Val-d'Or

Val-d'Or (French pronunciation: ​[vald‿ɔʁ], local pronunciation: [vald‿ɑɔ̯ʁ]) is a city in Quebec, Canada with a population of 31,862 inhabitants according to the Canada 2011 Census. The city is located in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region near La Vérendrye Wildlife Reserve.

History

Gold was discovered in the area in 1923. The name of the town is French for "Valley of Gold." While gold is still mined in the area today, base metals, such as copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), and lead (Pb) have become increasingly important resources. The ore is usually found in volcanic rocks that were deposited on the sea floor over 2.7 billion years ago. They are referred to as volcanic-hosted (or volcanogenic) massive sulphide deposits (VMS).

The city is known for its vast parks, cycle tracks, and forests. Some other attractions include the City of Gold and the mining village of Bourlamaque, which were officially proclaimed historic sites in 1979.

The city hosted the Quebec Games in 1987. The local hockey team, the Val-d'Or Foreurs, have played in the QMJHL since 1993, winning the league championship in 1998, 2001 and 2014 to claim a spot in the Memorial Cup. They play at Centre Air Creebec. The Foreurs' mascot is called Dynamit, named after dynamite which was extensively used by the mining industry of Val-d'Or.

Val d'Or (horse)

Val d'Or (foaled 1902) was a French Thoroughbred racehorse who was only defeated once in his career. His wins included the Prix de Deux Ans, Grand Criterium, Poule d'Essai des Poulains and Eclipse Stakes. During his racing career he was owned by Edmund Blanc and trained by Robert Denman. After retiring from racing he became a sire in Argentina.

Background

Val d'Or was a bay colt foaled in 1902. He was sired by British Triple Crown winner Flying Fox. Flying Fox was also a successful stallion in France, with his progeny also including Prix du Jockey Club winner Ajax, Poule d'Essai des Poulains and Prix du Jockey Club winner Dagor, Prix de la Forêt winner Adam and Poule d'Essai des Poulains winner Gouvernant. Val d'Or's dam, Wandora, was a daughter of Bruce.

Racing career

Val d'Or was unbeaten in four starts as a two-year-old. His wins came in the Prix de Deux Ans at Deauville, the Critérium de Maisons-Laffitte at Maisons-Laffitte, the Prix La Rochette at Longchamp and the Grand Criterium, also at Longchamp.

.quebec

.quebec is a new GeoTLD and Community Priority Application that was proposed to ICANN's New gTLD Program by PointQuébec, a non-profit organisation. The organisation aims to improve the businesses, culture, tourism, and online identity of Quebec and the Quebecois through the .quebec TLD. According to the PointQuébec organisation, .quebec will allow all Quebecers to register their domain names under .quebec.

PointQuébec's application for the GeoTLD was approved, and was delegated to the Root Zone on 16 April 2014. The application was supported by the Quebec National Assembly and other cultural, technical, and economic institutions in the city. It received "substantial financial support from the Québec government", and is a not-for profit organisation. The organisation will verify legitimate registrations via statements of intent through a post-verification registration system. quebec officially launched on November 18, 2014.

Along with TLDs such as .cat and .africa, .quebec and other new TLDs fall into the new category of GeoTLDs. The issue of new top level domains in general and .quebec in particular has been discussed at various ICANN-Meetings since 2005.

Quebec

Quebec (ⁱ/kwᵻˈbɛk/ or /kəˈbɛk/; French: Québec [kebɛk]) is the second-most populous province in Canada. It is the only Canadian province that has a predominantly French-speaking population, and the only one to have French as its sole provincial official language.

Quebec is Canada's largest province by area and its second-largest administrative division; only the territory of Nunavut is larger. It is bordered to the west by the province of Ontario, James Bay, and Hudson Bay; to the north by Hudson Strait and Ungava Bay; to the east by the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the province of Newfoundland and Labrador; it is bordered on the south by the province of New Brunswick and the U.S. states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York. It also shares maritime borders with Nunavut, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia.

Quebec is Canada's second most populous province, after Ontario. Most inhabitants live in urban areas near the Saint Lawrence River between Montreal and Quebec City, the capital. Approximately half of Quebec residents live in the Greater Montreal Area, including the Island of Montreal. English-speaking communities and English-language institutions are concentrated in the west of the island of Montreal but are also significantly present in the Outaouais, Eastern Townships, and Gaspé regions. The Nord-du-Québec region, occupying the northern half of the province, is sparsely populated and inhabited primarily by Aboriginal peoples. The climate around the major cities is four-season continental with cold and snowy winters combined with warm to hot humid summers, but further north long winter seasons dominate and as a result the northern areas of the province are marked by tundra conditions. Even in central Quebec at comparatively southerly latitudes winters are very severe in inland areas.

Quebec (AG) v Canada (AG)

Quebec (AG) v Canada (AG) 2015 SCC 14 is a Canadian constitutional law case concerning the federal government's ability to destroy information related to the Canadian long-gun registry pursuant to the federal criminal law power.

Background

In 1995, Parliament passed the Firearms Act, which required long gun owners to register their guns. The Supreme Court found that the Act was intra vires the federal criminal law power. In 2012, Parliament repealed the requirement to register long guns through the Ending the Long-gun Registry Act (ELRA) and sought to delete the information in its registry. The province of Quebec, wishing to create and maintain its own long gun registry, requested that the federal government share the data it had collected about Quebec long gun owners. When the federal government declined to share the information, Quebec argued that section 29 of the ELRA, the provision disbanding the long gun registry, was ultra vires the federal government.

At trial in the Superior Court of Quebec, the trial judge found that section 29 was unconstitutional as it violated the principle of cooperative federalism given that Quebec had take part in "gathering, analyzing, organizing, and modifying" the data in question. The trial judge required the federal government to share the information with Quebec.