Quebec man who threatened Trudeau, Legault online sentenced to 20 months in jail
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
A car screeched to a halt, a chorus of honks filled the air and an ambulance siren wailed on Montreal’s Sherbrooke Street.
But ignoring the noise and traffic, pedestrians stopped to lend an ear as a musician sitting at a grand piano rolled out from a downtown building began to play the first notes of the Ukrainian national anthem. This was what Serhiy Salov calls one of his field recitals, an hour-long concert to honour his homeland, and his attempt at raising money to help the soldiers fighting Russia’s invasion.
“For now, I feel very much as though I am on stage,” he said after a performance last week. “But with traffic.”
For two weeks, an hour a day, spectators admired Salov’s renditions of the anthem, of Mozart and Chopin, but few on the curb recognized him. Though, perhaps they should have.
Salov was born and trained as a pianist in Donetsk, Ukraine. He moved to Montreal after winning an international competition held in the city 18 years ago. And, he plays a part in the newly-released film Coda, starring Patrick Stewart and Katie Holmes. The movie tells the tale of a famous pianist (Stewart) struggling with stage fright late in his career. Salov has a cameo in the film and also did the soundtrack. But most memorable for him, he taught Stewart, who previously played Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the Star Trek franchise, how to move like a pianist. He says coaching the captain of the Enterprise to look as though he was playing Chopin and Mozart is the biggest and most unconventional experience of his life.
But since the February assault on Ukraine, much of his thoughts have turned to the people of his home country.
“I would like to be helping by contracting arms, or working diplomatic circles,’ he says. “But this is beyond my grasp.”
At first he turned his rage against the Russian consulate in Montreal, protesting the invasion, but soon found he wanted to go beyond shouting slogans. After he spotted a display of the colours of the Ukrainian flag on the Maison Alcan, a heritage building that includes venues for conferences and meetings, he decided to ask if he could use the front steps for a series of open-air recitals.
And so from May 30 to June 10, he pushed a grand piano out on the pavement, unfurled a Ukrainian flag, and played for an hour against the backdrop of traffic.
On the sidewalk, he hung tourniquets on a lectern, with a note on how to contribute to a fundraiser. Salov says the soldiers are in dire need of a host of supplies, but said he settled on a fund to provide tourniquets, devices to apply pressure to a limb to stop the flow of blood. He says they are crucial to try to save lives on the battlefield.
But most of all, what he hoped is that passersby would reflect on the impact of the invasion. He closed each recital with John Lennon’s ‘Imagine,’ and the anthem he says of hope and harmony.
“The message of this music is absolutely to stay human and to change the world for the better.”
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
The adorable trio of child actors from the 1993 classic comedy 'Mrs. Doubtfire,' which starred the late and great Robin Williams, are all grown up and looking back on their seminal time together.
Crucial witnesses took the stand in the second week of testimony in Donald Trump's hush money trial, including a California lawyer who negotiated deals at the center of the case and a longtime adviser to the former president.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
The Ukrainian village of Ocheretyne has been battered by fighting, drone footage obtained by The Associated Press shows. The village has been a target for Russian forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – as authorities continue investigating potential connections to the Indian government.
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
The erstwhile group of senators and MPs studying the federal government's invocation of the Emergencies Act over the "Freedom Convoy" was supposed to present its findings in December. December of 2022, that is.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.