Several local radio stations have stopped playing Michael Jackson songs following a documentary alleging Jackson molested kids. Le Devoir and the Gazette both devote column‑inches to the question whether this is a good thing.
Updates from March, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
In its habitual April Fool joke on the populace, Hydro-Quebec will be increasing our bills by 0.9% this April. Industrial users will be held to 0.3%. The utility has also been allowed to start experiments with dynamic pricing next winter, which means some of us will learn to do our laundry in the wee hours. Nothing here about the STM’s massive Hydro bill, although I hope they get the industrial rate.
steph
Considering how HydroQuebec has a history of overcharging it’s customers, why is any increase acceptable?
Kevin
Because any profit goes into general tax revenue for the province, and it’s still the cheapest rates in North America.
That and the overcharge was all of $3.60 per month for 8 years, with the highest consumers paying more.
SMD
Cheapest in NA because we – the taxpaying public – paid for it. ConEd can charge what they want in NYC, they paid to build and maintain their infrastructure. What good was investing billions of public funds in creating a Quebec public electric utility if we get the same rate hikes as private utilities?
As for generating extra revenue, that is the crux of the problem. Hiking Hydro rates hits the poor disproportionally, thus creating a regressive tax. If the province needs those extra billions so badly, they should take it fairly and progressively off the income tax.
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Kate
A fire Tuesday unhoused several households upstairs of a print shop at the corner of Rosemont and St-Denis. Ten people were rescued, and the TVA account, which has a lot of photos, also shows a cage with a couple of dogs.
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Kate
Tossing a new spin into the SNC-Lavalin epic, the company is suing former CEO Pierre Duhaime and others, over the MUHC fraud case.
steph
Throwing criminal CEOs under the bus is a good start.
Kate
I’m still salty about the MUHC debacle, but honestly, could anyone do business in Libya without distributing a few bribes?
dhomas
Once you start to play fast and loose with ethics, regardless of where, your integrity is compromised. Qui vole un oeuf vole un bœuf.
walkerp
FYI the job they did in Libya was to build a prison for the Ghadaffi regime, so just think about that for a bit.
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Kate
Neither Quebec nor Montreal intend to put the brakes on Royalmount, so despite waffle here about “comité du travail” and “trouver des solutions” we can assume it’s a go.
Steve Q
Good, let’s get it going now and concentrate on other more important issues like expanding subway, building social housings, legislating against illegal short tern rentals and lowering taxes and red taped for small mom and pop businesses.
Ian
Again pm makes a big show and rolls over. It’s almost as if they are only progressive in a symbolic sense.
Jack
That is a big disappointment. That picture is a testament to Robert Moses and his insane car first urban development. If projet rolls over on this…support for them is hopeless and unwarranted.
Joey
Happy to be wrong about this, but my impression was that the City of Montreal (and, thus, PM) doesn’t really have the authority to do much about Royalmount – other than complicate the promoter’s quasi-BS public transit demands.
Ian
A brief exchange on Facebook about this article:
Richard Ryan: Effectivement c’est faux, car il y a toujours des négociations avec le promoteur et que rien n’est arrêté pour l’instant.
Concerned Citizen: Pourquoi avoir écrit un tel article alors, selon toi?
Richard Ryan: aucune idée, du spinage peut-être de gens qui ont d’autres intérêts… je ne sais pas.
Joey
@Ian The lack of a quote from anyone with the City may be telling…
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Kate
The Pie-IX bridge over the Rivière des Prairies will be getting a $200M makeover as the fast bus lane gets built up toward Laval. It’s evidence, if more were needed, that the SRB is pitched not so much at Montrealers as at suburbanites, as the REM is. Even so, QMI is complaining that drivers will lose one lane in each direction for the SRB.
Quebec is promising to help the Montreal area out with growing transit costs but it’s only words so far.
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Kate
A week ago Daniel Renaud had a piece about how there were fewer and fewer drone incidents near prisons in Quebec, but Tuesday morning there’s a story about the arrest of two men near RDP prison, presumably using a drone to bring cell phones into the facility. CTV’s piece contradicts Renaud’s, citing an SQ guy saying drone incidents are on the rise, and Radio-Canada’s also discusses the problem.
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Kate
Pierre Karl Péladeau has made an offer to buy Téo Taxi, or what remains of it.
Ephraim
Conditional offer, really…. not really fair that he can run to the government to request changes. It’s not like the average businessman can really make demands of the government. This is a use of privilege… something that if the government really considers and does, should be a clear indication of corruption.
Steve Q
Glad to see a Quebec businessman step up and try to save this nice Quebec company. Hopefully he can turn things around by convincing the goverment to change the legislation so that every taxi company plays with the same rules. If he manage to do so, I will gladly say bravo to PKP.
dwgs 10:53 on 2019-03-06 Permalink
Wait, am I the only one who was aware of MJ’s nasty behaviour for the last couple of decades?
Blork 11:09 on 2019-03-06 Permalink
The difference is that previously it was all “alleged” and the details were not very clear. But with this new HBO documentary it is still technically “alleged” but it is otherwise very, very clear and very visceral. There really can be no doubt among the unbiased. As a result, it’s being talked about a lot, and there is naturally a bandwagon effect.
Ephraim 11:49 on 2019-03-06 Permalink
Did these same stations stop playing Jerry Lee Lewis’ music? R. Kelly? Gary Glitter? And that’s just the list of people who have had child abuse allegations. If we add all sexual abuse allegations, we are really going to have a much longer list…. including never hearing the doors on the radio (though pardoned, but it’s still an allegation…)
Blork 13:49 on 2019-03-06 Permalink
I’m guessing they did stop playing R Kelly recently.
There seems to be an invisible line somewhere that causes these things to tip from “allegations” to “widely believed” and then again to “widely believed and publicly reviled.” For example, things that happened with Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis (etc.) happened a long time ago so they are less visceral.
Also, there’s a matter of degree and perceived harm done. So, for example, Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13-year-old cousin but AFAIK there isn’t any testimony from that cousin pointing to harm done. (I’m not saying that such a “relationship” does no harm; I’m just saying there is no actual testimony in that particular case; at least nothing that people can grab on to). Similarly, Elvis is rumoured to have slept with a number of teenagers, but those are allegations and there is no body of evidence from those teenage girls where they vividly describe what happened and what harm was done.
As for Gary Glitter, the axe fell on him long ago, when he was busted in Thailand pursuing his nasty predilection, and I do recall many stations saying they were taking him off their playlists.
The Michael Jackson case, on the other hand, is newly revived and made very vivid. It not only alleges (very graphically) pedophilia, but it shows a long pattern of “grooming” and multiple (alleged) victims, and it also shows very specific harm done (unlike those old cases where we can only assume harm was done).
The main thing is this: stations removing disgraced artists from their playlists isn’t a legal requirement, and it’s not part of some judgement laid down by a court. It is simply a station CHOOSING to not fan the flames on a highly volatile issue. There are survivors of such abuse out there (and their friends and relatives) who are a bit raw right now because of this new documentary, so if a station plays Michael Jackson right now that can be felt as a slap in the face to them. Radio stations are not in the habit of slapping their listeners.
My point is this: it is folly to invoke other cases of creepy singers at a time like this because those stations who are boycotting are doing so as a matter of their own free choice to do so. It would be different if a legal decree came down that said “thou shalt not play Michael Jackson music because of this.” But there is no such decree. Stations are just exercising their right to refuse to play the current hot button artist.
Bert 13:56 on 2019-03-06 Permalink
Will we ever hear Ike and Tina again? James Brown?
walkerp 14:19 on 2019-03-06 Permalink
Good argument, Blork.
I think also in the MJ case, his estate is still denying and fighting the allegations instead of accepting them, which I think would be a starting point for healing and moving on. Cutting into their royalties may be a way to push them in that direction.
Still, it’s weird that Gary Glitter is played regularily at sports arenas.
Ian 14:52 on 2019-03-06 Permalink
Via the Beaverton:
Nation in shock as documentary confirms everything they already knew about Michael Jackson