Le programme d'évaluation du Barreau : de l'« absolutisme »?

 

Kinia Adamczyk / Agence QMI

Le processus d'évaluation de l'École du Barreau du Québec instauré en 2005 est plus que rentable. Mais il exaspère certains avocats en herbe, qui déplorent qu'on les laisse dans le noir quant aux raisons de leurs échecs aux examens.

Plusieurs se plaignent du nouveau système reconnu pour son niveau de difficulté, selon une enquête de l'Agence QMI.

Depuis 2005, au grand dam des élèves, les examens, les grilles de correction et les corrigés ne sont plus rendus publics. La raison? L'École du Barreau désire « que les questions d'examens puissent être réutilisées » pour réduire ses coûts.

Mais Meena Khan, une élève de l'École, s'en plaint – devant les tribunaux.

Elle trouve le nouveau système d'évaluation tellement injuste qu'elle a porté plainte en Cour supérieure. Et elle a obtenu gain de cause – en première manche, du moins, puisque le Barreau a interjeté appel.

Canadian climbers' heroic will to live

By ANDREW McINTOSH and KINIA ADAMCZYK, QMI Agency  
cnew.canoe.ca

SEATTLE, Wash. – Two Canadians who tumbled off a cliff during a blinding snowstorm on Mount Rainier this spring feared a lonely, icy death before rangers finally located and rescued them, according to dramatic recordings of the woman’s 911 calls.

"Don’t let me die here please," Quebecker Geneviève Morand begged 911 operators from the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, south of Seattle, in Washington state.

"We will die here if we’re not rescued," she told the operator, referring to herself and boyfriend, Simon Brunet.

1,8 M$ pour polir les dalles de granit d'Hydro-Québec

Agence QMI 
Andrew McIntosh et Kinia Adamczyk
Agence QMI
01/09/2010 14h41

Au moment où la province est aux prises avec un déficit budgétaire de 5 milliards $, Hydro-Québec compte débourser entre 1,5 million $ et 1,8 million $ pour retirer, polir et reposer des dalles en granit sur le parvis de son siège social de Montréal.

En vertu de ce projet, 600 dalles en granit ont été retirées puis envoyées à une entreprise du Lac Mégantic, Grani Bois, où elles seront polies. Ce projet voit le jour alors que d'autres sociétés et ministères provinciaux se serrent la ceinture en réduisant leurs dépenses et que les Québécois devront bientôt payer un «ticket modérateur» pour la santé.

La rivière Rouge a fait 18 morts en 20 ans

(Agence QMI) Kinia Adamczyk
canoe.com - 3 août 2010
Agence QMI / Ronald McGregor MONTREAL – Sournoise, la rivière Rouge a englouti sa 18e victime en 20 ans la semaine dernière. Le corps de Mandar Verma, 27 ans, a été retrouvé à Grenville-sur-la-Rouge, à 100 kilomètres à l’ouest de Montréal le lundi 26 juillet. La Sûreté de Québec enquête pour déterminer si l’alcool a contribué au décès de l’étudiant en génie à l’Université Concordia. Ce dernier faisait la fête à un site de camping proche de la rivière lorsqu’il est disparu. L’Agence QMI a obtenu et a analysé dix-sept rapports d’enquête produits par le Bureau du coroner du Québec sur les noyades survenues dans la rivière Rouge depuis 1990.

Post-Zambia: a whole new appreciation for taxes and ZEBRAS... can you imagine?

Zebras grazing to the waking sun - Livingstone, Zambia

In Zambia, less than a million people work within "formal" and "legal" employment structures, according to Costa Mwansa, a local journalist. For a country of 12 million, that's a pretty thin taxe base for the government to feed on. A lot of people work "informally" - in agriculture, as street vendors - and don't pay taxes, but also don't benefit from social services.

(N.B. the TV production Costa and I are working on aims to show Zambia from a dynamic perspective, blending challenges and successes. Success is often overlooked when representing African countries.)

Nevertheless, my point here is that I developed a whole new appreciation for taxes when being in an environment where most people don't pay any.

Girls, glue, taxi bosses ... through the naked eye

The biggest challenge is to let go of the patterns and stereotypes that have been ingrained in your mind throughout all your life, and to see a new place through the eyes of a child.

Making room in yourself to notice the hidden layers and power structures of the place that surrounds you ... Informal systems in place of set rules, discernible only to the local eye.

For example: the fact that the taxi drivers parked near the BP fuel station have a leader, and he should be the one answering a journalist's questions.

Or "street kids' and workers' turf". A bunch of men and boys gathered around a 15-year-old street girl we interviewed, shouting at her that if she lied to the camera, they would go after her.

Zambia diaries: so much room for growth

Generous people, famous musicians, shaking hips at Mayela night club, traditional markets, fickle electricity supplies, bumpy roads and cold evenings ... "Zambia is real Africa!" The first 3 days of the East4South reporting project - Africa segment

The first impressions are always the most important to record, because with every day, I will slowly lose the fresh, unaltered perspective I had during my first contact with a new place.

Getting off the plane, a group of forty uniformed schoolchildren shouted, “Welcome to Zambia! Welcome to Zambia!”

Costa, from MuviTV, picked me up, and we looked for accommodation. We went to three different places before settling on Mika Lodge.

On the way there, we passed through Manda Hill, where the Parliament is situated. It is made of copper, an abundant resource in Zambia. When there are elections, Zambians speak of the “race to Manda Hill”.

We drove on bumpy roads full of holes. According to Costa, it’s because of corruption. The government spends money on roads, but often, they don’t get built.  There are many public health billboards on roadsides, including one with a little girl saying sex with her won't cure aids; another one informing Zambians sexual harassment is a crime; a third one encouraging the fight against malaria. 

Below, a little 2-minute movie from the first drive, READ MORE first day impressions HERE

Saudis get better visa deal

By ANDREW MCINTOSH AND KINIA ADAMCZYK, QMI AGENCY


Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has quietly secured a better visa deal for the rapidly growing number of Saudis entering Quebec and Canada to study or work, the QMI Agency has learned.

From 1984 to 2002, Saudi nationals could enter and leave any part of Canada without a visa.
But after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, visa requirements were imposed on Saudis following security concerns about stolen and fraudulent Saudi passports and the number of 9/11 attackers that came from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

East4South kick-off: the Polish-Canadian + Zambian perspectives on media and Africa

Kinga Adamczyk - Poland from European Journalism Centre on Vimeo.

Costa Mwansa - Zambia from European Journalism Centre on Vimeo.

East 4 South participants

Development: keep or kick? Africa's time is NOW

"Africa's time is NOW.

It is time for Africans to assume full control over their economic and political destiny. Africans should grasp the many means and opportunities available to them for improving the quality of life," argues Dambisa Moyo (left) an international economist who writes on the macroeconomy and global affairs. She is the author of critically acclaimed New York Times Bestseller Dead Aid: Why Aid is Not Working and How there is a Better Way for Africa, which details the inefficacy of development aid for poor countries.

No more poverty by 2015?

We are dot-connectors. The watchdogs of power structures.

We have the responsibility of being fair and accurate; to be accountable to our audience and to trust our public's intelligence. We shall inform and inspire further research.

We are journalists. 20 of us, 10 from Africa and 10 from Eastern Europe, will team up to report about Millennium Development Goals in Africa this summer. 

(Top: Costa, a reporter from Zambia, and Aleksandra, a former classmate of mine from the College of Europe.)

Empowerment. Support. Control. Politics. Manipulation. Values. Pity ... = development aid

East4South training starts today in Brussels

Development Awareness from the Roots

Gathering EU and sub-Saharan journalists
to report on international development issues

Varsovie mon amour

English: that's what I hear on the terrace of Coffee Heaven corner Marszalkowska and Aleje Jerozolimskie in Warsaw.

Warsaw, my love. I had left her last June (2009) without really saying goodbye. Oh, how vibrant she is at the moment! I had missed the sound of the trams echoing in her streets, her pretty faces, her language. Her languages, for she is a very cosmopolitan city now.

Portrait video Concours Jeune Correspondant 2010 (Radio-Canada)

Voici les quatre finalistes:

Nom: Kinia Adamczyk
Lieu de résidence: Montréal
Âge: 25 ans

Kinia termine un bac en Communication et en Journalisme à l’Université Concordia pendant lequel elle a notamment remporté un prix Forces avenir pour des reportages effectués au Guatemala et en ex-Yougoslavie.

Elle a aussi suivi un programme en journalisme international aux Pays-Bas et au Danemark et poursuivi des études de 4e cycle à Varsovie en plus de fonder la revue électronique cosmopolitanreview.com

Parlant 6 langues, elle a déjà visité une vingtaine de pays. La gouvernance de l’économie mondiale, la place des femmes dans les sphères du pouvoir et les relations du Canada avec l’Union européenne sont au nombre des enjeux qui l’intéressent particulièrement.

Jeune correspondante avec Radio-Canada?

"Marrainé par Céline Galipeau, le concours Jeune correspondant s’adresse aux citoyens canadiens ou résidents permanents de 18 à 25 ans, passionnés d’actualité et avides de comprendre le monde."

Me voilà à mon endroit favori, la Dominion Tavern sur Metcalfe, avec une productrice de Radio-Canada. Elle réalise un portrait des quatre finalistes du concours Jeune Correspondant (dont je fais partie).

From the Top

PM to attend State Funeral for Polish President Kaczynski

13 Apr 2010 Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced that he will attend the State Funeral of President Lech Kaczynski and First Lady Maria Kaczynska on Sunday, April 18, in Krakow, Poland.

"This Sunday, the people of Poland will lay to rest a true patriot and a staunch defender of democracy and human rights," said Prime Minister Harper. "On behalf of all Canadians, I will express our country's respect for a strong and trusted ally and stand alongside the Polish people in their grief."

President Kaczynski, the First Lady and numerous political, military and civil society leaders were tragically killed on Saturday in a plane crash en route to an event commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre.

The White House - Office of the Press Secretary - For Immediate Release - Statement by the Press Secretary on the President Traveling to Poland

Apr 13 2010 On Saturday evening, the President will travel to Krakow, Poland to attend the State Funeral of President Lech Kaczynski and First Lady Maria Kaczynska on Sunday, April 18th. The President will travel to Krakow to express the depth of our condolences to an important and trusted ally, and our support for the Polish people, on behalf of the American people.

CR commemorates

Poland in the Rockies alumni, CR contributors and their friends continue sending words of grief, reflection and remembrance our way:

PitR alumnus and film maker Eric Bednarski Captures Grief in Warsaw (photoreportage)

Canadian PM Stephen Harper Announces National Day of Mourning for President of Poland - 15 Apr 2010


OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced on 12 April 2010 that Canada will mark  a National Day of Mourning on Thursday, April 15, following the death of Lech Kaczynski, President of Poland, who died in a plane crash on Saturday along with Polish political, military and civil society leaders. 

Wording the Unspeakable - Dispatch from Ottawa

13 Apr 2010 By Dominic Roszak The unspeakably tragic death of the Polish President and numerous Polish leaders shocked the world. Some have called it tragically ironic, occurring near that 'cursed' place of Katyn. While it was and remains difficult for me to comprehend the scale of this disaster, I find myself hit with a deep sense of sorrow when reading about the vibrant lives that each of the victims had led. These were people whom Poles knew very well as being devoted to the service of their country; coming from all sides of the political spectrum and a wide range of positions of responsibility. Most of them were also proud parents. I cannot help but keep imagining in my mind the moment that the plane went down...the last thoughts in their minds and the despair felt by their families when they learned of the crash. It is a haunting thought.

The New York Times - The Glory of Poland

13 Apr 2010 By Roger Cohen My first thought, hearing of the Polish tragedy, was that history's gyre can be of an unbearable cruelty, decapitating Poland's elite twice in the same cursed place, Katyn.

Beyond the Wreckage of an Air Disaster

13 Apr 2010 By Allen Paul The tragic crash that wiped out nearly half the leadership of the Polish government Saturday is a stark reminder that death stalks always in ways no man can see.

Late last Friday I declined an offer to fly with those whose lives were so suddenly and unexpectedly lost. The invitation came at the end of an hour-long meeting with a close friend, Andrzej Przewoznik, the high-ranking official in charge of on-the-ground arrangements for the visit of President Lech Kaczynski and his entourage to the cemetery in Katyn Forest near where the crash occurred.

Grieving from Shamokin, Pennsylvania

13 Apr 2010 By Vince Chesney These past few days have been numbing. Although we in the Anthracite Coal Region may only be the fingertip on the hand that is Poland, we still flinch whenever the motherland is harmed. Even those that have no Polish identity can certainly appreciate Poland's loss by imagining a comparative catastrophe in America.

It is my hope that by screening Wajda's Katyń that the students here can appreciate Poland as a partner in liberty who's history intertwines with its young fellow Eagle: America. Boże, coś Polskę!

Remembering Senator Bochenek

12 Apr 2010 By Ania Barycka April 10 will forever be a memory etched in my mind. It began with a shock, my roommate waking me up, his fists pounding on my door and his voice saying something tragic was on the news. I got up, unlocked the door, and found him shaking. "A terrible, terrible tragedy," he began. I was barely awake; his voice trembled as he told me about the deaths of the Polish President, his wife, and almost a hundred other members of the Polish government in a tragic airplane crash. I just stood there, half asleep, wondering when I would awake from this nightmare.

Poland Grieves

CNN - Why Poland's Grief is Doubled

11 Apr 2010 By Alex Stororzynski The tragic death of President Lech Kaczynski and Poland's political and military elite among the trees of the Katyn Forest is surreal, given that in those same woods, thousands of Polish prisoners of war were murdered by Joseph Stalin's secret police.

Newsweek - What's Next for Poland

President Kaczynski's visit to Russia was supposed to help heal a historic rift between the two countries. But as NEWSWEEK's former Warsaw bureau chief Andrew Nagorski explains, that won't be easy. Especially now.

Edmonton Sun - Poland Weeps

10 Apr 2010 By Patrycja Romanowska On April 10, the courtyard of the presidential palace in Warsaw was aglow as grief stricken people lit candles encased in coloured glass and prayed for the souls of those who had once lived there. In Krakow, church bells tolled heavily and even the sky wept, sending down thick sheets of rain to drench the hundreds of people gathering to mourn at the Wawel Cathedral. The evening mass began with Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz somberly listing the names of the 93 people who had died in a plane crash in Smolensk, Russia only hours before.

BBC News - Looking beyond Poland's 'unprecedented disaster'

10 Apr 2010 ... Krzysztof Bobinski consider the immediate and longer-term effects of the 70th anniversary of the massacre in a wood outside Smolensk. ...

Remembering the Katyn Forest Massacre

7 Apr 2010 By Wanda Urbanska After weeks of delay, the Russians issued my friend Allen Paul a visa yesterday. He had been invited by Prime Minister Donald Tusk to be a part of the Polish delegation to the ceremony at Katyn, to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet massacre of more than 20,000 of Poland’s military officers and reservists, its best and brightest, in 1940.

Washington Post: Meeting of Russian, Polish leaders could shed light on 1940 massacre

7 Apr 2010 By Justine Jablonska A historic meeting scheduled for Wednesday between top leaders of Russia and Poland is expected to provide new details about Russia's mass execution of 22,000 Polish officers in the Katyn forest in 1940 and may open the way toward improved relations between the two countries.

The mass slaying of the Polish prisoners of war by the Soviet secret police is one of the darker and less known chapters of World War II, said Kyle Parker, a Russian expert and policy adviser to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, an independent U.S. agency that helps formulate American policy for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Gloomy Saturday

10/04/2010 - All of us at the cosmopolitan review send our deepest sympathy to the families of President Kaczynski and of all the other victims who died in the tragic accident in Smolensk. We share the grief of the Polish nation, and of Poles in the worldwide diaspora as we mourn the loss of so many gifted and dedicated men and women who served their country with distinction.

+ Krystyna Bochenek

+ gen. Tadeusz Buk

+ Grzegorz Dolniak

+ Grażyna Gęsicka

+ P. Gosiewski

+ Mariusz Handzlik

+ I. Jaruga-Nowacka

+ R. Kaczorowski

+ S. Karpiniuk

+ Andrzej Karweta

+ J. Kochanowski

+ Janusz Kurtyka

+ Tomasz Merta

+ A. Natalli-Świat

+ Piotr Nurowski

+ Maciej Płażyński

+ Ks. Tadeusz Płoski

+ A. Przewoźnik

+ Krzysztof Putra

+ Sławomir Skrzypek

+ Władysław Stasiak

+ A. Szczygło

+ Jerzy Szmajdziński

+ Szymanek-Deresz

+ A. Walentynowicz

+ Z. Wassermann

+ Wiesław Woda

+ Paweł Wypych

+ Janusz Zakrzeński

+ inne ofiary / other victims

MORE

BY CR CONTRIBUTORS: Krzysztof Bobiński, Wanda Urbanska, Justine Jablonska

BBC News - Looking beyond Poland's 'unprecedented disaster'

10 Apr 2010 ... Krzysztof Bobinski consider the immediate and longer-term effects of the 70th anniversary of the massacre in a wood outside Smolensk. ...

Remembering the Katyn Forest Massacre

7 Apr 2010 By Wanda Urbanska After weeks of delay, the Russians issued my friend Allen Paul a visa yesterday. He had been invited by Prime Minister Donald Tusk to be a part of the Polish delegation to the ceremony at Katyn, to mark the 70th anniversary of the Soviet massacre of more than 20,000 of Poland’s military officers and reservists, its best and brightest, in 1940.

Washington Post: Meeting of Russian, Polish leaders could shed light on 1940 massacre

7 Apr 2010 By Justine Jablonska A historic meeting scheduled for Wednesday between top leaders of Russia and Poland is expected to provide new details about Russia's mass execution of 22,000 Polish officers in the Katyn forest in 1940 and may open the way toward improved relations between the two countries.

The mass slaying of the Polish prisoners of war by the Soviet secret police is one of the darker and less known chapters of World War II, said Kyle Parker, a Russian expert and policy adviser to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, an independent U.S. agency that helps formulate American policy for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.