Since the average income in Sud-Ouest borough has risen due to gentrification, schools there no longer offer a virtually free lunch to students. But this means the poorer kids are deprived of a benefit they sorely need. Parents and community groups are protesting.
Updates from March, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Valérie Plante is concerned about the effect the new secularism bill could have on employment in the city of Montreal which is, as she says, the place where the new rules will hit hardest. She’s also concerned that, in skirting the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the CAQ is placing itself on a slippery slope.
CBC spoke to a young teacher who says she will leave Quebec if the law passes and the Gazette likewise to a young Sikh who had hoped to become a teacher here. But the anglo media are being naive. Getting aliens like this to leave Quebec is a net win for the CAQ, although they wouldn’t say so outright.
In tangentially related news, statistics show that the island of Montreal is home to a quarter of Quebec’s population; city hall opposition leader Lionel Perez noted Thursday that it’s also where three quarters of its immigrants live.
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Kate
As many have observed over the years, the old streetcar tracks are still lurking under some of our roads, and sometimes they peek through during pothole season. But it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Pierre-André Normandeau also mentions the occasions when the old rails kept sinkholes from getting worse.
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Kate
TVA visits a Plateau dépanneur that’s been operating for 80 years, currently by the son of the original owner.
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Kate
An eight-year-old boy was killed after being hit by a car Wednesday evening in Côte-St-Paul.
Tim S.
Sad. I note that while there are few details, police say that the SUV was travelling at low speed. My high school physics is a little rusty, but I suspect that a heavier SUV would still have a more damaging impact than a lighter object – say, a car – traveling at the same speed. I wish weight of the vehicle was one of the factors included in assessing traffic fines, not just the speed. Maybe that would cause a few people to think twice about their purchases.
qatzelok
Now that the fact that SUVs and pickups kill pedestrians at lower speeds than other cars is out there in the public domaine, what should we think about people who drive them? That they’re dumb, or that they’re callous and have no empathy?
Kate
qatzelok, we don’t have to think about their motivations, but we do have to adjust their actions in the public sphere.
Alex L
Very sad and frustrating, as these deaths could be avoided. As far as I know, SUVs are more dangerous for children (and people in general) mainly because they won’t roll over the car when hit, which is usually what happens with small cars.
https://www.aarp.org/auto/driver-safety/info-2018/suv-pedestrian-dangers.html
Blork
Alex L, I doubt an 8-year-old is tall enough to roll over a car that hits it. Also, there’s no “roll over” effect when the car is moving slowly.
According to CBC, this was a classic case of the child running into the street from between two parked cars. The fact that the vehicle was moving slowly and still struck the child indicates it happened in an instant, and the type of vehicle makes no difference in this case.
qatzelok
Not-rolling-over isn’t the only thing that makes SUVs and pickups more dangerous for smaller people. The height of their hoodline and squareness of front-end are instant death for small people because of a sharp impact to the forehead. This should be public knowledge, and if it isn’t, then blame commercial media for the “dumbness” and “callousness” of letting these things circulate in high-density urban settings.
Alex L
Blork, I may be wrong about the roll over thing, as I’m no expert. But if you Google it you’ll find plenty of information about the greater death rates with collisions involving SUVs.
That being said, I know there’s a tendency never to blame the driver when such collisions happen (as obviously no one would want to kill a kid), but it is what happened, nevermind if it was at *low speed* and that the kid came out of nowhere. It just shouldn’t happen. If it did and it is proven that the driver respected the law, then the law has to be changed. Vision Zero, anyone?
If all of us who drive were kept responsible for collisions and deaths, then maybe people would drive thinking that someone could cross the street at any moment (aka drive safely) instead of always driving to the speed limit.
Uatu
Well better get used to this because pickups and SUVs are the most popular choice for Quebecers…
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/suvs-pickups-sales-up-quebec-1.4948827Ian Rogers
That kid was the younger brother of one of my daughter’s classmates. Sad news. FWIW though all the media outlets are reporting the boy as 8, he was only 7.
I’m finding it rather callous – though unsurprising – to see so many folks taking this as an opportunity to flex their greener-than-thou bona fides. I think I need to take a break from reading this blog for a while.
Kate
I am sorry you feel that way, Ian. Your participation here adds so much.
Chris
I’ve seen it reported as “low speed” several times, but never seen a numeric estimate. Is 50 km/h “low speed” for example?
Blork
I doubt it. That would be “normal speed.” I suspect it isn’t really “low speed” until it’s under 30, but we’re at the mercy of some reporter’s vocabulary, or maybe the police report.
Alex L
I am sorry to hear that Ian, my goal wasn’t to offend anyone. I didn’t know the kid or his family, but I live a few streets from there and the subject of safety for kids walking on the street was on all my neighbours’ lips these last hours. And everyone had, fresh in its mind, a similar collision that happened less than two years ago, not far from there.
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Kate
Radio-Canada reports that apartment vacancies are low as moving day approaches, and every apartment posted gets snowed under with offers.
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Kate
The shooter in a notable homicide three years ago was found guilty of murder in the first degree for killing a man in a north-end Italian café, evidently after mistakenly identifying him as a mobster.
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Kate
The city has launched pre-budget consultations, the first time the public has been directly consulted over fiscal priorities in this way. You can put in your two cents verbally, or by written memo. The deadlines are short.
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Kate
Rosemont has revised its law to protect shoebox houses, trying to balance individual property rights against the preservation of heritage buildings.
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Kate
The EMSB has voted to refuse to comply with the impending Quebec law against religious signifiers worn by teachers. It’s standing on the Canadian charter of rights and freedoms – which François Legault can dismiss with one flick of his notwithstanding wand.
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Kate
The city is putting pressure on the federal government to renew its funding of the Biosphere museum. Environment Canada rents the building and has run a museum focused on environmental matters there for years.
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Kate
The euthanasia of that Montreal North pitbull has been put on hold after Anne-France Goldwater lodged an appeal Wednesday.
Chris
Surprise!
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Kate
A retired judge has been given access to Catholic church records and been asked to make an audit of the situation concerning sexual abuses in the church, over seven decades and five dioceses.
Update: CTV says victims of priestly abuse are not happy with the procedure as victims will not be invited to participate and “the judge was selected by Archbishop Lepine is a friend of his and a very devout person” as one of the victims is quoted.
Chris
“given access to Catholic church records” -> voluntarily by the Church itself no less, not by court order.
The Catholic church really should just let priests have sex (with adults I mean!). Sure, it’s against doctrine, but they’ve been infinitely malleable in the past, they can again. Slavery was ok, now it isn’t. Death penalty was ok, now it isn’t. Limbo was dropped. Mass had to be Latin, no longer. extra Ecclesiam nulla salus? Gone. Fasting before communion got shorter and shorter. Fasting every Friday? Gone. etc.!!!
Just reinterpret the gobbledygook and flip flop on abstinence already!
Tim
@Chris: you think that pedophiles will stop having sex with kids just because their church says it’s OK to have sex with adults?
Chris
Tim: not in every instance, of course; but in some instances, yes, I think so.
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Kate
Even though it was called impossible a couple of days ago, Lynne Shand has been chucked out of Équipe Anjou by the party, and will sit as an independent.
Ginger Baker
Can’t quite tell which is more disgusting, Shand’s vile comments, the fact that she happily accepted treatment and then trashed her doctor for being who she is, or the fact that she was only tossed once her party was certain she was no longer an asset.
Politicians are a cancer on our society.
Chris
Just a few stories down, Kate said “I don’t like it when people are described as garbage or trash.”. I don’t see how your last sentence is substantially different.
Kate
Chris, Ginger Baker is free to say that people who choose to do a certain type of job are bad for society. The key is in the choice.
BB
Keeping vicious dogs that maul children and maim them for life is a choice that is bad for society.
Chris
The key is in the choice? Being Muslim is a choice. If she said “Muslims are a cancer on our society” she’d be (rightly) pilloried (a la Lynne Shand).
Politicians, as a group (there are of course bad apples), are a blessing on our society. Yes, they are down in the muck slinging words, but the alternative is not a magic utopia where everyone agrees, it’s violence. Better they/we fight with words, ideas, and laws than with guns.
Blork
Some choices are choicier than others. Being a Muslim (or a Christian or a Hindu, etc.) is a “choice” they were born into for most people of those faiths. When you grow up in it, and surrounded by it, there is ultimately a choice to remain, but it’s a passive choice. Unless something happens to rattle your faith, you will continue in it, to one degree or another.
But a career (be it politician, lawyer, whatever) is a hard, conscious, and active choice for most people.
The only way a Muslim (or Christian, etc.) is operating at that level of choice is if they actively converted to the faith as an adult.
#perspective
Kate
Blork, thanks. I was gathering my thoughts to say something along those lines, but am distracted by things connected with making a living 🙂
Ginger Baker
@Chris
I’m venting, I’m genuinely and generally disappointed with the conduct of most politicians these days, regardless of their affiliations and/or political orientations.
If I were a public person – in any capacity – I might be more cautious. However, that aside I don’t think these situations are comparable.
Ms. Shand alleges members of a marginalized community of visible minorities are actively conspiring to upend and destroy whatever our culture is, and only somewhat walked back her statement once she discovered it wasn’t politically viable. Clearly she thought it was beforehand, ditto her party.
I haven’t a kind word to say about any organized religion… quite frankly I personally feel that kind of reliance a supernatural celestial dictator is odd. However, I’m cognizant that religion plays an important role as a point of community amongst diaspora communities, and Muslim women in the ostensibly ‘civilized’ West often bear the brunt of both racism and misogyny.
Ms. Shand should have known better before she discovered her comments weren’t politically viable. That she would trash the person who helped her… who cared for her and made her well, and with the ultimate aim of securing political points amongst her base, is beyond the pale.
So I’ll happily rephrase: Ms. Shand is a cancer on our society. She should be shunned. I hope this results in her dismissal from council, she has demonstrated her inability to serve the public, and she owes the doctor an apology. Were it up to me, she’d be forced to do some kind of community service that directly benefited Muslim women, and further subjected to a psychological assessment.
Chris
Blork, yes, I agree. Some choices are harder than others. But it’s not like there’s a vanishingly small number of ex-theists; over 1/4 of Canadians are irreligious, and many of them were brought up religious. So it’s not *that* hard a choice, nor that rare.
Anyway, it was just an example of a sweeping generalization about someone’s *choices* that would not be tolerated, whereas other sweeping generalizations are apparently ok. (Which of course is altogether different from sweeping generalizations about things that really are out of someone’s control, like their skin colour.)
Ginger, thank you for rephrasing.
“Muslim women in the ostensibly ‘civilized’ West often bear the brunt of both racism and misogyny” -> lamentably, that sometimes happens of course, but I dare say they’d suffer more misogyny in say Saudi or Iran. #perspective
I’ll just add that I too deplore Ms. Shand’s thinking of course.
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Kate
It’s not like they’re doing anything they didn’t say they would do: the CAQ is not backing down on the taxi bill and François Legault is said to be preparing to invoke the notwithstanding clause to pass his law forbidding teachers from wearing religious symbols. Quebec wanted this kind of government. Now we’ve got it.
I wonder who’ll police the symbol law. The principal? Will it depend on parents making complaints? Or will a squad of inspectors visit schools randomly, removing kippas and hijabs or marching teachers out who don’t comply?
Betcha cross necklaces will still be acceptable.
Brett
I’m getting a headache from the CAQophony of anti-CAQ posts in this blog.
Chris
Brett, props for continuing to read anyway! These days, people tend to stay in their bubbles and never expose themselves to ideas/options they disagree with, but it’s important to do so.
Brett
But this is supposed to be a Montreal City blog, not a commentary on Provincial politics.
Kate
Speaking of policing…!
The CAQ matters to Montreal because they were elected in the ROQ more or less in opposition to Montreal and its culture and aims. As such, a lot of what the CAQ chooses to do is crucially relevant to Montreal and I intend to keep a sharp eye on it.
Blork
[Like]
qatzelok
In a perfect world, teachers are weighed down with gold chains and medieval clothing, and there’s a cigarette-smoking taxi driver zooming around every street corner at high speed?
/trying to helpMr.Chinaski
Brett, this blog was anti-PQ for a long time, but pitchforks gotta be kept sharpened so it’s anti-CAQ now. In the end, this blog feels more and more angryphone/CJAD’esque and less about local events in Montréal.
dwgs
Really Mr. Chinaski? Really? You just caused me to go back over the last month of posts here and I found exactly 3 that mentioned the CAQ, all of which were directly tied to Montreal (taxi licensing, etc). Every single post was about Montreal affairs. The only one that was kinda tangential pointed out the Mtl origins of the guy who ratted out the college admissions bribery scandal in the States. I’ve also found Kate to be, if anything, overly tolerant (in my view) of certain opinions.
Uatu
No. If this blog were like cjad, then I wouldn’t be here because seriously, fuck cjad and it’s bullshit. At least Kate let’s you respond and not cut u off like the producer of the Tommy schnurmacher show…
Ian
It’s pretty safe to say the vast majority of civil servants in religious garb are in Montreal, and our city was subjected to intentional traffic slowing in many places yesterday because of taxi protests. If you think CAQa policy is a solely provincial issue you’re not paying attention, like Kate says much of their policy is meant to specifically target & punish Montreal and its big-city ways.
jeather
This blog isn’t really pro any of the provincial parties as far as I’ve noticed, but the Liberals don’t do as much anti-Montreal stuff when they’re in power because more of their support is here than the other parties, so the things they do wrong tend to be less relevant because they affect the whole province rather than the city specifically.
Kate
I am in favour of Montreal. I’m against provincial party initiatives that have as an implicit part of their philosophy to sculpt Montreal to be more like the rest of Quebec. Both the PQ and CAQ operate partly on this principle – why let the big, shambling, tolerantly multicultural metropolis get away with things that would never fly in the regions – and, as such, I am constitutionally opposed to their activities.
But the unstated motto of this blog is “Montreal first!”
jeather 12:05 on 2019-03-29 Permalink
I continue to think it is scandalous that free public education doesn’t include coverage for lunch. And $5 for a school lunch is highway robbery. (Note that the low cost lunches were not for all students in these schools.)
This is really something we do poorly.
Tim S. 12:52 on 2019-03-29 Permalink
Actually, at our public school (EMSB) even if you pack your own lunch, you still have to pay 250$ a year for supervision.
That said, as a parent who can afford it, the 5$ bought lunch is well worth it, for both quality and convenience.
jeather 13:24 on 2019-03-29 Permalink
Yes, that was what I was saying — it’s scandalous that free public school excludes 12-1 (or whenever lunch time is). I know foods are more expensive in Canada than the US, but school lunches there do not cost anywhere near 5$, and there are in fact many good school lunches available there (though also bad ones).
Tim 22:59 on 2019-03-29 Permalink
Does anyone send their kids to school with packed lunches anymore or is that not done?
Tim S. 09:59 on 2019-03-30 Permalink
I think the vast majority of the kids at my daughter’s school pack their own. We usually do, but the hot lunch is a nice option when we’re especially busy.
Of course, even a packed lunch isn’t free, and I certainly see the argument for subsidizing lunches and breakfasts in low-income areas.
Marc 10:18 on 2019-03-30 Permalink
It seems awfully stupid and lazy to base this on the average income, especially when the designation of our boroughs is often so weird (Verdun proper, Nun’s Island and Crawford Park are all “Verdun” for example).
Kate 12:19 on 2019-03-30 Permalink
It’s a tricky one. You don’t want to force kids to bring in proof of how broke their family is. You need to apply the offer universally so individual kids don’t feel singled out. I understand why a threshold exists but it’s a man-made thing and should be tweaked if it’s causing hardship.