Fun With The Montreal Canadiens

IT'S NOT PHOTOSHOP!!!

It's PHOTOFUNIA. Link

Habs Serve Up Holy Water at the Bell Centre

There's some who say that a trip to see the Montreal Canadiens play hockey at the Bell Centre is more than just entertainment. It's been compared to a religious experience, as fans soak up the heady atmosphere of the NHL's premiere temple of hockey. There, walking through the storied corridors amongst the pictures and statues of the sainted players of the past, it is said that one can feel the the presence of the famous 'ghosts' that surround and protect the team.

That's probably why a regular bottle of water undergoes a mystical transformation and becomes holy water, once it enters the hollowed confines of the Church of the Canadiens.

.....Otherwise how can the price be justified.

Francophone Quebeckers are TVholics

Last Sunday was not only an amazing example of how much television Quebec Francophones watch, but a testament to how little variety they enjoy.

A total of 3.5 million people were watching just three different shows at 8:00PM, Star Acadamie (Quebec-American Idol), the Jutras Award show (Quebec-Academy Awards) and Loft Story(Quebec-Big Brother)

That's over 50% of the entire French population of Quebec.

Star Acadamie drew an amazing 2.5 million viewers.
That means that 4 out of every 10 Francophone Quebeckers were tuned in!

Comparing the number of viewers proportionally, 4 times as many Quebeckers watched Star Acadamie as compared to Americans who watched last year's American Idol finale!

Quebec To New Doctors -Drop Dead!

Quebec doctors who are finishing their specialist training got a rude awakening as the government of Quebec announced that they are placing a hiring freeze on almost all specialties until 2011.

This means that the government will not offer approximately 400 jobs.

On February 2, the government dropped the bombshell through a directive that it sent to Quebec health and social services, confirming a moratorium on the hiring of new specialists.

Incredibly the mainstream press has completely missed this story, which is sending shock waves through the medical community.

'Residents' is the term used to describe doctors, who are training to become specialists. After four years of medical school, they typically spend another two to seven years working in a hospital setting in an apprenticeship program, learning the skills that they will specialize in.

Here's some sort of a list of what Quebec will no longer be hiring;

Imunologist/ Anesthesiologist / Cardiologist / Cardiovascular surgeon / Colon and rectal surgeon /Dermatologist - Diagnostic radiologist - Emergency medicine specialist - Endocrinologist -Forensic pathologist- Gastroenterologist- Geriatric medicine specialist - Gynecologist -Haemato-oncology/Hematologist -Infectious disease specialist Internist Medical geneticist / Neonatologist /Nephrologist / Neurological surgeon /Neurologist / Nuclear medicine specialist/ Obstetrician/ Occupational medicine specialist / Ophthalmologist - Oral surgeon / Orthopedic surgeon /Osteopath / Otolaryngologist / Pain management specialist - Pathologist / Pediatrician /Perinatologist / Plastic surgeon /Preventive medicine specialist /Psychiatrist /Pulmonologist / Radiologist /Reproductive endocrinologist / Rheumatologist/ Sleep disorders specialist/ Spinal cord injury specialist/ Sports medicine specialist/ Surgeon Thoracic surgeon/ Urologist/ Vascular surgeon

Here's what they're still hiring;

Family doctor (outside Montreal) / Radiation Oncologist /Haemato-oncology

So all that training is going to be Quebec's loss and somebody else's gain!

The Journal de Montreal has been blasting McGill because 52% of the doctors that graduate there, move out of the province. This moratorium should bring that number up to 95%, since the only jobs available, in family medicine, are located in the boonies.

On an ironic note, the Federation of Residents held its 13th 'Outside Quebec Career Day' and booths were reserved by 47 health care establishments from the rest of Canada and the U.S.

The event was attended by some 300 medical residents.

The 400 doctors that the government is sending out of Quebec means that the approximately 4,000 years of medical training, paid for by the people of Quebec, is being given away for nothing.
Shame on the government.

Shame on the media for not reporting it.

A Tale of Two Murderers

Two Quebec woman, both obviously mentally ill, are going to face completely different outcomes because one committed her crime in Quebec and the other in Vermont.

Louise Desnoyers, 48, drowned her 8-year-old son, Nicholas Desnoyers-Langlois, in Lake Champlain on August 15, 2006. She then tried to kill herself by drinking anti-freeze, but survived and was arrested the next day. Police say she killed the boy to spare him the pain of the imminent separation of her and the boy's father, after he announced that he was leaving her for another woman. She told police that her son was in a 'better place'

She has been incarcerated ever since, awaiting her trial.

A year ago, Judge Ben Joseph rejected a plea bargain that called for a 15 years in prison sentence for second-degree murder because the deal called for Desnoyers to do the time in Canada, where earlier parole is the law. The judge was not keen to accept that.

On Thursday, in a plea bargain, she agreed to plead no contest to second-degree murder. The terms of the agreement calls for between 10 and 15 years in prison, to be served in the United States. She will be formally sentenced at a later date.

In the Saguenay region of Quebec, Cathy Gauthier-Lachance, 34, faces three counts of first-degree murder and one charge of aiding her husband to kill himself, in an alleged murder-suicide pact. On New Year's Day, 2009, her husband and three children were found dead in their home.

Amazingly, three months after the crime, Judge Richard Grenier granted her request for bail after listening to testimony from the accused, her psychiatrist and a relative. He also ordered Gauthier-Lachance to stay in a transition house for women and to continue her therapy.

It's likely that when she does receive her sentence, it be infinitely less harsh than that of Louise Desnoyers and will probably be in a hospital or mental ward.

The chasm between American and Canadian justice is wide, the former seems overly vengeful, while the latter, overly lenient.

Which represents a better solution?

Aside from gun crimes, both countries have similar crimes rates (it's a myth that Canada has less crime than the US.)

But proportionally, for every person incarcerated in a Canadian jail there are 7 inmates in the United States penal system. That's a big, big difference!

The US regularly treats the mentally ill and young offenders, as ordinary criminals, something that the rest of western democracies have given up on. Much of the prison system in the US is privately run and for profit and some argue that it is a factor in the huge prison population. Empty prisons mean less profits.

On the other hand, Canadian prisons are all about getting offenders out as quickly as possible, with punishment an afterthought, often taking a distinct back seat to the cause of rehabilitation. Many victims of violent crime consider the short prison stays a violation of their rights to see justice done.

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