Visionary nurse advocates for more education, partnership with doctors

Big changes are underway for Quebec’s nurses. The Senior Times learned about them from a nurse who personifies the profession’s emerging profile.

Lynne McVey sits comfortably and purposefully in her executive office at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute. She is the first female executive director of a hospital affiliated with the McGill University Health Centre.

Until last fall, McVey was the highly regarded director of nursing and clinical operations at the Jewish General Hospital during its years of major expansion.

She holds a master’s degree in nursing and is a leader in advocating higher educational standards for Quebec nurses.

Quebec’s requirements for nurses are the lowest in Canada; they must graduate from a three-year CEGEP program.

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Chamber fest: Bach to Tango

There are few sound experiences that can match an evening of chamber music in the intimate setting of an old church. It’s all about unique acoustic possibilities and direct communication with the audience.

Music lovers will have extraordinary opportunities to appreciate a broad programming range—from Bach to Shostakovich and the antics of the violin-piano duo Igudesman & Joo—when the Montreal Chamber Music Festival kicks off May 10.

In its 17th year, the series, created and curated by cellist Dennis Brott, offers 19 concerts over 24 days in the woody and vaulted setting of St. George’s Anglican Church, corner Peel and de la Gauchetière, opposite the old Windsor Station.

“Intimacy is what chamber music is all about, creating a person-to-person experience,” Brott says.

One highlight is the complete Bach cello suites played over three nights, May 15-17, by Colin Carr, with readings from Eric Siblin’s award-winning book on the music, read by the CBC’s Eric Friesen and musicologist Richard Turp.

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Mount Real fraud victims determined to stay on the radar

A 1998 article in Investment Executive, a financial industry newspaper, painted a glowing profile of Mount Real as an exciting company on the rise. It quoted chief executive Lino Matteo as saying, “The company offers an unusual combination of capital plus financial management.”

If you were an average investor, with a trusted adviser you had known for 11 years, and if you saw the names of well-known accounting firms on the papers shown to you, it would be easy to invest in this reputable company listed on the stock exchange.

How could you know that, in fact, its main business was selling magazine subscriptions and that in 10 years the same newspaper would report that a class action suit had been launched against the company and its auditors, including Lino Matteo, Paul D’Andrea, B2B Trust and Penson (affiliated with the Laurentian Bank), Deloitte & Touche, BDO Dunwoody and Schwartz Levitsky Feldman.

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