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Here’s a bizarre story on TVA of police handcuffing two parents outside a kids’ party at a café in Centre-Sud on Sunday. No charges were brought and there’s no indication anyone broke any laws or put up any resistance. I’m not finding the video mentioned in the text.
Update: Thanks to reader Jack, here it is. Metro also has an account.
Further update: there will be a police brutality complaint.
This year’s St Pat’s parade is returning to Ste-Catherine Street but it will be shorter than in other years.
Update: I am informed on Twitter that I should have written “parade to be back on stolen land.”
Yes, please do make sure you include a land acknowledgement with every post. I could help you code a boilerplate in php to that affect:
“At Montreal City Weblog we acknowledge that we are on unceded Indigenous lands of the traditional territory of both the Kanien’kehá:ka, “Mohawk,” and the Anishinabeg, “Algonquin,” peoples.
We are grateful for the opportunity to gather here and we thank the many generations of
people who have taken care of this land and these waters. Tiohtiá:ke, Montreal, is historically known as a gathering place for diverse First Nations; thus, we recognize and deeply appreciate the historic and ongoing Indigenous connections to and presence on these lands and waters. We also recognize the contributions Métis, Inuit, and other Indigenous peoples have made in shaping and strengthening our communities.
Together, as a diverse blogging community, we commit to building a sincere relationship with Indigenous peoples based on respect, dignity, trust, and cooperation, in the process of advancing truth and reconciliation.”
Nice to see the parade back on St. Kitty.
I don’t think I could do that on every post, but I am going to make a page. Thanks, “- – -”
(I inquired whether Ste-Catherine was more stolen than de Maisonneuve. My Twitter interlocutor said no.)
Last year it was noted that the parade actually worked better going east to west, since the sun was illuminating the faces of the participants. I’ve observed before: there’s no reason for a parade to go in the same direction as conventional traffic, so it could conceivably go from east to west on Ste-Cat, although it isn’t going to this year.
It does seem strange to target the Irish as colonial oppressors as they were basically cheap labour that came here at their own expense after being similarly exploited by the Empire. Of course the same could be said of the Scottish with the Highland Clearances but they somehow managed to become the masters of Montreal with everything named after them. There was a native named Queen of the Parade some years back as I recall, to much wailing and wringing of hands by “traditional” Irish types about culture & ethnicity. In any case there is obviously more subtlety and need for discourse respecting contexts and parallel histories. Both the Irish and Native proponents see themselves as exclusively oppressed within reactionary contexts, which does nothing to facilitate dialogue between cultures or society as a whole.
As I recall the sun was better but it was facing the wind, which caused some problems. Might just have been the de Maisonneuve wind tunnel, which was especially fierce around Peel.
In 2004 there was a parade queen who was black, and that caused a bit of a stir. I don’t recall any native queen but that isn’t to say it hasn’t happened.
I missed seeing the weekend history piece, which is about the Astor bar and restaurant on Ste‑Catherine, and the era of neon signs.
The neon signs give so much more character.
I know that signs protruding into the street and blinky signs were banned on purpose to make the city look less garish and more upscale, a trend that was common throughout most of N.America, but I really think that was a mistake.
Trajectoire Québec, a group that monitors transit problems, is meeting with transport minister François Bonnardel Monday bringing a list of short-term issues to solve. After last week’s talk about bus maintenance issues at the STM that has to be be first on the list.
I keep thinking back to the casual mention in 2014 by Robert Poëti that the Quebec government never spends all the money it claims to be putting aside for public transit. Is that still true? If so, it ought to be using some of those funds to get the STM more mechanics and whatever else it needs to run more efficiently. I’m one of those people standing waiting on a cold icy street for a bus that never comes. Spend the money, Bonnardel.
A man was stabbed in the Cavendish Mall movie theatre on the weekend, but he didn’t die.
What kind of people goes to a cinema with knives in their pocket ?
People who routinely carry knives around.
I got my first Swiss Army Knife about 1972, and from 1976 onward carried it around constantly. Then I got up after a movie, and realized the knife was not there, it had worn a hole in the pocket, and fallen out.
It was an excuse to get the top of the line Champion, which I carried around for years. I could never get into wearing it in a sheath on my belt. I eventually I switched to a small multitool.
I wouldn’t trust these knives for a stabbing, not particularly sharp, and I suspect the tip is wrong , but also, they close up too easily. My locking Shrade that I got in 1980 to get the bark off trees to make tipi poles, that’s a better knife. But I’d never carry that around routinely.
But after having lost the knife after it wore the hole in my jacket, the knives are generally not handy, take a knapsack off to get it out.
Most important, I’d not only never think of stabbing someone, but I wouldn’t know how. So even if someone attacked me, I wouldn’t even think “I could stab him”.
A good knife is a handy tool. Maybe some day I’ll find the perfect pocket knife.
Michael
SteveQ, both Ian and I have explained how many people often carry knives. It’s not like guns, they have many functional uses and it’s not like “let’s get tooled up and go to the movies” it’s more like “fuck I’m mad, what have I got to make this statement more emphatic?”
I used to carry a 3″ folding Opinel around in my satchel. Up until 9/11 I even took it on airplanes in my carry-on bag (it’s actually a hair less than 3″ so it was legal). Now I keep it in my desk at the office and I use it to section oranges etc. Sometimes I wonder, as I’m cutting up fruit with what was once considered a small pocket tool and is now seen as an apocalyptic weapon of mass destruction, if I might get a visit from HR and security.
Worth noting the story says “sharp object”, not “knife”. You can stab somebody with a pen, fork, or any random pointy thing people might happen to casually have with them.
I think it’s time to ban knives. It’s a question of safety, especially for the young generation. Knives cause more damage than guns. The same in London (UK), more people killed or wounded by knives than by guns. So if we are really serious about safety and security, we should start thinking about banning knives in public….and anything that ressembles a knife.
Steve Q, how do you do this? Metal detectors everywhere? Constant searches?
The level of crime here in no way justifies this kind of paranoia. Lots of law-abiding citizens carry knives. Mayhem can be carried out, as Ian points out, with anything pointy.
You’re just asking for more security theatre, and less convenience for law-abiding folks like Michael and Ian and me, who have a knife with us because it’s useful.
I’m with Kate. We have so few people injured or killed that it’s not worth it.
In fact, it’s *because* we have so little violent crime that you hear about non-deadly stabbings.
TVA is kind of annoyed that the man who stopped three metro lines on January 9 by letting off pepper spray at Berri-UQÀM has been let off with conditions and they mention the student protesters in 2012 that let off a smoke bomb and also only received conditions. The item closes with a note that the man arrested this year will do time for other charges against him.
Someone who is running for office could really get my attention by promising to overhaul whatever poses as a prosecutor’s office in this city / province / country.
“As Draconian As the Law Will Allow” Bill Binns for mayor 😛
Considering the number of people who support the death penalty under the delusion it saves money, he would win in a landslide.
(I am not going to argue with anyone who supports it: It costs more, it is never imposed evenly or fairly, and we have had several cases where the wrong person was convicted.)
Karla Homolka on the PTA, a bus beheader/cannibal walking among us, Turcotte’s bike rides through the park, the arsonist out west who killed a 2 year old released after 50 days in jail, the outrageous “Healing Lodge” business and most recently the Mosque shooter being able to serve his time with the glimmer of hope for a comfortable retirement in freedom are all horrible insults to the victims and their families. All of whom got served with “real” life sentences without the possibility of parole.
This policy of criminals over victims is present from the worst of the worst crimes all the way down to vandalism.
@Kevin – Life without the possibility of parole is just as good as the death penalty imo. They could all be exiled to a beautiful deserted island in the South Pacific or sent to Mars for all I care. I just don’t want them around me, my family or other innocent people ever again
Excavations are resuming on Ste-Catherine Street Monday, between McGill College and Phillips Square and between City Councillors and Bleury, which will be closed to traffic till the summer.
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