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Montreal’s Muslim Maghrebi community sounds alarm on deadly gangs recruiting youth

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MONTREAL – Members of Montreal’s Muslim and Maghrebi communities gathered at a city park on Saturday afternoon to decry – and fight back against – what they described as a “scourge” of street gangs recruiting youth to carry out criminal acts.

Several dozen participants gathered in Wilfrid-Bastien Park in the city’s St. Leonard borough , including children carrying blank, black placards suggesting mourning.

“The Muslim community is mobilizing,” said Hadjira Belkacem, president and founder of Muslim Sepulcher Association of Quebec, a group that supports mourning Muslim families.

“We have had enough of seeing our children get massacred … We are enraged, and we are in mourning,” Belkacem, who organized the event, told those in attendance.

Elected officials, parents and other community members took the stage to sound the alarm following several recent incidents in the province, including the death of a 14-year-old boy of Algerian descent who media reports say was found near a Hells Angels-linked bunker in Frampton, Que., about 50 kilometres southeast of Quebec City.

Provincial police have not confirmed the boy’s identity or cause of death, but multiple media reports say the victim fled his home in St. Leonard, where the gathering took place, and was reportedly sent to attack the bunker. The Sûreté du Québec declined to comment on the case on Saturday.

Borough Mayor Michel Bissonnet called on all levels of government to intervene.

“We need the help of the city centre and help from the provincial and federal governments,” he said.

Bissonnet said the additional funding is needed to put more intervention workers on the ground and provide more services to keep children out of trouble.

Quebec’s Public Security Minister François Bonnardel has publicly acknowledged the issue of alleged gang recruitment in recent weeks, describing organized crime groups enlisting youth in their activities as “vile.”

“Like many Quebecers, what I hear coming out of Frampton shocks me,” he posted on X on Sept. 19. “It is vile for street gangs to enlist young people — children — to do their dirty work.”

Belkacem says she has heard from multiple parents, especially those with roots in northern Africa, afraid that their kids may be targeted.

“It starts at 12, 13, 14-years-old. Street gangs ask them to steal cars, go out and kill, that sort of thing… They recruit kids to do their dirty work,” she said in an interview on Saturday before the event.

“We know because we’ve been called by several families asking for help and telling us that, ‘my child has been recruited into a gang,’” she said, adding that Quebecers of Algerian and Moroccan descent have been especially affected. “Unfortunately, there have been many deaths of young people in our community.”

Nazar Saaty, a lawyer who volunteers with the Muslim Sepulcher Association of Quebec, works with young criminal offenders. He said youth are being recruited “at an explosive rate,” and families fear youth protection services may take their children away if they speak up.

Saaty argued criminal groups are exploiting vulnerabilities in Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act.

“They’re saying: Listen, I’m not going to commit a crime, I’ll send some youngster to do it. The worst that’ll get is be put in a centre … whereas I’ll go to prison,” he said.

“My solution wouldn’t be to strengthen or crack down on young offenders. It would be to introduce legislation within the Criminal Code for adults who recruit these minors to have very, very stiff penalties.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 28, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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The model makers in Madagascar bring history’s long-lost ships back to life

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ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AP) — A French trading ship that sank in the 17th century with treasure onboard is being brought back to life in a workshop in Madagascar with every stroke of Rafah Ralahy’s small wood sander.

Ralahy, eyes sparkling behind his glasses, has learned in 30 years as a craftsman at the Le Village model ship making company that recreating history in miniature form can’t be rushed. It’ll take time to get the shape of the hull just right on this model, to get it just as it was on the 1,000-ton original.

The ship in question was called the Soleil d’Orient — the Eastern Sun — and it was one of the best in the French East India company. It sank in 1681 while carrying ambassadors and treasure sent by the King of Siam (now Thailand) to King Louis XIV of France. Anyone wanting an exact wooden replica from Le Village, albeit a few feet long, can get it for just over $2,500. That excludes the shipping costs.

“My job is to be as faithful as possible to the plan,” said 50-year-old Ralahy, referring to copies of the ships’ original building plans that Le Village acquires from maritime museums or other sources. “At each stage we check so that the model we create is identical to the ship designed centuries ago.”

Le Village has been making models of history’s most famous vessels since 1993 and sending them to collectors across the world, some of them eminent. Prince Albert of Monaco has several models displayed in his palace, said Le Village co-owner Grégory Postel. The Spanish royal family also own Le Village creations. Pope Francis was gifted a model by Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina.

Those royal customers are looking for a model ship “that resembles what their ancestors knew,” said Postel, championing the company’s attention to historic detail. Some of the high-end models sell for a princely sum of $10,000. Collectors with as much passion but less means can find something for around $150.

Le Village has dozens of ships available for order, from celebrated to infamous to ill-fated. Some recently were shown at an exhibition in Venice, Italy, including one of the company’s showpieces, the British ship HMS Bounty that is renowned for a mutiny by its disgruntled crew. A model of perhaps the most famous ship ever, the Titanic, is of course available.

Le Village’s staff of more than two dozen model makers work in nine dusty workshops on the outskirts of the Madagascar capital of Antananarivo. Like Ralahy, many of them have been here for more than 20 years, crafting a reputation for an unusual company.

Madagascar has hardly any shipbuilding tradition despite being the world’s fourth largest island. So, Le Village’s own story is one of endeavor.

It was started by Frenchman Hervé Scrive, who arrived in Madagascar off the east coast of Africa with a passion. He sold it after 20 years to a family, but it hit choppy waters during the COVID-19 pandemic as Madagascar — already struggling with high levels of poverty — sank into a deep economic recession.

Postel, his wife and another French couple bought it last year with the aim of bringing it out of financial trouble and, hopefully, expanding. Postel said they want to start a woodworking school to spread the craft on the island and create opportunities for others. They’d also like to build a maritime museum of their own.

Ralahy, a house painter as a young man before finding another use for his nimble hands, sands the rough wood that will become the outer hull of the Soleil d’Orient model he’s started. Weeks of intricate work lie ahead for the team of crafters and some models take more than 1,000 hours of work. But the miniature sails will be hoisted on a new Soleil d’Orient nearly 350 years after tragedy befell the original and she sank with no survivors, sending her treasure to the ocean bottom.

Each model passes through the different workshops and through the hands of different specialists. Husbands and wives work together at Le Village, as do other members of the same families. It’s a tight-knit team.

In another room, four women who craft and attach the tiny ropes, sails and other finishing touches, are working with a sense of urgency on one model. This one is nearing completion and has already been paid for.

“It’s a race,” said Alexandria Mandimbiherimamisoa as she gets mini flags ready to add to the ship. “We have to send the boat to its buyer in a week.”

Her husband, Tovo-Hery Andrianarivo, also works at Le Village, his fingernails blackened from a misplaced hammer blow or two over the years, an occupational hazard. He spoke of their collective pride when they see how far some of their models have traveled.

Andrianarivo once watched a documentary on the recreation of a life-size version of the Hermione, an 18th-century frigate that carried French General Lafayette to the American War of Independence. It was rebuilt and launched again in 2014 to much fanfare.

“Behind the museum curator who was speaking, there was our model,” Andrianarivo said. “The feeling I felt that day was incredible.”

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For more news on Africa and development: https://apnews.com/hub/africa-pulse

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The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.



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Man killed in Toronto east end stabbing: police

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Toronto police say a stabbing in the city’s east end Saturday night has left one person dead.

Police say they responded to a report of a stabbing near Brimley Road and McNicoll Avenue in Scarborough around 6:45 p.m.

They say emergency officials found a man with serious injuries and attempted life-saving measures, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Duty Insp. Jeff Bassingthwaite says police do not believe there is a threat to public safety.

Police have not provided a suspect description and have not released further details about the victim’s identity.

Police are asking anyone with information or camera footage to contact investigators.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Hurricane Isaac and Tropical Storm Joyce move through the open Atlantic far from land

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MIAMI (AP) — Hurricane Isaac was a Category 2 storm far from land in the North Atlantic on Saturday, while Tropical Storm Joyce continued its path over open water well to the east of the Caribbean.

Isaac had maximum sustained winds of 100 mph (155 kph) and was about 645 miles (1,040 kilometers) west-northwest of the Azores archipelago, which lies west of mainland Portugal. It was moving toward the northeast at 18 mph (30 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center.

Far to the south, Joyce had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph), and its center was about 1,080 miles (1,735 kilometers) east of the Northern Leeward Islands, which are on the eastern ring of the Caribbean. It was heading to the west-northwest at 9 mph (15 kph), the hurricane center reported.

Neither storm posed any threat to land, forecasters said, and both were expected to weaken in the coming days.

Hurricane Helene, which made landfall as a Category 4 storm early Friday, left an enormous path of destruction across the southeastern United States and has left at least 56 dead.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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