Vandalisme au magasin d’appareils ménagers d’Aylmer
Julie Murray
Des vandales ont ravagé le magasin d’appareils ménagers Josma de la Plaza Lucerne, au cours de la nuit du 1er février : des dommages évalués à 40 000$ ont été causés par des graffitis avec de la peinture en aérosol noire sur les appareils, les murs, le bureau et l’ordinateur. « C’est dévastateur. C’est notre gagne-pain », dit le propriétaire Josma Karabegovic, « Nous avons des assurances, mais en attendant, nous n’avons pas de revenus. » « C’est difficile, les factures continuent de rentrer. Je travaille dans l’immobilier et c’est une période creuse de l’année. Nous comptions sur ce revenu », dit le partenaire de M. Karabegovic.
Stupidité de racistes
Les vandales ont écrit divers messages discriminatoires à l’égard de M. Karabegovic, tel que « raciste », « Retourne chez toi, Arabe ! » « Les cri minels sont de plus en plus stupides », dit une connaissance de M. Karabegovic, rappelant que ce dernier est originaire de la Bosnie.
Menacé à la barre à clous
M. Karabegovic se demande si les criminels ne seraient pas un groupe de jeunes qui cherchaient à se venger puisque tout récemment, il a dû demander à un groupe de jeune, qui fumait de la marijuana devant son magasin, de s’éloigner. Il est présentement impliqué dans une histoire de cour avec des clients qui « se sont élancés vers lui avec une barre à clous parce qu’il ne pouvait pas réparer leur laveuse », confie son partenaire.
« C’est terrible », dit Wendy Watson, une cliente. « Il a bon cœur. Il ne méritait pas ça. » M. Karabegovic garde l’espoir que la justice suivra son cours. « On travaille fort pour se bâtir quelque chose, et là, de voir que quelqu’un peut entrer et le démolir ainsi du jour au lendemain, comme si de rien n’était, c’est difficile à prendre », dit-il. « Ce serait bien qu’il y ait des conséquences. » La police fait présentement enquête sur ce crime.
Le magasin demeure ouvert puisque M. Karabegovic, qui attend toujours des nouvelles de son assureur quant à la couverture des dommages, gardait aussi des appareils entreposés à sa maison. Pour plus d’informations ou encore pour fournir quelques informations anonymes sur les coupables, communiquez par écrit à josma_appliances @hotmail.com ou encore avec la police de Gatineau.
No! to flouride, says enviro-group
Julie Murray
While the city is studying fluoride for its drinking water and is planning to conduct a campaign next March to raise citizens’ awareness of the health benefits, Nicole Desroches, chair of CREDDO, opposes Gatineau’s plan. “We don’t agree with fluoridation because it is aimed at a small proportion of the population,” she told the media. “It is usually for underprivileged children under the age of nine.”
She added, “It is putting something in the water that adults don’t need, and we don’t know its impact on the environment. These children could be given fluoride pills.” Similar concerns about health and the environment stopped flouride here in 1987. Pierre Philion, chair of the Healthy City Committee, says fluoridation is not common in Quebec because people fear it.
However Lucie Lemieux of the Outaouais public health agency says these concerns are unwarranted, as no study shows that fluoride damages human health, and that adding it will improve children’s teeth. “We know that two Quebec children out of five have at least one cavity when they enter kindergarten and, by the time they are in the second year of primary school, more than half have at least one decayed tooth.”
One dentist told The Bulletin he does not favour fluoridation because “there is flouride in many sources today, and municipalities often use way too much. Too much can be harmful — it can create a type of cavity itself and there is evidence that it can contribute to osteoporosis. There are safer ways to get the flouride we need. We don’t need much.”
Council will decide in April whether to add fluoride.
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Aylmer dentist passes French test, license returned
Julie Murray
Aylmer dentist Dr. Mahmoud Raisi reports that he has passed the test in written French; last September, after failing the test for the fourth time in three years, his license was suspended by the Quebec Order of Dentists; he has already passed his spoken French exam.
The province requires persons working in 45 professions, including engineers, acupuncturists, midwives and social workers, to take exams in oral and written French, unless they were educated in a French-language high school or university. While the Office de la Langue Francaise claims that the written exam is essential, Dr Raisi says, “Dentists don’t write their own letters. We have secretaries and form letters.”
In order to pass this time, “I had a tutor and spent all my time writing,” he told The Bulletin, adding that the preoccupation with studying French took up all of his time, so that he was unable to complete his continuing education in dentistry and must now catch up on the requirement of thirty hours of such education annually.
Dr Raisi notes that the test has “nothing to do with dentistry. You must write an administrative letter and come up with 25 to 30 lines of writing based on a hypothetical situation, like your colleague has left you a message and wants you to work with him. You have to reply that you won’t be able to work for the next two weeks, and that you may be able to work with him in the future. How can that kind of reply take up 25 lines of text? The judge in my case said he had sympathy for me, because he tried to write the same letter but couldn’t come up with the quantity required.”
Dr Raisi says he was given a temporary license, but unfortunately many of his patients mistakenly believed that he could not treat them. “We called one patient who said, ‘I’m happy you called. I was thinking of changing dentists.’” Dr Raisi has 2,000 patients, many of whom from Gatineau, who see him because he speaks Spanish.
Quebec’s language requirements means that the province is losing good professionals, Dr Raisi notes. “Many professionals have left. There was one excellent American doctor at McGill; he was the head of the department. He couldn’t pass the test so he went back to New York.” He adds, “I knew either way this would be my last exam. I decided that if I failed, I would give it up, sell the practice and go elsewhere, in Ottawa or somewhere else in Canada.”
Fluoride coming to city drinking water
Julie Murray
Within a few weeks, city council will consider Gatineau’s Healthy City Committee’s likely recommendation that the city add fluoride to its drinking water, in order to reduce the incidence of cavities in teeth. “All the experts we talked to are in favour of adding fluoride,” says the committee’s chair, Pierre Philion. “Studies show that citizens who live in a city with fluoridated water have an approximately 40% lower rate of cavities.” It appears council will accept the committee’s recommendation, unless new facts come to light or strong public resistance grows.
Before presenting its final recommendation to council, the Healthy City Committee will hold public consultations. “We want to make sure that the population is fully informed before we arrive at our final suggestions.”
West Quebec’s hospital network supports the idea; spokesperson Lorraine Gagnon says that in 1998, 34% of Gatineau five-year olds had had at least one cavity. “Water fluoridation can reduce this level to 21%,” she explains. “The benefits can be seen within five years.” Lucie Lemieux, spokesperson for the Outaouais Public Health Agency, adds, “In terms of improvement in dental health, research has shown that fluoridation is good for all age groups and that everyone benefits.”
A 1998 study commissioned by Montreal showed that fluoridation carried no significant risk for the Saint Lawrence River aquatic ecosystem. Mme Lemieux says that environmental experts have confirmed that there will be no negative impact on the Ottawa River.
Mass medication?
Adding fluoride has caused controversy. While advocates say water fluoridation is similar to fortifying salt with iodine or milk with vitamin D, opponents say excessive fluoride can cause dental fluorosis, discoloration of the teeth or even bone cancer. They also argue that public authorities’ adding chemicals to the water amounts to mass medication and removes an individual’s choice as to what substances he or she wishes to ingest.
About 40% of Canadians receive fluoridated water, and while 74% of Ontarians have access to fluoridated water, only 7% of Quebecers do; 67% of Americans receive fluoridated water. Ottawa has had fluoridated water since 1966.
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