Police are trying to find the driver of a white van seen near the man found dead in Lachine on New Year’s.
Updates from January, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
TVA looks at a group of retirees who skate regularly on the Old Port rink.
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Kate
It would hardly be the new year without a news story how the ‘Bye Bye’ show did something tasteless to anger a cultural community. This year it was a satire around Justin Trudeau’s visit to India. This is the piece in question.
Chris
Sigh.
Seems some people these days are very taken with taking offense. Or maybe it’s just the media? There’s always calls for people to be less offensive, but I think we’ve swung so far that we should now be calling for people to *take* offense less easily.
“In our culture, cows are very sacred to some Hindus. To have cows kicked is very insulting,” said Ina Bhowmick. Um, no cows were kicked! It was a piece of cardboard! If she finds that offensive, she must really hate how we slaughter and serve cows at every other restaurant every day. Will she be calling for their apologies and shutdown? I mean, that’s way more grievous that kicking a cardboard cow, right?
Yes, it’s probably possible to go too far *giving* offense, likewise it’s possible to *take* offense too easily. People need to learn to just not be so damn offended by everything all the time. There’s no right to never be offended.
EmilyG
I’m not sure why some people are so offended that others are offended.
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Kate
I have been paying attention to reader comments on ads on the blog, especially ones about dubious and inapplicable ads.
This is my plan: I’m going to let the ads run for a month, because that’s Google’s minimum payment period. I’ll see what, if anything, that brings in. I’ll report on that when it’s done, and then decide whether to keep doing this, or change to a Patreon or other system.
Thanks all for your patience.
Nicolas Kruchten
I’ve not used Patreon in the past, but if you choose to use it, I’ll sign up same-day.
SMD
Same here.
TC
What is a Patreon?
Kate
TC, I’ve never used it, but the website should explain.
JaneyB
Not seeing any ads at all. I’m using Adblock and uBlock Origin browser extensions. Ublock Origin tells me it’s blocking google ads.
Chris
Interestingly, Patreon is currently in a censorship scandal, and many users are fleeing it.
Tee Owe
For what it’s worth I prefer ads to a tip jar. Tip jars encourage comparisons between tippers, like who deserves the blog more – whereas ads are user-neutral – just an opinion
Bill Binns
@Tee Owe – I seriously doubt Kate would publish a list of the best tippers or publicly shame people for not tipping. The blog has been around for 17 years with nothing more aggressive than an occasional Amazon wish-list sitting on the sidebar.
Personally, I would vote for both. It would be cool if whatever method brought in enough shekels that Kate could branch out a little and write some of her own stuff (like restaurant reviews or opinion pieces on current events) rather than just linking to news stories.
@Chris – I kind of despise Patreon for their ambiguous enforcement but Kate is extremely unlikely to anger the university based lefty SJW mobs that initiate Patreon’s censorship pogroms.
EmilyG
I already use Patreon to donate money to a few people/artists. Always room for a few more.
Tee Owe
@Bill Binns Agree totally with yr second paragraph.
Never occurred to me that Kate would pay attention – should have thought my comment through – sorry for any implication.
But I still see tipping as (potentially) discriminatory whereas ads – we all get ‘em. Don’t love them but if they pay the bills and allow better blogging then they do it in a spread-the-load way.Tim F
My usual way of browsing your blog is through an RSS reader (Newsify) so I’m afraid I might not generate ad revenue for you.
However I will gladly, GLADLY support you on Patreon.I’m sure I’ve said it at least once before in the ten or so years I’ve read your blog, but THANK YOU for the public service you provide here.
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Kate
The Gazette headline here suggests the article is about what the city does with all the old Christmas trees it picks up, but it isn’t. It talks about the number of trees cultivated here and about what happens in the US and UK and how to get rid of your tree, and very little about the city’s procedures.
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Kate
TVA claims that icy sidewalks are making people angry. People are taking care over the ice, but I think most people know that the city can only do so much about weather conditions. Most sidewalks have been gravelled and, beyond that, we don’t yet have heat beams for removing inconvenient ice.
TVA also mentions the city’s ice-breaking machines and kvetching they’re not being used. But this morning on the radio the spokesman was saying the layer of ice is too thin to be safely broken that way. Probably if they were used, TVA would then have reason to complain they were damaging sidewalk surfaces.
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Kate
CBC has a list of the restaurants with the most health violations in the last three years.
Update; Eater’s Tim Forster weighs in on this news, via reddit.
Bill Binns
I always read these articles peeking through my fingers with one eye. Thankfully, the only place on the list I have been to is Double Pizza. I will sleep at night by telling myself the Double Pizza at Berri UQAM (that has since closed) was “one of the good ones”.
I like that one of the top violations is “interfering with inspector’s job”. I’m sure these guys have some stories to tell.
Kate
I was a little appalled that Basha was #1 but I’ve been eating at various Basha locations on and off for years and never had the slightest issue with them. I also wonder: if Basha is getting something wrong, I’m pretty sure the same would apply to Amir and Boustan, but they’re not on the list at all. So is it possible the ones on the list are simply the ones that failed to pass across a brown envelope when the hint was dropped?
Also, this city is obsessed with temperature. They don’t accept that Chinese BBQ is perfectly safe done the way Chinese BBQ has been done for centuries without killing people. They want Portuguese bakeries to take newly baked pasteis de nata and put them right into the fridge, where they’ll get cardboardy and cold. It’s ridiculous.
dwgs
In my experience there are some good Basha (the one on Sherbrooke in NDG) and some really scary Basha (the one on the south west corner of Sherbrooke and Robert Bourassa). It really depends on the franchisee.
qatzelok
One of the problems with chains like Basha is that, when the inspectors arrive, there is no owner to “offer” some compensation to the inspectors.
Blork
I wish it were easier to get more details on these places and their violations. As Kate says, there tends to be an obsession with temperature, so a restaurant that frequently gets caught with fridges at 6C will come off much worse than a restaurant that occasionally gets caught selling putrid and worm-infested wild pigeon and labeling it as “chicken.”
Related: the Double Pizza on de Maisonneuve and Pierce was closed for several weeks a few months ago, supposedly because of a plumbing problem. It’s not the best pizza ever, but is generally OK as a by-the-slice place (of which there is a distinct shortage at that end of town). It never struck me as the most sanitary place, what with the stinky garbage bins right around the corner and the back door always open. I’ve been going less frequently since they re-opened. But sometimes you need a slice and you only have a few minutes, so what’s a guy supposed to do?
Blork
Oh, and I love that “Sushi Plus” gets fined for health violations. Sushi plus what? Plus salmonella? Mouse droppings? Cockroach eggs?
Bill Binns
I have had a little food safety training as part of my job and I really wish I hadn’t. It’s not the city that is “obsessed with temperature” it’s the food safety industry. Some of these older home style or ethnic methods of food prep and storage may be 99% safe but that’s not good enough for a commercial operation that serves thousands of people.
As far as the accusations of brown envelopes…. I doubt it. I know that is really saying something in this town but from the numbers in the article, it doesn’t seem like the fines are particularly devastating. This means the bribes to prevent the fines would be correspondingly small. Once the inspector takes anything from these people, he is now their slave. No need to bribe him next time he comes by. Just threaten to rat him out for taking the first bribe. Maybe make him was some dishes while he’s there too. $50 bucks isn’t worth risking a cushy government job.
BTW – I attended a food safety seminar given by Couche Tard a few years back. The guy giving the presentation claimed that the restaurant food responsible for more food borne illness than any other is……. bar fruit. Those little lemon wedges, cherries etc that are tossed into drinks. Why? Dirty knives and improper holding temps.
Tim S.
I would agree with Bill Binns about the bribes. When I had a job in the industry, my boss certainly wouldn’t have been above giving a bribe, but he still stressed the visits and “getting in the paper.” That said, he still tried his best to charm, cajole or argue with the inspectors, and often succeeded in buying us a little more time to fix whatever the problem was.
Ian
Quinghua on St Larry or Lincoln? Kind of important to note there. Also worth noting they call themselves Qing Hua on their signage so I wonder what’s up with that. They have the best regular dumplings in Chinatown but the worst service, I’ve switched to Mai Xiang Yuan, the soup dumplings place in any case because, well, soup dumplings aka Xiao Long Bao are just that much extra and the service is good. Srsly though, if I like a restaurant, I don’t care about these ratings. I’ve worked in enough restaurants of all stripes to know that the even the fanciest place could get a violation on an off day. Anyone who asks to see the kitchen at their favourite restaurant is just asking for heartache.
GC
Some commenters seem to have missed this part of the article: “To check on individual restaurants, consult the Quebec government’s inspection database.” The link (in the original article) works just fine. [It’s properly spelled “Qing Hua” on the government site. The CBC just messed it up. And it was the St-Laurent location, unfortunately. I prefer that one, although the service is terrible at both.]
What annoys me is that a lot of the infractions are listed as being discovered in 2016, with a 2018 judgement. I know the wheels of justice turn slowly, but that’s kind of ridiculous. If there’s any real danger, think of how many people might eat there in the intervening two years.
Kate
GC, I’ve never done restaurant work, but I had the impression the inspectors can order immediate changes be made, or indeed the place closed down on the spot if it’s bad enough. It’s adjudicating the fines that takes time, not correcting the food safety problems.
GC
I’m sure you’re right. It just a bit frustrating because I’ve eaten there who-knows-how-many times since 2016.
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