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by Jason LaRose
January 29, 2014, VANCOUVER, B.C. (ISN) – Hockey Canada announced Wednesday the three individuals that have been named to the 2014 class of Distinguished Honourees of the Order of Hockey in Canada. These recipients will be honoured in June at the 2014 Hockey Canada Foundation Celebrity Classic in Vancouver.
Hockey Canada introduced the Order of Hockey in Canada in April 2012; the program annually honours a select number of individuals whose "role or service in the game is recognized as extraordinary" in Canada.
This class of three individuals brings the total number of honourees to 11, joining the first class of Distinguished Honourees Jean Béliveau, Cassie Campbell-Pascall, Wayne Gretzky, Gordie Howe and Gordon Renwick, and the 2013 class of Paul Henderson, Dave King and Mark Messier.
The selection committee met Jan. 28 and went through an election process that identified three new honourees (listed alphabetically):
Clare Drake, 86, is the most successful hockey coach in Canadian university history, with 697 wins upon his 1989 retirement. Over the course of his career behind the bench, the Yorkton, Sask., native led the University of Alberta Golden Bears to six CIAU championships and 17 Canada West titles. Drake also coached in the NHL and WHA, as well as internationally, serving as Canada's National Men's Team co-coach at the 1980 Olympic Winter Games, guiding Canada to its first championship at the 1984 Spengler Cup, and acting as a mentor coach for Canada's National Women's Team leading up to the 1998 Olympic Winter Games. Drake also coached football while at the University of Alberta, becoming the only coach in CIAU history to lead both sports to national titles. He received the 2006 Geoff Gowan Award, which is the top award given by the Coaching Association of Canada, was named to the Order of Excellence by the Province of Alberta in 2008, was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1989, and was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2013.
France St-Louis, 55, from Montreal, Que., is a legendary alumna of Canada's National Women's Team. Over the course of her on-ice career, St-Louis won five gold medals at the IIHF World Women's Championship, captaining the team in 1992 and 1994; claimed a silver medal at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan; and won gold medals at the 3 Nations Cup and Pacific Rim tournaments, serving as alternate captain at both events. Most recently, St-Louis was named assistant chef de mission for the Canadian Olympic Team at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. She has served as a coach mentor for France's national women's team through the IIHF Ambassador and Mentorship Program to help grow the game globally; works as a coach and teacher at the Cégep du Vieux-Montréal; and is a technical consultant for the University of Montreal Carabins women's hockey team. St-Louis was twice named Quebec's most valuable athlete in female hockey, and in 2003 was inducted into the Quebec Sports Hall of Fame.
Steve Yzerman, 48, of Nepean, Ont., played 22 seasons in the NHL, all with the Detroit Red Wings, winning three Stanley Cups. He sits sixth in NHL history in scoring, eighth in goals and seventh in assists. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 1998, played in nine NHL All-Star Games, and won the Frank J. Selke Trophy in 2000, Bill Masterton Trophy in 2003 and won the Lester B. Pearson Award in 1998. Yzerman played for Canada's National Men's Team at the 1985 and 1989 IIHF World Championships and claimed a bronze medal with Canada at the 1983 IIHF World Junior Championship. He served as executive director and general manager for Canada at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, as well as the 2007, 2008 and 2013 IIHF World Championships, winning two gold medals and one silver medal, while also serving as vice-president of the Detroit Red Wings. He is now vice-president and general manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning and executive director for Canada at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Yzerman was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2009.
Candidates for election as Distinguished Honourees of the Order of Hockey in Canada shall be chosen "on the basis of their outstanding contributions or service to the growth and development of the sport of hockey in Canada, which may include players, coaches, officials, administrators, executives, trainers, physicians, inventors or any other person whose role or service in the game is recognized as extraordinary."
Candidates are eligible as long as they have concluded their career as an active player or official, if either is applicable, for a minimum of five playing seasons before their election. All other candidates may be either active or inactive at the time of his or her selection. However, there will be no posthumous appointments to the Order of Hockey in Canada.
A selection committee of 12 members was appointed by the Order of Hockey in Canada executive committee, which was established by Hockey Canada. The selection committee members, representing a cross-section of individuals with great and varied experience around the game of hockey in Canada, have been selected for a three-year term and can serve for a maximum of nine years. Each committee member can only bring forward one name as an official nomination for consideration annually. After inducting five individuals in the first group in the spring of 2012, there will be a maximum of three recipients annually going forward.
The entire selection process is confidential, and the names of those candidates not selected will not be disclosed.
OHC executive committee: Murray Costello, Jeff Denomme, Grant Fagerheim, Jim Hornell and Bob Nicholson
OHC selection committee: Jim Treliving (chairman), Gilles Courteau, Joe Drago, Pierre LeBrun, Roy MacGregor, Bob McKenzie, Pat Quinn, Glen Sather, Danièle Sauvageau, Scott Smith and Donna Spencer
The 11th annual Hockey Canada Foundation Celebrity Classic will be coming to Vancouver on June 23-24, 2014. The foundation's annual gala and golf tournament celebrates hockey heritage and the on-ice accomplishments of Hockey Canada's national teams during the 2013-14 season. The 2014 gala will be held Monday, June 23 at Rogers Arena, home of the NHL's Vancouver Canucks. Northview Golf and Country Club in Surrey, B.C., will play host to the celebrity golf tournament Tuesday, June 24, with each foursome to include a celebrity.


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Tasted on: 9th December 2015
Source: Sample
Price: $55
Alcohol: 12.5%
Closure: Cork
Website: http://kreglingerwineestates.com/
Follow me: http://twitter.com/TheVinsomniac
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A fitter and more adventurous home swap generation leaps,
climbs and pedals into retirement
Correction: A previous version of this story indicated the wrong age at which Glenn and Ronda Olson of Washington state heard President John F. Kennedy tout the then-new Peace Corps. They were in their preteen years, not in their 20s.
Gretchen and Harry Schafft, who do home swaps in Europe as a way not be a typical tourist, are seen in their living room on March 8 in Silver Spring. (Mark Gail/ The Washington Post)
By Tara Bahrampour March 16
A generation ago, Americans' idea of retirement travel might have involved a Caribbean cruise, a casino vacation or a European shopping trip. It would not have typically included trekking in the Himalayas, clearing invasive weeds on a volcanic island, canoeing through crocodile-infested waters in Nepal or, at the extreme end, selling the house to fund years of travel.
But little is typical among today's retirees, who increasingly are leaping into more adventurous activities than their parents ever dreamed of.
Partly this is because they can — many older Americans are fitter and more active than their parents were and more creative about how they spend their time and money. And as baby boomers start to reach retirement age, many are eager to reconnect with the adventure and service ethos of their youth with Home Swap.
Capitol Hill resident Kate Patterson, 56, joined people half her age on a grueling, three-week off-trail hike last year through Montana's Beartooth Mountains. The trip involved carrying a 45-pound pack, leaping between boulders and slithering down slick scree, and she suffered a deep gouge in her leg along the way.
"I figured if I'm going to do this kind of wilderness adventure, then I've got to do it now or I'm not going to do it," said Patterson, who retired last year as managing editor for visual storytelling at USA Today. "I really want to be able to sit on my porch and rock without saying, 'I wish I'd done that.' "
Kate Patterson on a three-week backpacking trip in the Absorka Beartooth Wilderness in Montana on July 14, 2013. (Courtesy of Kate Patterson)
So, she is front-loading the adventure. Last year, she volunteered to help the Limahuli Garden and Preserve on the Hawaiian island of Kauai weed invasive plants and replace them with endangered ones, and this year she plans to help rehabilitate a salmon habitat in Oregon.
"It's like a vacation with a cause — you get a real insider's perspective," she said. "You get to go where other people don't get to go."
The number of men over 50 traveling overseas from the United States rose 70 percent from 1993 to 2012, and the number of women over 50 rose 141 percent, according to the Commerce Department's Survey of International Air Travelers. The biggest increases were among those 65 or older.
Over the same period, a cottage industry has burgeoned around adventurous travel for older people. Overseas Adventure Travel, a Massachusetts-based company designed for people 50 and older, served 40,000 clients last year, up from 29,000 in 2004 and 1,011 in 1994. At HomeLink USA, a house-swapping organization, 65 percent of clients are retirees and empty nesters, up from around 50 percent in the 1980s.
The difference reflects the values of a generation that was the first to travel extensively in its youth and has no qualms about spending money on immediate pleasures rather than saving for hard times.
"In earlier generations, it would be incredibly unusual," said Elinor Ginzler, director at the center for supportive services at the Rockville-based Jewish Council on the Aging. "A couple of generations ago, you didn't move away from your family and raise your own family. You stayed. Those were your roots."
Baby boomers were unfettered by the sorts of restraints that held back earlier generations, Ginzler said. "As college folks, they wandered around Europe for two years after they graduated. I can see a version of that now, 40 years later — 'I've got no strings, and I've got nothing holding me down.' "
Gretchen and Harry Schafft are seen in England on a Home Swap. They are shown on a day trip to the seaside. (Family photo)
In their youth, baby boomers also embraced the philosophy of making the planet a better place.
Glenn and Ronda Olson of Washington state, both 63, were preteens when they heard President John F. Kennedy tout the then-new Peace Corps, but it took them four decades, after raising their family, to sign up.
"There was something about his promoting the Peace Corps that stayed with me forever," Glenn Olson said in a Skype interview from Cimislia, Moldova, where he is a consultant in a regional development center and she is a health education teacher.
Part of the appeal, he said, was getting to live, eat and work with Moldovans — an urge his parents would likely not have understood.
"My father had served in World War II, so he'd had his adventure," he said. "I think for my parents, their mind was set on getting the kids' food on the table."
Linda Schwartz, 58, a semiretired lobbyist in the Cleveland Park neighborhood, said her travel plans as she ages are far different from her parents' trips to Paris and London, where her mother liked to shop.
"I would say I'm in better shape than they were. It just seemed like they looked a lot older than I feel at their age," said Schwartz, who takes two or three major trips a year. They have included travel in India and Bhutan, a hiking trip to Machu Picchu in Peru and a charity bike ride in Israel that clocked 75 miles a day.
Such adventurous impulses are also familiar to some born before the boomers. Gretchen Schafft, 75, and her husband, Harry, 81, of Silver Spring, have swapped their house every year for the past five years with homeowners from around the United States and other countries, finding small towns where they can immerse themselves for several weeks in the local culture.
In Saffron Walden, a town near Cambridge, England, they worked in a municipal garden and served soup to older people. In Ireland, their local butcher invited them to a private home to listen to live music.
"It's a different feeling when you're really integrating into the community," Schafft said. "That kind of experience is more typical when you're doing a home exchange than when you're coming by bus and have a list of things you must see because that's what the guidebook says."
The trend reflects an evolving cultural understanding of what it means to grow old, said Larry Minnix, president and chief executive of LeadingAge, an association of nonprofit aging-services providers. "Fifty years ago you had rest homes; 100 years ago you had homes for old women and widows of the Civil War," he said. Now, even people in retirement communities "are not just going on the leaf tour and playing bingo. What people are looking for are choices, flexibility."
Today's older travelers want "more cultural, hands-on experiences — eating at people's houses, going to people's vineyards," said Denise Gibson, a travel agent for AAA in Tyson's Corner.
Whereas earlier generations might have taken a seven-day cruise to Alaska, now they might go on safari, or in the case of some military veterans, return to where they served, Gibson said. "People want to go back to Vietnam and visit and see how that has changed and what's new."
Travel shows on television have encouraged the thirst for adventure. "They're seeing these things and saying, 'I can do this,' " Gibson said.
Travel is also possible now in areas that weren't accessible 30 years ago: the Siberian railroad from Vladivostok to Moscow, a river cruise in China. Technology helps travelers stay connected to family back home. The Olsons Skype with their children and have had friends visit from the United States.
Renting a home abroad can be cheaper than staying in hotels, but it still costs money. Leasing, swapping, or selling one's home can help subsidize a trip, and some extended travelers control costs by alternating expensive destinations such as Norway with cheaper ones such as Ecuador.
Lynne Martin, 73, and her husband, Tim, 68, are an extreme version of this. Three years ago, the grandparents of four sold their house in Paso Robles, Calif., and embarked on an extended journey. They have lived in nine countries so far, staying at least a month in each, with the goal of finding more authentic experiences than their parents' cohort sought out.
"I think we're really going to keep doing this until the wheels fall off," said Martin, who chronicles their travels on a blog and next month will publish a book about their adventures. "We look better and feel better than we did when we started. As long as the health holds out." If a serious health problem were to arise, she said, they would probably return to the United States. "But we really don't worry about that too much."
Is eternal travel ultimately satisfying? "I just find it hard to believe that after a year or two of that, that most people wouldn't be yearning to put down roots," said Marc Freedman, the founder and chief executive of Encore.org, which supports people in second or third careers. He recalled a group who had planned to spend their retirement in RVs. After a while, he said, "they found it unfulfilling and then hooked up with Habitat [for Humanity] and built homes."
Tara Bahrampour, a staff writer based in Washington, D.C., writes about aging and mental health.


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Is This the End of the Worlds?
C.S. Lewis dedicated his classic fantasy novel "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" to his godchild, Lucy Barfield, but apologized for the fact that she was already too old for fairy tales. "I wrote this story for you, but when I began it I had not realized that girls grow quicker than books," Lewis wrote.
Fantasy is long, hard work. God took six days to create the earth, but writers often spend decades building fantasy worlds and years more detailing and expanding them.
L. Frank Baum published "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" in 1900 and continued exploring the world of Oz in books until his death in 1919. George R.R. Martin began "A Game of Thrones," the first volume of his "A Song of Ice and Fire" fantasy series, in 1991, published it in 1996, and today, more than twenty years after he started, he is still two books away from finishing the seven-book saga.


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". . . the value of an institute such as SLIG, NIGR, or IGHR is the chance to spend five full days thinking about genealogy without the distractions of my regularly daily life at home. The 'content' of the courses is, of course, valuable, but for me it is the week of thinking about the bits and pieces of the course content that give me ideas for my own research that is really valuable." ~Jay Fonkert, CGGenealogy institutes provide an immersive training experience. Educators have long known the best way to learn a language, a concept, or a skill is to be completely immersed in the learning process. Institutes allow students to focus their energy 100% on the learning process and to leave the many distractions of everyday life at home.
Traditional research into human learning holds that there are three learning styles or modalities/means of learning: auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. New research in human learning hypothesizes three slightly different modalities of learning: Heart (feeling), Mind (thinking), and Body (experiencing). Genealogy institutes provide students with all three modalities under both hypotheses, and thus are the most comprehensive avenue for genealogical education. The experience of having all necessary modalities met is magnified by the immersive nature of an institute.
Auditory/Visual/Kinesthetic Learning Modalities
"Institutes offer hands-on learning opportunities unavailable elsewhere. At my last institute class I marked graves in a cemetery with a handheld GPS device, used land-platting software, and analyzed original prints of historic maps." ~Cafi CohenMost literature on these three learning modalities states that roughly 65% of adults are visual learners, roughly 30% of adults are auditory learners, and roughly 5% of adults are kinesthetic learners. However, the literature goes on to state that rigorously categorizing learners is not a useful exercise--in fact most of us lear best through a combination of two or more learning styles. How do genealogy institutes address all three learning modalities?
- Auditory--the most traditional method of learning for adults, it is also the most commonly used teaching method. Auditory learners need to hear the information. Genealogy institutes all strive to use the best lecturers in the business. These individuals are engaging speakers and know how to engage their audience through humor, stories, question and answer sessions, and interesting lectures.
- Visual--the second most common learning style, this is slightly less common in general genealogy conferences. A talented teacher, such as those who teach at genealogy institutes, know how to use visual aids such as power point, syllabus materials, and advanced reading assignments to enhance the learning experience. Within the genealogy institute lectures are enhanced and points emphasized through the use of power point; slides are never used as a prompt for the speaker. Many institute courses provide students with advanced reading material as well as periods of classroom time dedicated to reading materials followed by discussion. This, paired with engaging lectures, meets the needs of roughly 95% of all learners--needs which may or may not be met through other genealogy educational medium.
- Kinesthetic--what sets most genealogy institutes apart from other quality educational experiences are the hands-on activities provided for students. These often include field trips, computer labs, homework assignments, and in-class workshops. It is these activities, more than any other, which set a genealogy institute apart.
Heart/Mind/Body Learning Modalities
"I find them at the same time inspirational and grounding." ~Lisa McKinneyWhile the literature on these alternate learning modalities is newer and less proven, it nonetheless provides useful insight into the learning process, and into why genealogy institutes are held in such high regard by those who have attended them.
- Heart--the heart modality is said to be engaged when the learning process evokes an emotional response. These emotional responses may be excitement, sentiment, pride, anticipation, or a host of others. We see this modality being met at genealogy institutes when instructors teach with humor or intensity, when they engage students emotionally in the outcome of a case study, or when they provide an activity that evinces pride in the student.
- Mind--the most obvious modality to be met at a genealogy institute, the theory holds that in order to process the information completely, a student's mind must be engaged and challenged. This, more than any other, is the trademark of the genealogy institute. The sheer density of the material challenges the student to remain mindful and intellectually engaged. Even during off-times the immersive nature of an institute means that lunches, breaks, and evenings are filled with spirited discussion among fellow students and instructors.
- Body--similar to the kinesthetic learning modality, genealogy institutes engage the physical side of learning through field trips, group work, and exercises requiring students to write and/or draw (i.e. platting a deed) during class.
The immersive nature of an institute, and its unique ability to provide for all learning modalities make them an educational opportunity well worth the extra money. Because there are so many excellent reasons to attend a genealogy institute, this will be the first in a series of blog posts.
Do you find that your learning style is met through genealogy institutes?


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Don't mess with "Hunted" star Melissa George.
The Australian-born actress – best known for her TV turns on "Alias" and "In Treatment" – returns to the small screen, and while her new series airs on Cinemax, a pay cable network known for its late night lack of wardrobe, she's fighting to get the word out that her new espionage thriller is a class act, co-produced by HBO and the BBC. And like its companion series "Strike Back," "Hunted' is a full-tilt action-fest, leaving George feeling fully capable of defending the show's honor, as PopcornBiz found out.
So even though we'll be watching the show on Cinemax, we shouldn't expect a certain, uh, physicality to the role beyond the kick-ass action?
Take it easy! First of all, there's no fighting naked – rule number one. Rule number two: it's HBO. They're not going to have you running around naked. You're talking about replays of movies that they show on After Hours two years ago. Since then, there's no Skinemax, as I'm sure you're referring to.
HBO also makes 'True Blood,' and so you never know what you'll get called upon to do, right?
Yeah, but fighting naked? Who the hell do you think that I am? I'm feisty, so watch out!
What percentage of stunts would you say you're doing?
Well, all of it, as you can see there: It's my face. I got few injuries running around in London. The others, not so much – me: a split lip. A black eye, a cut face. I've got a very bad hand and I've got a very bad left hip, which I'm getting better before next season.
Are you used to that level of physicality?
Not really, no. I do 'In Treatment' where I'm sitting on a sofa and then I do 'The Slap' which is not really anything physical at all. This one shocks you a little bit because it's not just one hour a week. It's actually eight hours a day and your body does wear, because it's violent. It's a lot of aggression and a lot of quick moves. It's not low-impact. It does shock your body. I pick up fights very, very easily, and I don't want to just make it look like a fight, as you can see. It's so real. It's not fancy, new moves. It's just fighting for your life. Oh, yeah. When you see that all on the show, when you see the fight in Tangier, in Morocco, it's very realistic.
What was it like doing the scenes where you had little or no dialogue?
We always say that the camera photographs thought. When we're feeling it you're feeling it. Words get in the way of a good story, I believe. You speak when you need to. In this case, it's a lot of intimate, internal struggle. She's speaking French in the first five minutes. She's speaking Spanish. She's speaking Arabic. She's got a lot of languages, but when you see her in Scotland there's no one to talk to. So a less cinematic show would pick up the phone probably and explain the narrative to a friend on the phone. What we did is remove that. You know what she's feeling. You know what she needs to say, but you want to wait to hear it.
And you have a real international cast. What's that been like?
I live in New York, am an American citizen. I've lived here since '98. This is created by an American, shot in Europe. I'm an American nanny in this and a British girl. So really, it's showing that television can be all things and Americans love that. They love international shows….When I read a script and there's three moments that touch me – I'm in. In the first one it's the storyline about losing her child. It was the moment where she sees her love after a long time and it's the fact that it shot in Morocco, Scotland and London. Within in the first 30 minutes we're in three countries. Fabulous.
How important is it for you to get away and experience the places that you're in?
It's really important for your life, but also for the character. She was at the top of her game in Morocco. So, I had a guide take me for two full days to all the places that Sam would've gone to really feel it, really love it and really get into it. That was a lot of fun.
Have you been an extensive world traveler in your own life?
Yeah. I have homes in Buenos Aires, New York City and I'm living in Paris now. It's good and bad. I think sometimes it makes you feel confused as to where your center is, because you're so stimulated by different accents, languages and food and culture and you kind of love it all. At the end of a year you're like, 'Okay, where was I?' Sometimes when you live and work, like I'm sure most of the world does, you live in your home and you go to work, you have a sense of balance and a sense of stability. That's the negative of what I don't have. But at the same time you're a gypsy and that's the lifestyle of an actor.
Melissa George: Happy and "Hunted" For Cinemax
The "Alias" actress headlines the cable network's high class thrill-fest.
Don't mess with "Hunted" star Melissa George.


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MONTREAL — Until the mid-1990s, a Montreal city councillor wasn't allowed to phone a municipal civil servant, much less step foot inside a bureaucrat's office.
The separation between the political branch of the city and the civil service was as sacrosanct as the separation between church and state, says "Carl," a long-serving Montreal civil servant who retired while that division, which had existed for decades, was still in force during the 1990s.
But things changed in December 1994, when the newly elected mayor at the time, Pierre Bourque, and the Quebec government quietly discarded the provision amid a slew of amendments to the city charter.
"Now you see where that has brought us," said Carl — not his real name — referring to what witnesses at the Charbonneau Commission have described as incestuous relations between municipal employees, Montreal politicians and city contractors who enjoyed regular direct contact during the mid-2000s.
Carl spoke on condition that his real name not be used, saying that he doesn't want to be dragged into the public spotlight.
Carl and other former civil servants say they are convinced the system of collusion, kickbacks and influence-peddling being laid out by the commission has its roots in the erosion in the mid-'90s of the line dividing the political and the civil service branches.
As a minimum, they argue, the city needs rules prohibiting access to civil servants whose job it is to evaluate such matters as budget spending and zoning changes from a neutral and professional position and issue recommendations to the city's political decision-makers.
The issue has been discussed recently among the unions representing Montreal's municipal employees.
"We asked ourselves the question," said Gisèle Jolin, president of the union representing the city's 1,700 professionals, the Syndicat des professionnelles et professionnels municipaux de Montréal.
"Are there elected officials who call civil servants to find out where they are in a file of interest to them? It's done. But that shouldn't exist. Are there elected officials who call civil servants to pressure them to advance their file? It's done. But that shouldn't exist.
"You need a clear chain of command. The directors of city departments have to be accountable to elected officials, but their employees should be accountable to their director and no one else. That demarcation line is less clear than before."
When he was a young urban planner at the city in the 1980s, Carl said he was once summoned by then-mayor Jean Drapeau to meet with a city councillor to discuss a project that he was evaluating in the councillor's district. The councillor had asked Drapeau for permission to meet with Carl to inquire about the file, and Drapeau required the meeting to take place in his office with the mayor as witness, Carl said. Drapeau observed the meeting, but offered no opinion on the matter, Carl said.
"That was the only way a councillor was allowed access to a civil servant," he said, noting that the separation had a lot to do with the fact that councillors during the Drapeau years were little more than yes-men who cow-towed to the boss-mayor.
The separation between the civil service and politicians became formalized when the reform-minded Montreal Citizens' Movement (MCM) was elected to power in 1986.
Then-mayor Jean Doré, who led the MCM, created the position of secretary general, a boss for the civil service and a precursor to today's city manager. The secretary general, Pierre Lefrançois, set up a liaison office that was responsible for handling councillors' requests for information and meetings with the civil service, Carl said. A councillor might ask about a zoning file or express a wish for a street in their district to be repaved, he said. But all contact had to be arranged and mediated through the liaison office, he said.
At the same time, the Doré administration asked the Quebec government to entrench the position of secretary general and its responsibilities in the city charter, which is provincial legislation.
Among the changes, Section 105 was added to the charter, requiring "every communication between the executive committee and the various departments (of the city) must be effected through the secretary general."
That enshrined the principle that the political branch should not interfere with the civil service — and that's why the secretary general set up a liaison office to manage the communication.
A separate article, Section 104, which already existed, delegated all communication by the city council with the city's departments to be handled by the executive committee.
However, Section 105 — along with several MCM reforms — would not survive the election of a new administration at city hall in November 1994.
Bourque's first move after he and his Vision Montreal party were elected was to ask the province for permission to abolish the position of secretary general along with most of the city's committees of council and, at the same time, increase the size of the executive committee. The province agreed and out went the liaison office along with the secretary general, Carl said.
Section 105, entrenching the principle of separating the political and civil service branches, was expunged with the December 1994 charter changes. Section 104 also disappeared.
The Quebec government eventually forced Bourque to create the position of city manager years later to oversee the administration.
However, Section 105 was never brought back.
Today, no section of the charter deals with communication between the city council, or executive committee, and the city departments.
"Gilles," another former civil servant who retired a decade ago, said it became increasingly common for members of the executive committee to walk into civil servants' offices and exert pressure on their recommendations during the Bourque administration. Gilles also spoke on condition that his real name not be used.
It got even easier for politicians to contact civil servants after the 2002 municipal mergers and the creation of boroughs that decide on most zoning changes, he said.
"There are many more elected officials, and they're much closer to civil servants because they often work in the same building as the borough's civil service," union leader Jolin said in agreement. "So they can't help but meet each other."
Today, politicians reaching out to even mid-level civil servants is an ingrained part of daily business in Montreal and its boroughs.
Former mayor Gérald Tremblay, who was elected mayor in 2001 and resigned in November, admitted in 2011 to getting civil servants to alter their recommendations and reports while answering questions about the city's controversial $9-million sale of the municipal Viger building on St. Antoine St. E. to a private developer six years earlier.
"Every week, we look at executive summaries (at the executive committee) and it's normal that sometimes we give instructions to remove information that's nonpertinent," Tremblay said at the time. "When we analyze a file that has reservations, it changes to 'favourable with comments'. "
The issue arose because La Presse revealed it had obtained a copy of a July 2005 email between city employees showing Tremblay and Frank Zampino, who was executive committee chairman at the time, wanted the city's buildings department to make a "correction" to the executive summary before the executive committee would vote on the deal. They wanted a sentence that indicated the property's $14.7-million municipal assessment deleted from the report, the email message said.
The message added that Zampino's political aide at the time, Sammy Forcillo, would also speak to the city's finance department to change its recommendation in the report from "favourable with reservations" to "favourable with comments."
The changes were made and the deal passed a vote of the executive committee and then of city council.
Tremblay defended the changes, saying said the city's finance department did not question the pertinence of selling the Viger building at $9 million and that the municipal assessment of any property is information that's already available to the public.
Michel Prescott, a former city councillor who served under Drapeau, Doré, Bourque and Tremblay between 1982 and 2009, said he can see how civil servants can be pressured by politicians, who are, in turn, pressured by private interests to sway the civil servants' recommendations. When he was leader of the opposition and vice-chairman of city council's urban planning committee in the late 1990s, he occasionally received phone calls from developers trying to negotiate his position on their projects, he said.
"My philosophy was always to let the civil servants do their job," he said.
"I got calls from developers. I said: 'Deposit your project with the city. All the advance work is up to the civil service.' "
Twitter: @CityHallReport


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When Prince William and Kate Middleton tie the knot in London on Friday, residents of St. Andrews hope to share a piece of the spotlight as the place where the royal couple met and dated.
"One out of 10 St. Andrews students meet their future (spouses) whilst at the university," said Patrick Laughlin, manager of the St. Andrews Partnership, a business-community organization. The figure was famously quoted by a head of the University of St. Andrews during William and Kate's 2005 graduation ceremony.
"They call this town the most romantic place to study in the world," Laughlin added.
While residents of Middleton's south England hometown grudgingly weigh the pros and cons of the sudden media and tourist attention, the people of St. Andrews -a coastal Scottish town otherwise known for world-class golf courses -are used to being part of Royal Family legend by now. "It's been phenomenal. It's been just a repeat, really, of what happened when Prince William arrived to do his university studies," Laughlin said. "At that time, the media interest around the world (was) enormous."
Prince William's relationship with the Scottish town of 15,000, which lies about 80 kilometres north of Edinburgh, has been well-documented and good for business since the then-teenage heartthrob began studying at the University of St. Andrews in 2001. In anticipation of his arrival, property and rental prices in the area spiked, while applications to the university shot up by nearly 50 per cent.
Now, the town is counting on the benefits of renewed attention as TV crews from the BBC and elsewhere broadcast the community's wedding-day festivities to the world as a sidebar to the actual ceremony at Westminster Abbey.
"Two billion people will see footage of this wedding, and our town as well," said Laughlin, who is helping run St. Andrews' Royal Wedding Breakfast, expected to draw about 1,500 guests to the 600-year-old university's historic St. Salvator's Quadrangle.
St. Andrews has been on Visit-Britain's list of go-to places since William and Kate announced their engagement last year. The country's tourism promotion agency suggests visitors discover the story behind the royal romance while making a "pilgrimage" to the St. Andrews Links.
"St. Andrews has been a bit more high-profile because of the wedding," said Lindsey Adam, president of the St. Andrews Merchants' Association.
Leading up to the royal wedding day, stores along Market Street -St. Andrews' main drag -will take part in a competition to "try to get all the shops in town to make their windows festive and colourful and royal-themed," Adam said.
"There's definitely a bit of royal fever going on," she said. "There's everything, I'm amazed. It's getting very silly. You can't say we're ignoring the occasion."
A local bakery has produced edible screens of the royal couple's pictures to place atop cupcakes. In Adam's shop, Bonkers, there's wedding-themed picnic ware for sale, and a solar-powered Queen Elizabeth II figurine (solar power enables the pocket-sized doll to offer a royal wave).
"People love it or they hate it," Adam said. "In Scotland maybe we're not always as royalist as the rest of the U.K. Quite often the Royal Family is seen to be quite English, (so) not everybody is taking it seriously.
"I don't get any anti-royal feeling, but I think a lot of people are taking it quite lightheartedly. It's a little bit cheeky as well."
Laughlin described locals as dedicatedly "blasé" about having had a future king in their midst for so many years -perhaps a reason, he said, for the prince's choice to study at St. Andrews.
"He would go into Tesco and do his shopping and he would go down to the local pub, and people would not take his picture or ask for his autograph. Not that you'd ask a royal for his autograph."
At the local tourist information centre, however, staff members have long directed visitors from Canada, U.S., Europe and Asia to the prince's choice grocery store, and Ma Bell's, the pub where he watched television sports with other students.
"A lot of the locals (also) have been coming in and asking whereabouts we've seen William. They like to go there as well, just to be where he used to be," said tourism adviser Katie Anderson.
"I saw him in the supermarket once. He just really blended in, you never noticed many bodyguards around him. He wore a baseball cap (and) just looked like anybody else."
Edmonton Journal writer Trish Audette is on study leave at the London School of Economics and Political Science.


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Not that it would have been a real break up because it wasn't a real relationship but still…
For all intents and purposes it was sold as a legitimate love, so will we be hearing about it on the Jonas Brothers next album? Probably won't have to wait that long. Because Joe Jonas is part of the web generation – nothing happens if it doesn't happen on Facebook/Twitter.
And clearly he is single now. Single in this case is also synonymous with gay.
What? No of course he's not gay! Joe Jonas is straighter than China people hair.
As for his ex famewhore, here are more photos of Camilla Belle at Indian Wells with her new meal ticket Fernando Verdasco, openly affectionate. Not that it helped. He eventually lost to Roger Federer who lost to Andy Murray who lost to the tournament winner Rafael Nadal. And you will recall, Nadal was Camilla's original mark.
If Rafa had actually bought into her bullsh-t…? Fernando would be a fourth Jonas Brother.
Photos from Flynetonline.com
Not that it would have been a real break up because it wasn't a real relationship but still…


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Hiking up a volcano and dunking in natural hot springs should be on everyone's bucket list. If you're yet to get up close and personal with lava, and the only geysers you've encountered are down the pub, might we suggest one of these memorable experiences?
Hiking by Stromboli's lava flows, Italy
Stromboli is the most active volcano in Europe, and on clear nights its worms of red lava are visible from many kilometres away. If there was anywhere mankind was not meant to go, surely it was the crater of an active volcano. And yet the lure was irresistible.
The steady, three-hour climb to the top proved not to be difficult. We walked through aromatic maquis, passing wild roses, fig trees, prickly pears and clumps of capers. The sky was clear, the sea blue and the breathtaking view spanned Mount Etna and Calabria. Abruptly, the vegetation ended. We stopped to don heavy clothes and helmets, and follow the final ridge. At the top, all I could see were clouds of steam. Then, suddenly, four spouts of fire threw up a fountain of glowing boulders that drew tracks of light across the sky. Mario chose that moment to start talking on the radio. A panicked thought: we were in danger. But no, this was Stromboli, and things were normal – he was discussing dinner.
Climbing Stromboli is permitted only with a registered guide. www.magmatrek.it has details.
Entering Kverkfjöll's ice palace, Iceland
© Filip Fuxa/Shutterstock
As you approach the entrance to the Kverkfjöll Glacier Caves, in Iceland's stark interior, you may begin to understand why local myths of trolls and mystical beings are given a surprising amount of credence. Beneath a drooping archway of ice, a shadowy cavern is partly obscured by wisps of sulphurous steam – an eerie, almost magical scene, but one entirely of nature's doing. Lurking deep beneath is a frighteningly active volcano whose intense heat melts ice from the base of the glacier, creating rivers of warm water that burrow through the ice as easily as a hot knife through butter. The tunnels and caverns etched by the rivers are enthralling frozen palaces that stretch for over 2km into the glacier.
Inside the air feels muggy and slightly intoxicating; given the heat, it's surprising to touch the cave walls and find them numbingly cold. Every surface is dimpled like a choppy sea, sculpted by heat and steam, but as smooth as glass. Slowly your eyes adjust to the light, and you are struck by dazzling shades of blue, from ultramarine to the deepest blue-black. As you make your way in, following tunnels that twist and turn, filtered light gives the ice an unnatural glow. Above the noise of crampons and the echo of running water you can hear the groans of the ice as it is slowly moulded by pressure and geothermal heat – the elements, not trolls, hard at work.
The tourist information centre in Reykjavík (www.visiticeland.com) can provide information on guides and tour companies.
Trekking through the Valley of the Geysers, Russia
Penetrating Kamchatka's remote and rugged terrain to discover one of the world's most restless regions of seismic hyperactivity has never been easy. With no roads or nearby settlements, the spectacular Valley of the Geysers wasn't discovered until 1941. Not even Russians were permitted to travel to this far-eastern peninsula until after the fall of communism. Today, a trek through the Kronotsky Reserve on the peninsula's eastern edge leads you into this land of fire and ice, and brings you face to face with the full range of Kamchatka's volcanic phenomena.
You'll be dropped into the heart of the million-hectare bioreserve by helicopter, cruising over several of Kamchatka's 29 active volcanoes along the way; your trek involves ten days and 130km of moderately strenuous hiking. As you navigate this landscape down to the Pacific shore you'll circuit active glacier-flanked volcanoes and encounter piping fumaroles, belching mudpots and bubbling cauldrons. From a forested ridge you descend into the Valley of the Geysers along the steamy banks of the River Geyzernaya. Over twenty major geysers fill the narrow valley, each performing on its own timetable: some erupt every ten minutes, while others take 4–5 hours between show times. Some pulse in an erect column while others surprise you with a side shot – stick to the boardwalk or you might be nailed by an unexpected burst of scalding water.
Kronotsky Reserve is accessed by helicopter from Petropavlovsk; entrance is restricted and by permit only. The Valley of the Geysers is closed from mid-May to early July to protect breeding and nesting activity.
Hiking Ijen volcano with the sulphur miners, Indonesia
© Eva Mont/Shutterstock
The ragged-edged smoking cone of the Ijen volcano defines the extreme east of Java. It always pays to get up before dawn if you're climbing volcanoes, so you can reach the summit before the clouds roll in. But even if you start hiking Ijen at 2am you'll have plenty of company, for this peak defies its Indonesian name Gunung Ijen ("lonely mountain"). The volcano spews out sulphur, which is hacked out of the steaming caldera by hundreds of freelance miners, who get up at an ungodly hour to collect the foul-smelling yellow element. Only those who rise early enough are able to amass enough of the limited sulphur to make a day's pay (US$5).
Starting from the isolated national park post at Pos Paltuding, a steep trail ascends the shoulder of the mountain, passing through tropical forest that's home to gibbons and patrolled by eagles. You'll pass a steady stream of miners, who joke and chatter as they balance loads of up to 80kg across their backs in bamboo baskets, their steady progress fuelled by a diet of kretek (clove) cigarettes and black tea. The path switchbacks higher and higher until you emerge above the tree line and a spellbinding view of the neighbouring volcanic peaks of Merapi (2802m) and Raung (3332m) opens up. It's possible to descend into the crater itself where the miners harvest sulphur (the "brimstone" of biblical times), which is mainly used by the cosmetics industry, and is added to fertilizer. Be warned: the vapours can be overpowering.
Banyuwangi is the nearest large town to Ijen. The tourist board here (+62 (0) 333 424 172) can organize trips in a 4WD.
Watching the sunrise on Mount Bromo, Indonesia
© Csaba Vanyi/Shutterstock
It's not the most famous, the most active or the biggest volcano in the world, but Indonesia's 2392m-high Mount Bromo is one of the most picturesque – in a dusty, post-apocalyptic sort of way. The still-smoking and apparently perfectly symmetrical cone rises precipitously out of a vast, windswept, sandy plain. This is the Sea of Sand, actually the floor of an ancient crater (or caldera), stretching up to 10km in diameter and with walls towering some 300m high.
Though the locals will try to persuade you to take their horse, it's an easy enough walk to the summit, with no climbing ability required. Setting off an hour before sunrise, you follow a path across the Sea of Sand to the foot of Bromo's vertiginous cone. A small matter of 249 concrete steps leads to the crater rim and a view down onto the fumaroles belching noxious sulphuric fumes. But the rewards of climbing Bromo are not olfactory, but visual: if the gods of climate and cloud-cover are on your side, a flamboyant golden sunrise awaits, casting its orange glow over the vast emptiness of the sandy basin, with Java's lush green landscape stretching to the horizon beyond.
Mount Bromo is the main attraction of East Java's Bromo-Tengger-Semeru National Park.
A volcanic trip up Mount Yasur, Vanuatu
© Bart Brouwer/Shutterstock
The walk up to the continuously erupting Mount Yasur on Tanna Island takes about ninety minutes. A notice at the bottom warns against approaching the crater when there's a particular level of activity; usually it's safe to move on. The climb goes through tropical forest: rainwater trickles down every tree, then gushes down the path.
Yasur announces itself the closer you get. Every few minutes, there's a loud boom, then a few lesser booms. Just below the summit, a battered letterbox proclaims itself the world's only Volcano Post – it's quite literally a chance to send postcards from the edge. At the rim, a pleasant waft of heat rises up and drives the mist away. But booms accompany tremendous eruptions of red-hot rocks – pyroclasts – that crash into the edge of the crater, and either fizzle or explode. The louder eruptions cause the ground to shake. Often the balls of fire soar high into the air; you'll have to guess where they're going to land. Most people, it seems, get lucky.
For links to tour operators offering trips up Mount Yasur visit www.vanuatu.travel.
Taking a trip to hell on Earth, New Zealand
You'll smell Rotorua before you even reach the city limits. It isn't known as the "Sulphur City" for nothing, and the unmistakable bad-egg aroma gets everywhere. Thankfully you get used to it after an hour or so. The whole city sits on a thin crust of earth underlain by a seething cauldron of waters and superheated steam that seem desperate to escape. Walking around you'll see puffs of vapour rising out of people's backyards, and stormwater drains venting sulphurous jets. Crypts predominate in the cemeteries as graves can't be dug into the ground, and on the shores of Lake Rotorua gulls are relieved of the chore of sitting on their nests – the earth is warm enough to incubate without assistance.
Close to town are a dozen or so dramatic geothermal wonders. Tourists have been coming for over a century to see the Pohutu Geyser, which regularly spouts to 20m; around the turn of the millennium it performed continuously for an unprecedented 329 days. It still spouts several times a day, a spectacular show that's heralded by the smaller Prince of Wales Feathers geyser (10m). Weary bones are also well-catered for in Rotorua – just about every motel and campground has a hot pool in which to soak. Make a point of seeking out genuine mineral ones filled by therapeutic geothermal waters, whether it be hydrothermal pampering in sophisticated resorts or back-to-basics natural pools out in the woods under the stars.
Visit www.rotoruanz.com for more information.
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