Latest news with #EasternTownships
CBC
24-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Ericka Alneus sees herself as 'The Guardian of the Soul of Montreal'
In 2021, Ericka Alneus became a city councillor, and the member to Montreal's Executive Committee responsible culture and heritage. It's been four years, and now she's also responsible for gastronomy and one of Montreal's hot We find out what it all means, how she has moved the dial on the nightlife hot topic and how growing up in the Haitian community in the Eastern Townships sparked that flame to serve the public.
Globe and Mail
22-05-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Economist Dian Cohen shared her expertise widely through radio, TV and books
Dian Cohen wrote books and newspaper columns about retirement and advised audiences about life after work on hundreds of radio and television broadcasts. But while she may have known the secrets to a happy retirement, she was happier to keep on working. She wrote her final column just before her death on May 5 at the age of 92. 'This is my last column. I've loved every minute of writing them and answering your questions. My curiosity about how the financial world works has driven my efforts to provide you with insights. I learned early on that politics plays an outsized role in finance, but it's not the only factor,' began the column, which appeared in the May 13 edition of The Record, a daily newspaper in Quebec's Eastern Townships. Her parting wisdom included saving at an early age, making a budget and staying physically active. 'For Dian, work was a big part of what made life worth living,' said Dr. François Lamontagne, a medical researcher and professor at the University of Sherbrooke who worked with Ms. Cohen on volunteer projects. Ms. Cohen was an economist who spoke and wrote in plain English that people could understand, explaining the workings of the economy, markets and business long before business television became popular. 'In the mid-1980s on Canada AM we started using Dian for the occasional explainer,' said Eric Morrison who produced the program at the time. 'She was so good at making economics understandable and business interesting that we soon gave her a regular business slot every morning. She was always engaged, upbeat and positive to work with even with the 5 a.m. wake-up calls for a 6 a.m. start, which could get to be a grind for anyone.' Part of the time, she broadcast her CTV slot from New York, where she was a visiting fellow at the Americas Society. A car would pick her up at 4 a.m. to take her to a studio. Her New York experience led her to help found the International Institute for Sustainable Development. She was part of the delegation to the first Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. A trained economist, Ms. Cohen realized her strength wasn't in the world of academia but in explaining complex concepts to ordinary people. 'I knew I wasn't going to be the next John Maynard Keynes, but I realized I'm really good at communications,' Ms. Cohen said in a 2015 article about her in The Record. 'I took the theoretical stuff and made people understand it. 'For as long as I've been an adult, I've wondered why we don't teach money matters to children. We all learn how to read, we should all learn how far a dollar goes.' Her articles appeared in Canadian newspapers and magazines; for many years she was the Canadian correspondent for The Economist, the prestigious British magazine. She wrote seven books. Some of Ms. Cohen's economic advice in No Small Change, a book she co-wrote in the early 1990s, sounds as if it could have been spoken during the 2025 federal election campaign. 'What we have tried to show [in the book] is how to take a moderately competitive, low-growth, high-cost country and turn it into a world leader,' Ms. Cohen said in an interview with Statistics Canada in the summer of 1993. 'It is not impossible for Canada to get a big jump on the rest of the world, because we have a lot of world-class intelligence in the country.' Winnipeg seems to produce an outsized number of well-known economists, from Sylvia Ostry, formerly the chief statistician at Statistics Canada among other achievements, to Ms. Cohen. Born Dian Nusgart on July 11, 1932, she was the daughter of Hyman Nusgart, a grain broker, and the former Bernice Stern a homemaker. After attending public schools in Winnipeg, she studied economics and political science at the University of Toronto, receiving her bachelor's degree, then did further studies at McGill University. She married Maxwell Cohen, and they had three daughters. The couple divorced but she kept her married name. Along with her media work, Ms. Cohen also operated an economic consultancy, and she was in demand as a board member on several companies, including Canadian Pacific, Sun Life and Dorel Industries. In 1975, Ms. Cohen bought a property in Hatley in Quebec's Eastern Townships and kept a residence in Montreal while she was broadcasting and doing consulting work. She moved to the Townships full time around 1992. She was extremely active in the community and was the driving force behind the Massawippi Valley Health Foundation, a public clinic in the nearby town of Ayer's Cliff. 'It provides primary health care and illness prevention in an underserved rural area,' her family death notice said. 'Early on, Dian was the only player on the ice. It was a one-woman show, getting around the administrative barriers to opening a clinic. She succeeded against all the odds,' Dr. Lamontagne said. He also worked with Ms. Cohen on a project on advanced care planning. 'Earlier in her life she spent a lot of time in an ICU, so she had lived experience. We wrote a scientific article together,' said Dr. Lamontagne. 'Her intellectual fire never burned out. We worked together until she died.' Ms. Cohen was named a member of the Order of Canada in 1993. 'Economist, broadcaster and author, she has enlightened Canadians by demystifying the workings of the economy and the business world for more than 25 years,' the citation reads. 'She is an outstanding volunteer who has also donated a significant amount of her time to the YMCA and the Public Policy Forum.' She was also a made a member of the Order of Manitoba and was the recipient of three honorary degrees. Ms. Cohen also had her whimsical side. She had, according to her family, 'a passion for making preserves and pickles.' She also knitted animals, including penguins, which won prizes at local fairs. Ms. Cohen leaves her three daughters, Lisa, Nina and Tamara; and one grandchild, Michael Rivard. You can find more obituaries from The Globe and Mail here. To submit a memory about someone we have recently profiled on the Obituaries page, e-mail us at obit@
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Southwestern Quebec under severe thunderstorm watch, Montreal closes many municipal facilities
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) has issued several severe thunderstorm watches for southwestern Quebec on Saturday, including Montreal. As a result, the city has closed many of its facilities and advises people to verify whether their activities have been cancelled or not before heading to a municipal building. The City of Montreal's website has many tips for residents, including not using camping heaters in case there's a power outage, which might pose a "high risk of carbon monoxide poisoning." The federal agency recommends that people go indoors when "thunder roars." Eric Tomlinson, a meteorologist with ECCC, told Radio-Canada that tornado-risk zones are located east of the Richelieu River, in the Eastern Townships. "Today's atmospheric dynamics and stability mean that thunderstorms could potentially produce a tornado," he said.
CBC
17-05-2025
- Climate
- CBC
Southwestern Quebec under severe thunderstorm watch, Montreal closes many municipal facilities
Social Sharing Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) has issued several severe thunderstorm watches for southwestern Quebec on Saturday, including Montreal. As a result, the city has closed many of its facilities and advises people to verify whether their activities have been cancelled or not before heading to a municipal building. The City of Montreal's website has many tips for residents, including not using camping heaters in case there's a power outage, which might pose a "high risk of carbon monoxide poisoning." The federal agency recommends that people go indoors when "thunder roars." Eric Tomlinson, a meteorologist with ECCC, told Radio-Canada that tornado-risk zones are located east of the Richelieu River, in the Eastern Townships. "Today's atmospheric dynamics and stability mean that thunderstorms could potentially produce a tornado," he said.
CTV News
06-05-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital: Patients from across Quebec call for rebuild
Patients from across Quebec are calling on Premier François Legault to start rebuilding Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital as soon as possible. In an open letter obtained by The Canadian Press, the 45 or so signatories appealed to the premier's sense of responsibility, saying they are launching a 'national cry from the heart.' 'As you know, Maisonneuve-Rosemont is not just another hospital,' they state. 'Every year, thousands of Quebecers are treated there: premature babies from the Eastern Townships, cancer patients from the Laurentians, transplant recipients from Abitibi. 'We are these patients, these families, these survivors. (...) We have hoped, we have cried, we have healed within these tired but miracle-bearing walls.' If Legault postpones renovations on the building, he will go down in history as the man who 'mortgaged the health, not of a neighbourhood, but of a people,' according to the letter. 'You have the power to avert this predicted disaster,' they wrote to the premier. 'If nothing changes, this abandonment will be the reason you deplete in the hearts of Quebecers: not as a builder, but as the person who let down a jewel in the crown of our health care system,' they wrote. The signatories insist that they are not seeking to 'accuse,' but to point out that they are 'from Mauricie, the Laurentians, Lanaudière, the Eastern Townships and other regions of Quebec.' They are asking the premier to recognize that rebuilding Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital is not a 'local' request, but a 'national' priority. The hospital has been in the headlines for months now due to its alarming state of disrepair. Last Tuesday, high winds caused a major power cut and broken windows. The Legault government has been promising major renovation work at the hospital for years, but has since reneged on its promise, citing the budget situation and needs elsewhere. Under pressure, the premier said last week that he would try to find $85 million to start the first phase of the project, namely the construction of a car park. The subject is likely to come up again during the study of the Minister of Health's budgetary appropriations, which are slated to take place in the presence of Health Minister Christian Dubé on Tuesday in the National Assembly. The opposition parties and the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital coalition have invited the media to a joint press conference to provide an update on the situation early on Tuesday morning. – This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on May 6, 2024.
