Suburban Magazine Confidential Column for April 25, 2014

St. Mary's Hospital staff get a real treat from Subway

Who says there’s no such thing as a free lunch?  Such was exactly the case on Thursday, April 24 as Subway Québec celebrated Staff and Volunteer Appreciation Day with a massive gesture of community kindness: a free lunch to all employees at  St. Mary’sHospital Center in Côte des Neiges.

   St. Mary’s is an acute-care, specialized hospital with 271 bed that enjoys serving a multicultural population by speaking 37 different languages. 

The boxes arrive.

I found this promotion quite intriguing when  the hospital's still fairly new communications guru, former radio personality Cindy Aikman, brought it to my attention.  As an advocate for nutrition, the Subway brand endorses healthy lifestyles and promotes great food choices through various community initiatives.  Who doesn't love those TV commercials with Jared Fogle?

"There was a line up out the door of the cafeteria!" reported

 Hospital Interim Director Ralph Dadoun and Vice President of Professional Services Dr. Lucie Opatrny   hand out sandwiches.

At St. Mary's, the  Montreal franchisees  of Subways stacked the cafeteria to the rafters with 850 boxed lunches for the doctors, nurses, staff and volunteers of one of the busiest hospitals on the island.

“What better way to recognize Appreciation Day then by providing nutritional lunches to the dedicated healthcare workers of the Montréal Community” said the president of Restaurants Subway Québec Ltée,  Guy Laframboise. “St. Mary’s holds a special place in our community and this is our way of saying thanks.”

Identity Crisis - A Celebration of Poutine, Opera, & the Multicultural Mosaic

In the wake of the defeat of Pauline Marois and the Parti Quebecois,  Montreal-based actors/comedians  Ken Fernandez and Armand Naftali will present a pretty unique show  at the Leonardo DaVinci Centre on Saturday, April 26 (8 pm.) in St. Leonard. It is called The Voice Kings Present: Identity Crisis - A Celebration of Poutine, Opera, & the Multicultural Mosaic .
You might recognize  Fernandez for his  6/49 commercial,  currently running on TV. Naftali   has over two decades of experience as an Elvis impersonator. His repertoire now extends to Tom Jones, Julio Iglesias, Willie Nelson and  Michael Jackson. 

What can be expected from their new show?    Mandela and Elvis discussing exclusion on account of supposed values, and the importance of overcoming stereotypes and prejudice, followed by an Elvis solo; a Marois’ PQ fund raising book launch – La Nation C’est Nous, les 101 poemes de Pauline, to be interspersed with statements from Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Chinese, and Italian community leaders;  Pauline urging her supporters and  the Liberal government to enact  Bill 202 : the  Law on the Poutinization of Quebec (to   include the legal obligations of “ethnic” restaurateurs regarding La Semaine Internationale de la Poutine - integral to Bill 202 , words from  Inspector Jean-Guy Laferrière of the OPPPNQ,  as well as the reactions of various cultural communities in accents and imitation language.

Also to be featured: Jazzotopes, the band whose multi-ethnic make-up underscores the vitality of Canadian multiculturalism  which will provide the background music.

All of the ticket information can be found on the poster below: