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(Quebec) After failing to deliver the 2,600 4-year-old kindergarten classes on time – a flagship commitment from CAQ for which the Prime Minister put his seat on the line in 2018 – François Legault reiterates that “the impossible is possible is not necessary” and now hopes to be able to complete his engagement “as soon as possible.

Posted 11:08 am Updated 11:12 am

“I want all parents to have access to 4-year-old kindergartens as soon as possible,” said the Prime Minister on Wednesday on the way to the Blue Room. “Well, as my wife often tells me, nobody has to do the impossible. So we will try to do this as soon as possible, but we all have to understand that we have a shortage of teachers,” he added.

On Tuesday, Education Secretary Bernard Drainville announced in a TVA interview that he was postponing the delivery of 2,600 4-year kindergarten classes to 2029-2030, which is expected to be a third term for the Coalition avenir Quebec.

The CAQ minister justified this shift with the same arguments that had led his predecessor to slow the pace last term: shortage of teaching staff and shortage of space in schools to open these classes.

“We’re at 1600 [classes de maternelles 4 ans au Québec]. The goal is 2600. We are about 1000 short. Instead of saying that we will make 1000 [classes] by 2025 we realize it would be irresponsible to say so. So we’re going to spread it out over time,” he said on Tuesday.

The prime minister argued that his government had no choice but to address “the reality” of labor shortages in the education sector. “There is a shortage. I’m not dogmatic, I’m pragmatic. So I always intend to offer access to all parents who want access to the 4-year kindergarten,” he explained to a press crowd.

The prime minister repeated the same remarks in the Blue Room as he was hounded by the opposition over his decision to postpone the deadline.

“Today is an admission of failure,” said interim leader of the Liberal Party, Marc Tanguay.

“Mr. Drainville has seen the light. It’s just a shame that before him Mr. [Jean-François] Roberge did not see it, and it is particularly unfortunate that François Legault did not see it at the outset,” said Quebec Solidaire parliamentary leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois.

PQ MP Pascal Bérubé recalled that the “family choice” remains the CPEs. “The Prime Minister has put his place for the 4-year-old kindergarten on the line. So is his seat in play today? Going to a 4-year-old kindergarten was never a good idea,” he added.

François Legault also praised the CPE model on Wednesday. “Parents of 4-year-old children who like the CPEs better because the CPEs are open 12 months a year, the opening hours are also longer during the day, and the CPEs also have excellent educators. But if kids have learning difficulties, kindergartens for 4-year-olds in a primary school where there are remedial teachers… I think that’s a good idea,” he said.

The creation of 4-year-old kindergartens is a flagship promise of the CAQ. In 2018, during the election campaign that led to François Legault becoming prime minister for the first time, he put his seat on the line by promising to fulfill his promise to offer a 4-year kindergarten to all children in Quebec. .

However, this promise developed during the first mandate. It has grown from 5,000 open classes by 2023-2024 to 2,600 classes by 2025-2026. With Tuesday’s latest update, the CAQ is re-examining that goal and now promising to achieve it four years later.

With Hugo Pilon Larose

Vinicius Junior celebrates Tuesday’s 2-2 Champions League game against Liverpool at Anfield AFP7 via Europa Press (AFP7 via Europa Press)

In Vinicius’ last European game before the start of his explosion – in the semi-final second leg against Chelsea in spring 2021 – the Brazilian continued to thrive in his natural position: on the right and as a winger. That’s how it looked for the left-hander in the eyes of Zinedine Zidane on the big nights of the Champions League, well below an already depressed Eden Hazard, who occupied the left wing of attack by status at Stamford Bridge that day. That day, Vini’s first pass went to Courtois and he barely lasted an hour on the field while the Belgian, despite his apparent insignificance in the team’s game, was overwhelmed until the 89th minute. At that time, there were only three months (until the summer) before Vini’s career took an unforeseen turn after the French coach suggested she be sold, this outlet reported.

On Monday, in training ahead of Liverpool’s clash, Hazard greeted old acquaintances from his time in England who were strolling around Anfield. “He’s a great guy, nice, he’s not like Bale,” they defended the collapsed Belgium star, unparalleled since January 3 against Cacereño and absent from the league since September.

In those times when the Sorpass had not yet occurred, Vinicius was already warning that, for want of more tact, the best of his catalog was perseverance. “I’m a player who comes in with personality, I fail and next time I’ll go. The defender thinks I don’t go, but I always go. It’s the best thing I do,” he warned after a game with Atalanta earlier in the same 2021 to declare himself to the world when no one suspected what was to come.

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He never stopped going forward and on this course he never stopped multiplying his records, especially in the Champions League. While last season he had a shot on goal every 149 minutes in Europe in his new edition, this time he reduced the ratio to 33:4 times more. As a result, with the Anfield double he already has six goals in the Champions League (one every 88 minutes), compared to four last year (one every 300 minutes); although as author, yes, of the goal of triumph in the final in Paris.

In his prehistory, in those times when Hazard was listed ahead of him and only scored four goals in three runs, he managed to total up to seven games without shooting between the three sticks. Even last season, when his growth was already a matter of study, he collected four games without directly threatening the goalkeeper.

While his everyday life in Spain is often overtaken by the noise surrounding his relationship with rivals and racial slurs from the stands (LaLiga filed two more complaints this Wednesday, one in Mallorca and one in Pamplona, ​​and they’ve already had eight), he found his garden in Europe. “He is the decisive player in world football. There is no other with its continuity,” Ancelotti stressed on Tuesday. His double made him the second youngest (22 years and 224 days) in Madrid history, after Raúl González (22 years and 163 days), to score in three consecutive Champions League games.

From tutor to soloist

It is a Vinicius who is already flying free without the help of a previously weak Benzema, who has been heavily burdened by physical problems. For the first time in 17 games, the Frenchman finished the group stage without a goal, scoring his first two goals, fourth and fifth (this time by the Brazilian) at Anfield. After 20 minutes with water in the neck, the rescue did not come – as was almost always the case with the miraculous comebacks of the past season – via the French route, but by the winger, who found the saving slot just as well with such a powerful shot Shot that was out of his catalog a year and a half ago.

Then, just as he was beginning to show his head in the face of general disbelief, Benzema publicly offered his help after a long initial period of estrangement and misunderstandings on the pitch. “I believe in him, he’s tops,” he assured before everyone’s insistence on finding out how they started getting along. At that time, the Brazilian had to play the French goal. Now Vinicius is waiting to see when and how the nine will really return, as the first soloist of a Madrid that hangs on him almost every day, as became clear again on Tuesday under red fire.

Two of his goals against Liverpool with Zidane in spring 2021 didn’t help him escape the manager’s lack of confidence. Nor was it easy at the time to imagine what happened next. Two years later, his double at Anfield was another nail in his new management.

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“They were together all along and that was the case when they were found,” a tearful Sao Sebastiao resident said after rescuers discovered the bodies of his parents buried in the mud in southeastern Brazil.

• Also read: Landslides in Brazil: 44 dead and 38 missing

A recurring scene in recent days following torrential rains that have killed at least 48 people in landslides.

Torn by emotion, the visor of his black cap lowered to hide his sadness, this man with the pepper and salt beard prefers to only use his first name, Marcio.

His parents had lived for more than 30 years in their modest hilltop home in Vila do Sahy, the area of ​​Sao Sebastiao hardest hit by the deadly storm, some 200 km from Sao Paulo.

All that’s left is a pile of bricks amid mud, boulders, and branches.

The landslides have blocked the road along the coast in several places, isolating victims who are relying on boats or helicopters for food supplies.

Dozens of firefighters, soldiers and volunteers tirelessly dig to unearth the bodies buried in an ocean of mud.

They use excavators, chainsaws to prune uprooted trees and frequency detectors to identify victims with their cell phone signal.

Almost 3,000 people live in Vila do Sahy, most of them in precarious dwellings on the hillside.

Amidst the pile of rubble, relatives of the 38 missing persons identified by the authorities’ latest assessment are awaiting the bad news that now seems inevitable.

Mason Antonio da Silva wades through the mud to keep a close eye on the work of the soldiers digging to try to find his three missing teenage nephews.

Not far away, firefighters had managed to save a baby after digging up two bodies. “A miracle,” says a rescuer who prefers to remain anonymous.

Taiara Lopes, a 26-year-old housekeeper, said she was also a miracle after finding herself buried up to her shoulders in mud in her kitchen.

“I was sinking, but I grabbed a branch and my husband finally pulled me out. Then we went out through the roof,” says the young woman with her legs covered in scrapes and bruises.

But the more time passes, the less the victims hope for a miracle.

“Access is difficult because the houses are very close together and there is a lot of concrete mixed with mud,” says Rodrigo de Paula, a fire brigade captain.

Elenilson Batista Gomes, 47, still has no news of her son Caio and daughter-in-law Michelle, who wed just four months ago.

“I won’t leave until we find her. I want to give my son and his wife a dignified burial,” he said.

Four sniffer dogs are active in an area where about ten houses stood. Thanks to them, the firefighters manage to dig up the body of a man pinched against a wall and two others under an uprooted tree.

Natalia Cerqueira, a 25-year-old volunteer, has been helping rescue workers for three days. But she feels “useless”.

“We remove the mud, we dig up bodies and the number keeps growing, it never stops,” complains the cook in a school canteen.

Maria Vidal, 50, knew many victims who weren’t “lucky” like her to survive the mudslide that went up the hill right outside her door.

“I was shaking like a leaf, the only thing I could do was really hug my grandson tight.”

“I keep seeing pictures of dead kids,” she says, somehow trying to hide her distress at her four-year-old grandson playing with a Superman figure.

Lucas da Rocha, 31, father of two little girls, is also inconsolable: he has lost several close friends.

“I’m waiting for the road to open to go with my family. More landslides could happen at any time,” he warns. It is not possible to live in constant fear.”