Ladies and gentlemen, I know you don’t come to our site to talk politics and religion, but we are bathing in it and whether you are secular or practicing, whether you invest in political debates or change the channel, it’s part of the spectrum we all live in even often on our way to the rink. I won’t go on at length on the subject, but it’s one that is dear to me going back to my own animated films at the end of the 1980s (near the time music was in black-and-white ....)

Black and white. That perfectly describes the thinking and lack of nuance in a large swath of our society that makes my blood boil. The attack in Charlie Hebdo brings it to a roil. What can we do to share what unites us and set aside what divides us and brings discord and makes peace impossible? Many will say it’s unattainable but a great majority of the rest of us who just want to live in harmony would say it’s envisageable without turning us all into granolas.

The question isn’t simple and the answer isn’t either,  to erase the darkness in some souls and the ignorance that inhabits too many of us on this clay globe. It’s more than that, and more than I can explore in the space available here.  It’s certain that our politics have to work to cut the link between business and power while cutting the red tape and making politics and the law simpler without all the bull shit. The UN doesn’t have the heft to reform the system because it is part of it, it doesn’t even have the presence to dictate tone. It should be the vanguard of a new world order (which scares a lot of people because the disorder we see caused by madness and greed benefits some people and governments.) Every human has the right to his piece of the pie and no one should die of hunger in 2015. It’s inconceivable that poverty of that type still exists and it engenders hatred and jealousy.

As for religion, the cause of every war in the world, or nearly, they all should be erased from the earth, like a plague, while keeping the founding principle of almost all of them: "Love one another". Some will say this is another form of extremism, but like a rotten apple in a barrel, we have to throw out the whole bushel and with it people who spread lies and illusions to stray sheep.

In one of my films named "Whatsitsi Whatsitou" (Nice, eh?) the final scene shows people throwing off their established political and religious leaders expelling them from the planet with the Montreal Metro, which for creative purposes was transformed into an intergalactic train. It was a simple image, but said it all. That said, it ended in a big party where everyone had his place to live and prosper, not necessarily economically, but as man. (I’m speaking here of the species and not the gender, if it’s not clear for some (extremists).

On a lighter note, we got a lot of encouraging feedback about the work of Jacob Poliquin that are on the front page, without getting any bids for acquiring them. For those who are interested, you have the rest of the season to take part and get your hands on some unique art representing "nos glorieux" that will gain in value over the years, it’s guaranteed!

Before the holidays I spoke about the World Junior, which rolled out exactly as I predicted: some one-way boring games, the big game on New Year’s Eve, and finally a very entertaining match that saw the Russians come back on a team of young Canadian wolves who no doubt were already seeing the rain of confetti coming down on Yonge Street in Toronto before the game was over. I found the NHL games that followed to be very boring after two weeks of do-or-die by hungry young players trying to play their way into a career among the stars.

Speaking of games, on Saturday the last two games were both one-way affairs, with the Vipers and the Czechers sending their opponents to the canvas. (Please see the Windsor scoreboard.)  There are games like that. It’s the nature of the sport. The weekend was saved by the tight game between the Loggers and and Shamrocks, where the Shams came back right up to the last second of the game. They had hope until the end and might have pulled it off if it wasn’t for the brilliance of the young Loggers goalie, MJA, and his defensive brigade. We will meet again in two weeks, when we will have team photos and all the shabang. We are off next week. Rest well, it’s the last break until the end of the season.

Don’t forget, players and partisans of the LFA, that we will unveil the new uniforms & logo for the All-Star game, special events and tournaments at the Pub St-Paul in Old-Montreal on Wednesday, January 14, starting at 6 p.m. We will have plenty of door prizes and the Habs game on all the screens.

Have a great week.
JFD (AS TRANSLATED BY LES PERREAUX)