Laval city councillor for Souvenir-Labelle Jean Coupal, who was elected with the victorious Mouvement Lavallois in the 2013 municipal election, has decided to leave the governing party.

Coupal joins the ranks of a growing number of disaffected city councillors who prefer sitting as independents rather than with the council majority or the official opposition, which is perceived by some former members and critics as ineffective.

Critical of ML

In a statement Coupal issued last Monday, he said he has been sitting as an independent since December. He said he did this “in order to better represent the interests of the residents” of his district, as well as the interests of all Laval residents, and “not just from behind the closed doors of the Mouvement Lavallois caucus.”

Coupal said what ultimately made him decide to leave the ML was Laval city council’s recent awarding of a sole bidder computer services contract to an IT consultant who will be receiving nearly $3,000 a day for a total of more than $400,000 for 1,000 hours of work.

History repeating?

“In the beginning, the Mouvement Lavallois was created to oust Mayor Vaillancourt’s PRO des Lavallois,” Coupal said, referring to the former mayor’s defunct municipal party. “This was carried off with brilliance in November 2013.

“Since then, unfortunately, the Mouvement Lavallois has been determined to repeat the era of one-party rule in council,” he added, “by means of money which allows it to eliminate all opposition and to manage public funds without having to worry about the capacity of taxpayers to pay and the equity between them and public servants.”

Martin C. Barry

Martin C. Barry

With Canada’s marijuana laws seemingly about to be relaxed and sales of the currently illicit substance possibly also about to go mainstream, a Laval Police constable told a public gathering of Chomedey residents last week that law enforcement professionals like him have almost given up the war on drugs.

Chomedey to Pont-Viau…

“Drugs, honestly – let’s talk realistically – it’s a war that we’re not going to win,” Laval police constable Jimmy Mourelatos told a meeting on Feb. 24 of around 20 residents who were invited to Centre du Sablon by Councillor Aglaia Revelakis to talk about neighbourhood security issues.

“Even when you focus on one group or in one sector, Chomedey,” continued Mourelatos, “all it does is it does is it switches – it’s going to go from Chomedey to Pont-Viau. And when you put concentration in Pont-Viau, it’s going to go to Duvernay. That’s all it does.

“Drugs is something that’s so big anywhere you go, whether it’s Laval or Montreal, it’s so big I mean trying to legalize it, that even the government itself sometimes must realize that it’s so out of control they’re trying to get a piece of the pie as well,” Mourelatos added during an interview with the Laval News following the meeting.

Only displacing the problem

“For us, we try to control it in our area, in Laval. In most cases what happens is it displaces. That’s all it does. And even with small, minor possession charges, we don’t want them: we want the big fish. So for us even when we catch the small ones, it’s more to start an investigation that leads us to the big one.”

This was on the same day that Liberal MP and former Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair stated in Ottawa that Criminal Code provisions on marijuana must be upheld and enforced even as the government considers legalizing marijuana. Blair has been appointed by the Trudeau government to lead a federal-provincial task force to create a plan for the legalization of cannabis across the country.

“The laws that currently exist, exist in this country and we are a … nation of laws,” Blair said. “Quite frankly, until those laws are repealed by Parliament through the appropriate processes, they should be upheld, they should be obeyed.”

His views, not police force’s

Mourelatos admitted that the views he expressed were his personally and not a reflection of the Laval Police Department’s overall drug enforcement strategy. “We’re never going to give up,” he said. “Even if it’s a war that we think we’re not going to win, we’ll never give up. Ever. We’re always going to be there.”

Mourelatos was responding to comments and complaints from some at the meeting that the Laval Police don’t always seem to respond to calls from residents reporting unusual activity in their neighbourhood. Mourelatos, who was at the meeting along with the Laval Police’s Lieutenant Jean-François Girard, insisted that all calls are in fact taken seriously.

“Even if it’s nothing, they’re going to come and identify them,” he said of the importance of reporting any suspicious occurrences so that the police can at least develop a portrait of activity in an area and build a data base of information containing the names, descriptions and addresses of potential suspects. “That’s how it works – you are there for us. We have to work together. We need you to call us.”

Youths loitering in cars

Another complaint came from longtime Chomedey resident Constantine ‘Gus’ Milonopoulos who said he noticed a lot of drivers lately who drive right through stop signs on thoroughfares like 100^th Ave. as well as Souvenir, Normandie and Elisabeth boulevards. He said he also noticed a good number of people lately who spend hours parked while inside their cars near his home.

Mourelatos explained the latter phenomenon as “kids who are looking for places to park” when the municipal parks are closed for the winter “and they want to be together.” Still, he acknowledged, “you always have to be vigilant, right. You never know. But personally I can tell you from experience it’s just kids looking for a quiet street for them to park and have a cigarette or even have a joint.”

RevelakisMeeting1: Drugs “it’s a war that we’re not going to win,” says Laval Police constable Jimmy Mourelatos.

RevelakisMeeting2: Seen here with Chomedey city councillor Aglaia Revelakis (far left) Laval Police Lieutenant Jean-François Girard and Cst. Jimmy Mourelatos provided residents with information on security in their neighbourhood during a meeting at Centre du Sablon on Feb. 20.

Martin C. Barry

Within 200 feet of the corner of Guénette and l’Écuyer in Laval’s Saint-Martin district early one Thursday afternoon recently, the street was littered with bits of trash here and there and hastily discarded garbage pails – the aftermath of a snow removal crew’s visit just a few minutes earlier.

Two for one

But what the Laval News just missed witnessing first-hand by a few seconds, according to nearby resident Natale Polito, was how the snow crew went about combining their usual job blowing the white stuff from the street curb into trucks with a second not so usual task – taking away the garbage – which is a job normally handled by the trash collectors.

Polito agreed that if the City of Laval has decided to save money by doing two things at once, this would certainly seem to be an original if rather odd example of it. “Two in in one,” he said, laughing. “Welcome to Laval: where the snow gets picked up along with the garbage.” Nonetheless, Polito recorded the scene from beginning to end with his smartphone.

Trash blown into trucks

While according to Polito the snow crew left the garbage pails behind, they damaged them. But he insisted that entire bags of garbage, which had been put out for collection by the trash crew, were blown, along with snow, into the rear bins of snow removal trucks to be transported (presumably) to a snow dump.

While noting that some of the bags were pushed to the curb by a snow crew member, “most of them were going inside the dump trucks to be brought to wherever they dump the snow, around Daniel-Johnson and Saint-Martin (boulevards),” added Polito.

Not the norm, says resident

But then, recycling bins were another matter. Referring to another employee, he said “that poor guy had to come out of the truck and place them – because they were all over the place.” Polito said it’s the first time he’s  seen anything comparable happen, even taking into account that garbage collection and snow removal operations were taking place around the same time.

“Usually when there is snow removal the day of garbage collection, when it’s on either side, the crew usually comes before they plow the snow and they push the bags and the garbage pails into the centre or on the sides so that the plows don’t touch the garbage.”

Local councillor’s reaction

Laval city councillor Aline Dib, who represents Saint-Martin district, said she wanted to view Polito’s still photos and video footage before deciding along with public works officials just what happened. “We will do what we have to do and check what is wrong and what is going on in this situation,” she said.

Martin C. Barry

Taking part in the CRC Robotics Competition, a team from Laval Senior Academy won third place in the robot game category of the three-day event held in Laval last weekend.

Collège Montmorency first

The Overall Champion Trophy awarded by Hydro Quebec for best combined score in all categories was won by Collège Montmorency, with Macdonald High School and Marionopolis College placing second and third respectively.

The 15th annual CRC Robotics Competition, which included 24 schools from the Montreal region, took place from Feb. 25 to Feb. 27 in the gymnasium at Collège Montmorency in Laval. The event’s top teams were graded on their overall performance and not just on the robots they build and operated.

More than 500 students

Lake of Two Mountains High and Laval Senior Academy were two Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board schools among the participants which included secondary and post-secondary institutions. More than 500 high school and CEGEP students took part in the 2016 competition.

The CRC Robotics Competition is believed to be the only educational robotics contest where all the work is done exclusively by students. Teachers, engineers and outside specialists are welcome, but for advice only.

Work done by students

Apart from a motor and a control box that each team receives, everything about the robot, the kiosk, the video and the website is conceived and built by the students. Where language is necessary, both French and English must be used. The event was open to all. You can also find out more about the competition by visiting www.robo-crc.ca/en.

Photo: Members of the Laval Senior Academy robotics team use their skills to control their robot during the 15^th annual CRC Robotics Competition held at Collège Montmorency.

Martin C. Barry

Political leaders from three levels of government joined members of Laval’s Syriac Catholic community at St. Ephrem Church on Cartier Blvd. on Feb. 27 for a religious service marking the enthronement of Monsignor Paulos Antoine Nassif as the new Apostolic Exarch for Canada with his official seat in Laval.

A papal appointment

On Jan. 7, it was announced in Rome that His Holiness Pope Francis had created an Apostolic Exarchate for Syro-Catholics in Canada and that the Pope had appointed Reverend Father Nassif (who was previously Rector of the Patriarchal Seminary of Charfet in Lebanon) as Apostolic Exarch.

The ceremony was presided by His Beatitude Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan, Patriarch of Antioch and all the East in the Syriac Catholic Church. The event, which was attended by Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion, several local Liberal MPs and members of Laval city council, was followed by a banquet that evening at the Centre communautaire syriaque on Edouard-Montpetit St. in Laval.

Will work with refugees

Referring to Mgr. Nassif during a gathering recently, Vimy Liberal MP Eva Nassif called him “a member of the family and we are proud to have him here.” (A member of Nassif’s riding office staff later confirmed that the two are distantly related.) She said “he will be responsible for dossiers involving refugees in Laval” with the assistance of St. Ephrem Church.

Born in Biakout, Metn, Lebanon in 1969, the son of the late Geryes Nehmatalla Nassif and Antoinette Youssef Beylouni, Mgr. Nassif was ordained into full priesthood by Patriarch Mar Ignace Antoun II Hayek in 1992. According to a brochure distributed during the ceremony, a “strong tendency towards the monastic life” led Mgr. Nassif to Naples, Italy to gain religious experience with the Franciscans.

Promoted a Bishop

At a Holy Synod of the Syriac Catholic Church held in Rome in 2014, a request for a new Exarchate in Canada, separate from the United States eparchy, was made to Pope Francis, and a suggestion was offered that it should be Fr. Antoine Nassif. Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan promoted Mgr. Nassif to a Bishop on Jan. 23 in the Annunciation Cathedral in Beirut. The new Bishop has chosen as his motto the words of the apostle Saint Paul: “Charity endures all things,” and he has taken the name of Paul as patron.

Prayers for Middle-East peace

During the service in the church, prayers were said and wishes expressed in readings “for peace and security in the wounded Middle-East. May God put a term to wars and conflicts that still bleed hearts and destroy the humanity. May love and brotherhood reign over hatred. May all people live in reciprocal respect rejecting violence and murder and abide by justice and right behavior.”

During a key moment of the ceremony, senior members of the Syriac Catholic clergy raised Mgr. Nassif several feet off the ground in an upholstered chair, symbolizing his elevation and enthronement as a new Apostolic Exarch.

Only 15 to 20 per cent of middle-income Canadians retiring without an employer pension plan have saved anywhere near enough for retirement, according to a new study from the Broadbent Institute.

These people, now aged 55 to 64, face a dramatic drop in their standard of living in retirement, and many will spend their senior years in poverty, the think-tank says, basing its findings on Statistics Canada figures.

About 47 per cent of Canadians currently have no employer pension, and even fewer younger workers have employer pensions.

That means the number of seniors who slip into poverty will worsen in the decades ahead, according to report author Richard Shillington.

Canadians within 10 years of retirement are supposed to be at their peak savings years, socking away money for retirement.

But Shillington found the median value of retirement assets of Canadians age 55 to 64 is just over $3,000.

They’ll get the CPP/QPP and OAS/GIS in most cases, which brings them to an average of $15,970 annually for singles and $25,746 for couples.

Half have less than year of savings

But they are meant to supplement that income from their own savings or other resources.

As things stand now, half have savings that represent less than one year’s worth of the resources they need to supplement OAS/GIS and CPP/QPP, the study found.

Fewer than 20 per cent have enough savings to supplement their income for at least five years.

Shillington argues senior poverty has been rising since 1995. When taken against the low-income measure, the number living in poverty has risen from 3.9 per cent to 11.1 per cent. And 30 per cent of women living alone in their senior years are poor.

That means 719,000 poor seniors, including 469,000 single men and women.

Rick Smith, executive director of the Broadbent Institute, said he believes Canadians will be shocked to learn how many are facing retirement in poverty.

Bad for the economy

“Even if you assume a decreased need or if you liquidate your home equity, the news is still very grim,” he said “We’re looking at a situation in our country — 10 years down the line, 15 years down the line — where millions of Canadians have very little disposable income and that’s not good for the economy.”

He urged the federal government to move quickly on CPP reform and to think about enhancing the GIS benefit for both singles and couples.

“We’ve been sold this bill of goods over the last few decades that RRSPs and TFSAs can be a sort of replacement for workplace pensions — and that turns out to be untrue,” Smith said.

“These findings raise serious questions about the policy needs for future pensionless cohorts, such as the adequacy of benefits from Old Age Security, the Guaranteed Income Supplement, and the Quebec and Canada pension plans,” Shillington wrote in his analysis.

The Broadbent Institute created by former NDP MP Ed Broadbent, studies Canadian public policy issues with a view to make Canada a more equitable society.

(TLN) The maison des enfants le Dauphin (MED) launched its 5^th annual wine and cheese financing campaign on Feb. 10. Robert Hayes of the Deveau legal firm is the chairman of this year’s campaign for the benefit of the family and children’s shelter.

Le Dauphin’s fundraising method is simple and original. For a $200 donation, patrons get a choice between four boxed gifts: one containing wine and cheese with gift cards, or three other gift boxes containing gift cards for various services including spa treatments, restaurants and hotel lodging. As well, each gift box comes with a receipt good for a $100 tax deduction.

Hayes and the Dauphin fundraising team have set a goal of raising $20,000 in this year’s campaign through the sale of at least 100 gift boxes. The campaign draws to a close on April 29. Those wishing to donate to the campaign can purchase gift boxes online at www.maisondesenfants.qc.ca/financement.php or by calling 450 978-2664.

Martin C. Barry

With the hiring of six forensic financial analysts, the City of Laval has decided to step up its efforts to recover millions of dollars that may have found their way through corrupt practices over a period of around 20 years into the pockets of some of the city’s public works sub-contractors.

Forensic experts hired

Although the Quebec government’s Bill 26 allows the province’s towns and cities to declare a prosecution amnesty for sub-contractors who voluntarily admit they profited from corruption, Laval has decided to step up its efforts through the hiring of the experts who will be expected to furnish specific evidence of wrongdoing among industry sub-contractors.

“The reimbursement program was adopted by the Quebec government last November,” Mayor Marc Demers said during a press conference held on the issue at city hall last Wednesday. “The deadline for expressing an interest in participating is set for Oct. 31, 2016. Since we are determined to have all the legislative and legal tools placed at our disposal to get back to Laval residents what is their due, we will be taking advantage of this time to encourage the participation of the largest number possible in the program.”

Former police on team

Hired for a period of six months at a cost of $390,000, the analysts will be working under the supervision of the City of Laval’s legal affairs department and will be collaborating as well with the city’s Bureau of Integrity and Ethics (BIEL). The city pointed out in a statement that two of the experts are retired former Laval policemen, while the other four are members of the Charbonneau Commission team appointed by the province to conduct an inquiry on the awarding of public contracts in the construction industry.

“The auditors we hired will be working on a plan with established priorities,” added Demers. “That being said, all calls for tenders, contracts and conditions for their awarding since 1996 can become the subject of verifications. I am certain that this work will prove to be profitable for Laval’s taxpayers. I also point out that whoever may wish to get into contact with the BIEL can do it confidentially by phoning 450-575-BIEL (2435) or by e-mail at biel@laval.ca.”

Lawsuits possible

“Our obligation as a municipality is to perform this analysis before Oct. 31, to investigate and be sure as to whether there are or aren’t cases,” said city manager Serge Lamontagne. “This is what we will be doing in the course of our investigation of all the past contracts.” In addition, the city is not ruling out the possibility lawsuits could be launched against former contractors to recover sums if that course of action is deemed necessary.

According to Demers, former Charbonneau Commission assistant director Martin Comeau will be leading Laval’s investigation team. The unit will also include Barbara Bernier, François Boisclair, Steve Lynch, Serge Bouliane and Richard Brousseau. He said Laval is the first or one of the first municipalities in Quebec to use the option provided by the province to increase its chances of getting back diverted money.