NEWS AND ANALYSIS

Cannon lays out compassionate aid agenda

By P.A.Sévigny The Suburban While Stephen Harper?s government was quick off the mark in response to the massive earthquake that leveled Port Au Prince, Haiti?s capital city, it wasn?t enough to allay the fears of a growing number of local citizens who have friends and relatives in Haiti. ?My brother is still down there (Port au Prince) and we have no news of him since the earthquake,? said Jean Annaelle Joseph. ?My mother is sick from worrying about him.? Last Thursday, Canada?s foreign affairs minister, Lawrence Cannon, met various representatives of the city?s Haitian community in La Perle Retrouvée, a local community centre located in a de-consecrated church near the Metropolitan. During a brief noontime press conference, Cannon, along with local federal MP Denis Coderre, provincial MNA Emmanuel Dubourg, Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay and Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte, said the government was doing everything it could to provide help and relief to victims of Haiti?s recent earthquake. ?Look,? said Cannon, ?we?re already doing everything we can but such things must be

Haiti relief concert?s rousing ?Hallelujah?

By P.A. Sévigny The Suburban Late last Sunday afternoon, there was little doubt it would be a full house as Montreal?s Little Burgundy began to file into Richmond Street?s Imani Family Church for Reverend Darryl Gray?s Haiti Relief Fund benefit concert. ?Haiti?s tragedy just goes to show you how we all need each other to survive,? said Gray as he welcomed his audience. ?It?s always a pleasure to see how everybody comes together when others truly need their help.? As the audience, including many families with children, began to fill the pews, several representatives from almost every sector of Montreal?s faith-based communities took their place at the front of the church. After the Resurrection Centre?s Bishop David Burton?s brief yet sincere blessing, Annette Moncrieffe?s Most High Praise lit the church up with two welltimed hymns that properly set the mood for the rest of the evening. Led by Gray, the combined Imani Church Choir then performed a gospel tune which came close to being a re-worked version of Michael Jackson?s We Are the World without the rock star solos. After Gray?s brief introduction, MP Marlene Jennings delivered a few words in which she lavishly praised Canada?s emergency relief efforts. She was especially effusive about the government?s imme- Left to right: Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte, Mayor Gérald Tremblay, Foreign Affairs minister Lawrence Cannon, MNA Emmanuel Dubourg, and MP Denis Coderre. done properly? We have to make sure our own people have shelter, something to eat and all the tools they need to do their work.? Apart from the army?s D.A.R.T., (Disaster Assistance Response Team) Cannon mentioned how two of the navy?s frigates were on their way to Haiti along with military transport planes loaded with emergency relief supplies. Money was also on the agenda as Cannon repeated the government?s offer to match dollar for dollar any contribution made to a registered Canadian charity up to a limit of $50 million. This limit was then made unlimited. Denis Coderre, the district?s federal MP, confirmed Cannon?s com- diate offer to match every dollar given to a Canadian charity with one of its own up to a limit of $50 million, after which she praised Harper?s decision to revoke the limit. As of this week, the government will match whatever Canadian people decide they want to give to the victims of the Haitian tragedy. Citing U.S. President Barack Obama?s ?This is our moment?, she said this was Canada?s moment, Quebec?s moment and Montreal?s moment where we too could make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate than we are. Montreal executive committee member Mary Deros followed Jennings and told her audience the city was planning a relief fund of its own based on contributions from its own employees. She took up Jennings? theme when she told the audience it was ?our moment to pray, to sing and to work for the people of Haiti.? While working on the city?s plan to help the victims of the Haitian earthquake, she also ments when he said ?This isn?t about politics? It?s about people.? For his part, Mayor Tremblay said dozens of Montreal police and firemen had already volunteered to do what they could for the victims. In contrast to the politicians? global view of the situation, Joseph, Wendy Marchand and Stone Jean Louis (among others) were forced to deal with more immediate concerns about missing family and friends who could be living on borrowed time under tons of crumbling rubble. With tears running down her cheeks, Stone Jean Louis could not help crying for her four-year-old daughter who could be informed the audience about her own north-end borough?s decision to provide a $10,000 donation to help finance relief efforts in Haiti. When Kim Sherwood?s Montreal People?s Gospel Choir took the stage, the concert moved into overdrive. Sherwood?s overture must have earned some of heaven?s attention but when the choir tore into The Rest of Our Days, the entire church was brought to its feet. When Montreal entertainer Skipper Dean took the stage, he was joined by one of the city?s stellar recording stars, Dawn Taylor Watson. ?This was written in the ?70s,? said Dean, ?but it still has a lot to say about what?s happening today.? When they began to sing a cover of Marvin Gaye?s What?s Going On, the entire church listened with rapt attention to Gaye?s existential question as everyone tried to understand what?s going on in North America?s poorest country. Ushers began to work their way up and down the aisles of the church as envelopes, cheques, and several free floating $20 bills began to make their way to World Vision, a recognized Canadian charity,

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somewhere beneath the ruins of Port Au Prince. ?I don?t know what to do,? she cried. ?I just don?t know what to do.? Jean Louis told The Suburban her daughter recently left Montreal to go to Haiti with her beloved grandfather. While Jean Louis couldn?t go because of her work schedule, she knew the child would have a good time with her father. ?They lived in Le Carrefour,? said the distraught mother. ?And now people say Carrefour was totally destroyed by the earthquake.? Two days after the earthquake, Jean Louis said she keeps trying to get through to her father but as yet, there?s no answer and no news of both her daughter and her father. Marjorie Bien Aimée was in much the same situation. She said she was looking for her brother, Edwidge and his two daughters. Though she could understand how difficult it could be to get in contact with someone in that kind of a situation, she said the last two days were the worst of her life. ?You can hope for the best,? she said, ?but there?s no way you can avoid fearing the worst.? n Ninette Rosenflanz Courtier Immobilier Agréé Office: 514-481-3762 Cell: 514-562-5862 Fax: 514-481-8690 THE SUBURBAN, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2010 ? 3

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