The current issue of the Laval News volume 29-26 published August 11th, 2021.
Covering Laval local news, politics, sports and our new section Mature Life.
(Click on the image to read the paper.)
Laval News Volume 29-26
Three face charges after kidnapping in Laval and police chase
A trio of male suspects, including two adults and a minor, were arrested last week in connection with the armed kidnapping of a 17-year-old Laval resident. The arrests took place in Montreal following a police chase. The suspects are said to have been in possession of a loaded handgun.
Witnesses called police after seeing the victim being accosted in the parking lot of a retail establishment at the intersection of Autoroute 440 and Curé Labelle Blvd in Laval. The assailants allegedly forced the victim to board their car, after which they sped off towards Montreal.
According to an account furnished to media by a spokesperson for the Laval Police, the LPD dispatched several cruisers at high speed, and the suspect vehicle was located travelling along Autoroute 40. When the driver refused to stop, the Montreal Police took over the pursuit which lasted around five minutes.
Finally stopped near the Jean Talon Market in east-central Montreal, the suspects allegedly attempted to flee on foot, but were apprehended by the police. The victim was found inside the suspect vehicle and was uninjured.
LPD investigators were set to meet with the suspects to try to unravel just what was going on between the suspects and the victim.
Mohamed Jbara and Midwinrick-Rockley Badette, both of whom are over 18, face charges of forcible confinement, possession of a prohibited weapon and assault. A loaded 22-calibre handgun was found by the police in their vehicle.
A third suspect, who cannot be named because he is under the age of 18, also faces charges in youth court as a minor. He is said to have reached his 18th birthday the day after the alleged events. According to the LPD, the suspects are known to the police for past incidents involving the use of violence.
LPD reports a 1 per cent rise in crime in 2020
In its 2020 annual report, the Laval Police Department says 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 in July 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.
Brochet speculated that the COVID-19 pandemic was responsible for this improvement, by limiting the number of vehicles on the road last year because fewer people were travelling to the office. The number of traffic-related tickets issued by the LPD also dropped by 6 per cent.
But the pandemic, which forced many people to stay home, may also have encouraged the spread of child pornography. According to the LPD’s 2020 report, there was a 45 per cent increase in the number of files of this nature opened by the police.
The hike might also be explained by the fact that the RCMP’s National Centre Against the Exploitation of Children on the Internet increased its staff and opened more files of this nature.
In other types of crime, the LPD report said that the number of dossiers opened for fraud rose from 1,000 to 1,241 over a one-year period. Many of these cases involved identity theft and frauds committed on the web or by computer.
The LPD also recorded frauds related to the federal government’s emergency COVID-19 assistance subsidies. The number of incidents of conjugal violence in homes in Laval remained relatively stable, with 980 cases in 2020 compared to 988 the year before.
The glyphosate files:
Are Glyphosate products harmful to you?
By Kenneth McElrath
Introduced in the 1990s, crops genetically engineered (GE) to withstand exposure to the weed killer glyphosate (Roundup) were a game-changer for agriculture.
They saved many farmers money on weed control, slashed greenhouse gas emissions caused by tilling and fossil fuel use, and indirectly boosted crop yields, all of which translated into lower food prices for consumers.
Scientists have differing opinions when answering why or how Roundup is harmful to humans, but consumer lawsuits argue that cancer is a possible outcome.
Where Is Glyphosate Used?
Glyphosate is often used on:
- Fruit and vegetable crops;
- Glyphosate-resistant crops like canola, corn, cotton, soybeans, sugar beets, and wheat;
- Plantings, lawns, greenhouses, aquatic plants, and forest plantings.
Exposure to Glyphosate
If you use a weed killer with glyphosate on your lawn or garden, you may be exposed to glyphosate by breathing it in, getting it on your skin, or getting it in your eyes. Your risk goes up if you:
– Eat or smoke after applying it and don’t wash your hands first;
– Touch plants that are still wet from it.
If you’re exposed, your eyes, skin, nose, and throat may get irritated. If you get it in your eyes, it could lead to mild irritation or a superficial corneal injury. If you swallow it, you may have increased saliva and burns and pain in your mouth and throat. It can cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
In some cases, people who intentionally swallowed products with glyphosate have died. To lower your risk, wash your hands and take off your clothes after you handle one of these products.
Glyphosate in your food
You may also be exposed to glyphosate in your food. It gets into foods early in the food chain, before raw food is harvested and before it’s processed. You may have heard in recent news that oat-based products like oatmeal, cereal, granola bars, and snack bars have glyphosate.
In one report from California scientists and the World Health Organization, 43 of 45 oat-based products tested had it. Popular breakfast foods like Quaker Old Fashioned Oats and Cheerios and other cereals, had above-average levels. It’s also in grain and bean products like pasta, buckwheat, barley, kidney beans, and chickpeas.
Some foods may surprise you, like avocados, apples, blueberries, cherries, cucumbers, dates, dried peas, garlic, lemons, olives, peanuts, pomegranates, potatoes, rice, spinach, sugarcane, tobacco, tomatoes, and walnuts. Even though Glyphosate is banned in organic farming, in the World Health Organization report, one-third of organic oat products tested had traces of glyphosate. But they were below levels associated with risk.
Long-Term Health Risks
Short-term exposure to glyphosate isn’t something you need to worry much about. Experts say it’s less toxic than table salt. But its longterm risk may be a concern. Scientists are divided on how much risk is involved. Reports show conflicting results. And keep in mind that most studies involve animals, not people.
Some studies suggest glyphosate may be linked to cancer. Others suggest there’s no link. It’s a controversial topic. The International Agency for Research on Cancer categorizes glyphosate as a probable carcinogen for humans. In 2020, the EPA released a statement that glyphosate does not pose a risk to humans as long as it is used according to directions. They also stated that it is unlikely that it causes cancer in humans.
Liver and kidney damage
Glyphosate may affect your kidney and liver. Studies of dairy cows eating a diet of soybeans with high levels of glyphosate had higher risks of liver and kidney damage.
Reproductive and developmental issues
The EPA released a statement in 2020 that there was no evidence that glyphosate interfered with the endocrine system or hormones of humans.
Risk for pregnant women and children
Some scientists are concerned that pregnant women and children may have higher risks because children and developing fetuses may be more susceptible to carcinogens. But the EPA says there’s no evidence that glyphosate is a developmental or reproductive toxin, so they don’t feel that they are at any higher risk.
A probable human carcinogen
Instances of intentional ingestion of glyphosate have reportedly resulted in deaths, although these are a relatively small number of incidences according to the National Pesticide Information Center. In the long term, scientists are consistently debating the question: “Is Roundup harmful to humans?”
In 2015, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen. Despite this classification, agencies such as the European Food Safety Authority and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have determined that glyphosate is not carcinogenic.
In general, scientists agree that there needs to be more research on the issue – including the types of exposure and dosages of glyphosate which lead to cancer. Part of the issue is being uncertain about how much risk comes from glyphosate and how much is attributed to the other chemicals in formulations such as Roundup.
Is Roundup harmful to humans?“ According to Vanessa Fitsanakis, a neurotoxicologist from Northeast Ohio Medical University, it is very difficult for a toxicologist to test the different ingredients to figure out what’s the most toxic, or what’s contributing to it.”
“From a research perspective, I can’t tell which component might need to be changed [to reduce possible toxicity] in those formulations because I don’t know what some of those components are.”
Unfortunately, some evidence suggests that formulated glyphosate is more toxic to cells and animals than glyphosate alone. “The data are overwhelmingly in agreement that glyphosate by itself is relatively nontoxic,” Fitsanakis notes.
Repeated lawsuits
Roundup manufacturer Monsanto and parent company Bayer have faced repeated lawsuits from consumers claiming that they developed non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma after using the weed killer for years. Lawyers for these consumers argue that Roundup was misrepresented as safe by the manufacturer despite evidence to the contrary.
Thousands of Roundup cancer lawsuits have so far been filed. Juries have found Roundup to be harmful and have so far rendered three major verdicts against Bayer in the past two years. The first case to go to trial involved a former school district groundskeeper near San Francisco.
Suffering from late stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), the jury awarded the plaintiff $289 million in damages. Evidence surfaced in that trial indicating that Monsanto was ghostwriting much of its own research in order to “prove” to regulators that its product was safe. At the same time, the company had plans to discredit the IARC findings.
In March 2019, a federal jury awarded $5 million in compensatory damages and $75 million in punitive damages to a man who had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma five years earlier. Weeks later, a separate jury found in favor of a Livermore, Calif. couple, both of whom were also diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
Jurors in that cases awarded a staggering $2 billion judgment, NPR reported. Although these awards were significantly reduced in accordance with state and federal tort reform laws limiting punitive damages, Bayer is still appealing all three cases.
Currently, Bayer is working with mediator Kenneth Feinberg to come up with a settlement – but it has shown no indication that it is willing to modify the product, add a warning or pull it from the market. A court-appointed mediator said that Bayer AG had made “substantial progress” towards resolving tens of thousands of Roundup cancer claims the company still faces, Insurance Journal reports.
Getting a mediator
The mediator, Kenneth Feinberg, spoke at a San Francisco federal court hearing (conducted via Zoom due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic). U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria oversees nearly 2,000 unresolved Roundup cases in San Francisco federal court. Other cases were filed in state courts.
Feinberg has previously overseen major compensation programs, including for victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. “It’s just a question of when and how quickly they’ll get resolved.” Amid the thousands of Roundup cancer lawsuits, Bayer maintains that Roundup is safe for human use.
The company says that it has resolved about 88,500 of about 125,000 claims (both filed and unfiled) and is “fully committed” to reaching a settlement agreement, reports Insurance Journal. Most recently, Bayer has projected the cost of future claims to be about $2 billion.
Vigilance OGM fights against glyphosates
All municipalities should follow Laval’s example, says enviro-group
At a time when the federal government no longer seems to be defending the common good in the glyphosate issue, Vigilance OGM activists are calling on the municipal level to take concrete actions to reduce our 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.
Dotted with flags indicating their claims, Bernard Landry Park was the place of an original staging surprising the visiting Lavallois.es. Activists from Vigilance OGM were there to offer their compliments to the City of Laval which, last April, took the step to ban pesticides on its territory, especially those based on glyphosate and neonicotinoids; but especially to invite the rest of Quebec’s municipalities to follow suit.
Vigilance OGM is a non-profit organization concerned about what we put on our plates on a daily basis and about the impact of the production methods of genetically modified crops on human and environmental health. Vigilance OGM is working to germinate a GMO-free Quebec.
Unnecessary exposure
Although it accounts for more than 80% of total sales, it is not only people in the agricultural sector who use these products. Institutions, municipalities and even individuals can use it to maintain parks and gardens. However, exposure to these chemicals is not insignificant and studies show their link with the appearance of certain diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease, cancers, cognitive disorders and other health problems (INSERM, 2021). Therefore, Vigilance OGM is asking municipalities to legislate to prohibit these uses that unnecessarily expose the population.
A broader movement
Last May, Vigilance OGM launched a call for citizen mobilization to ban the use of pesticides for aesthetic purposes and to improve the analysis of drinking water in Quebec. Two demands are among the 15 listed in the manifesto Sortir du glyphosate in order to quickly get Quebec out of its dependence on pesticides. Since then, groups have emerged here and there to claim these issues: some get in touch with their elected representatives while others write open letters or question local candidates in the next elections in order to increase the pressure.
Lost confidence in Health Canada
“I have lost confidence in Health Canada. Since then, I have been involved locally to bring about real changes that limit our exposure to pesticides. I think we should not expose ourselves unnecessarily to pesticides for the maintenance of our parks and gardens, just as I think we should not increase the limits of glyphosate residues on our food,” says Chloé Tremblay Cloutier, activist for Vigilance OGM.
Boyer: City of Laval initiative
Quebec has more than 150 municipalities that have regulated the use of pesticides on their territory.
In recent months, many municipalities have adopted or announced their intention to reduce the use of pesticides in their territory. This is the case of the City of Laval.
“I want to send a message to the other mayors, mayors and mayoral candidates of other cities in Quebec: make this commitment. 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, ”said Stéphane Boyer, deputy mayor and candidate for mayor of Laval, at the press conference.
According to Stéphane Boyer, this is the first step in getting out of pesticides. Although the deputy mayor does not have a specific plan or deadline, he says he wants to work with farmers to change their practices to reduce or even eliminate their use of pesticides.
“[These products] have made it possible to have higher agricultural yields, to lower the cost of food and to make certain advances. But we are no longer in the sixties, we have come much further. There are new practices that exist, new technologies that exist that allow agriculture to be much healthier with fewer chemicals while maintaining good food quality,” he added.
STL welcomes new board member Dory Jade
At a special meeting on Aug. 3, the Société de transport de Laval’s (STL) Board of Directors welcomed new member Dory Jade, who was appointed by the Laval municipal council.
“We are very excited to welcome Mr. Jade to a board committed to fighting climate change. With his extensive experience, it will no doubt serve to keep our organization running smoothly,” said Eric Morasse, chair of the STL board, in a statement before the meeting.
Mr. Jade has been CEO of the Canadian Association of Professional Immigration Consultants (CAPIC) since 2013.
He developed expertise in devising and overseeing strategic plans and budgets.
The STL says his knowledge of good governance practices by means of regulations and policies make him a tremendous asset to the STL board.
Mr. Jade was selected by the City of Laval’s Governance Secretariat, which strives to recruit the best possible candidates to fill director positions on councils and committees where the city can appoint or designate representatives.
The STL board is now made up of nine members appointed by the municipal council, including five elected officials, two independent members, one regular transit user member and one paratransit user member.
Their term is for a maximum of four years and is renewable.
The STL says Mr. Jade will sit on the board as the director representing paratransit users.
Laval News Volume 29-25
Volume 29-25 published August 4th, 2021.
Covering Laval local news, politics, sports and our new section Mature Life.
(Click on the image to read the paper.)
Lightning destroys two residences
Fires caused by lightning are more frequent than we think, but they rarely take on as large a scale as in Laval on Tuesday, where two homes were completely destroyed.
“It was the total shock. We didn’t know what to do,” said Arthur Harout Tchakrian, who was still a little shaken by chance. Lucky in their bad luck, the Tchakrians had just gone out with their two young children in the early evening, when lightning struck the electric pole a few meters from their home.
The flames then quickly stormed the family home. The adjascent house is also a total loss. A total of eight residences in the Sydney Street area were affected to varying degrees by the blaze.
Shots fired at a dancers bar
A 25-year-old man who was trying to escape from police officers wanted to make a diversion by opening fire in the direction of the dancers’ bar Les Déesses, in Laval, on the night of Saturday to Sunday.
Laval Police was contacted at approximately 2:50 a.m., after two men, one 25 years old and another 26 years old, were seen in possession of a firearm. Upon arrival at the scene, the police located the first suspect and attempted to intercept him.
The young man then fled. While trying to sow the police, he pulled out his gun and fired a few shots, reaching the outside of the dancers’ bar. A few minutes later, the man was caught by the police and subdued with an electric pulse pistol (Taser).
“He was taken to a hospital to check for vital signs and was discharged a few hours later. He was then taken to a detention centre to be interrogated,” said Geneviève Major, lieutenant in charge of public affairs at the Laval Police Dept.
The other suspect, the 26-year-old, was interrogated by the police but was not arrested. A security perimeter was erected so that investigators could determine the circumstances of the event.
Fire in an apartment building
A fire broke out in a five-storey residential building late Saturday afternoon in the Vimont district of Laval.
Emergency services were called to a 52-unit building on Le Royer Street at around 4:50 p.m.
About 25 firefighters were needed to fight the blaze, which was brought under control around 5:40 p.m. All tenants in the building were evacuated and no one was injured.
The fire was reportedly caused by a stove that remained on. The damage is estimated at approximately $50,000.
Major turnout for first post-pandemic Symposium de Ste-Rose
Fifty artists participated in this year’s smaller art show in Vieux Sainte-Rose
Although last year’s Symposium de Ste-Rose was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizers of this year’s art show say 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.
Four days of art
Fifty artists exhibited their works at this year’s symposium on Thursday July 22, Friday July 23, Saturday July 24 and Sunday July 25. As always, it was organized by the members of the Corporation Rose-Art artists’ collective.
The Symposium de Ste-Rose is regarded by some as one of Canada’s most successful gatherings of visual artists and their works. Each year, attending the symposium is seen by connoisseurs of art as a great opportunity to enjoy the creations of many different artists who express themselves in many different styles.
A smaller symposium
Although more than 90 artists usually participate, the 2021 Symposium de Ste-Rose was somewhat smaller, with 50 artists, due to relaxed but still ongoing sanitary restrictions mandated by the provincial government because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For this year’s symposium, the Corporation Rose-Art had the endorsement of Virginie Dufour, the Laval city councillor for Sainte-Rose and a senior member of the City of Laval’s executive-committee.
A successful art show
For many patrons, the Saint-Rose Art Symposium has become an annual pilgrimage to an art show where they know quality art works can be purchased to enhance the home, or as lasting gifts for family and loved ones.
‘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
While most of the artists and sculptors whose works were featured in the show were from the Laval region, some came from more distant reaches of Quebec, such as Trois-Rivières, the Eastern Townships and the Laurentians.
Deployment of charging stations for electric vehicles
With the ultimate goal of making Laval greener, the Executive Committee renewed its partnership agreement with Hydro-Québec for five years.
This agreement will make it possible to
continue to improve the supply of electric vehicle charging in Laval for the next few years.
Several electric car charging site developments are in the preparation phase throughout the territory, and this partnership agreement will facilitate the processes of acquiring and implementing 240 V charging stations on the sites owned by the City.
$150,000 grant for LVL UP, digital lab and music
Imagined by the organization [co]motion, agitator of culture, the
event LVL UP, digital lab and music is back for a2nd edition after a forced withdrawal last year due to the health crisis.
The objective of the event is to revitalize the city center (Montmorency sector)
by combining digital arts and urban culture.
The programming has been adapted to comply with public health recommendations and will include, among other things, spontaneous shows, virtual conferences with artists and presentations of interactive works.
LVL UP, digital lab and music will take place from 16 to 19 September in the Montmorency quadrilateral.
Financial assistance of $40,000 for the Diapason Festival
The members of the Executive Committee have granted $40,000 in financial assistance to the Centrale des artistes for the 13th edition of the Diapason Festival, which will be held
from August 5 to 8.
This sum will make it possible to maintain the adapted formula of the festival and, thus, to revitalize the
Laval cultural landscape.
Since 2015, the festival has been developing in the heart of
Vieux-Sainte-Rose and offers various shows in atypical places, while having a major pole on the banks of the Bathers.
With the health restrictions related to COVID-19, the festival’s programming had to be reviewed as well as its capacity on the various sites it operates.
This year, the program will therefore be divided into four locations that will be specified at its unveiling.
Executive Committee Meetings
The executive committee meets weekly to make decisions on a variety of issues.
It is composed of the president, Mayor Marc Demers, the vice-president, Stéphane Boyer (Duvernay–PontViau) as well as councillors Sandra Desmeules (Concorde–Boisde-Boulogne), Ray Khalil (Sainte-Dorothée), Virginie Dufour
(Sainte-Rose) and two associate members, Nicholas Borne (Laval-les-Îles) and Aline Dib (Saint-Martin).
2020: STL employees weathered the storm to maintain service
With the release of its annual report, executives at the Société de transport de Laval (STL) took the opportunity to highlight the contribution made by all its employees. Like all public transit agencies around the world, the STL had an extremely challenging year that upended previously set priorities.
Despite the global health crisis, the STL met the challenge by maintaining its essential service and providing a safe transportation service to customers. Some projects have been put on hold, but larger projects such as electrification have pushed on.
Managing the health crisis: Overwhelming challenge
The STL had to react swiftly and deftly to maintain its service throughout this crisis. As such, internal mechanisms for monitoring, tracking, relaying information and decision-making were put into place to promote effective coordination between all departments.
Quick decisions helped to maintain service throughout the Laval territory and allowed riders to commute safely. Measures taken include daily sanitization of buses, some 63,500 face coverings distributed and enforced, protective screens installed for drivers and signs installed in our vehicles and terminuses.
The STL was the first public transit agency in Québec to roll out a crowdedness estimator that could assess the number of people on board at a specific stop and specific time, based on the average of the last five business days and daily updated calculations. This STL innovation earned the transit agency a number of awards this past year.
As for employee protection, the STL worked with sanitization firms to implement a cleaning and sanitizing protocol in line with recommendations by the Québec institute of public health (INSPQ) and the provincial labour board (CNESST). Right from the start, the IT team mobilized to roll out work-from-home equipment.
Some projects still going ahead but others postponed
Although several partnerships had to be suspended and many activities were postponed, the STL was able to keep several innovative public transit projects on track. The transit agency’s achievements in 2020 included the launch of a new website and a new customer relationship management (CRM) software.
One of the most sizeable projects and challenges in 2020 was the huge electric mobility job site. Despite slowdowns and delivery delays related to the pandemic, the STL kept up the momentum for the rollout of a fully electric bus fleet by 2040. For a successful electric transition and to accommodate this type of vehicle, the STL also started work on modernizing and expanding its facilities.
Lastly, in step with the fully electric bus fleet project, the public transit agency rolled out 30 new bus shelter locations and replaced 27 bus shelters at the end of their lifespan.
A difficult budget year
The health crisis led to a steep drop in ridership, from 19,416,873 trips on the regular network in 2019 to 9,982,029 trips in 2020. That fact, combined with new health measures, meant the STL saw a sharp drop in revenue. STL management applauds the quick action of both levels of government that supported transit agencies with substantial financial assistance to alleviate their budget shortfall.
STL officials said they were pleased to be able to count on the City of Laval’s seamless cooperation in helping them prepare a difficult budget. As a result, they said the 2021 budget will make it possible to provide transit users with a level of service comparable to that of 2019 during peak hours, plus improved service outside of those hours.
Some pleasing results
“The STL was able to meet the needs of Laval transit users during this tumultuous time. We were able to provide the service needed by residents and ensure their safety by deploying a number of measures in the field. I’m especially proud to have had distributed some of the 63,500 face coverings to customers and helped with the quick daily cleaning of our vehicles,” stated Éric Morasse, chair of the STL Board.
“I’m pleased to have been able to count on such a solid team that has quickly adapted to maintain this essential service. While the health situation seems to be improving, the next few years will be challenging, especially in terms of regaining lost ridership and securing stable and predictable funding. But above all, I know the STL can rely on its employee to meet this challenge,” said Guy Picard, STL general manager.
