The Laval Police Department says a raid the force’s anti-narcotics squad took part in on May 19 in Laval and the Montreal region resulted in the arrest of seven people who now face drug trafficking and possession for purposes of trafficking charges.
Raids conducted at four homes in Laval and Saint-Eustache, as well as in three vehicles, led to the arrests of the suspects whose ages range from 31 to 64 years. They were arraigned at the Laval courthouse, but were released with conditions to respect. Their next court appearances are on Aug. 18 and Aug. 25.
Here is a list of the substances and other materials seized during the raids:
Cannabis: 14,480.31 grams
Heroin: 7.32 grams
Crack: 13.79 grams
Cocaine: 108.11 grams
Amphetamines: 1565 tablets
Xanax: 1,458 tablets
Methamphetamine: 24,435 tablets
Hashish: 1216.6 grams Total value: $328,337
Three vehicles: a value of $98,000
Cash: $48,570
The Laval Police say anyone who thinks they have information about suspected drug trafficking in their area can call the LPD’s Info Line at 450-662 INFO. All information received is treated confidentially.
The Laval-headquartered SAIL sports and outdoor equipment retail chain announced on Tuesday that is filing for bankruptcy and insolvency status in order to protect itself from creditors while restructuring and recovering from the devastating economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement issued on June 2, SAIL Outdoors Inc. CEO Norman Décarie said store closures and other fallout from the pandemic seriously compromised the company’s cash flow and finances.
Laval-headquartered SAIL sports and outdoors stores has decided to seek bankruptcy protection while restructuring.
SAIL employs 1,800 people at its 14 SAIL locations, four Sportium stores, and its corporate headquarters in Laval. The company said the stores will continue to operate as usual during the reorganization, although with reduced hours in accordance with current COVID-19 public health guidelines.
The Laval Police Department says it has arrested a retired Laval man who faces a charge of luring a 14-year-old girl with whom he was exchanging messages over the Microsoft Windows Messenger service.
Jacques Savignac, 74, of Laval faces a luring charge after allegedly asking for sex from a girl age 14.
According to the police, Jacques Savignac was allegedly in contact with the girl over the past few months and they exchanged messages over the course of several weeks. He was arraigned recently at the Laval courthouse through a remote phone hookup and will be making another court appearance on Aug. 4.
The police allege that Savignac, who was using his real name in Messenger, asked the girl several times to have sexual relations with him. Investigators at the LPD say they have reason to believe Savignac engaged in similar behavior with other minors and they are encouraging anyone who might have been in contact with Savignac to report their experience to the LPD.
The LPD is inviting anyone who may have been a victim of Savignac to contact them confidentially at 450 662-INFO (4636), or at 9-1-1. The file number is RPR 190614 019.
McDonald’s Canada announced Friday that it temporarily shut its restaurant at 37 Samson Blvd. in Laval after an employee reported having tested positive for infection by the COVID-19 virus, but that the location is open again after a thorough cleanup and disinfection.
According to the company, the employee informed McDonald’s Canada of the COVID-19 diagnosis towards the end of the evening on May 28.
The company said in a statement that as a measure of extreme caution given the current health risks, the decision was taken to immediately shut the location for a thorough cleaning and disinfection by experts.
“The restaurant was closed for the entire night, and has now re-opened,” said a spokesperson for the company.
McDonald’s says it asked all team members at the restaurant who had been in contact with the employee to voluntarily isolate until further information is made available to them. The company says the infected employee had last worked a shift on May 22 from 7 to 9 am.
Revenu Québec, the province’s tax-collection authority, has served notice that the deadline for filing 2019 income tax returns electronically is Monday June 1 at 11:59 pm.
The tax ministry says up to 86 per cent of its clients are now filing their tax returns electronically, while adding that doing so speeds up the tax assessment process so that a large number of clients receive refunds up to twice as quickly.
Revenu Québec says that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year they are prioritizing tax returns that pay out refunds. Also because of the pandemic, the usual April 30 filing deadline was postponed to June 1.
The deadline now to pay an amount owing on a 2019 filing is Sept. 1. As well, they say they are not imposing penalties for tax filings made as late as Sept. 1.
Quebec’s provincial police force, the Sûreté du Québec, said in a statement issued on May 27 that they had arrested two suspects linked to a murder committed in Laval in March 2017.
According to the SQ, Marc-Laflamme Berthelot, 36, who is currently being detained in Port-Cartier, and Manuel Savoie, 45, of Mascouche were arraigned through videoconference link-up on charges of involuntary homicide.
In March three years ago, police and medical emergency personnel were summoned to a spot along Autoroute 13 in Laval after the lifeless body of a man was found lying on the side of the autoroute.
A subsequent investigation revealed that the 34-year-old victim had been kidnapped from a parking lot outside a restaurant in Laval. Paramedics had pronounced him dead on the scene.
The City of Laval says it has started to gradually re-open the nine branches of its public library network as life slowly begins to get back to normal in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The decision follows the provincial government decision last week to begin re-opening certain sectors, including cultural institutions such as libraries. The city says the process is taking place in accordance with guidelines issued by the provincial director of public health.
Beginning on May 29, exterior return chutes at library branches are open again for the return of books and other borrowed library materials. As of June 4, although only on a limited schedule, library users will also be able to pick up books or documents reserved ahead of time online, but only if they have received a confirmation by e-mail or by phone.
However, no services inside library branches are available apart from these. In the meantime, the city says no late fees are being imposed for the period during which the libraries were forced to close because of COVID-19. According to the city, all loans of books and other materials have been extended to June 30. All materials being returned will be held in quarantine for 72 days.
To ensure the security of all, certain rules have been set up to follow:
Everyone is expected to keep a distance of two meters from others at all times, whether inside or outside library branches;
Hand-washing for a minimum 20 seconds with disinfectant provided at entrances is mandatory;
Library users must bring their own carrying bags and must avoid turning up in groups when claiming their loaned materials.
Finally, the city says any persons presenting symptoms of COVID-19 will be refused acces to the libraries.
Health Canada is advising Canadians to stop using Akwaton International Multipurpose Wipes. These disinfectant wipes are labelled to contain polyhexamethylene guanidine hydrochloride (PHMG) at a concentration of 0.05% (500 ppm).
According to Health Canada, this ingredient is used as a biocidal disinfectant, but it is not approved for use in Canada. It can cause skin irritation or an allergic reaction, especially in vulnerable populations such as children.
Health Canada is advising Canadian consumers to stop using this disinfectant wipes product as it is not approved by the federal agency.
Health Canada says this product has not been authorized, which means it has not been reviewed for its safety, efficacy or quality.
Since January 2019, Fosfaton-Akwaton International Ltd. has distributed an estimated 588 boxes (25 wipes per box) in Canada. In addition to not being authorized by Health Canada, the product expired in November 2015. As a result, says the health agency, the active ingredient may no longer be effective and the water in the product may have evaporated, raising the concentration of PHMG.
What Health Canada says consumers should do:
Stop using this product. The agency says consumers should follow municipal or regional guidelines on how to dispose of chemicals and other hazardous waste. They may also return the product to the local pharmacy for proper disposal.
Consult with a health care professional if you have used this product and have health concerns.
Read product labels to verify that health products have been authorized for sale by Health Canada. Authorized health products have an eight-digit Drug Identification Number (DIN), Natural Product Number (NPN) or Homeopathic Drug Number (DIN-HM). You can also check whether products have been authorized for sale by searching Health Canada’s Drug Product Database and Licensed Natural Health Product Database.
Web giant allowed certain third-party developers to access personal information
The Competition Bureau has announced that web giant Facebook is agreeing to pay a $9 million penalty after the federal law enforcement agency concluded the company made false or misleading statements about the privacy of Canadians’ personal information on Facebook and Facebook Messenger.
Will crack down, says Bureau
“Canadians expect and deserve truth from businesses in the digital economy, and claims about privacy are no exception,” said Matthew Boswell, head of the Competition Bureau, known formally as the Commissioner of Competition.
“The Competition Bureau will not hesitate to crack down on any business that makes false or misleading claims to Canadians about how they use personal data, whether they are multinational corporations like Facebook or smaller companies,” he added.
Will also pay legal fees
According to the terms, Facebook will pay an additional $500,000 for the costs of the bureau’s investigation. The payments are part of a settlement registered last week with the Competition Tribunal in which Facebook has agreed not to make false or misleading representations about the disclosure of personal information.
Social meda platform Facebook has agreed to pay a $9 million fine following a Competition Bureau inquiry that concluded the Web Giant made misleading statements to the public.
According to a statement issued by the bureau, this includes representations about the extent to which users can control access to their personal information on Facebook and Messenger.
Six-year investigation
Following an investigation that took into account Facebook’s practices between August 2012 and June 2018, the bureau concluded that Facebook gave the impression users could control who could see and access their personal information on the Facebook platform when using privacy features.
These included the general “Privacy Settings” page, the “About” page and the audience selector menu on posts, among other things.
However, the bureau added, Facebook did not limit the sharing of users’ personal information with some third-party developers in a way that was consistent with the company’s privacy claims. This information included content users posted on Facebook, messages users exchanged on Messenger, and other information about identifiable users.
Practice still continued
The bureau said Facebook also allowed certain third-party developers to access the personal information of users’ friends after users installed certain third-party applications. While Facebook made claims that it would no longer allow such access to the personal information of users’ friends after April 30, 2015, the bureau said the practice continued until 2018 with some third-party developers.
The bureau noted that the federal Competition Act forbids companies from making false or misleading claims about a product or service to promote their business interests. This includes claims about the information they collect, why they collect it, and how they use it.
Claims must be true
According to the Competition Bureau, the Act applies to “free” digital products in the same way that it applies to regular products or services purchased by consumers. They noted that advances in technology are allowing firms to collect large amounts of data from consumers.
“Whether or not their products or services are free, firms must ensure that their claims about the collection and use of data are not false or misleading,” the Competition Bureau said in a statement issued when the penalty imposed on Facebook was announced last week.
However, the bureau acknowledged Facebook’s voluntary cooperation in resolving the matter. They said that a copy of the registered settlement (consent agreement) would be available soon on the Competition Bureau Tribunal’s website.
Targeted advertising revenue
As the Competition Bureau pointed out, Facebook is one of the largest social media platforms in the world. The company, founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, recently estimated it has 2.6 billion monthly active global users. It has previously estimated that its Messenger platform has 1.3 billion monthly active global users.
Facebook earns revenue primarily by selling advertising services, including targeted advertisements, based in part on the information provided by its users.
Facebook has previously estimated that it has 24 million monthly active Canadian users. The Competition Bureau says that during the fourth quarter of 2018, Facebook’s average revenue per month per user in Canada and the United States was $34.86 U.S.
Fined $5 billion in the U.S.
Facebook has had similar penalties imposed on it in countries other than Canada. In 2019, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission imposed a $5-billion fine on the company, the largest ever of its kind for an information technology company.
And in 2016, the French government’s privacy regulation agency forced Facebook to alter its personal information tracking policy.
Last year, Facebook’s Zuckerberg announced a new vision for the company, ostensibly focused on privacy. The Competition Bureau says it strongly encourages anyone who feels they have been misled by privacy claims to file a complaint with the bureau.
An in-depth interview with Dr. Christos Karatzios, Assistant Professor of Paediatrics/Infectious Diseases – Montréal Children’s Hospital
Covid-19. Although we call it sneaky, silent killer, elusive and all kinds of epithets usually attributed to living organisms, covid-19 is not alive. It is a piece of RNA code wrapped in a protein shell. It cannot self-replicate and needs our cells to do its dirty job. There I go humanizing it again! And although most of us want this new coronavirus to die horribly, scientists like Dr. Christos Karatzios see it exactly for what it is: A parasite that does not even deserve to be called microorganism which deserves, however, enormous respect and knowledge in order to eliminate it.
Dr. Christos Karatzios.
New effect on children-Kawasaki syndrome Lately, a lot is being discussed about a larger than usual number of kids being admitted to the hospital with an inflammatory syndrome called Kawasaki. “Children started coming in with Kawasaki syndrome for which there is no test. More like a clinical hunch” said Dr. Karatzios. It is a disease originally seen in Asian kids and no one knows what is causing it. Effects include prolonged fever, face rashes, red eyes, cracked red lips, swollen strawberry looking tongue, swollen hands and feet, eventually attacking the heart. The past few weeks reports all over the world have been showing an increased number of children coming in the hospital with weird atypical Kawasaki syndrome, leading doctors to believe that some infectious agent is causing this. Covid-19 is the obvious culprit since that is the only infectious agent that is present compared to last year. “St-Justine looked at their patients; half of them tested positive to Covid, half of them not. The children who tested negative had antibodies developed for covid-19” said Dr. Karatzios.
All that means is, that at some point those children developed antibodies, killed the virus and later developed Kawasaki syndrome as an auto-immune reaction to their own antibodies. The scientific community is closely monitoring this new development. Still very rare All this scary stuff shows yet another baffling aspect of this virus. However, when it comes to children, cases of covid-19 are still very rare. “Less than 5% of the total covid-19 infections are children not to mention that children do well against the virus or are asymptomatic” said Dr. Karatzios. Out of this 5% in 4 million, only a few dozen ended up in the hospital (24 in the UK, 15 in the US a few in Montreal etc.) and out of those, an infinitesimal percentage died.
Covid-19 the hijacker and your body’s response This virus is no different than others in the way it operates. It hijacks the cells of your body (your DNA, your enzymes, your proteins) to create copies of itself. The body realizes that there is something happening that it does not like and sends messages to the immune system to send white blood cells to the infected area to swallow up the intruders. Those white blood cell first responders eat up viruses, chop them up and present them on their surface for other immune cells to come and learn about the enemy. Then the immune system starts to process… In the end it creates antibodies. These Y shaped soldiers are released in large numbers in the body and attach themselves to the virus which they now know very well. Antibodies attached to a virus can kill it by preventing the virus from entering a cell or by making the virus more appetizing (recognizable) to white blood cells to eat it. Later the body creates memory cells that contain the blueprint of those antibodies in case the virus attacks again and that is how immunity develops. Herd immunity I asked the doctor if the virus could be eliminated without a vaccine. “Yes but you would get a lot of dead and sick people from this” was his adamant reply. He explained that in order to develop herd immunity 60 to 70 percent of people have to have contracted the virus and developed antibodies to it. “As a society, do we want to sacrifice a lot more people, like in Sweden which did not follow the lockdown approach of the rest of the world, in order to develop herd immunity?” questioned Dr. Karatzios. Flattening the curve means we spare our health system a massive influx of patients. Flattening the curve means we do not have to decide who lives and who dies like in Italy. The virus will always be there, but we take the time to develop our weapons against it while minimizing our casualties. It’s a war thing! Vitamins to douse the flames after a war “There is no magic formula as to how to strengthen our immune system. But you can send your immune system to the gym by resting, sleeping 7-8 hours and eating a balanced and healthy diet” said Dr. Karatzios. He proceeded to emphasize the importance of fruits and vegetables for the vitamins they have which are very useful to the body as antioxidants. “When your immune system is fighting a war, some white cells kill viruses by pouring peroxide on them. If this inflammation is allowed to happen at a very prolonged and extreme way, it can lead to problems like cancer and can lead to an overactive immune system so the vitamins put the brakes on the immune system.” said Dr. Karatzios. Vitamin D There are a few studies that show that vitamin D is kind of protective against respiratory viruses and infuenza. So, people that have low levels of vitamin D, people who live in climates where there is not enough sun or do not consume vitamin D rich foods have more problems with respiratory viruses. Even with covid-19 there is a suggestion that sunnier places in the world tend to fare better than places with vitamin D deficiency. “A few studies show that Vitamin D helps to boost our immune system a little bit. Not a cure but it helps.”
Our immune system always needs training but… “If you live in a bubble all your life, then your immune system is not trained and does not have memory of things that are out there” said Dr. Karatzios. “Let’s say you live in this bubble and have never been vaccinated then if you venture outside for the first time, you will invariably get sick”. Dr. Karatzios brought as an example how little children with “virgin” immune systems get sick all the time when they first go to school for the first couple of years. Then they come home less sick as their immune system learns how to deal with the different microorganisms. So in a way isolation during covid does not give our immune system the opportunity to spar. As Dr. Karatzios noted, if covid would only give us mild symptoms like a cold, then yes, the immune system should get its time in the gym. “The problem is that this virus we’re looking at so much problems-10% of the people infected end up in the ICU. So do you want to end up in the ICU? And do we have enough ICU beds? No!” emphasized Dr. Karatzios. Mortality rate There has been a lot of talk about the mortality rate of this virus that Dr. Karatzios does not care too much about. “We don’t have a good measure of what the mortality rate is. We need to be understood is that to get an accurate mortality rate you need to have a denominator. Number of people that died over number of people infected. Right now, we have no idea how many people have been infected. All we are doing is doing throat swabs of the people that have been sick. How about those that did not go to the hospital and others that were asymptomatic. What we see now is the tip of the iceberg” said the doctor adding that there are probably 50 to 100 times more people infected that we never knew about. Mutations Like the flu virus, covid-19 mutates. For the moment it appears that it mutates slowly which is good news. I asked the doctor if it could mutate to a stain less dangerous and less virulent than now. “It has to mutate in a such a way as to lose its virulence. SARS-1 disappeared. It started November 2002 with a huge mortality rate of 10% and then by July 2003 it was gone” said Dr. Karatzios. Apparently, there are some indications that covid is beginning to show the same signs as SARS-1 but we have not yet peaked in cases all over the world. It is too early to foster hope that the virus will mutate in a way to make itself extinct. Covid-19 and SARS 1 They are in essence brothers. They are both coronaviruses which came from bats. SARS-1 went from bat to civet cat to human and Covid19 from bat to pangolin (most likely) to human. Covid-19 is however a much meaner brother (Complex is the word Dr. Karatzios used) because of all these immune over exaggerations that it causes which have led to thrombotic events, kidney failure and lung emboli. It has caused more stroke type events compared to SARS 1 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome).
