When thinking outside the box just isn't enough
Acclaimed British comedian Eddie Izzard was in Montreal last week to host a Gala at the Just For Laughs festival and Ethan Cox was lucky enough to saw-off five minutes of his time to talk dick jokes, politics and his absolutely serious run at the mayoralty of London in 2020 for this piece that originally […]
“This is approaching absurdist comedy,” tweeted Montreal Gazette reporter Christopher Curtis Friday night, trapped in a police kettle…
With a little over a week to go until the Quebec Liberal Party elects a new leader, a leading contender for the post is facing questions over his work at McGill University…
Ethan Cox is the Quebec Correspondent for Rabble.ca where this interview with Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, the former spokesperson for student group CLASSE originally appeared.. Ethan Cox: You were recently found guilty of contempt of court, for expressing the opinion that picket lines were legitimate in a TV interview. That’s a ruling I know you plan to appeal, so can […]
A city councillor since 1994, Applebaum has been borough mayor of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce since the post was created in 2002, following Union’s election. A Tremblay loyalist of the first order, who stood at the former Mayor’s side as he announced his resignation, Applebaum has served as chairperson of the city’s all powerful Executive Committee, and right hand man to Tremblay, since April of 2011. He now promises to clean up corruption and open up the secretive Executive Committee, despite having been an outspoken opponent of transparency on that committee until his recent conversion on the road to Damascus…
In his parting words to the city, Tremblay denied any and all responsibility. He proclaimed his innocence and cast himself as a victim, saying that one day history would show him to have been a crusader against corruption. “I have always promoted the values of honesty, integrity and trust”, he said. But he was let down by his subordinates…
In Ottawa, Chairman Harper is taking a sledge hammer to what was already our feeble excuse for democracy. With the ‘son of omnibus’ he has displayed a disregard for democracy so severe the CBC’s At Issue panel, no bastion of liberalism, unanimously condemned it as an “affront to democracy.”
So I guess now we know what former premier Jean Charest was so worried about. Speculation ran rampant this summer that the curious timing of Quebec’s provincial election was forced by the fear of what would come out as the Charbonneau commission resumed hearings into corruption in the construction industry in mid-September.
Day two of our national speaking tour dawned sunny in London, Ontario — a good omen for things to come. On day one we spoke to over a hundred people at King’s College in London, an active and engaged crowd who kept us half an hour past the end of the event with questions.
It’s a Tuesday evening in Mile End, and the restaurant is packed. Somewhere in the area of 150 people make it difficult to move. At the front of the room Amir Khadir, co-spokesperson for Quebec Solidaire, tells a joke and the room bursts into easy, appreciative laughter…
For my money, Montreal is the best city to live in this side of Paris. Especially in the summer. But for all the mass festivals, street theatre and vibrant energy of the city, sometimes we need a reminder of that very specific ‘je ne sais quoi’ which makes Montreal so unique.
Earlier this week rabble was able to sit down with Claude Sabourin, the leader of the Parti Vert du Quebec. We met in a cozy coffee shop in the provincial riding of NDG, where Sabourin is running and where Quebec’s Greens are pinning their hopes of making a breakthrough and finally electing an MNA. Although Sabourin is from the Laurentians, he moved into a place on Sherbrooke street in anticipation of the campaign, and will remain there if he wins.
On Tuesday of last week I discovered that Francois Legault’s twitter account had blocked me. A quick look around the social media site revealed I was not alone. On that day he had apparently blocked dozens of people, for unknown reasons.
This election is a volatile crap shoot, and anyone who tells you they know how it will turn out is reaching. My advice? Vote your conscience, not the lesser of two evils. Quebec is a province where anything is possible, so buckle your seat belt, because it’s going to be a wild ride
Quebec Superior Court Chief Justice François Rolland on Wednesday rejected a motion filed by Quebec’s student associations asking for an emergency injunction against certain elements of Quebec’s contentious Bill 78. In a twenty-one page decision released late Wednesday afternoon, Rolland found that the students case had the “appearance of right”, but failed to meet the two other criteria for this type of emergency injunction, namely “irreparable prejudice” and “balance of inconvenience”.
The picture pained by Duchesneau and his colleagues this week is of municipal and provincial political parties where corruption is not the exception, but the rule. They outlined a political system driven by illegal contributions, where corruption is known about and encouraged at the highest levels
