What on earth is happening at Montreal’s English school boards? Obviously there’s enough to warrant serious government and police attention.

It all started as chatter over ethics violations and then finally an admission of guilt from the chair of the Lester B. board. That’s one issue, but now the government has appointed an auditor to look at the operations of both boards.

Even more ominous is the investigation underway by UPAC, the anti-corruption squad. They usually don’t get involved unless something smells. What is of particular interest to police are the international programs which bring in millions for the boards every year.

A crisis of confidence is the last thing our battered English public boards need, nor do we need to give anyone any reason to diminish some of the last English institutions in Quebec.


Name-calling politicians

Now this is delicious, and if it were dessert, I would ask for a second helping. Property Wars: Quebec style.

Our two opposition leaders are going after each other with knives, each hoping to be the true Quebecois alternative to the Liberals when the next election rolls around on Oct. 1, 2018.

The latest name-calling is over tax cuts. Lisée says Legault is part of Quebec’s elite because he is wealthy and owns a home in Outremont valued at $5 million.

Legault fired back that Lisée is not exactly a commoner, because his abode, a modest cottage, is valued at just over $1 million. Touché.

Sometimes the level of debate in Quebec doesn’t rise much above the schoolyard and arguments about whose mother wears army boots.  


Political winds changing

It was a quick save, but again it showed how too often city hall is out of touch. The city had the bright idea of erasing the name of Guido Nincheri from a park in the east end and renaming it for Quebec City which donated some statues for Montreal’s birthday celebration. Nincheri was the artist once described as the ‘Michelangelo of Montreal’ for his stained glass and frescoes:  a man who invoked a real sense of pride in Italian Montrealers.

The mayor, sensing the direction of the political wind, decided wisely to back down. The project to renovate the park is just one of the countless ways the city will spend $200 million of your money for an election-year birthday party. The dress code includes flip-flops.

And speaking of sensing the direction of political winds, the prime minister decided wisely that it probably would not be a great idea to attend the funeral for Fidel Castro.

It’s all about damage control after he heaped praise on the late dictator. Our PM pointed out Castro served his people as president for half a century – easy when you don’t have elections.

Now to many Canadians, Cuba is a cheap vacation with wonderful people, great beaches, and bad food.

But the dark side which sun seekers never see, except for the machine-gun-toting soldiers at the airports, is the Cuba where political dissent is not tolerated, where critics are imprisoned and people live on a subsistence diet.

Castro was not a mythic revolutionary hero; he was a dictator, a strongman whose people live in poverty.

Perhaps it’s something to think about when you are planning that next trip south. 

It’s a beautiful island with the warmest people around and where change and the winds of freedom can’t come soon enough.