A record five players from Quebec will be in the Canada team vying for the men’s World Cup, although Radio‑Canada says one of them has already fallen out due to injury.
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Kate
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Kate
Louise Arbour was sworn in as Canada’s 31st Governor General Monday morning, where – despite her impressive CV – like any store clerk, the main ability that got her the job was the ability to speak French.
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Kate
A rabies outbreak in raccoons in the Montérégie has sparked a vaccination campaign for both raccoons and skunks, in an effort to keep the wave from reaching the outskirts of the city.
Nothing’s mentioned here about pets, but I’d imagine if you have a cat or dog in the area on the map, you’d want to make sure its rabies shots were up to date.
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Kate
Cartooning this week touched on two Quebec stories.The slogan used by white supremacists in a demo in Shawinigan – Je me souviens d’un Québec blanc – inspired Chapleau and Godin.
The bill to ban energy drinks to people under 16 evoked the only cartoon that made me laugh this week, a tribute to Panoramix the druid. The one Conservative MNA asked whether Quebec would ban grapefruit as well, in a reference to how it too can amplify the effects of pharmaceuticals. (The bill was sparked by the death of Zachary Miron, who pounded Red Bull on top of his ADHD medication – which makes me wonder how many Quebec kids are taking those pills, if we need to protect all of them from energy drinks.) Chapleau illustrates the grapefruit story.
Ygreck in the Journal thinks a lot more about the federal government than any of the other cartoonists – its blandishment of Quebec, its flirting with artificial intelligence and its risk of recession among others. He draws Mark Carney far more often than the others do.
We also had a resurgence of thoughts about the 51st state and quips about artificial intelligence, and the perennial story, orange cones.
(Côté’s been doing reruns but now says he’s back from vacation.)
Tim S.
The English translation of the Druid’s name to Getafix is, in my opinion, an improvement over the original, especially in this case!
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Kate
It is not the first time I’ve seen reports on Montreal firefighters facing health risks from exposure to contaminants. This brief piece also mentions the rising numbers of medical emergencies they go to, but not how these affect the firefighters over time.
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Kate
The trial of six men accused in the killing of three others, back in 2023, has resumed.
In this piece, the striking part is the testimony of the girlfriend of one of the victims, who speaks nonchalantly about benefiting from his profits from fraud and other activities, while not looking too closely at what he was doing. She didn’t have to contribute to rent or costs herself: “Une femme ne paye pas de factures dans nos coutumes.”
su
It’s a good thing that at least our society makes it possible for women to opt out of being “kept women”.
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Kate
Summer weekend dog days of news are settling in nicely. Several items about artists, places where they work and live: three artists to discover; an artist’s house in Rosemont; artists’ working spaces. CTV writes about something called the Montreal Art Centre and Museum, first time I’ve heard of it.
While the MMFA presents a selection of Roman sculpture till mid‑July, the Pointe‑à‑Callière museum is doing ancient Greece this summer, with 400 objects on display till March next year.
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Kate
Police are seeking Christopher Watts, 66, a man with a long history of sex crimes described as “unlawfully at large” and as un incorrigible délinquant sexuel.
Meezly
I find it circus that the Radio-Canada version gives very little information while the English versions provide more info, ie. the nature of his crimes involving the death of a 13yo girl. Radio-Canada also only converted his metric weight to imperial but doesn’t bother with his height (he’s 6’1). Is it because he’s less likely to seek out francophone victims because he’s from Ontario?
Kate
It’s hard to say. It’s probably a safe guess that some editorial choices are made with subconscious assumptions. Since this fugitive has an anglo name and is described as possibly being in Montreal or somewhere else in Canada, it might be felt that he’s more likely to be spotted by other anglos, or in association with anglos.
Or maybe the Radio‑Canada news editor flinched from too much detail about Watts’s sordid past?
Part of my purpose in starting this blog was noticing how different news sources covered and emphasized different stories. There are sometimes notable differences in general between anglo and franco media – obvious ones like the death of certain people being a much bigger deal on one side than the other, but other items, like the one Meezly notes here.
Joey
Rad-Can and CBC are really distinct operations – not just different versions of the same editorial philosophy, etc.
Kate
I know – it’s a very distinct difference in outlook. I’m glad we have both.
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Kate
Issues with the new digital health record are not troubling the Quebec government and Christine Fréchette is unaware of any issues.
So it’s all fine, then.
Uatu
As usual a human sacrifice must be made (aka somebody dying from an error) before anything happens.
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Kate
Water consumption is slightly down since the city asked us to reduce our usage while the Atwater main is repaired.
It’s not a big drop and I suspect it’s mostly due to the city itself cutting back on watering trees, washing down streets and so forth.
Inconveniently, Environment Canada is predicting a summer that’s to be hotter and drier than average. Maybe the city should distribute kits of bottled water and deodorant.
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Kate
Early Friday, a building CTV describes as “a synagogue in Westmount on the Island of Montreal” and TVA as “un lieu de culte” (religion not specified) was the site of an attempted arson. CTV’s photo shows a broken back window and smoke damage to the outer wall.
CTV’s description of the building as being on Sherbrooke near Wood, in Westmount, makes it clear this was the Temple Emanu‑El‑Beth Sholom. The Gazette does name it in their report, and interviews the rabbi.
A man was arrested and charged Friday afternoon with arson and related items.
Meantime, Projet Montreal plans to present a motion to city council condemning Israel for its genocide in Gaza. No matter what the rabbi says about not importing foreign conflicts here, it’s already happened.
Later, TVA emphasizes that the synagogue building has a daycare in it. But like the report of a shooting in Villeray – which was near a play park but happened in the middle of the night – this incident also took place when no children were nearby. So I wonder, why mention kids to pull the heartstrings?
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Kate
La Presse doesn’t usually get clickbaity like this, but they’re headlining three homicides within 36 hours and emphasizing that one was in a park near a kids’ playground (at 10:30 pm mind you – not many kids out), asking should we worry – then backing off saying the answer is “nuancée”.
The journalists then go on to say that the Walmart stabbing and a shooting in a Villeray park happened in the same neighbourhood, which simply isn’t true.If anything, they should make a point of the park being right next door to a hospital, but I haven’t seen that mentioned anywhere.Nicholas
Is that what the story says? The quote is: “D’abord, quatre jeunes de 15 ans ont été arrêtés et trois ont été accusés en lien avec le meurtre d’un homme de 22 ans dans un Walmart de Montréal-Nord, mardi après-midi. Puis, mercredi soir, un jeune homme de 22 ans affilié à un gang de rue du quartier Villeray a été tué par balle au parc de Turin, dans le même quartier.” It seems to be that “dans le même quartier” is comparing the neighbourhood of the park to the neighbourhood of the street gang, both mentioned in the same sentence, though I agree you could interpret it as referring to the neighbourhood of the previous sentence.
Kate
You are right.
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Kate
Weekend notes from Le Devoir, CityCrunch, Journal de Montréal, CultMTL.Roadblocks and other driving crises of the moment.
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Kate
La Presse talks to the two women who were shot at the École privée nightclub a month ago about their experiences.
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Kate
A map posted by the STM showing various bus stops finds a stop at Beeshop between Guy and Drummond. The slip is being blamed on AI, but it could just as easily have been human error, or an internal joke that slipped into print.
Nicholas
I actually sent the STM an email about that map the other day. I counted nine errors. Also I agree with you about how it probably happened; AI tends to create weirder problems.
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