А в Канаде сегодня...

Ураган разрушил городок в Онтарио


Tornado-ravaged Ont. town 'will never be the same'

03/09/2011 7:10:59 AM

Saira Peesker
In the days after a category-F3 tornado left a path of crumbling buildings, overturned vehicles and uprooted trees in Goderich, Ont., affected residents had their hands full -- clearing roads, salvaging belongings and attending to basic needs like finding food and running water.


Now that the power is back on and most homeowners know whether their houses will be saved or demolished, residents have turned their attention to a new set of problems. Those who lost homes need places to live, employees of destroyed businesses need new forms of income, and almost everyone in the shell-shocked town of 8,000 is still grappling with the reality that their picturesque community has been drastically altered.








Signs of the storm are visible throughout the town, but nowhere is it more pronounced than its historic, octagonal square. Many of the buildings are missing chunks or visibly crumbling and almost all of the interior park's centuries-old trees were completely uprooted.

"It will never be the same," said farmer Gary Hewitt, who lives about 10 kilometres from town. "It's hard to accept."

Goderich's bustling commercial district, the Square has been cordoned off for more than a week, with its residents and business-owners evacuated and unsure when they'll be able to return. Dianne Colgan, the morning newscaster at Goderich radio station The Beach, estimated at least 20 residents were displaced from the Square.

Employees at the Sifto salt mine, the town's largest industrial employer, are also out of work due to the massive damage to the mine's above-ground facilities. Located within sight of one of the town's formerly bustling beaches, the mine was also the site of the tornado's only fatality. Normand Laberge, a 61-year-old employee from nearby Lucknow, died on the job while operating a boom that loads salt into ships.

Goderich's hardest-hit residential neighbourhood lies just east of the Square, where at least 13 homes have been declared structurally unsound and will have to be rebuilt. Dozens more will require significant reconstruction; their roofs covered in tarps, doors missing and windows shattered.

The one sizable business in that neighbourhood is a lumber yard, where haphazard piles of sticks and debris have replaced neatly stacked rows of two-by-fours. A mangled delivery truck sits out front and a sign on the business' office door reads "Closed."

Many in the neighbourhood have taken spray paint to the exterior walls of the condemned houses to thank the community for its support. The Purser-Hessel family home reads "What, me worry?", followed by "Thanks to all." Another, the home of 30-year-old Vanessa Yeats, says "Goderich loves Nessie," and "So much thanks and love, Ness."

"On my entire block, I don't think there's a house that will survive," Yeats said, as she recovered her few remaining possessions from the basement of a nearby house slated for demolition. "Everything's OK with me, other than the severe trauma of the event itself, and the trauma of losing a house that I love."

'Gawkers go home'

The scale of the destruction is hard to comprehend and has attracted near-constant visits from outsiders curious to see the flattened neighbourhood. Last week, most drivers on Yeats' block came with food, coffee or help for the affected homeowners. Now, much of the traffic comes from slow-moving vehicles, their drivers' mouths open wide as they watch the tornado survivors clean up their properties. In a town without a rush hour, the constant vehicle traffic has become tiresome for many in the neighbourhood.

After taking her salvaged belongings to a friend's house last weekend, Yeats returned home to find a sign erected on her lawn, reading "Gawkers go home!! (You still have one!!)." Much to her neighbour's disappointment, she took it down, throwing it into her condemned house through a busted window.

"I don't want to be represented that way... Everyone's been so great," she said, later adding, "But there have been a lot of people just driving around and gawking."

Yeats was already planning a move to Toronto before the tornado, but for other displaced Goderich residents, finding a place to live in the small town won't be easy.

"There are so many people in this... position," said Yeats, whose roommate plans to stay in Goderich and has been bouncing around between temporary accommodations. "There's not going to be any houses to rent."

The town has set up a Facebook group to act as a central location for vacancy postings, but those seeking homes on the page far outweigh those offering them. While many in the Lake Huron community offered up short-term stays in cottages and rooms for tornado "refugees," finding longer-term accommodation is proving much more difficult for many displaced residents.

About 1,000 people attended a community meeting in the local arena on Saturday, the first town-wide gathering since the disaster. Before it started, residents shared stories and embraces -- if they hadn't been directly affected, they all seemed to know someone who had. The entire community had spent the week absorbed in the relief effort, including Victim Services executive director Shelley Dorey, who lost her house in the tornado but went back to work almost immediately.

"I had to keep my mind busy," she told the sympathetic crowd in tears, later earning a standing ovation.

Elaborating on her organization's mandate, she encouraged anyone in town who needs to talk to visit Victim Services for help.

"Emotional support is one of the most critical elements of the healing process," she said.

In addition to the social services available for affected residents, financial help is also on the way. Short-term emergency grants were available the week after the storm, insurance is covering new homes for many who lost them, and people who still require compensation will be eligible for funding under the Ontario Disaster Relief Assistance Program. The province has so far contributed $5 million to the reconstruction fund, which is also accepting private donations that will be matched two-to-one by the provincial government.

Bruce Power, which operates the nuclear plant further north along Lake Huron, donated $180,000 to the effort, and is encouraging the town to use some of that money to buy new mature trees. Mayor Deb Shewfelt has said he'd like trees back in the Square in time for the Festival of Lights, held just before the Christmas holidays, but hasn't given an indication of when the downtown will be fully open for business.

From her position as a local reporter, Colgan says the biggest challenge facing the town now will be co-ordinating the reconstruction efforts and making sure everyone is on the same page.

"The town is obviously doing what they can on the official side of things, and the people are kind of doing their own thing to help out but there are some issues (it seems) getting everyone... firing on all the same cylinders," she wrote in an email. "I think council needs to keep the public more informed and on track with what is happening and still needs to be done."

Meanwhile, Shewfelt is promising the community formerly known as "Canada's Prettiest Town" will emerge as "Canada's Prettiest and Strongest Town."

"The Grand Old Lady's heart may have been ripped out," the town's website proclaims, "but in our hands it is beating stronger than ever!"

Saira Peesker lives in Toronto, but grew up in Goderich and visits often. She knows many of the individuals featured in this article.

http://news.sympatico.ctv.ca/home/tornado-ravaged_ont_town_will_never_be_the_same/322a153d

ничего себе ......

Police say man broke in to Celine Dion's home

The Associated Press

Wednesday, September 7, 2011 5:51 AM EDT

MONTREAL (AP) — A 36-year-old man has been charged after he allegedly broke into singer Celine Dion's home near Montreal, raided the fridge and even took the time to pour himself a bath, police said Tuesday.

He was nabbed by police in the Montreal suburb of Laval on Monday afternoon after the alarm system went off.

The international pop superstar and her husband, Rene Angelil, were not at home at the time. Dion and Angelil usually live in Florida but use the Laval residence when they come home to Quebec.

Laval police spokesman Franco Di Genova said the suspect was getting ready to take a nice hot bath when police arrived with a canine unit.

"He opened the water faucets, was pouring a nice warmish bath (and) he even managed to eat some pastry that was in the fridge," Di Genova said.

Di Genova said police worked their way through the house, starting with the basement and finally confronted the man on the main floor.

"The suspect was coming down the big staircase and was asking: `Hey, guys what are you doing here?'" Di Genova said.

"So the officers replied: `What are you doing here?' and they proceeded to put him under arrest."

Di Genova said the man had jumped a fence to get on the property and used a garage door opener that he found in an unlocked vehicle to gain access to the luxury residence.

Daniel Bedard, a Laval resident, was arraigned Tuesday on charges including breaking and entering, auto theft and causing property damage.

Di Genova said there was another incident at Dion's mansion in 2009 when another man jumped the fence, but was stopped by the security firm that was keeping an eye on the property before he could enter the home.


http://www.windstream.net/news/read.php?rip_id=%3CD9PJJT8O0%40news.ap.org%3E&ps=1016

the suspect was getting ready to take a nice hot bath when police arrived with a canine unit.

Бедняга) Неожиданно было для него

Долго думала, куда это запостить.
Флешмоб в Монреале, правда, годичной давности (к сожалению, с Брюно не связан).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B13k7U-WyK0&feature=related

Мне понравилось, здорово)))

Quebec militia sparks outrage, even among sovereigntists
Caroline Lepage, QMI Agency

First posted: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 12:30 PM EDT | Updated: Tuesday, September 20, 2011 12:37 PM EDT

MONTREAL - Photos and videos of gun-toting militiamen swearing to defend an independent Quebec have drawn the ire of sovereigntist politicians, activists and the military.

The Milice patriotique quebecoise (Patriotic Quebec Militia) says it's dedicated to "defending its people against foreigners and the protection of the civilian population."

The group says it's modelled on the militia that existed in New France prior to the 1759 British conquest, and the group also expressed support for the French rebels who tried and failed to overthrown British rule in the 1830s.

"Those who are willing to voluntarily sacrifice their lives for their country of Quebec deserve our love and support," the group says on its website.

The MPQ says it's strictly a defensive organization, but its website and Facebook photos have rankled soveregntists who have disavowed the group and its leader, Serge Provost.

Provost, who calls himself "major," can be seen in online photos showing off a VZ-58 semi-automatic weapon. Other pictures show him brandishing a revolver and a hunting rifle. Video posted on Facebook show men, clad in military fatigues, running in formation in a field and crouching to shoot at targets with rifles.

The group claims to have 800 members and it recently opened an army surplus store on Sainte-Catherine street, Montreal's main drag.

MPQ members plan to build a permanent training camp which will be linked to a shooting range. Provost didn't reveal the location in an interview with QMI Agency.

He also denied his militia would provoke people to commit acts of violence.

"Those aren't our values," he said. "Our goal is not to attack. We have a defensive mentality."

He says authorities are already aware of his group and are closely monitoring its activities.

Quebec provincial police say the group's weapons are legal, with certain restrictions. But a survivor of the 1989 Montreal massacre, Laganiere Benoit, says he's far from reassured.

"It scares me," said the engineer, who saw gunman Marc Lepine murder 14 woman at the Universite de Montreal.

"If these people think they're protecting us (Quebecers), they're out in left field. It crosses the line."

Sovereigntist groups were unanimous in denouncing the militia.

Mario Beaulieu, president of the Montreal Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society, said Quebec independence will be achieved at the ballot box, not by the gun.

"We are not anti-military, but we believe that an independent Quebec will be achieved in a democratic and non-violent fashion," Beaulieu told QMI Agency.

Former CSIS official Michel Juneau-Katsuya says the militia is "worrisome" given the fact that the masterminds of the 1970 October Crisis also began as a militia.

"Eventually they graduated to bigger things," he said of the Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ), which kidnapped a British diplomat and murdered a Quebec cabinet minister.

Juneau-Katsuya says separatist extremism gained new life in the 1990 when FLQ member Raymond Villeneuve returned from exile and formed a hardline group that committed acts of mischief and held marches across Quebec.

The re-emergence of the extremist groups has caught Ottawa's attention. A Canadian Forces spokesman tells QMI Agency that ad-hoc armed groups sporting military fatigues are cause for concern.

"When we see people in uniform, with weapons, it can be confusing (to citizens)," says Lt.-Col. Norbert Cyr. "This militia is not part of our entity. It is a potential problem."

Provost laughed when he was asked why his militia is needed given the existence of the military.

"We must be able to defend our own facilities and stop asking others to do things for us," he said.

Some excerpts from the manifesto of the Milice Patrotique Qebecoise (Patriotic Quebec Militia):

"The militia is dedicated to defending its people against foreigners and the protection of the civilian population."

"The ROC (Rest of Canada) has its army with which they have invaded our territory more than once and continue to threaten to do so. A militia supervised by professional soldiers allowed the French-Canadians to resist Anglo-America until 1760, for more than 150 years.

"(We're) modelled on the militia of New France, which allowed and still allows Switzerland to avoid being invaded and live in peace."

"Those who are willing to voluntarily sacrifice their lives for their country of Quebec deserve our love and support.

http://www.torontosun.com/2011/09/20/quebec-militia-sparks-outrage-even-among-sovereigntists

Sunny, а в Канаде его тоже отмечают? А я-то по серости своей, думала, что только в Америке

У нас начался Feux sur glace Telus. В этом году тема - сказки. В прошлую субботу была "Белоснежка и 7 гномов", а в эту "Спящая красавица". Действо проходит в Старом порту в Монреале.

Только посмотрите, что в Монреале творится. Марши, протесты, полиция использует слезоточивый газ...

Я читаю, что там происходит. Вроде, студенты начали протесты против высокой платы за образование. Провинция тут же ужесточила правила уличных демонстраций и поехало... Люди начали протестовать против этих правил.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Police+tear+smoke+bombs+after+Molotov+cocktails+reportedly+tossed/6647402/story.html

http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/arrests+injured+Sunday+protest/6651270/story.html

У нас их тоже по TV показывали.

Эта забастовка длится с января месяца. Студенты бастуют против повышения оплаты за учебу, хотя в Квебеке она самая дешевая в Канаде.
Насколько я поняла, уже министр образования подал в отставку.

Повышение обучения - это лишь предлог. Правительство объявило о поднятии платы за обучения НА 300 $ В ГОД!!!. По местным ценам это просто смешно. Любой студен на пиво, утреннее кофе и чипсы тратит раза в 3-4 больше в год. Причем государство дает стипендии и займы которые потом можно возвращать в течении нескольких лет. И потом многие студенты, кто действительно учатся, а не просто протирают штаны за партами не поддерживают этих забастовок.

В нашей прессе пишут, что плата за обучение в Квебеке может повыситься до 1,6 тыс. долл. А сколько вообще стоит обучение в Квебеке и в России, кто знает? Просто интересно сравнить...

У нас обучение в университете в большинстве своем бесплатное, не?)))

А для контрактников какой-то установленной суммы нет, даже на разных факультетах одного вуза сумма отличается. На геологическом факультете МГУ, когда я поступала, т.е. шесть лет назад, было что-то порядка 5000$/год.
Но я за всю свою университетскую жизнь встречала максимум человек 10, которые хоть что-то платили за первое высшее образование.

То есть ты хочешь сказать, что у нас бесплатное высшее образование? Или только в университете?

А чем университет отличается от, например, института?))) Или ты про Университет, как мы снобистски его называем?

Я ничего не утверждаю, потому что не задумывалась над этим вопросом, если честно. Но отучившись шесть лет в ВУЗе, считала, что у нас можно получить высшее образование бесплатно... По крайней мере, мне и 95 процентам моих знакомых студентов это удалось. Как-то я вообще удивлена разговору о платности нашего высшего образования, чуть-чуть в ступоре)
Да, есть, конечно, платные университеты и факультеты, но приличные и не частные ВУЗы бесплатные для первого высшего...

Просто все мои знакомые - в возрасте родителей абитуриентов, и все готовятся платить за своих отпрысков. От сумм у них волосы встают дыбом.
В МИФИ, например, в 2011 г. было порядка 90 000 - 150 000 в год (3-5 тысяч долл.) В Высшей школе Экономики - 360 000 в год (12 тыс. долл). Количество мест для бюджетников, как я слышала, сильно ограничено...

Ну если не можешь поступить на бюджет, надо либо платить, либо идти в то место, куда сможешь поступить, факт. Но это же не значит, что образование у нас платное, это значит, что конкретные абитуриенты учились плохо. ;)
В МГУ (если брать техников и естественников, про остальных не знаю и не буду врать) не больше 10% контрактников. Безусловно, есть пафосные специальности, где почти нет бюджетных мест, но мы не о пафосе, а об образовании. 90% бюджетных мест - это не "сильно ограничено".

Fluorine пишет:
Но отучившись шесть лет в ВУЗе, считала, что у нас можно получить высшее образование бесплатно... По крайней мере, мне и 95 процентам моих знакомых студентов это удалось. Как-то я вообще удивлена разговору о платности нашего высшего образования, чуть-чуть в ступоре)

+1. Почти все мои друзья учились или учатся на бесплатном. Вообще, не буду говорить за всех, но у нас на платном в основном учились те, у кого это было не первое образование, те, кому нужно было по работе, ну или те, кому образование не нужно, а нужны корочки или тупо мама с папой запихнули. Большинство таких к последним курсам отсеялось.

Ого....Это что случилось?Ураган?