Lives & Legacy

After years of strained relations between the Quebec government and the province’s English-language schools, the region’s largest English school board is hoping a new government will bring a more collaborative attitude to this relationship.

Improving medical access for seniors and managing the shortage of family doctors are among the top challenges the Vaudreuil-Soulanges area faces when it comes to medical care, says the head of the association of family doctors in the region.

As voters prepare to go to the voting booth in the Oct. 5 election in what pollsters are predicting to be a tight race, The 1019 Report takes a look back at the results of the last provincial election in 2022 in the two ridings in the region.

An environmental group tasked with removing water chestnuts from the bays along the 1019 region’s northern shores says it has seen a drop in the number of these invasive plants this summer. While this is an encouraging sign, the group indicates that next year will determine whether this is a sustained trend.

FREDERIC SERRE
The 1019 Report – Local Journalism Initiative

A trucker is facing fines of more than $2,000 and his licence has been suspended after he was captured on a surveillance camera dangerously backing his vehicle on Highway 20 in Les Cèdres last week to get to a truck weighing station.
The manoeuvre, which took place last Wednesday afternoon, was denounced by the union representing Quebec’s highway control officers, calling it “extremely dangerous.”
The trucker told authorities that he had missed the exit for the weigh station and decided to pull over to the side of the eastbound highway. The 90-second surveillance footage, which was posted on the Facebook page of the Fraternité des constables du contrôle routier du Québec (FCCRQ), showed the truck slowly backing up along the shoulder of the road during busy traffic. The video then showed the driver stopping his truck and moving forward after failing to keep the vehicle straight. At the end of the video, the truck is seen performing a sharp turn to the right, before it continued on its way to the weigh station.
What the driver didn’t know is that the entire manoeuvre was being watched by highway control officers, who greeted the trucker with a full inspection once he reached the weigh station.
“On a highway where vehicles travel at high speeds, such a manoeuvre directly endangers drivers, truckers, and first responders. It was an error in judgment that could have had serious consequences,” the FCCRQ said.
The inspection of the vehicle revealed three major defects, two of which directly affected the braking system: an air leak and a safety valve unable to maintain pressure. Worn thermoplastic lines were also found.
The intervention resulted in the driver receiving a citation for reckless driving, two citations to the company that owns the truck — one for allowing a heavy vehicle with a major defect to operate on the road, and another for allowing a heavy vehicle that was not in good mechanical condition to operate on the road. The driver had his licence suspended for seven days, and the tractor-trailer was removed from the road until it is brought into compliance.
“Kudos to our colleagues at the Les Cèdres checkpoint for their vigilance,” the FCCRQ statement said. “Safety on our highways leaves no room for carelessness.”

A Terrebonne trucker charged with beating a fellow female trucker unconscious two years ago during a shocking road rage incident on the Île aux Tourtes Bridge that was captured on video will learn his fate in two months when a Quebec Court judge renders her decision.

With a solid performance this weekend at a tournament for the world’s first professional women’s flag football league, an emerging star of the sport from St. Lazare is quickly making a name for herself as one of Canada’s best in the rapidly growing sport — and is preparing for the 2028 Olympics, when the sport will be introduced at the Games.

After deferring requests to add French to all its street signs — and delaying taking action for years — a threat from the Office québécois de la langue française that would result in provincial subsidies being withheld has finally prompted the Town of Hudson to adopt a formal plan to outline how it will conform to the province’s language laws.

The City of Vaudreuil-Dorion has dropped substantially on the Top 100 list of best cities for renters, according to a survey compiled by The Globe and Mail.

After deferring a vote on a bylaw to formally ban swimming at Sandy Beach in July, Hudson council at the end of August opted to drop the regulation all together.