Martin C. Barry

Homeowners who live on a stretch of Guillemette St. alongside Autoroute 15 in Laval’s Marc-Aurèle-Fortin district won’t have to put up with the constant roar of highway traffic much longer, following word that the provincial government and the city have agreed to share the cost of a new $5.12 million anti-noise wall.

Last week, Laval mayor Marc Demers and Marc-Aurèle-Fortin city councillor Gilbert Dumas joined Sainte-Rose CAQ MNA Christopher Skeete for an official ground turning near a spot along Guillemette St. where the wall will be going up.

Residents to benefit

“Those living alongside on Guillemette St. will be able to celebrate now that this anti-noise screen is going to be re-built, offering them more comfort while benefiting a large number of residents,” Skeete said during a ceremony held near the site.

“You know, we can hear the noise of that highway right now,” added Skeete. “So I think the citizens who live on the side here deserve a little bit of calm. The quality of life of citizens being a priority of your government, I am pleased that the screen will be rebuilt and extended 50 metres south and 20 metres north.

A-15 traffic increases

“In all, the structure will be 1.1 kilometres long and will improve the quality of life of the citizens of Sainte-Rose,” he continued. “The extension of this screen can also be seen in the context of the use of the Laurentian autoroute which is an essential link and on which traffic hasn’t ceased growing in recent years. Nearly 150,000 vehicles circulate daily on this artery. The decision for this made-to-measure solution responds to the needs of the city and its residents.”

The City of Laval had previously built a wooden sound barrier covered with vines in the same spot, although it was reported by some to be not very adequate. Over the years, there was at least one occasion when residents turned up at Laval city hall to complain about it during a city council meeting. The new wall will be built of more durable materials to exacting specifications.

Quality to improve

“The completion of the upgrading and improvement work of the acoustic screens along the Laurentian Autoroute on Guillemette St. will improve the quality of life of the citizens in the neighbourhod by providing them with more tranquility,” Demers said, while noting that the old wall had reached the end of its usefullness. He said the new wall will be slightly longer and have better quality.

Demers praised the CAQ government for responding very quickly and providing the means for the new sound barrier shortly after the provincial election last fall. According to the mayor, the work involved should take around six months. He said the wall’s structure will do the job primarily of deadening the sound from Autoroute 15, while the green cover will help conceal the fact there is a wall there.

Solid new construction

Work on the sound barrier is expected to start around the beginning of June. Whereas the old wall consisted primarily of plywood with some overgrowth of vegetation and vines, the new one will built (in accordance with provincial standards and protocols for highway sound barrier construction) of steel and rock wool.

An overgrowth of vines will also be applied. While the current wall is 1,150 metres long, the new wall will be 70 metres longer. The City of Laval will be supervising and carrying out the construction. According to the city, more than 150,000 vehicles per day pass along Autoroute at that particular spot.

Martin C. Barry

With the federal government poised to release a “digital charter” outlining Canada’s plans to deal with hate speech and misinformation on the Internet, Liberal Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez says his department is near the point of announcing an anti-racism strategy that will also take abuses committed over the Internet into account.

Heritage Canada’s “anti-racism engagement” was launched last year with the goal of hearing what Canadians themselves have to say about racism and discrimination. An interactive digital platform launched for that purpose focused on issues where racism and discrimination most directly touch people’s lives, as well as policy areas that overlap with federal jurisdiction.

‘Racism does exist,’ he says

Since then, in-person consultation sessions have been held with community, leaders, experts, academics and other stakeholders across Canada. According to Rodriguez, his department’s anti-racism engagement report will confirm, among other things, that there is racism in Canada and that it is possibly also becoming worse.

“Nobody is saying that Canada is a racist country, but racism does exist here,” he said in an interview with Newsfirst Multimedia last week at the federal cabinet’s Montreal offices. “We’ve seen a rise in anti-Semitism – it’s very clear – a sharp rise. In Islamophobia also. We have to combat this rise in hate and anti-Semitism and all kinds of different forms of discrimination online and in the real world.”

Responsibilizing ‘web giants’

“And we, the government, have a role to play at different levels – including online – making sure that for some of the things we do we have to responsibilize the web giants,” he added. “They have a responsibility. There are things on the web that should not be there that encourage people towards violence and hatred, and that’s unacceptable. So we’ll be addressing that.”

Rodriguez said the strategy calls for anti-racism measures to be taken as soon as possible. “We know that fighting racism is not something that’s short, mid or long-term – you have to do it every day,” he said. “But you have to start somewhere and you have to start now. And this is what we’re doing with this strategy, which has different components.”

The Facebooks of this world

Rodriguez had few specifics as to how the strategy might directly impact major web service players, although he provided a broad overview. “We’re talking about the Facebooks of this world, where you can easily find hate which is online.

“Too often if something bad happens, they are saying sorry, but the impacts are still there. I think they have to take responsibility for who they are and what they do. They are making a lot of money. Fine – happy for them. But that comes with responsibilities.”

In Quebec, the Coalition Avenir Québec government hopes to pass its controversial Bill 21 banning the use of religious symbols by public servants into law before the National Assembly breaks for the summer. While some are suggesting the legislation foments division and animosity, Newsfirst Multimedia asked Rodriguez how his department could react should the bill pass.

Monitoring CAQ’s Bill 21

“We’re following that very closely,” he said, while noting that it is within provincial jurisdiction. “Is it going to be the same bill at the end of the process that it is now? I understood that the government was open to changes.”

More generally, he re-stated the federal Liberal government’s position on Bill 21. “We consider that a government should not tell a person what to wear or how to dress,” he said. “Also we think that nobody should have to choose between their religion and beliefs and having access to a good job.

“With that being said we’re following very closely what’s happening and seeing if there’s changes or not. We are keeping an eye on it, but understanding very well also that it’s happening in another jurisdiction – a provincial level not at our level.”

He had politics in his blood

Pablo Rodriguez’s introduction to politics came from his parents who were politically active in their native Argentina during the 1960s. His father, a lawyer, ran for high office while representing political prisoners who were jailed by the hardline Argentinian régime at the time.

“He was imprisoned and tortured many, many times,” said Rodriguez. Bombs were planted at the Rodriguez home shortly before they came to Canada in 1974, injuring the two parents and three children, while leaving no doubt it was time for them to leave Argentina.

On arrival in Canada, the family settled in Montreal’s Park Extension district. While life for them was hard at first, both of his parents went on to become distinguished scholars. At age 82, his father still teaches sociology in university.

A University of Sherbrooke business administration graduate, Rodriguez spent a good part of his early career working in public affairs and management of international humanitarian projects. During the early 2000s he was vice-president of Oxfam Québec.

A longtime and highly-dedicated supporter of the Liberal Party of Canada, Pablo Rodriguez was first elected MP for the Montreal riding of Honoré-Mercier in 2004. He has won every election in the riding since then, except for a brief hiatus in 2011 when the NDP prevailed during the party’s sweep of Quebec known as the “Orange Crush.”

Martin C. Barry

Like a big family brought together for a gathering filled with love and warmth, more than 100 child amputees, along with moms, dads, brothers and sisters, met at the Laval Sheraton for two-and-a-half days last weekend during the War Amps of Quebec’s annual child amputee seminar.

This year’s theme, “Just the Way I Am,” encouraged the young amputees, who are members of the War Amps “CHAMP” program (Les Vainqueurs), to embrace their amputation and overcome hurdles on their road to independence.

There to learn

The event drew young amputees and their parents from across the province. They learned about the latest developments in artificial limbs, how to deal with teasing and staring, as well as how to parent an amputee child.

It was not the first time the Quebec chapter of the War Amps chose Laval for the annual child amputee seminar. With children young and old running freely around a meeting hall at the Laval Sheraton, the ambiance of the opening welcome session was as relaxed and spontaneous as an afternoon gathering of friends and family who had known each other for years.

Helping young amputees

“When they come here they feel like they are part of a big family,” said Louis Bourassa, director of the CHAMP program in Quebec, who is an amputee himself. Bourassa lost his leg at age four in a lawn-mower accident near his home in Sherbrooke where he lived at that time. He’s been a full-time employee at the War Amps Quebec region offices in Montreal since the early 1990s.

The CHAMP program is organized in a way that encourages the mentoring of very young amputees by others who are teenagers or young adults and whose experiences serve as confidence-builders. According to Bourassa, the program offers something to child amputees that even parents sometimes can’t give.

A second family

“My parents were always there for me,” said Bourassa. “They could love me and provide me with whatever parents can give their children. But as for understanding what it’s like to live with an amputation? This is not always so easy for them. That’s why this is my second family here: people who have been through the same situations and with whom I can share my experiences.”

A young amputee from Laval, Antoine Eoan of Sainte-Dorothée, has been receiving help from the War Amps and the CHAMP program since early childhood. He was born with a condition that necessitated the amputation of a leg. With the help of War Amps, he was able to get a scholarship at Concordia University and is now pursuing film studies leading towards a filmmaking career.