An 18-year-old was shot and wounded yesterday when a gunman opened fire through the window of a Laval municipal library in the middle of the evening.
The impact of the bullet in the window was clearly visible
The shots rang out shortly after 7 p.m. at the Philippe-Panneton municipal library in the Laval-Ouest sector.
The assailant, who was outside, shot through the window, hitting an 18-year-old who was inside, said Stéphanie Beshara, a spokeswoman for the Laval Police Service.
The Philippe-Panneton Municipal Library is located in the Laval-West sector on Arthur-Sauvé Boulevard, near Sainte-Rose Boulevard.
Wounded in the lower body, he was taken to a hospital, but there is no fear for his life. The young victim is known to police circles, said Constable Beshara.
At that time, the library was still open. According to TVA Nouvelles, several employees and four other users were inside.
No one else was injured, said an attendant at the scene.
At least four shots, was clearly visible from the outside.
The gunman fled after unloading his weapon.
This new shooting adds to a long list of events involving firearms since the beginning of the year in the Greater Montreal area.
Last week, a 20-year-old man succumbed to his injuries after being shot in the heart of a residential neighborhood in Montreal’s Anjou borough.
Hani Ouahdi, known by his rapper name El DZairy, became the 32nd homicide victim in Montreal in 2021.
Always younger
In the same event that night, a 17-year-old was also shot in the upper body, but his life is out of danger.
Since the beginning of the year, armed violence between young people has also claimed the lives of three teenagers, all aged 16 and under, in the metropolis.
Environment Canada issued an updated weather statement at 5:14 AM EST Saturday Dec. 4 about a winter storm expected to kick off the upcoming week.
You could be seeing more activity like this in the next few days, as winter 2021-2022’s first storm, bringing a mix and snow and rain, hits Laval and other areas of Quebec.
According to the federal weather service, a system from Colorado will move into Western Quebec late in the day on Sunday and reach eastern parts of the province on Monday morning.
Precipitation will begin as snow, especially over areas north of the St. Lawrence River, before changing over to rain.
There will be a risk of freezing rain during the transition.
As a result, the largest snowfall amounts are expected north of the St. Lawrence beginning Sunday night.
Snowfall amounts could exceed 25 centimetres over these areas. Strong winds and blowing snow are also possible with this storm.
Forecast precipitation types and amounts will become more certain as the event draws nearer and warnings will be issued as needed.
Travel could be significantly impacted.
The areas affected include Laval, Montreal, Châteauguay – La Prairie and Longueuil – Varennes.
In keeping with a growing trend among police forces to provide protection to citizens when they are completing purchase transactions initiated on the Internet, the Laval Police Department has decided to set up a “neutral space” to support the safe exchange of goods or for any other situation that requires a neutral meeting area.
The location, in the parking lot outside the LPD’s headquarters building (2911 Chomedey Blvd.), is under 24h video surveillance. The site, which can be used for free, is accessible at any time and does not require authorization.
Laval Police Department director Pierre Brochet, centre, is seen here with other LPD officials in the first neutral zone set up recently by the force to accommodate residents who want to complete transfers of property and payments in a safe environment following online transactions.
Police forces everywhere have seen it necessary to create such spaces given a growing number of reports of individuals being victimized by perpetrators of fraud or theft who take advantage of the relative anonymity provided by e-commerce transactions.
Some suggested uses
A seller and buyer who make a trade on an online site (Kijiji, Marketplace, etc.) can meet there to complete the exchange safely.
Separated parents can also transfer custody of their children peacefully in this location.
By next spring, the LPD is expected to set up two additional zones. Their openings will be announced by the force as soon as they are set up and become operational. These sites will also be monitored around the clock by security cameras.
Some tips for safe e-commerce transactions
Never give out personal information;
Take screenshots of the ad, the seller’s information and all communications between the parties;
Check the seller/buyer’s name in a search engine (Google etc.);
Only bring the amount of money required for the transaction;
Don’t give the money to the seller until you take possession of the item;
Take note of the buyer/seller’s licence plate number;
If you have any doubts or are not comfortable during the transaction, feel free to call off the deal if necessary.
Suspect in Laval daycare arson incidents finally arrested
A suspect who the Laval Police believe may have been involved in the attempted torching of a children’s daycare centre in Sainte-Dorothée was arrested on Nov. 20.
Jordan Picot Sudano, 24, was taken into custody by the LPD just two days after they had posted and distributed security camera images showing the act of arson allegedly being committed by him.
In all, three fires were set at CPEs in western Laval, including the Centre de la petite enfance (CPE) Les Soleils du monde, located on Lauzon St. The most recent was on Nov. 6 and was linked to the suspect.
In the security camera images released by the LPD, he was seen deftly approaching the CPE with an incendiary object in hand. He was seen placing the object at the base of the building, then leaving as fire began to spread.
The two previous arson incidents took place in October as well as in August. The suspect, who is a Laval resident, was not previously known to the LPD, they said, although he now faces charges of arson and possession of incendiary materials for criminal purposes.
He was released by the police with special conditions and is scheduled to go to court on March 9 next year. The suspect’s possible motives remain unknown
Laval-based prostitution pimp being sought by several police forces
Police from Laval and other areas of Quebec say they are seeking the public’s help to determine the whereabouts of a suspected pimp who is wanted in order to answer charges he was living off the avails of prostitution.
According to the police force, Blake Charbonneau, who has a long criminal record, is also being sought to face charges of sexual assault and armed assault over a period of several years.
The 35-year-old Laval resident is being sought by the inter-police Escouade intégrée de lutte contre le proxénétisme (EILP), which is made up of police from Montreal, Laval, Longueuil, Quebec City, Gatineau, the Sûreté du Québec and the RCMP.
Charbonneau is 5’7” tall, weighs 176 lbs., has black hair and blue eyes, and wears ear rings. Anyone with information or who thinks they’ve seen him is urged to call 9-1-1, or the SQ’s Centrale criminelle de la Sûreté du Québec, at 1 800 659-4264.
Of the 5,634 Covid deaths reported up to June 30 last year, 69 per cent were in CHSLDs
In a special report tabled last week 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 makes 27 recommendations, while allowing the facts to suggest negligence on the part of the CAQ government.
They ‘were the blind spot’
As they braced for COVID-19, Rinfret’s report states, government authorities were quick to make hospitals the focal point. Then, in order to free up hospital beds, many patients were transferred to CHSLDs. Of the 5,634 COVID-19 deaths reported up to June 30 last year, 3,894 (69 per cent) were in CHSLDs.
In a scathing new report on the provincial government’s performance last year during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Quebec Ombudswoman Marie Rinfret provides evidence that CAQ government officials made decisions which may have worsened the situation.
“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.”
CHSLDs ‘were doubly hit’
A progress report released by Rinfret’s office in December 2020 highlighted firsthand witness statements. The new report includes an analysis of accounts by experts and government authorities in key areas, including health institution management, geriatrics, crisis management, epidemiology, and infection control and prevention.
“Our investigation made it possible to dig deep and understand why CHSLDs were doubly hit – under siege during the pandemic, and unable to deal with the outbreaks and deaths,” Rinfret said in a statement. “Our report brings into sharp relief the frailty of services, structures and communication channels.”
Were already short-staffed
The Ombudswoman’s office said the CHSLDs “already short-staffed, did not have the resources needed to accommodate the sudden influx of people who were already fragile. As a result, decisions were made by authorities who did not have the wherewithal to adequately gauge the ability of CHSLDs to fulfil this unusual mission.”
According to Rinfret, other factors contributed to a decline in service and disorganization, including the authorities’ underestimating CHSLD residents’ vulnerability to the virus. The effects of staff absenteeism due to COVID-19 hadn’t been foreseen either. She said the complex nature of the jobs of the healthcare teams should have quickly sounded the alarm about why things went as they did and required an urgent solution.
Knowledge was lacking
Rinfret said that when planning for the pandemic, the Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services hadn’t considered how serious it was that CHSLD staff knew very little about best practices in infection prevention and control during major outbreaks.
Given the circumstances, she added, the virus spread widely, exacerbated by a lack of personal protective equipment, as well as outdated facilities. Moreover, Rinfret continued, lack of managers in each CHSLD often slowed the response to a succession of ever-changing instructions from health authorities.
The recommendations
Given the extent of the crisis during the first wave and the dramatic repercussions on the province, the Ombudswoman’s office recommended that the Ministry of Health and Social Services put in place various mechanisms. Here are the principal ones:
A risk assessment and management policy concerning CHSLDs;
A detailed plan for strengthening the CHSLDs’ ability to apply infection prevention and control measures;
A personal protective equipment supply strategy;
A provincial plan for deploying emergency personnel within the health and social services network to make the most of back-up resources;
Protocols with professional orders, federations and associations, unions, and educational institutions for deploying extra staff in exceptional circumstances;
A Quebec strategy to combat staff shortages and to promote health and social services trades and professions;
An action plan to recognize the complexity of care and service provision in CHSLDs.
Memorials should be held
Rinfret said all the reforms should include the introduction of reliable and efficient information systems. The Ombudswoman’s office also recommended that the ministry organize annual services of commemoration for the COVID-19 victims in CHSLDs and for the people who worked with them directly or indirectly.
‘CHSLDs were the blind spot in bracing for COVID-19,’ said Rinfret
“It is important to remember what these people went through so that their experiences are the catalyst for sustainable action and change,” said the ombudswoman’s office. Rinfet also asked the minister to provide a progress report about the implementation of the recommendations by March 1 next year and that a follow-up schedule be agreed upon.
Premier Legault’s reaction
In Quebec City, Premier François Legault reacted to Rinfret’s 66-page report, saying it was relatively easy for an onlooker to second-guess the situation, but that the provincial government did its best to manage given the extreme circumstances.
“With the information I had, I did the best I was able to do at the time,” he told journalists last week. “It’s tough to take decisions when you don’t have all the information.
“And the information we had was that we would have problems in our hospital ERs and not in our long-term care facilities. So, it’s easy Monday morning to say you should have done things differently. But I think with the information we had we did the best we were able to do.”
‘No real action taken’
Despite the government’s claim it warned CHSLDs to prepare for the pandemic as early as January 2020, the report states that no real action was taken until April, when devastating Covid outbreaks in Montreal and at Laval’s CHSLD Sainte-Dorothée led to hundreds of Covid deaths.
Rinfret’s report described a disconnect between Quebec’s Ministry of Health and Social Services and the regional health authorities overseeing the CHSLDs. Staff absenteeism worsened the problems.
The report states that between March 1 and June 14 last year, 13,581 health-care workers contracted COVID-19, representing 25 per cent of all reported cases in the first wave. While eleven health-care workers died, many others were left psychologically and emotionally scarred by the death and suffering they witnessed first-hand.
Les Prix Habitat Design’s annual competition which aims its spotlight at the housing industry and rewards the best-equipped model units and sales offices, has awarded the Marquise Condominiums Laval the 2021 People’s Choice prize in the category of Furnished Model Unit Component.
The awards are part of the much-appreciated and much anticipated contest that focuses on promoting better design for living. In the The People’s Choice competition, Marquise Condominiums Laval scored top marks for attractive design and functionality. Better design for living Marquise, with their creative architect, translates unique tastes and aspirations into forever homes with visions of hassle-free design, offering unique and elegant lifestyles which cater to many tastes, supported by outstanding recreational amenities, esteemed scholarly and health facilities, transport, and shopping, benchmarks of exclusive community living, winning designs which reflect modern luxury, warmth, and effortless elegance.
Award winning Marquise’s approach to luxury is about craftsmanship, curation, and a sense of authenticity, a more ethereal quality to the design of the buildings, telling the essence of this city that is about a sense of lightness, the sense of transparency.
“Buyers love the more and more varied proposals that are presented to them,” say the Habitat Design Awards organizers. “For builders, the buyers visits, this translates into beautiful, finely decorated model units, (and) buyers can thus fill up with ideas of a future new home.” Multidisciplinary adjudication For the Furnished Model Unit Component, the jury was made up of interior designers who are all members of APDIQ (Professional Association of Interior Designers of Québec) – Michèle Lalumière, Jean de Lessard, Lucie Roy, and Mélodie Violet.
“The promotion of the design professions, all disciplines combined – architecture, landscape, interior design, graphic design – is an avenue that we must clearly support to ensure a better design of our living environments. The Habitat Design Awards challenges us in this regard. An important and highly relevant initiative, these awards demonstrate the soundness of interprofessional collaboration,” notes renowned industrial designer Michel Dallaire, who sat on the multidisciplinary committee that adjudicated the Habitat Design Grand Prize in the category of Jury’s Choice.
The sponsors and partners of the 2021 Habitat Design Awards are the Professional A s s o c i a t i o n o f Interior Designers of Quebec (APDIQ), the Association of Landscape Architects of Quebec (AAPQ), t h e S o c i e t y o f Graphic Designers of Quebec, duProprio, Électroménagers GE, Rinox, as well as FORMES magazine.
In a report released on Nov. 22, the U.S.-based credit rating agency Standard & Poors (S&P) Global Ratings said it was maintaining the City of Laval’s “AA” rating.
In a statement, the city says that S&P confirmed that the observable dynamics, the expected strong growth of economic activity and the sound financial management of the city were factors that favoured maintaining Laval’s credit score.
A stable economy
The report also notes that the diversity of economic sectors active on Laval’s territory was a factor in helping to keep Laval’s economy stable while attenuating any potential volatility.
“Beyond the numbers, this outcome allows us to take advantage of some very real benefits for all Laval residents, such as an excellent credit rating,” said Mayor Stéphane Boyer. “For several years, we are in excellent shape financially, and this is something we can be proud of.”
Restarting the economy
Duvernay–Pont-Viau city councillor Christiane Poirier, who sits on the executive-committee with responsibilities for economic development, commented, “Our sound management of public funds allowed us to be there for local businesses while the pandemic was striking a number of industries. This good result shows our commitment to pushing forward the Laval business community so that it can reap the benefits of a robust economic restart.”
According to the city, each year it goes to great efforts to be as transparent as possible to publicly account for all its investments and expenses. “The rating accorded by S&P Global Ratings demonstrates that the City of Laval has the capacity to respect its commitments while ensuring that the level of debt remains predictable and under control,” city officials said in a statement.
Laval executive-committee approves purchase of more woodlands
During a meeting on Nov. 24, the members of the City of Laval’s executive-committee approved the purchase of three wooded lots in several districts of Laval in order to add to the city’s growing inventory of woodlands and green space.
In keeping with the city’s plan for improving and conserving Laval’s natural areas, the executive-committee members gave the go-ahead for a disbursement of $213,200 for the purchase of the lots.
More green space added
Some of the lots in question are located in the City of Laval’s Val-des-Arbres district and are part of a wooded area measuring more than a hectare which has several wetlands. Another lot, located in the Auteuil woods near the Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, is also part of an area that conservationists and the city have had their eyes on for some time.
The acquisitions are taking place as part of a greater Montreal regional plan, known as the Trame verte et bleue, which is aimed at carefully planning the preservation of natural spaces and biodiversity in the Montreal region, while taking into account the impacts of climate change at the same time.
Who’s on the executive-committee?
The City of Laval’s executive-committee meets weekly to make decisions on a range of issues. The committee’s lead members are Mayor Stéphane Boyer and Sainte-Dorothée councillor Ray Khalil (vice-president).
Regular members are Concorde–Bois-de-Boulogne councillor Sandra Desmeules, Duvernay–Pont-Viau councillor Christine Poirier, Laval-les-Îles councillor Nicholas Borne, followed by associate members Saint-Martin council Aline Dib, Souvenir-Labelle councillor Sandra El-Helou, and Laval-des-Rapides councillor Alexandre Warnet.
Pediatrics centre sets ambitious $50,000 goal for Laval’s most vulnerable children
In time for the upcoming holiday season, the Centre De Pédiatrie Sociale Laval is launching its annual Guignolée, which will 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 is back on the streets and in front of Laval businesses to raise awareness of social pediatrics in the community and to give Lavallois the opportunity to support it.
An essential role
The organization, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, played a more crucial role than ever with vulnerable children in Laval during the pandemic.
Indeed, say organizers, the prevention of child neglect and abuse is of paramount importance in this context of uncertainty. The report of the Laurent Commission, published last spring, emphasized the importance of funding front-line services to protect children.
The demand is overwhelming
However, the Centre De Pédiatrie Sociale has a waiting list of 56 families residing in some of the least privileged neighbourhoods of Laval. Some of these families have been on their own for almost a year and some of the children on the waiting list are in a very vulnerable situation. They are at risk of neglect, integration difficulties, developmental delays, food insecurity, anxiety and depressive disorders, as well as academic failure.
Unsuitable premises
The centre says that two of its three points of service have very limited capacity, which reduces the proper functioning of their activities. As a result, the team is currently looking for a new space that would be better suited to social pediatrics services, as well as funding for this purpose.
But with the real estate market on the rise, they say, it is currently impossible for the centre to invest in space without cutting professional resources dedicated to clinical services.
Space lacking, says director
“Our workers and doctors have the time and desire to take care of more toddlers, but the space to accommodate them is not adequate,” says Mylène Du Bois, executive-director of the centre. “As a result, the children are waiting impatiently for their turn, which, when the time comes, will give them access to a better future.”
“The need to expand our premises in order to be able to adequately meet the needs of the children is one of our most pressing issues,” adds Me Jean Marius Mottet, president of the centre’s board of directors. “Access to an adapted space would allow us to double the number of interventions on a weekly basis and thus ensure that we fully realize our mission.”
Chomedey a critical sector
According to the centre, Chomedey, the third most vulnerable neighbourhood in Quebec, is currently in an emergency situation. They say the Centre De Pédiatrie Sociale Laval would need to take action immediately in order to avoid potentially tragic incidents within families.
Unfortunately, the news of the last few months shows how much children are affected. As Régine Laurent, president of the Special Commission on the Rights of the Child and the Protection of Youth, said in a report released earlier this year: “We can no longer accept, in 2021, in a society that has the means to do so, that children do not have their most basic needs met.”
Many ways to support
The Centre De Pédiatrie Sociale Laval is asking the Laval community to help raise $50,000 to continue to provide clinical services to vulnerable children in Laval. Donations can be made online at cpslaval.org, or at street corners in the downtown area and at various partner businesses on Saturday Dec. 11.
“More than a third of our funding comes from private donors and 90 per cent of the donations collected go directly to the children through much needed services: social workers, psychoeducators, speech therapists, music therapists, etc. Together, let’s form a caring community that takes care of its children,” Du Bois says.
Here for Laval’s children
The centre de Pédiatrie Sociale Laval is a non-profit organization that provides activities and care to children in the community. The centre contributes to the overall development of children and adolescents with developmental, social or health problems in disadvantaged areas.
The centre also promotes the interests and rights of children and their families. Its mandate is to offer interdisciplinary health services to a vulnerable clientele that is at odds with the current service network, in a living environment integrated into the community.
I don’t want to get into a climate change debate, but one thing is for sure. Climate change is happening and it can not be reversed by humankind. It’s just the way it is and has been since the Big Bang, some 14 billion years ago. It’s been “expanding, cooling and evolving” ever since. Can it be slowed? According to most, yes it can. But stopped or reversed, no. Our earth has been fluctuating from ‘super green house to an ice house’ many times since life began. Some semblance of records, we are told, began only in the 19th century. That’s not very long ago. In fact, it’s a grain of sand considering the period we stopped climbing trees and eventually began to walk upright three to six million years ago. So, what did really happen?
Do you believe in Noah’s Ark? The Bible says he did build it, but that’s not enough to convince everyone. The fact is, evidence indicates massive floods in then called Mesopotamia, today known as Iraq, were prevalent, with heavy and continuous periods of rain flooding the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Egyptian archeologists among others, have found evidence of fossiliferous “flood deposits”, in Iraq.
According to The National Center for Science Education, over hundreds of thousands and millions of years have resulted in “changing configuration of continents and oceans, changes in the Sun’s intensity, variations in the orbit of Earth, and volcanic eruptions.” This is climate change.
A Saskatchewan farmer once told me overlooking his field of golden wheat, “It’s hard to imagine all this was underwater long ago. Yup, that’s Mother Nature”. Today it’s called climate change.
Which brings us to the BC ‘flood of the century’. We now say, and especially those directly impacted “we’ve never seen anything like this”. Of course not. It doesn’t mean it never happened. It did. So, one has to wonder why politicians did not heed the warning signs. Yes, there were warning signs. This could have been avoided. In the 1920’s one huge B.C. Lake called Sumas, was actually drained and the water that naturally flowed into it was stopped, diked, and voilà, there was suddenly one very fertile prairie where just about anything and everything could grow. It was hailed as a great engineering feat.
But this has to be underlined. As early as three years ago, 2018, a B.C. historian had a warning. Chad Reimer wrote a book, Before We Lost the Lake: A Natural and Human History of Sumas Valley. Author Reimer warns of the evidence of flooding every 45 to 100 years that “should not lull us in a false sense of security. This complacency has been unfounded”. Reimer was spot on! Oh yes, politicians from every level had been commissioning reports and studies, but let’s face it, spending taxpayers’ money on solidifying infrastructure does not attract votes. And today, Canada is paying for it. Yes Canada, not just BC, because we were literally cut off from the Port of Vancouver for a week. Yes, the folks in BC had to ration gasoline, because the Alberta pipelines of oil and gas were shut, but a lot leaves and arrives from the west coast that serves all of Canada, and parts of the U.S. And with roads and rail snapped like uncooked spaghetti, the gateway of goods from around the world stopped. I’m referring to the Port of Vancouver which handles everything from “clothes and candy, to electronics, grain and produce, canola oil, chemicals, fuels, lumber products, machinery, and automobiles.”
In fact, the Vancouver Port handles $1 of every $3 of Canada’s trade in goods outside of North America. It has 120,000 employees, compared to the much smaller 19,000 at the Port of Montréal. This life-line is a federal jurisdiction, so the onus is clearly on Ottawa to stop the focus on carbon taxes and more on floods. Implement measures with immediate results, to assure this destruction does not happen again in Newfoundland Labrador, and on the ‘wet coast’.
Notes: Omicron and other variants will occur as long as the other half of the world is not vaccinated.
In Saskatchewan, if you own an EV, there is now a $150.00 yearly tax on your car because owners don’t pay the 15 cents per liter gasoline tax. Fair is fair.
Shamefully, no one in the Trudeau cabinet condemned self-proclaimed environment king David Suzuki for suggesting domestic terrorism, pipelines will be blown up if more is not done on climate change.
Joe Biden is importing 844,000 barrels of oil a day, from Russia. He killed the Canadian XL Keystone pipeline, (no objection from our P.M.) which would have delivered the same amount of Canadian oil to the U.S.
After stopping our oil exports, Biden’s EV tax credits to Americans could kill Ontario’s auto industry. Thanks so much, smiling Joe.
Comedian Rick Gervais: “I hope the next generation cancels the ‘cancel culture’ generation.”
During leave without pay, anxieties increase within families, says CUPW’s Alain Robitaille
The labour union representing Canada Post workers is contesting the crown corporation’s temporary suspension without pay of employees who are not complying with the federal government’s order that they become fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.
Covid vax mandatory
On Oct. 6, the Trudeau Liberals announced their government’s plan to require COVID-19 vaccination across the federal public service and federally regulated transportation sectors. Under the new policy, federal public servants in the core public administration, including members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, were required to confirm their vaccination status by Oct. 29.
Those who were unwilling to disclose their vaccination status or to be fully vaccinated were to be placed on administrative leave without pay as early as Nov. 15. Crown corporations such as Canada Post and separate agencies were asked to implement vaccine policies mirroring the requirements announced for the rest of the public service.
Leave without pay
According to Alain Robitaille, president of the greater Montreal local of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), the deadline for postal employees to comply with Ottawa’s order was midnight Nov. 26, failing which they would be placed on leave without pay until further notice.
“The postal union is not against Covid vaccination,” he said. “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.”
Many non-compliance reasons
Although the anti-vax movement has perhaps created in certain people’s minds a stereotypical image of those who oppose mandatory Covid vaccination, Robitaille said there are many reasons why some CUPW members are reluctant to or don’t want to comply, including concerns over individual rights, religious convictions and health issues.
Alain Robitaille, president of the CUPW’s local for the greater Montreal region, says Ottawa’s ‘leave without pay’ order for the Covid-unvaccinated is “yet another blow” some of the union members have to deal with just as the Christmas season is starting. (Photo: Courtesy Radio-Canada)
“A certain number of members of the postal workers’ union have all sorts of concerns about the vaccines, both founded and unfounded,” he said in an interview with Newsfirst Multimedia. “I am sure that a certain number of those concerns are unfounded. However, that being said their fears are very real.”
In all, the CUPW’s Montreal region local (which takes in Montreal Island, the South Shore, Laval and the North Shore) has around 6,000 members, around 600 of those being from Laval.
Workers feeling the strain
Robitaille said that 10 per cent of the membership have expressed concerns about the government’s order to become fully vaccinated, corresponding roughly to a trend seen in the rest of the population. He said the government’s decision to enforce the vaccination requirement has greatly impacted the postal workers and is weighing heavily on some of them.
“During leave without pay, debts accumulate, anxieties increase within families, damage is done,” he said, noting that the postal service has been one of the few sectors of the country’s economy that continued to operate without stopping since the start of the pandemic early last year.
‘Hard on families’
“We’ve been on the job since the beginning. It’s been hard on families, on human resources. And now this latest development will be yet another blow they’ll have to deal with just as the Christmas season is starting.”
On Nov. 25, the national CUPW announced that a “cease and desist” order the union had sought in court against Canada Post’s vaccination position wasn’t granted.
10 per cent of the membership have expressed concerns about the government’s order to become fully vaccinated
The arbitrator did, however, order a hearing on the merit of CUPW’s case, allowing the union to present its arguments within a shorter period than would ordinarily be the case.
“CUPW is disappointed by the result, but we still feel we have a good case on the merit,” said Carl Girouard, the CUPW’s national grievance officer.
The current issue of the Laval News volume 29-42 published December 1st, 2021. 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, December 1st, 2021 issue.
