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RICHARD MAHONEY richard.mahoney@eap.on.ca GSR council lauded for bilingualism stance
Three candidates are in the running for a vacant Harrington Township coun- cil seat that will be filled in a by-election March 3. Mariette Chasles, Pierre Gagnon and William Horrocks are seeking the number 5 councillor post formerly held by the late RandyWatson, who passed away October 29. This is the second time in less than a year that Horrocks has run for a council seat. Last summer, he lost by a margin of 303 to 240 to Peter Burkhardt in the race for the number 2 councillor seat. That post had been vacated by Claude La Roque, who lost to Jacques Parent by a margin of 480 to 131 in the contest for the mayor’s post that had been held by Keith Robson, who had earlier resigned. The new councillor will serve until No- vember, when municipal elections will be held across Québec. Three in race for councillor post event! Monette replied that council was justi- fied in pursuing the case against the for- mer mayor. “The community does not know the whole story. We have a right to defend ourselves,” she said. Some ratepayes, such as Jacqueline Rich- er, suggested council has become overly sensitive. Norman Bates insists that tax- payers merely want to know how their mu- nicipality is being administered.
CALUMET | In a rare show of support for Grenville-sur-la-Rouge council, about 100 people loudly applauded Tuesday night after members voted unanimously in fa- vour of retaining the municipality’s bilin- gual status. In a rare show of unity, council members, who rarely agree on any issue, endorsed a resolution stating that the municipality op- posed the section of a proposed provincial law, Bill 14, that would strip GSR of its bilin- gual designation. That message will be delivered to Argen- teuil Parti Québécois MNA Roland Rich- er, Mayor Diane Monette told the crowd crammed into the Centre Paul-Bougie in Calumet. “We will let him know where we stand,” said Monette. The Québec govern- ment is planning to enact legislation that would automatically remove bilingual sta- tus for any municipality whose non-franco- phone population drops below 50 per cent. About 26 per cent of the municipality’s population is English-speaking. According to the latest census, 1,935 residents of GSR are francophones; 720 are anglophones and 1,565 understand both official languages. Monette said the municipality’s bilingual status reflects the history of the municipal- ity and the mutual respect of both linguistic communities. However, the municipality was knocked
Photo Richard Mahoney
About 100 people applauded when Grenville-sur-la-Rouge council voted Tuesday to maintain its bilingual status.
Cheers become jeers During the question period, council was again criticized for spending taxpayers’ funds on legal disputes. The municipality is trying to have former mayor John Saywell declared unfit to hold public office because of alleged misconduct. Saywell has taken against Councillor Noël Baril, claiming a breach of the Québec municipal code of ethics. Noting that he quit in September, Saywell asked council to drop the action against him and save ratepayers money. “Where is this hate, anger and vengeance coming from?”Many who addressed coun- cil urged members to “swallow your pride” and drop the suit against Saywell.
for distributing a French-only calendar to residents. Tom Esliger congratulated council for its position on bilingualism. But, he noted, “Many people were hurt by the unilingual calendar.” A former mayor, Gary Cowan, gained widespread media atten- tion and support from other citizens, when he complained about the unilingual calen- dar. Monette has apologized, saying that the municipality wanted the calendar to be printed in both languages but the Mon- tréal production company could not do so. Later in the meeting, a citizen com- plained that notices advising electors of the upcoming mayoralty election were also unilingual French.
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