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Updates from January, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

• Kate 22:38 on 2019-01-28 Permalink | Reply  

  The CAQ education minister now says there was no request made to school commissions for a head count of teachers wearing religious signifiers. Jean-François Roberge says he only asked whether such a count existed and, if so, he would like to see it. It’s a fine point. Catherine Harel-Bourdon, who heads Quebec’s biggest board, says it’s an aberrant request and that the board could be sued for discrimination if it carried out such a count, but the CSDM, like other boards, must be aware that this is just a first move in the game, and that the government has many options for leverage if it doesn’t get what it wants. After all, the CAQ has been blunt in its intention to abolish school boards completely.

  Les Perreaux in the Globe and Mail has some choice quotes from immigration minister Simon Jolin-Barrette saying the CAQ bill intended to fire any teacher wearing such signs will go forward, and telling Ms Harel-Bourdon to calm down. (Can’t find that wording in French, though.) (Later update: Perreaux tells me on Twitter it was “on se calme.”)

  In other school board news, the EMSB seems to be embroiled in an internecine fight with its own chairperson, Angela Mancini. Not a great time for any board to be displaying how chaotic it is.

   

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• Kate 22:20 on 2019-01-28 Permalink | Reply  

  Riverdale High in Pierrefonds is to be taken from the Lester B. Pearson board and operated by the Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys, and its students dispersed to other schools. Only the anglo media seem to think this story worth their time. It seems obvious that with more students obliged to attend French school that more buildings will be needed for education in French.

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  • Kevin 22:43 on 2019-01-28 Permalink

    There are other options than seizing assets.
    After all, the school is already leasing space to the MB board.

  • Kate 07:48 on 2019-01-29 Permalink

    Is it really seizing assets? The boards don’t own the schools the way a person owns a house. The schools belong to the public, via the government, no? So the government can switch things up if it sees fit.

  • Kevin 08:53 on 2019-01-29 Permalink

    Fine, call it an eviction then, with the CAQ as landlord.
    There are many other options especially for a government that supposedly wants to abolish school boards.

  • Ephraim 09:12 on 2019-01-29 Permalink

    The landlord is the Government of Quebec. The management is the ministry of education and the senior management is the minister, who is a member of CAQ. (Buildings are still owned by the School Board and it’s a questionable ownership, especially since often cities have to give them land to build them, etc.)

    The important point here isn’t the transfer, which is normal, it’s the fact that they are using section 477.1.1 of the Education Act rather than going through the regular process (which includes the governing board). Generally the ministry has not gone this route.

  • Kate 09:53 on 2019-01-29 Permalink

    CAQ is signalling it doesn’t give a shit for governing boards, but that isn’t exactly news.

  • SMD 10:47 on 2019-01-29 Permalink

    It is in Le Devoir today, headline « Québec va trop vite, déplorent les anglophones. »

• Kate 22:15 on 2019-01-28 Permalink | Reply  

  A young man was shot, not fatally, Monday afternoon on Fleury, in what Global calls Montreal North and CTV calls St-Michel. (I think it’s just inside Montreal North.)

  Update: Tuesday morning, TVA specifies the man was shot in the penis.

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  • dhomas 06:28 on 2019-01-29 Permalink

    It could also be Ahuntsic, depending on what side of the street he was on. Fleury west of St-Michel is Ahuntsic, east of St-Michel is Montreal-North. As far as I know, St-Michel as a borough has its border further south, and ends at the train tracks south of Industriel boulevard. So CTV it’s wrong here.

    From the story, it sounds like the shooting took place on the Montreal-North side, though. Fleury Street was closed between Lausanne (east of St-Michel) and St-Michel Boulevard and the parking lot of the Euromarché (also east of St-Michel) was also closed.

    This story reminds me that I haven’t been to Chez Ma Tante (on the Ahuntsic side of Fleury) in quite a while. I miss those ridiculously greasy (in a good way!) fries. I just learned that a Chez Ma Tante also opened up in NYC: http://www.chezmatantenyc.com.

  • dhomas 06:31 on 2019-01-29 Permalink

    CTV is wrong here. Damn you autocorrect!

  • Kate 07:49 on 2019-01-29 Permalink

    dhomas, on the blog page there’s a link down right for a town and borough Google map made by someone at CTV. Going by that, the corner of St-Michel and Fleury, as mentioned, is inside Montreal North by a block or two.

  • dhomas 08:17 on 2019-01-29 Permalink

    Thanks for the link, Kate! Very useful. I used to live in that area and was always under the impression that Ahuntsic went all the way to St-Michel, at least on Fleury Street. Thank you for educating me!

  • dwgs 11:09 on 2019-01-29 Permalink

    They shot him in the dick? That’s sending a message.

• Kate 20:51 on 2019-01-28 Permalink | Reply  

  Marie-Josée Parent, elected in Verdun in 2017 under the post-Coderre banner but independent since the summer, has joined Projet Montréal. She’s the first native councillor in the city and, while still independent, was put in charge of the native reconciliation dossier in August.

  Item also notes that Valérie Plante would like to see independents Hadrien Parizeau and Jean-François Parenteau, who also participate in the executive committee, join the party.

   

• Kate 08:07 on 2019-01-28 Permalink | Reply  

  The emergency shelter at the old Royal Vic has been pretty busy since it opened mid-month, being used mostly by men even though it’s open to all. The smaller number of women itinerants is given as a reason, but I think at that level most women with a choice would not bed down with 50 to 60 men.

   

• Kate 07:55 on 2019-01-28 Permalink | Reply  

  The Legault government has spoken to several school commissions requiring a reckoning of teachers and other workers who wear religious signifiers.

  On the one hand, I suppose they may be forced to face that hardly anyone does and it isn’t really the issue they made it out to be. It’s reasonable for any level of government to collect statistical information to help it make better decisions. On the other, it could be preliminary to a mass firing.

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  • mare@mac.com 11:20 on 2019-01-28 Permalink

    Schools should report:

    327 crucifixes
    7 wigs
    1 E-meter
    1 niqab
    1 kirpan
    and one colander

    And all schools should publish these reports on their facebooks, twitters, websites etc.

    It won’t happen, because tradition and historical significance.

  • Ian 13:10 on 2019-01-28 Permalink

    There’s actually a lot of people that wear hijab, especially working in the service de gardes.

  • dwgs 15:01 on 2019-01-28 Permalink

    I second Mare’s idea. Brilliant.

  • dhomas 07:15 on 2019-01-29 Permalink

    I had to look up what an e-meter is and does. I’m glad I did! Scientology is an odd religion…

• Kate 07:39 on 2019-01-28 Permalink | Reply  

  The daughter of a man alleged to have been mentally destroyed by the CIA‑backed experiments of Dr. Donald Ewen Cameron at the old Royal Vic is attempting to launch a class action suit in the name of other children of such patients. The experiments took place from 1948 to 1964 so most of the actual patients are now dead. The MUHC has already washed its hands of any responsibility.