News for November 24th 2015

November 24 2015 // News

LOCAL
by Pauline Nesbitt
 

Montreal’s Inspector-General issued a report on Monday confirming that corruption and collusion exists in the city's snow-clearing business.

According to the Montreal Gazette, Denis Gallant investigated the contracts awarded between 2002 and 2015 after the auditor general raised the alarm two years ago over price-fixing and elevated costs in the industry.

Gallant reports some contractors would not bid in sectors belonging to others due to fears of being attacked and possibly losing their own sectors in retaliation.

 
Contracts in  11 boroughs, including Côtes-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, were awarded to the same contractor each year.  
 
 
 
NATIONAL
by Catlin Spencer
 
 
 
A Toronto woman is being charged with defrauding the March of Dimes charity out of 800 thousand dollars.
 
According to the National Post, Karima Manji was the charity's property manager and longstanding employee.
 
She was arrested after officers executed a search warrant last Wednesday.
 
Manji faces multiple charges, including fraud, theft and possession of over five thousand dollars obtained via a crime. 
 
 
 
INTERNATIONAL
by Julian McKenzie
 
 
 

Belgian police have asked residents to not tweet about any police action they see in the streets while the city remains in lockdown. 

As a result, Belgians have taken to Twitter to tweet pictures of cats with the hashtag #BrusselsLockdown.

According to the CBC, Belgians have tweeted photos and GIFs of cats sleeping, drinking beer, and being trapped in containers, as well as photoshopped in hats, cats as hovercrafts and Darth Vader, and as gunmen and bombers.

Some photos even reference Belgium surrealism, a cultural movement that has been in Belgium since the 1920s.

 
During the lockdown, subways and schools in Belgium remain closed.