forced to do so because of a lack of space on their signs.

           
The oil companies are holding the owners of gasoline and diesel vehicles hostage, they could at least show them a modicum of respect by dropping this ridiculous practice that dates back to the days when gasoline was less than a dollar a gallon.  (Translated)

Bernard Cournoyer

Gatineau

The Canadian Party of Quebec (CaPQ) is dismayed by the Legault government’s attitude towards Quebec’s First Nations, by refusing to exempt them from Bill 96's requirement to study French in English CEGEPS.

Contrary to what Indigenous Affairs Minister Ian Lafrenière and Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette have said, there is precedent for exempting native peoples from provincial laws. The 1975 James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement  accords the Cree, Inuit and Naskapi nations such exemptions from the Charter of the French Language.

The Canadian Party will not deny indigenous justice.  There is much to repair in our relationships, but we want them to know that at least one Quebec provincial party is willing and able to listen.

Colin Standish, CaPQ

Montréal

I have found all the letters about the new mega-hospital very stimulating.  It's location is but one issue -- a bigger issue is the competence of the CISSSO to manage something like this.

They have proven quite incapable to even continuing the level of care we used to get -- before the Liberals' "health reforms" -- let alone expand that care.

They have essentially gutted local autonomy and management of our regional hospitals which were close to the population.   Do we really need another mega-institution, too big for local input and too big to even care about local problems?  And where are the CAQ's new "health reforms"?  The best reform would be to go back before Minister Barrette and the Liberals absolutely gutted our regional health services!

RT Stevenson

Shawville, Pontiac

The day freedom died?  The day democracy died?  Nope those were years ago.   I think we need a monument to remember the day Bill 96 passed - The day Quebec minorities lost.  I’d like to have a place to visit and place flowers some day with my grand children.  Explain to them the story of the misguided empire who drove us from our homeland.

As a country we can spend money on helping those persecuted under dictators and regimes around the world, why not here?  ... The least they can do is place a commemorative plaque where I can visit, place some flowers and raise a glass - well played.

Liam Mccormick
Aylmer

The latest census figures for Canada are a warning to social-policy makers.  Figures indicate a major shift to an aging population in Canada, with a low rate of reproduction. There are more Canadians retiring than entering the work force.

The conditions for a major social storm is brewing.

The Covid pandemic showed us just how poor care of seniors is in care-giver residences.  Canadian governments must start preparing  and implementing and funding policy to address the remarkable shift in the way we work, raise money to pay for services, and view the  treatment of fellow citizens.

New perspectives are not likely to happen given the track record of current governments. We are already presiding over an under- funded health care system. Urban planning favours developers and leave congested and pot-holed streets for citizens to commute upon. Governments promote culture wars in an effort to raise votes. Depositing nuclear waste on the edge of the life-giving Ottawa River is seen as an expedient and necessary measure by politicians, contrary to all concerns about health and environmental pollution from us. The promise of tax reductions is infectious--and totally inimical to what governments should be doing to help citizens.

It is long past due when citizens should be demanding more progressive social policy measures. Doing more of the same is not going to cut it.

Carl Hager

Gatineau

234

The Liberal Party's amendment to Quebec's Bill 96, the controversial overhaul of French-language laws, could force anglophone CEGEP students to take three core courses in French or three French-language courses starting in 2023 or 2024.

I voted for a party -- and MNA -- that traditionally fought for the rights of Outaouais' communities.  Now they  have kneecapped my son’s future as he embarks on his last year of high school.

The Liberals have betrayed all their supporters. Their Bill 96 amendment will have harmful consequences for all local communities . They  hope we don’t realize it until their MNAs get re-elected. Pontiac MNA André Fortin, who has fought for this region, must show full transparency on the amendment's impacts.

He and his party leader need to drop the rhetoric that the  Coalition Avenir Québec won’t let the party change its own backstabbing amendment.

As for my son, rather than properly educated, he will now be part of a great experiment, implemented without any input from education experts. This is cruel, and feels like right-wing identity politics. It feels “Trumpy.” Indigenous leaders in Quebec are calling the changes "colonial" and damaging to their youth.

I grew up proud of my province of birth. Now, many people speak to me like I am not a native of this province. Why?  Because I learned French as a second language.           

All Quebec parties voted for the amendment that will hurt my son’s ability to prosper. CAQ is freezing English CEGEP seats at 2019 levels despite the population boom in our region. Close to 50 per cent of English CEGEP students are francophones, wanting to learn English. We had 500 new English high-school students in the region this past year.

Education experts are clear: our kids’ success will be impeded. The brightest students will have their ability to compete for university hindered, and those who struggle will fall out of the system.  If the CAQ wanted to  support bilingualism, this reform would begin in the first year of school, preparing students along the way.

Despite generations of my family being born in Québec, we are now labelled historic anglophones. My son’s 12 years in Quebec’s public education have not prepared him for this abrupt change in curriculum.

What does the Liberal Party say about this colossal gaffe? It is too busy campaigning for the fall election! Even after this direct hit to our region, Fortin and provincial Liberal leader Dominique Anglade were in Chelsea last week, welcoming a new candidate for the party.

These laws threaten to divide our thriving bilingual communities. On est des Québécois, mais nous ne sommes pas les bienvenus.

Kelly Nolan

Aylmer

The federal and Quebec Liberals have told us that we must accept nuclear generation of electricity to both meet the volumes of power we will need, as well as to replace oil to combat climate change.  More nuclear energy!, is the Liberal conclusion.  Canada needs the atomic energy facility and dump just upstream at Chalk River, Ontario. Just too bad for us who live there! 

All of those same politicians are nervous about Putin's threat to use nuclear energy to save his skin in the Ukraine.  They worry about the proliferation of nuclear arms, the ultimate end product of nuclear energy generation. 

Aren't these two goals in contradiction?  If the federal government continues Harper's nuclear program, won't they just be adding more nuclear fuel to the fire?

Stanley Cowper

Aylmer 

EDIT WQP -- Legault's cheques - 22 April '22 -- EE 455

Premier Legault's promise in his March 2022 budget to send every family a $500 cheque is intended to help them recover from the chaos of Covid and to assist Quebec families deal with the new inflation we are all facing. Besides, this year has a provincial election in October -- just in time for voters to express their gratitude for the cheques! 

Legault appears much more focussed on the electorate than on competing parties.  Their competition is fierce, with the Quebec solidaire party steady rising in popularity, while the PQ flounders and the Liberals remain weighed down by their policies when they were in power (ie the Liberals' "reform" of the health care system which kicked Wakefield's hospital off the list and knocked Pontiac's hospital from its upper ranking to its present status, without obstetrics, without specialists, without the input from the local physicians who proved to be genuine management experts). 

What about us, the target voters?  Can we do anything with those cheques, other than cash them? Is there no bonus advantage we can take with those cheques?  Funny you ask ... because there is. 

It works like this. If we each spend our cheque on ourselves that will mean one person, or one family, served.  But if we were to commit to spending these cheques here at home, then we help not only ourselves, but local shop owners and their families, all they employ (local folks, local students) and their families. We help the owners who rent facilities, and the businesses' own service people, and all these extra families downstream, plus all the spending they also do -- locally.  Talk about a multiplier effect!

To make a $500 cheque expand multiple times, we all have to participate.  Then we get the multiplier effect, wholesaled.  

 If we vote for our community we will receive benefits, year after year.  We'll have a stronger local economy, expanding and offering more services, one that can hire locals, and kids needing summer jobs. Our small communities might return to life!  National brands, including banks, will return -- and offer us more.

If we break this chain, the process ends.  Then Amazon adds more to its gigantic bottom line, Amazon's owner gets a few more millions for his billion-dollar personal yacht under construction. The Gatineau hills, what do we get? These cheques ... and then they're gone. We'll still drive to the city for work, more people move away, investors look elsewhere, and even government services decline with our declining population.  Mail-order doesn't seem like a wise use for Legault's cheques, does it? 

A little self-control, folks. A little planning is needed here for us to turn these electioneering cheques into a  community investment. For our communities.

--30--

F.Ryan

20 April 2022

Quebec politics has never been as fractious as it is today. The political landscape is fluid as the October 3rd election date approaches. 

Quebec's Conservative Party has ridden the wave of pandemic fatigue into political relevance. The once fringe Quebec Solidaire has a legitimate chance of becoming the Official Opposition. The Parti Québécois is increasingly irrelevant, and thanks to a series of strategic missteps, the once mighty Quebec Liberal Party (QLP) is in freefall amongst both francophones and anglophones. As a result, Premier François Legault’s CAQ is widely expected to win an even stronger majority this fall. 

In this context, starting a new political party is a daunting prospect. Given the Task Force on Linguistic Policy’s success in exposing the immoral and illegitimate Bill 96, and the QLP’s growing unpopularity, consensus is building that a new provincial party should emerge to defend federalism, human rights, speak for Quebec’s English-speaking population and be an option for Indigenous peoples, newcomers and francophones alike.. 

Our first principle is our commitment to the defence of human rights, civil liberties, language equality and constitutional protections for all Quebecers. This means opposing arbitrary laws. Our second principle: support for the Canadian Constitution in our federal system.

Bilingualism is a preeminent principle, with guarantees of full linguistic rights for the English-speaking minority of Quebec, and the French-speaking minority outside Quebec. We reject coercive language legislation, and favour promoting both official languages in both the public and private spheres. 

Educational freedom of choice -- every Quebec resident, regardless of mother tongue, has the right to educational choice from daycare to CEGEP and university .

Quebec’s economy -- in the global economy.  Reimagining the role of the state, investing in the health and well-being of all, and by removing constraints to labour mobility, entrepreneurship, and capital investment.

Reconciliation between Indigenous peoples and non-indigenous Quebecers, with better  access to healthcare, education, and economic opportunities -- a forward-looking, federalist vision for Quebec making our province an economic, cultural, and language rights hub of Canada and North America.

Colin Standish, Committee on Political Options

Montréal