New Sorting Facility Opens In Montreal, Don Cherry's Controversial Remarks, Protestors Defend DACA

Ahmad Moujtahed

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LOCAL

A new city-owned sorting center opened in Lachine for business. The $47-million facility will handle 900,000 tonnes of recyclable material a year. It will collect all materials from the western portion of the island, home to 1.1 million people. 

The project is part of the city’s plan to become waste-free by 2030. Mayor Valerie Plante said the plant would be profitable since it will produce pure sorted materials that is easy to convert for other purposes. 

The plant features numerous machines to separate different streams of recycling, however the recycling of glass products remains an issue. A glass cleaning machine won't be delivered until March 2020. Until then, the glass will be crushed and used as a replacement for sand to cover up landfills.

NATIONAL

Don Cherry: “You people … that come here, whatever it is, you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you can pay a couple bucks for a poppy or something like that..." 

During his weekly Coach’s Corner segment, as part of Hockey Night in Canada, veteran sportscaster Don Cherry appeared to take aim at those he believes are new immigrants. 

Cherry’s remarks were widely criticized as discriminatory, abhorrent and un-Canadian. The Canadian Broadcasting Standards Council said it was so overloaded with complaints about the segment that it exceeded the organization’s technical processing capacity.

Sportsnet confirmed that, as a result of his remarks,  Don Cherry had been officially fired from the network. Cherry told the Toronto Sun that he had no plans of apologizing however, if given the choice, he would’ve chosen his words differently.

INTERNATIONAL

Protesters gathered outside the US Supreme Court as news emerged that the Court’s Consevative majority appeared to side with President Trump and his right to end the  Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, aka the DACA program.

The program was enacted by President Obama to protect so-called “Dreamers” or immigrants who were brought to the US as children but lack permanent legal status. DACA allows them to register with the government and receive a work permit and  a temporary waiver from deportation. 

Demonstrators at the protest outside the courthouse carried signs that read “home is here” and “defend DACA.” Several hoisted depictions of monarch butterflies, which migrate from parts of the United States to Mexico and have become a symbol of the “Dreamers” movement.