{"id":15771,"date":"2014-06-04T00:18:14","date_gmt":"2014-06-04T04:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/?p=15771"},"modified":"2014-06-06T00:58:18","modified_gmt":"2014-06-06T04:58:18","slug":"haiti_montreal-links","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/haiti_montreal-links\/","title":{"rendered":"Haiti Montreal links commemorated at City Hall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mayor Denis Coderre celebrated the links between Montreal and Haiti twice in the past week.<\/p>\n

On Monday, a delegation of executive and municipal representatives visited City Hall to kick off the second phase of a Haiti-Canada municipal cooperation program set up to help the island state recover from the January 2010 earthquake. The 21.4 million-dollar-fund will last until 2019, with most of money (19.1 million dollars) coming from Foreign Affairs Canada. The Canadian Federation of Municipalities, the City of Montreal and the Union of Quebec municipalities are also contributing.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a><\/p>\n

Last Thursday, 30 firefighters signed Montreal\u2019s Livre d\u2019Or<\/em> to recognize their work rebuilding the Mark Bourque School in deBussy, Haiti. The private school was built to honour a Quebecois RCMP officer who died in Haiti in 2005. At the time, 50 children were supposed to attend but the student body has now reached three times that number.<\/p>\n

When Montreal fireman Jonathan Michaud saw the crowded conditions at the school last year, he decided that something needed to be done. He recruited three ten-person cohorts of his colleagues. Each agreed to take a week of vacation to visit Haiti and construct the school. In addition to paying for their own airfare and lodging, each volunteer donated $500 to the project for materials.<\/p>\n

Among the voluneers was Sean Metcalfe, a lieutenant at Fire Station 65 in LaSalle and a resident in DDO. Metcalfe says that he and the others conducted a massive fundraising campaign before they left. They successfully $75,000 for construction materials, uniforms, teacher salaries and one hot meal daily for students. Metcalfe himself raised $3,000 of that by holding a fundraiser in his home. Willingdon Elementary School students in NDG raised more than $2,800. The Montreal Fire Department provided $10,000, as did the Desjardins des pompiers.<\/p>\n

Metcalfe says he\u2019s proud to have participated.<\/p>\n

\u201cI stayed for the second week from April 16 to 23,\u201d he said. \u201cDebussy is in a mountainous region outside of Port au Prince. We had to hike a half an hour to go build. It was a hard hike for firemen who are in pretty good shape, yet we saw seven year old girls in flip flops carrying three 16-foot-long two-by-fours on their heads walking the same path. Guys would carry 100 lb bags of pargeing\u2014they were scheduled for five trips a day. Each guy earned a grand total of $12 a day.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"photo<\/a>Seeing such hard-workers was motivating, said Metcalfe. The firemen would get up to the top of the mountain by about 8:30 and work until between 5 and 6 p.m., with a ten to 15-minute lunch break. They\u2019d then go back to their lodgings and drink beer and tell stories until going to sleep. Then they\u2019d get up the next day and do it all again.<\/p>\n

Metcalfe says he\u2019s already looking forward to returning next year.<\/p>\n

For more information, view their project website at https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MissionHaitiMarkBourque.<\/p>\n

Note: This story appeared on page 21 of the City Edition of the Suburban today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mayor Denis Coderre celebrated the links between Montreal and Haiti twice in the past week. On Monday, a delegation of executive and municipal representatives visited City Hall to kick off the second phase of a Haiti-Canada municipal cooperation program set up to help the island state recover from the January 2010 earthquake. The 21.4 million-dollar-fund […]<\/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_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21],"tags":[403,402,404,401,405,96],"class_list":["post-15771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-island-report","tag-denis-coderre","tag-earthquake","tag-firefighers","tag-haiti","tag-mark-bourque-school","tag-montreal","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2buQs-46n","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3073,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/denis-coderre-montreal-mayor\/","url_meta":{"origin":15771,"position":0},"title":"Municipal Monday: Denis Coderre New Montreal Mayor","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"November 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"In his first speech as mayor-elect, Denis Coderre spoke about his plans to fight for any Montrealer who needs him. \u201cI will be the mayor of all Montrealers, ALL Montrealers. I\u2019m going to make sure that I will be their leader. I\u2019m going to make sure that in any occasion,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Island Report"","block_context":{"text":"Island Report","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/island-report\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Coderre","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Coderre.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2950,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/montreal-mayor-debates\/","url_meta":{"origin":15771,"position":1},"title":"Debates for Montreal Mayor","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"October 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Several debates have occurred among the many candidates for Montreal mayor during this campaign. Most are available online. CBC\/McGill The English CBC\/McGill Debate that took place on October 22 is available at:\u00a0http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/montreal\/features\/municipal-elections-2013\/debate\/ Then there are two debates I already covered. There were several things I noticed about the first two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Journalism"","block_context":{"text":"Journalism","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/writing\/notable-nonfiction\/journalism\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"debate-map","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/municipalities1600small.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":15691,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/montreal-rejuvenation-coderre\/","url_meta":{"origin":15771,"position":2},"title":"Denis Coderre’s Montreal Rejuvenation Plans","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"April 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Leading Montreal\u2019s three-day trade mission to New York this week is among eight ways Mayor Denis Coderre plans to rejuvenate his city. So he told Southwest Chamber of Commerce business leaders during a lunchtime speech at Cegep Andr\u00e9-Laurendeau in LaSalle last Thursday. He spent part of his speech giving his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Island Report"","block_context":{"text":"Island Report","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/island-report\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Coderre","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Coderre-232x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3078,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/verdun-council-split\/","url_meta":{"origin":15771,"position":3},"title":"Verdun Council Split between \u00c9quipe Coderre & Projet Montreal","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"November 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Voters in Verdun split their choices between all the candidates who represented change. \u201cEveryone in Verdun wants change and our position is not so far from that of Projet Montreal or even M\u00e9lanie Joly,\u201d says Jean-Fan\u00e7ois Parenteau, who is now mayor-elect of the borough. \u201cAs long as there\u2019s change we\u2019re\u2026","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\/Parenteau.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16170,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/montreal-executive-committee\/","url_meta":{"origin":15771,"position":4},"title":"City Hall Executive Committee Round-up","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"February 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Montreal\u2019s executive committee focussed on renovations, soccer and Montreal\u2019s 375th Anniversary at the January 14 meeting. City Hall Renovation Loans for almost eight million dollars were approved for the renovation of City Hall, with half of that coming from the agglomeration. Municipal Courthouse Renovation The renovation of the Municipal courthouse\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Island Report"","block_context":{"text":"Island Report","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/island-report\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3125,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/manon-gauthier\/","url_meta":{"origin":15771,"position":5},"title":"Manon Gauthier Named to Executive Committee","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"November 19, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Denis Coderre named\u00a0Manon Gauthier, recently-elected\u00a0city councillor for Nun\u2019s Island-Champlain and a senior manager at the Segal Centre, to Montreal's Executive Committee. She will be\u00a0in charge of\u00a0culture & heritage, design and status of women. Congratulations Mme. Gauthier. Other members of Montreal\u2019s new executive committee include: Denis\u00a0Coderre: in charge of economic development,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Verdun"","block_context":{"text":"Verdun","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/verdunposts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ManonGauthier","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/ManonGauthier.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15771","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=15771"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15775,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15771\/revisions\/15775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}