Home Blog Page 123

The Laval News reviews year 2021 – Part Two

Martin C. Barry
-
0
The Laval News reviews year 2021 – Part Two

We take a thoughtful look back at last year’s news

As the Laval News looks back on 2021 and the things that were happening last year, no two words would seem more fitting than “déjà vu.” 

In so many ways, we were facing the same challenges that we are up against today. After reviewing the first six months of 2021 last week, the Laval News continues with the second part of our annual Year in Review. 

July 

The summer last year opened on a note of optimism, at least as far as Chomedey social service provider Agape was concerned. 

“It’s been a tough year or two, to say the least,” executive-director Kevin McLeod said at the beginning of the Chomedey-based group’s annual general meeting, as he emphasized the challenges they’d faced since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“The good news is that we can see the rainbow at the end of the tunnel – it’s looking good,” he added. According to Agape’s 2020-2021 report, the COVID 19 pandemic made community support stronger, given the emergency funding that was provided by numerous sources and from different governmental levels. 

One thing that hadn’t changed at last year’s Hellenic Summer Festival: There was still plenty of souvlaki prepared by a crew of devoted kitchen volunteers. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Newsfirst Multimedia)

While the crowd count was a lot lower than usual and there was no Canada Day cake, hundreds of people with Greek cultural roots did at least get out for three days on Canada Day weekend to attend the annual Hellenic Summer Festival at Holy Cross Church in Chomedey, after a one-year hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“This year we said let’s try having the festival, even though some people are still concerned about the Covid. So, we followed all the public safety rules,” said Denis Marinos, president of the Hellenic Community of Greater Montreal’s Laval regional council which helped organize the event. 

Following word that Sonia Baudelot would no longer be leading Action Laval towards the Nov. 7 municipal election, the party announced that Sophie Trottier, a long-time Quebec civil servant and current employee of the Office québécois de la langue française, was the party’s new leader and mayoralty candidate. 

“I like working proactively and not reactively,” Trottier said in a statement issued by her party. “As in any administration, there are always problems. It’s not just a question of fixing them, they must be prevented. 

Speaking during the July 6 Laval city council meeting, Mayor Marc Demers pledged on behalf of the city to provide assistance to the dozens of families and individuals who entrusted large sums of money to Bel-Habitat Homes, a company whose owner has declared bankruptcy while vanishing with an estimated $17 million in deposits. 

“This is a drama without precedent,” said Demers, after listening to questions and comments sent in by e-mail by an extensive list of families and individuals from Laval who have been directly impacted by the unfolding financial scandal. “I am speaking on behalf of all the members of city council to say that we are moved by these events. Yes, we will be taking action to come to the assistance of the people caught up in this litigious issue, this scam, if I may allow myself to use that word.” 

Had Canada’s Senate shut down Liberal Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault’s attempt to establish tighter controls on the Internet with Bill C-10? While some social conservatives had been stridently denouncing the proposed federal law as an outlandish intrusion into the private lives of Canadians, Bill C-10 might still die of its own natural causes, since members from both sides of the Senate floor agreed the bill needs more work before being enacted. 

In the Senate, one of the strongest opponents of Bill C-10 has been Montreal-based Senator Leo Housakos. “C-10 is a very feeble attempt on the part of the Liberal government to reform the Canadian Broadcasting Act,” he said in an interview with Newsfirst Multimedia. 

Although the 2020 Symposium de Ste-Rose was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizers of the 2021 version art show said the crowds were more enthusiastic than ever, while the sunny weather probably also contributed to an unexpectedly big turnout. 

“I think people were more than ready to get out and do something after being inside for so long,” said Carole Faucher, president of the Corporation Rose-Art which stages the prestigious art show each year. Fifty artists exhibited their works at the 2021 symposium which took place from July 22 – 25. 

An international consortium, including scientists from the Lady Davis Institute at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, teamed up with a data-based pharma-research firm to identify likely drug candidates that could be given to early diagnosis COVID-19 patients, in order to forestall serious symptoms, hospitalization, intensive care and death. 

“Despite efforts to vaccinate against COVID19, the pandemic continues to take a fearsome toll around the world,” said Dr. Brent Richards, a senior investigator at the LDI’s Centre for Clinical Epidemiology, who was one of the leaders of the consortium which went by the name CONTEST. 

August 

At a time when the federal government no longer seemed to be defending the common good in the glyphosate issue, Vigilance OGM activists were calling on the municipal level to take concrete actions to reduce the collective exposure to pesticides. Some 500 flags were symbolically installed in Laval to challenge the mayors, elected and candidates of the next municipal elections to seize the issue on their territory — as the City of Laval was able to do. 

“I want to send a message to the other mayors, mayors and mayoral candidates of other cities in Quebec: make this commitment,” said then-executive committee vice-president Stéphane Boyer. “On the one hand, it is an environmental issue, to have a healthier living environment, to preserve the fauna, flora and biodiversity. But it is also, above all, a question of human health, of the health of the population.” 

In its 2020 annual report, the Laval Police Department said the number of criminal incidents in Laval rose by 1 per cent over the previous year, from 14,556 incidents in 2019 to 14,774 in 2020. According to the report, which was presented to Laval city council by police chief Pierre Brochet, the number of car accidents in Laval dropped by one third (33 per cent), which was the best result in five years. 

On August 5, construction work began on a new Laval Police station on Curé Labelle Blvd. in Saint Martin, with Mayor Marc Demers, Councillor Sandra Desmeules, police chief Pierre Brochet and others starting things off by helping turn the first shovels of earth. 

Located at 2455 Curé Labelle near the Adonis supermarket, the new building will house the LPD’s western Laval police detachment, as well as a police operations centre. The building is scheduled to open in the fall of 2023. 

“The western police station is part of a brand-new approach to public security services to be implemented between now and 2023,” said Mayor Marc Demers. “This new outlook aims towards improving intervention capacity, towards optimizing operational efficiency, while also improving proximity with the residents.” 

Smuggling of contraband such as drugs and cell phones by aerially-borne drones into federally-administered prisons on Laval’s territory was of growing concern last August to the union representing guards who oversee prisoners at the penal institutions. 

According to the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers (UCCO-SACC–CSN), drones were used in the majority of the 41 documented seizures from detainees at the two federal prisons located in Laval’s Saint-Vincent-de-Paul district. 

It was announced that the City of Laval would be paying Quebec financial services giant Desjardins more than $191 million for employee life insurance coverage over the next five years, in what the official opposition at city hall claimed was the largest contract in the municipality’s 56-year history. The agreement was one of number of expenditures approved by the members of Laval city council during their webcast monthly meeting on Aug. 10. 

On Aug. 10, officials from the Société de transport de Laval (STL) and the federal government announced more than $85 million in federal funding to expand an STL garage by nearly 20,000 square metres. 

A graphic designer’s rendering of the exterior of the STL’s planned garage facility to house its growing fleet of electric buses.

The project would include approximately 100 new parking spaces to recharge electric buses, as well as additional vehicle maintenance and repair bays. Laval’s four MPs said they were impressed by the government’s contribution and grateful for the amount allotted. 

With one of its most prized pieces of industrial parkland primed and ready to welcome major players from the domain of scientific technology and research, the City of Laval was making no secret of the fact it was inviting one of the world’s largest Covid vaccine manufacturers to set up operations in the Cité de la Biotech. 

The Demers administration was calling on Moderna to choose Laval and the Cité de la Biotech for an expansion the multinational company said it wanted to make somewhere in Canada. “Laval has everything it takes to accommodate such an investment,” said Laval executive-committee vice-president Stéphane Boyer who was in charge of economic development dossiers, 

A woman from Laval who was the winner of the provincial government’s $150,000 first prize in the recent COVID-19 vaccine lottery told the health ministry she didn’t want any media publicity and would rather not be contacted by reporters. Jocelyne Thibodeau won the $150,000 prize in the Aug. 13 drawing. 

September 

While unveiling a slate of candidates running for the Laval region’s federal seats in the Sept. 20 general election, a senior official with the Conservative Party noted that the four chosen runners were entrepreneurs, business managers and professionals who were truly representative because of their dedicated community involvement in Laval. 

“I can tell you that from the moment they are elected as representatives in the Parliament of Canada, the team that is here today will take the interests of Laval to Ottawa, and not the interests of Ottawa and the Liberal Party to Laval,” said Senator Leo Housakos. 

A life-long Conservative, Housakos said he could remember back in the 1980s when the Conservatives succeeded in scoring a major breakthrough in Laval by electing Conservative MPs over a span of eight years. “And when we did it in 1984-88, it was the same type of individuals: people connected to the community, professionals, business people and people who were doing politics for the right reasons.” 

The owners of the Marché 440 mall and public market on Autoroute 440 in central Laval were eagerly waiting for a green-light from urban planning officials with the city before forging ahead with one of the largest property re-development strategies ever undertaken in Laval. 

With an estimated investment of more than $300 million, the value of the Rizzuto family’s Aparté au Marché commercial and residential campus would be exceeded only by a few recent Laval re-development projects – the most notable perhaps being Groupe Montoni’s $450 million Espace Montmorency underway in downtown Laval. 

While a Chomedey landlord won an almost $30,000 judgement against a tenant who was held liable for extensive damages to an apartment, the owner said they still had numerous hurdles to jump before they could even hope to collect a settlement. 

One of the many rats from a vermin infestation that the owners discovered in their Châtelaine Ave. basement apartment as a result of garbage that an abusive tenant refused to remove during his three years living there.

“Honestly, this could be the worst tenant of all time,” said Bill Choudalos, whose father, Stelios, had owned and lived in the Châtelaine Ave. duplex in Chomedey for half a century. 

In keeping with a tradition she started four years ago, Fabre Liberal MNA Monique Sauvé presented National Assembly Medals last week to ten residents of her riding in recognition of their many years contributing to the community. 

“Through your devotion, your commitment, your involvement and your leadership, all of you contribute to an exceptional quality of life for the families, the children and the senior citizens of Fabre,” Sauvé said during a presentation evening held at the Château Taillefer Lafon in Laval-Ouest. 

Gang violence and firearms incidents had escalated to such an extent over the previous year in the City of Laval that Mayor Marc Demers addressed the problem in his opening statement during the webcast Sept. 7 public meeting of Laval city council. 

The City of Laval had joined together with the municipalities of Montreal, Quebec City, Longueuil and Gatineau to ask the leading candidates running in the upcoming federal election to clearly state their positions on banning assault weapons and establishing tighter controls on assault weapons and handguns. 

“We made this gesture due to the upsurge of violent acts in the various areas of Quebec,” said Demers, while insisting that in spite of the violence, Laval remained a relatively safe and secure place compared to other cities in Canada and across North America. 

A Montreal lawyer and language rights expert predicted during a preliminary public hearing on Quebec’s Bill 96 that the CAQ government’s controversial Bill 101 update, if passed intact, will trigger “a constitutional crisis like never before” in Canada. 

That crisis could occur in the next two to five years, Michael Bergman, who has pleaded before the Supreme Court of Canada and has lectured on Canadian language rights and constitutional law at McGill University, said during the opening presentation of a webinar on Bill 96 sponsored by the Quebec Community Groups Network. 

The 15th anniversary of FILIA’s annual Walk A Thon marked the second time the outdoor fundraiser took place in the City of Laval, while also reflecting how increasing numbers of Montrealers with Greek roots were gradually been migrating from Park Extension to Laval. 

While FILIA’s mission at one time was to provide assistance to Greek women of the Park Extension Hellenic community and later throughout Montreal, the organization’s mandate had expanded and it was increasingly serving seniors in Laval. 

According to polling results for the 2021 Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board elections on Sept. 26, incumbent chairman Paolo Galati won the race, outpacing challenger Noemia Onofre de Lima. 

In the 2021 board elections, the first in a good number of years, voters were called upon to cast votes only for the chairperson position, as all the board commissioners had been acclaimed in September 2020. “I am pleased that the electors of the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board have entrusted me with this second mandate and I am already back at work,” said Galati. 

October 

A simmering dispute between the City of Laval and some Chomedey residents over traffic calming near the corner of Hurtubise St. and 100th Ave. reached a boiling point when dozens of supporters signed a petition demanding the traffic department remove “lane reduction” markings that were painted onto the street in hopes of slowing speeding motorists. 

According to Peter Caruana, who started the petition with his daughter Gabrielle, he and others had been complaining that a stop sign should be put in at the corner to replace yellow lines and traffic bollards the city painted on 100th between Couturier and Hurtubise to slow cars down by reducing the traffic flow to one lane. 

Traffic northward on 100th Ave. between Couturier and Hurtubise, with the controversial closed lane for traffic calming on the right of the photo. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Newsfirst Multimedia)

Caruana said a stop sign that used to be in place at the corner was removed around a decade ago. “What we want is a simple thing: a three-way stop sign,” he said in an interview with The Laval News. “It would help ease the pain. 

In memorandum presented to the National Assembly committee working on the provincial government’s Bill 96 to strengthen Quebec’s language rules, the Quebec Community Groups Network said that even though the French language in Quebec “can and should be protected,” Bill 96 is not the way to go about it. 

“Bill 96 is deeply problematic,” said QCGN president Marlene Jennings, reading from the conclusion of the English-language community lobby group’s statement. “Its measures are based on outdated and odious approaches to enforcing the use of the French language. It will create barriers and mistrust. It upsets a social and linguistic peace that has lasted for decades.” 

Findings in Quebec ombudswoman Marie Rinfret’s 2020-2021 annual report raised serious questions about the provincial government’s ability to ensure the quality and integrity of the services it provided in the previous year during the COVID-19 crisis. 

The COVID-19 pandemic had only accentuated already problematic situations in the provision of public services, notes the ombudswoman. She said the pandemic created and exacerbated many vulnerabilities for an incalculable number of individuals. 

“We think immediately of the full brunt of the tragedies in residential and long-term care centres during the first wave,” said the ombudswoman’s office. 

With COVID-19 infection rates stabilizing in certain areas of Canada but still out of control in places like Alberta and Saskatchewan, the head of the country’s largest professional medical advocacy group recommended  that what Canada needed was a “functional national vaccine passport or certificate.” 

“You know, we’ve been talking about this for months,” said Dr. Katherine Smart, president of the Ottawa-based Canadian Medical Association, said following a national emergency summit on the Covid crisis. “It’s not complicated. It’s unclear why that solution is not yet available for Canadians to make public spaces safer.”  

“We need to be reactive to situations as they evolve to make sure we’re increasing public health mitigation strategies in certain areas that aren’t doing well,” she added. While there was no comprehensive and nation-wide vaccine passport program, all provinces and territories, including Quebec, had implemented vaccine passport or proof of vaccination systems on their own. 

The Royal LePage House Price Survey and Market Survey Forecast released in October revealed signs of a shift to a healthier real estate market for the first time since the onset of the pandemic early last year. 

But at the same time, sales figures for the Laval and North Shore regions showed property sales prices steadily going up. As the number of available properties declined, demand remained constant, thus fueling price increases. 

“Before the pandemic, the rate of home price appreciation in Laval was more moderate, falling behind many Montreal neighbourhoods,” said Georges Gaucher, manager of Royal LePage Village in Montreal. “Over the last few months, the North Shore of Montreal and Laval have been among the most in demand areas for residential properties, and consequently where property prices increased the most.” 

In the hopes perhaps of building up voter support in Laval’s central and western districts in time for the Nov. 7 municipal elections, mayoralty candidate Michel Poissant’s Laval Citoyens party was pledging to build a new skatepark on land owned by the City of Laval on Souvenir Boulevard just east of Laval Senior Academy. 

“Laval Citoyens is proud to present this major project for our youths, because it is important to offer them sports, leisure and arts infrastructures that allow them to channel their energy in a healthy way while using facilities created for them, but while seeing that our youths aren’t exposed to bad influences,” Poissant’s party said in a statement. 

November 

A misprint on a pre-election voter information card sent out to virtually every address in Chomedey threatened to sow confusion among the district’s electors about which candidate to support on Nov. 7 in the municipal elections. 

Incumbent Chomedey city councillor Aglaia Revelakis, who was seeking her third term as Chomedey’s municipal elected representative, said it was the first time since her first victory in 2013 that she had run into this sort of problem. “I never heard of this happening before,” she said. Despite the damage, the elections office has no plans to distribute a corrected version of the voter information card to thousands of households in Chomedey. 

A special report by the Quebec Ombudswoman’s office on access to provincial retirement and long-term care residences recommended the government develop by September 2022 a centralized data base allowing information on vacancies and available rooms to be shared across Quebec. 

“Every year in Quebec, 21,000 people who can’t remain safely at home come up against a complicated access machine that is hard to understand, that involves lengthy wait times and is discouraging,” said Marie Rinfret. 

“These people, who are experiencing a crucial stage of their life, suddenly find themselves in complete disarray, uprooted and forced to move to a new environment which is often not the one they expected,” she added. 

The City of Laval said it had come to an agreement with a provincial consumer rights group to provide financial assistance to house buyers from Laval who were victimized by the bankruptcy of the Bel-Habitat house-building company the previous summer. 

“The City of Laval is continuing to take all the measures necessary within our municipal abilities by deploying resources to come to the assistance to the citizens impacted so that they can turn the page on this unfortunate situation,” said Mayor Marc Demers. 

It was announced that the case of a 7-year-old girl from Chomedey who died under unexplained circumstances in January 2021 would be the object of a preliminary inquiry beginning at the end of May 2022. 

Up to a dozen witnesses are expected to provide testimony during the hearing that will be taking place from May 30 to June 10. The girl’s mother is currently facing charges of assault and criminal negligence causing death.  

If there was one thing consistent about Action Laval since the municipal party’s inception more than eight years ago, it was Chomedey city councillor Aglaia Revelakis’s ability to win the district’s Laval city council seat from the very beginning and with overwhelming support. 

The Nov. 7 municipal elections municipal elections were no exception. Revelakis, who had just finished her second term, handily won Chomedey for Action Laval/Team Sophie Trottier with 52.19 per cent support. Revelakis was surrounded by volunteers and friends at her campaign headquarters on Favreau St. on election night as the returns came in. 

Surrounded by enthusiastic supporters at her Favreau St. campaign headquarters, re-elected Action Laval city councillor for Chomedey Aglaia Revelakis (centre) won the district with more than 52 per cent voter support. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Newsfirst Multimedia)

“This is the district that pulls Action Laval up,” she said. “I want to thank my team. I had an incredible team behind me. We did all that we had to do in order for us to win. And without my volunteers, I would not have been able to do this.” 

With Laval’s city elections over on the evening of Nov. 7, Stéphane Boyer clearly won the mayoralty race for the Mouvement lavallois, receiving 41.53 per cent support from the City of Laval’s voters. 

As the dust settled, the new seat count in Laval city council showed the Mouvement lavallois having won 14 districts, Action Laval taking five, and the Parti Laval winning two. In an interview with the Laval News, the new mayor said he was ““very proud of the results tonight. We see it as a vote of confidence in the Mouvement lavallois for the good work we’ve done for the last few years.” 

For more than just a few generations of Hellenic Montrealers, Demetris J. Yantsulis was a voice of reason they would often seek out when a reliable view on global affairs or Greek, Canadian or Quebec politics and history was needed. 

On Nov. 3, Chomedey MNA Guy Ouellette paid homage in the Quebec National Assembly to the 86-year-old Demetris Yantsulis for all his years of service to Greeks in Laval and throughout the greater Montreal region. In addition to the spoken tribute, Ouellette would later also present the National Assembly Medal to Yantsulis, who without a doubt was one of the local Hellenic community’s most esteemed elder statesmen. 

December 

As the Covid pandemic wore on late last year, the labour union representing Canada Post workers was contesting the crown corporation’s temporary suspension without pay of employees who were not complying with the federal government’s order that they become fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. 

“The postal union is not against Covid vaccination,” said Alain Robitaille, president of the greater Montreal local of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW). “We are aware that it is the best solution possible for the population in general. We know that it is a good thing and we feel it is important to say so. However, what we are contesting to an arbitrator is that we feel there are alternatives for those who don’t want to be vaccinated which are also valid – including frequent screening.” 

In a special report tabled in the National Assembly on how the COVID-19 crisis was managed in CHSLDs during the first wave of the pandemic, Quebec Ombudswoman Marie Rinfret made 27 recommendations, while clearly allowing the facts to suggest negligence on the part of the CAQ government. 

“CHSLDs were the blind spot in bracing for COVID-19,” said Rinfret. “The truth is that, above and beyond the CHSLDs, it was the residents who were cast aside when the attack against the virus was being mounted.” 

In time for the December holiday season, the Centre De Pédiatrie Sociale Laval was launching its annual Guignolée, which would be held from Dec. 1-17 in the four corners of the city. After a year’s break due to the Covid pandemic, the organization was back on the streets and in front of Laval businesses to raise awareness of social pediatrics in the community. 

While the Laval Police Department admitted it had been working with the city’s parking tickets department to issue citations to car owners whose license plate numbers the ticket agents jotted down, a legal expert consulted by the Laval News questioned the validity of the tickets, suggesting they might not stand up if contested in court. 

Whatever ambiguities there might be, there was no doubt in the mind of George Ziakas that the partnership between the parking agents and the LPD, as well as the method they are using, was no more than a con job. “He writes up to 40 license plate numbers the days he is present without physically giving out any tickets,” he told the Laval News. 

Having recently announced his decision to take a salary cut along with four other Quebec mayors, newly-elected Laval mayor Stéphane Boyer was asking Quebec to pass a law setting the salaries paid to all elected municipal officials, rather than allowing them to decide what they are paid on their own. 

Boyer announced during the election campaign and shortly after taking office that he would join three other Quebec mayors who agreed to reduce their salaries. According to an information booklet published by the city, Laval was also asking Quebec to standardize the salaries of all elected members of city councils across the province. 

A 42-year-old man from Laval was arrested by the Laval Police after he allegedly posted threats against health-care workers administering COVID-19 vaccines. According to Radio-Canada, the man seemed to be a follower of a Canadian sub-group adhering to QAnon conspiracy theories, led in part by a woman from British Columbia. 

The Société de transport de Laval’s ongoing labour dispute and rotating service disruptions were the focus of questions from a concerned resident to Mayor Stéphane Boyer and other elected officials during the first regular public meeting of Laval city council since the November municipal elections. 

Mayor Boyer said the STL has been losing immense sums of money since the beginning of the Covid pandemic last year because of lower ridership, although he acknowledged the City of Laval and the Quebec government have been absorbing most of the impact. 

“So, when there is talk of improving working conditions and remuneration, the will is there but this would require a particular financial maneuver, and not only in Laval but all over Quebec and elsewhere in the world, so there is this challenge to meet at the moment,” he said. 

In addition to her duties as the Liberal Member of Parliament for the riding of Vimy, Annie Koutrakis’ workload would be a quite a bit heavier for at least the next year following her appointment by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as the Minister of Transport’s Parliamentary Secretary. 

“It’s always an honour when the Prime Minister shows confidence in the people on his team to help with the various cabinet portfolios,” Koutrakis said in an interview with the Laval News. 

While the City of Laval’s latest operating budget called for the average property owner to pay just 1.9 per cent more in taxes in 2022, the $969.9 million fiscal exercise included spending that was 4.3 per cent higher than it was last year. 

Finance department officials said their priorities over the coming year would focus primarily on improving the security of residents as well as municipal employees, optimizing services to citizens, following sound environmental practices, enhancing the quality of life and managing finances responsibly. 

New legislation for senior citizens’ abuse proceeding, Charbonneau confirms
Charbonneau said members of the National Assembly are now working out the details of Bill 115 which will deal in detail with the issue of senior citizens’ abuse.

After more than a dozen years in office, Mille-Îles Liberal MNA Francine Charbonneau says she will not be seeking a fifth term in the provincial general election taking place in October 2022. First elected in 2008, Charbonneau served as a cabinet minister under former Premier Philippe Couillard. From 2014 to 2018, she was Minister Responsible for Senior Citizens, as well as for families, and for anti-intimidation. 

A groundbreaking ceremony was held on Dec. 13 marking the start of construction of the Giant Steps Autism Centre, a new facility that supporters said would make Quebec a leader in autism education, research and services across Canada.

Ahmed Hussen announces extra $118.2 million over seven years to upgrade housing

Martin C. Barry
-
0
Ahmed Hussen announces extra $118.2 million over seven years to upgrade housing

‘We are another step closer to turning our vision into a reality,’ says federal housing minister

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the crisis has increased the need for affordable housing and led to rising levels of homelessness.

Additional housing funding 

Last week during a webcast press conference, federal Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion Ahmed Hussen, announced an additional $118.2 million over seven years, for Phase 2 of the Federal Community Housing Initiative for former federally administered housing providers whose agreements expired prior to April 1, 2016. 

The funds are estimated to be able to support and stabilize the operations of some 18,000 community housing units by ensuring affordability for low-income residents. The federal government created the National Housing Strategy to build hundreds of thousands of units and provide affordable housing to people from coast to coast to coast. 

Clockwise from top left, Adam van Koeverden, federal Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion Ahmed Hussen, Soraya Martinez Ferrada, the Liberal MP for Hochelaga and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion (Housing), and Tim Ross, executive director, Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada (CHF Canada).

To protect affordability 

As part of the National Housing Strategy, Ottawa says it has invested $500 million over 10 years in the Federal Community Housing Initiative (FCHI) to protect affordability for residents. The government says the funds will stabilize the operations of some 55,000 community housing units with operating agreements under federal administration. 

“Five years ago, our government announced Canada’s first ever National Housing Strategy, our $72-plus billion plan to ensure all Canadians have a place to call home,” said Hussen. “Our measures have come a long way since then. And with the Federal Community Housing Initiative, we are another step closer to turning our vision into a reality. This Phase 2 extension ensures that families don’t have to worry about keeping a roof over their heads, and provides safe, affordable housing that meets their needs.” 

Supporting most vulnerable 

“Community housing is an important part of how we can build a better future for all Canadians,” said Soraya Martinez Ferrada, the Liberal MP for Hochelaga and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion (Housing) and a former Montreal city councillor. 

“This $118.2 million investment into the Federal Community Housing Initiative will support the most vulnerable, who have faced especially challenging times over the past two years through the pandemic,” she added. “This will go a long way to ensure that folks have a reliable roof over their head.” 

Investment welcome 

“We welcome the federal government’s investment in community housing, which will ensure rent levels remain affordable for low-income households living in co-operative and non-profit housing previously administered by the federal government,” said Tim Ross, executive director, Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada (CHF Canada). 

The Liberal government’s budget 2021 announced an additional $118.2 million over seven years, starting in 2021-22

“Today’s announcement provides both housing security and affordability for individuals and families, as well as certainty for co-operative and non-profit housing providers.” 

Canada’s National Housing Strategy is a 10-year plan that will invest over $72 billion. Launched in 2017, the NHS will build and repair thousands of housing units, and help households with affordability support. Canada’s community housing stock is home to more than 518,000 families and individuals (2017), including some of the most vulnerable Canadians. 

Built-up housing stock 

According to the government, the stock was built under a variety of federal, provincial and territorial social housing programs that ran from the 1940s to the early 1990s. The government says community housing stock offers the most affordable housing in the country and is a critical part of our communities. 

Phase 1 of the Federal Community Housing Initiative provided $38 million in federal funding over the two-year period between April 1, 2018 and March 31, 2020. Under Phase 1, federally administered housing providers with long-term operating agreements that had ended between April 1, 2016 and February 28, 2020, continued to receive the same level of subsidy provided under existing agreements until March 31, 2020. 

Bringing stability to housing 

Phase 2 will provide $462 million in funding starting from Sept. 1, 2020 to March 31, 2028. The government says the investment is helping to stabilize the operations of some 55,000 units of federally administered community housing projects by providing rent support to community housing units occupied by low-income households, and transitional support for projects in need. 

Federal Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion Ahmed Hussen,

The Liberal government’s budget 2021 announced an additional $118.2 million over seven years, starting in 2021-22, through the Federal Community Housing Initiative, Phase 2. This additional funding applies to federal operating agreements expiring prior to April 1, 2016 to support community housing providers that deliver long-term housing to many of our most vulnerable and to support the affordability of housing to low-income households.

More than 70 free activities for winter/spring at Laval’s libraries

Martin C. Barry
-
0
More than 70 free activities for winter/spring at Laval’s libraries

Officials with the city of Laval’s public libraries network say they have a new roster of programming for the winter/spring season, with 72 free activities for residents of all ages.

Among them are chat events, workshops, seminars and conferences, as well as pre-recorded videos on YouTube, Zoom and Facebook webcast sessions. Registration is starting on Jan. 19 at noon.

“The teams at the libraries in Laval continue to offer an essential service to the population in these difficult times, while maintaining almost all their services by staying open 7 days out of seven,” says the city councillor responsible for libraries, Flavia Alexandra Novac.

Laval City Hall.

“I invite all Laval residents to go to their neighborhood library and to discover it virtually by borrowing virtual books, through exploration of digital resources.”

City makes $1 million fund available for damaged foundations

The City of Laval has announced that, with assistance from the Société d’habitation du Québec (SHQ), it is setting up a $1 million fund to help homeowners who have problems with house foundations.

The program is aimed at homes whose foundations have been damaged by settling of the ground. Those who believe they might qualify should contact the city for application documents by March 18 at the latest.

Mayor, councillors respond to questions on future of Laval’s golf courses

Martin C. Barry
-
0
Mayor, councillors respond to questions on future of Laval’s golf courses

Le Cardinal in Sainte-Dorothée is set to be redeveloped in phases

Although the City of Laval could eventually be holding referendums to decide the type of development taking place on old golf courses, only residents living in “contiguous” neighborhoods would be allowed to vote, a member of the city’s executive-committee said during the Jan. 11 meeting of city council.

Green space conservation activists in Laval are concerned about the extent of residential development slated to be taking place at the Le Cardinal golf course in Sainte-Dorothée. The City of Laval has already approved the extension of Arthur-Sauvé Blvd. southward into the golf course site to accommodate the redevelopment.

Golf course redevelopment

There are plans by Groupe Quorum, which purchased some of the land in 2017, to build more than 270 single-family homes and townhouses, with further plans to build up to 700 houses eventually. 

The developer has an option to purchase additional land on the golf course, although its future use would be subject to a zoning change and a referendum. This will not be the case with the opening phase of the development. 

Mayor Stéphane Boyer answers questions during the Jan. 11 city council meeting.

“The overall vision isn’t yet established,” Laval-Les Îles councillor Nicholas Borne told Laval resident Jonathan Tremblay, who raised the issue during question period. Borne said the city is about to introduce a completely re-written urban planning code which should be able to deal more effectively with the issue.  

“So, of course, the citizens are going to be consulted. But as regards referendums, if we have to go into a referendum vote, of course it will be with people who are contiguous to these various parklands. 

Who gets to vote? 

“So, if for example your neighbor were asking for a change of zoning, I would feel hard up to say that someone from a different neighborhood could vote in favor or against that type of zoning change,” Borne said. “So, the same goes for our various golf courses: if there is a zoning change at a golf course, it will be the citizens who live around the golf course who will have the right to vote.” 

If there is a zoning change at a golf course, it will be the citizens who live around the golf course who will have the right to vote

Official opposition councillor Claude Larochelle (Fabreville) assured Tremblay that “if the new urban planning code were to open the door wide to developers to do what they wish and as they wish, as we have unfortunately seen too often in the past in Laval, I would be the first to oppose it. 

“You can be certain that I will be there with my [city council] colleague Louise [Lortie] and that the councillors will be making sure that everything which happens in terms of development will be done with respect for our rights and our urban plan.” 

Opposition councillor’s view 

Action Laval opposition city councillor for Saint-Bruno David De Cotis noted that in July 2018, Action Laval councillors voted along with the Parti Laval’s Claude Larochelle to express their opposition to the sale of the golf course land for development. 

Mayor Stéphane Boyer said the city has certain “limited” powers of expropriation, as well as broader powers to purchase outright old golf courses should it wish to protect them from redevelopment and conserve them as green spaces. 

He said the city would be leaving itself open to being sued by a developer if it were to take action to prevent development on land that already is zoned for development. “We would be taking away the right of the owner to use his land as he sees fit, which is a principle written into laws for private ownership in all western countries. There are some things we can do, others we cannot.” 

First Responders coming 

Also, during the Jan. 11 council meeting, the councillors voted on motions to purchase equipment and to formally create the city’s first First Responder teams, which will be mandated to provide emergency interventions to persons undergoing medical emergencies. 

The entrance to the Le Cardinal golf course near Sainte-Dorothée, part of which is slated to be redeveloped into more than 270 new housing units.

As well, the councillors approved the appointment of independent members to the city’s new Consultative Committee on Senior Citizens. 

The new members are: Evelyne Garceau, Monique Hétu, Valiola Jeune-Monfiston, Kevin McLeod, Bernard Millette, Michel Pigeon and Danae Savides. As well, Mauricette Guilhermond was appointed as an alternate member should any other member not be able to serve over the next two years.

Montreal’s Jewish General helps identify protective gene variant against COVID-19

Martin C. Barry
-
0
Montreal’s Jewish General helps identify protective gene variant against COVID-19

JGH took part in multinational research collaboration with partners in U.S. and Sweden

An international meta-study conducted by researchers at the Lady Davis Institute of the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and VA Boston Healthcare System in the U.S. has identified a specific gene variant that protects against severe COVID19 infection. 

The key to understanding 

“That we are beginning to understand the genetic risk factors in detail is key to developing new drugs against COVID-19,” said study co-author Brent Richards, senior investigator at the Lady Davis Institute of the Jewish General Hospital and professor at McGill University in Montreal. 

The researchers managed to pinpoint the variant by studying people of different ancestries, a feat they say highlights the importance of conducting clinical trials that include people of diverse descents. 

The role of genetics 

In addition to old age and certain underlying diseases, say the researchers, genetics can influence whether anyone becomes severely affected or only suffers mild illness from COVID-19. Previous studies, mainly on people of European ancestry, found that individuals carrying a particular segment of DNA had a 20 percent lower risk of developing a critical COVID-19 infection. 

From left, study authors Jennifer Huffman from VA Boston Healthcare System, Brent Richards from the Lady Davis Institute of the Jewish General Hospital and McGill University, and Hugo Zeberg from Karolinska Institutet.

According to the research, this DNA segment encodes genes in the immune system and is inherited from Neanderthals in about half of all people outside Africa. 

However, this region of DNA is packed with numerous genetic variants, which makes it challenging to disentangle the exact protective variant that could potentially serve as a target for medical treatment against severe COVID-19 infection. 

Study’s focus on Africans 

So, to identify this specific gene variant, the researchers in the study looked for individuals carrying only parts of this DNA segment. 

Since the Neanderthal inheritance occurred after the ancient migration out of Africa, the researchers saw a potential in focusing on individuals with African ancestry who lack heritage from the Neanderthals and therefore also the majority of this DNA segment. 

The researchers say that a small piece of this DNA region is, however, the same in both people of African and European ancestries. They found that individuals of predominantly African ancestry had the same protection as those of European ancestry, which allowed them to pinpoint a specific gene variant of particular interest. 

Identifying unique variant 

“The fact that individuals of African descent had the same protection allowed us to identify the unique variant in the DNA that actually protects from COVID-19 infection,” said Jennifer Huffman, the first author of the study and a researcher at the VA Boston Healthcare System in the U.S. 

The analysis included a total of 2,787 hospitalized COVID-19 patients of African ancestry and 130,997 people in a control group from six cohort studies. Eighty percent of individuals of African ancestry carried the protective variant. The outcome was compared with a previous, larger meta-study of individuals of European heritage. 

According to the research team, the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred considerable collaboration among researchers in different parts of the world

According to the researchers, the protective gene variant (rs10774671-G) determines the length of the protein encoded by the gene OAS1. Prior studies have shown that the longer variant of the protein is more effective at breaking down SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the disease COVID-19. 

Pandemic led to collaboration 

According to the research team, the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred considerable collaboration among researchers in different parts of the world. This has made it possible to study genetic risk factors in a wider diversity of individuals than in many previous studies. Even so, they say the majority of all clinical research is still being done on individuals of predominantly European descent. 

“This study shows how important it is to include individuals of different ancestries,” said the study’s corresponding author Hugo Zeberg, assistant professor at the Department of Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet. “If we had only studied one group, we would not have been successful in identifying the gene variant in this case.”

Laval News Volume 30-02

Laval News Staff
-
0
Laval News Volume 30-02

The current issue of the Laval News volume 30-02 published January 19th, 2022.
Covering Laval local news, politics, sports and our new section Mature Life.
(Click on the image to read the paper.)

Front page of the Laval News.
Front page of the Laval News, January 19th, 2022 issue.

Fabreville home invasion and kidnapping linked to cryptocurrency dispute

Martin C. Barry
-
0
Fabreville home invasion and kidnapping linked to cryptocurrency dispute

A home invasion in Fabreville on Monday evening, followed by the kidnapping of a 26-year-old woman, has been linked to a $300,000 transaction gone bad involving Bitcoin cryptocurrency.

Around 8 pm Monday, according to the Journal de Montréal, four suspects wearing clown masks turned up at the home on Clémence St. in Fabreville and forced their way in.

A 30-year-old male occupant of the home tried to resist the trespassers, but was assaulted and suffered significant injuries. At least one gun shot was fired by the suspects, according to the Journal.

In the meantime, the 26-year-old female occupant succeeded in calling 9-1-1. However, only moments later the suspects took her by force to their vehicle and drove off.

Around 40 minutes later, the Laval Police Department succeeded in locating the kidnappers and the woman in Boisbriand just across the Rivière des Mille Îles from Laval where she was found seated in a Land Rover with some of the kidnappers.

Two of the suspects who were found in the vehicle were placed under arrest.

The Journal de Montréal identified one of them as Sylvain Kabbouchi, age 23, saying he is a member of a street gang known as Chomedey 45, and that he has a lengthy criminal record and was the target of assassination attempts in recent years.

The other suspect, identified by the Journal de Montréal, as Darnel Adrian Lovelace, age 35, is known by the police, the Journal said.

The two face charges of breaking and entering, illegally discharging a firearm, kidnapping, illegally detaining a person, assault causing injury, and illegal possession of firearms and high-capacity ammunition clips.

City of Laval says it’s ready for expected blizzard on Monday

Martin C. Barry
-
0
City of Laval says it’s ready for expected blizzard on Monday

The City of Laval’s public works department issued a statement on Sunday, saying snow removal crews are geared up for a major winter storm expected to dump up to 25 centimetres on the Laval and greater Montreal regions starting early on Monday.

National weather service officials say the snow combined with strong northeast winds will give near zero visibility in blowing snow. The poor weather conditions are expected to persist into Monday evening.

Surfaces such as highways, roads, walkways and parking lots may become difficult to navigate due to accumulating snow.

Rapidly accumulating snow could also make travel difficult over some locations. Visibility will be suddenly reduced to near zero at times in heavy snow and blowing snow.

According to the City of Laval, snow crews will be on the job from the beginning, dealing with what is anticipated to be the largest snowfall so far this winter.

The following suggestions are being made to Laval residents to help ease snow removal operations:

  • When possible, park in your own driveway when snow removal operations are scheduled. If you must park on the street, do so 30 centimetres from the sidewalk so that snow removal equipment can navigate safely, while also remembering that emergency vehicles and buses need enough room to pass along the street.
  • Always shovel snow onto your property, rather than onto the street or sidewalk.
  • On trash or recycling pickup days, place bins on the inside edge of your property rather than on the sidewalk.
  • Read the street parking signs carefully for instructions on parking during snow removal operations.

SLIP SLIDING AWAY ON QUEBEC ROADS

Renata Isopo
-
0
SLIP SLIDING AWAY ON QUEBEC ROADS

Winter makes it more difficult to drive. Snow and sleet can reduce
visibility while driving, and icy and accumulated snow on the ground
can make it more difficult to stop or turn. Because of this, car accidents
increase during the winter months throughout Quebec and Canada.
Obviously, this includes Laval, where dangerous accumulations of snow
and ice on the roadway can make travel hazardous and deadly.

In this modern day, people are very much into going somewhere. They
have the mentality that they always need to move. Sometimes we are
in a hurry or sometimes very busy, but we still have to slow down and
stop some other time. The same idea goes with driving, and the slowing
down helps a lot in different weather conditions like snow, rain, and the
most dangerous of all – ice.

Five lucky young ladies, not older than 23, whose car skidded and
jumped the island on Concorde Boulevard on Sunday morning, January
2nd got off without a scratch. TLN spoke to one of the passengers who
stated that the car simply had a mind of its own and slipped out of control.
Four super girls pushed the car to the other side of Concorde going west
while one was at the wheel. Luckily, no casualties, only a bent tree that
may have saved them from a fatal accident since Concorde is one of the
main arteries in Laval with ongoing traffic day and night.

The Laval Police intervened. They were happy that no one was hurt
and a constable told TLN that he would report the struck tree to La Ville
de Laval. Happy ending for the beginning of 2022

Woman, 40, dies in Laval-des-Rapides apartment fire

A woman in her forties was found dead in an apartment on Copernic Ave. in Laval-des-Rapides last Saturday evening following a fire.

A neighbor of the victim contacted emergency services at around 8:25 p.m., said the Laval Police Department. After the neighbor smelled smoke and didn’t get an answer, he visited the victim’s apartment in a building at 409 Copernic.

Firefighters evacuated the building. Then first responders found the lifeless woman, along with the remains of a fire that was small enough to have not affected other units. While an official investigation got underway last weekend, initial evidence pointed to an accident, according to an LPD official.

Looking back at last year’s news, is this a case of ‘déjà vu?’

Martin C. Barry
-
0
Looking back at last year’s news, is this a case of ‘déjà vu?’

The Laval News sees spooky similarities as we review 2021

Déjà vu.

As the Laval News looks back on 2021 and the things that were happening at the beginning of last year, no two words could better describe the situation in January a year ago compared to where we stand 12 months later.

January

In our first issue of 2021 published on Jan. 13, the headline read: ‘Quebec now under 30-day COVID curfew – Police can issue tickets from $1,000 – $6,000.’

In a news item posted on our website this past Dec. 30 as we prepared to close the year, the headline proclaimed, ‘Quebec decrees new curfew to deal with rising toll of Omicron Covid-19,’ while going on to describe an identical range of fines for transgressors.

While 2021 was a municipal election year in Laval but voting day was still 10 months in the future, speculation was swirling as to whether then-mayor Marc Demers would run again, or whether his second-in-command, Stéphane Boyer, who was vice-president of the executive-committee, would replace Demers as the Mouvement lavallois’s mayoralty candidate.

“Mr. Boyer shows signs of a pragmatism and of a sense of listening that allow him to mobilize people and to advance his dossiers so that the projects he leads can be fulfilled,” Demers had said about Stéphane Boyer in 2016 when Boyer was named Person of the Year by the Union of Quebec Municipalities (UMQ). Stéphane Boyer would go on to win the election with a renewed majority of city council seats for the Mouvement lavallois.

Continuing the Covid theme in the same issue, a report on a recent webcast meeting between Vimy Liberal MP Annie Koutrakis and federal Minister for Small Business Mary Ng made it clear that Ottawa would be counting on the country’s women to do their part in the economic recovery set to take place following the eventual end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are all aware of the disproportional impact that the pandemic has had on women across the country,” said Koutrakis, noting that a large proportion of Canada’s population of women worked in sectors of the economy that were most affected by the pandemic.

At the same time, she pointed out that many women were forced by work obligations during the pandemic to make difficult choices, such as choosing between a career or temporarily putting aside their responsibilities to their children and families.

Around $150 billion could be added to the country’s economy just by including more women, added Minister Ng, while noting the government’s commitment to helping businesswomen access new markets through the Women Entrepreneurship Strategy, a nearly $5-billion initiative that facilitates financing, expertise and networking.

In police and crime news in the year’s first TLN issue, investigators with the Laval Police Department were conducting an inquiry following the death under suspicious circumstances of a 7-year-old girl at a home on Le Boutillier St. in Chomedey. The LPD had received a call from the family. The girl was found in cardio-pulmonary arrest and was transported by paramedics to hospital, where she was declared dead.

At the same time, the Quebec Human and Youth Rights Commission opened an investigation into whether the rights of the deceased girl were being respected before the police intervened. According to news accounts, her situation had been the subject of a report to youth protection authorities. The girl’s mother is scheduled to make court appearances regarding the case this year.

In an exclusive interview with Newsfirst Multimedia published in our Jan. 27 issue, Women and Gender Equality Minister Maryam Monsef said her ministry has been in daily contact with organizations in Quebec and the rest of the country which are providing support to women fleeing abuse and violence.

“We heard in Quebec, as has been the case across the country, that the demand for services has gone up, and that the pandemic has added greater pressures to families, to individuals,” she said, noting that Ottawa had allotted $100 million to deal with a spike of domestic violence across the country during the pandemic.

Given the economic hardships faced by many homeowners as a result of the pandemic, City of Laval executive-committee vice-president Stéphane Boyer announced that the city had decided to defer tax payments – normally due in March and June – to June and September last year. “We are aware that the pandemic is producing terrible consequences for many families,” Boyer said in a statement.

In police and crime news, the Laval Police Department said a series of raids they conducted beginning last fall during a multi-phased maneuver dubbed Projet Doute led to the seizure of $1.175 million worth of street drugs, including cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine and ecstasy.

February

As rumours abounded that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would call an election for September just two years after the last one, Conservative Party supporters in Laval were getting a head-start as early as February.

So it was, and with relatively little fanfare that the Conservatives announced their candidate, Spyridonas Pettas, for the next election in the perpetually Liberal stronghold of Laval-Les Îles. “Spyros Pettas is someone I’ve known for a good number of years,” said Senator Leo Housakos who introduced him.

“As for his qualities apart from his educational background and dedication to the community, he is a man who is ready to work hard. He is ready to assume the responsibilities to bring the wants and needs of the people of Laval-Les Îles to Ottawa.”

Leading towards the tabling of the next provincial budget in March by the CAQ government, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business’s Quebec lobby was asking the government to go easy on taxes paid by small and medium-size businesses, and to also implement measures to deal effectively with ongoing labour shortages worsened by the Covid pandemic.

“This budget represents an opportunity for the government of Quebec to place the SMEs at the centre of their economic strategy,” said CFIB Quebec vice-president François Vincent, noting the challenges that included the COVID-19 pandemic as well as unfavourable tax regulations.

“If you develop symptoms of a respiratory tract infection and if you live with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19, unfortunately you almost certainly have it too,” Dr. Stéphanie Susser, medical coordinator for environmental health at the Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de Laval, told an online information session for senior citizens organized by Congregation Shaar Shalom in Chomedey.

According to Dr. Susser, the risk of serious complications from COVID-19 increases with age, “but even young people are at risk,” she said.

As reported in TLN’s police news feature LPD Blue, more than two dozen people who were caught during a raid on a Curé Labelle Blvd. gambling hall by the Laval Police would be paying at least $40,000 in fines after receiving tickets for gathering illegally and breaking COVID-19 sanitary and distancing rules.

Following the sweep, the LPD said it had been tipped off that an all-day and evening blackjack and poker event was going to be held at the location in a strip mall. A spokesperson for the force said the LPD was already aware of the event, since it had been well-advertised on social media.

In spite of a pledge by Quebec Premier François Legault to compensate movie theatre owners for revenue lost after not being allowed to sell snacks when theatres were scheduled to reopen in pandemic red zones on Feb. 26, Cinémas Guzzo owner Vince Guzzo was turning down the offer, saying it wasn’t worth the trouble.

“I will not be reopening. I will be waiting for the food restrictions to be removed,” Guzzo said. “There is one restriction they’ve got to remove, which is the restriction forbidding us from selling food and drink to be consumed on the premises.”

‘Tinker, sailor, candlestick maker’ we say of someone gifted and bent on never letting moss gather around their feet. This, in many qualitative-and-quantitative ways, described the life and times of François Pilon. The former NDP MP for Laval-Les Îles was the focus of a personal profile in TLN’s ‘Mature Life’ supplement for senior citizens.

Issuing from long-standing French origins, son of Aline Arbour and Yves Pilon, some Irish Blarney from his maternal-Irish-grandmother thrown in, the Laval-born-and-raised permanent resident of Île-Jesus spoke warmly of his native city. “Born here, lived most of my life here, worked most of my adult life for the city,” he said. “Still live here, loving the small-village-atmosphere of Laval-West.”

If anybody was in a position to understand snow removal problems in Laval, former city councillor Raynald Adams said in an interview published in our Feb. 24 issue, it should be him. During the four years he served the residents of the district of Renaud, he said, he came to understand why poor snow removal was such a sore point for so many people, leading to complaints year after year.

What made his comments more cutting was the fact he used to sit on city council with the Mouvement lavallois administration. He gave the city’s public works department a failing grade for snow removal on certain streets in his district.

March

In Laval, several COVID-19 vaccination clinics opened during the first week of March last year. As of the beginning of the month, thousands of Laval residents had already been vaccinated. With up to three vaccination clinics in Laval operating, a total of four clinics were expected to be up and running in Laval over the coming weeks.

Stéphanie Daigneault, a spokesperson for CISSS de Laval, told the Laval News that the first week the clinics opened went smoothly. “We had 300 appointments on day one of each clinic,” she said. “Day two, three and four we had 600 appointments, and then after that it was 800 appointments a day.”

By early March last year, the Covid pandemic was taking a toll. Officials with the City of Laval invited residents to take part on March 11 in a webcast ceremony paying homage to all those who died or fell ill over the past year during the pandemic.

As founder of the new Laval Citoyens party and as a mayoralty candidate in the municipal elections in November, one could easily have been left with the impression that Michel Poissant was starting the race a few places behind pole position.

Former Laval mayoralty candidate Michel Poissant.

Still, Poissant was launching his mayoralty campaign in March. “I believe that in the upcoming election we’re starting from scratch,” Poissant admitted candidly in an exclusive in-person interview with the Laval News published on Mar. 10.

While acknowledging the uphill battle he faced before the November election, Poissant believed that at least 50 per cent of voters in the City of Laval were undecided. “That’s my gut feeling,” he said.

Although recent surveys suggested there was a growing sense of trust by the general population for the various vaccines coming out to prevent COVID-19, there were also signs that a significant number of employees in health care establishments were refusing to be vaccinated.

According to news reports, just 20 per cent of workers at the Louise Vachon residence on Saint-Martin Blvd. in Chomedey agreed to be vaccinated. This was in spite of the fact the entire staff had been prioritized to receive the shot since the beginning of February.

In preparation for the reopening of restaurants in Laval with the lifting of some COVID-19 restrictions, the City of Laval said it was preparing a variety of new measures to be implemented in time for the 2021 summer season.

The city said it had begun to reach agreements with several restauranteurs for the implementation of temporary outdoor terraces, while adding that the terraces proved to be very popular last summer and would again allow restaurants to serve clients outside safely.

“Restaurants are part of the economic vitality of our territory, and that’s why we have developed concrete measures to support their re-launch,” said Mayor Marc Demers.

The Laval Chamber of Commerce and Industry would be receiving $344,165 from the federal government as part of a $44 million pandemic recovery subsidy package to Montreal-region business development agencies announced by federal Economic Development Minister Mélanie Joly.

“It is a priority of the Government of Canada to assist Quebec’s small and medium–sized businesses so they can rebound vigorously after the health crisis,” Joly, who is also Minister for Official Languages, said during a webcast press conference while making the announcement.

Senior citizens from the Montreal and Laval Greek communities were offered a better understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic on March 10 during an hour-long webconference and briefing on the situation provided by several epidemiology and microbiology experts.

Sponsored by the Hellenic Community of Greater Montreal with assistance from Chomedey MNA Guy Ouellette, the presentation featured director of public health for Laval Dr. Jean-Pierre Trépanier, CISSS de Laval infection-prevention officer Dr. Olivier Haeck, and Dr. Stephanie Susser, medical coordinator for environmental health at the CISSS de Laval.

The Laval Police Department said it had arrested Michel Ianiri, 60, based on allegations of sexual assaults he is suspected of having committed from 1980 to 2021. The LPD said that during the 1980s, Ianiri, who went by the name Mike, managed a video game arcade on Laurier Blvd. in Laval-des-Rapides. Witnesses had come forth claiming that Ianiri invited underage boys to his home where they used drugs together and where he allegedly engaged in sexual activities with them.

April

New statistical information about the changing demographics of Laval’s English-speaking population was presented during a webcast meeting of the Agape Networking Partners Initiative (Agape-NPI) on March 31.

Among the most notable findings: Laval’s English-speaking population continued to grow (by approximately 40 per cent) since the 2001 (53,390) census until the last census in 2016 (90,975), using the First official Language Spoken definition; Laval’s latest count of English-speakers was 90,975; the greatest concentrations of English speakers are in and around the Chomedey sector as well as Auteuil and Vimont.

Mayor Marc Demers announced in a statement that he wouldn’t be seeking a third mandate in the municipal elections scheduled on November 7. “After 38 years of public service, it is with great pleasure that I will be placing myself at the service of my family next November,” the former Laval Police Department investigator said.

Former Laval mayor Marc Demers announced last year that he would not be running again.

Demers was swept into office in 2013, along with an overwhelming majority of councillors from his Mouvement lavallois party, following the departure of longtime mayor Gilles Vaillancourt. Demers said he felt he had accomplished what he’d set out to do, namely cleaning up what his predecessor had left behind.

Garbage piled to the ceiling in a Chomedey duplex. Books, magazines, food trays, decaying food, discarded packages, and more, filling chairs, tables, beds; some rooms are so stuffed you can’t walk through them.

The home, 904-906 Emerson Street, was an ideal place for roaches and rats to breed, and the pests made their way through walls into neighbors’ homes. “Imagine having to live next to a place full of trash. That’s what we have had to deal with,” said Vicky Zannis, who lived in the adjacent duplex whose apartment was infested with rats.

Officers from the Laval Police Department executed a search warrant on March 23 related to narcotics trafficking and as part of the LPD’s ongoing Projet Doute operation and investigation. Since last September, the LPD had been looking into the activities of a criminal ring believed to be actively delivering large quantities of narcotics on behalf of several crime organizations.

In an exclusive interview with the Laval News following the announcement he won’t seek a third mandate in the November municipal elections, Mayor Marc Demers said his decision to enter politics was based largely on conclusions he reached decades earlier while working as a police detective investigating suspected corruption in former mayor Gilles Vaillancourt’s administration.

Demers said he felt he was leaving the City of Laval with a greater sense of transparency in its administration, including full public access over the internet to webcasts of city council meetings, and a freedom of information policy that granted residents access to all except the most confidential of documents.

While the pandemic dominated, there were also other issues

Thirty months after an investigation by UPAC was opened into some real estate dealings involving Laval city councillor for St-Bruno David De Cotis, the former Laval executive-committee vice-president said he had no doubt the complaint behind the inquiry was motivated by a vengeful Mouvement lavallois supporter out to get him after he left the party only months before.

“I have always trusted the system that was in place. I know that I did nothing wrong,” De Cotis said. “The real issue was that the person who had submitted the complaint was on a political vendetta.”

After more than a half century as one of Quebec’s biggest singing superstars, legendary crooner Michel Louvain passed away last year on April 14. Louvain’s meteoric career in show business was launched in the late 1950s at a hotel and night club near Curé Labelle Blvd. in Chomedey.

On stage at Laval’s Salle André-Mathieu more than a decade ago, Louvain recounted how he got one of his biggest breaks at Chomedey’s old Hôtel Central when he was in his early 20s.

The City of Laval said it was going ahead with a second phase of its Cité de la Biotech (Biotech City) industrial science park project, which was first launched with Phase I two decades ago. Since its creation, according to the city, Biotech City had seen phenomenal growth.

Located near the Metro and downtown Laval, Phase II of Biotech City, according to city, will be an ideal location to offer companies and workers an environment to complement the initial Phase I site.

May

By any standard, two to three weeks would be a long time for residents of any Laval neighbourhood to have to wait for their garbage, recycling or kitchen waste to be picked up by the city’s refuse collection workers.

However, according to Chomedey city councillor Aglaia Revelakis, that’s exactly how long home dwellers on Clarendon Ave. in Chomedey had to stand by patiently recently. In large part, she blamed the mess on an overly bureaucratic system created by the city to manage citizen requests and complaints.

“There’s a specific street in my district, Clarendon, where the garbage was not picked up for two consecutive weeks,” she said in an interview with the Laval News.

With a series of provincial government subsidies lined up, the Youth and Parents Agape Association revealed plans to open a satellite office, expanding services now available from its Chomedey headquarters to English-speaking people in the eastern half of Laval in three years time.

“We’ve identified that maybe Duvernay on the borderline somewhere close to Vimont and Pont-Viau would be a good area to open up a satellite office,” said Agape executive-director Kevin McLeod, adding that Agape’s base would continue to be in Chomedey.

After tabling a petition in Laval city council, at least 40 residents of Webb Ave. in Chomedey gathered in the middle of their street to say they were serious about demanding the city’s engineering department reverse a plan to narrow the width of Webb Ave.

Around 40 residents of Webb Ave. in Chomedey felt strongly enough about fundamental changes the City of Laval wants to make on their street to gather in the middle of Webb to make their voices heard and their views known to the city. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Newsfirst Multimedia)

“Everyone on the street has signed,” said Nick Batzios, a Webb Ave. resident who helped gather the petition with the help of a neighbour. “No one was aware that the city was going to modify and make major changes to Webb Ave. They want to make the roadway smaller and nobody knew anything about this. We want our street to remain as is.”

It happened so fast, it was like night and day. That’s how quickly the corner of Notre Dame and Curé Labelle – probably Chomedey’s busiest intersection – was transformed over a week-and-a-half into an impassable no man’s land, as the City of Laval began work on a long-awaited storm drain and water main replacement project.

“This is going to be problematic for us,” said Ian Williams, a social worker at Agape on Notre Dame Blvd., noting that parents who bring their children to the daycare might have trouble getting in and out of the driveway because of the numerous detours they’re forced to navigate.

Despite mounting concerns by anglophone interest groups over the possible infringement of freedoms and rights, Sainte-Rose MNA Christopher Skeete, Premier François Legault’s liaison to Quebec’s English-speaking community, was defending Bill 96, the CAQ government’s proposed new law updating the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101).

 “I think if you look at what’s being proposed, you see a deliberate attempt to show extreme deference to the English community,” Skeete said on a Montreal radio station, defending the legislation. He also suggested that the CAQ government was showing “recognition that municipal autonomy needs to be used in order to protect the bilingual status of cities.”

The union representing City of Laval public works employees was contesting a decision by the city to fire three employees after they were filmed by a resident while using marijuana on the job.

According a report by the TVA network, the resident spotted the employees in early March in a Laval neighbourhood where they were working. While two of the workers were full-time and had 16 and eight years experience respectively, the third employee was part-time.

For hundreds of parents and school board staff who were regulars at the Sir Wilfrid Laurier Foundation’s annual fundraisers in January and June over the past 16 years, Elizabeth Rossi’s face was a familiar one indeed, as she was as one of the foundation’s most trusted, hardworking and reliable volunteers. Rossi passed away at age 59 on May 14 following a courageous battle with cancer.

Some residents of the residential Equinox Tower on Cartier Blvd. West in Chomedey were forced to change their plans on the evening of May 18 after a fire accidentally started on a balcony on the 25th storey of the high-rise, riverside residential building.

Around 7:30 pm, 911 was called after a sudden gust of wind threw over some lit candles sitting on balcony on a table. In all, more than 20 Laval Fire Department firefighters ended up responding, from a half-dozen units which were in place by 7:38 pm.

June

The City of Laval’s emerging downtown core will have a linear park, a high-tech industrial component, an urban boulevard, a cultural district, an esplanade and a commercial/retail street, but no new hospital, a city official acknowledged during a webcast public consultation on the massive centre city development plan.

“There isn’t any hospital planned in the downtown area,” Perrine Lapierre, a member of the City of Laval’s urban planning staff, replied to a question from a resident. “For now, we have no information about that. But there are several projects underway connected to retirement residences that we are looking at.”

Beginning in 2022, firefighters in Laval will be trained to provide First Responder services for medical situations involving cardio-respiratory arrests or acute allergic reactions.

According to the city, all firefighters in Laval will receive the training, and the service will become available in stages in conjunction with Urgences-Santé. The city said that around 1,600 calls were being received for this type of priority medical service as of last June.

Despite the reputation battery-electric motor vehicles had acquired for reduced efficiency in cold weather, Laval’s elected officials gave assurances that such problems had been largely resolved and Quebec’s gruelling winters won’t impact the performance of the Société de Transport de Laval’s growing fleet of electric buses.

In June last year, the STL expected to begin deploying the first of 10 new 100 per cent electric buses. They were part of a new generation of electric vehicle technology that optimize battery performance, while allowing the buses to roll 250 kilometres under normal conditions before needing to be recharged.

Nearly a dozen residents of Webb Ave. in Chomedey questioned Mayor Marc Demers during Laval city council’s June 2 meeting on the major infrastructure work being conducted outside their homes, as protesters for the cause tried as best they could to stir up attention outside Laval city hall.

Mayor Demers defended the city’s position. “When it is said that the citizens were not consulted, on the contrary we created a vision for across the City of Laval and we consulted across the city,” he maintained.

He said “the reason the work is taking place on your street is mainly due to a problem involving sewers that are at the end of their usefulness. So, if we don’t do it within a reasonable timeframe, we risk having major problems and you also risk having major problems.”

The Unité permanente anticorruption (UPAC), Quebec’s anti-corruption police force known for its sometimes-dramatic tactics while carrying out its mandate, issued a formal apology to independent Chomedey MNA Guy Ouellette who was arrested by UPAC four years ago.

Chomedey MNA Guy Ouellette is seen here with the book he released in September last year, detailing his traumatizing experiences with UPAC.

UPAC came to believe that Ouellette was involved in a leak of information in conjunction with a mole believed to be operating inside UPAC. UPAC investigators used a tactic that involved sending a text message to Ouellette over a cell phone that belonged to a UPAC force member suspected of being the mole.

“I am offering my apologies,” UPAC head Frédérick Gaudreau said in a statement. “We must learn from these errors and act in such a way that it never happens again.”

Parents and residents living in homes on a stretch of 39th Avenue near Jean-Bart Street in the district of l’Orée-des-Bois said it was only a matter of time before a child got seriously injured by one of the many school buses that were rolling in convoys through their neighbourhood each weekday morning since the bus route was changed more than a year ago.

According to 39th Ave. resident Angie Cardone, the presence of the school buses on the street was a relatively new phenomenon. She said they often rolled in fast-moving convoys, from 8 am to at least 8:45 am weekdays, and that many of the buses were empty when they went by.

The City of Laval’s on again/off again aquatics complex project, an initiative that was mothballed three years ago after cost bids came in too steep, was dramatically revived with the announcement that Ottawa and Quebec would be contributing a combined $20 million to get the $61.1 million project back on track.

Quebec Premier François Legault and federal Minister of Infrastructure and Communities Catherine McKenna were among the high-ranking elected officials on hand to announce $20 million in financial assistance to help build the future project, located on a tract of land on Terry Fox Ave. in downtown Laval next to the Cosmodôme.

After more than a half-century of rising and falling tensions between Quebecers over the use of English and French, concerns were rising among stakeholders that some rights and protections Quebec anglophones fought for since the introduction of Bill 101 more than 40 years ago were being threatened by Quebec’s proposed Bill 96 and changes to Ottawa’s Official Languages Act.

The Quebec Community Groups Network hosted a policy webconference entitled ‘Our Place in Quebec and Canada,’ bringing together English-speaking Quebecers to discuss the rights of Canada’s official language minority communities as well as overall human rights.

“Bill 96 effectively creates a Charter-free zone with respect to a wide range of interactions between individuals and the state in Quebec,” said QCGN president Marlene Jennings.

1...122123124...309Page 123 of 309

Weather

Laval
overcast clouds
8.5 ° C
8.5 °
8.5 °
90 %
2.3kmh
98 %
Sat
8 °
Sun
9 °
Mon
14 °
Tue
14 °
Wed
14 °

Popular Categories