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(Courtesy of The Montreal Gazette) Will you boycott Shell? Honestly thats one question I can't answer. Seeing I get my gas from the evil Exxon (Esso). I just wonder if we would be having this problem, if Power Corp of Canada did not sell Canadian Oil Companies Ltd to Shell back in the 60s.

Montreal's BPR buys France's Saunier Engineering firm boosts international presence The Gazette Published: 9 hours ago Montreal's BPR engineering group is boosting its international presence with the acquisition of France's Saunier & Associés, a Paris-based firm specializing in energy and environmental work and building design. The merged company will have annual revenue of about $250 million and a staff of 2,400 in North America, Europe, South Africa and the Caribbean, chief executive Pierre Lavallée said yesterday. "This deal opens up the French and European markets to BPR and allows Saunier to market its specialized engineering services in Quebec, across Canada and in the U.S.," he added. BPR, which began 47 years ago in Quebec City with three engineers, grew steadily into a design, engineering, procurement and construction management firm. It moved its headquarters and main operations to Montreal in 2000, while retaining its offices in Quebec City and the Saguenay and taking on projects in Ontario and the U.S. Lavallée said BPR's focus is on heavy industry, mining, metals and petrochemicals, water, waste management, roads, bridges and other infrastructure, hydro and nuclear energy, and office buildings. "We're involved in the upgrading of Petro-Canada's Montreal refinery and Ultramar Canada's Quebec City refinery to produce the new low-sulphur diesel fuels," he said. "One of our strengths is instrumentation for industry." Saunier will add specialized skills in the energy and environmental sectors, such as the transfer of heat generated from waste processing to serve buildings, and other technologies for industry and municipal infrastructure. It has 19 offices across France. "We got to know each other when we were working on a massive waste water management upgrade in Paris," Lavallée said. "We were responsible for the design and were strangers in France. Now Saunier's technologies, experience and consulting skills can be applied here ... we'll both benefit from the synergies stemming from our alliance." CEO Bernard Saunier said the merger will provide Saunier with access to new markets and new opportunities for its engineers and technicians. "The alliance comes just at the right moment and it will help us accelerate our development, especially in energy."

Before he became a sugar manufacturer, John Redpath helped build the Rideau Canal Aug 19, 2007 04:30 AM Donna Jean Mackinnon Toronto Star John Redpath's name lives on thanks to his sugar company, but the role he played in building the Rideau Canal is barely a whisper in the annals of Canadian history. On the occasion of its 175th anniversary, the canal was named a World Heritage site earlier this summer by UNESCO, which called it "an engineering masterpiece" and a work of "human genius." Redpath was the most prominent of the four contractors for the canal. A leading Montreal builder, he had risen from humble origins: orphaned as a child in Scotland, he started out as a stonemason. About 10,000 men built the 201-kilometre canal, which starts in Ottawa below the Parliament Buildings and ends at Kingstone Mills, east of Kingston. Connecting wilderness rivers and streams at different levels, they had to cut through solid rock and endure many hardships, including malaria – which also afflicted Redpath. When completed in 1832, the canal had 19 kilometres of man-made runs and 47 locks. It was the biggest canal in North America at the time. Today it's used for pleasure boating. Redpath also constructed several of Montreal's most important buildings, including Notre Dame Cathedral. It still stands a testimony to his skill and reputation. In the 19th century, it was rare for a Catholic diocese to award a contract as lucrative and prestigious as a major cathedral to a strict Presbyterian. Redpath's climb to wealth and power rivals that of another Scottish immigrant, U.S. steel baron Andrew Carnegie – a name known to all Americans. Redpath was born near Edinburgh in 1776. At 13 he was apprenticed to stonemason John Drummond. Ten years later, Redpath immigrated to Lower Canada with three male companions. They arrived in Quebec City in the coldest year of the 19th century – it's remembered as the year without a summer. Food was scarce, and there wasn't any work. Penniless, the four Scots walked to Montreal – most of the way in bare feet, to save their shoes for job hunting. "John started digging toilets," says Richard Feltoe, curator of the Redpath museum and author of Redpath's biography, A Gentleman of Substance. "Then he invests his money into hiring men so he can do bigger jobs, and soon he has a little business. By the time John is 40, he is a multi-millionaire." In 1826, the supervising engineer of the Rideau Canal, Lt.-Col. John By of the Royal Engineers, contracted the work out to Redpath, who formed a partnership with three other builders. They pooled their money and later reaped profits from shipping on the canal. The Rideau was conceived as an alternative to the St. Lawrence River. After the War of 1812 against the Americans, the St. Lawrence, part of which borders the U.S., was considered dangerous and a threat to British security. REDPATH'S JOB was to build a dam at Jones Falls, which meant blocking an active river. "He had stones hand-hewn three miles away and transported them to the site on rollers, just like the Egyptians did for the pyramids," Feltoe says. At 107 metres long and 20 metres high, the dam is the largest in the former British Empire. When Redpath travelled to Montreal from Jones Falls for supplies, he'd ask his employees what they needed, and then filled their orders. "John always remembered what it was like to be at the bottom of the pile," Feltoe says. Redpath's endeavours after the canal's completion included organizing a "secret" underground army in 1837 to fight (Louis) Papineau's Patriots, who were plotting against the British and planning to separate Quebec. Montreal's English-speaking businessmen saw this French aggression as a threat to their livelihood. In the 1840s, Redpath went into mercantile trading. In 1846, England decided on free trade without consulting the colonies. This bankrupted Montreal's mercantile system, and Redpath lost millions. Eventually, he decided to go into sugar, investing every penny in building a refinery by Montreal's Lachine Canal. When the Canada Sugar Refinery opened in 1854, it was Montreal's first industrial building. Sugar was kind to Redpath, who recorded a profit of $89,546.98 in 1860 – a huge sum in those days. By 1867, Redpath was a man of influence. He served on the board of the Bank of Montreal, controlled policy for the Presbyterian Church in Canada, and was involved in Confederation. He financed education, job training and apprenticeship programs for the poor. Redpath also found time to marry twice and father 17 children. Shortly after his first wife died, he successfully courted Jane Drummond, the daughter of the stonemason with whom he had apprenticed. She was 19, and Redpath, 39. Redpath died of stroke in 1869, at 72. The refinery continued to prosper under the Redpaths until World War I, when the Canadian government took over the sugar industry. The business was somewhat revived in the 1930s, and then commandeered again by the government in 1939. By the 1950s, the industry was in ruins. British-based Tate & Lyle bought 51 per cent of Redpath shares, modernized the Montreal plant and built a new cane sugar plant in Toronto, on Queen's Quay E. In 1979, T & L bought all Redpath shares and operated the Toronto plant until February 2007, when it was sold to American Sugar Refining, Inc. But John Redpath's signature, the world's oldest trademark for a food product, remains on the packaging.