Last week, former mayor May Cutler publicly questioned the decision at Westmount Municipal Association meeting assembled to hear Commandant Natalie Shuster’s report on Station 12 police activities.

Marks, as first citizen, summed up the feelings of many by asking the Examiner’s owners, Transcontinental, to restore its presence in the city.

“I don’t want to be a Luddite,” she told me. “I know much can be done from a distance with modern technology, but nothing replaces person-to-person contact.

“If staff goes along Victoria Ave. on the way to lunch or shopping, they will be aware of the traffic problems and other issues first hand.

“Without the paper in the community, I think we will lose.”

At the WMA meeting, Cutler protested the Examiner’s move to corporate offices in LaSalle and extended the advertised event into something akin to a Town Meeting. She wanted the WMA to write in protest.



Larsen explains



Examine Editor Wayne Larsen had also been asked to speak and he explained what had happened when the staff had been told. Although there had been staff changes, he confirmed he was continuing; contributors would file copy electronically from their homes, which had become the custom over the past seven years.

The new publisher, Sylviane Lussier, was present as were other Examiner staffers, both those continuing and leaving, but they did not speak.

Unfortunately there wasn’t time to debate Cutler’s request. There was an over-abundance of material for a two-hour meeting.

It was really a night for WMA celebration. What few in the city realized is that, since the Library’s reconstruction in 1994, the association has been excluded because it was considered as a political, rather than a cultural, organization.

Last week’s public meeting was the WMA’s first in the Westmount Room — although it routinely hosts the Westmount Historical Association, the Horticultural Society and many others.

It attracted an overflow crow, but the choice of room proved to be a handicap. Unlike Victoria Hall, the usual venue for WMA meetings, there is a stricter curfew on Library meetings. Closing is a firm 9 p.m.



Another letter



There could be no action on Cutler’s emotional plea for the WMA to at least write a letter to the Examiner’s owners asking them to reconsider the move. “They don’t realize what it means to us,” she said.

Olders recalled that Larsen was already scheduled as the next guest speaker on Tuesday, March 6, so the subject could be aired then. (New publisher Lussier will also take part that evening.)

Such delay is not May Cutler’s style of course! The octogenarian former mayor wrote a sharp note overnight accusing most of those present including the WMA board of being “content to sit on their hands!”

During his presidency, Olders has put a lot of effort into pushing the venerable association into the electronic age. E-mail has become the principal way of communicating between members and board decisions are sometimes reached with the same tool.



E-debate



Cutler’s request, for instance, has been vigorously debated by email in the last week, with many directors participating. All sorts of view have been expressed — from the owners’ rights to the city’s investment as an advertiser and the Examiner’s privileged place in the community.

Director Wanda Potrykus wrote a three-page note discussing the issues. Among them is the need for the WMA to develop ways to provide for a short-notice issue to be resolved without hijacking the agenda of a planned presentation.

President Olders's personal view is that the move could have good as well as bad outcomes. With the potential cost savings, he suggests, perhaps there could be a larger portion of the space devoted to editorial rather advertising.

Might readers become more active in submitting items once they realize that, because there is no physical presence, the Examiner will no longer “know,” Olders added.

His recent electronic efforts have resulted in a WMA blog site being opened as a forum for the community to express itself. Olders invited Cutler to post her critique of the WMA’s tardiness as an opening salvo.

The forum is open to anyone in the community — WMA membership is not required. To register, go to www.wma-amw.org/forum">www.wma-amw.org and sign in with VIP code 22631. You will be alerted by e-mail when new items are added.





Civic Studies



Awaiting Charest: At press deadline, there was no word about the Jean Charest’s meeting with the suburban mayors. Could the election call come first after all?



Not talking: Émile Loranger and Marcel Coriveau, mayors of the two suburban cities that demerged from mega-Quebec, have said they will boycott that agglom. Their moves follow Big Mayor Andrée Bouchard hiring retired Municipal Affairs Deputy Minister Robert Cornoyer to advise on the future structure.



New faces: Westmount’s Lucie Tousignant former Legal Services Director and City Clerk — she also held the same position in Outremont — has made a big career change. She is now Treasurer of Montreal-West. The town also has a new Clerk, Claude Gilbert.



Beef-up: The mother of a Marianopolis student went to last week’s STM public board meeting to alert directors that Route 66 The Boulevard would need augmenting when the CEGEP moves into its new home near Villa-Maria this summer. Vice chairman Marvin Rotrand made notes. At present, Route 66 is prone to rush-hour delays, she told me afterwards, but the Route 124 Victoria is even worse.



Sign-up: The Director-General Elections this week reminded snowbirds and others temporarily outside Quebec that they can register to vote in provincial elections. Details at www.electionsquebec.qc.ca.">www.electionsquebec.qc.ca.">www.electionsquebec.qc.ca.





Community activist Don Wedge is a director of the WMA. He can be reached at calert@web.net. His columns are archived at www.westmountexaminer.com,">www.westmountexaminer.com,">www.westmountexaminer.com, go to Opinion.