Federal Immigration Minister Sean Fraser (centre).

Martin C. Barry

Although federal Immigration Minister Sean Fraser insisted during an interview in February last year with The Laval News that Quebec was entirely within its constitutional rights to set limits on immigration into its territory, he said he personally favoured higher levels of immigration for economic reasons.

“My own view is that Canada needs more people for economic reasons,” he said. “My view is that we need to embrace immigration in the short term to address some of these gaps in the labour force …”

Under Quebec Premier François Legault’s immigration plan for 2023, the province could admit up to 52,500 new permanent residents last year – exactly the same as Quebec’s immigration plan for 2022. The plan had come under fire, especially from the province’s business community, which had serious concerns about post-pandemic labour shortages.

The Feb. 8 2023 issue of The Laval News profiled Jonathan Goldbloom, a longtime Montreal public relations professional who was appointed to the board of directors of Hockey Canada, following the national governing body of hockey’s collapse under the weight of scandal. (Goldbloom has been appointed chair of the board since then.)

“I wouldn’t be on the board if I didn’t think there was a crisis and that it needed to be addressed,” he said in an interview. “Yes, there was a lack of transparency. Yes, there should have been a proper investigation from day one and it should have been followed through with whatever ramifications there are.”

In one of the most controversial news stories to emerge from Laval last year, the driver of a Société de transport bus was charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder and assault in early February after he drove into the front entrance of a daycare in Sainte-Rose.

Two children, Maëva David and Jacob Gauthier, who were enrolled at the daycare on Terrasse Dufferin, were killed in the crash, while another six children were injured, when Pierre Ny St-Amand drove into the Garderie Éducative Ste-Rose, demolishing a corner of the building.

A small but angry nucleus of residents on Chomedey’s Ridgewood and Korman avenues was threatening to launch a lawsuit against the City of Laval over what they claimed were persistent problems with snow removal.

The problems were being blamed on a change the city had been gradually implementing in the width of Chomedey’s residential streets, which were previously nine metres wide with 128-centimetre-width sidewalks.