After one last hurrah this summer and after 17 years as a competitive swimmer, he steps away from the pool.

Bielby, who grew up in Pointe Claire, is headed to the FISU Summer Universiade in Kazan, Russia.

The FISU games, which run July 6-17, are the second biggest games in the world, after the Olympics, with 12,000 university athletes competing in 27 sports.

It’s Bielby’s third world university games. He attended the games in Serbia in 2009 and China in 2011.

The Russian games will be extra special for Bielby because they are his last. He will compete in the 400-metre and 200-metre individual medleys.

“After Russia, I’m going to call it a career. It’s time to change things up a bit,” Bielby said during a telephone interview from Austin, Texas where he is doing an internship with an engineering firm.

Bielby takes time off from the internship to attend the games and then returns to Austin to finish the job.

While in Austin, the 23 year old is training with the Longhorn Swim Club, swimming at 5 a.m., working all day and training again in the evening.

Bielby has never been one to let either sport or work/academic responsibilities down.

At the same time as he was racking up his eight gold, one silver and four bronze medals at university swim meets, he completed his engineering degree, with honours, finishing with a 3.9 grade point average. Over the years he was honoured again and again for his academic performance, including being named academic all-Canadian four times.

Bielby is stepping away from the pool because he is halfway through a master’s degree in micro-electronic engineering and wants more time to focus on his studies and future engineering career.

“It will definitely be different this fall,” Bielby said. “For 17 years I have led a very structured life revolving around school and swimming. I’ll have a lot more time on my hands. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing yet.”

Last summer, Bielby finished third in the 400-metre individual medley at the trials for the London Olympic Games, just missing a spot on the Canadian team.

“At this stage in my life thinking of doing three years of really hard training for a maybe just doesn’t seem right,” he said.

Maybe not London, but there will always be Russia.

“It’s exciting. I’ve never been to Russia,” Bielby said. “It’s a privilege to represent your country at this level of competition. There is extra pressure because it’s a big meet and because everything is new, the food, the people, the weather, but the fun you have more than makes up for that. I just want to soak it all in and enjoy the moment.”

Bielby and 18-year-old education freshman Katie Caldwell, from White Rock B.C., are the only two McGill University students on the 38-member swim team representing Canada in Russia, but there is another swimmer on the team who hails from the West Island.

Olympic swimmer Stephanie Horner, from Beaconsfield, is also on the team, representing the University of Victoria.

kgreenaway@montrealgazette.com

I am sure you have all heard about the scandal that is rocking Ottawa. Everyone seems shocked. Why did the Conservatives do it? Are they really that stupid? We know they are not. They are devious and cunning. So what were they thinking?

Consider this. When the Conservatives started out they wanted to eliminate the Senate.

Did they change? No. The Senate is an anachronism. And it is weighted against their Western base.

The problem they had was that Canadians didn’t care about abolishing the Senate. To Jill and Joe Canuck it is a bore.

So how can they get Canadians onside?

Here’s the plan.

1) Appoint a few blundering idiots to the Senate. Give them a feeling of entitlement. Then set them up.

2) Let them get caught with their noses in the trough.

3) Have the Senate investigate.

4) Then secretly bail them out.

5) Leak that.

6) Then secretly edit the report.

7) Leak that.

8) Then watch the groundswell of anger increase among the population to abolish the Senate.

9) Run on a platform of reforming or abolishing the Senate in the next election.

That would be fiendishly clever, no? Of course I am assuming that the Conservatives know what they are doing.

On Wednesday, Michelle LeDonne, a LGH foundation spokesperson, said the donation would go toward much-need medical equipment for the hospital’s emergency room and its affiliated departments.

However, full details of how the donation will be used to improve health and social services at the West Island hospital will be released Tuesday, May 28, at a news conference at the hospital. Members of the Trottier family are expected to attend.

Earlier this month, the Trottier Family Foundation donated $10 million to create the Trottier Energy Institute at Polytechnique Montréal. The Trottier Family Foundation is one of the city’s most generous philanthropic organizations.

For years, Ron Beauvais has erected nesting boxes for tree swallows in Laval and, at last count, the retired high school principal had more than 50 to his credit.

Now younger brother Dez Beauvais is doing the same thing in Pointe-Claire.

This spring, Beauvais, a semi-retired IT consultant, has been putting up swallow nesting boxes along the Lake St-Louis waterfront.

Since the beginning of May, he has installed seven rough hewn wood boxes — two in Edgewater Park, one at Stewart Hall, one in Bourgeau Park and one each at the foot of St. Jean Blvd., Cedar Ave. and Fifth Ave. — in the hope of coaxing tree swallows back to the West Island.

Known as an aerial insectivore because it catches bugs at mid-flight, the white-bellied swallow with its telltale iridescent blue back was once a common sight but it has been on the decline as a result of habitat loss, climate change and the use of pesticides/the reduction of insect populations.

According to Bird Studies Canada, numbers of swallows and other birds in the aerial insectivore group have decreased 70 per cent over the past 40 years, the most dramatic drop of any one bird group in southern Quebec.

But now, there’s some good news in Pointe-Claire.

This week, Beauvais found five of his seven nesting boxes are now inhabited with happy couples and, in their feathered-lined nests, he counted 13 white-coloured eggs, the size of jelly beans.

“We all have a responsibility to practise some husbandry,” says Beauvais, explaining his motivation for the tree-swallow project.

When he moved to the West Island more than 25 years ago, he said, swallows were a common sight and, for many years, he put up nesting houses in his Coolbreeze Ave. yard in order to give them a safe place to nest.

He explained sparrows and starlings are known to prey on tree swallows, even going so far as to kill the mother and smash its eggs in order to take over the nesting boxes. By adding a special door-cover apparatus triggered by the weight of a sparrow, the hole to the nesting box can be protected. But the swallows still stopped coming to Beauvais’ Pointe-Claire yard sometime in the mid-1990s.

Now in semi-retirement, he said, he decided “to go get them.”

Last year, he put up three nesting boxes along the Lakeshore where there are lots of shadflys and other bugs and, has expanded the initiative to seven boxes this year.

“Do we want our grandkids to see birds only on nature shows?” he said, “I think not.”

Andrew Coughlan, a Quebec program manager for Bird Studies Canada, said he couldn’t agree more, but ornithologists and wildlife biologists do not fully understand the causes of the decline of tree swallows and other insect-eating birds.

Various initiatives have lead to the erection of nesting boxes throughout Quebec, including along the St. Lawrence River in the Quebec City area but, Coughlan added, many of those nesting boxes remain empty.

“It is most encouraging to hear that Dez’s nesting boxes have been taken up by tree swallows,” said Coughlan.

As for Beauvais, he said, he still has his work cut out for him before he takes down the nesting boxes at the end of June.

He said he plans to continue checking on the nesting swallows for several weeks to come. The eggs will only hatch after 14 to 15 days, then, it will take another 21 days before the baby birds become fledglings and will be ready to fly the coop.

But he said it is a pleasant enough experience, especially given the reaction he is receiving from local residents who have noticed his nesting boxes.

“I just want to say ‘thank you,’ ’’ said Sarah Baxendine, a young mother, now living in Toronto but back in Pointe-Claire to visit her parents for the long weekend in May.

“Your work has delighted my parents and it’s been wonderful for me to show my children,” Baxendine told Beauvais as he checked on the swallow couple living in Edgewater Park that weekend.

ccornacchia@montrealgazette.com

Twitter: cornacchiaGAZ

One could call how the town council handled the overpass dossier at Exit 41 off westbound Highway 40 a comedy of errors, but there is nothing really that funny about it.

For more than two years, the only exit to the municipality from westbound Highway 40 has been closed. Ste. Anne council claimed the overpasses on the north side of the exit were unsafe. These safety issues trumped the fact that no plan was in place to fix or replace the overpasses. But it was better to be safe than sorry. So Ste. Anne council opted for safety over inconvenience. They took a vote and condemned the overpasses.

More than two years later we discover that all those members of council who voted on this action never bothered to look at the engineering report. If they had, according to reports, they would have seen that the report never claimed the overpasses were facing collapse. They just needed minor repairs to keep them safe for the next 5 to 20 years.

They were misdirected by a new engineer hired by the town a few months earlier. But let’s go back. Let’s look at the timeline. Council took the vote to condemn the overpasses in March 2011. The engineering report that the motion referenced was completed in 2009. When it was first completed, the engineering report was brought to the attention of the town’s administration at the time. They looked at it and did not get all excited. Minor repairs were called for.

Then, in November 2009, a new council was elected. A number of key civil servants were replaced. All of a sudden in 2011, this old engineering report was revisited. And no one on the new council bothered to ask the question: If the situation with the overpasses was so critical, why did nothing happen for two years? Perhaps we should take a closer look. But no.

During the past two years, as motorists detoured their way around, we have learned about how the little town of Ste. Anne was financially responsible for the overpasses, an unfair byproduct of the nasty municipal merger and demerger process. It is an unfair situation. The provincial government should shoulder some of the cost of maintaining these structures. But shouldn’t the town’s administrators have picked up the phone and attempted to cobble together some sort of deal before condemning the overpasses? No. They did not.

The provincial government will eventually bail the town out of this mess. Although, no plan, design or timetable has been agreed upon. So it might take a while. But the other question still remains: Who will bail the poor taxpayers of Ste. Anne out of the mess they voted into to office? All competent administrators please step forward before the Nov. 3 vote.

If you live in Ste. Anne or on Ile Perrot and drive by those overpasses every day, I look forward to your comments.

Brenda O’Farrell

After repeat bouts of cancer, he died in hospital on Monday. He would have turned 74 in July.

His death brings to eight the number of victims who have died since the fraud perpetrated by Earl Jonescame to light four years ago. Earl Jones pleaded guilty in 2010 to defrauding 158 people, mostly West Island seniors, of more than $50 million.

“Bevan was always laughing, he always wanted to have a good time, but he was never the same after what Earl did,” said his partner of 29 years, Frances Gordon.

The affable Bevan, who initially believed that his brother would pay everyone back when the Ponzi scheme crumbled in 2009, was forced amid the mounting proof to accept that he, too, had been duped.

“At the very beginning, he was trying to believe in his brother, but pretty soon he came to his senses,” said nephew Mike Lague.

Jones, who was not a licensed financial adviser, preyed on the elderly and promised to take care of their money while doling out allowances. He claimed he was earning his clients eight and even 12 per cent interest, when, in fact, the financial statements they received were works of fiction. He financed a lavish lifestyle that included four properties with his clients’ money.

Once Bevan came to accept that his brother had betrayed the trust of so many, he became one of the financial fraudster’s most vocal critics.

“He can rot in hell,” he famously said at the Montreal courthouse during Jones’s sentencing in 2010.

Cherie Beluse, the daughter of another victim, had given up her seat in the overflow crowd so Bevan could witness the judge bringing down the decision to send his younger brother to prison.

As Earl was being led out of the prisoner’s dock in handcuffs, Bevan shouted “Look at me! Look at me!” but Earl kept his eyes downcast and never made contact with his brother.

Bevan never saw or spoke to his brother after that day.

With good behaviour, Earl could be eligible for parole after serving one-third of his 11-year sentence, and be out in November.

Bevan died before seeing a penny from a class-action lawsuit launched by the victims of Earl Jones against the Roy-al Bank of Canada for wilful blindness in allowing Jones to operate a huge “in trust” slush account for years.

The bank, while never admitting it had acted improperly, settled with the victims in March 2012 for $17 million. The process of processing claims has been long and complicated.

Kevin Curran, whose mother was bilked, has been working with the victims for four years and last spoke to Bevan about four weeks ago concerning his claim in the settlement.

“He was brutally, terribly honest in exposing what for him was a very deep wound,” Curran said of the betrayal by his brother that Bevan felt.

“And yet, he was so generous in his emotions and his consideration for the other victims. One of the last things he said to me was: ‘What happened to us (Bevan and his partner) was bad, but all those other people who lost their savings. …’ So it wasn’t all about him,” Curran said.

“Bevan was not a complicated man; he was friendly and happy and great with kids,” Lague said.

Bevan Jones grew up in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, one of four siblings. He worked in the printing business until his retirement and spent his later years in the Laurentian town of Weir.

He liked golf and skiing but was fanatical about hockey, and was playing twice a week as recently as last winter, after his cancer was diagnosed.

He is survived by his partner, Frances (Frankie), and his children, Jennifer, Jamie and Jeff.

As per his wishes, there will be a cremation but no funeral, and a celebration of his life to be held in the weeks to come.

“We used to joke that we’d fertilize the cucumbers with each other’s ashes, but instead I think I’ll plant some roses to remember him by,” Frankie said.

asutherland@ montrealgazette.com

Bill Tierney, who had been a longtime mayor of Ste-Anne, made the statement after being asked by residents about a July 2009 Genivar engineering report that had been cited when the town council voted unanimously to close the overpasses in March 2011 for safety reasons.

Days after council voted to close the overpasses in March 2011, a city engineer told The Gazette the study determined there were key areas of the overpasses that were in a “critical state” and “nearly every element of the overpasses is in need of repair.”

“They made a mistake. They thought they could out face the ministry,” said Tierney, who is a columnist for the West Island Gazette. “They didn’t realize you have to collaborate with those people. “Once you close it, you can’t open it again (without fixing it).”

Tierney said the Genivar report suggested there was no immediate danger.

“The Genivar report didn’t say the thing was dangerous. It just said there were some short-term things to do and then you can do some medium-term things, which would keep the bridge going for another five, 10, 15 or 20 years,” Tierney said.

“Basically, they blew it. They made a bad decision. They shut the bridge without working with the Ministry of Transport. They thought the ministry would come cruising in to pick up the tab and get the thing rolling.”

Ste-Anne is responsible the overpass and has spent the past two years attempting to negotiate with Transport Quebec to absorb the cost of replacing it, with the mayor stating it is a regional artery and beyond the small municipality’s means.

Ste-Anne director general Martin Bonhomme confirmed Transport Quebec presented the city last week a protocol agreement to proceed with a T-style interchange, adding the city is still reviewing the document. He declined to comment on whether the province is willing to fund the proposed project. He plans to meet again with Transport Quebec officials before making a recommendation to council, which will then make the final decision to proceed or not.

Last year, the city had been considering the possibility of replacing the overpasses with a roundabout which could have cost an estimated $6 million.

Councillor Paola Hawa, who initially voted to close the overpasses in March 2011, is now suggesting the city should reconsider repairing the existing structures as opposed to replacing them with a new T-interchange.

“It is clear those overpasses should not have been closed. I have read the reports now,” she said.

The Genivar report, which the current mayor has declined to make public, actually negates the idea the overpasses had to be closed, Hawa said last week.

Also, see Bill Tierney’s column, Page D7, and Brenda O’Farrell’s blog, Page D6 and online at westislandgazette.com.

Pushap, an eatery offering vegetarian Indian cuisine and sweets on Sources Blvd., was fined a total of $19,850 between 2010 and last year, according to an online list of sentenced offenders on the city of Montreal portal. The food inspections related to these sentences took place in 2009, 2010 and 2011 with the judgments usually rendered the following year.

The most recent judgments were rendered last December, regarding fines totalling $4,750 in relation to a November 2011 inspection.

These repeated fines were either related to the lack of general cleanliness in its operations or for not keeping some food products cooled properly until delivered to the consumer.

Several other West Island restaurants have been fined in recent years, though a few have since closed, such as Boulangerie de Soleil on Hyman Dr. in Dollard-des-Ormeaux. Most cases seem to deal with sanitary matters.

Côte-St-Luc B.B.Q. on Sources Blvd. in Dollard was fined a total of $3,200 after being sentenced in 2010, essentially for lack of cleanliness.

Bagel de l’Ouest on Sources Blvd. in Dollard was fined $1,000 early last year for not keeping its premises properly clean.

Restaurant Foo Shing on St-Jean Blvd. in Dollard was dinged $3,000 following two inspections in 2010.

Château Dorval Pizza Deli on Lakeshore Rd. in Dorval was ordered to pay a $1,400 fine in 2011 for not keeping the premises free of contaminants, pollutants, any species of animals, including insects and rodents or their droppings.

La Porte Oriental on Herron Rd. in Dorval was fined $1,500 last November.

La Belle Province on Dorval Ave. was fined a total of $6,900 in 2012, mainly dealing with sanitary conditions. This Dorval fast-food eatery is now under a new operator, according to the food inspection infraction listing.

Jardin Pekin 2, on St-Jean Blvd. in Pierrefonds, was fined $2,200 in 2011 for cleanliness issues as well as storing food under inadequate cooling conditions.

Nouveau Maison Kam on Pierrefonds Blvd. was hit with a $1,500 fine last November for sanitary issues.

Marché Jaffna Fruits on Gouin Blvd. in Pierrefonds was fined $1,500 last year for lack of cleanliness.

Shock collars, often referred to as “static” collars to side-step the negative connotations, are usually activated by barking, a remote control or an invisible-fence perimeter. The idea is to punish a dog immediately and without you having to be right next to your pet to do so. From a training standpoint, this is pretty good. If the punishment works, the dog learns to stop what he was doing and not repeat it. Here is where the problems come in.

What if the dog doesn’t understand why he was shocked? Was it for barking, jumping, crossing an invisible line he doesn’t know exists? What if the dog is barking out of fear? “Warning, a stranger is coming into the yard!” The shock scares him more, so he barks more… And he learns that he has good reason to be afraid of strangers who bring painful shocks. The collar can burn the dog’s skin if not properly adjusted, or if it goes off repetitively (in the case of a bark-activated collar). There’s a lot of other training that needs to go along with the shock collar for the dog to learn from the process, and scared dogs don’t learn well.

Most behaviour problems I see are fear-related. A dog that barks at strangers, has separation anxiety, or attacks people coming into the house. While a shock may seem like a good deterrent to stop unwanted behaviours, a dog acting out of fear will only get worse with this type of training.

Back to my case this week; how did we decide on the shock collar? It was for a working dog, who was so friendly that he would forget he was working and run ahead to greet people on the street. His handler’s hands would be full, so harnesses and restraints were not an option; we needed something with a remote control. Because fear was not involved in this mis-behaviour, a shock could have been appropriate. The collar also came with a “beep” warning, so before resorting to a shock, the dog could get a gentle reminder. In the end, we found a collar that delivers a spray after the warning beep instead; going for the least-effective-deterrent, we happily settled for that option.

Whether it’s for obedience or for specific behavioural problems, that’s what training is all about; using the most positive encouragement and the least negative deterrents to get the results you want. After all, being punished for doing the wrong thing doesn’t teach the right answer, but rewarding the right behaviour will increase the odds of it happening again!

Dr. K.J. Goldenberg is a veterinarian at the Pierrefonds Animal Hospital.

Maybe you are like most Quebecers and are moving July 1^st. Or maybe you have another date scheduled for your move. Here are some best-kept moving secrets that my friend Brad Whitmore from 1-800-GOT-JUNK? shared with me this morning.

The first one seems pretty obvious, but let me tell you that you may need to plan this one in advance as it does take time: Sort out what you don’t need or use BEFORE the move.  He tells me that this rule is simple: if you have not used it in the past five years, get rid of it.  He also adds that we should be ruthless when it comes to sorting. Seems pretty easy to do right?  Not! You really have to open all of those boxes in the basement or attic and go through them. Two things may happen:  you may discover old treasures that you will find a new use for in your new home, or will decide that this item has not been used in many years and it must go. I am venturing that you probably have 10 boxes worth of stuff that you could donate or recycle (maybe more!).  Why pay movers to move these boxes of items you will not need?

Speaking of movers, the next secret is hiring a moving company – less chances of scratching your furniture or breaking your back. He recommends getting quotes from at least three companies. It is also important to ask your movers for proof of insurance and CSST coverage before they step into your home.  I was shocked to find out that a homeowner could be liable if the mover is uninsured and a worker hurts themselves on their property. Yikes!  You definitely need to ask for proof!

Secret number three: Be green! Try to be as eco-friendly as possible. Use re-usable plastic boxes or bins. These can be rented and they do keep cardboard boxes from cluttering your new home.

Lastly, leave your place in a decent state for the new owners or tenants. Brad goes on to advise not to leave any surprises for the new tenants. Thinking of leaving furniture or large items behind in your move?  Discuss it with the new owners / tenants in advance. Don’t expect them to be happy with your “surprise” donations of these items.

For help in de-cluttering in an eco-friendly way, you can visit the 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Web site: http://www.1800gotjunk.com/ca_en/what-we-do/what_we_do.aspx  Brad and his team will treat you like royalty. They really are a fantastic team and the web site is so user-friendly!  (For those of you who asked, last week’s 1-800-GOT-JUNK? Yard sale for Community Shares generated $3,000!)

You can also use PODS when de-cluttering or staging your home to sell it faster. They offer a great alternative and it is so reasonably priced. I was amazed how affordable this option is. Felipe Heck and his team will take great care of you. For more info, visit  http://www.pods.com/canada/

Oh, you are not moving?  No worries!  Apply secret #1 and you will feel so much better, lighter and happier!