From the Montreal Gazette
August 13, 2010
written by Chloe Fedio
MONTREAL - Cherie Le Blanc used to work with special needs English students on the South Shore, so when she noticed her 9-year-old son was struggling in French, she came up with a simple solution: Have him transferred to an English school so she could help him with his homework.
But when the government said no, she and her husband made a tearful decision to split up their family of seven to give Justin a chance to excel in school south of the border.
Le Blanc, who was born in Delaware, married a francophone Quebecer. Under Quebec's French Language Charter, her children are not eligible for English public education in this province because neither parent was educated in English in Canada.
"I don't want to waste another year of his education," Le Blanc said of Justin. "He doesn't have very much self-esteem when it comes to school work. He doesn't look forward to going to school in the morning -he's really sad -and I need to change that for him. I need to make it better."
Next week, Le Blanc is moving to Delaware with Justin and her 8-year-old daughter Laura. le Blanc's husband, Daniel, son Alex, 11, and two 17-year-old foster children are staying behind in Chambly.
The children have dual citizenship and can attend public school in the U.S., but Alex excels in French and will finish his schooling in Quebec.
The Quebec government denied a request to send Justin to English school despite a psychological and educational report that concluded he is "strongly at risk" of developing dyslexia and that his "performance was relatively better in English than in French."
Dyslexia is a learning disability that can weaken the ability to read, write and spell despite normal or above-average intelligence.
The report was based on a set of language tests, including a French reading-comprehension exam on which Justin scored 6 out of 49.
"I didn't always get everything right (in French)," Justin said from the kitchen of his Chambly home.
"I understand more in English." Flipping through government letters and education reports, Le Blanc said she and her husband decided to split up the family to give Justin the English education he needs to succeed. But when she caught the eye of 11-year-old Alex across the room, she quickly clarified.
"I don't mean 'splitting up,' as in 'Mommy and Daddy are splitting up,' " she told him.
"I saw a look of fear."
Le Blanc said the decision to move came with "lots of tears."
"If he doesn't pass Grade 4 and he doesn't pass Grade 5 and he doesn't pass Grade 6, there is absolutely no chance that child has the skills and resources needed to go to high school and to be successful. He will not be able to go to college. I'm not ready to look at my 9-year-old and say, 'Well, that's all you have.' "
Le Blanc's husband, a lawyer, appealed the government's July decision on humanitarian grounds. After a year of living as a long-distance family, they plan to reapply for the right to have Justin attend English school.
"If they do say no, I absolutely might have to put him in private school," Cherie said. "But we can't afford it. The bottom line is, we cannot afford it."
Cherie met her future husband while on Easter vacation in Florida when she was 15 years old. The couple were married in Delaware in 1995 and moved to the South Shore to raise a family in 1996.
"The reason I came here was so we could give our family both languages," she said.
"In the States we could only give them one language, and I thought it was important that our children had both languages and had the opportunity to go to school in both.
On July 29th, 2010, Health Canada has informed that Marche Euromix, a retail store in Pierrefonds, Montreal, was found to be selling a health product that was not authorized for sale and that closely resembled in appearance an authorized drug - Viagra. As such, Health Canada worked with the Canadian licensee of Viagra - Pfizer Canada Inc., to confirm that Marche Euromix’s product was not Viagra and can therefore be considered to be counterfeit.
In response to a complaint by a consumer concerning the sale of unauthorized health products by Marche Euromix, Health Canada inspected this retail store. Marche Euromix has reported that they are no longer selling this product, or any other unauthorized prescription drug products. Should Health Canada become aware of continued sales by Marche Euromix of counterfeit or any other unauthorized health products that may pose a risk, immediate and appropriate action will be taken.
There is a risk that counterfeit health products may be represented as or may be mistaken for other health products that Health Canada has authorized for sale. In addition, counterfeit products may contain ingredients not listed on the label, dangerous additives and microbial contamination. Also they may lack the active ingredients. For all of these reasons, counterfeits could cause serious side effects. Courtesy of Health Canada
A Kitchener truck driver is facing a careless driving charge but on the bright side, his tooth doesn’t hurt anymore.
Lambton County OPP say they stopped a big rig driver doing some driving dentistry along Hwy. 402 on Wednesday.
Const. John Reurink told the Sun Saturday it’s the first time he’s ever heard of a driver being pulled over performing dental surgery.
“I’ve never heard of this sort of thing occurring before,” Reurink said, adding he has stopped drivers doing their make-up, reading a map or talking on a cellphone. “Somebody doing an amateur tooth pulling? That’s a first.”
Reurink said it all started June 30 when an officer was on Hwy. 402 in Warwick Township, near Sarnia, and a passing driver pointed him to a tractor trailer being driven “all over the road.”
The officer found the eastbound rig and pulled it over.
Cops determined the 58-year-old driver was driving so poorly because he was trying to pull out a tooth while he was driving.
“The driver was very forthright with the officer,” Reurink said.
The amateur dentist of a driver had rigged a string around his hurting tooth and then tied the other end to the roof of the cab, police said.
“One good bump and the tooth should come out,” police explained.
Turns out the “one good bump” likely did come along at some point.
“The evidence of his efforts were nearby,” Reurink said.
When the driver was stopped the officer found a bloody tooth and a string lying next to him.
Strangely, police say the road down that way isn’t that bumpy and was recently resurfaced.
“He may have been better off on a sideroad,” Reurink said.
Police won’t be releasing the driver’s name because he’s charged under the Highway Traffic Act, not the Criminal Code, and they figure he’d be “continuously bombarded” by media trying to talk to him about his stunt - which would likely be more of a headache than a toothache.
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MONTREAL – Montreal Canadiens general manager Pierre Gauthier announced today the signing of forward Alexander Avtsin to a three-year contract (2010-11 to 2012-13).
Avtsin, 19, played 30 games in 2009-10 with the KHL’s Moscow Dynamo. The 6-foot-2, 188-pound right winger registered 9 points (3 goals, 6 assists), with 10 penalty minutes.
In 2008-09, Avtsin recorded 110 points (56 goals, 54 assists) in 76 regular season games with the Moscow Dynamo-2 (Russia-3), while also serving 130 penalty minutes.
A native of Moscow, Avtsin was selected in the fourth round, 109th overall by the Canadiens at the 2009 NHL Entry Draft.
Avtsin participated in the Canadiens’ development camp in July 2009 and this past camp in July 2010.
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A Thai cargo ship carrying more than 200 illegal Sri Lankan migrants may be headed for Canada, the National Post is reporting.
Canadian authorities are monitoring the vessel which is believed to be British Columbia-bound.
Sri Lanka's Sunday Observer reported over the weekend that the MV Sun Sea was headed for the Canadian coast, not Australia as initially thought.
The 59-metre ship was last seen in the Gulf of Thailand.
"This could end up being a prime example of individuals trying to take advantage of our generous immigration system," said Celyeste Power, spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.
Foreign Affairs spokesman Alain Cacchione said his department is aware of the report and that anybody caught smuggling humans would be prosecuted.
The Sun Sea has been under close watch by the Canadian government since May.
Canada and Australia had asked Thai officials then to board two vessels allegedly set to ferry migrants to the two countries.
Officials at the Thai embassy in Ottawa could not confirm whether any searches took place.
If confirmed, it would not be the first time a smuggling ship of this size has made its way to Canada.
The Ocean Lady, carrying 76 Sri Lankan migrants, arrived off the B.C. coast last October.
After being released from custody, most of them joined Toronto's large Tamil community, where rumours are growing that more vessels may be on their way.
According to the Sunday Observer, a state-owned newspaper, the Sun Sea group is also from that country where a civil war between government forces and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels ended little more than a year ago.
Any new asylum seekers will be subject to Canada's new streamlined refugee system which took effect last month.
MONTREAL - When colleague Dave Stubbs asked me if I wanted to celebrate another record-breaking and award-winning season at Habs Inside/ Out, he didn't tell me he was inviting thousands of our closest friends to share the occasion.
On Thursday night, I'll be joining Stubbs, Mike Boone and Kevin Mio at Brasserie Le Manoir in Pointe Claire and we've agreed to share the evening with the Canadiens' fans whose participation has helped make the website a success.
Before you make plans to join us, there are some things you should know.
For starters, you should leave a message indicating that you will be on hand so that the good folks at Le Manoir can set aside some space for us. You can leave your RSVP on the HIO website or you can email Mr. Stubbs.
You should also be aware that the same rules of civility that should be followed on the website are in force Thursday night. That means no personal attacks and please watch your language.
That latter caution is important because we want members of the fairer sex to feel welcome as this gathering. I should add a note for any HIO groupies -at last glance, three of us were happily married but Mike Boone is available and, some would suggest, he's even desperate.
If you have any questions, please try to make them reasonable. This is not talk radio.
We can tell you now that the Canadiens are not going to be able to trade Jimmy Bonneau, the rights to David Fischer and a sixth-round draft choice in 2014 to Tampa Bay for Vinnie Lecavalier.
We can't tell you what goes through Pierre Gauthier's mind, but we can tell you that you have to wait a few years to learn how good -or bad -the Jaroslav Halak trade was.
Some of us are old enough to describe a Stanley Cup parade, but we can't tell you when we'll get to see another one.
We can offer opinions on free agents Dominic Moore, Glen Metropolit and Marc-Andre Bergeron, but none of us is empowered to act on those opinions.
This gathering will be in a brasserie and we encourage you to enjoy yourselves, but we also offer the following advice -don't drink and drive and, if you do drink, take a cab, a bus or bring along a designated driver.
Finally, don't forget to tip your server. The HIO crew has a reputation for generosity and we don't want to be embarrassed.
Fehr not! The NHL Players' Association is meeting this week and one of the items on the agenda is trying to convince Donald Fehr to take the job as executive director.
He spent 26 years running the baseball players union and he has two strikes in my book. His opposition to drug testing led to the sport's biggest scandal and his hard-nosed bargaining led to a strike in 1994 which led to the cancellation of the World Series.
Fans might remember that was the year the Expos had the best team in baseball but were deprived of a chance to prove it. phickey@thegazette.canwest.com
