Published as a Letter to the Editor in the Westmount Independent, 2023-12-12. City Council has decided to reduce public meetings to one per month (November 28, p. 1), but will continue to hold “general committee” meetings, closed to the public, mid-monthly. How does this respect the Quebec Cities and Towns…
Read moreThe letter to the editor below, was published in the Suburban, on 2017-8-16, with the title “All municipal council meetings must be held in public by law“: I wholeheartedly agree with Michael Shafter (Letter to the Editor, The Suburban, 2017-8-9) that we need more transparency at the municipal level (in…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. It appeared in the 2006-11-24 edition under the heading “Puerile bullyboy”. Dan McTeague criticises Prime Minister Harper (letters, 23 Nov 2006) for “openly” chastising China on its human-rights record and bringing up the case of Huseyin Celil, then complains that he should…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. Quebec’s Minister of Health and Social Services, Philippe Couillard, trumpets his government’s injection of $56 million in new funding for the province’s beleaguered mental health system (Gazette, “Quebec making great strides in mental health”, 2006-5-15). This is very timely, as a report…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. The City of Westmount, with financial support from the province, is erecting a section of transparent sound barrier (Gazette 2006-4-24, “Innovative barrier keeps view intact”, page A7) at the foot of Abbott avenue as a pilot project. If effective at significantly reducing…
Read moreAn edited version of this letter to the editor appeared in the Montreal Gazette on 2005-5-10 under the heading “Taxpayers need their own senate”. Your editorial “Can taxes ever be cut?” (May 8) correctly points out that the majority of voters pay no income tax, effectively disenfranchising those middle-income “working…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. An edited version appeared in the 2005-3-3 edition under the heading “Students hurt only themselves”. The students who are striking to protest the loss of bursary funding, would be better advised to demonstrate against the quality of their education which has failed…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. An edited version appeared in the 2005-1-27 edition under the heading “It’s up to the PM to convince us”. It appears that once again the federal government is attempting to pull the wool over the eyes of Canadians. Prime Minister Paul Martin…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette, It appeared in the 2004-12-15 edition under the heading “Referendum way to express opinion”. Your editorial (”Vote no on this”, Gazette 2004-12-14) decries referendums as divisive, and blames them for creating or widening wounds in the fabric of Canadian society. In reality,…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. One would think we had learned nothing from the U.S. experience with Prohibition, or the War on Drugs. Banning a substance such as alcohol or marijuana inevitably leads to the creation of a criminal underground which profits enormously, and supports a large…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. Immigration Minister Judy Sgro believes that it is inappropriate for churches and other faith communities to provide sanctuary to refugee claimants who have been ordered deported after their hearings. It has been argued that churches should not usurp the role of democratically…
Read moreAn edited version of this letter to the editor of the Montreal Gazette appeared in the 2004-8-2 edition under the heading “Suspension with pay not a bad idea”. Given the demonstrated inability of many government or crown corporation bureaucrats to do their jobs properly, it seems pretty clear that they…
Read moreAn edited version of this letter to the editor of the Montreal Gazette appeared in the 2004-6-18 edition under the heading “Lavish lunches exemplify abuses”. So Mayor Tremblay is outraged that members of his political party were reimbursed for lunches and vintage wines out of our taxes? Nothing to compare…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. The federal liberals have made flouting the rules an art form, as demonstrated by the sponsorship scandal, Radwanski’s expense accounts, and the Shawinigate affair. Now, in Westmount, liberal incumbent Lucienne Robillard’s overeager campaign team are breaking the rules by erecting election posters…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. The various arguments that have been made in favour of merging smaller municipalities into megacities have been demolished, one by one, as these undemocratically created monstrosities (monstrocities?) have failed to produce promised reductions in costs. It seems that the only remaining rationale…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. It appeared in the 2003-12-21 edition under the heading “Not a user fee”. Shame on you, Gazette! Your editorial “We didn’t vote for this” (14 Dec 2003) refers to user-fee increases as tax increases by another name, and rightly so. But to…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. The recent school board elections were noteworthy for the low voter turnout, and for the mysterious process whereby some voters who previously had been on the English school board electoral lists saw their names turn up on the lists for francophone school…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. The strike of MTC maintenance workers is a terrible hardship for many people, but is it really necessary to limit service to a few hours daily and none on weekends? After all, it isn’t the bus drivers who are striking; it’s the…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. It appeared in the 2003-7-4 edition under the heading “Similar campaign as no-call list needed to stop spam”. If it was so easy for U.S. regulators to come up with what promises to be an effective way to put the lid on…
Read moreLetter to the Editor of the Montreal Gazette. It appears that the Quebec government is employing a timeworn ploy to get its way with regard to the just-introduced legislation on the forced merger of Quebec cities. The ploy is: when trying to get a deal, always ask for more than…
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