Archive
Autres Nouvelles - Other News
|
5 décembre / December 5
|
|
“I believe in bilingualism”
Teacher brings Saskatchewan students to Aylmer
Julie Murray
Monique Myers, a French teacher at Saskatchewan’s Wawota Parkland School, brought Davis McCarthy and Rheanna Jensen-Guenter, two of her Grade 9 students, back to her native Aylmer for the “Living and Learning in a Bilingual Canada” conference, held November 2 and 3 and organized by the Society for Educational Visits and Exchanges in Canada and the Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers. “It was quite an experience for them. Wawota is a very small rural community, with only 600 people. This seminar was the opportunity of a lifetime.”
Every province and territory were represented at the seminar, which provided the opportunity to discuss “how we would promote Canadian values” and the benefits of being bilingual, Ms Myers reports. “In British Columbia, English is now a minority language. It’s been overtaken by Chinese. People are upset and they’re promoting French! But you don’t support French to get back at Asians.” The representatives from Prince Edward Island, she says, “Couldn’t understand the big deal. Like we do in Aylmer, they grew up with two languages.”
For the entire trip, Davis and Rhianna spoke to her in French. “By the time we left, the fear of being embarrassed was gone,” says Ms Myers. “They realized, if they could carry on a conversation with me, they were bilingual.”
Wawota originally had a strong French heritage, she reports. “Our community is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Let’s take pride in our bilingual heritage. Let’s rediscover our French heritage.” She adds, “The kids and I came up with an action plan to make bilingualism relevant. We’re going to go to restaurants and offer to translate their menus into French. We’ll translate the museum’s brochure. We’ll appeal to community leaders to make the plaques on heritage buildings bilingual. There is funding with Heritage Canada to do that. We can show our city leaders that bilingualism is an asset. It’s a tourist draw. Saskatchewan is known as the hospitality province. Being bilingual enhances a city’s feeling of accommodation.”
Davis McCarthy, left, Monique Myers, and Rheanna Jensen-Guenter shortly before returning home to Saskatchewan, November 4, after spending the weekend in bilingual Aylmer.
Photo: Julie Murray
|
L’usine de compostage près de l’aéroport?
Julie Murray
Selon un rapport présenté à la Ville par les firmes Solinov et SNC Lavallin, Gatineau devrait construire son usine de compostage dans l’est de la ville, sur un terrain industriel près de l’aéroport de Gatineau. Les plaintes de la part de citoyens seraient ainsi minimisées et le compostage pourrait se faire d’une manière plus sanitaire et avec peu de contraintes d’espace. Un site à l’ouest de la ville, sur le chemin Pink près de la carrière Lafarge à Aylmer, a aussi fait l’objet de l’étude.
Usine fermée – moins d’odeurs
Le rapport recommande à la Ville d’opter pour une usine fermée, afin d’éviter que des odeurs désagréables se répandent dans le voisinage. L’étude recommande aussi l’usage de bacs bruns plutôt que le tri-compostage, en raison des coûts trop élevés pour le triage et la piètre qualité du composte qui en résulte.
‘Vous pouvez vous opposer à la municipalité’
Ce rapport est déposé près d’un an après que la Ville eut d’abord recommandé de construire une usine de compostage à ciel ouvert sur le site de l’ancien dépotoir du chemin Cook, site con taminé et propriété de la Ville. Cette proposition avait été mal accueillie par les citoyens et l’association des résidents du quartier et il s’en est suivi une longue bataille. Plusieurs résidents souhaitaient que la Ville opte plutôt pour un terrain privé à l’Ange Gardien, juste à l’extérieur des limites de la ville.
La Ville devra faire appel au compostage pour rencontrer les exigences de réduction de 60% des déchets acheminés vers les dépotoirs. L’étude dont il est question recommande que les citoyens assument une part de responsabilité dans le programme en triant eux-mêmes leurs déchets dans trois boîtes : recyclage, matières organiques pour le compostage, et autres déchets pour le dépotoir. Les déchets de Gatineau sont actuellement acheminés au super-dépotoir de Lachute, mais cela pourrait prendre fin dans la prochaine année. Gatineau a toutefois demandé une extension des délais fixés par la province pour la gestion des déchets.
(Trad.: C.B.)
Opération Nez rouge commence!
Les bénévoles d’Opération Nez rouge Outaouais sont à l’oeuvre le weekend du vendredi 30 novembre et samedi 1er décembre, de 20 h à 3 h 30 du matin. Parmi eux, notons entre autre la participation des services de police et des médias de la région le 30 novembre et des employés de la Société de Transport de l’Outaouais le 1er décembre.
Les personnes qui veulent profiter de ce service de raccompagnement n’ont qu’à composer le 819-771-AUTO (819-771-2886) et les bénévoles se feront un plaisir de les raccompagner à la maison en toute sécurité dans leur propre véhicule. Même si le service est gratuit, la majorité des utilisateurs remettent un don en guise d’appréciation. L’an passé, près de 40 000 $ a été recueilli. Grâce à cet argent, chaque année, Loisir sport Outaouais remet des bourses à de jeunes athlètes et supporte les clubs sportifs de la région.
Pour s’inscrire comme bénévole, composez le 819-771-AUTO (819-771-2886).
(FR)
Les Jeux verts
Gatineau remporte les Jeux du Québec de 2010 !
Gatineau a été sélectionnée le 29 novembre 2007 par Sports Québec parmi les villes en lice — Charlevoix, Rivière-du-Loup, Shawinigan et Vaudreuil-Dorion — comme la ville hôtesse de la Finale des Jeux du Québec de 2010.
La qualité des infrastructures, le système de transport, la proximité des sites de compétition, les cérémonies d’ouverture et de fermeture en plein cœur du centre-ville et l’organisation « verte » des Jeux, ont fait de Gatineau le choix numéro un pour la tenue de la 45e Finale d’été des Jeux du Québec.
Le maire Marc Bureau a exprimé son enthousiasme suite à l’annonce de Sports Québec, “ Nous avons su démontrer la capacité de la Ville de Gatineau d’accueillir, d’héberger et de divertir les quelque 6000 personnes attendues à l’été 2010.” M. Bureau a dit que le processus d’organisation de la Finale des Jeux du Québec commencera prochainement. Il y aura mise en place de la structure d’opération qui sera divisée en trois secteurs : un service aux athlètes, un service des communications et un service technique.
La Ville investira une somme de 250 000 $ au budget d’opération des Jeux et procédera à la mise à niveau des infrastructures sportives pour un montant de 975 000 $. Aussi, la ville entamera le réaménagement de la piste d’athlétisme à l’école secondaire Mont-Bleu, lancera la construction d’un tout nouveau centre sportif, et renouvèlera la Marina d’ Aylmer.
Enfin, Gatineau mettra à la disposition du futur comité organisateur l’équipement, le personnel et les ressources nécessaires, selon le maire, pour assurer |les plus beaux Jeux de l’histoire, centrés sur les participants”.
(FR)
|
|
Composting may go to city’s airport site
Julie Murray
According to a report to the city by Solinov and the engineering firm SNC Lavallin, Gatineau should locate its controversial composting facility in the east section of the city on land near the Gatineau airport because the land is already zoned industrial. This will minimize citizen complaints, and composting could be done in a more sanitary fashion with few space constraints. The report had also examined a west-city site on Pink Road, near the Lafarge quarry in Aylmer.
Closed building will kill smells
The study recommends that the city opt for a closed facility, to avoid subjecting the neighbourhood nearby to objectionable odours. It also says that the city should use specific “brown” boxes, not tri-composting, because the latter method is more expensive, due to sorting, and also results in poorer quality of compost.
‘You can fight city hall’
The report comes just over a year since the city first recommended placing an open-air composting facility on the former Cook Road dump, a contaminated site owned by the city. That proposal caused an uproar and was ultimately rejected after a lengthy battle by the citizens and residents’ association in the area. Many residents wanted the city to use a private site near L’Ange-Gardien, just outside city boundaries.
Composting will be required for the city to meet the 60% reduction in waste going to dumps, ordered by Quebec. This study recommends citizens bear some responsibility for the program by sorting their waste into three boxes: recyclables, organic-matter compost, and ordinary garbage for the dump. Gatineau’s waste is now trucked to the La Chute super-dump, but this could end in the coming year, although Gatineau has asked for an extension to the province’s new waste management schedule.
Councillor to fast food outlets: Clean up or pay pollution fees
Julie Murray
Using financial penalties and an awareness campaign, Councillor Simon Racine wants to force fast-food restaurants to clean up the litter left by customers. He says many clients from McDonald’s, Tim Hortons, and Subway throw the trash in the bike path in his ward. The bike path is particularly dirty after students from the local high school there leave wrappers and cups from restaurants near the school. “If I have to,” Racine told his colleagues during the November 20 plenary meeting, “I’ll gather the garbage myelf, put it in a huge bag and open it right on the council table!”
Calling upon restaurant managers to clean up the trash, Mr Racine says, “Let them act as good corporate citizens and select an employee to go out, every noon, and pick up the trash on the bike path.”
The councillor raised the possibility of imposing a tax on polluting businesses.
Naomi Klein speaks about her book, The Shock Doctrine
Erika Steeves
Naomi Klein gave a lecture on her new book The Shock Doctrine at Ottawa’s Bronson Center, November 12. The theater was packed, and for good reason. Naomi is on a campaign to protect the public sphere and its institutions based on equality and fairness. Her research for the book originally arose from her experience in Argentina, during the revolts against “neo-liberalism” in the wake of economic collapse, but quickly extended to the broader use of shock by governments.
She also recounted her experiences in New Orleans after the Katrina hurricane, witnessing the appalling hospital conditions. After a car crash, Naomi was rushed to a private “spa-like” hospital in downtown New Orleans, which was empty and fully staffed despite the fact that public hospitals down the street had to turn people away. A young intern, a product of the American health care system, told her he was glad he wasn’t working the day the hurricane hit. Naomi was visibly perplexed in her retelling of the story, especially considering Canadian doctors willingly drove to New Orleans to offer their help. The point is, this American doctor was trained not to see the poor as his patients; they are simply routed to public facilities. Out of sight out of mind. His attitude is a good example of how our public institutions are losing their universal consideration of all people in favour of the limited protection involved in [stealth] privatization.
Numerous examples of privatized disaster response are cropping up; most recently we see the case of the selective help of private firefighters hired by top rate insurance agencies for their customers in the path of the California fires. That’s why some houses were left standing while the neighboring houses burned. Access to money is determining who has access to life saving treatment in disaster zones. Out of her experiences with the erosion of the public sphere, Naomi foresees the “lethal collision between heavy weather and weak infrastructure” in the face of climate change, which she claims will bring about a “disaster apartheid future.”
Disasters become laboratories
Disasters, then, become laboratories for speeding the process of privatization and corporatization of cities and nations. When people are in shock they are more likely to give up rights and freedoms to authorities they feel can secure the situation. The post 9/11 world is a case in point. Naomi’s book is precisely about the gap that opens in people’s lives due to shock. Shock is essentially a rupture in our personal narratives. We lose our sense of identity during disasters and chaotic situations. Naomi suggested that the effects of shock on an individual can be extended to entire nations. If people can be kept in a permanent state of fear, the mass privatization initiatives—or the “rise of corporatism” as she calls it—provide the link in the broken narrative. While people are stunned and not thinking clearly, governments tend to use this shock as the context for privatization and the securing of corporate interests. Another case in point is the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), a North American tri-lateral initiative to integrate Canadian, American, and Mexican trade policies, which is led by a panel of CEO’s.
Laws can’t keep up with privatization
The key to Naomi’s Shock Doctrine is that the laws can’t keep up with the speed of privatization because everything happens so fast that it can’t be regulated. When people are in shock, they need something to fill the gap in their life, to explain their loss, and to reconstruct their personal narratives. So, it is crucial to write our own narratives and not let governments impose their own (in the language of privatization and deregulation) in the vacuum of shock.
After all, information is the best shock absorber. We can better regain our balance if we know what is happening to us—this applies to climate change, the SPP, or any other fear-based policies. Naomi knows this better than most. That’s why she wrote the Shock Doctrine, to help people become repulsed by the use of shock and fear fueling our world economies.
The Shock Doctrine is available at the Michabou Bookstore in the new Glenwood shopping centre.
- Erika Steeves, from Aylmer, was an intern at the Bulletin and West Quebec Post last summer. She is completing her BA at Carleton University in Philosophy.
|
|
