A look back at May and June from the pages of last year’s Laval News

Martin C. Barry, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Laval News continues its look back on 2024 with a review of leading stories in May and June.

May

Lanvac expanded with monitoring central and FindMyAlarm.com

Lanvac Surveillance, Canada’s leading third-party wholesaler of alarm monitoring, was foreseeing more milestone events in 2024 – ones that held the promise of expanding the Montreal-based company’s imprint from that of a respected wholesaler into a more instantly recognizable brand.

Members of the Lanvac team were on hand at their corporate booth during the Security Canada East trade show at the Laval Sheraton.

From the left, Lanvac Surveillance reps Jerry Korogiannis, Stephanos Georgoudes (Lanvac’s communications and technology manager), Jake Bosse and Yianni Fokas. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Newsfirst Multimedia)

Laval topped list of Quebec’s cities most targeted by fraud

The City of Laval was one of two communities in Quebec that saw the sharpest increases in fraud last year, according to data compiled by the Quebec Association of Directors of Police (ADPQ).

Laval and Quebec’s Mauricie region saw the biggest increases in fraud at 20 per cent. The most frequent frauds in Quebec, according to the ADPQ, were those involving the fraudulent use of gift and credit cards, computers and identity theft.

Eiffel Ave. petition asked Laval to halt street narrowing

In April, homeowners on Eiffel Ave. in Chomedey rose up in protest over plans by the City of Laval to narrow their street while widening the sidewalks during a road reconstruction set to take place over the summer.

“They want to expand the sidewalks on each side,” said Yota Stamatopoulos who helped gather a petition. She said the sidewalks would be extended to 1.8 metres in width after being 1.4 metres for decades.

“That would shrink our already small street,” she said. In addition, she said the city wanted to eliminate all parking spaces on one side of the street.

Bâton Rouge dinner raised $132,000 for Giant Steps Autism Centre

A fundraising dinner for the Giant Steps School held at the Décarie Bâton Rouge Grillhouse & Bar in Montreal on April 29 raised $132,000 for the Giant Steps Autism Centre.

Senator Leo Housakos (centre), Giant Steps School staff and board members, and Bâton Rouge Décarie partners Dimitra Frintzilas and Dimitrios Sotiropoulos (third and second from right) are seen here with an enlarged cheque representing the $132,000 raised during the benefit dinner held for the autism treatment centre in April last year. (Photo: Martin C. Barry, Newsfirst Multimedia)

The event was hosted by Senator Leo Housakos. “We owe Senator Housakos a huge debt of gratitude,” said Nick Katalifos, vice-president of the Giant Steps School board of directors.

Jules Verne Elementary students raised more than $9,000 for Pink in the City

Students at Jules Verne Elementary School succeeded in raising more than $9,000 for the Pink in the City breast cancer cause during the second annual ‘Spring Raise Craze’ head shave event held at the school in Laval’s Pont-Viau district on May 24.

“We have a hairdresser for everybody,” Jules Verne Elementary principal Melissa Roux said in an interview with The Laval News. She was among the many staff members, parents and school children who wore pink as a sign of their solidarity with the cause.

June

Thousands attended Laval’s 2024 Firemen’s Festival

It was only the second time Laval’s annual Firemen’s Festival took place on the grounds outside Collège Montmorency in the city’s downtown core on June 1-2, after being held for many years previously at the Centropolis mall.

The ever-popular parade of fire trucks, with sirens and warning signals screaming, was on Saturday morning.

Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 am to 4 pm, the site hosted a range of activities, including educational kiosks on fire prevention and safety, a car accident simulation, firefighter museum artefacts, fire truck displays and more.

New social housing for low-income single moms and kids

Nearly two dozen young families from Laval headed by low-income single moms got a better sense of security and a permanent roof over their heads following the completion of a new subsidized housing project in central Laval made possible through the cooperative efforts of three levels of government.

The three-storey 23-unit building on Dumouchel Ave. in Laval-des-Rapides required an investment of more than $10.1 million.

“Every Quebecer deserves a safe and affordable place to call home, regardless of their situation,” said Vimy Liberal MP Annie Koutrakis, parliamentary secretary to the minister responsible for Economic Development Agency of Canada’s Quebec region.

Trudeau stands by Liberal spending during fundraiser in Laval

Although Canadians weren’t expected to head to the polls until October 2025, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave a preview in Laval in June of some of the rhetoric that might be expected.

“We have the lowest deficit in the G7,” he maintained, while noting that Canada is rated by international bankers as having one of the strongest-performing economies in the world.

Iacono stirs debate with comments on ‘officially bilingual’ Quebec

In a rare instance of unity, House of Commons MPs as well as National Assembly MNAs were outraged by comments by Alfred-Pellan backbench Liberal MP Angelo Iacono that Quebec would have a lot to gain from becoming officially bilingual, rather than having only French as an official language.

Alfred-Pellan Liberal MP Angelo Iacono. (Photo: Angelo Iacono, Facebook)

Iacono made the comments during a meeting of the Commons’ Permanent Committee on Official Languages. “I believe that Quebec, and I believe that Canada, should be a bilingual country, to be stronger and not just be a unilingual French-speaking province,” Iacono said.

Poilièvre accused Trudeau of sowing division, as Liberal PM’s poll standings dropped

In June last year, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre got a head-start campaigning in Quebec for an expected 2025 federal election, with a well-attended launch event at a Jewish community centre in Montreal.

Poilièvre laced into the Liberal Prime Minister – much to the delight of the highly partisan crowd.

After nine years of Trudeau, according to Poilièvre, “everything is broken” and “crime, chaos, drugs and disorder rage out of control on our streets. People can’t afford the basics of life. He [Trudeau] promised to help the middle class, but nine years later the middle class no longer exists.”

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