It's just a week into the winter snow season and already there have been two incidents related to snow-removal vehicles. First, a Montreal blue collar worker was stopped for drinking beer while operating a plough on René Lévesque Boulevard, then on Monday a women was killed by a plough in nearby Cote des Neiges.

These may have taken place outside of Westmount — at least by a few blocks in each case — and are officially the headache of Mayor Tremblay's busy brother, Marcel, not the City of Westmount. But nevertheless, they both illustrate a level of carelessness that is pretty much universal and could happen anywhere.

We all know that Westmount is far from immune to snow-removal tragedies, for who can forget that terrible accident at the corner of Sherbrooke Street and Strathcona Avenue, where a young woman was struck and killed by a snow truck just minutes after picking up her brother at the Westmount YMCA.

Could this and other tragedies have been prevented? Of course hindsight is 20-20, but it seems obvious that if snow-removal vehicles were forced to slow down, they might be able to stop before hitting a pedestrian.

But due to their sheer numbers, keeping tabs on them is virtually impossible.

Sad to say, but the pedestrian can expect no mercy from these most dangerous of winter hazards.

It was this year's best example of political correctness run amok. Last week the government issued a press release about a Christmas tree, then re-issued the same statement renaming it a 'holiday' tree. This ostensibly innocent initiative was gleefully set upon by the media, and the government was ridiculed for its ill-advised effort to avoid offending anyone.

In a province that recently saw 'reasonable accommodation' hearings and routinely deals with minor cultural clashes among its diverse population, the very thought of omitting the word 'Christmas' from a Christmas tree is absurd and frankly more offensive than purposely calling it something else.

You will have to search quite far indeed to find a non-Christian Canadian who is offended by the word 'Christmas' and the holiday it represents. An equally endangered species is the Christian who is offended by any reference to Chanukah or Ramadan.

Our society is supposed to champion its own diversity, celebrating acceptance, tolerance and, especially at this time of year, goodwill to all — including those who observe that decreasingly secular holiday we call Christmas.