Greetings, Westmounters! Bonjour, Westmontois et Westmontoises! As we forge ahead with the city's 125th birthday celebrations, we're ready to face an exciting new challenge by joining the rest of the province for Fete Nationale festivities.
Westmounters have taken more than their fair share of ribbing over the years. This green and golden land, jewel in the MUC crown, last bastion of copper pipes and bathing caps, brave frontier of bike helmets and universal curbside recycling, has been the butt of much merriment and jealousy. And yet the town's hardy souls have persevered, with the stiff upper lip and pluck that come with prime real estate, a low tax rate and a five-minute commute.
We've come a long way, baby, even if Westmount anglos' French accents at times sound more like Chamonix than Chicoutimi. True, it was only a month ago that the library told francophone users it was closing for Dollard Day while anglos were celebrating the birthday of Victoria, who gave Westmount such perennials as gingerbread trim, parks named after dead royals and black cocktail dresses.
Get in the Swing
Our tireless organizing team has come up with scores of fun events sure to make our tribute to St. Jean Baptiste is a day to remember - even if you'd normally spend the holiday in one of Westmount's satellite communities - Knowlton, Tremblant, Mississauga.
To help residents get into the swing - and explain which end of the fleur-de-lis is up - Westmount has invited along a delegation from our sister city, Rimouski. Yet we're confident June 24 activities will have that distinctive, smoke-free, no-drinking-without-food, only-in-Westmount flavour.
- - No Fete Nationale would be complete without a parade. Local dog owners will lead their pets from dog run to dog run, finishing off with a picnic and doggy treats at Summit Park. To mark the occasion, pride of place will be given to poodles, bouviers, bichons and other canines of French extraction. Each participating pooch will be given a souvenir kerchief in royal blue. A reminder that pet owners must pick up after their dogs and no barking will be tolerated above the Boulevard.
- - Police from Station 24 will compete for honours in the Victoria Ave. speeding-ticket sweepstakes. Motorists can find out whether it is indeed possible to come down the hill under 30 kph without stalling.
- - Moliere in the Park will present The Imaginary Invalid, in which a fictional Westmounter tries to get a doctor's appointment, only to finds the physician has taken two-month holiday to avoid paying it all to taxes - by which time the patient is actually sick.
- - Visit the food tent for the best coffee, smelly cheese and croissants west of St. Denis St. Westmounters willing to let bygones be bygones can visit Dairy Queen and Dunkin' Donuts. For the adventurous, tiny poutine samples will be served on crumpets.
- - During happy hour, Richard Holden will explain the error of his ways.
Long-Guarded Secrets
- - A Quebec government workshop will teach Westmount geeks how to make their Web sites Beaudoin-friendly. In exchange, city officials will reveal long-guarded secrets: how to get the snow off the streets before it congeals; how to pick up garbage without colour-coded bags; and how to devise parking regulations so terrifying that no one would dream of defying them.
- - Pony rides, face-painting and petting zoo in Westmount Park. For convenience's sake, children are requested not to bring their own horses.
- - Free facials and mutual-fund seminars on Greene Ave.
- - Floral clock in front of Victoria Hall will be blue and white until July 1.
- - Guided tour of shops and businesses visited by language cops, as seen on 60 Minutes.
- - A former mayor will play herself in May, Non!, a bilingual musical comedy that recalls the legendary battle of Dorchester Blvd.
- - The first-ever Fete Nationale Lawn Bowling Championships.
News
by Josh Freed
Now that's a whopper!
A Lachine fisherman waded into the water of Lac St. Louis yesterday and
netted 100 pounds of plastic explosive.
Craig Morse, 41, visits the rocky point by the Lachine bike path every morning
to try his luck with bass and perch.
"I'd seen a lure in the same spot for a week, so I decided to go in and pull it
out," he said.
News
Pooch patrol shows teeth
Pierre-Philippe Paquette has been on the job only a week and already he has
fended off prostitutes, stepped over dirty syringes and endured threats to his
personal safety.
He now walks the green spaces of Montreal with the confidence of a seasoned patrolman who enforces city regulations in the face of rampant disobedience. He
is unmoved by the pleas and excuses of law-breakers. He knows the rules and
won't bend.
Dog-owners beware: there is a crackdown under way.
News
Ex-transit boss guilty of trust breach
Laval's former transit boss was found guilty yesterday of illegally using two
employees to install his living- room and basement floors while they were being
paid by the bus authority.
Despite being convicted of breach of trust, Richard Courey was acquitted of 64
other charges of fraud and using forged documents. The Crown had alleged that
the frauds cost the Laval Transit Corp. hundreds of thousands of dollars
between 1987 and 1990.
''Judicially, it was a victory," said Courey's lawyer Martin Vauclair. "But there's also the human aspect that Mr. Courey will have a criminal record."
News
Quebec to probe shelter contract
A provincial government auditor is investigating whether the Montreal regional
health board improperly granted a contract to operate a proposed youth shelter.
The operator was awarded a $250,000 contract by the health board although
public tenders were never issued for it.
After being questioned about the contract in the National Assembly by Liberal
MNA Jacques Dupuis, the minister responsible for youth protection, Gilles Baril, said yesterday morning he has asked an auditor to look into how the contract
was awarded.
News
Coping with diversity
Last week, The Gazette wrapped up a nine-day series examining the profound
transformations that have taken place among Quebec's anglophones in the past
25 years. Today we follow it up by looking at how those changes are affecting
English-language institutions.
It was a sensitive issue: how to stem a small but noticeable rise in the number of English-speaking teenagers of Filipino origin who'd run afoul of the law.
Front-line workers with Batshaw Youth and Family Centres had noticed the
problem in what is one of Montreal's fastest-growing anglophone communities, and pulled together a meeting of everyone concerned. Dozens of social and
youth workers, police officers and Filipino community leaders gathered last
month in Montreal's Cote des Neiges district.
News
Grant faces uphill fight
As students and faculty at Lindsay Place High School gathered for their
end-of-year awards assembly yesterday afternoon, principal Jim MacKinnon
asked them to spare a thought for a special friend who wouldn't be able to make it.
"This one's for you, Otis," MacKinnon said. Suddenly, students began clapping and cheering their appreciation, support and heartfelt concern.
Otis is Otis Grant, the former world middleweight champion who was seriously injured in a car accident Thursday night. In the often seamy world of
professional boxing, where grandstanding is normal and serving jail time can actually enhance ticket sales, Grant, 31, is a rare breed - a decent man lauded
for his good works and humble ways who still knows how to throw a punch.
News
Anglos will be francos
Oui, c'est possible! Gents of my country, c'est a ton tour de te laisser parler d'amour. A revealing Gazette series by Alexander Norris has shown that we "new
Quebec anglos" are becoming a distinct society: a bilingual, multi- ethnic tribe that's embracing its second language, losing its first language, and living an
increasingly French lifestyle in North America.
Our children now have the Quebecois accent of an east-end garage mechanic
and the wine sophistication of a Paris boulevardier: "Hostie, dad, passe-moe le Grand Cru Chateau Depanneur 1998, s'il t'su plait."
Josh Freed
