My return to the press box: Our Habs remain a classy outfit

Last week I watched a Montreal Canadiens game from the press box for the first time in more than a decade. It was an exciting game, with the Habs defeating the Ottawa Senators 3-2 in a shootout.

I grew up in a household where my dad, known as Larry Fredericks (his real name is Lawrence Frederick Cohen), covered all of the professional sports teams in Montreal for the United Press International wire service. He’d always get tickets for my brother Chuck and I and we’d attend as many Habs, Expos and Alouettes games as possible. In the case of the Habs, the late Claude Mouton served as media relations director and each season he’d let dad bring us in the press box and get us in the dressing room. It surely influenced my wish to watch games there on a more regular basis when I got a little older.

When I did turn 18 my dad started bringing me along as one of his assistants. It was a dream come true. Then dad made a connection for me with the now defunct Sunday Express Newspaper. They hired me to cover the now former Montreal Manic soccer team, who were playing in an indoor league and at the Forum. That led to a full-time job as assistant sports editor while I continued my studies the next several years at Dawson and Concordia. During this time I covered every professional sport, including special events like boxing and the Grand Prix. I also got the much coveted season press pass to the Habs games. Thus began almost two decades of watching the games from there on a regular basis.  After my Express days I did it for UPI and Sports Ticker.

I got married, had a child. Besides my commitments to The Suburban,  I am employed full-time at the  English Montreal School Board, write for a number of other publications and serve  as a city councillor in Côte Saint-Luc. Yes, a lot on my plate and not much time to go watch a game from the box – even though I find myself frequently writing about the Habs.

Donald Beauchamp

I go back about 25 years with Donald Beauchamp, the Habs senior director of communications and community relations. He was the information officer for the University of Ottawa Varsity Sports Program when I held the same post at  Concordia. Donald has done very well for himself with the Habs and runs a well oiled machine, dealing with a huge media following.  I saw Donald during a visit to the Evenko offices a few months ago and he facilitated my pass for last week’s game. It was a nostalgic experience to say the least. Watching a game from so high up, you get a magnificent view of the entire ice surface. There are television monitors near every seat and internet access.

Red Fisher

Press box row has many of the same journalists who I worked with more than a decade ago. It was nice catching up with them. At the age of 85 Red Fisher is still going strong, pounding out game analysis columns on his laptop. Pat Hickey covers the team for The Gazette on a daily basis while columnists Dave Stubbs and Mike Boone always come up with interesting features. Of course these are the guys from Habs Inside Out, the type of website that did not exist a decade ago.

TSN Radio 990 has the broadcast rights and they are well represented .Besides play by play man John Bartlett and rotating colour commentators Bobby Dollas and Sergio Momesso, seasoned veteran Mitch Melnick’s show leads into the pre-game coverage. The likes of  Tony Marinaro, Conor McKenna, Sean Campbell, Mitch Gallo,  Jessica Rusnak, Simon Tsalikis and Eric Thomas cover each game inside out.  Remember the Rusnak name. She knows her hockey, asks good questions. These skills, matched with her natural beauty, could see her follow in the footsteps of Andie Bennett--- a TSN Radio 990 grad now doing outstanding work for CBC Radio and TV  sports. Andie and her colleague Douglas Gelevan, by the way,  are regulars in the box as well.

CJAD may have lost the broadcast rights, but former play by play guy Rick Moffat covers every home game.  In fact, with news that Canada’s largest telecommunications company BCE Inc. has reached an agreement to buy Astral Media Inc. for $3.38 billion in cash and stock, Moffat could be back in booth sooner than he ever dreamed. BCE owns Bell Media, the parent owners of  CTV Montreal, CJAD, Virgin Radio and CHOM FM to name a few. Astral stations are getting set to move into a new state of the art building on Papineau, right across the street from CTV. What if TSN Radio 990 (soon to be TSN Radio 690) gets some space there as well. Would the two stations be able to share resources?

Busy with the Alouettes and Impact, Rick  still loves his Habs fix. He  was busy tweeting and blogging at the game.  By the time he finishes his interviews and gets home it is about midnight – not easy when your wakeup call for work the next day is 4 a.m. “I take naps during the day,” he said.

Brian Wilde is on the Habs beat for CTV Sports. We can always look forward to his excellent live reports from the Bell Centre at 11:45 p.m. after a game.

Ron Reusch

Bill Beacon may not be a household name, but he has been covering the Habs for Canadian Press for decades. Arpon Basu of NHL.com is a man in the know, with a strong Twitter following. I caught up with two broadcast legends  - Ron Reusch and Jim Bay. Via his Reusch Blog,  Ron attends every home game.  Jim still serves as a correspondent for some networks and has not lost his touch for a good interview.

On the French side, seasoned pros like Marc Defoy of Le Journal de Montreal and Pierre Ladouceur of La Presse are classy gentlemen who gave me a warm greeting.

Douglas Gelevan, the rookie CBC Radio and Sports reporter, was in the box. He and on air partner Bennett rotate shifts.

Randy Cunneyworth at post game press conference.

I met former Hab Mario Tremblay and one-time referee and current broadcaster Ron Fournier on the press elevator. After the game the press head to the Habs dressing room where very few players seem available for interviews. I noticed owner Geoff Molson discreetly peek inside, with his kids by his size. Everyone heads to a classroom like setting for the post-game press conference with interim coach Randy Cunneyworth, who handles the questions thrown at him very nicely. He ends off with a “merci beaucoup.” I noticed him stopping to talk to former Hab Yvon Lambert, who congratulated him for giving defenceman Andre Markov a chance to take part in the shootout.

Pierre Gauthier

Prior to the game and in between periods the media gather in the Salle Jacques Beauchamp. This is named after the late sports columnist for Le Journal de Montreal. When I was starting out with The Sunday Express one of my first jobs was to edit Jacques’ column. He was a wonderful man who gave me great guidance early in my career

The pressroom has full course meals for $12 each. After the first period hot dogs and drinks are served at no cost. Media tend to gather in small groups. I was surprised to see general manager Pierre Gauthier in the room after the second period. He is not known to have a warm and fuzzy relationship with the media, but he could not have been more polite and animated when I started up a conversation.

It was indeed a nostalgic evening. Despite the fact the Habs will not make the playoffs, you can see the class in which this organization still operates.  Will they have a new GM and coach next season? Which players will stay and go? This team is much better than their record reflects and I believe we see them very much in contention for a post-season slot next year.

Sports Celebrity Breakfast a smashing affair

I was pleased and honoured to be one of the organizers and emcees for the eighth  annual Cummings Jewish Centre for Seniors Foundation Sports Celebrity Breakfast on Sunday, March 18. The $160,000 in proceeds from the event went to support Seniors in Crisis, a program that delivers much needed assistance to seniors who are unable to financially look after their needs. The event attracted more than 600 people and was sold out months in advance.

You can see the excellent CTV report  below:

Indeed I like to tell the story about how this event all began. Nine years ago I decided that I wanted to start preparing a run to become a Côte Saint-Luc city councillor.   The demerger referendums had confirmed that Côte Saint-Luc, along with a number of other municipalities, would regain their independence in 2006. It was at the time I was soul searching that Harold Greenspon called. For more than two decades Harold was the de facto minister of finance for Côte Saint-Luc council and it was the district he represented that I had my eyes on. I told Harold of my ambitions and that I did not want to run against him. He indicated that it was unlikely he would return to politics and if I helped him start a Sports Celebrity Breakfast for the Cummings Centre he would in fact back me.

Well, we started from scratch, built a small committee and pulled off an event which attracted a few hundred people and raised some $10,000. That is pretty good considering the fact it was intended as a break even affair.

After a few years at the helm, Harold handed the chairmanship over to mega-sports fan and successful businessman Michael Wagen. Since then the event has been integrated into  a successful Cummings Centre Foundation, which Wagen also serves as president. There is really nothing else quite like this in the city. I also must make mention of Susan Rozansky, our event coordinator. Without her, there would be no Breakfast.

The  guest of honour for this year’s Sports Breakfast was Alan Maislin, who has been involved in sports all of his life at the amateur and professional levels. In recent years he served as the president of the  Israeli Ice Hockey Federation.  Alan was in fact the first honourary chair of this event.

Israel’s Consul General for Quebec  and the Maritimes, Joel Lion, assisted in the presentation of a Leadership Award to Maislin. Mr. Lion is a gem of an individual. He has only been here since late August and I already consider him to be a good friend.

Wagen was presented with an award fittingly named after  Greenspon Award in recognition for the critical role he has played in making this one of the most anticipated events on the Jewish sports calendar.  

You can watch the exciting introductions of the celebrities below:

The big surprise was the presence of three players from the Montreal Canadiens – forwards Max Pacioretty and Louis Leblanc and  defenceman PK Subban. Because their appearances could really  not be confirmed until the morning of the event, we decided to keep it quiet. The audience broke out in thunderous ovations when these stars were introduced.

Wagen, Pacioretty, Lion, Cromartie, Leblanc, Carbonneau, Lazarus

Former Montreal Expos player Warren Cromartie was on hand to take part in a special tribute to legendary catcher Gary Carter, who recently lost his battle with cancer. Johnny Elias, a longtime friend of Carter and a veteran coach at the Maccabiah Games level, was part of the ceremony as well. Rapper Annakin Slayd introduced his fitting video tribute to Carter and there was not a dry eye in the house. Even Cromartie had trouble getting his words out. Côte Saint-Luc Mayor Anthony Housefather announced that we will name our main baseball field in Pierre Elliott Trudeau Park after Carter. 


Here is the Slayd video:

Other guests  included former Canadiens  captain and head coach Guy Carbonneau, recently arrived Chief Operating Officer Kevin Gilmore, former head coach Jean Perron (the coach of the Israeli National Team), former NHL defencemen Igor Kravchuk and Bobby Dollas and Shea Emry, Ray Lalonde and Eric Lapointe of the Montreal Alouettes.

John Bartlett and Dick Irvin.

On hand from the media were Hockey Night in Canada legend Dick Irvin  Dave Stubbs and Herb Zurkowsky of The MontrealGazette, Brian Wilde of CTV and Tony Marinaro, Conor McKenna, John Bartlett,  Matthew Ross  and Dave Kaufman from TSN Radio 990.  

Kravchuk, Wilde and Subban.

Prominent attorney Morden “Cookie” Lazarus served as honourary chair.  A live auction for a variety of sports memorabilia was moderated by standup comic Joey Elias, a co-host of Montreal HockeyTalk.com which broadcast live from the event. Give this show a listen. Noted radio personality Ted Bird is one of the colourful co-hosts. My good friend and colleague Kosta Papoulias, who made a wonderful video for the Breakfast which played on the big screens, is a producer.

Wagen, Maislin, Lazarus and Lion.

The Cummings Centre is a 6,500 participant, non-profit, community organization. It offers a full continuum of programs and services to the 50 plus community, from those who function autonomously to those who have become frail.  Seniors can take advantage of programs both on-campus at the Snowdon Facility or off-campus at three suburban locations.  The educational, social, recreational, and cultural programs include classes such as bridge, computers, film and book reviews, Jewish culture, global affairs, languages, literature, performing arts, recreation and leisure.  The  Centre also houses a fine arts department, craft and wellness centres and adapted exercise programs.  Their cafeteria offers dine-in or take-out kosher meals.

Pacioretty and wife Katia chat with Marinaro.

Wagen, Senior Vice-President of the Delmar Group, notes how only 39 percent the Centre’s funding comes from Federation CJA.   “It's hard to believe,” he explains “but one in five  Montreal Jewish seniors live  below the poverty line. Our presence in their lives is crucial to their well-being”

The Foundation, Wagen explains provides crucial support to the agency. "This is done through charitable bequests, endowment funds, donations of marketable securities, corporate sponsorship. Our annual initiatives include tribute cards, mitzvah meals, the sports celebrity breakfast and the governors program."

In addition to Susan Rozansky, hats off to Cummings Centre executive director Herb Finkelberg, Cathy Simons and Melissa Margles of the Foundation and communications chief Michael Beigleman.

Will Bell's Astral purchase make CJAD and TSN Radio a "team?"

There was a great deal of buzz in local television and radio newsrooms with news that Canada’s largest telecommunications company BCE Inc. has reached an agreement to buy Astral Media Inc. for $3.38 billion in cash and stock.

BCE owns Bell Media, which in turn controls local properties TSNRadio 990 and CTV Montreal. Astral, of course, owns CJAD, Virgin Radio and CHOMFM. Provided this deal gains approval from the Canadian Radio-televisionTelecommunications Commission (CRTC), what kind of convergence can we expect to see?

Folks I spoke with are not exactly sure.  There are some at Astral who believe they can make beautiful music with TSN Radio 990 (soon to be TSN Radio 690). The three English Astral stations are slated to move into a state of the art studio this summer on Papineau, across the street from CTV.   “I think we can make room for TSN  Radio,” said one person.

Rick Moffat

If CJAD, Virgin Radio and CHOM can share announcers, sales reps and office space then it only seems logical that CKGM (that remains the call letters for  TSN Radio) could be part of the mix as well.  TSN Radio, of course, has a seven year contract to broadcast the Canadiens – one they wrested from CJAD. They should now be able to retain these rights for life. Rick Moffat did a superb job with the Habs play by play on CJAD. He continues to excel as the voice of the Alouettes and Impact. Wouldn’t it be nice to see him worked back into the Habs broadcasts? By the same token, TSN Radio’s Mitch Melnick and Elliott Price spent many years on CJAD.

Randy Tieman

Television might be a bit of a different story due to union agreements.  Randy Tieman, for instance, works separately for TSN Radio and CTV Montreal. It would be great to see a sharing of resources like we saw in the olden days between CFCF Radio and TV.

In any case, this will be an interesting scenario to follow.

Bravo Minister Raitt for averting Air Canada work stoppage

My hero: Minister Lisa Raitt

Here are my three cheers for Lisa Raitt and the majority Conservative government.  I just returned from a short vacation in South Florida, having taken an airplane for the first time in two and a half years. Just my luck, on the eve of my return flight, came news that a potential work disruption was about to occur within the ranks of Air Canada. It was supposed to begin on Monday, March 12, a few days after my departure but right at the time my other family members were set to leave.

This made me really angry.  Selfishly I thought about how unlucky we were, having not flown in a few years and now being held hostage by the airline. Air Canada had served formal notice it intended to lock its 3,000 pilots, coinciding with the March 12 strike date set by the machinists’ union, which includes 8,600 baggage handlers and mechanics. How opportunistic to do this during the peak March Break travel period!

I am not about to take sides here. What I can say is regardless of the spike in oil prices, Air Canada charged us an average of $25 extra per bag (times five each way). When it came time for food, a tasteless roast beef sandwich set me back $7 (credit cards only accepted). Luckily I brought my own earphones for that would have cost me a few bucks as well. Clearly, the airline is making many millions of dollars by sticking it to the passenger like this.

For the sake of my family members, I began to panic a bit. How would they get back in time for the start of school? Would there be any other flights available during this week and how much would it set me back financially?

I went on the internet and was delighted to see our federal government in action. It actually made me quite delighted as a Canadian to see that we had a majority government in office that was not going to sit idly by and let members of the public get slammed. Sure, not everyone takes advantage of air travel. But it is an essential service for many and important for our economy.

I breathed a huge sigh of relief with news that Minister Raitt had blocked any immediate disruptions, referring two separate contract disputes to the Canada Industrial Relations Board to determine how a work stoppage by the two unions would affect the health and safety of Canadians. Raitt said a work stoppage was “unacceptable” because it would threaten to damage the fragile economy and interrupt March Break holiday plans for families in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.

It is unclear how long the industrial relations board will need to examine the contract disputes.  I hope it lasts a couple of weeks at least. The Minister has used this same manoeuvre before, blocking a walkout last fall of Air Canada’s flight attendants. The two sides eventually agreed to binding arbitration and the flight attendants received a contract they had voted down.

NDP labour critic Yvon Godin said the government is interfering in labour negotiations, siding with business and taking away the right of workers to strike.“It’s not the job of the government to get involved in negotiation,” he told reporters. “They’re there to facilitate negotiation. They’re there to help people to get to the table. Free bargaining, it’s out in this country. And this Stephen Harper government is taking it away from the workers.”

Sure Mr. Godin, you can take your fancy government expense plan and just rebook any of your flights on West Jet! Had a minority government been in office right now, the work stoppage would have proceed, benefitting nobody.

When I spoke to some of my Liberal friends, they seemed to side with the unions as well. One aide to an MP told me that competition is the answer. Maybe he is right. Yes, we have WestJet, which does not go to as many destinations. Porter Airlines goes to mostly Canadian stops and a few in the USA. What we really need is an open skies agreement. Let Delta, American Airlines and the others fly wherever they want in Canada.  If Air Canada did not have this virtual monopoly, perhaps they’d stop holding us hostage.

I took the shuttle at Trudeau to pick up my car at the Sheraton Airport Montreal and the pilots from my flight and some of the crew were seated beside me. They seemed kind of relieved that the Minister had intervened. "None of us really want a work stoppage," said one. "The Minister has a found a way to buy time."

The other pilot saved his angry words for Air Canada senior executives, who are making seven figure salaries.

Lisa Raitt acted last summer when Canada Post went on strike, forcing their unions back to work after a stoppage which despite our reliance on the internet still caused many problems. I wish to commend for being a woman of action!

As for Air Canada, well my return home flight gave me a chance to feel what it is like to be a contestant on The Amazing Race. My partners were the Hampstead father and son duo of Gregand Eric Weitzman, whom I met on board. We were scheduled to leave Fort Lauderdale at 2:55 p.m. to meet a connecting flight in Toronto at 8 p.m. When I arrived at 1 p.m. I was told the flight was delayed until 4 p.m. Oh well, I took out my laptop and began to type. By the time the plane took off it was closer to 5 p.m. and as we took the air I received a text from Air Canada which I could not access as we reached the clouds.

We landed at close to 7:30 p.m. and of course we had to go through Canadian customs and retrieve our luggage. This is when I met the Weitzmans. “Did you get a text from the airline?” Greg asked.

“Yes, but I could not open it,” I replied.

Greg then told me that his text explained how his itinerary had changed, that we missed the connecting flight to Montreal and he and Eric were now scheduled to depart the following afternoon at 3 p.m.

I now tried to access my text and it read that I was placed on a 9 a.m. flight Saturday.

“Oh well, they better put us up in a hotel,” I stated.

We got our bags and headed towards a gate agent. “Your 8 a.m. flight was delayed and you can still make it,” she said. “Re check your bags. You have 15 minutes.”

 

The Amazing Race had begun. 

The three of us ran as fast as we could, passed through security and made it to the gate only to be told that we missed the flight. Not to worry. Because so many people missed their connecting flight to Montreal – some 90 in all- Air Canada had added a new one at 9:30 p.m. It took off at 10 p.m., allowing me enough time to purchase a sandwich and water for the bargain basement price of $16.

Well, overall I must commend our national airline for the way they handled the situation. 

Now where we can I audition for the Amazing Race?

March Break in South Florida

I just returned from  my first March Break holiday  in Florida - all of six days. I was always told that while the weather during Christmas was unpredictable. Well unfortunately the winds were strong and nasty each day. I had one day of pure sun in which I got to swim and read by the pool. One of the stops I had most looked forward to was the Aqualina Resort & Spa on the Beach, unquestionably the most extraordinary property in Sunny Isles Beach.  Sunny Isles was formerly part of North Miami Beach and is located between Miami and Hallandale. We had the opportunity to spend the day at the Acqualina, a spot where I have run into countless Montrealers during previous Christmas visits. Fortunately we did manage to spend a few hours by one of their gorgeous pools by the beach and  enjoy some  lunch at their Costa Grill. The Acqualina entered 2012 with a splash, receiving award recognitions from AAA, Spas of America, Trip Advisor and U.S. News & World Report. The award winning resort is a coveted member of The Leading Hotels of the World and a premier Florida retreat boasting 4.5 beachfront acres with 400 feet of stunning Atlantic coastline. 

We just missed the opening of  Piazzetta at Acqualina, a modern marketplace concept which will transport guests to an Italian town square set South Florida Riviera amidst the breathtaking views of the Atlantic Ocean. The Tuscany-inspired marketplace offers light meals, bottled wines, olive oils, sauces, oven-baked pizzas, crostinis, paninis, salads, meats, teas and a coffee corner boasting 21 specialty coffees in a relaxed and inviting setting.  I hope to experience it in person next time I visit. In the meantime, here is a look at the property.

The Acqualina is also home to Il Mulino New York, which for me is one of the finest dining establishments I have ever experienced. Renowned for its bustling and energetic atmosphere, market fresh daily specials, extensive selection of fine Italian wines and an impeccably polished wait staff,  this is one of  more than a dozen (and counting) Il Mulino locations. It has already become a much sought-after establishment, frequented by both locals and visitors in the know.  

I found a fabulous new dining spot on this trip, one frequented by Montrealers in particular seeking kosher cuisine. Grill Time is on Biscayne Boulevard in North Miami Beach, just off 163^rd Avenue, in a small strip shopping center. Brothers Lior and Neal Karni came here from Israel eight years ago,  bought the existing Grill Time and completely transformed it into a magnificent eatery offering Israeli-style dishes, fish, meat, poultry and tantalizing desserts.

Shopping is always an adventure at the Aventura Mall and the gigantic Sawgrass Mills  in Sunrise, just around the corner from where the NHL’s Florida Panthers play.

One last tip – if you are like me and like to leave your car at Trudeau International Airport but worry about the steep cost here is your answer.  The Sheraton Airport Montreal Hotel, once known as the Airport Hilton, has convenient park and stay packages. Here you can relax in their newly renovated guest rooms and avoid the expense of airport parking. Spend the night (for as little as $144) with them before your trip, then park for up to eight, 15 or 22 days at no additional cost. If you just want to leave you vehicle there, minus the hotel stay, the cost is only $12.50 per night (taxes included). I took that option this time. The free shuttle was right there after I got my luggage. The car was also very secure in their fenced in area.

The incredible story of Steve Rambam and Adalbert Lallier

From 1988 to 1999 I worked for the Canadian Jewish Congress, the once proud Parliament of Canadian Jewry, as the national director of communications. It was an experience I will cherish for the rest of my life.

I was 25 years of age, having worked mainly as a journalist for the now defunct Sunday Express, The Suburban and Monitor Newspapers. When I graduated from Concordia with a BA in Communications and Journalism, I decided that public relations might be a better career path than working full-time for a newspaper. I did have a permanent posting at The Suburban, where I learned how to become a news reporter. It was there that I was assigned to cover a lot of Jewish community events. The Canadian Jewish Congress was among the organizations I wrote about. So when I heard they were looking for a communications director I applied, recognizing that my inexperience and young age would probably be a deterrent. But thanks to the head of the organization at the time, Jack Silverstone, I was given the chance of a lifetime.

One week into my new job, Jack came to my office and told me to organize a press conference in Ottawa. We were meeting the Federal Minister of Justice to discuss the issue of Nazi war criminals residing in Canada. Wow! These were the days before internet. Fax machines had just become the rage. Somehow I figured out what to do. The morning of the meeting I picked up Jack and Professor Irwin Cotler, a past president of CJC and noted human rights activist, and off to Parliament Hill we went.

Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney had declared war on Nazis seeking safe haven in Canada. During my 11 years at the CJC, this dossier attracted a lot of attention. The government did indeed find Nazi war criminals in Canada, brought some to trial and even managed to revoke the citizenship and deport some of them.

Steve Rambam

The most remarkable development came in November 1996 when I met American private detective Steven Rambam. He arrived at the CJC offices in Montreal with cameras from all over the world following his trail after a story broke in the Jerusalem Post Weekend Magazine, and in the Montreal Gazette. Rambam, then 39, had posed as Salvatore Romano, a professor of a fictitious university, St. Paul's University of the Americas in Belize, fabricating identification cards and even sweatshirts from the imaginary institution. Mr. Rambam told subjects that he was writing a thesis about police and army collaboration in the World War II. With Jerusalem Post reporters Robert Sarner and Steve Leibowitz acting as his assistants in some cases,   Rambam interviewed a number of suspected war criminals living in Canada and tricked them into providing apparent confessions of their crimes.

According to the original Gazette report, the private eye was given "a list of 157 suspected collaborators ... by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Yad Vashem, a Holocaust memorial in Israel." In a telephone interview conducted from Jerusalem on November 21  Rambam told the Gazette he had obtained confessions from 58 accused, seven of whom had admitted killing Jews. Twenty-five were said to be living in the Montreal area. The report mentioned the graphic confession of Atanas Kenstavicius, who admitted participating in the murder of Jews from Svencionys, a region of Lithuania in which he acted as police chief during the Nazi occupation. In a November 27, 1996, item in the Jerusalem Post,   Sarner and Leibowitz reported that . Rambam "met 60 of the suspects" over the past two years. Irving Abella,a former CJC president and  then chairman of our war crimes committee,  commented that he found it incredible how "one person working with meager resources had little trouble tracking down and getting confessions from alleged Nazi war criminals, while for 50 years the Canadian government has done very little."

Rambam would become a media sensation a contact I appreciated connecting with for years to come. I left CJC in 1999 to join the English Montreal School Board as communications and marketing specialist.  Interestingly, a new chapter between Rambam and myself had just begun. While working with CJC, Rambam set up a hotline and asked anyone with information that could lead to the prosecution of Nazi war criminals to contact him. One person did just that: Adalbert Lallier, a highly respected professor at Concordia University.

Of French Huguenot origin,  Lallier was born in 1925 in Hungary. He says he was forcibly drafted into the German army during World War II at the age of 17, along with his brother, who perished in the course of the war. While Lallier was a 19-year-old Waffen SS officer-in-training with the detail overseeing the work party in Leitmeritz, Czechoslovakia, he witnessed his immediate superior, an SS lieutenant, Julius Viel, randomly shoot seven Jews. After WWII, Lallier first worked at the International Refugee Organization in Vienna expediting the processing of East-European refugees, most often Hungarian Jews who had survived the Holocaust. Three years after immigrating to Montreal in 1951, he was admitted to the Honours programme in economics and political science at McGill University, graduating with an Honours B.A. In 1958 he was admitted to Columbia University, New York City, on a two-year graduate fellowship, to study economics and at the Russian Institute, obtaining an M.A. in economics, a Graduate Diploma in International Politics, and qualifying as a Ph.D. candidate. In 1960 he was engaged as a lecturer in economics and politics at Loyola College. He became Dean of Loyola's Evening Division in 1962, creating their evening degree program. During his long career at what then became Concordia University, he was one of the seven recipients of the John O'Brien Award for Teaching Excellence, and was eventually promoted to full professor. While teaching full-time, he resumed his graduate studies, in France, at the Sorbonne/ParisII, and was awarded a doctorat en sciences économiques, following which he did post-doctoral studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science. During the early 1970s, he was also Director of Lay Studies at Yeshiva Gedolah Markaz Hatorah, where he accommodated the mostly religious orthodox programme of this institution with Quebec's official policy concerning high-school education. 

From 1998 to 2000, Lallier testified four times before the Nazi war crimes court in Germany about what he saw during the Julius Viel incident, being the principal witness in the case against Viel, who was arrested and eventually convicted on the strength of Lallier's evidence. In the aftermath of the publicity surrounding the trial, Lallier resigned from the University in 2001 and currently lives on a farm outside Montreal.

When Lallier became the subject of a documentary called Once a Nazi, I got  a call from Rambam. He was coming back to Montreal and wanted to talk to students – with Lallier by his side. I agreed to set these lectures up. The media showed up in droves and the students had a living history lesson.

I am now in touch with Lallier again. At the age of 87 he has written the manuscript for a fiction novel called Sin and Retribution.  He takes elements from the Viel trial and his own past and meshes it together into a real thriller. I hope someone takes a look at it. Would be publishers can contact Janice Rosen at the Canadian Jewish Congress  Congress Charities Committee National Archives at 514-931-7531 ext. 2 or emailjrosen@cjccc.ca.  

Yes, the book and main war criminal character is modelled around Viel.  “It had been years earlier jumping around my head and deep within my conscience, having me recognize that it had become absolutely necessary to find out if Viel was still alive, which is why I eventually turned to Mr. Rambam,” Lallier shared with me. “ Presenting myself at the war crimes court in Ravensburg then became an essential condition towards the  real portrayal about what is going on in the Bundesrepublik  war crimes court - the necessity to grant me 24-hour security protection, because of the unpleasant presence of Holocaust deniers, former Waffen-SS members who had remained committed to their Oath of Fealty, neo-Nazi types of Germans, and others who seemed the ‘decent’ Germans  who had learned their lesson.  I needed this real-life exposure in order to gain a feeling whether the ‘new  democratic  Germans’ were a species totally different from their grandfathers and fathers who had loyally served Adolf Hitler.

“My portrayal of ‘Karl-Johann Rainer’ and ‘Franz-Egon Zeuge’ expressed the real-life presence of Julius Viel and Standartenführer Kemper, the commandant of the officers' school. Having experienced Reichsdeutsch Herrenmensch officers' haughty attitudes and their conviction that they had become the masters over the lives and deaths of the Untermenschen, and faced, in the anti-tank ditch, the horrible reality - gruesome expression of that attitude - of that multiple murder, asking -secretly burried deep within myself - why both  Jahweh and the three-image of the Christian God would have permitted that particular war crime to happen?

Here is an excerpt  

Klara Lauber was the name given to the only Jewish child ever to have been conceived in a Nazi concentration camp, the child out of wedlock, of Bruno Lauber and his beloved Sarah Feiner. A child whose father, an Austrian Jew, was presumed to have been killed by a Nazi officer just before the end of the war, But whose mother, pregnant yet defying all odds, managed to survive. Liberated by the Red Army, Feiner and the remaining half-starved four thousand Jewish inmates were transferred, first into initial care by the International Red Cross, and then into American and British hospitals or convalescent homes_while the governments of Britain, Canada, France, and the United States would attempt to figure out what to do with possibly two millions of homeless European Jews, the estimated number that managed to survive the slaughter or gassing of another estimated six million.

In late fall 1945, Sarah Feiner gave birth to a normal and healthy looking baby girl, named her Klara Lauber, and remained with her in Vienna until the Histadrutorganization brought both of them to Tel Aviv, arriving three months after the establishment of the State of Israel. Klara Lauber would have enjoyed a childhood typical of the young who were being raised in wartime and war-torn Israel, by their mothers whose husbands had died either in the Nazi concentration camps or in fighting for the independence and sovereignty of their biblical homeland. Sarah Feiner attempted several times without success to discover what had indeed happened to the father of her child, but finally gave preferring instead to secure for herself and her daughter a better future. She had absolutely no desire ever again to set foot anywhere in Europe. But the fate of Bruno kept on occupying her mind, all of which she was holding within herself.

In her early teens, Klara only rarely asked any questions, even though she wondered at times, why her mother appeared most of the time quite unwilling to provide full details of her wartime suffering and life with her father. But she was not pushing for an answer, since many of her young Jewish schoolmates in Haifa, where her mother was living and working as a seamstress, were children of Holocaust survivors, most of whom were keeping silent, possibly desperately seeking to forget the tragedy of the concentration camps. In addition, and unlikequite a few of the other children of Holocaust survivors, Klara’s mother did not have even one photograph of her father, that Klara could look at in seeking to discover which parts of her face and of her being had come from Bruno Lauber.

The day following Klara’s high-school graduation ceremony, Sarah decided to reveal the whole extent of her relationship with Bruno Lauber, the fact that they had not been able to get married and that Klara had actually been conceived out of wedlock. But, except for feeling that Bruno had been murdered in the “Small Fortress,”  in which thousands of Jewish inmates had been executed, she was unable to provide Klara with any specific leads. The ultimate fate of Bruno continued remaining an unsolved mystery. Breaking down with the painful memories, the mother concluded her report by pleading with her daughter, to devote part of her adult life to the quest of finding her father’s killer and of bringing him to trial.

Rotchin hits a home run with new novel Halbman Steals Home

 Noted Montreal writer B. Glen Rotchin has gained notice over the past few decades for  an array of successful published fiction, poetry, essays, and book reviews. He has won two Canadian Jewish Book Awards for co-editing poetry anthologies and was a finalist in 2005 for the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada First Novel Award.  

Glen Rotchin

Rotchin’s latest novel, Halbman Steals Home, is one that anyone with a sense of humour won’t be able to put down. While the story is set deep in the suburbs of Montreal, the storyline is one that can be appreciated by any reader for the characters described could live just about anywhere.

Haibman Steals Home tells the fictitious story of Mort Halbman,  a crotchety, divorced, 65-year-old garment manufacturer who laments losing the one true love of his life: the Montreal Expos. Now the dream home he built in the late 1960s in Hampstead, where he lived for 25 years with his once happy family, has burned down under mysterious circumstances he finds himself the prime suspect in an arson investigation.

Rotchin winds the story up to include a now Orthodox daughter who speaks to Halbman weekly, only because the Bible commands it. His estranged gay son, Jacob (whom he called Jackie after baseball plater  Jackie Robinson), has announced his impending nuptials and wants his father to participate in the rabbi-officiated same-sex ceremony. Then there his ex-wife, Mona, and her insufferable boyfriend, Gordon, Canada’s book reviewer extraordinaire. 

Halbman seems compelled to continually return in his Jaguar to the burned-out remnants of his former home.

Rotchin’s previous novel, The Rent Collector, tells the story of an  Orthodox Jew named Gershon Stein who spends his days collecting rent in a large, family-owned building in the deteriorating garment district of Montreal. His father is a Holocaust survivor and "Gershon was certain that he and other children of survivors were members of a separate Israelite clan, a tribe of inbetweeners, not quite victims and not quite survivors, not rememberers nor forgetters, neither here nor there." Gershon tries to study religion, tries to live a good life, but he is buffeted at every turn by devious, cunning tenants who try to short-change him in every way.   

What inspired him to write this book? “ Inspiration comes from many sources, but the motivation in my case always comes from a desire to capture a sense of place, which of course is inseparable from the inhabitants and encompasses so much more, such as a community, history and  legend et,” he says. “For my first novel I was interested in Chabanel and the Montreal garment industry, which has never been described in fiction. With Halbman it was my 'hood,’ the place where I grew up, Hampstead.”

For the reader the Halbman character becomes real every page you  turn. But as Rotchin maintains, “no single person in the novel is based on any one individual. All the characters are amalgams, mixtures, a pinch of this and sprinkle of that, all coming from personal experience and memory etc. My modus operandi for storytelling does not rely on research, as so much fiction does today, but on life-living, so the settings are real places - 99 Chabanel in The Rent Collector, and 92 Hampstead Road in Halbman - and I tend to pilfer references  from personal experience.”

How does he feel about the somewhat controversial storylines? “Controversy is always good for book sales, but I don't think about it,” he insists. “ In storytelling my chief aim is to document the genuine texture of life, the comings and goings and salient issues of this community and its inhabitants.”

As for the Expos angle, Rotchin and I touched base on the sad day in February when former catcher Gary Carter died from a brain tumour. Why did he devote such a focus on the baseball team which left Montreal eight years ago? “A few reasons” he said, “the main one being that a theme of the novel is loss and memory. Mort, and to some extent I, regard the Expos as symbolic of possibility, of 'being major league' as he puts it in the novel, and the loss of potential. The Expos are symbolic of Montreal at its height, Expo '67,  and the city's slide down through the referendum periods into second place, and so many from our community leaving . To me, the Expos represent our generation, born in the sixties with so much hope and promise, and that there was so much vibrancy and potential lost to other places. 

Rotchin confesses  that poetry was my first literary love.  I still read  and write it occasionally, but it's no way to make a living,” he says. “I'm a neophyte at fiction, haven't written that much, so it still intrigues me. As for book reviewing, essay writing etc. it's all part of the same activity, writing in one form or another. I think all forms teach you something and help to hone the writing skill - like cross-training to keep the muscles fit for a sport.

Halbman Steals Home is 192 pages and is on sale now at bookstores and Amazon.ca.