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ALLMAND, The Hon. William Warren, P.C., O.C., Q.C., B.C.L., LL.D
Years of Service: 11429 Days (31 years, 3 months, 15 days
2009
Saturday 11 April 2009
Warren Allmand won’t be running in November elections
Article online since April 7th 2009
Warren Allmand, councillor for Loyola at the CDN-NDG borough, has just announced that he will not be running in the upcoming municipal elections, taking place in November. Warren Allmand is a former Canadian Liberal Party Member of Parliament and was a Cabinet member from 1972 to 1979. In...
by Toula Foscolos
2008
Wednesday 28 May 2008 Allmand's unpopular stance popular in NDG
Dear Toula,
Congratulations, once again. You're right on the money in today's editorial "Place the onus on perpetrators and not the victims" (The Monitor, May 21) about Warren Allmand's position of principle. It takes a great man to take and fight for an unpopular stance and we are so very proud to have Mr. Allmand as an NDG'er.
Kudos!
Alana Ronald
Bumpy ride for Parliament Hill veteranWarren Allmand is gamely taking on the challenges - and frustrations - involved in moving from federal politics to city hallHUBERT BAUCH,
The GazettePublished: 9 hours agoIt might seem that Warren Allmand's career path has run backward. For most of the 1970s, he was a cabinet minister in Pierre Trudeau's federal government. For all of the '80s and most of the '90s, he was a backbencher in the House of Commons. He returned to public office this decade as a Montreal city councillor. But for Allmand, 75, this lower station is by no means a comedown after nine terms as an MP in Ottawa. He finds himself playing in a different league, but not necessarily a lesser league. "There's some pretty sharp political people here," he said. "Like all places, there's some pretty bad ones, but then we had some pretty bad ones in Ottawa. You can't say there's a higher level of political smarts there than here." He says he was roped, as much as anything, into running for council in 2005. He'd been asked to help draft the city's new civic Charter of Rights and Responsibilities and was pressed by the mayor's party to run for council in Notre Dame de Grâce's Loyola district, part of his former federal riding. The urging came with the suggestion that a council seat would give him a hand in seeing the charter implemented. "I wasn't too crazy about it at first," he said. "But I finally came around to thinking that there's some interesting work to be done there. I thought it was another way of using my experience." Much of the work, as it turned out, has involved dealing with the staple complaints of civic constituents. "It's about the neighbour putting out his garbage all over the street, or the snow wasn't cleared on my side of the street when they did the other, or that we asked to have this tree trimmed three years ago and it still isn't done, and if it falls down and kills someone you'll be to blame." That's fine with Allmand. He knew better than some when he took the job that this kind of thing comes with the territory. As an MP, he had to deal with complaints about matters in federal jurisdiction: unemployment insurance, veterans' pensions, mail delivery and constituents' problems with the customs service - things, as he put it, "like the case of beer someone forgot they had in their trunk at a border checkpoint." Allmand said he's always happy to go to bat for citizens on such matters. What he finds less interesting is the minutiae that city council has to deal with, such as approving routine equipment purchases or letting relatively minor contracts. In Ottawa, such things are handled by civil service. "You don't spend your time in Parliament on whether you're going to give a contract for this or that, or hiring three guys in this or that department. But that's the setup here." More bothersome is the greater difficulty in serving his public as a councillor than as an MP, due to lack of support staff and a more arrogant and unaccountable municipal bureaucracy. As an MP, he had a staff of five to help deal with complaints. As a councillor, he has a secretary whom he shares with another councillor. "I've got a half- person staff," as he put it. "I'll go to the office in the morning to work on a file and the phone doesn't stop ringing and all sorts of new cases come in. I've got 186 active files at the moment, some that have dragged on for two years for reasons I can't fathom. It's hard to get the work done as fast as you want." One problem, he says, is the jurisdictional jumble of Montreal's civic structure. There are three levels of government: the borough, the city and the agglomeration councils. "There are many areas where it's hard to tell who has the jurisdiction. On some files I just get bounced back and forth." And then there's the local bureaucracy, whose culture has barely evolved from the Drapeau era when city councillors were regarded as merely the mayor's stooges. "Some of them are not as open to dealing with the elected officials as they are in Ottawa," he says as diplomatically as possible, considering that he has to deal with them. He further notes that in Ottawa, MPs can gang up to have laggard civil servants dragged before parliamentary committees to explain themselves in public, which is not the case locally, where too much of the city's business is conducted behind closed doors. Democracy is generally better served in Ottawa, he finds. Vital committee work, as on zoning, is done here in secret, for example. "That would never happen in Ottawa. It's a very rare occasion when a parliamentary committee goes into camera, but here it's standard practice." While the federal government is called to account in a daily question period most working days between September and the end of June, city council and borough councils meet once a month. Question period at city hall is a rigidly limited exercise in which administration councillors, such as Allmand, have no say. When he suggested at one point that council should follow the Ottawa example and allow government backbenchers to pose questions, he was turned down flat. "They were horrified. They said the place for that is in caucus, but caucus is held in private. My constituents want me to raise issues publicly. They want to know what I asked and what the answers were, and I think that's as it should be." He also complains of a chronic shortage of documentation at city hall. He voted against the proposed Griffintown development, not because he is opposed to the project but because the relevant documentation was dumped on the councillors in copious volume at the last minute, leaving him no time to study it properly. "They ask us to be responsible as councillors, but you can't be responsible if you just get up and vote without knowing what the hell you're voting for." Slavishly voting along the party line has not been Allmand's style. In federal politics, he courted banishment to the government backbenches by voting against the Trudeau constitutional patriation bill in 1982, because he found it discriminatory against Quebec anglos, and against the Chrétien government's '95 budget because of its massive health-care funding cuts. In that respect, Allmand finds city hall more accommodating. He voted against renaming Park Ave., and it didn't cost him his post as deputy council speaker; his vote against the '95 budget, by contrast, got him turfed as chairman of the Commons justice committee. "There's pressure, but not quite the same pressure, to vote the party line because the mayor and council are elected for four years, come what may. There can't be a vote of confidence. Losing a vote doesn't threaten the mayor's administration." He says there are days when he wishes he were back in Ottawa to speak out against what he sees as the Harper government's rolling back of aboriginal rights and misguided justice initiatives, such as new minimum sentencing laws that he says merely fill jails without reducing crime. But he's also happy in his new role, frustrating as it can be at times. "I've learned during my time in politics at any level that it takes patience to get things done. It takes time and commitment. You have to really work at it. Like anything else, there are good days and bad days." hbauch@thegazette.canwest.com
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008
Sunday 29 April 2007 Allmand meets with residents to discuss Fraser-Hickson
Though its doors officially closed on Feb. 28, the fight to save the Fraser-Hickson Library continued Friday afternoon as concerned citizens met with Loyola councillor Warren Allmand to discuss the issues around its closure and any options that could potentially reopen the library.
The informal meeting, held at borough city hall, was an opportunity for Allmand to, “speak without the time constraints of the borough council meetings.” The meeting was also an opportunity to dispel any rumours about why the library closed and what can be done to save it. Allmand is hopeful that can happen.
“Like you, I want not only what the Fraser-Hickson was before it closed, but want it better,” said Allmand optimistically.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006 Park Ave. supporters get their two cents in
... Image City councillor Warren Allmand wants the Park Ave. issue referred to
the city's heritage committee. DAVE SIDAWAY...
Park Ave. supporters get their two cents in
Many expect to lose monday's vote; More than 150 attend public hearing to oppose name change honouring late premier Bourassa Wednesday, November 22 2006
flickr
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2005
72-year-old rookie candidate walks unusual career path
MIKE BOONE The Gazette
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
If there were a Calder Trophy in municipal politics, a leading
rookie-of-the-year candidate would be a politician who ran in his first
election 40 years ago. Warren Allmand is back. At 72, the former Notre Dame de Grace member of Parliament is a candidate for Montreal city council. House
of Commons to city hall is an unusual career path. If Allmand's
political progression continues in this direction, he'll be running for
school board next. Allmand has not spent the last eight years in
a shopping mall, regaling fellow seniors with Eugene Whelan anecdotes.
In addition to playing hockey twice a week in an over-50 league -
"there was one player older than me," Allmand said, "but he retired" -
he has kept busy "morning till night" working on the boards of several
N.D.G. community organizations, including the Fraser Hickson Library
and the Queen Elizabeth Health Complex. "I enjoy helping people
unravel problems with bureaucracies," he said. "It's satisfying to
break through red tape and get something done." And because of
his post-Ottawa experience as director of the International Centre for
Human Rights and Democratic Development, Allmand was asked to help
draft a Montreal charter of rights. Working with Gerald Tremblay on the
project, Allmand says, he developed a good rapport with the mayor and
was receptive to becoming a Montreal Island Citizens Union candidate in
the Loyola district. We were chatting Saturday afternoon at the
New Hope Seniors Centre. The basement of Knox Crescent Kensington and
First Presbyterian Church was Allmand's last campaign stop. He
had started, two hours earlier, on Madison Ave. at the corner of
Monkland Ave. Allmand and entourage - his wife, Rose, and campaign
workers Cindy Hedrich and Jim McDermott - emerged from his Toyota
Corolla and began ringing doorbells Most voters recognized the
candidate, who was dressed casually in a bucket hat, windbreaker and
sturdy walking shoes. Having represented N.D.G. for 32 years until he
retired in 1997, Allmand enters municipal politics with a reputation
for integrity - and for winning. Allmand never lost a federal
election. His closest call was 1984. Defeating his friend Nick Auf der
Maur by 2,300 votes, Allmand was one of just 40 Liberal MPs who
survived the Brian Mulroney landslide. "Mr. Allmand, you helped
my mother-in-law stay in this country when there was a problem with her
papers," a voter gushed. "Wait, I'll get my wife. She'll be happy to
meet you." And so it went on Madison - including a stop at one
home where a birthday party was under way and residents insisted
Allmand join them for a glass of wine. At each door, the candidate said
he was running for council, told voters they could cast ballots in an
Oct. 30 advance poll, explained they'd be voting separately for mayor,
borough mayor and city council. Municipal politics, it's been
said, is where the rubber hits the road. And on Madison, voters seem
preoccupied by squealing tires. Several said their biggest issue was
the speed at which cars roar up the street. Allmand was
solicitor-general in Pierre Trudeau's cabinet. If elected next month,
he will have gone from abolishing capital punishment to installing stop
signs. mboone@thegazette.canwest.com
Municipal Elections
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2005
| new Columns By MIKE BOONE | |
2004
Athens October 2004 Experts Meeting
International Expert Participants
1965-97: Member of the Canadian parliament-7 years as a cabinet minister in the government of Pierre Trudeau serving as Solicitor General and Minister of indigenous affairs.
1997-2002: President of the International Centre for human rights and democratic development.
2002-2004: International human rights consultant and professor of international human rights at Mcgill university
2003-2004: President World Federalist Movement in Canada.
Wednesday Apr 13, 2005 gaz Allmand to run for mayor's party
The former Trudeau-era Liberal cabinet minister and human-rights advocate, who spent nine terms as an MP, announced yesterday he will seek a seat on Montreal city council with Mayor Gerald Tremblay's Montreal Island Citizens Union this fall
Allmand, 72, plans to run in Notre Dame de Grace in the Nov. 6 civic election. He'll run in Loyola ward in western N.D.G., the area he served as an MP from 1965 until 1997.
Oct 6, 2004
Warren Allmand at The 2nd World Congress Against the Death Penalty
held in Montreal on October 6-9, 2004. see wn on the Death Penalty
Saturday 27 February 1999 Is Allmand right for the job?
At 66, Warren Allmand, former MP and president of a federal human-rights group, has the enthusiasm, even the idealism, that are often associated with the young. But there are doubts.
20/Dec/2000 Faint hopes in Burma
Allmand is out of a job
Mandate ends after he repeatedly criticizes Liberal government actions
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| SUE MONTGOMERY |
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| Montreal Gazette |
Friday, June 07, 2002
He has publicly criticized the Canadian government for everything from its stand on the Middle East to its trade missions with human-rights abusers like China.
Now, Warren Allmand's appointment as head of the Montreal-based International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development has not been renewed.
Coincidence? Critics say no.
Ed Broadbent, former NDP leader and the centre's first president, says Allmand is a man of integrity and commitment and calls the move both very sad and a disgrace.
"At best, the government is callously indifferent, at worst, they haven't liked his outspoken positions ... but either way, the government should be severely criticized," Broadbent said in an interview from Ottawa.
Allmand, as well as the centre's board of directors, had asked for an 18-month extension to his term, which would have taken him to the end of next summer.
Instead, it ran out May 25, with not even a thank-you note from the Prime Minister's Office. At the last minute, it notified the board, which informed Allmand.
In the meantime, the chairman of the board , who lives in Calgary, will fill in until Ottawa appoints someone.
"I said I'd be prepared to stay on until they find someone, but they didn't want that," said Allmand, 69, a former Liberal cabinet minister.
PMO spokesman Duncan Fulton said the office couldn't discuss the reasons, but denied it was because of Allmand's criticisms.
Senator Raynell Andreychuk, chairman of the Senate Committee on Human Rights, said she was disappointed to hear Allmand was out. She agreed that he was always willing to take a stand, sometimes in areas where even non-governmental organizations clammed up.
"(The centre) reports to Parliament and surely that's one of its responsibilities," she said, adding she doesn't know why the mandate wasn't extended. "Surely he shouldn't be criticized for questioning what the government is doing."
But Allmand, who has been involved in organizing a counter summit to the G8 meeting in Kananaskis, Alta., this month, has his suspicions.
"I knew they weren't always happy, but I have no idea if this (outspokenness) is why," he said. "It's hard to know what's going on in the Prime Minister's Office these days."
However, Allmand said he knows the PMO was "ticked off" after he wrote a scathing letter to Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham in April.
In it, Allmand slams Canada for being the only country besides Guatemala to vote against UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson's visit to the Middle East to investigate reports of human-rights abuses in the region.
Allmand called Canada's position shameful.
In another letter to Graham, copied to the office of the U.S. ambassador to Canada, Allmand calls the U.S. government's involvement in the April 12 coup attempt in Venezuela "totally unacceptable."
At best, he wrote, the U.S. government knew about the plot and did nothing to prevent it; at worst, the U.S. actually supported the coup with military personnel.
Last August, he demanded an explanation from federal Solicitor-General Lawrence MacAulay for the "increasingly strong-arm policing tactics directed at peaceful demonstrators" which, he said, threaten free speech and assembly.
The centre, which was founded in 1988 by Brian Mulroney's Conservative government, is funded by Ottawa but is supposed to operate at arm's length from the government.
- Sue Montgomery's E-mail address is smontgomery@thegazette.southam.ca.
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Warren Allmand, C.P., O.C., C.R.
City Councillor
Loyola district
Warren Allmand is a resident of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. For 31 years, he was MP for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, serving as cabinet minister and Solicitor General of Canada. In 2004, he helped draft the Montreal Charter of Rights and Responsibilities. He taught international relations and was president of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development.
Mr. Allmand is very active in various community organizations: the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Community Council, the Queen Elizabeth Health Centre, the Fraser-Hickson Library, the Social Justice Committee and Portage.
A lawyer and officer of the Order of Canada, he attended Loyola College and McGill University.
wallmand@tremblayalamairie.com
The current President of the World Federalist Movement-Canada, the Hon. Warren Allmand was elected to Parliament in 1965, and served until 1997 representing the constituency of Notre-Dame-de-Grace as a member of the Liberal Party. He was Canadian Solicitor General, Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, and Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. During his years in Opposition, Mr. Allmand was the Critic for Employment, Official Languages, Arms Control and Disarmament, and Immigration.
But it is his passion for human rights that will likely be the issue for which he will be best remembered. In February 1997, after leaving Parliament, his passion took on an official role when he was named President of Rights and Democracy, an independent non-profit, Canadian organization, which defends and promotes the rights and freedoms enshrined in the International Bill of Human Rights, and encourages the development of democratic societies. Under Mr. Allmand’s leadership during his five-year tenure at Rights and Democracy, the organization became an ever more vocal proponent in the fight for human rights.
September 16, 1977 – June 3, 1979
Hon. William Warren Allmand (b. 1932)
Minister of Consumer and Corporate Affairs
Liberal M.P., Notre-Dame-de-Grace, Quebec
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