The STM has renamed its metro architecture committee the Comité Jean-Dumontier after one of the metro’s early designers, who died on December 27.
Updates from February, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A serious stabbing happened Wednesday in Hochelaga. La Presse notes that although it happened near the site of a recent homicide, nothing else links the two incidents. TVA also notes the coincidence.
Update: The victim has died. Third homicide of the year.
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Kate
The city will not be submitting a head count of its workers who wear religious signifiers.
It won’t be putting body cameras on its cops, either.
Dominic
I’m stunned at Plante choice for the videocameras for cops. Its a no-brainer. Pretty disappointed in this decision
Jack
With Dominic, you’d think the good cops would welcome that level of transparency.
Ginger Baker
Also quite disappointed; the optics of this aren’t great, and it seems as though the Plante Admin is taking the cops’ word for it. Where was the independent review? How did they arrive at cost estimates that exceed what the manufacturer has indicated?
Is the police brotherhood actually that strong that they can manipulate Projet Montreal?
or are they sell outs?
Kate
Not so sure I agree, about the cameras. The cop can activate the cam or not, which means the results will be kind of weak.
jeather
You need to start somewhere. First it’s wearing them, then it’s having them activated automatically, then it’s actually getting in trouble for not having a functioning cam. Police have shown us they don’t deserve our trust, and this just reinforces that.
Ginger Baker
The rep from the manufacturer says they can be controlled automatically and they don’t necessarily have to be left in the hands of the SPVM, i.e. there could be independent civilian oversight of the cameras.
Apparently this has been tried in various locations in the States.Leaving the ‘tapes’ in the hands of the Fuzz is entirely counter-productive, but we need civilian oversight anyways.
Ephraim
Kate – When you turn off a cam, there are always questions to answer about why. It saves a lot of money… first of all, it’s much easier to do your report, the evidence can stand in for you in court and it deescalates problems. All benefits. The real DOWNSIDE is for the cops who violate the law…. they have to stop. We don’t have full oversight and the cracks are WIDE. How many more people need to be stopped for driving while black before we do enough to stop this.
Ian
It was very interesting listening to Alex Norris try to defend this decision this morning on the CBC, a lot of semantics and double talk… but he did raise an interesting point – because of Quebec’s privacy laws cops aren’t allowed to film people in certain contexts, cannot activate them in specific places without permission like houses of worship, and have to blur out everyone not involved in the incident. We do have some super specific laws around being filmed though I would be awfully surprised if being a cop on the job wouldn’t grant you an exemption in the courts… but IANAL.
Ephraim
Doubt that the privacy act would apply if it’s not for public usage and that it is publicly known that they are filming. Otherwise we wouldn’t be allowed to have traffic cameras, speed cameras, and those street cameras.
But let’s look at the opposite, if the policeman had to notify people (s)he was turning it on, it would still deescalate situations and protect the police from attack and could record situations for later usage and training.
Kevin
I could be wrong, but every discussion I’ve had with my lawyer about this says the privacy act only applies to publishing photos of people.
Publishers have to take particular care not to use a photo of a person in a particular circumstance and then use it to illustrate a topic with which they are not related.If you are in a private location, the owners of that establishment can forbid you from taking photos or video, again, according to my lawyer.
I’m not surprised if certain officials are wrong in knowing what can and cannot be filmed. There was even a police officer who was just reprimanded for thinking he could tell a cyclist to turn off his cellphone camera (although the officer did it in a threatening way).
Ian
I hear you all, it sounded strange to me too – but that’s what Alex Norris was claiming.
dwgs
I seem to recall Mr Norris being economical with the truth in the case of the Fletcher’s Field ball park.
Tux
A cop yelled at me once for filming a traffic stop. This was back in the era of flip phones, so if the cops were afraid of postage stamp size videos then, they’re surely afraid of HD cameras now. I also have a few stories about a pair of cops that busted into my friend’s apartment for a noise complaint, confiscated his cannabis, and then stalked him for a couple days. They’d wait for him outside his building after work and yell borderline-threats at him. Hopefully, we get with the times on this issue eventually. They need accountability. I’ve been fortunate never to have had a serious run-in with them, but the Fredy Villanueva case would have been a lot more cut-and-dried if the officers had had cameras attached to ’em.
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Kate
At the same time as the recent news on grocery stores participating successfully in redistribution of unsold food, another report says more people than ever are turning to food banks to make ends meet.
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Kate
A company that collected material from various ecocentres in the city was caught illegally dumping off the island in the Montérégie and has been blacklisted.
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Kate
A woman with measles visited two Montreal clinics recently, so there’s a warning out about the disease. This piece notes that Canada eradicated measles by 1998, but that it’s been coming back, carried by visitors from elsewhere and given a chance by parents who refuse to vaccinate their kids.
Ephraim
In case people don’t know, measles is 90% contagious and by air, meaning that if a contagious person is in the room with 10 non-vaccinated people, 9 of them will leave with measles. It was lethal at the rate of 1 in 1000 people until we got enough people in the vaccinated herd. It was almost entirely gone in the Americas in 2005… down to 66 reported case is ALL of the Americas, but because of anti-vaxxers, we are now over 20,000 cases per year.
And if you want a good example of how well herd immunity works, see https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/11/9/18068036/measles-new-york-orthodox-jewish-community-vaccines The members of the same community in Montreal do get vaccinated and it did not transfer to Montreal although people were exposed.
The rate of serious complication and/or death from MMR is 1 in 1,000,000 rather than a death rate of 1 in 1,000 for measles.
jeather
Also you CAN get vaccinated for the MMR before 12 months, but it doesn’t give lasting immunity so you still need the two shot sequence. And they’ll just give you another MMR at a CLSC pretty much on request, if you’re concerned. (There’s no harm in it if your titers are high enough.) I only had one shot as a kid, so got another as an adult.
And a reminder that the vaccine-autism link was made up by someone who had a financial stake in this result. Not only was it not reproducible, it was completely fraudulent: he falsified data.
EmilyG
It’s true – Vaccines don’t cause autism. I myself am autistic, and I say – for goodness sake, vaccinate your children.
Being autistic can be challenging, but it’s not like having a dangerous (and preventable) disease. And if you don’t vaccinate your children because you’re scared of autism, does that mean that you’d rather have a very sick child than a child like me? Because that’s disturbing.Kate
jeather, you sound like you know a bit about this. I had measles as a small kid, never knowingly had mumps or rubella. I think the only vaccinations I’ve had were smallpox (I’m like eleventy-one years old) and at some point tetanus (too long ago to be useful).
Should I go get MMR or any other shot?
jeather
You should definitely get your tetanus updated, especially as you own a cat. (Cat teeth being needle-like, they can poke crap down in and you don’t bleed them out.) You’re fine for measles. If you’re born before 57, you’re assumed to be immune to the other two. It can’t hurt to get them. But I’d absolutely prioritise tetanus (which will likely include diphtheria and pertussis). Your CLSC is more likely to provide them than your GP, you can go for tetanus and ask them about MMR while you’re there.
Ephraim
Kate, if you aren’t sure, you can always get MMR. Even having had mumps doesn’t guarantee immunity. And if you didn’t have Polio, is available as an adult as well, but usually only needed if you are travelling near Afghanistan, Pakistan or Nigeria (or countries that border them). Some vaccinations in Quebec are routinely given based on risk, so I have had Hep A & B, Pneumonia and Flu shots, if you aren’t in an at-risk group, they charge for them. Tetanus and diphtheria (TD or Tdap) are every 10 years and always free. The shingles vaccine isn’t free, but only suggested over 60.
Kevin
The CDC recommends a shingles vaccine at age 50. (60 was the old suggestion) It can be a pricy one, but shingles is worse.
Here is the list of what Quebec reccomends: https://www.quebec.ca/en/health/advice-and-prevention/vaccination/quebec-immunisation-program/
Many of these are combos, like MMR and DTAP.
And your family doctor should know what vaccines you’ve had, if you don’t have a list.
Whenever you book your next appt be sure to tell the receptionist that you want to update your vaccinations. This generally makes the visit go smoother.Kate
your family doctor should know what vaccines you’ve had
In a world where you have the same doctor all your life, maybe.
Ephraim
Kate – In a world where you have a family doctor…. I’m on year 3 of waiting to get one after my previous one got fired for being incompetent (he sat on a report recommending that I see a specialist for about 5 months.)
dhomas
@Ephraim: If I can make a recommendation, I would say to go out and call some practices to see if they’ll accept new patients for family doctors. I got tired of waiting for a doctor after registering by phone (the online registration wasn’t a thing yet, IIRC), so is started calling around. I finally found one that would accept me and my family. The clinic is not right next door (about a 25-minute metro ride away), but at least I’ve got one. I had been waiting on the list for several years already before I took matters into my own hands. I remember telling the attendant that my wife was pregnant at the time so we needed a doctor ASAP and being told that “there are people in much more urgent situations than yours”.
Tee Owe
Back up for Kevin on the shingles advice – this is not something you want to get, I speak from experience – and I believe the new vaccines are very effective. You’re OK for measles and smallpox, but you might consider a polio booster, this one never went away unfortunately and pops back up from time to time. Can also say that adult mumps is a truly miserable experience so for that reason alone MMR could be a good idea.
Kate
jeather, by the way, my cat is a sweetheart and has never bitten or scratched me.
Thanks all for good advice.
jeather
Oh, sure, it’s very rare for a nice tame domestic cat to bite — I’ve only had bites when socialising a cat, not even when moving an injured cat. But I’d still do it on a better safe than sorry basis, especially if you get back to fostering.
Canadian
I had only one measles vaccination as a child (in the 70s in another province) and I ended up getting measles as an adult (following a trip to Europe about 7 or 8 years ago).
Is a shingles vaccination effective if you’ve had chicken pox?
dwgs
Step on a rusty nail? Get nicked by a piece of metal? Tetanus also is carried in soil, dust, and manure. A shot is good for ten years I believe, go get one.
Tee Owe
Canadian – the way I understand it, you get shingles as an older person (not so old) because of reactivation of the chicken pox virus. Also as I understand it, there is a new -ish vaccine that’s effective against shingles in older folks. But I’m not a doctor this what I read maybe someone can correct me. I had shingles once, awful!
Kevin
@Kate
This is part of what’s been promised and is finally happening with electronic records.
My wife M.D. Ph. D uses them at work and is pushing all her patients to apply.The link : https://carnetsante.gouv.qc.ca/portail
jeather
I signed up for that, it does not have all my vaccines in it.
You should get a tetanus booster every 10 years but if you get a risky cut after 5 they usually just give you a booster again.
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Kate
The Olympic stadium will have a new roof but the installations board intends to take its time and do it right, so it won’t be up till after 2024.
Ephraim
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