English leaders in Verdun are relieved to hear that Verdun\u2019s website is only temporarily disabled and will return live by the end of October.<\/p>\n
Verdun\u2019s communications officer Francine Morin says she took the site down last April, but only as a temporary measure until she finished completing a new version of the French site, which goes live next week. The English site will then be updated and published over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe city has obtained a new platform to give every borough the same look,\u201d said Morin. \u201cI didn\u2019t have the resources necessary to continue updating the English version of the site, so I disconnected it rather than give our English-speaking citizens incorrect information.\u201d<\/p>\n
The borough of LaSalle faced similar circumstances, but they decided to leave their English site live without updating it, rather than leave English-speaking citizens without any information at all. \u201cWe\u2019ve never even discussed removing our website,\u201d said Pierre Dupuis, the Communications Rep. for the Borough of LaSalle. \u201cMore than a third of our website visitors consult the English pages, so we know they need that information.\u201d<\/p>\n
Verdun\u2019s lack of a website inconvenienced at least two different groups of residents. Those living on and near Churchill Street received notices about a road closure and disrupted bus, garbage and postal services in French on Thursday, September 13. The letter included \u201cEnglish upon Request\u201d on the bottom of the letter, but since borough offices close at half past noon on Fridays, no one could provide a translation before fines came into effect the following Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went the borough website to find the notice in English so that I could print it out for my elderly neighbours because they aren\u2019t online,\u201d said Crawford Park resident and Suburban contributor, Rohinton Ghandhi. \u201cThere was an error message that rerouted you to the main city of Montreal site.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Monday morning, Verdun delivered English notices to four different residents including Ghandhi, but in the meantime, he mentioned his concerns to long-time Verdun resident Joseph Quinn.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a disaster.\u00a0 I\u2019ve lived in Verdun for 70 years and we have always had bilingual access to the borough of Verdun,\u201d said Quinn, whose son Ken contacted the Suburban last Friday.<\/p>\n
Ken forwarded information from a website popular with Verdun residents. On that site, Linda Levesque Telfer posted that she received a letter from a borough official after complaining about the missing website. “As Verdun doesn’t have bilingual Borough status, according to the bill 101, we cannot provide an English version of all the content of our Web site,\u201d said the letter, which was written by Karine Beno\u00eet from the Acc\u00e8s Verdun office.<\/p>\n
Note: This story appeared in the City edition of the Suburban yesterday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
English leaders in Verdun are relieved to hear that Verdun\u2019s website is only temporarily disabled and will return live by the end of October. Verdun\u2019s communications officer Francine Morin says she took the site down last April, but only as a temporary measure until she finished completing a new version of the French site, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-verdunposts","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2buQs-jl","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":16003,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/language-tension-verdun\/","url_meta":{"origin":1199,"position":0},"title":"Language tension in Verdun","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"October 27, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Community groups serving English-speaking residents in Verdun have been feeling more language tension in the borough recently. The borough\u2019s reluctance to mirror their website in English and bilingual brochures were among the key subjects at One-Stop Shopping, a gathering organized by the Southwest United Church and Mission a few weeks\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Verdun"","block_context":{"text":"Verdun","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/verdunposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"V","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/website-479x600.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16674,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/november-verdun-borough\/","url_meta":{"origin":1199,"position":1},"title":"This week in the Suburban: November Verdun Borough Meeting Update","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"November 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Verdun\u2019s November borough meeting featured a buy local policy, the beach and the Evolo S development on the north point of Nuns' Island. Check out my report on The Suburban website. You can also watch the webcast, or refer to the agenda and decisional documents\u00a0of the\u00a0November 3 meeting. \u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "Verdun"","block_context":{"text":"Verdun","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/verdunposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Parenteau","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Parenteau1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":115,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/residents-question-verduns-loosened-demolition-rules\/","url_meta":{"origin":1199,"position":2},"title":"Residents Question Verdun\u2019s Loosened Demolition Rules","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"March 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Commercial property owners in Verdun will soon be able demolish heritage buildings in a bad state of repair or at the back of a property without a Site Planning and Architectural Integration (SPAI) review. \u201cIs this not an invitation to all landlords to stop maintaining their buildings so that they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "History Worth Remembering"","block_context":{"text":"History Worth Remembering","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/history-worth-remembering\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1532,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/verdun-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":1199,"position":3},"title":"Latest Verdun News","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"April 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Verdun News Verdun, Borough, Montreal, Wellington, Nun's Island, Crawford Park, St. Lawrence, politics, Transportation, energy, land, real estate, business, retailer View \"Verdun News\" on Spundge","rel":"","context":"In "Verdun"","block_context":{"text":"Verdun","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/verdunposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17073,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/verdun-cancels-lease-french-food-bank\/","url_meta":{"origin":1199,"position":4},"title":"Verdun cancels lease of French Food Bank","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"April 6, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Verdun has cancelled the lease of the borough\u2019s French food bank, le R\u00e9seau d\u2019entraide de Verdun (REV). REV has been asked to vacate the basement at 4400 boulevard LaSalle as of May 31. Read the rest of the story the Suburban. It also appears on page A10 of the city\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Verdun"","block_context":{"text":"Verdun","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/verdunposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17158,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/verdun-borough-meeting-last-night\/","url_meta":{"origin":1199,"position":5},"title":"Verdun Borough Meeting Last Night","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"May 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Last night, borough councillors in Verdun met to make decisions for many of Verdun\u2019s upcoming summer projects, including the Verdun family markets that our coop, Cooperative Abondance Urbain Solidaire, will be organizing this summer. (Thank you Verdun.) Councillors also approved plans for a new French school in Crawford Park and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Verdun"","block_context":{"text":"Verdun","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/verdunposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/VerdunDocksmall.jpg?fit=300%2C224&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}