Laval job bonanza
benefits brainiacs

The provincial government has seen the future of employment in Quebec and they’re telling us that it’s in Laval. A recent Emploi-Québec report suggesting that 33,500 jobs will open on Montreal’s northern island neighbour over the next nine years—half through attrition—should indeed be good news for the beautiful people of Laval. “Usually it’s Montreal or Toronto, but this time it’s us,” says Laval Youth Employment Centre representative Laurence Veilleux.

However, much of the local youth won’t need to bother applying. About 80 per cent of the jobs will require special training far beyond the reach of the increasing number of dropouts, whose lot, it would seem, will be to fight like wolves over the remaining 7,000-or-so broom-pushing-type jobs that remain.

Veilleux says that despite the availability of job training programs offered in colleges and universities, social problems are causing a plague of all-too-low levels of education among youth, who now require advanced expertise in a high tech world. Those with the right skills can expect to do well, however.

“We had a period where there were lots of workers but not many jobs; now it looks like it’s headed for the reverse. The pendulum is swinging back,” says Veilleux.

Those interested in figuring their angle on the best-paying jobs can attend a free professional training salon at the Centre Sport Plus (2890 Dagenais W.) on Nov. 7, 8 and 9. Call (450) 662-7000 ext. 1740 for details. : » Kristian Gravenor

Benny Farm’s
non-consensus

To great fanfare, the Canada Lands Company announced two weeks ago that a consensus was finally reached with NDG community groups on its Benny Farm property. It was agreed that 75 per cent of the land would be used for low- and middle-income housing, with the rest set aside for recreational projects.

However, one major stakeholder—the Fonds foncier communautaire Benny Farm—asserts that major issues remain. “Four days of discussions did not even touch a large number of the important issues that have preoccupied NDG residents over the past decade,” says spokesperson Lucia Kowaluk. “A consensus on several issues is not equivalent to a consensus on the entire development process.”

These unresolved questions include whether the existing buildings will be renovated or demolished, whether the site will have an integrated administration or one carved up into independent parcels, the means available to keep the proposed “affordable” housing affordable over time and whether community needs, such as job creation and training, will be integrated through community services into the development process.

The group is also worried that public meetings held Oct. 30 and this Saturday, Nov. 2, will be mere examinations of architectural drawings and will steer clear from the unresolved issues. Kowaluk concluded that this is not “genuine community input and is a far cry from the process of many months and years during which the FFCBF worked with the community to develop its proposals.” : » Wayne Hiltz

Human shields
in the olive groves

Rachel Engler-Springer, sister of the Concordia Student Union’s VP Communications Yves Engler, recently in the news himself for his Oct. 16 on-campus arrest, arrived in Bethlehem last Saturday for human shield duty. This to protest the actions of militant Israeli settlers’ organizations, who over the past few weeks have been waging a country-wide campaign of violence, intimidation and harassment against Palestinian olive harvesters to deny them a vital food and cash crop. The Israeli army’s reaction was an Oct. 21 ban on Palestinian olive picking. The International Solidarity Movement responded by sending foreign volunteers into Palestinian villages and olive groves as human shields to protect the harvesters.

“My area of [graduate school] research is food security, so I have a particular passion for the right of people to feed themselves and their families,” says Engler-Springer.

Last Thursday, the Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported that two olive pickers, one an elderly woman, were injured by stone-throwing settlers near Bethlehem before being forced out by gunfire. Other villages in the Bethlehem area reported similar attacks. On Oct. 17, according to the Jerusalem Post, one Palestinian was killed and five were wounded.

Engler-Springer returns to Montreal on the morning of Nov. 15 and will be speaking about her experiences that same evening. CSU VP Academic Ralph Lee says her talk will take place at Concordia University, despite the moratorium on Mid-East activities. Her e-mail dispatches and those of other international volunteers can be seen on www.freepalestinecampaign.org and www.palsolidarity.org. : » Ken Hechtman

Angel >> More investment in wind power This week, Canada’s largest private sector power generator, TransAlta, announced it was buying Vision Quest Windelectric, a wind power firm, for $37-million, and would invest an estimated $2-billion in wind power over the next decade. Alberta is already a big user of wind power, producing by far the most in the country. Wind power itself is making great strides: it now costs between $60 and $70 per megawatt-hour, and is close to being competitive with natural gas and coal. Plus, after initial capital expenditure on turbines, there is little operational cost, and none for fuel.
Insect >> McCarthyite Web site Campus Watch Hearkening back to the bad old days when free speech was fine as long as it was pro-USA, Campus Watch (www.campuswatch.org) is a truly alarming site that urges students and faculty to denounce profs and activists they think are anti-American or anti-Israeli. Created by Daniel Pipes, founder of the right-wing think tank Middle East Forum, Campus Watch’s homepage contains such articles as “Harvard’s Un-American Activities,” “Academic Appeasers” and perhaps most frighteningly, “Campus Watch Lists 108 Academics Supporting Apologists for Terrorism.” It essentially stifles academic debate by questioning the political loyalties of anyone who criticizes U.S. foreign policy.