SPEC Headlines, Dec. 7, 2003

Pavillion Mgr Ross facing cutbacks
Jeanie LeLacheur

    Recent rumours  circulating at the Pavilion Mgr Ross concerning cut
backs in nursing staff, have prompted workers to consult the board of
directors in an attempt to obtain valid information.   It has been learned
that a provisionary deficit at the Pavilion Hotel Dieu for the year
2003-2004 in excess of $60,000 could mean serious cutbacks at the Pavilion
Mgr Ross.
    These potential  cuts would see 15 part-time and full time nursing
positions at the facility replaced by auxiliary and préposés personnel, a
possibility that has  Gérard Heim of the syndicat des infirmieres et
infirmiers du CH de Gaspé  questioning whether  the replacement  would mean
the  professional care currently  provided  to clients would be diminished
and replaced by care of a more basic nature.


     
André.Montmorency opens his art gallery
The actor entertains many projects, all in the Gaspé
Gilles Gagné

NEW CARLISLE - Actor André Montmorency opened his art gallery on November
26th in his New Carlisle house. The new resident of the town entertains many
more projects for the coming year, including preparing a play at the Moulin
Rouge camp ground and organizing creativity workshops for artists.

Mr. Montmorency presents his works at his gallery and will also send some
pieces to his Montreal restaurant in order to sell them there. He has
quickly adapted to Gaspesian life.

"I first came to the Gaspé in 1962 with Daniel Gadouas (another Montreal
actor) for the shooting of a TV series, Rue de l'anse, in Les Méchins. I
came back in 1967 on a tour with a theatre company, but we were playing at
night and moving during the day. I really discovered the Gaspé in 1988 when
I first came to Paspébiac at Mrs (Jeannette) Le Marquand's thalassotherapy
centre. I came back about every second year. Last Spring, I told myself that
this is the place where I really feel good, the best place for me. So I
moved. There was no reflection period", he tells.


Bennett' study lacks rigor, doctors say
It is a fictitious model, not a real study, they affirm
Gilles Gagné

    CARLETON - Twelve doctors from the Gaspé Peninsula and Northern New
Brunswick, representing 200 of their colleagues working on both sides of the
Bay of Chaleurs, criticize the "absence of scientific rigor" of the study
realized for Bennett Environmental and slightly reviewed by the New
Brunswick government in relation with the project of the company to build an
incinerator in Belledune.
    Two of the doctors, Gaspesian general practitioners Philippe Aubin and
Louis Levasseur argue that the study performed by consultant Jacques
Whitford for Bennett is "nowhere near a real scientific exercise" because
too many statistics used in the document simulations are fictitious.
    "The data related to the health of the people living in the Belledune
area are fictitious. They used a general sample of the North American
population. They refused to consider the interaction of existing pollutant
sources with the emissions of the incinerator. They used weather data from
Gaspé and Sept Îles for the dispersal of emissions. Fictitious data plus a
computerized model do not equal science", denounces Philippe Aubin.