Official Opening of the "Old Stone House"

The Maison Nivard-de Saint-Dizier or commonly known as the "Old Stone House" will officially be opening on the19th of may as a museum. This historical house situated at the foot of the Lachine rapids was built in 1710 and is one of the oldest houses in Montreal. At last the governments have decided to do something usefull with this historical house which was renovated at a cost of app. one and a half million dollars. Our society (SHGV) was instrumental in alerting the authorities to the value of this property. It's collection will permit us to better undersand the Amérindiens (Amerindians) and the first inhabitants of Nouvelle France (New France). 

Guy

 

Point St. Charles Fire Claims Two Lives

 There was a fire in the Point overnight that killed two people, I hope it's not some of our friends or family.  Here is the article form this morning's Gazette.

MONTREAL – A double-fatality fire in Point St. Charles reported just before 11 p.m. Sunday "possibly started with something cooking on the stove," Constable Raphaël Bergeron said Monday.

A 51-year-old man and an 80-year-old woman were found unconscious inside the residence, on Favard St. south of Congregation St., east of Wellington St.

Both "were declared dead as soon as they arrived in hospital," Bergeron added.

A third person suffered smoke inhalation, but "this was not life-threatening," he said.

Other possible causes haven't been completely ruled out, Bergeron said. The police arson squad is investigating.

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

Prepare to be Mooned

The moon will be closet to earth tonight ,in what should be a cool looking full moon. Cheers ! HF&RV

 

City TV Channel Coming to Montreal

Looks like Montreal is next inline to get the 'City TV' channel.......they are all over the place, Rogers bought these station for next to nothing & it looks like they are going to use them for their own expansion..I hope it good for Montreal maybe more of a local content type of station ? 

I still think of Montreal' s News Channel as being 'CFCF Pulse' remember that,.now it's all just CTV , I think more of a local stamp is what is neaded for any city......here's the Gazette story on this................................Cheers! HF&RV - Les

MONTREAL - Citytv could be coming to Montreal soon.

Rogers Media announced on Thursday that it had reached a deal to purchase Montreal multicultural television station Metro 14 (CJNT) from Toronto-based Channel Zero Inc.

Rogers plans to turn CJNT into a Citytv station, expanding the national network’s presence. Citytv has stations in Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. The company also announced that it will sign long-term affiliation agreements with three stations owned by the Jim Pattison Group: CHAT-TV in Medicine Hat, Alta., CJFC-TV in Kamloops, B.C., and CKPG-TV in Prince George, B.C. All three have been Citytv affiliates since 2009, and are, like CJNT, former members of the Canwest CH/E! network. Rogers also announced in January it would purchase educational regional cable channel Saskatchewan Communications Network from Bluepoint Investment Corp. and rebrand it as Citytv Saskatchewan.

"Citytv up until recently has only been available in 7.2 million homes, and when we buy and produce programming, the cost of that is similar to what other networks pay when they buy national footprint rights," Rogers Media President of Broadcast Scott Moore told The Gazette. "It's essential for us to expand our footprint."

Though the new deals give Citytv good coverage west of Montreal, there are no stations east of the city. Moore said there are no specific plans for expansion into Atlantic Canada, but said it represented a gap in the network and "we'll continue to work on that in the next 6-12 months."

The deal must be approved by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission before Rogers Media can take over. In the meantime, Rogers and Channel Zero have signed an affiliation agreement that will see Citytv programming on CJNT as of June 4. Citytv programs include American shows like New Girl, Modern Family and How I Met Your Mother, as well as original Canadian productions like Canada’s Got Talent and the upcoming The Bachelor Canada. Channel Zero President Cal Millar told The Gazette the station would also air some programming from Rogers's OMNI network of ethnic stations.

Channel Zero also owns CHCH television in Hamilton, Ont. It purchased CHCH and CJNT from Canwest in 2009 after the struggling company (which also owned The Gazette) decided to shut down its secondary network of conventional television stations. The purchase price for both stations was $12.

Moore said he would not comment about the purchase price, but joked that it was "more than double" the $12 Channel Zero paid for it.

CJNT's license from the CRTC requires it to broadcast 14 hours of local ethnic programming each week. But after the sale from Canwest to Channel Zero, the station stopped producing its ethnic programming. It has since been airing reruns - some of them three years old - of its local ethnic shows. The rest of its schedule is made up of music videos, foreign films and some low-rated U.S. programming whose Canadian rights haven't been scooped up by CTV, Global or Citytv.

Moore did not comment on any changes Rogers might propose for CJNT's license, or whether it would continue to be a multiethnic station. "We'll be spending the next couple of months in Montreal speaking with stakeholders in the community," he said.

As far as local programming, Moore said it was still too early to tell, but it was unlikely the station would produce a daily newscast. "I don't know that Montreal needs another English-language supper-hour newscast," he said. Citytv stations outside of Toronto meet local programming requirements with morning shows. Moore said it was "a good bet" that a similar strategy would be used in Montreal.

Millar said the sale was bittersweet for Channel Zero, which he said had been making progress building its audience with a new morning show that's heavy on music videos. He said Rogers has been trying to buy the station since "shortly after we acquired it" and made multiple offers. But this time, "Rogers was more determined than ever to expand their national reach," MIllar said. "It was far more valuable to them at that point than to us."

Channel Zero had been in talks with a local producer to bring back some local ethnic programming this fall. Millar said he doesn't know if those plans will continue as the company waits for a decision on the acquisition.

Rogers said it would expect a decision by the CRTC in the fall.

  ..Cheers ! Have Fun & Remember Verdun........................................................ - Les

More Montreal Movie Theaters (Remember Those Saturday Mornings)

Remember the feeling of excitement ,when we were kids,the minute you walked in to the theatre & felt the 'cool' air & the smell of the popcorn,and as you burst through the doors,to the theatre section,you got the warning from the usher "No Running" & with that we proceeded to gallop towards the 'best seat' in the house,which of course is the one you got........lol .....and so a Saturday had begun with the adventure of whatever was on the screen.Of course Our theater of choice was generally the Savoy....where all week long you would read the poster advertising the upcoming Saturday film........those were the days.

Trio Accused of Asking for Bribes From Restaurants

MONTREAL – An RCMP investigation of Canada Revenue Agency employees has resulted in three former auditors being accused of shaking down restaurant owners for cash.

Four charges were filed at the Montreal courthouse Tuesday against Elias Kawkab, 49, of St. Laurent, a former CRA team leader. The charges involve the popular Arahova restaurant on St. Viateur St.

Kawkab is alleged to have extorted $100,000 from the restaurant’s owners some time between June 2007 and August 2008. He is charged with agreeing to accept a bribe, two counts of fraud against the government and breach of trust.

According to a report published last year, the owners of the restaurant were approached by a CRA auditor, who claimed to have found $3 million in undeclared revenues. The auditor offered to solve the restaurant’s problems if the owners paid a $250,000 bribe. The report, quoting from a search warrant, said the owners told police they negotiated the bribe down to $100,000, which they paid by remortgaging a house.

Kawkab and two former auditors, Francesco Fazio, 54, of St. Laurent, and Luigi Falcone, 49, of Laval, have a court date scheduled for June 11. They have to enter a plea on the charges.

“It is just the beginning,” said one official familiar with the investigation in reference to Tuesday’s development.

The probe, which began in 2008, has produced disturbing revelations about the CRA’s Montreal branch.

Court documents already filed in connection with related cases describe an atmosphere, before the investigation began, in which some auditors intimidated fellow employees if questions were raised while they manipulated audits on major Montreal-based companies.

The RCMP’s investigation into CRA employees stemmed from a probe into BT Céramique, a company eventually found guilty of tax evasion for helping Simard Beaudry Inc. – run at the time by construction magnate Tony Accurso – reduce its reported revenue.

Accurso was among 15 people arrested last month in a police crackdown on alleged corruption in water-treatment contracts in Mascouche, north of Montreal.

An affidavit filed in a court case last year states that while BT Céramique was being probed for tax evasion, investigators were startled to find a CRA internal document inside a safe in the office of the company’s owner, Francesco Bruno. The document, a T133, pertained to a shopping mall Accurso owns in Laval. The investigator who prepared the affidavit stated T133s are never supposed to leave CRA’s offices, and its disappearance “benefited” Accurso’s shopping mall.

Since 2008, the investigation has given rise to several allegations against former CRA employees of, among other things, coaching wealthy business owners on how to reduce reported revenues. The employees have since resigned, retired, been fired or suspended.

According to court documents, Kawkab, who was fired in 2011, was arrested by the RCMP on March 30, 2011.

Photos of Kawkab and Falcone partying at a Bell Centre loge during a Canadiens game with several other people being investigated by the RCMP surfaced last year when a person charged in connection with the BT Céramique investigation challenged the legality of a search warrant in court. At the time, the loge was rented by a Montreal construction firm.

The charges against Falcone allege he tried to extort $50,000 from the owner of Restaurant Agostini in N.D.G. between August 2006 and February 2007. According to a release issued Tuesday by the RCMP, Falcone, who resigned in 2009, allegedly made an offer to lower “a bogus tax notice, before even auditing (the owner’s) financial statements, in exchange for $50,000. The restaurant owner refused to pay the bribe.”

Fazio is alleged to have offered to “lower an upcoming tax notice” that the owner of La Belle Place restaurant was about to be hit with in 2005. In exchange, Fazio allegedly demanded $90,000. In that case as well, the owner rejected the offer. According to the RCMP, Fazio was fired in 2011

Taxman Takes Bite Out of Pizza (nothing but Dough to be Made)

MONTREAL – A St. Hyacinthe pizzeria is feeling the bite of provincial tax collectors. Hatice Akyol, administrator of Med Pizza, was fined $78,408, and the business itself $33,970, for failing to declare $800,000 in sales between 2002 and 2006. Both pleaded guilty to tax evasion in St. Hyacinthe court.

....WTF a 'guilty plea' ........mea culpa,..on $800,000 of undeclared income,..........that's a spicy meatball !!

 I imagine there is a 'little' mark up in the Pizza Pie Game Afterall............lol

                      Cheers ! HF&RV - Les