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Fire leaves six families homeless after Chomedey apartment evacuated

Martin C. Barry
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Fire leaves six families homeless after Chomedey apartment evacuated

A cooking fire in Chomedey left six families homeless last week. According to authorities, the blaze started around 5:30 p.m. on Oct. 19 in the basement unit of a six-unit apartment building on 80th Ave. near Perron Blvd.

Laval fire department chief of operations Jean-Francois Lortie said firefighters brought the blaze under control by 6:43 p.m. He said it started in a basement unit, causing major damage to other units.

Other units in the building were damaged by smoke, and for that reason, occupants were not be able to return for several days. The Red Cross was at the scene to provide immediate shelter and food assistance to those who needed it. 

LPD arrests man for alleged sex crimes against children

The Laval Police say they are searching for potential victims after arresting a 64-year-old man in Sainte-Rose in connection with sex-related crimes against children.

Jean-Claude Deslauriers was taken into custody in August. He faces charges of sexual assault, sexual contact with a minor and breach of conditions. He was released with conditions following an initial court appearance.

According to police, the alleged offences occurred between the summer of 2022 and August 2023. They allege the suspect would often walk his dog around Sainte-Rose and would invite young, underage girls to his home.

While there, he allegedly took advantage. Deslauriers is expected to return to court on Dec. 6.

Anyone with information about Jean-Claude Deslauriers is encouraged to call 450 662- INFO (4636) or dial 911 and mention file LVl-230806-042.

Two from Laval arrested in Ontario on stolen car allegations

Police in Waterloo west of Toronto say two men from Laval were arrested in nearby Cambridge earlier this month while allegedly putting stolen vehicles into a shipping container.

Waterloo Regional Police officers were dispatched after a suspicious vehicle was reported, according to police.

They said when officers arrived, they found the men putting four vehicles into the container.

Four vehicles with an approximate total value of $320,000 were recovered. The two Laval residents, aged 24 and 27, are facing several counts of possession of stolen property over $5,000 and trafficking stolen property over $5,000.

Laval Police seize more than $1.5 million worth of unauthorized cannabis

The Laval Police announced recently that three drug raids they conducted on Oct. 3 led to the arrest of three suspects believed to be connected to the unauthorized distribution of marijuana.

According to the LPD, an investigation that began last January based on a citizen’s tip led organized crime investigators to an address in Fabreville.

In addition to the Fabreville location, the trail also led to addresses in Boisbriand on the North Shore and Saint-Adèle in the Laurentians.

The investigators found that three suspects who were arrested and later released, with pre-court arraignment conditions to be followed, had a valid license from Health Canada for cannabis production.

However, they were diverting some or all of their product for distribution and use beyond the strictures of the law and the conditions of their license.

What the LPD seized:

  • 1,453 cannabis plants valued at $1,453,000;
  • 1,565.78 grams of dried cannabis worth $15,657;
  • 1,532.99 grams of solid concentrated cannabis worth $30,659;
  • 1,804.56 grams of cannabis residue worth $9,022;
  • 2.75 grams of psilocybin worth $27.50;
  • Equipment for processing cannnabis worth $170,000;
  • One jackknife;
  • One Glock-type air pistol;
  • 4 cell phones worth $4,000;
  • Cash Canadian, amounting to $36,575.

Motorcyclist dies after head-on collision in Sainte-Rose

A 30-year-old motorcyclist died on Oct. 20 after he collided with a vehicle in Laval’s Sainte-Rose district.

The collision happened around 2 p.m. at the intersection of Avenue de la Renaissance and Boulevard Sainte-Rose.

The vehicle was travelling westbound on Avenue de la Renaissance, while the motorcycle was travelling eastbound on Boulevard Sainte-Rose, according to the Service de police de Laval (SPL).

“At the intersection, there is a traffic light. The vehicle wanted to turn onto Highway 15 North. That’s when the motorcycle hit the vehicle,” said SPL spokesperson Stéphanie Beshara.

The motorcyclist was then ejected from the vehicle. The seriously injured man was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead, said Beshara.

A security perimeter was set up and police were continuing their investigation on Friday evening to better understand the circumstances surrounding the collision.

Laval to hold its 50th blood donor clinic on November 7

Martin C. Barry
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Laval to hold its 50th blood donor clinic on November 7

Landmark event taking place at Place Bell with ‘The Rocket’

The City of Laval has something new planned for its 50th annual blood donor clinic, which takes place on Nov. 7 from 9 am to 7 pm.

The clinic, which is one of the largest blood donor events in Canada, will be taking place at Place Bell where the Laval Rocket plays its matches. The city and the AHL hockey team are partnering for the event and reservations are now being taken for anyone who would like to give blood on Nov. 7.

“All signs pointed to the Laval Rocket becoming the partner for an association with Laval’s blood donor clinic,” says Mayor Stéphane Boyer. “In addition to being models of perseverance on the ice, the players get involved in their community for good causes such as this one.

Place Bell new venue

“As well, we will be able to take full advantage of the facilities at Place Bell to welcome more donors than ever while saving lives. Therefore, I invite all people in Laval to come and give. It’s a simple act, but so important.”

In addition to being able to walk on the playing surface of the Rocket’s home arena, blood donors will have the opportunity to meet some of the players who will be dropping by over the course of the day.

“The Laval Rocket is proud to be able to welcome the Laval blood donor clinic to Place Bell for the event’s 50th anniversary,” says Jean-François Houle, head coach for the team. “This cooperative effort with the City of Laval and Héma-Québec will be the ideal occasion to get everybody involved for the largest number possible of blood donors.”

50 years since first clinic

More than 50,000 blood donations have been collected at City of Laval blood donor clinics since they started being held in 1973. This year’s target is 600 donations in a single day. It should be noted that most adults in good health are considered eligible to give blood. Appointments to give blood are recommended and can be made online or by phone by calling 1 800 343-7264. Additional information is available at the Héma-Québec website: hema-quebec5.qc.ca.

Action Laval furious over city’s $8 million website upgrade

Two Laval city council opposition members are accusing the Boyer administration of wasting taxpayer money after an $8 million expenditure was recently approved to update the City of Laval website.

Chomedey councillor Aglaia Revelakis and Saint-Vincent-de-Paul councillor Paolo Galati, who are both with Action Laval, issued a statement saying they had difficulty understanding Mayor Stéphane Boyer’s choice of priorities given the city’s other pressing needs.

Chomedey city councillor Aglaia Revelakis.

Streets and sewers…

“While the streets, and while the sewer system on the island need investments in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and while the parks are in a deplorable state, and while the overall upkeep of the city is becoming worrisome for most residents, Laval’s mayor wants to spend $8 million to bring the city’s website up to date,” they said.

“The mayor has completely lost touch with reality,” said Revelakis, adding that she has yet to hear from even one Laval resident commenting on the city’s website. “Nobody complains about this, although how many phone calls have I received about potholes, the state of the parks and snow removal? These are the true priorities of the city.”

Question of priorities

According to Action Laval, city services employees recently gave a presentation outlining the work that needed to be done to bring the sewer system up to standards in order to meet provincial government requirements.

The opposition party maintains that several sections of the sewer network have reached the maximum of their capacity, thus preventing new residential developments from taking place. In the meantime, Action Laval adds that the city is in the midst of a housing shortage crisis, while the mayor just raised taxes on properties that are going undeveloped.

During the Oct. 4 public meeting of Laval city council, Sainte-Dorothée city councillor Ray Khalil, who is vice-president of the executive-committee, justified the $8 million expense, saying that by 2026 Laval’s web platform will be reaching the end of its useful lifespan and the city will have no choice but to upgrade it.

Ray Khalil
Laval city councillor and executive-committee member Ray Khalil.

As well, he suggested that the city will be achieving savings through the upgrade because Laval will be able to automate and put online certain services like permit renewals while reducing manual tasks now performed by employees.

“The city’s website is an important platform and one of the principal ways we communicate with out citizens,” he said. “Above all this, it’s all about being faster, better, more accessible to our residents, which are all part of providing services to them. We will be gaining all of these with this web upgrade.” As well, Khalil noted that only 4 per cent (mostly senior citizens) of Laval’s residents are not connected to the internet.

Improving cybersecurity

In September 2022, the City of Laval’s computer systems were the target of an intrusion attempt during which hackers were able to download what Mayor Boyer later described as a “limited” amount of data.

Laval and other municipalities are increasingly building their computers’ defences against cyberattacks.

In the attack last year, a spokesperson for the mayor described the data which was stolen as consisting mostly of material such as photos and text, but not personal or financial information belonging to residents. Following the attack, the city brought in experts from Microsoft to deal with the fallout.

Canada should build two new military bases in the Arctic, says Jean Charest

Martin C. Barry
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Canada should build two new military bases in the Arctic, says Jean Charest

Sovereignty over the north becoming an ‘emergency issue,’ claims former Quebec Premier

The federal government should build two new military bases in Canada’s Arctic – including one with a deep-seawater port – to boost the country’s presence in its farthest northern regions, while also honoring a commitment to help maintain global peace, former Quebec Liberal Premier Jean Charest suggested during a talk at Concordia University last week on Canada’s prospects as a “middle-power.”

Canada has been “derelict” in failing to effectively occupy its Arctic regions, claims former Quebec Premier Jean Charest. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Newsfirst Multimedia)

During his wide-ranging address on global economic and security issues hosted by Concordia’s Jurist in Residence program, Charest, who is now a partner at Montreal-based McCarthy Tetrault law, concluded that Canada needs to assert its sovereignty over the north – and the Northwest Passage in particular.

Arctic bases needed

As well, he said the country needs to take responsibility with respect to national and international defence, and this should especially involve creating new military bases in the Arctic.

In PowerPoint notes, he said Canada “continues to be overly reliant on the U.S. for trade” and needs to diversify in this respect with Europe, Asia and the Indo-Pacific region, while being more affirmative of Canada’s interests in relations with the U.S.

“Sovereignty over the north and the Northwest Passage in particular for me is an emerging development and an emergency issue,” said Charest, whose Liberal government launched the northern-Quebec-focused Plan Nord in 2008, with an eye to opening up the province’s far northern reaches for industrial/economic development.

Canada’s ‘failure,’ he said

He said Canada has been “derelict” in failing to effectively occupy its Arctic regions, while noting that “Russia is a physical neighbour of ours” in the Arctic. “But at the end of the day, if you don’t occupy your territories, you’re not behaving as a sovereign nation.”

He said that if we do build the new bases, “we’d serve our own interests, but we’d also serve the interests of our allies,” while honoring a commitment Canada made to its NATO partners to spend at least 2 per cent on military defence.

He noted that in 2019, then-U.S. Secretary of State in the Trump White House Mike Pompeo stated in a speech in Finland that the Northwest Passage did not belong to Canada because it is in international waters. The Canadian government maintains the Northwest Passage is part of Canada’s internal waterway system.

Focused on the North

It is not the first time Jean Charest has shown himself keenly interested in the development of Canada’s far north. When Plan Nord was first announced by Charest just before the 2008 election which he won, and also just before the 2012 election when he lost, political observers interpreted it as an electoral pitch.

Left, Concordia University’s Jurist-in-Residence Morton Minc is seen here on Oct. 19 with former Quebec Premier Jean Charest. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Newsfirst Multimedia)

The concept, which has never been abandoned by changing governments and for which a provincial planning office still exists, focused on the development of mineral resources (including nickel, gold, lithium, vanadium, iron, diamonds and rare earths) in the far north over a 25-year period.

Another longer-term aspect would be the completion of a permanent highway extending Quebec Route 389 – which currently runs from Baie Comeau on the St. Lawrence River to Fermont and the Newfoundland/Labrador border – all the way to Nunavik, Quebec’s rocky, northernmost subarctic territory.

Sympathetic to China

On other economic and security-related issues, Charest conceded that the People’s Republic of China “aren’t totally wrong in some ways” with respect to the realignment of superpowers for a new model of global governance that would replace the western-led international order that emerged after the Second World War.

Former Quebec Premier Jean Charest is seen here last week at Concordia University where he made the case for Canada’s committing to build two new military bases in the Arctic in order to meet growing international security challenges. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Newsfirst Multimedia)

“They’re saying to the rest of the world ‘we don’t want to play by those rules anymore,’” Charest said, while adding that some people might find his words shocking, but that the facts add credence to the argument.

Citing an example, he said voting rights at the World Bank do not reflect the size and the importance of China. “We have not adapted the UN institutions to these emerging countries,” he said. “The point is if we’re going to have a functioning world, we need to adapt our institutions to every part of the planet.”

Need to adapt, said Charest

Commenting on the emerging bloc of developing countries known as the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), Charest noted that after the Second World War, the U.S. created global institutions which were American-led.

“And they have served us well and they served Canada well,” he said. “But the world has changed, it has evolved, and we have to be able to adapt to bring these countries in. They’re not wrong to say the system is weighed in the direction of the Americans.”

Although Charest stated at the beginning that he had little to say about the Legault government’s recent decision to double tuition fees paid by international students, he opened up at the end.

“I’m hoping that a lot of people in Quebec will stand up and say that this is a wrongheaded policy and it’s the wrong thing to do,” said Charest.

Laval News Volume 31-20

Laval News Staff
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Laval News Volume 31-20

The current issue of the Laval News, volume 31-20, published on October 25th, 2023.
Covering Laval local news, politics, and sports.
(Click on the image to read the paper.)

Laval Police seize more than $1.5 million worth of unauthorized cannabis

Martin C. Barry
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Laval Police seize more than $1.5 million worth of unauthorized cannabis

The Laval Police announced this week that three drug raids they conducted on Oct. 3 led to the arrest of three suspects believed to be connected to the unauthorized distribution of marijuana.

According to the LPD, an investigation that began last January based on a citizen’s tip led organized crime investigators to an address in Fabreville.

In addition to the Fabreville location, the trail also led to addresses in Boisbriand on the North Shore and Saint-Adèle in the Laurentians.

The investigators found that three suspects who were arrested and later released, with pre-court arraignment conditions to be followed, had a valid license from Health Canada for cannabis production.

However, they were diverting some or all of their product for distribution and use beyond the strictures of the law and the conditions of their license.

What the LPD seized:
  • 1,453 cannabis plants valued at $1,453,000;
  • 1,565.78 grams of dried cannabis worth $15,657;
  • 1,532.99 grams of solid concentrated cannabis worth $30,659;
  • 1,804.56 grams of cannabis residue worth $9,022;
  • 2.75 grams of psilocybin worth $27.50;
  • Equipment for processing cannnabis worth $170,000;
  • One jackknife;
  • One Glock-type air pistol;
  • 4 cell phones worth $4,000;
  • Cash Canadian, amounting to $36,575.

Firefighters flung open the doors for ‘open house’ at Laval’s firehalls

Martin C. Barry
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Firefighters flung open the doors for ‘open house’ at Laval’s firehalls

Thanksgiving event was a chance for moms, dads and kids to blast the sirens

At some point during their lives, children and parents alike have thought for a moment or two about living the life of a firefighter.

A learning experience

While only a relative few ever follow through on it, once a year – on Thanksgiving Weekend – management and staff at the Laval Fire Dept. fling open the garage doors at the city’s nine firehalls.

Seen here with firefighters with the Laval Fire Department, including department director Patrick Taillefer, are members of the Foley and Nadeau families at Chomedey No. 2 firehall last Sunday Oct. 8. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Laval News)

Every kid living in Laval – young or older – gets a chance to make believe they’re a fireman or firewoman. It’s always an opportunity to get up close to the shiny, bright red ladder and pump trucks parked in firehall garages all over the island.

A day at the firehall

For kids probably more used to playing with scale-models, actually being able to climb behind the wheel of a huge shiny red rig and being able to touch the intricate controls is something they will probably remember for a long time.

The Laval Fire Dept.’s annual open house day on Thanksgiving Weekend was a chance for everyone who’s ever been fascinated by fire trucks and firehalls to get up close to the trucks, the gear and the guys that make it all happen. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Laval News)

From morning to late afternoon last Sunday, everybody got a chance to learn all about the work of firefighters, to watch and take part in equipment demonstrations, to receive fire prevention advice, and even to climb into a truck and feel what it’s like to live the life of a firefighter.

Chomedey PLQ MNA Sona Lakhoyan Olivier is focused on local issues

Martin C. Barry
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Chomedey PLQ MNA Sona Lakhoyan Olivier is focused on local issues

Drew inspiration from her father, proud of her Armenian heritage

As far as Chomedey Liberal MNA Sona Lakhoyan Olivier is concerned, until you’ve actually served as a member of the Quebec National Assembly, you can’t have a real idea of just how demanding the job is.

Lakhoyan Olivier was back in Laval last Friday afternoon for the Thanksgiving long weekend, after spending the previous week in Quebec City working on National Assembly business.

Before being elected on Oct. 3 last year, Lakhoyan was an employee of Loto-Québec, serving as an executive hostess to VIP clients at the Montreal Casino.

Chomedey Liberal Member of the Quebec National Assembly Sona Lakhoyan Olivier (seen here on election night Oct. 3, 2022) says she wants to help create better outdoor recreational and leisure environments around the river’s edge in conjunction with the City of Laval. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Laval News)

The work often took her outside the Montreal region to meet Loto-Québec VIP clients in places like Charlevoix, Trois Rivières and Quebec City.

She has also served as an elected member of the former Commission scolaire de Laval (CSDL), as well as vice-president of the board of directors of the Fondation de la Cité de la Santé.

Armenian-Lebanese roots

Raised on Guénette St. in Chomedey, Lakhoyan Olivier was born in Beirut, Lebanon. Given that Middle Eastern nation’s well-known multicultural identity, she remains a strong defender of multiculturalism in Canada and Quebec.

Having been born into an Armenian family, she attended an Armenian community school during her primary education years in Beirut, followed by high school in Arabic, and then a French-language girls’ school in Montreal, and finally Concordia U.

She was greatly influenced by her father who was deeply involved in the local coaching and organizing for  community sports as well as the Scouting movement. “In the Armenian diaspora, we help each other a lot,” Lakhoyan Olivier said. “So, naturally I continued in my father’s footsteps.”

Chomedey Liberal Member of the Quebec National Assembly Sona Lakhoyan Olivier is seen here with members of her family during a gathering last May at her Samson Blvd. constituency office. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Laval News)

She excelled in athletics

In her teens and twenties, she was a noted athlete at Armenian sporting events sponsored by the Homenetmen, a pan-Armenian diaspora organization devoted to sports and scouting. “I was involved in the sports and I became a coach in Montreal, but at the same time always involved in the Liberal Party doing volunteer work and whatever needed to be done,” she said.

She played a key role in helping to found an Armenian community Scouts troop in 2016. The group grew quickly from fewer than 100 members in the beginning to more than 300 today.

In her role now as MNA for Chomedey, Lakhoyan Olivier said she is worried about the riding’s situation with regards especially to the rising number of homeless people and the challenging security problems they are beginning to generate.

Local security issues

Having conducted some research among local merchants with the help of her staff, Lakhoyan Olivier was told by a good number of store owners that shoplifting has reached epidemic proportions. She said she hopes to see measures taken in the near future, in conjunction with the City of Laval, to help relieve the problem.

Chomedey MNA Sona Lakhoyan Olivier speaks with members of the Air Cadets’ 100 Laval Squadron during a review of the squadron she did last May 6. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Laval News)

Other projects she hopes also to bring to fruition with the city include developing more green spaces on the vast expanses along the edges of the rivers that surround Laval. “We need to beautify that corridor, we need to make a marina, we need to make Chomedey a vibrant place,” she said.

“You know, thirty years ago in Laval, I’d see flowers and greenery, but now it’s cement,” she continued. “Now everybody is talking about the îlots de chaleur, you know the heat islands when there are no more trees and no more tree cover.

Youth and senior citizens

“So, we need to find a way to provide space to the people, especially to our youth and our elderly. The most vulnerable of our society are our elderly and our children. We need to offer to our kids a place where they can leave their computer games behind. They need a place and the city has to offer a place.”

With these kinds of projects in mind, she said she is thinking of creating a Green Chomedey Committee that would be open to all, working in conjunction with the City of Laval.

“I would like us to come up with a committee so that we can offer pathways in nature along the river, places that embellish, so that young and old can go in a secure environment.”

Girl, 13, charged with armed assault after attack on Laval teacher

Martin C. Barry
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Girl, 13, charged with armed assault after attack on Laval teacher

A 65-year-old teacher suffered wounds to the upper body when she was attacked by a 13-year-old girl Thursday afternoon last week in a classroom at École secondaire l’Odyssée-des-Jeunes in Auteuil/Laval.

The girl was taken into custody by the Laval Police. She faces a charge of armed assault and was released pending her next court appearance.

A Laval Police spokesperson said the incident occurred after the teacher asked the student to change her behaviour, at which point the girl allegedly attacked the teacher. Some students said the attack was carried out with a pair of scissors, but police were unable to confirm that.

Students in the classroom tried to intervene in the assault, which only ended after other teaching staff were able to subdue the attacker. The teacher was taken to a hospital to be treated for her wounds and possible nervous shock. The girl was taken to a hospital to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

The Centre de services scolaire de Laval confirmed in an email that an incident had occurred at the school involving a student “who became disruptive and physically attacked their teacher.”

Laval man absolved of murder arrested for alleged grandparent-scams

A Laval man acquitted in the murder of a person who was killed while dining at the Dix30 shopping complex on Montreal’s South Shore was among 13 people arrested last week following a police investigation into grandparent scams.

Joshua Sarroino is one of three men who were seated at the same table as Éric Francis De Souza, when De Souza was shot to death at a restaurant in May 2019. They are among those who were charged with Sarroino at the Montreal courthouse last week.

A few weeks after he was acquitted, Sarroino pleaded guilty to charges related to police finding firearms in his former apartment in Laval while he was being investigated for De Souza’s death. During court proceedings last week, Sarroino was ordered to deposit $5,000 to secure his release on bail while facing the grandparent scheme charges.

A task force headed by the SQ and including police from Laval, Montreal and Richelieu-St-Laurent carried out the arrests in an operation targeting “a criminal organization specializing in ‘grandparent fraud’ and whose victims live principally in the United States.” The provincial SQ said it expected to make 13 arrests in Laval, Montreal, St-Laurent, Kirkland and Chambly.

“Grandparent fraud” sees its victims targeted by people who impersonate a grandchild or other close relative over the phone. The fraudsters claim to need money quickly to deal with an emergency, such as bail money after an arrest or funds to cover a medical emergency.

Suspect arrested in connection with Laval homicide

The Laval Police announced last week that they arrested a 40-year-old man in connection with a homicide committed last May outside Place Bell.

According to the LPD, Jean-Philippe Mirand was arrested on Sept. 26 by the Laval Police in Halifax with the co-operation of Halifax police and with assistance from the RCMP.

Mirand’s arrest followed the fatal stabbing May 7 of Vick Sévère Paul, 51, who had ties to street gangs and died in a hospital after an altercation on Claude-Gagné St. near Le Corbusier Blvd.

Police allege Mirand fled the country after the attack. They say that on Sept. 24, it was determined that he was in Halifax. The suspect was accompanied under guard to Laval and now faces a charge of culpable manslaughter.

At work and play, meet Fabre MNA Alice Abou-Khalil

Martin C. Barry
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At work and play, meet Fabre MNA Alice Abou-Khalil
An avid enthusiast for physical activities, including bicycling and roller blading, Fabre CAQ MNA Alice Abou-Khalil says she needs the workouts to make up for all the sitting-down time spent at the Quebec National Assembly. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Laval News)

She likes to bike or roller blade after long sessions in the National Assembly

In a wide-ranging interview a year after first being elected to the Quebec National Assembly, CAQ MNA for Fabre Alice Abou-Khalil told The Laval News she is on the verge of persuading the Legault government to build at least one new high school in Fabre to meet the needs of an expanding population that includes a large number of families.

Last October 3 marked the end of the first year since the 2022 provincial election. Laval’s voters decided that four out of six of the region’s National Assembly seats would go to Premier François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec. In the meantime, a local deficit in local educational resources was just one of the needs identified by Abou-Khalil.

New high school needed

“In Fabre there is no école secondaire – there is no high-school,” Abou-Khalil pointed out during an interview last week at her Sainte-Dorothée constituency office, while noting that neither the French- or English-speaking communities currently have access to a high-school.

Although the number of children living in the riding falls just beneath a threshold that would be necessary to meet the education ministry’s requirements for a new high school, Abou-Khalil said that with demographic changes taking place now, the high school could become a reality by next year.

Pushing, but no promises

“I’m pushing for it,” she said. “But I can’t push if the student numbers are not there as required to build one. I’m not making any promises. But the discussions are there. We’re waiting for the right number of students to be able to attend these schools before we move forward and go on with the project.”

All things considered, however, it is more likely a French-language high school will be built first since the area’s linguistic demographics currently favour it. Abou-Khalil said many residents of Fabre she met since becoming their MNA have been urging her to build a new high school.

According to the riding’s current demographics, 65 per cent of residents are French-speaking, while 35 per cent claim a language other than French as their primary means of communication.

Roller blading is just one of several things Alice Abou-Khalil does to unwind after long sessions at the Quebec National Assembly. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Laval News)

Biking, basketball and blading

With the busy schedule Alice Abou-Khalil keeps as an elected official, dividing herself between Quebec City and Laval, it’s truly a wonder she manages to find the time for the extensive amount of physical activity she makes a point of engaging in regularly.

An avid bicyclist, women’s basketball player and roller-blading enthusiast, she cycles daily to her riding office from her home in Chomedey. She thinks nothing of biking for several hours to travel from Laval to visit friends in Old Montreal or in Candiac across the St. Lawrence River on Montreal’s South Shore.

“Usually in the summer I mainly use my bike,” she said, while adding that she manages to cover these kinds of distances in a single day. Still, she finds or makes time for her family, while keeping up with her responsibilities as member of the National Assembly for Fabre. Abou-Khalil also likes to indulge in basketball. “I’m short, as you might be able to tell, but I’m a hell of a player,” she said.

Needs physical activity

While noting that one of the occupational hazards of being an MNA is that you spend a lot of time sitting in the National Assembly’s “Salon bleu” (the legislative chamber) or in commission hearings, she said that after sitting sometimes for four days straight “I need to make up for that time” through physical activities such as biking.

Although National Assembly members tend to be heard from mostly when a controversial issue arises, MNAs and their support staff are dealing more often with constituents’ problems, which may (among other things) involve immigration, disputes with provincial government ministries, or bureaucratic situations requiring intervention.

One recent and as yet unresolved issue involves a dispute between some residents in a small pocket of streets and Hydro Quebec. In a petition the residents submitted to Abou-Khalil, they claim the public electric power company has been systematically depriving them of electricity.

Hydro Quebec dispute

“Every time there’s a big outage, they are the last to be reconnected,” said Abou-Khalil, noting that Hydro Quebec’s policy is to bring larger pockets of customers back online following blackouts. Originally from Lebanon, Abou-Khalil is a single parent with two daughters.

She has an extensive professional background in computer network architecture, as well as surveillance and security, with companies like Telus, Videotron, National Bank, SNC-Lavalin and Desjardins. She is currently Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital Technology.

Virginie Dufour introduces bill to prevent evictions

Laval News Contributor
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Virginie Dufour introduces bill to prevent evictions

Intent to put an end to evictions of tenants in order to make tourist accommodation

Mille-Îles Liberal MNA Virginie Dufour.

Official Opposition critic for municipal affairs and housing,
Virginie Dufour, introduced an important bill in the National
Assembly to prohibit evictions aimed at transforming housing
into short-term tourist accommodation.

At a time when Quebec is experiencing the worst housing shortage
in its history, the Liberal member for Mille-Îles wishes, with her bill, to
offer better protection to tenants against this practice, by putting an
end to these conversions that contribute to the crisis.

It reminds us that it is our elders who are too often the
unfortunate victims of these evictions and that it is imperative to protect them from
such manoeuvres.

“There is an urgent need for concrete action to increase housing
supply and not the other way around,” said Dufour, presenting the bill.

“In the midst of a housing crisis, we can no longer accept tenants being put on the street
to convert units into short-term tourist accommodation,” she added.

“After denying this crisis for years, the CAQ has the opportunity to take
a first step by quickly calling our bill and thus better protecting
tenants.”

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