Civic Alert: Sally Drummond: supreme organizer

She became a noted activist in 1980 as an organizer of the Yvette rally during the referendum. Then, with her long-time colleague Louise Agar, Sally challenged the Liberal establishment over the selection of a candidate for the riding. They won and their choice, Richard French, became Westmount’s MNA and later a cabinet minister.

The team continued to be part of all elections and referenda right up to the demerger of 2004.

But her life was not all politics. After being diagnosed with Lupus, Sally found there was no support group in Quebec — so she started one from her home and became Vice-President of both Quebec and Canadian Lupus organizations. She asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Lupus Foundation.

More than 200 people attended the service at Mount Royal Funeral Complex on Wednesday morning, followed by a private burial.

I plan to write at length about her life and achievements, and welcome reminiscences from friends and acquaintances. The story will be published in a future edition of the Examiner.

Born Sally Sherwood, she married photographer Michael Drummond in 1954. She leaves him and three children (Gail, Peter and Jill) and six grandchildren.

Despite all her public work, Sally was a strong influence on her extended family. “For 50 years, she ruled — organizing, instructing, informing,” said her brother-in-law, Derek Drummond, who gave the eulogy.

“We all depended on her for the ‘latest’. Losing Sally leaves the family in an information vacuum – the equivalent of the impact that the world would have if CNN went off the air.”

In Westmount, likewise, there’s a void.





The promise that matters



Here is the election promise we were waiting for: “The agglom must be modified to decentralize it, make it more functional and effective. We will introduce legislative changes to make dialogue and development possible.”

Surely, it can’t be a new Liberal pledge? Well, it is possible, because this is an undertaking made on the South Shore where the electoral situation is different. Although Jean Charest doesn’t have anything to say to Island mayors, he has met the South Shore rebels.

But, it is not the Liberals, so could it be the ADQ’s Mario Dumont? He has said previously that he would scrap the aggloms, but we still wait to hear what he will put in place instead of them.

But, no, wrong again! It’s not a Dumont promise. Unbelievably, it is the PQ — architects of the forced mergers — now advocating to scrap the whole system. Even Lucien Bouchard must wonder at this outcome, because he was only recently touting the formed mergers as a great achievement.

The big promise was made on Monday afternoon by Marie Malavoy, former PQ party president, in Longueuil where she is defending the Taillon riding.

What has happened to the ADQ? Polls show it gathering steam, while the PQ is losing points across the province.

On the Island, it is not so clear. It is hard to recognize the rally against the Liberals for cheating on demerger promises given during the last election cheating. No mayor will be running for the ADQ. The four who chose to support Dumont will continue to do so.

However, if Jean Charest does not commit to repairing the damage of his flawed demergers, then the remaining mayors — Liberal lovers all — will have very hard decisions to make.





Tremblay meets the suburbs



Last Thursday was an eventful day for Big Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay. He did what he should have done after the elections in November, 2005 — and he did it twice.

In the afternoon, he sat sit down with the Island’s suburban mayors to seek a common purpose — to help convince the Quebec government to give him more fund-raising possibilities.

Later — closer to midnight — he persuaded the off-Island mayors to share the costs of operating the Metro.

Eleven mayors accepted the invitation to last Thursday’s discussion. Notable absentees included TMR’s Vera Danyluk, while Councillor Ruth Kovacs deputized for Anthony Housefather of Côte St. Luc.

Executive Committee Chairman Frank Zampino attended with Tremblay, but there were no civil servants or political staff present.

It was supposed to be a secret encounter, and little has emerged of what happened. Although she gave a blow-by-blow account of the failed meeting with Jean Charest to her Westmount citizens at Monday’s Council meeting, Mayor Marks didn’t mention a word about the Tremblay discussions.

However, while the suburbanites accepted there was room for common cause, some pointed out there were issues closer to home that need attention.

They agreed to convene again this week, but no meeting had been set at press time.



Public accounting



The council of the CMM doesn’t meet very frequently, but lately its meetings have gone on for hours behind closed doors after rather brief public sessions.

That’s how it was last Thursday. Citizen attendance was sparse. Two activists from Brossard came to compare the sedate proceedings with the raucous atmosphere at both Brossard Council and the Longueuil agglom.

Questions were left to two NGOs: solid waste specialist Robert Ménard and veteran Bruce Walker of STOP.

A few agenda items slipped through in a few minutes and the public left. The real work was still to be finished, however.



Keeping the trains running



For months, Montreal — in this case supported by the 15 linked cities — has been negotiating fruitlessly with the off Island suburbs to contribute to the cost of operating the Metro. Longueil has contributed to it for years. Now, with this spring’s extension to Laval, there is a bigger deficit.

Montreal threatened not to run trains without subsidies to cover its increased operating costs. The government eventually agreed to absorb about a fifth of the running costs.

Last Thursday, there were still final “words and commas” to be negotiated. It took till near midnight. Pointe-Claire Mayor Bill McMurchie is one of the two representatives of the Island suburbs.

He stayed at the table to the end and voted on the agreement with Tremblay.

“What was really important,” he said, “was that, at last, the off-Island suburbs recognize the Metro is a metropolitan service to which they pay part of the cost.”

In a month when Tremblay has had setbacks, he had reason to smile and be proud as last Thursday turned into Friday.



Failure to consult again



The 10-year untendered recycling contract Montreal was pushing through its city council and the agglom this week deserved proper scrutiny, not the usual blind acceptance that characterizes Tremblay councillors. The blind acceptance by the suburbs is also questionable.

It has much merit for its social implications, but is more debatable for environmental and economic reasons. It also reduces the responsibilities of the boroughs and suburban cities, when their motivated support is desirable.

A recycling decision of this magnitude should be arrived at openly. Its success depends on citizens’ willingness to cooperate.

Moreover, the comprehensive plan for garbage was promised by Montreal for last fall but is still months away, partly due to the tardiness of the CMM.

Montreal should have arranged a full public scrutiny of this cornerstone agreement. It lacks the emotion of the Park Ave renaming, but it’s a big a mis-step in its own way!



Civic Studies



Grajina Lunas At Monday’s meeting, Council marked the passing of Grajina Lunas, who for 25 years had issued parking permits until her retirement in 2001.”She will be remembered for her perpetual smile, kindness, amazing customer service skills and dedication to serving residents,” said Director-General Bruce St. Louis.



Appointments Council appointed a new Community Events Advisory Committee of Helen Campbell, Rosalind Davis, Nicole Gareau, Chantal Montreuil, Helen Rainville, Leslie Therriault and Milica Vachon. Cllr. Patrick Martin was appointed chair of the Demolition Committee with Cllrs. Nicole Forbes and Cynthia Lulham as members.



Mending Cllr John de Castell is now home after his long hospital stay and is looking into some dossiers, Mayor Marks said on Monday evening. As is required by municipal law, Council passed a resolution excusing him of his obligation to attend meetings.



Party support Peter McQueen, the leading St. Raymond critic of the MUHC access plans, will run for the Quebec Green Party against Russell Copeman in NDG. He hosts fellow West End candidates and leader Scott McKay at Coop La Maison Verte (5785 Sherbrooke St W) on Tuesday evening. Patrick Daoust is named as Westmount-St. Louis candidate.



Neighborhood events The Réseau québécois de Villes et Villages en santé — the provincial Healthy City Project — is planning another Neighbours Festival for June 7. Last year, 23 cities and boroughs participated in creating 250 neighbourhood events. Westmount’s Family Day will be on Saturday, May 26.



Dance time Montreal City Hall will be open on Saturday evening from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. for dancing in the Hall d’Honneur as part of the Festival en lumière.



Better sewage The CMM has at last begun the process of upgrading Montreal’s waste water by-laws, activist Bruce Walker of the environment group STOP was told at last Thursday’s meeting.



Trading places Jean-Luc Trahan, who had been a senior member of Big Mayor Gérald Tremblay’s staff since 1991 has become President of the Quebec Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association, a trade group. He organized missions to Japan and Singapore when he worked for Tremblay, then Quebec Industry Minister.



Big money To help Quebec City Mayor Andrée Boucher subdue her truculent suburbs, former civil servant Robert Cournoyer receives a $4,000 a week fee!



Community activist Don Wedge can be reached at calert@web.net. His columns are archived at www.westmountexaminer.com,">www.westmountexaminer.com,">www.westmountexaminer.com, go to Opinion.