Click here to read the Laval News Volume 24-22 online
This is a archived copy in PDF format of the Laval News Volume 24-22 that was published and distributed November 9, 2016.
This issue covers local events such us politics, sports and human interest stories. It features editorials and other columns
Martin C. Barry
An invasion of zombies, vampires and ghosts took over Lausanne Park in Laval’s Saint-Bruno district on Halloween last Oct. 31. The first major celebration of Halloween in the area was organized the community group Bouge ton Parc.
Elected officials from the City of Laval and from the provincial government were on hand to help out while partaking of the merriment. “The event was a great success and we have every intention of doing it all again next year,” said Michel Reeves, president of Bouge ton Parc.
During the event which took place near the corner of Prudentiel and Lausanne streets, some 22,000 Halloween candies were handed out to children who took part. “Our neighbourhood really comes alive during events like this,” said Vimont Liberal MNA Jean Rousselle who sat on the organizing committee.
It is estimated that more than 8,000 people in all came out to enjoy themselves. “Lausanne Park is becoming more and more a place for people from the area to gather and to celebrate,” said Laval executive-committee vice-president David De Cotis, the councillor for the area, who also helped organize the event.
Martin C. Barry
While the City of Montreal’s Mayor Denis Coderre announced last month a timeline for extensive infrastructure and public works projects to take place over the next 10 years, Laval mayor Marc Demers says this city’s infrastructure needs are not unlike Montreal’s and will also have to be addressed during the same time period.
“It’s for us to plan what we want to have in the next 10 to 15 years,” he said in an interview with the Laval News during a break at a recent public event. “Now’s the time to do it and that’s what we’re doing. It means a major investment for the next few years.”
While acknowledging that Laval is a much smaller city than Montreal, Demers said that an expenditure comparable to Montreal’s in proportion to Laval’s size will have to be made “and maybe even more.
“Road reconstructions hopefully we will be finished on boulevards Le Corbusier and Labelle in December, but there’s a lot of planning for the rest. But what we’re trying to do is to make sure to avoid traffic congestion all over the place.”
As well, according to Demers, the city plans to make important traffic configuration changes in the centre of Laval before Place Bell opens next year to mitigate the impact of traffic. “We will change a few things to avoid traffic jams,” he said. “We are trying to avoid traffic jams as much as possible.”
Demers said that in the next three years the city will be spending more than $1 billion (mostly in long-terms loans) on street reconstruction and maintenance, on water and sewer upgrades, and on other basic infrastructure needs all over the island. On a 10-year basis, “we have other plans,” he added.
“One thing which is economically important, I think, is to make sure that there’s no traffic jams. As little as possible. That will encourage people to come live in Laval, it will also bring industry here. Imagine a major industry which has 30 trucks for delivery: if every time it takes half an hour more to do the same job, that’s a lot of money.”
Among work started or that will soon be taking place, Demers noted that the city recently completed renovations on two water filtration plants. In the meantime, there are also major problems with sewers in older neighbourhoods of Laval which he said will necessitate “major investments” on their own. And since sewer work traditionally is done with street reconstruction, the two will have to be coordinated. “There’s no use redoing a street only to come back the following year to undo everything when the sewers are repaired,” he said.
Demers maintains that a significant factor that contributed to the poor state of the city’s infrastructure today was neglect by the former Vaillancourt administration during its last few years when the political situation at city hall was spinning out of control.
“Mayor Vaillancourt, during the last year of his administration, his head was somewhere else. But in a municipality if the policy makers can’t make decisions the administration can’t work. The political level was in a state of disarray for two or three years just before our arrival. On our arrival we rebuilt the administration and established a new structure. These are the tools we needed to work.”
(TLN)
More than 160 constituents from the provincial riding of Mille-Îles gathered on Oct. at the Knights of Columbus hall in Saint-François for a special breakfast organized by the Chevaliers in conjunction with local Liberal MNA Francine Charbonneau.
“I am very happy with the participation of the citizens who are here in such great numbers,” said Charbonneau, who is Minister for Senior Citizens, Minister Against Bullying and Minister Responsible for the Laval region.
“My goal was two-fold: to talk with the people of my riding to get to know the issues they are concerned about, and to raise funds for the Knights of Columbus who help families in our area. I would like to thank the people who came here, as well as Louis-Georges Tremblay, Grand Knight of the Fabre Council, and all his team for their welcome.”
Those attending the breakfast were able to meet Charbonneau and chat with her while also meeting other people. All proceeds of the event are going to the Knights of Columbus Fabre Council 6035.
Martin C. Barry
While it may be not quite a year and a half since Manny Mavroudis started competing as a professional BBQ chef, this week and next the Laval-des-Rapides resident is in Orange Beach, Alabama competing for a six-figure prize purse and the privilege to be called the 2016 World Food Champion in the BBQ category.
If you’ve ever wondered whether you could make BBQ ribs, chicken, pork or brisket so well it would be worth a big payout, that’s exactly what Mavroudis thought before successfully qualifying to be a participant in what the World Food Championships’ organizers claim is “the world’s largest event in Food Sport.”
A shot at the crown
Mavroudis’ team is one of 430 from across the world who are seeking the ultimate food crown. He won the chance to compete by being on one of the top teams from Eastern Canada in the Canadian Food Championships. As a result, he will now have a shot for a major payday at WFC, where $100,000 is awarded for the best dish overall, and $10,000 is awarded in nine different categories: BBQ, Chili, Dessert, Bacon, Sandwich, Seafood, Burger, Steak, and Recipe.
He made the leap to professional this year from amateur food championships he’d been competing in for some time previously. In the former, amateur chefs work primarily with chicken and ribs, while the pro level also tests skills at BBQing pork and brisket.
Ribs are his favourite
“Brisket is difficult,” Mavroudis admitted in an interview, while adding that he loves doing ribs because of the relative simplicity of preparing them before BBQ. He’s less enthusiastic about chicken because preparing it for the smoker is much more complicated. Mavroudis cooks on Weber smokers and BBQs – a mid-priced brand he claims is the best value in a quality/cost ratio.
“In competition, fall-off-the-bone is overdone,” he said regarding a style of serving BBQ’d ribs that’s promoted by at least one prominent Montreal chicken and ribs joint. “In my first competition in Ottawa, I was in last place because I had overdone ribs that were fall-off-the bone.”
Start your smokers
On competition day at the World Food Championship, Mavroudis is lighting up his smokers as early as 3 am. Throughout the day there will be set times for contestants to turn the meat on their grills. In several pro-level competitions he took part in this year, he scored well, although he now anticipates reaching even higher in Orange Beach.
As for where he learned his cooking skills, Mavroudis said he spent five days at a BBQing competition seminar in Kansas City (a major U.S. centre for devotees) this past spring where “I took a lot of notes,” he added. “Do you feel the heat on the ribs?” he asked the Laval News reporter at one point during an interview when some smoked ribs were sampled. When he was told the seasoning was just hot enough to register on the palate, Mavroudis exclaimed “perfect,” obviously satisfied he’d been up to his task.
The fall-off-the-bone debate
Regarding the soaring popularity of BBQ’d rack ribs in both retail food stores and restaurants, Mavroudis said, “Everybody’s used to fall-off-the-bone ribs. All restaurants serve fall-off-the-bone because that’s what people like in Quebec, Canada and most places. But if you visit restaurants in the Kansas City area or in Texas, you’ll find that the ribs are slightly different. They’re not fall-off-the-bone. If you want to eat good BBQ you’ve got to go to Kansas City.”
Follow him on Facebook
Now in its fifth year, The World Food Championships platform ranges from live-event competitions to a robust multimedia platform that helps pro chefs, home cooks, and competition teams achieve food fame and fortune as TV’s next big food stars.
You can cheer on Manny Mavroudis by following him on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SKARAoldschoolbbq/or following the results at www.worldfoodchampionships.com. There’s also a good chance that Mavroudis will be seen on TV, as the event is filmed for national cable television. It has previously been seen on the A&E Network as well as the Discovery Network.
(TLN)
The executive-committee of the City of Laval gave its approval last week for the awarding of a $1.72 million contract to the firm Bisson Fortin Architecture + Design to develop plans for Laval’s future animal services centre whose opening is scheduled for December 2018.
The contract includes the sub-contracting of engineers (SNC-Lavalin), landscapers (Beaupré & Associés), LEED specialists (Lyse M. Tremblay ecoArchitecture) and a 3-D model of the future building (Consortech). The contract was approved by city council on Nov. 1.
“The animal services centre is one of the major priorities for Laval,” said Mayor Marc Demers. “This project is on the design board for a long time and following some in-depth analysis of the needs, we are proud to announce that finally it is beginning to take on life.”
According to the city, the centre will be costing $15,300,000. An 18,000 square-metre piece of land owned by the city on Maurice Cullen Place in the district of Saint-François has been reserved for the project. The 3,200 square-metre building will be completed according to LEED standards in order to conform to environmental concerns. The city says the building will include a veterinary clinic, areas for adoption, isolation and isolation of animals, as well as administrative offices.
With the process for construction of the animal services centre underway, the city is now looking for a non-profit organization to which to award the mandate of operating the facility. As such, city council will be issuing a call for tenders soon in order to find out which organizations express interest while gathering information on them.
“At this stage, the hiring of a provider for the administrative and operational management of the future centre will be essential, since they will be accompanying us in each of the planning and construction stages of the project,” said Laval city councillor Sandra Desmeules, an executive-committee member who is handling the dossier.
Following the city’s receipt of offers from organizations interested in operated the centre, a committee of experts in animal management will be formed in order to make a choice according to predetermined evaluation criteria. Once it opens in 2018, the animal services centre will be the central clearinghouse for actions to be taken in terms of managing animals in Laval.
(TLN)
On Oct. 26, Laval-des-Rapides Liberal MNA Saul Polo attended an evening to pay homage to Caisse Desjardins Saint-Claude general manager Pascal Cobello who is retiring after 55 years service to Desjardins – 53 of which were spent at the Saint-Claude branch.
Polo presented Cobello with a letter from Premier Philippe Couillard in which he noted the Caisse manager’s longtime devotion to his community.
“It was a pleasure for me to celebrate the extraordinary journey of Mr. Cobello, both professionally and on a personal level,” said Polo. “He consistently dedicated himself to the community and is one of the builders of the Parish of Saint Claude. Giving him this letter from the Premier is a true honor for me.”
In his letter, Premier Couillard said, “Your journey has clearly been that of determined people who make themselves part of what they do and who climb, through effort and with enthusiasm the ladder that leads to the top. You followed this road not only for professional success, but also to make a difference in your community.”
Having started out his career in 1962 as a teller at the Caisse populaire Saint-Maxime de Laval, Cobello then became an accountant while studying at Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC) in Montreal. He joined the Caisse populaire Saint-Claude in May 1964 as general manager and administrator on the governing board.
Cobello has been at the branch ever since. Since the parish of Saint Claude was founded in 1960 and the Saint Claude Caisse was close to it from the start, Cobello is considered to have been one of the founders of the parish. As well, he has been involved with a good number of other community organizations in the region over the decades.
(TLN)
During a meeting of the board of the Foundation of Quebec Firefighters for Burn Victims (FPQGB) which took place in Laval on Oct. 26, the Laval Fire Department was awarded the Prix Gilles Aumais by foundation president Richard Carpentier.
According to a statement issued by the city, the award was given to the fire department which raised the most money in a fundraising campaign held in 2015 when Laval’s firefighters raised $15,138. 26.
In the photo can be seen Dave Vallières, an administrator at the FPQGB, André Godbout, vice-president at the FPQGB, and Robert Séguin, Richard Carpentier and René Daigneault, who are respectively director, lieutenant and assistant director of the Laval Fire Department.
(TLN)
For an eighth consecutive year, the Laval Police Department unveiled its canine squad calendar last week, with all profits from sales going towards the Fondation Martin-Matte.
Thanks to funds from the sales of the popular calendar, the foundation has been able to build several residences for persons living with traumatic brain injuries. Since 2009, sales have brought in $300,000 for the foundation.
The LPD’s involvement began in 2008 following the death of the police department’s master dog handler Éric Lavoie, who had suffered a traumatic brain injury. The calendar is available at all Laval-area IGA stores, at the LPD’s headquarters, and at neighbourhood police stations throughout Laval.
The Fondation Martin-Matte raises funds to help persons suffering from head injuries that often cause serious neurological disturbances. The foundation finances the construction of specially-equipped houses, in addition to helping provide respite, rehabilitation and activity centres for the victims and their families.
The involvement of well-known Quebec standup comic Martin Matte began as a result of an accident his brother, Christian, had in 1986. Subsequent to that, Christian lived in nearly 20 group residences over two decades as the system shuffled him about.
The foundation now supports a growing network of residences in communities all over Quebec, including Blainville and Sherbrooke. Soon there will be residences in Trois-Rivières and Quebec City. Ten people in Quebec suffer a head trauma each day that will leave them seriously incapacitated.
Martin C. Barry
A Chomedey woman who claims she was repeatedly denied service in English at Laval’s Cité de la Santé is vowing never to return there, but will seek medical treatment at Sacré Cœur Hospital across the Des Prairies river in Montreal where she says there is better service in English.
In an interview with the Laval News, Bonnie Gavin said her first encounter with staff at Cité de la Santé who were unable or unwilling to assist her in English dates back to September last year when she went to the hospital for tests after experiencing stomach pain from a kidney stone.
While noting that she was feeling apprehensive because of the uncertainty over her health, Gavin said that when she went to the patient registration counter to provide her hospital card information, she encountered a clerk who addressed her in French.
“I replied, ‘I’m sorry but my French is not that good. Your English is probably a lot better than my French,’ said Gavin, who was born and raised in Chomedey and who returned to Quebec in 2005 after living in Alberta for several decades. “Then she gave me a look and just continued to speak French. She refused to speak English.”
This past September Gavin was back at Cité de la Santé when she was experiencing pain again. She said she asked her doctor to not send her to Cité de la Santé because of the language barrier.
When Gavin’s doctor pointed out that there was no choice but to send her to Cité de la Santé since the doctor was associated with the hospital, Gavin went back somewhat unwillingly. But again, she ran into a problem. This time it was with a lab attendant whose instructions she couldn’t understand because they were spoken to her in French.
Then three weeks ago, Gavin’s sister, who also lives in Laval, was rushed to Cité de la Santé with a head injury. Gavin claims that when she phoned the hospital for information on her sister’s state, she was unable to make herself properly understood to a French-speaking employee in the emergency department.
“I said I wanted to know if my sister was there because I just got a phone call saying she was rushed to the hospital,” Gavin said. “The girl was speaking French. I said ‘can you get somebody please who understands English because I have to know if my sister’s there?”
Gavin admits that in her frustration at being unable to find someone who would help her in English, she rung off a few times, then phoned back every five minutes or so hoping perhaps that someone other than the person who kept answering would pick up.
“I called five times, and all five times the girl who answered at emergency refused to speak English to me,” she said. Although an employee answering at the Cité de la Santé’s main switchboard was able to communicate with her in English, Gavin said the emergency department worker couldn’t or wouldn’t.
She insists that the emergency department employee told her somewhat sarcastically that Cité de la Santé “is in Laval.” Gavin replied, “Yeah, I know, I live in Laval and I want to know if my sister is here.” She claims the worker then responded, “Madame, Cité de la Santé is a French hospital.”
Although she was eventually able to locate her sister, it was only because her sister called her on a phone from the hospital to say where she was. In the meantime, Gavin has her doubts that the Cité de la Santé workers in question didn’t understand her. She suspects they chose not to serve her in English.
Gavin’s husband, Doug Telfer, who accompanied her on her hospital visits, noted that although many Cité de la Santé support workers either can’t or won’t speak English, doctors and other medical staff appear to be more capable and “they’ll speak English to you” when necessary, he said.
Gavin, who was being followed for her health problem by two doctors at one point (one of them is affiliated with Sacré Cœur Hospital), said the Cartierville-based health institution does a much better job of providing service to its English-speaking patients.
“I will never go back to Cité de la Santé,” she said. She insisted the issue isn’t so much about language as it is about health. “When I go out I try to speak French. But when it comes to my health and I don’t understand them, that’s a different story.”
Paula Beaudoin, a spokesperson for the CISSS de Laval which oversees Cité de la Santé, said the health care agency currently has a policy requiring certain departments at the hospital to provide service in English. “Emergency is a department where service must be available in English,” she said, while noting that not all personnel are expected to be able to speak English.
However, she pointed out, employees are told that if and when they encounter someone English-speaking who they are unable to serve properly because of a language barrier, they are to seek out another employee who can converse in English.
According to a French-language document (Politique d’accès aux soins et services en langue anglaise du CISSS de Laval) e-mailed by Beaudoin to the Laval News, Cité de la Santé is not “designated” as a health establishment where service must be provided in English, although it is “indicated” as such, meaning a certain degree of service in English must be available.
The document states, “A sufficient number of bilingual persons must be present at all times in the following services to assure English-language service, depending on the needs of users, including: reception, medical archives, day centres, info-health, intensive care, at-home support, emergency.”
It continues, “During an emergency or critical situation for the user, if the linguistic barrier compromises access to efficient care or services, the providers must seek within the immediate area a person capable of translating the exchange between the user and the staff providing treatment.”
Regarding the treatment Bonnie Gavin said she was subjected to, Beaudoin issued the following statement: “The management of CISSS de Laval is sorry that the woman had to endure these inconveniences. We expect to restate the directives to the staff and the health professionals involved.”
