1. Tournée Sports Experts Tennis Event

When: Sunday, August 7, 2011, from 9 am to 11:30

Where: Rembrandt Park.
In case of rain, the event will be cancelled.

Cost: Free of charge (participation prizes and people can try new models of
tennis rackets).

Description:Now in its 18th year, the Sports Experts Tour visits 70
communities across Quebec promoting tennis. Players come to play with
experienced tennis players sponsored  by Sports Experts.

Almost a year after I held my first public meeting on the subject of the cat overpopulation in our community, I can happily report that progress is being made on the issue.

With the support of the mayor and members of city council I was able to establish the Côte Saint-Luc Cats Committee (CSLCC). Funds were allocated for this purpose in the 2011 budget and we also received a donation from Canadian Pacific Railway. A number of planning meetings were held last fall and winter. Enough people stepped forward to allow us to form a committee. Shelley Schecter, who has been a leader on the island with the Trap, Neuter and Release Program agreed to be our facilitator. She has worked specifically close with Dr. Renee Karp, Ursula O’Rourke and the Côte Saint-Luc Hospital for Animals (Dr. Marlene Kalin) in the trapping aspect of our mandate. This is  vital to controlling the cat population in our community. They wisely started off in the spring focusing on specific colonies where large groups of feral cats can be found. It is essential that we trap as many of these animals as possible, bring them to the vet and have them spayed or neutered. This is no easy task, but our small team has already trapped an impressive number of cats and picked up some kittens as well.

Don and Barbara Adeles (pictured at the left with myself and Shelley Schecter next to our new rollup banner)  are two more key members of the CSLCC. They attended my public meeting last August and made a commitment to help.  They have more than lived up to that pledge. Their garage has been a necessary sanctuary for the cats to stay after they have been treated at the vet and until they are released back into their familiar surroundings.  If we can domesticate a feral cat, we will make every effort to have them adopted. But in most cases this is impossible.

Melanie  Menscik, a familiar face to many who shop at the IGA at the Cavendish Mall and the CSL Shopping Centre, runs our Facebook page (Cote St. Luc Cat Committee –TBR) and now handles our  new cat information  line at 514-485-6800 ext. CATS (2287). Roberta Levine will be assisting her with this task as we are already getting many calls from people interested in serving on the committee or reporting feral cats in their area. Roberta’s daughter Alison has been volunteering as well. Melanie’s mom, quite appropriately named Kitty, has also been involved.

Dr. Ingrid Hings, although a resident of NDG, has been working with us as well, doing a lot of paper work and bringing new ideas to the table. She hopes to form such a committee in her borough. Rachel Alkallay, who resides in Snowdon, is working with us and has some fresh new ideas she plans to share with Alanna Devine at the SPCA. Alanna too has played a critical role in our development.

Our committee met again this week and we all agreed that there is a lot of education still required. Cats are such wonderful animals. There are so many of these precious little things looking for a good home. The CSL Hospital for Animals has four adorable kittens right now. As Roberta noted, “the Trap, Neuter and Release program is also about cleaning up our neighbourhood. So you do not necessarily have to be a cat lover to appreciate that.”

Lydia Ghazal and Tania Alfonsi were first time attendees to our meeting. Both have stepped forward, ready to help with the trapping. Tania even volunteered to foster baby kittens.

Our committee has also received a lot of help from former CSL Mayor Bernard Lang and his wife Miriam.  Bernard attended one of our recent meetings and told us about the colony of cats right next to his home. Our trappers responded and they have successfully trapped and either spayed or neutered more than a dozen felines there. Thanks Mayor Lang!

Now we hope to get out into the community and the schools. We need to educate students and perhaps even encourage them to do some fundraisers so we can increase our activities. We wish to setup information kiosks as well. But mostly we require more volunteers. Whatever one can do, be it trapping, monitoring our phone line, education or working at an information booth, please give us a call.

If there are any cat lovers out there who would like to send us a donation or help setup a fundraiser call our Cats hotline.

Councillor Sam Goldbloom and I co-chaired the 32nd annual Côte Saint-Luc Seniors Golf Open at Meadowbrook on July 12. Close to 100 people took part.

I was part of foursome which included  CSL Senior Men's Club President Sidney Margles and the two top men from Police Station 9 - Commander Sylvain Bissonnette and  Lieutenant Jean-Pierre Theoret. What a pleasure it was to spend three hours on the course with these gentlemen as we battled the heat through the back nine holes of the course.

Golfing is not a sport I get a lot of practice at. In fact, this outing marks the only time  I take out the clubs all year.

We were fortunate to have beautiful weather, despite a forecast for possible showers. I started off slow, but when Sid Margles gave me his sensational driver to use my game started to turn around. In fact, I got the closest to the pin (four feet seven inches). Because I was not a registered senior, my achievement did not count in the books. But it sure did give me a lift.

After the game everyone gathered at the Senior Centre, located on the second floor of the CSL Shopping Centre, for the banquet luncheon.  In a very short period of time all of our seniors activities will be shifted to the new Aquatic and Community Centre on Parkhaven Avenue.

We welcomed Christopher Parent from Planex, this year's Golf Open sponsor. The youthful looking landscape architect is a father of two, with twins on the way.

Sam Pictured (left to right) are Police Station 9 Lt. JP Theoret,  Senior Men's Club President Sidney Margles, Commander Sylvain Bissonnette, Councillor Goldbloom and myself.

Councilllor Goldbloom and I emceed the affair, handing out some terrific door prizes event coordinator Loretta Anisef obtained and a series of trophies. Councillors Allan J. Levine, Ruth Kovac, Steven Erdelyi and Mitchell Brownstein were also on hand.

The closest to the pin  (16th hole) winners were Morty Zafran and Patti Heller, with Izik Feidman and Fran Schaffer the runnersup. Winning the longest drive (17th hole) were Lou Miller and Patti Heller, with Commander Bissonnette and  Judy Weber as runnersup.

It was a wonderful day and I can't wait to do it all over again next July.

For months Robert J. (RJ) Vineberg (pictured below) had everyone guessing. He had pulled down the sign of Solly the Baker outside of his store at the corner of Westminster Avenue and Mackle Road in Côte Saint-Luc and told customers that a new name was coming.

On July 13 customers arrived to find a large new sign saying Nosherz Bakery-Deli-Catering. Inside, RJ and his staff were all wearing new Nosherz attitre.

Originally it seemed that RJ's association with Mitch Kadanoff at Solly the Caterer on Robert Burns was going well. But when RJ started  bringing in brand items from the likes of the Dirty Bakery in Chomedey, the relationship took some uneasy steps. In the end,  they decided to part company.

Over the years RJ has done attractive renovations to the interior and brings in a wide variety of homemade ready to microwave meals with all of the fixings on the side. There's chopped liver, schnitzels,  soups,  salads, desserts and so much more I usually go in for a loaf of bread and walk out with much more.

What exactly does a nosher mean?  It stands for a snack or a light meal. For example: I "noshed" on a bagel.

Vineberg told me it took months to get the name approved. "The Quebec government had no idea what a nosher is," he sad. "And we added the letter z at the end."

You can find out more at www.nosherz.com or by calling 5140484-0445.

An extraordinary thing has occurred in Côte Saint-Luc. With the former Blue Bonnets Raceway located just across the Canadian Pacific Railway tracks andjust steps away from the Decarie Square section of our city, residents and visitors have been enjoying great  audio from the world's top rock band.

Many people are congregating near Decarie Square, where you can even see the stage.  In District 2 of the city, Marc Chagall Avenue has been the place to be. Check this amazing photo taken by  aircam.ca. A gentleman pulled his car up near the snow dump on Marc Chagall and took out a giant blimp-like stricture from his trailer.  Lifting it up 500 feet in the air like a kite, he snapped pictures through a video screen  which many people gathered around to view.

If you need to hire someone for aerial shots,  call Patrick Fernandez at 514-247-2266 or email info@aircam.ca.

Just who are the graffiti artists who have been defacing public and private property in Côte Saint-Luc recently?  I can tell you that local Police Station 9, our Public Security Department and the Volunteer Citizens on Patrol (VCOPS) are on high alert.

One particular town house condominium project in District 2, where I serve as councillor, has had enough of this nonsense. On a number of occasions vandals have spray painted  graffiti all over their premises. The residents have had enough and I do not blame them.

When I offered to come meet with them to discuss the issue, I called Station 9 Commander Sylvain Bissonnette. We are extremely fortunate to have a man like Sylvain as our local police chief. It is such a pleasure to deal with a gentleman who cares so deeply for our community. Whenever I have called him with a matter affecting my district, he has responded immediately. Such was the case here as he assigned Sgt. Julie Lavigne and constables Tomislav Curkovic and Simon Deslauriers to join us.  Councillor Glenn J. Nashen, who is responsible for the public safety portfolio in the city, came by on his bicyle and provided some excellent tips to the residents of how to become less of a target. Councillor Nashen noted that our city already adopted this bylaw dealing with graffiti on July 13, 2009. If you look closely at the picture above, you will even see some graffiti on the sign above our group.

The good news is that the police are keeping a very close eye on this particular property. I very much hope they will catch the perpetrators in the act.

Sgt. Lavigne toured the entire property with the condominium administrator and provided some excellent advice. The residents very much comforted by the police presence. I wish to thank Commander Bissonnette and his team.

Does anyone do Canada Day better than the City of Côte Saint-Luc? As a member of city council and co-chair of this year’s event with Councillor Allan J.  Levine, I am obviously a bit biased. But I believe that this July 1st we really outdid ourselves.

By the time the fireworks lit up the sky towards 10 p.m. there were thousands of people crowding Pierre Elliott Trudeau  Park. Allan and I saw  it fitting this year to honour our Canadian troops overseas, particularly in Afghanistan. Thanks to Harold Cammy of our Parks and Recreation Department and Howard Liebman of Mount Royal Liberal MP Irwin Cotler’s office for securing Lt. Col. Pierre Sasseville (with Allan J. Levine and I left) who joined us on stage. His remarks really touched everyone and set the tone for the singing of our national anthem by Alex Cohen and the fireworks.

We opened things up at 1 p.m. by opening the pedal boats and the inflatable and kids zone to the public. One of things I always worry about when we start the process of many, many hours of work in the winter is what the weather will be like on July 1st. It is a real downer when this big day arrives and it rains. Well we fortunately did not have to worry about this for the last two years. Weather conditions could not have been nicer.

Once again this year we hosted a Canadian citizenship ceremony (right). Retired Judge Barbara Seal presided over the ceremony, chaired by Councillor Mitchell Brownstein, during which 36 new citizens from 20 countries were sworn in. It is such an appropriate way for us to begin this event. As the new citizens arrived, they were serenaded by the musical group Rafi’s Accordion. Côte Saint-Luc resident Rafi Zeira heads this new group, which later set up at the entrance of the park and welcomed people as they walked in.

CJAD Radio’s Dan Laxer (below with his daughter) served as our emcee once again. Dan grew up in CSL, moved to NDG when he got married, but has now returned to our community.

After the citizenship ceremony he invited Mayor Anthony Housefather, Quebec Liberal MNA for D’Arcy McGee Lawrence Bergman, Marc Leiter from the Federal  Mount Royal Liberal Association and Councillors Glenn J. Nashen and Ruth Kovac to the stage for our Human Rights Walkway induction ceremony. This year’s inductee was Aung San Suu Kyi, a Burmese opposition politician and the General Secretary of the National League for Democracy. In the 1990 general election, Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won 59 percent of the national votes and 81 percent of the seats in Parliament. She had, however, already been detained under house arrest before the elections. She remained under house arrest in Burma for almost 15 of the 21 years from 20 July 1989 until her release on November 13, 2010. Canada has made her an honourary citizen. While Kyi was unable to join us, some local members of the Burmese community were. She also recorded a special message for us, which was played over the loud speaker.

There was something for everyone at this Canada Day: a model airplane show exhibit put on by the  Model Aeronautics Association of Canada, games for kids, delicious cupcakes sponsored by Scotia Bank  (right) on Westminster Avenue, the presence of the Montreal Police horses, a roaving magician, a children’s train, information kiosk for our CSL Cat  Committee and  Eco Action and some great music.  Michelle Heisler (Dan Laxer’s wife) brought us the wonderful  Magilla singers. The Baratanga Drum Circle were a big  hit.  But then  came the big players: Fresh Entertainment and the Director’s Showband. Wow! 

Fresh, the outfit created by Côte Saint-Lucer Mike Goldfarb just a few years ago, added a new dimension to our event. Their deejays and on stage animators got the youngsters in the crowd up to dance in very significant numbers (see below) and spread  the electricity throughout the entire park. As for the Directors, who were seen in the Golden Globe winning motion picture Barney’s Version (they were the band that played at Barney’s second wedding). I knew they were good, but their three sets really blew everyone away. Lead singers Tony Picciuto and Randi Katz (below) head a group which sizzles on stage. They play such a wide variety of music, from some oldies to the latest hits. The Directors energized our audience and many  in the crowd were begging for their business card to try and hire them for a future occasion.

 
It was an absolutely great night. A special thanks to event coordinator Brad Horner, veteran Parks and Recreation staffer Harold Cammy and the rest of David Taveroff’s wonderful staff. Our Public Security and Volunteer Citizens on Patrol were there all day and kept everything in check. The Public Works Department had all of the right equipment in place.

Indeed, I have never been prouder to be a Canadian and a Côte Saint-Lucer! Now on to some other big events: our Seniors Golf Open July 12 and the ceremonial opening of our new Aquatic and Community Centre.

 Rafi's Accordion was a hit with youngsters who got a chance to try out their equipment.

Here is a look at the fireworks courtesy of Glenn J. Nashen