Teenager found lifeless in closed pool

A teenager was found lifeless in a closed city swimming pool in Cartierville on Saturday evening.

Incidentally – here we go – the CBC says here “on Dudemaine Street in the Ahuntsic-Cartierville neighbourhood.” That’s inaccurate and misleading. La Presse’s version of the CP story at least says “dans le secteur Cartierville” which is closer, although even Google Maps is more specific in calling it Nouveau-Bordeaux.

My point is this: Ahuntsic-Cartierville is not a neighbourhood and never was. It’s a political construct, a city borough or arrondissement. City reporters should know their neighbourhoods and their boroughs and at least be accurate, although from the news point of view boroughs are often too vague. Whether something happened in Park Extension or St-Michel, NDG or Côte-des-Neiges, Ahuntsic or Cartierville matters to the people who live there. Even if the borough label is correct, that information is often not sufficient. Reporters should know the city geography and toponymy and news editors should make their reporters be more precise.

After all, most reporters wouldn’t usually merely tell us something happened in Ville-Marie. They’d want to specify whether it was Old Montreal, the Village, the downtown core or whatever, because the scene-setting is important to the story, whether we’re at Peel and Ste-Catherine or Dudemaine and l’Acadie.