Quebec prisoners escape from jail via helicopter, still on the run

By The Canadian Press - Sunday, March 17, 2013 at 6:07 PM - 0 Comments

SAINT-JEROME, Que. – Quebec provincial police are searching for two prisoners who have escaped from a Saint-Jerome jail in a helicopter.

Police have found the helicopter about 85 kilometres away in Mont-Tremblant and say that the chopper’s pilot has been taken to hospital where he will be questioned by investigators.

Authorities say the two prisoners are still at large.

The identities of the two men are not being revealed.

The Saint-Jerome jail, located some 60 kilometres northwest of Montreal, experienced a mini-riot by about a dozen prisoners a little more than a month ago.

In that incident, police had been asked to secure the outside of the prison, which holds about 480 inmates, and facility staff used pepper spray to disperse the mob.

Quebec Liberals set to choose new leader as Charest steps off political stage

By The Canadian Press - Sunday, March 17, 2013 at 6:24 AM - 0 Comments

MONTREAL – Quebec Liberals are getting set to choose their new leader at a convention today in Montreal.

Former premier Jean Charest stepped down as Liberal leader last September after losing his seat when his government was toppled by the Parti Quebecois in the provincial election.

Three former cabinet ministers are vying to succeed him — Philippe Couillard, Raymond Bachand and Pierre Moreau.

Couillard, the presumed front-runner, was health minister between 2003 and 2008.

The party used the first day of its weekend convention to pay tribute to Charest, who led the party for 14 years, including nine as premier.

After being greeted with a lengthy standing ovation, Charest made a passionate plea for national unity and reminded Canadians how important Quebec is to Canada.

“Canada is our home, and all those who live outside of Quebec should know that Quebec is also part of their home and their heritage,” Charest told the crowd.

Continue…

Man accused in election-night shooting reaches out to media again

By The Canadian Press - Friday, March 15, 2013 at 8:24 PM - 0 Comments

MONTREAL – The man charged in Quebec’s election-night shooting is reaching out to the media again from his jail cell.

Richard Henry Bain faces numerous charges, including first-degree murder and is being held in custody as his case makes its way through the courts.

Stage technician Denis Blanchette died in back of the the hall of a club where Premier Pauline Marois was delivering her Parti Quebecois victory speech last Sept. 4.

The premier has said she believes she was the target of a political assassination.

In a tape sent to various media by Dan Sweeney, who was identified by Bain in court this week as his spokesman, a man believed to be Bain is heard saying he went to the club ”so Marois would not make her speech.”

Continue…

Justin Trudeau, Quebec and the possibility of an early test

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, March 14, 2013 at 11:47 AM - 0 Comments

Martin Patriquin takes a good look at Justin Trudeau’s appeal and success in Quebec.

The likely Liberal leader’s standing in the province might be tested very quickly. Denis Coderre, the MP for Bourassa, is thought to be preparing to run for mayor of Montreal. Last fall, he said he would remain an MP until at least the next Liberal leader is chosen in April. If Mr. Coderre steps down, the Liberals have a seat to defend and it’s not obviously a safe one for them. In 2011, the New Democrats got within 3,280 votes of Mr. Coderre and he finished with his lowest vote total in his seven elections there.

So Mr. Trudeau’s Liberals will have to hope to hold it and the Thomas Mulcair’s New Democrats will, with some justification, be hoping to pick it up—with visions of Outremont possibly dancing in each side’s respective heads—and the final result will no doubt be interpreted as having some greater meaning for both sides.

(And then, as well, partisans and pundits might bother Daniel Paille, the seatless leader of the Bloc, with questions about whether he’ll run in Bourassa.)

Quebec anti-corruption squad makes another arrest in Montreal mega-hospital case

By The Canadian Press - Tuesday, March 12, 2013 at 11:44 AM - 0 Comments

MONTREAL – Quebec’s anti-corruption squad has arrested one of the five men being sought in the case of a billion-dollar project to build a Montreal mega-hospital.

That leaves Arthur Porter, the former head of Canada’s spy overseer, as the only one who has so far eluded arrest.

Jeremy Morris was arrested at Montreal’s Trudeau airport Monday night as he arrived on a flight from the Bahamas, the anti-corruption squad said in a statement.

Morris, the administrator of a Bahamas-based investment company, is scheduled to appear Tuesday in a Montreal court.

Morris and Porter are among five people wanted on numerous charges — including fraud, breach of trust and document forgery — linked to the $1.3-billion McGill University Hospital Centre project.

The others are former SNC Lavalin senior executives Pierre Duhaime and Riadh Ben Aissa, and former McGill University Hospital Centre administrator Yanai Elbaz — all of whom have already been arrested.

Duhaime and Elbaz are now free on bail. Ben Aissa has been detained in Switzerland since April 2012 and is awaiting trial there on charges related to alleged corruption, fraud and money-laundering in North African countries, including Libya.

The Canadian government is still trying to extradite Porter from the Bahamas, where he runs a medical clinic and is apparently cancer-stricken.

Porter was both director general of the McGill University Hospital Centre and the chair of the Security Intelligence Review Committee when the alleged fraud occurred.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed Porter — a medical doctor and cancer specialist — to SIRC in September 2008. He quickly rose to the position of chairman before resigning in November 2011 after reports surfaced about his past business dealings.

Porter has also come under fire for his political donations. Public records show he gave the federal Conservatives $2,200 while at SIRC against Privy Council Office guidelines.

He is the only former SIRC chair to give money to a political party in recent years. Other former SIRC members say they were pointedly told not to donate.

The federal Conservatives insist the fraud allegations have nothing to do with Porter’s role at SIRC.

Porter was recently replaced as head of a major medical project in the Antigua and Barbuda over concerns about his health and the fraud allegations he faces in Canada.

Porter, who denies any wrongdoing, has not returned messages left at his clinic in the Bahamas.

Louise Marchand, head of Quebec language watchdog, resigns in wake of ‘Pastagate’

By The Canadian Press - Friday, March 8, 2013 at 6:26 PM - 0 Comments

MONTREAL – The head of Quebec’s language watchdog agency resigned Friday following a series of controversies that have created embarrassing headlines at home and abroad.

The departure of Louise Marchand, president of the Office Quebecois de la langue francaise, was announced by the provincial minister responsible for the agency.

Her exit followed a series of news stories that drew considerable ridicule upon the agency — not only in Quebec, and the rest of Canada, but also internationally.

The first such story was about how an Italian restaurant was forced to remove the word “pasta” from its menu, which triggered a flurry of reports in subsequent days about similar experiences at other businesses.

Continue…

Fate of new Quebec language law unclear with one party opposing key elements

By The Canadian Press - Friday, March 8, 2013 at 10:46 AM - 0 Comments

QUEBEC – Quebec’s bid to beef up the province’s language law appears on shaky ground with one opposition party saying it will reject key elements of the legislation.

The leader of the Coalition for Quebec’s Future says he opposes plans to make French the mandatory language in the workplace for companies with between 25 and 49 employees.

Francois Legault told a news conference in Quebec City this morning it is important to strike a balance between promoting French and respecting the rights of Anglophones.

The Coalition has 19 seats in the 125-member national assembly and effectively holds the balance of power.

The governing Parti Quebecois has 54 seats and the Liberals, who have said they will vote against the language legislation, have 50. The two others are held by the left-wing sovereigntist Quebec solidaire.

The PQ made protecting French a key issue during last year’s election campaign, saying the language was threatened, particularly in Montreal and western Quebec.

Quebec Students rekindle protest against tuition increases, 50 arrested

By The Canadian Press - Wednesday, March 6, 2013 at 7:51 AM - 0 Comments

MONTREAL – People who thought they’d seen the last of the nighttime protests in Montreal streets against tuition fee increases heard the familiar drone of police helicopters over the city core Tuesday night as the noctural gnashing of teeth by students over the cost of their education was renewed, boiling over into a battle with police.

Montreal’s first nighttime tuition-fee protest in several months was almost a mirror image of the demonstrations that filled the city’s streets last year. The biggest change was that protesters were chanting against Premier Pauline Marois instead of Jean Charest, who also tried to jack up tuition when he was premier.

And like some of last year’s marches, Tuesday night’s protest ended with the crash of breaking plate glass splitting the night, the scream of police sirens and the clatter of batons against riot shields as police charged the thousands of demonstrators. Continue…

Man dubbed ‘Mr. Three Per Cent’ has doubts about fair jury trial

By The Canadian Press - Monday, March 4, 2013 at 2:19 PM - 0 Comments

MONTREAL – Quebec’s corruption inquiry is being accused of ruining the reputation of a former municipal party fundraiser and his chances of finding an impartial jury.

The lawyer for a man famously dubbed “Mr. Three Per Cent” at Quebec’s corruption inquiry says the commission is playing fast-and-loose with his client’s reputation.

Daniel Rock, the lawyer for Union Montreal fundraiser Bernard Trepanier, says his client will have trouble finding an impartial jury to hear his criminal case.

Trepanier is facing charges of fraud, corruption, breach of trust and conspiracy stemming from a land deal in east-end Montreal.

He has also been a central figure in recent testimony before Quebec’s Charbonneau commission.

Rock says the frequent mention of his client’s name at the high-profile inquiry hasn’t helped Trepanier in his criminal case.

The lawyer made the comments outside a courtroom Monday during a hearing in the criminal proceedings. Trepanier and the other co-accused were not present.

“We have taken steps, we have written letters and asked them (the commission) to be prudent and as far as we can tell, the commission is not concerned (with) the rights of these people,” Rock said.

“They publish his name, they go arrogantly with witnesses and it looks bad for everybody and they didn’t have their trial yet.”

Inquiry spokesman Richard Bourdon said the commission had no comment on Rock’s allegations.

Rock mused that he’ll ask for the charges to be dropped if the case winds up before a jury.

The Crown wouldn’t comment on the fact many of the co-accused in the case, including Trepanier, are expected to testify before the inquiry soon.

Trepanier’s co-accused include Frank Zampino, an elected official and former head of the city’s executive committee, and construction magnate Paolo Catania.

All of their names have figured prominently during the Charbonneau Commission hearings, while details of the land deal have been discussed.

The Crown says a preferred indictment was filed in the case, which means it will go straight to trial.

Crown prosecutor Marie-Helene Giroux cautioned that a trial is still probably a year away.

“Not in 2013, in 2014 probably,” Giroux said. “It’s going to be (a trial of) several weeks.”

Trepanier is currently in Florida. The judge put the case off until March 20 and ordered the accused to be present on that date.

— With files from Pierre St-Arnaud

PQ should use public funds to promote independence: Parizeau

By The Canadian Press - Saturday, March 2, 2013 at 5:11 PM - 0 Comments

MONTREAL – Former Parti Quebecois premier Jacques Parizeau is taking aim at the current party leadership, saying it should do more to promote sovereignty.

Parizeau, an influential figure who nearly led Quebec to independence in 1995, says the PQ government shouldn’t shy away from using public funds to work toward independence.

The PQ recently denied charges from the opposition that it was using bureaucrats to develop a strategy to achieve sovereignty.

Parizeau made the comments at a Saturday meeting for the fledgling, pro-independence party Option nationale.

Continue…

Diehard sovereignists turn their backs on the Parti Québécois

By Martin Patriquin - Friday, March 1, 2013 at 7:00 AM - 0 Comments

Paul Chiasson/CP

Jean-Martin Aussant is everything the Parti Québécois wants in its politicians. He is a rare breed of devout sovereignist who, as an economist who has worked for the likes of Morgan Stanley in the U.K. and PSP Investments in Canada, can make both the economic and heartstrings case for Quebec divorcing from the rest of the country. A prolific and adept public speaker, his rallies often begin with the (usually young) crowds chanting his name.

Alas for the PQ, Aussant left the Parti Québécois caucus in 2011 to sit as an independent. The reason, as the fashionably scruffy and necktie-averse 42-year-old says, is because the PQ simply is no longer sovereignist enough. “The PQ has become calculating, manipulating and electorialist, with a total lack of vision,” he says. “It made the political calculation that they can’t win by talking about sovereignty. So they don’t.”

So Aussant formed his own party—and, in the process, kicked off a spat of infighting that threatens to further divide Quebec’s already shaky sovereignist vote. Option nationale came to being in October 2011, and though Aussant lost his seat in the provincial election 13 months later, the party’s focus on the promotion of sovereignty gained the support of former Péquiste premier Jacques Parizeau and his wife, former PQ MNA Lisette Lapointe.

Continue…

Claude Patry goes to the Bloc

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, February 28, 2013 at 11:07 AM - 0 Comments

NDP MP Claude Patry has decided to join the Bloc Quebecois. Here is the Bloc Quebecois news release (only available in French).

Claude Patry joint le caucus du Bloc Québécois

« Le Bloc Québécois est le seul parti qui respecte la nation québécoise » – Claude Patry

Ottawa, le jeudi 28 février 2013 – « Depuis le début du débat sur l’abrogation de la loi sur la clarté, j’ai été secoué par la réaction des députés fédéralistes en cette Chambre. Cela m’a amené à amorcer une réflexion. J’ai consulté mes proches, et j’en suis venu à la conclusion que la reconnaissance de la nation québécoise est incompatible avec le maintien d’une loi qui impose des conditions au Québec. Or, la proposition du NPD, tout comme l’actuelle loi sur la clarté, va à l’encontre de ce principe fondamental. C’est pourquoi j’annonce aujourd’hui que j’ai décidé de me joindre au Bloc Québécois » a déclaré le député de Jonquière-Alma, Claude Patry.

« J’ai voté pour la souveraineté du Québec lors des deux derniers référendums, j’ai espéré que le Québec devienne un pays et je l’espère encore. Cependant, comme beaucoup de Québécoises et de Québécois en 2011, j’ai cru que le NPD agirait différemment des libéraux et des conservateurs et qu’il reconnaitrait véritablement les aspirations de la nation québécoise. Les récentes prises de positions du NPD sur la loi sur la clarté et le projet de Churchill Falls démontrent de façon non équivoque que ce parti privilégie les intérêts du Canada au détriment de ceux de la nation québécoise », a ajouté le député de Jonquière-Alma.

Pour sa part, le chef du Bloc Québécois, Daniel Paillé, estime que la venue de Claude Patry au sein de son caucus, marque une étape importante vers son objectif de 2015. « Aujourd’hui, je suis heureux d’accueillir au sein de notre caucus Claude Patry, un homme qui a à cœur les intérêts des gens de sa région et du Québec. Depuis sa création, le Bloc Québécois s’est donné comme mandat principal de veiller au respect des intérêts supérieurs de la nation québécoise. Toutes celles et ceux qui ont à cœur ce principe, sont les bienvenus en sein de notre parti », a conclu Daniel Paillé, chef du Bloc Québécois.

Mr. Patry represented Jonquière-Alma, where the Bloc candidate finished a distant third in 2011. Before Mr. Patry, the riding had been represented by Conservative MP Jean-Pierre Blackburn—the riding was last won by the Bloc in 2004.

Mr. Patry is the third NDP MP to change allegiance since the 2011 election after Lise St. Denis switched to the Liberal side a year ago and Bruce Hyer decided to become an independent.

Here is Parliament’s list of MPs who have crossed the floor (willingly or otherwise).

Update 12:36pm. In speaking with reporters just now, Thomas Mulcair noted that, just three weeks ago a year and three weeks ago, Mr. Patry voted in favour of an NDP MP’s private member’s bill that would have required that any MP who wished to switch parties would first have to step down and run in a by-election. (The bill was defeated.) Mr. Mulcair thinks Mr. Patry should thus do so and he guarantees that the NDP would win that by-election.

Unrest of the Maple Spring is ‘behind us’: Pauline Marois

By The Canadian Press - Tuesday, February 26, 2013 at 1:34 PM - 0 Comments

MONTREAL – Quebec Premier Pauline Marois is declaring that unrest in her province related to student protests is over, one year and one week after it began.

Marois says the debate over tuition-fee hikes that saw protests sweep Quebec is “now behind us.”

Speaking at an education summit in Montreal, the newly elected premier conceded that her small tuition hikes won’t please everyone — neither the more militant protesters, nor the more cash-hungry university administrators.

But she is expressing hope that she’s managed to bring some social peace to the province. Continue…

Parti Quebecois government announces its plans for university tuition increases

By Andy Blatchford and Martin Ouellet, The Canadian Press - Monday, February 25, 2013 at 8:07 PM - 0 Comments

MONTREAL – Quebec students who staged a memorable series of protests last spring could see their efforts result in a roughly 80 per cent discount on planned tuition hikes.

The Parti Quebecois government has tabled its plan for tuition increases, a long-awaited development in a political dispute that rocked Quebec last year and was dubbed by students as the Maple Spring.

The plan involves indexing university tuition by three per cent a year — which amounts to about $70 annually. That is sharply lower than the $325 yearly hikes sought by the previous Liberal government, which then adjusted the proposed increases to $254 per year, over seven years.

The planned hikes prompted huge and often rowdy protests, with the PQ siding with the student protesters ahead of last suumer’s election campaign.

Premier Pauline Marois then cancelled the Liberal tuition increases after taking power.

The PQ made the indexation announcement on Monday on the first day of a long-awaited education summit in Montreal.

“This amount seems reasonable,” said a document tabled by the Higher Education Department.

Whie the PQ’s annually indexed hikes would be far smaller than the former government’s proposal, some student federations strongly oppose such a measure.

The Marois government had already indicated its preference for indexing tuition increases at a rate somewhere between about $45 and $80 per year, per student, depending on the formula used.

Martine Desjardins, leader of Quebec’s largest student federation, said last week it was too early to know whether her members would be prepared to strike over indexation increases imposed by the PQ.

It was clear from the heavy security at the summit Monday that memories of the sometimes-violent 2012 student protests were fresh on the minds of authorities.

Steel crowd-control barriers, a gauntlet of security checkpoints and bag searches greeted participants at the Montreal building housing the event.

A late-afternoon demonstration that attracted a few hundred participants was broken up by police about two hours after it began. Two people were arrested for undisclosed reasons.

Inside the venue, the discussions were courteous.

School administrators, politicians, student leaders and social groups outlined their visions for Quebec’s post-secondary education system, talks that explored topics such as university funding and financial aid for students.

Outside the building, police officers circled the neighbourhood on bicycle, sat in vans packed with riot gear and discreetly kept watch over the area from the shadows of residential doorways.

The streets around the hall were quiet early in the day, except for some 20 professors protesting tuition hikes. A small group of demonstrators — some of them were wearing masks — gathered near the building for a short time before leaving.

It was in stark contrast to the months of Quebecers marching in the streets last year.

Marois navigated the treacherous political issue during the recent election with a promise to create a new tuition policy after holding an education summit.

But some student groups were disappointed and decided to boycott the summit because they believed the new government was tuning out some of their ideas.

One of those federations, the more-radical ASSE, wants free tuition and is planning a protest to coincide with the conclusion of Tuesday’s summit, even though its support appears to have weakened since 2012.

Trouble unfolded far from the summit site.

Hours before the start of the conference, vandals splashed the doors and windows of the Montreal offices of Quebec’s Education Department with red paint.

The Montreal-area offices of other prominent PQ members were also targeted Monday, including those of Higher Education Minister Pierre Duchesne, International Relations Minister Jean-Francois Lisee and Leo Bureau-Blouin, who was a key student leader during last year’s crisis.

The PQ courted Bureau-Blouin before the election, and at 20 years old he became Quebec’s youngest-ever MNA.

“Of course, it’s not good news, but I’m really focusing on the public policies that we’re discussing right now,” Bureau-Blouin said inside the summit venue.

“I think that this is not representative of the climate that we have here. It’s really a calm climate, people are discussing positively.”

Bureau-Blouin said the tight security around the summit was likely due to a combination of concerns about student protesters and Marois’ safety.

The premier was delivering her election-night victory speech in September when, only metres away, two people were shot — one fatally — by a gunman.

“Since what happened in the last months, I know that the security has been reinforced around Mme Marois and the different ministers,” he said.

“But again this should not dismiss the fact that we have some really great public policies that we are analyzing and how we can have a better structure for our universities.”

Bureau-Blouin, who led a more moderate student federation last year, said he took to the streets for the right to be heard by the government.

He thinks groups like ASSE should be at the table as well.

“It’s really a collaborative way of solving problems, but it’s their right to protest and it’s part of democracy,” he said.

In her opening speech Monday, Marois acknowledged she didn’t expect the summit to solve all the differences over higher education.

She called on participants to maintain a constant, permanent dialogue on the issue, even after the event ends.

“This exercise does not aim to resolve everything in a few hours,” Marois said.

“We will continue to work together Wednesday morning. The summit is an occasion to re-establish the dialogue, to rebuild bridges, to re-weave the links between us.”

Many areas of concern are being discussed at the summit.

Student groups participating in the event are calling on the government to improve financial aid for students.

University administrators, meanwhile, say they need more funding to maintain the quality of higher education after the government cut their budgets in December by $125 million in 2012-13 and again in 2013-14.

The Marois government introduced several other ideas Monday, including the creation of a council for universities that would consult the Higher Education Department on teaching and research.

Political opponents, however, said Monday they hope the summit turns out to be more than a government PR stunt.

Interim Liberal leader Jean-Marc Fournier said he didn’t know where the Marois government was going to find the money to maintain the province’s universities, after the PQ cancelled his party’s proposed tuition increases.

“The reality is we need to have quality in our system,” Fournier said. “For that, we need to have money in the system.”

He said Quebec students pay about 12 cents out of every dollar in the university system.

“Already the taxpayer is paying a lot,” he said.

“Does he have to pay everything? I think it must be something (where) there’s equity.”

Quebec, Canada’s most-indebted province, has the lowest university tuition in the country.

Even though the Liberals’ proposed hike would still have left Quebec with some of the lowest tuition in Canada, many students insisted they opposed the increase out of fear it would further limit access to higher education.

- with files from Peter Rakobowchuk

Education summit in Montreal begins quietly; and under heavy security

By Andy Blatchford, The Canadian Press - Monday, February 25, 2013 at 4:22 PM - 0 Comments

MONTREAL – Quebec’s long-awaited education summit kicked off under heavy security Monday, a year after a student crisis rattled the province.

Steel crowd-control barriers, a gauntlet of security checkpoints and bag searches greeted participants at the Montreal building housing the two-day event.

Inside the venue, the discussions were courteous. School administrators, politicians, student leaders and social groups outlined their visions for Quebec’s post-secondary education system, talks that explored topics such as university funding and financial aid for students.

Outside the building, police officers circled the neighbourhood on bicycle, sat in vans packed with riot gear and discretely kept watch over the area from the shadows of residential doorways.

The streets around the hall were quiet, however, except for a small group of professors protesting tuition-fee hikes Monday.

It was in stark contrast to the months of massive, nightly protests that consumed Montreal last year in a student crisis sparked by the former Liberal government’s plans to hike tuition fees. The student movement dubbed itself the Maple Spring.

The Parti Quebecois government, which won power in September, cancelled the Liberal tuition increases. PQ Premier Pauline Marois navigated the treacherous political issue during the election with a promise to create a new tuition policy after holding an education summit.

But some student groups are disappointed. They feel the new government is tuning out some of their ideas and, as a result, they are boycotting the summit.

One of those federations, the more-radical ASSE, is planning a protest to coincide with the conclusion of Tuesday’s summit, even though its support appears to have weakened since 2012.

The scene at the venue Monday was peaceful. The only trouble that unfolded was nowhere near the area.

Hours before the start of the summit, vandals splashed the doors and windows of the Montreal offices of Quebec’s Education Department with red paint.

The Montreal-area offices of other prominent PQ members were also vandalized Monday, including those of Higher Education Minister Pierre Duchesne, International Relations Minister Jean-Francois Lisee and Leo Bureau-Blouin, who was a key student leader during last year’s crisis.

The PQ courted Bureau-Blouin before the election, and at 20 years old he became Quebec’s youngest-ever MNA.

“Of course, it’s not good news, but I’m really focusing on the public policies that we’re discussing right now,” Bureau-Blouin said inside the summit venue.

“I think that this is not representative of the climate that we have here, it’s really a calm climate, people are discussing positively.”

Bureau-Blouin said the tight security around the summit was likely due to a combination of concerns about student protesters and Marois’ safety.

The premier was delivering her election-night victory speech in September when, only metres away, two people were shot — one fatally — by a gunman.

“Since what happened in the last months, I know that the security has been reinforced around Mme. Marois and the different ministers,” he said.

“But again this should not dismiss the fact that we have some really great public policies that we are analyzing and how we can have a better structure for our universities.”

Bureau-Blouin, who led a more moderate student federation last year, said he took to the streets for the right to be heard by the government.

He thinks groups like ASSE should be at the table as well.

“It’s really a collaborative way of solving problems, but it’s their right to protest and it’s part of democracy,” he said.

The controversial subject at the heart of the 2012 unrest — tuition-fee increases — was to be discussed at the summit later Monday.

The Marois government wants to index tuition fees to inflation, while some student groups are calling for an absolute freeze. The more militant federations, like ASSE, are demanding free tuition, which the government has refused to discuss at the summit.

In her opening speech Monday, Marois acknowledged she didn’t expect the summit to solve all the differences over higher education.

She called on participants to maintain a constant, permanent dialogue on the issue, even after the event ends.

“This exercise does not aim to resolve everything in a few hours,” Marois said.

“We will continue to work together Wednesday morning. The summit is an occasion to re-establish the dialogue, to rebuild bridges, to re-weave the links between us.”

Many areas of concern are being discussed at the summit.

Student groups participating in the event are calling on the government to improve financial aid for students.

University administrators, meanwhile, are hoping for more funding after the government cut their budgets in December.

The Marois government introduced several propositions at the start of the summit, including the creation of a council for universities that would consult the Higher Education Department on teaching and research.

Political opponents, however, said Monday that they hope the summit turns out to be more than a government PR stunt.

Interim Liberal leader Jean-Marc Fournier said he didn’t know where the Marois government was going to find the money to maintain the province’s universities, after the PQ cancelled his party’s proposed tuition increases.

“The reality is we need to have quality in our system,” Fournier said. “For that, we need to have money in the system.”

He said Quebec students pay about 12 cents out of every dollar in the university system.

“Already the taxpayer is paying a lot,” he said.

“Does he have to pay everything? I think it must be something (where) there’s equity.”

Quebec, Canada’s most-indebted province, has the lowest university tuition in the country.

The Maple Spring was ignited by opposition to the Liberal government’s proposal to boost tuition rates by $325 per year, over five years. The government later adjusted the planned increases to $254 per year, over seven years.

Even though the hike would still have left Quebec with some of the lowest tuition in Canada, many students insisted they opposed the increase out of fear it would further limit access to higher education.

- with files from Peter Rakobowchuk

Quebec education summit kicks off with tuition rates front and centre

By The Canadian Press - Monday, February 25, 2013 at 5:13 AM - 0 Comments

MONTREAL – Quebec’s long-awaited education summit is set to kick off today, a year after a dispute over proposed tuition hikes led to a months-long protest movement.

The Parti Quebecois government, which cancelled the tuition increases when it took power in September, wants to tie increases to inflation.

But the province’s largest student federation is pushing for an absolute freeze on tuition levels.

Other student groups have decided to boycott the two-day summit because they feel it’s nothing more than a government PR stunt.

They are planning a protest outside the meetings on Tuesday.

Universities, meanwhile, are hoping for more funding after budgets were slashed in December.

Stop calling me ‘Mr. Sidewalk’: construction boss denies his notorious nickname

By The Canadian Press - Friday, February 22, 2013 at 4:57 AM - 0 Comments

MONTREAL – A former construction boss dubbed “Mr. Sidewalk” at Quebec’s corruption inquiry has concluded his testimony by denying almost everything said about him at the commission — including how he got his unique nickname.

Nicolo Milioto, a 64-year-old former construction boss, had been described by earlier witnesses as a middleman who helped exchange cash between the Mafia, local political parties and the construction world.

He concluded his fourth and final day on the witness stand with a steady stream of denials. He became particularly livid when he addressed, without any prompting, the testimony of a previous witness who claimed Milioto referred to himself as “Mr. Sidewalk.”

Milioto was being questioned about an aspect of Martin Dumont’s earlier testimony when he vehemently denied ever meeting with Dumont, a former municipal and federal official who worked for Montreal’s mayor.

In that testimony last fall, Dumont claimed that the elder gentleman threatened to bury him in concrete and that when he struggled to pronounce his family name Milioto bluntly replied: “You can call me Mr. Sidewalk.”

Continue…

Thomas Mulcair and pipeline politics

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, February 21, 2013 at 1:54 PM - 0 Comments

While in Calgary this week, Thomas Mulcair restated his objections to the Northern Gateway pipeline.

When asked to clarify his position regarding the Northern Gateway pipeline project, Mulcair launched. “I am adamantly opposed to Northern Gateway. Is there anything unclear in what I just said?” he asked. And he went on. “It is madness to think of bringing those supertankers into that pristine coast. It is a non-starter. It is the most abject misunderstanding of the importance of protecting the environment I have ever seen in Canada. The company that continues to propose that is the same company that was described by the highest level of the U.S. administration as the, quote, Keystone Kops.”

… The irony in all this is that Enbridge was one of the luncheon sponsors – and Mulcair was seated to the right of one of its government relations execs.

At last report, 75% of Albertans were in favour of the Northern Gateway pipeline (but only 35% of British Columbians felt likewise).

Mr. Mulcair does support sending oil east from Alberta, but one such proposal, from Enbridge, is a source of concern for environmentalists.

Montreal city hall locked down; 15 raids conducted; mayor questioned

By The Canadian Press - Wednesday, February 20, 2013 at 5:55 AM - 0 Comments

MONTREAL – Montreal’s city hall was locked down while being swept by police Tuesday in one of numerous raids conducted across the city that had even the newly installed mayor being questioned.

The province’s anti-corruption squad said it was carrying out nine raids at the seat of the municipal government, in Old Montreal, and six other ones in different borough offices.

A news report said the new mayor, Michael Applebaum, and the man he recently replaced, Gerald Tremblay, were both among 25 people questioned by police. Spokespeople at the police squad and city hall did not confirm, or deny, that report.

Applebaum added some details later, at a 9:15 p.m. news scrum outside city hall. He confirmed meeting with police but said he was not a target of the probe — only a participant.

“I’m not under investigation,” Applebaum said.

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English rights activists worried about new Quebec language law

By The Canadian Press - Sunday, February 17, 2013 at 7:43 PM - 0 Comments

MONTREAL – English-rights activists in Quebec are raising concerns about a proposed new language law they say infringes on their rights.

The new law is intended to build on Quebec’s landmark language legislation, Bill 101, to strengthen French language in the province.

But protesters, who gathered outside Premier Pauline Marois’ office on Sunday, say they feel under attack by the Parti Quebecois government. The group is worried about new rules designed to encourage French in small businesses, municipalities and post-secondary education.

Many waved Canadian flags and wore toques featuring the Maple Leaf as they stood on a frigid downtown street corner. As the demonstration wound down, the protesters broke into a rendition of O Canada.

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Clarity, and How To Get It

By Colby Cosh - Thursday, February 14, 2013 at 1:47 AM - 0 Comments

I have a joke I’ve been cracking about the controversy over the Clarity Act. “It’s simple! I’m with the New Democrats: fifty percent plus one is totally fine as a standard. But I also say this: let’s make it a contest of three out of five falls. And, remember, the federalists are already up two-zip.”

It’s not a very funny joke. But the more I think about it, the more I think it’s a good joke in at least the sense of having a kernel of truth within it. The expectation for a “clear majority” on a vote authorizing secession negotiations is usually presented by federalists as a sort of mystical axiom. Even in the Supreme Court reference on the subject the idea is not really broken down logically, perhaps because it won’t do to point out that the popular will is a very slippery abstraction, an awful shuddery foundation for any notion predicated on it.

Awkwardly, these notions include, in our system of government, elections and referendums. A government seeking a democratic mandate “goes to the country” and “consults” the populace, whose conflicting interests, goals, and ambitions are smooshed together by various clumsy formulae to produce the appearance of a single consensus. Democracy cannot bear too much purely deductive analysis, though its empirical underpinnings are mighty.

One notices that our metaphors for democratic testing, our ways of choosing between candidates or policy ideas, are competitive. Did Yes “beat” No? A mathematician might say there is a strong isomorphism, an analogy of form, between democracy and sport. There is certainly an obvious analogy between a referendum and, say, a hockey game; and when we place particular emphasis on finding out whether one hockey team is better than another, we don’t usually allow the matter to be settled with a single game, in one team’s building, at a time chosen by the home team, with rules selected and enforced exclusively by the home team. It’s a question of removing signal from noise, of excluding transitory or illegitimate influence from the competition.

Those who support national unity are keen to prevent Quebec separatists from pulling off a swindle of the sort they came close to in 1995: choosing a fleeting moment of advantageous sentiment to accomplish the permanent destruction of the Canadian state, which most Quebeckers have, through many generations, supported most of the time. But the extreme opinions on neither side are tenable. Strong unitarians embed assumptions in their language to “demonstrate” that Canada is sacred and indivisible, pretending that a historical conquest somehow has the irresistible logical force of Euclidean geometry. (Which even Euclidean geometry didn’t turn out to have.) At the same time, as Colleague Wells has pointed out, Quebec would practically need much more than a one-vote margin in one referendum to earn the necessary global assent to its independence project. It would need a majority that was “clear” in the sense, not necessarily of meeting a particular arbitrary bright-line standard, but of being able to endure a difficult political struggle—i.e., a “negotiation phase” in which an appeal to force was always possible—and to still appear irreversible and convincing at the end of it. If such a situation existed, there can be no question that to permit secession would be right.

So why not a “three out of five falls” rule? The applicability of the sports metaphor is quite real: ascertaining which hockey team is essentially “better” under never-existing neutral conditions is very much like extracting a “popular will” from an opinion sample of a population. Recognize, I say, the reality that fifty percent plus one is a “majority”; sidestep the fundamentally irresolvable arguments between three-fifths and two-thirds and three-quarters as a standard. But require that 50%+1 be achieved several times over a period of years, with a slightly different electorate being consulted each time. Even the voter-eligibility criteria can vary; the case for giving minor children a vote on a question of permanent future import is, after all, particularly sound. Let the government of Quebec frame the question in one vote and Parliament do it in another. Count noses in one and ridings in another. If the moral conditions for secession exist, it should not be hard to extract not just a “Oui” from Quebec, but a resounding “Oui, oui, oui” that would convince English Canada as Slovakia convinced the Czechs.

Quebec government, student groups jostle over tuition rates in lead-up to summit

By The Canadian Press - Sunday, February 10, 2013 at 7:37 PM - 0 Comments

DRUMMONDVILLE, Que. – Quebec student groups didn’t get along well with the province’s Liberal government — and now things don’t seem too rosy with the ruling Parti Quebecois.

The two sides appear to be at odds over tuition rates in the lead-up to a summit on post-secondary education.

PQ Premier Pauline Marois says she wants to reduce the student debt load, but won’t rule out a tuition increase tied to inflation.

But many student groups are pushing for a freeze on tuition rates.

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Quebec becomes latest province to ban teens from using tanning beds

By The Canadian Press - Sunday, February 10, 2013 at 3:19 PM - 0 Comments

MONTREAL – Quebec is set to become the latest province to ban the use of tanning beds for people under the age of 18.

The legislation, designed to protect young people from skin cancer, takes effect Monday.

Research by the International Agency for Research on Cancer shows that using indoor tanning equipment before age 35 significantly increases the risk of developing melanoma skin cancer.

British Columbia and Ontario are planning similar legislation, while Manitoba requires written parental consent before people under 18 can use a tanning bed.

Nova Scotia already bans people under 19 from using tanning beds.

France, Germany and Australia have also banned young people from using tanning beds.

Falling hockey net kills nine-year-old boy at outdoor rink

By The Canadian Press - Sunday, February 10, 2013 at 3:18 PM - 0 Comments

SAINT-SEVERIN, Que. – A nine-year-old boy is dead after an accident at an outdoor rink in small municipality northeast of Montreal.

Quebec provincial police say the boy was playing hockey alone at around 9 a.m. Saturday morning when a hockey net fell on top of him.

Two municipal workers in Saint-Severin, Que. found the boy lying on the ice, underneath the net, according to police spokesman Daniel Thibaudeau.

“They tried to help him but it was already too late,” Thibaudeau said.

The boy was taken to a nearby hospital where his death was confirmed. Thibaudeau said police don’t consider the incident a criminal matter.

Saint-Severin is about 200 kilometres from Montreal.