Corruption Probe Just Keeps Scoring

You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows – Bob Dylan

C’mon, tell us how you voted for Tremblay again and again and how much you thought he was a good mayor – Neath Turcot

Union Montréal manager was on engineering firm’s payroll

CBC News

Posted: Mar 12, 2013 2:52 PM ET

Last Updated: Mar 12, 2013 3:11 PM ET

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Christian Ouellet told the Charbonneau commission that his role with a engineering firm that he maintained while he worked for Union Montréal was minimal. (Charbonneau commission )

Full coverage of the Quebec corruption inquiry

The former general manager of the Union Montréal said he saw no problem with accepting $5,000 a month for consulting work with a civil engineering firm while working for the municipal political party.

Christian Ouellet worked for Union Montréal from 2004 to 2008. At the same time, he maintained a contract with Roche Ltée, one of the largest engineering firms in the country.

He told the province’s corruption commission this morning that his contract with Roche pre-dated his time with the party. His role was to help the firm move into the Montreal market by arranging meetings with elected officials and preparing a communication plan for the firm, which was aggressively trying to raise its profile on the island.

Ouellet said he did not tell the mayor or the party’s executive when he took the job with the party in 2004 that he was still on Roche’s payroll.

“You’re the general manager of a municipal political party. You [are involved in] party financing and political organizing. You know you’re receiving a sum of money from a civil engineering firm on the side and you don’t see a problem there?” Commissioner Renaud Lachance asked Ouellet.

“No,” he responded, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

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Tremblay’s City Hall Corrupt? Wow, Surprise, Surprise!

Anyone paying even a little bit of attention over the course of the Tremblay administration can see corruption all over the place. Time and time again stories come out how the city made idiotic real estate deals – losing money on purpose because they aren’t the ones that are that stupid, Mr and Ms Taxpayer. But every time Gerald Tremblay gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar or just simply being monumentally incompetent, he claims that he “didn’t know”. Hey, it’s worked so far because the dumbed down masses keep voting for him. And English Montrealers should know better by now – voting for a mayor primarily because he is “not a separatist” is stupidity defined in the year 2011, or 2009, or 2005, etc…

The big picture part of this latest news is that the whole Quartier du Spectacle development is a mediocre piece of crap that does not in any way reflect the dynamics of Montreal. It is not something you proudly walk your visiting out of town relatives and friends through with a mischievous grin on your face. The Tremblay administration has bent over backwards to devalue Montreal, to take away the magic. And we have given him permission to go for it!

City of Montreal took real estate bath: auditor-general

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The Collapse Of Globalization

“Who wants to hear that we are advancing not toward a paradise of happy consumption and personal prosperity but a disaster? Who wants to confront a future in which the rapacious and greedy appetites of our global elite, who have failed to protect the planet, threaten to produce widespread anarchy, famine, environmental catastrophe, nuclear terrorism and wars for diminishing resources? Who wants to shatter the myth that the human race is evolving morally, that it can continue its giddy plundering of non-renewable resources and its profligate levels of consumption, that capitalist expansion is eternal and will never cease?”

Stephen Harper will lead Canada into stagnation, decay, and utter failure. But it’s a perfect evolution as those who will be most shocked and disappointed currently are choosing to believe that corporate elitism is a worthwhile system of rule. The middle class is bringing about it’s own destruction, in fact it seems to want it.

The Collapse Of Globalization by Chris Hedges

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David Byrne’s Journal: 09.23.10: Don’t Forget the Motor City

David Byrne’s Journal: 09.23.10: Don’t Forget the Motor City.

I’m here in Detroit to participate in a film directed by Paolo Sorrentino (Il Divo). The other day we performed the song “This Must Be The Place” with band and string section while the camera made a complicated move and a living room set rose up and traveled over our heads. A stunt woman sat strapped in a chair reading a magazine as if nothing odd were happening. This was shot in the Majestic Theater, where I played in the mid-aughts, and it was packed with extras that were instructed to groove and applaud wildly after we finished the song. We were so pleasantly shocked that we all broke into big smiles as if their response were genuine. We’re so easily fooled.

Anyway, this gives me a week in Detroit, with some free time to look around. A lot has been and continues to be written about Detroit, a handy living symbol of America’s industrial decline and of the human and urban effects of the recent crash. It’s also a symbol of various attempts to revitalize a town on the ropes, including building urban farms; renovating communities; starting arts programs, and creating incentives to bring some much-needed life back….

Follow the link above for the whole article.

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Dorval Circle May Be Delayed Until 2016!

Not usually the I told you so type, but this mess was just so predictable. When it comes to any transportation project in Montreal the left hand and the right hand don’t even know each other exists – take that to the bank!
Cyberpresse article here.

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The Tar Sands Circle Of Madness

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The Earth Has A White Roof Too

Gazette article discusses a bylaw that would make white roofs mandatory in Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie. Seems to me what this article really highlights is that we are so far behind in the fight against climate change – hell most people on the planet don’t even believe there needs to be a fight – that little adjustments such as this in one borough in Montreal all add up to creating, embellishing, and maintaining the illusion that we are tackling climate change in a positive manner by publicizing drops in the ocean here and there.
The Polar Caps, Earth’s metaphorical white roofs, are melting. This is an observable fact. Those huge white things on top and bottom of the planet actually reflect sunlight, and play a major role in keeping the planet’s atmosphere suitable for human life. As they melt the dark sea will start absorbing sunlight raising ocean temperatures and the air on the land. I am not a scientist, rocket or otherwise, but I get this.

It has been a hot summer, everywhere. But people refuse to make the connection – the Polar Caps are melting and the planet is getting warmer!
Instead the world is ruled by government and business leaders who see the Polar Caps melting as an opportunity to exploit the natural resources that may lay in great abundance beneath the poles. They would prefer that we continually believe that all our priorities be about The Economy, Stupid! And The Economy is the out of control beast that needs to be constantly fed, using up resources quicker than they can be replaced, while the population of the planet grows creating ever greater demand.
Do you think we might be screwed?

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Art Helps With Emotions Of BP Oil Spill

I have to say I have not been paying attention to the BP Oil Spill the way I would normally follow an environmental disaster. And I find that a lot of people are doing the same from what I see around the net. It is overwhelming. After roughly 40 days the oil is still gushing. There is no longer a realistic question of saving this thing, but trying to come to terms with the inevitable devastation.The Gulf of Mexico is an enormous ecosystem to see wiped out, but that is probably what is happening. No more fish, no more pleasant coastline, no more birds, a place that will cease to have a purpose, a 21st century version of a dead sea.

Amy Giese is an artist/blogger who has created some quick pieces as a way of inevitably coping with the situation, trying to deal with the anger and other emotions. Here is her blog.

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John Gomery at Sexy Beton 2: Justice!

John Gomery will host a special meeting after the presentation of Sexy Beton 2 (playing at the Segal Centre until December 1) on Monday, November 30. The discussion will focus on issues surrounding transportation infrastructure, political motives, corruption, and, of course, justice!
Should be an excellent event!

More info at the Porte Parole web site.

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We Just Don’t Get It!

Climate change that is. The evidence is overwhelming, yet we continue to ignore it. Article by Albert Nerenberg here.
And I like this bit about how we are reacting.
“Here’s the weird part: When people hear about carbon offsets or climate-change agreements, now suddenly they’re upset. Instead of being mad at oil companies, they get mad at Al Gore. When people hear that fighting climate change might hit them in the pocketbook, they really freak out. Now we get it. It’s a plot by the environmentalists or the “alarmist” scientists. The amazing thing is that we’re at the unreal stage where some people would burn Al Gore at the stake rather than save their world from burning.”
Must be some kind of shooting the messenger syndrome!

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The Arctic: Ice Free In A Decade?

My semi belated Blog Action Day post.
Photo: Greenpeace
There are those amongst us who have been talking environmental issues for decades and I have to say it is quite bizarre to find in the year 2009 that Canada has a Prime MInister who not only believes the Tar Sands is a wonderful economy boosting project but also can hardly wait for The Arctic to melt so his excavation buddies can go in and start digging for gold and drilling for oil and whatever else may be there. Now I really understand how people in Europe said they didn’t see the Nazis coming; they just weren’t paying attention, figured it would all just go away, figured it couldn’t be real.
I think of The Arctic melting and I just know in my heart that something really, really bad is going to be the side effect of that. But there is only one thing that actually gets me a bit angry about the whole deal and that is when one day, perhaps as an old man, I get knocked over in line at the food rationing place by someone greedily jumping ahead who on October 15, 2009 did not even believe climate change was real. Now THAT will probably really piss me off. Ya gotta laugh….

Arctic will be ice-free in a decade, according to Pen Hadow

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James Howard Kunstler on Post Cheap Oil

It is depressing. The  smooth transition period he refers to could have been happening over the last 35 years when us North Americans got a  jolt of reality about the availabilty of oil during the oil crisis of 1973.  Obviously, we learned nothing, and here we are.

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The Ice Storm 1998

Here a bit late after 3 adventurous weeks pretty much away from the ‘ol computer (and all I am going to say about that is that it is amazing how busy you can get during the Holiday Season and, yes, had a pretty good time overall). Most of you are probably getting bored with this story by now, but if you aren’t, Fagstein has links to Every. Story. Ever. or at least comes close right here.

Here is the quick version of my story. In Verdun on day 2 or 3 of no power and a friend suggests we walk up to the McDonalds on Lasalle blvd. To my surprise it was open because it is linked on the same grid as Verdun General Hospital. So I ate a Big Mac and fries voluntarily and had to admit it was better than I remembered for your typical fast fat and sodium dish. We went back the next day and they had no burgers left, just some fries, cherry pies and an apparently endless supply of soda. As far as I am concerned, Verdun McDonald’s Runs Out Of Burgers, should have scooped the whole silly province without power story that was making the rounds. Sigh. Yes, folks, turns out the first 2 weeks of January ’98 were just as dull as today except there was no electricity and the Verdun McDonald’s Ran Out Of Burgers.

And here are some images courtesy of Le Journal de Montreal.

Wiki Article

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Infrastructure Collapsing in Canada?

This is going across the wire today.

Canada’s infrastructure deficit hits $123 billion, report says

OTTAWA – Canada’s water treatment facilities, roads and public infrastructure is on the verge of collapse because of a $123-billion building deficit, a new report warned Tuesday.

The report, released by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, suggests that the cost of fixing crumbling infrastructure has more than doubled over the past four years, and will continue to rise if no new investments are made.

“Across Canada, municipal infrastructure has reached the breaking point,” reads the study written by Dr. Saeed Mirza, a McGill University civil engineering professor in Montreal. “Most was built between the 1950s and 1970s, and much of it is due for replacement. We can see the consequences in every community: potholes and crumbling bridges, water-treatment and transit systems that cannot keep up with demand, traffic gridlock, poor air quality and a lack of affordable housing.”

the deficit into five categories. He estimated that $31 billion would be needed for water and waste water systems, $21.7 billion for transportation, $22.8 billion for transit, $7.7 billion for waste management, and $40.2 billion for community, recreational, cultural and social infrastructure.

“It points to a looming crisis that if unchecked, will reduce our standard of living, our safety and our quality of life as Canadians,” said Gord Steeves, president of the federation, at a news conference. “The report says that Canada’s public infrastructure is at 79 per cent of its service life and that municipal infrastructure has reached its breaking point. It shows that the physical foundation of Canada’s cities and communities are near collapse.”

The federation estimated that municipalities would need to raise property taxes by 40 per cent to cover the estimated infrastructure deficit, so it is calling on the federal government to replace its existing patchwork of ad hoc program’s with a new national program to address all of their concerns.

“It is a wakeup call to everyone who thinks we can ignore our decaying municipal infrastructure or tackle it with half measures,” said Steeves. “We’re not saying that our bridges will begin falling down tomorrow, but we are saying that if serious action is not taken now, our infrastructure is headed for collapse. The problem will simply overtake us.”

mdesouzacanwest.com

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Erosion

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