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Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard took advantage of a public appearance with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to repeat his wish for the province to sign the Constitution. Couillard said he wants Quebec to sign on by 2017, the 150th anniversary of Confederation. The premier made the comments Saturday during a Quebec City speech, at an event commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Sir George-Etienne Cartier, a French-Canadian statesman viewed as one of the Fathers of Confederation. Cartier’s vision for a united Canada that incorporates “a strong Quebec identity” could serve as an inspiration in future talks, Couillard said

GATINEAU — A former physical education teacher from Quebec has been sentenced to 20 months in jail for carrying on a two-year sexual relationship with a high school student. Despite her pleas in Gatineau court Friday to serve her sentence in the community, Tania Pontbriand received an 18-month sentence for two counts of sexual exploitation and a 20-month sentence for one count of sexual assault. She will serve the sentences concurrently. She was also sentenced to two years’ probation following her jail term. Pontbriand was convicted of the three offences in January for having a sexual relationship with her student...

...The bull-by-the-horns approach taken by Quebec’s Philippe Couillard. Less than two months after his April election as Premier, his government tabled legislation to tackle the almost $4-billion deficit facing municipal sector pension plans. This means taking on the powerful police and firefighter unions, which have staged loud protests and, bizarrely, worn skirts to work to show their defiance. But while he’s open to amending the bill, on which the government will hold hearings this week, the Premier insists the objective of 50-50 cost-sharing between employees and employers is non-negotiable. Active employees will be required to bear half the cost of...

I shall rend the heavens soon in a new way for all the Earth is about to witness and taste of My glory as I (( ( Roar ) )) out salvation over the children of My creation and Now in this Valley of Decisions I shall rise up the mountains that choose Me and have chosen Me . So watch and see for The Latter Rain is about to flourish My Lilies of The Valley I AM about to dress in My Glory Isaiah 64:1-4 64 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains...

More than 15 wasps stung Lucie Roussel's legs near her Quebec home. She became La Prairie's mayor in 2005 and recently won reelection to a third term. ... Paramedics gave her an EpiPen to treat an allergic reaction, but it didn't help, La Prairie spokeswoman Chantal Charron said. The 51-year-old mayor, who was apparently not allergic to bees, died at a nearby hospital from multiple stings and shock ... She leaves behind two teenage children — her daughter, Constance, and her son, Antonin. Her husband died several years ago from a heart attack

While the federal government ordered railroads a month ago to give states details about shipments of volatile crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken shale region, New York State officials haven’t decided whether to share that information with the public. The Associated Press and eight environmental groups filed Freedom of Information Law requests with the state Office of Emergency Management this week, arguing that it’s in the public interest for communities to know more about the shipments in light of at least eight major accidents during the last year, including one that killed 47 people in Quebec a year ago. The...

Quebec has adopted a right to-die bill in what is the first legislation of its kind in Canada. The federal Canadian government, however, has said it could challenge its legality. Bill 52 carried the day by a 94-22 majority. The legislation is officially dubbed “an act respecting end-of-life care.” …

Enlarge ImageThe vault. The sediments at the bottom of the lake in Northen Quebec's Pingualuit Crater hold unmatched clues to North America's climate record.Credit: Robert Fréchette / ARK; (inset) University of Arkansas SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA--A million years ago, a large meteorite smashed into what is now northern Quebec and created a crater that may become an unprecedented repository of data with which to study long-term climate change, researchers reported here this week at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Canada and the northern United States are dotted with tens of thousands of lakes, most of them formed by...

TORONTO — The RCMP has conducted searches in Ontario and Quebec as part of an investigation into a Muslim relief organization that federal auditors accuse of sending almost $15-million to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas. Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams raided the head office of the International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy — Canada in Mississauga, Ont. on Monday, as well as a private residence in Montreal. “An extensive amount of documentary evidence along with stored media, money and other records were seized,” the RCMP said in a statement issued shortly after the government announced the former charity...

The explosion destroyed six city blocks. Several of the 30 burning buildings were incinerated. Many ruptured tanker cars were bunched together like folds in an accordion. Still others, intact, could detonate at any second, and Pellerin could tell that much of the 1.5 million gallons of spilled oil had ignited and poured through the small Quebec town like lava. Canadian firefighters told Pellerin that “they actually saw people step out of their homes and be vaporized by the [burning] oil,” Pellerin told the U.S. Senate Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee in Washington on Wednesday

Devil And The Deep Blue "C" It is true what they say; sometimes you have to choose the lesser of two evils. And it takes a whole hell of a lot for me to cheer for corrupt and weak-willed Liberals. But tonight, after Pauline Marois got her derriere kicked, she can console herself with the notion that she is the only person thus far to make Liberals, Quebec Liberals, who don't deserve to have been returned to office but still were, look like the better option as far as I'm concerned. I want all of the self-professed oppression fighters to...

Quebec's Liberal Party is set to form a majority provincial government, routing a bid by Quebec's main separatist party for their own majority. Liberals have won 41% of the vote, with nearly all ballots counted. Parti Quebecois (PQ) leader Pauline Marois has resigned in response to the crushing defeat, with her party only obtaining 25%. She dissolved the PQ-led minority government last month, after coalition partners blocked the party's agenda. Liberal leader Philippe Couillard will now become the province's premier. The election centred on PQ's controversial Charter of Values, which would ban public employees from wearing religious items, and a...

KIEV - The man Russian President Vladimir Putin has cast as one of Europe's potential new Adolf Hitlers is a little late for coffee this Saturday morning. Igor Mazur, or Topoyla (Poplar) as he's known because he's 6'7" is the leader of the Ukranian Right Sector at Maidan, Kiev's Independence Square. The Right Sector are the radical nationalists of this Ukranian Revolution. There are others: the right-wing Svoboda (Freedom) Party, for one, which has an actual political following, 12 percent of the vote in the last elections. It used to identify itself as a national socialist movement, just like the...

As the U.S. Senate took up a bill to provide financial aid to Ukraine, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, rose to object to an IMF bailout Majority Leader Harry Reid attached to the legislation. In the process he blasted Reid for repeatedly demonizing the billionaire Koch brothers - Reid tried to blame the Koch brothers for halting progress on the Ukraine bill. "I'm beginning to think [the Koch brothers] are a character almost out of Dr. Seuss in the majority leader's mind, they are the grinch who stole Christmas in his telling," Cruz said. Cruz accused Reid of "using his...

SHERBROOKE, Que. — Pulling his ex-girlfriend's body from the rubble in Lac-Megantic, Que., led a young fireman to commit suicide, a coroner has ruled. The report, issued this week, follows widespread warnings about the toll that Canada's deadliest railway explosion has taken on support staff. The 25-year-old firefighter, whose name was redacted from the report, was one of the first responders to the train derailment and explosion on July 6. Forty-seven people died in the town near Quebec's border with Maine. Coroner Robert Giguere's report said the young man had only begun working as an apprentice firefighter 10 days earlier....

It's the middle of winter, so backyard rinks are in full bloom. Many you see are of the no frills variety -- some wood acting as the boards and a fresh sheet of ice with hockey equipment littered on top. But for Justin Lachapelle, a resident of St-Lazare, Quebec, he's taken his love for the Montreal Canadiens and his ability to build a backyard rink to an entirely different level. Not only does his 64-by-32 rink have re-used boards from a local rink, painted lines and face-off circles to make it look like Bell Centre, there's also a dressing room...

The Québec government moved forward Thursday with a proposed law that would ban public employees from wearing overt religious symbols, setting the stage for a showdown over the place of religion in the province. Québec Premier Pauline Marois said the law aims to preserve the province’s fundamental values, including the equality of men and women and the separation of church and state. Her separatist Parti Québécois on Thursday introduced its Charter of Values in the province’s legislature. … The law would forbid government employees from wearing Muslim headscarves, Jewish kippas, Sikh turbans and larger-than-average crucifixes. It would also prohibit citizens...

Here are some links about the battle between LifeSiteNews.com and Canadian Priest Father Raymond Gravel: Update on Fr. Gravel Lawsuit against LifeSiteNewsJohn-Henry Westen letter to National Post re: Gravel lawsuit articleFr. Raymond Gravel diagnosed with terminal cancer: launched lawsuit against LifeSiteNewsLifeSiteNews is being sued for $500,000 - this could shut us down!A key argument in this lawsuit is the following: [From the link above, quote from LifeSiteNews] Even though LifeSiteNews reports have overwhelmingly reported on what Fr. Gravel himself has publicly said, he is suing us for libel. Among other things, he argues that he isn’t pro-abortion, but he has...

The Quebec National Assembly voted today on Bill 52 (An Act respecting end-of-life care) that takes the Canadian province once step closer to legalizing euthanasia.The vote comes as an opinion poll indicates most Quebec residents do not favor the bill’s provisions for “medical aid in dying.”In an online survey of almost 500 residents conducted October 23-28 by Abingdon Research, 47% said Bill 52 requires further study, while another 14% expressed opposition. Only a minority – 35% – were in favour of the bill.Natalie Sonnen, executive director of LifeCanada, said the poll also highlighted problems with the bill’s use of the...

Montreal — The Quebec college of physicians has issued a warning to doctors to stop performing virginity tests, a practice linked to bridal purity and family honour. Gynecological exams for virginity certificates contravene the profession’s code of ethics on several grounds, including breaching patient confidentiality, said Charles Bernard, president of the Collège des médecins, in an interview. The practise is outrageous, repugnant, irrelevant and unacceptable, he said. “Imagine a doctor who does a gynecological examination with the sole purpose of … it goes beyond the imagination. And it’s degrading to women,” Dr. Bernard said. The College was responding to a...