Say, for instance, a prime minister of Canada dispatched his (or her) personal lawyer to meet with top officials of a foreign government and threatened to withhold vital aid money unless that government made a public commitment to investigate alleged wrong-doing by the prime minister’s main political opponent.

Photo: Screenshot from Google maps

This street is named in honour of Françoise Aubut (1922-1984), an organist and music teacher who was born in Saint-Jérôme. She was the great-granddaughter of Calixa Lavallée (1842-1891), who is best known for composing the music for “O Canada,” which officially became Canada’s national anthem in 1980.

Be afraid. Be very afraid. A new killer virus has health officials around the world quaking in their boots.

Every now and then, someone comes out with a list of possible end-of-the-world, or at least end-of-civilization-as-we-know-it scenarios. The list always includes a deadly mutant virus.

Photo: Wikipedia Commons - Public Domain

Groundhog Day – Feb. 2 – hints at spring. It’s not here yet, but it soon will be. The days are getting noticeably longer, and there’s something in the air.

In Europe, it was thought to be the day when hibernating creatures began to emerge from their dens – something worth celebrating at a time of year when food was scarce and a chubby groundhog might become a nourishing stew.

Photo: CBC Radio

Irish Heritage Quebec has lost a faithful member and friend in Terry Kerwin who passed away on January 25. Terry Kerwin served as president of the Défilé de la Saint-Patrick de Québec. He also served on the Board of Trustees of St. Patrick’s Parish. He recently chaired the Board of Governors of Champlain Regional College which includes the Lennoxville Campus, the St.

Photo: Ruby Pratka

If you ever go to Dublin, extricate yourself from touristy Temple Bar. Cross one of the many bridges over the River Liffey, turn right and pass the Customs House. You should see them by then – half a dozen sculptures of a family, in tattered clothes, as thin- and weak-looking as dead trees, confronting the viewer with a haunting, hunted gaze.

Photo: Photo of book cover by Shirley Nadeau

Winston Fraser has done it again! His latest book about his family’s history of settlement in the village of Cookshire in the Eastern Townships, launched in early December 2019, is a tale of determination and continuity that dates back to thousands of years before his ancestors settled on the land, then inhabited by First Nations people.

Photo: Jonathan Letellier-Black

Winter fun activities are in full swing along the St. Charles River in Quebec City. The Société de la Rivière Saint-Charles, a non-profit organization, manages a wide-ranging program of recreational pursuits for all four seasons.

Photo: Hotel Clarendon

The Clarendon Hotel is open again, after being closed for the past 12 months. Co-owners Michel Côté and Marc-Olivier Côté were delighted to welcome their first guests, just in time for the 150th anniversary of Canada’s oldest hotel.

Photo: SLC Lions

The CEGEP Champlain–St. Lawrence Lions basketball team got back on the court on Jan. 24, when they played the Jeannois from Collège d’Alma in their first game since the holidays.

However, the match-up the Lions are anxiously awaiting is the game on Jan. 31, when they host the Dynamiques from Cégep de Sainte-Foy. Tip-off is at 8 p.m. at the Lions’ Den.

The new year got off to a violent, tragic and profoundly frightening start with the shooting down of Ukrainian Flight 752 shortly after takeoff from Tehran, killing all 176 people aboard. Among those who died were 57 Canadians.

Photo: Screenshot from Google maps

This street is named in honour of Louis-Roch-Hector Fabre (1834-1910), a lawyer, journalist, diplomat and senator born in Montreal. He was admitted to the bar in 1856 but practised law only occasionally, opting instead for journalism.

Photo: Shirley Nadeau

To highlight their fifth anniversary, the members of Les As de Choeur presented a “collective musical creation” that included excerpts from Broadway classics such as The Sound of Music, Les Misérables, Chicago, and a few Beatles favourites, in the Salle D’Youville of the Palais Montcalm on Jan. 17 and 18.

Photo: Ruby Pratka

In 2015, Germany found itself at the centre of a storm unprecedented in recent history, when tens of thousands of refugees from the Middle East, mostly from war-ravaged Syria, streamed into the country. Chancellor Angela Merkel famously told Germany and the world, “Wir schaffen das!” (We can do this!) For Merkel, integrating the refugees was a “national duty.”

The basketball teams of Quebec High School and St. Patrick’s High School got off to a busy start as the 2019-20 season resumed in the Québec-Chaudière-Appalaches region of the RSEQ (Réseau du Sport Étudiant du Québec). Sixteen games were played by the two schools, with more games to come in the next few weeks.

QHS hoops