The mayor has been receiving hate messages and threats since taking a position against Bill 21. She’s reporting them all to investigators.
Updates from April, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
TVA has a survey of the flotsam and jetsam of winter as the last snow recedes and the yearly news cycle moves on to how filthy the city looks in early spring. The Gazette likewise.
Radio-Canada says citizen cleanup brigades are getting more popular.
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Kate
And the little horse is a fake.
EmilyG
A phony pony.
Kevin
I am absolutely disgusted by this.
If any managers at the Journal de Montreal knew about Vlog doing this they should be fired.Ian
Well there goes their credibility forever.
Ginger Baker
When I saw this earlier today I noticed how many respected local journos had been sent out to cover it.
I thought to myself, ‘is there nothing going on right now that warrants greater scrutiny than a potentially missing miniature horse?’
Let this be a lesson, never be afraid to counter your assignment editor (i.e. always have a better story to work on).
CharlesQ
Was the pony photoshopped or did they take a pony there for the photo? Good photoshop otherwise.
Chris
Ginger, remember that most corporate media are not really in the news business, they are in the ad selling buisness. This kind of story gets views/likes.
Anyway, as tech improves, it’s going to be harder and harder to trust stills and even videos. Imagine this in 10 years: http://grail.cs.washington.edu/projects/AudioToObama/
Ephraim
CharlesQ… lookup Deepfake. This is only going to get worse!
Raymond Lutz
@Chris, it will be harder but there’s hope for a solution! Our governments will pay private corporations (GAFAM) juicy contracts to weed out fake content from the internet: the detection of inauthentic activity, copyright infringement, hate speech and defamation will be automated by AI and offending sites will be blacklisted and their internet traffic blocked by your complying ISP.
They’re CURRENTLY passing laws in EU to enforce this:
“Un nouveau projet de règlement européen prend le prétexte de la lutte antiterroriste pour imposer de lourdes obligations à tous les hébergeurs, notamment le retrait en une heure des contenus signalés par la police. Il banalise la censure privée et le contournement de la justice. Il fait des filtres automatiques la clé des politiques de censure. Il fera disparaître le Web décentralisé en le mettant sous la tutelle forcée d’une poignée de géants, qui en sortiront seuls et grands gagnants.”
From the french internet association La Quadrature.
Chris
Raymond, ha! sounds worse. 🙂
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Kate
Our Notre-Dame will be collecting funds for the reconstruction of Notre-Dame in Paris till the end of the year.
Raymond Lutz
Voici un autre son de cloche… de la plume d’un curé de campagne Français:
“Cependant, frères et sœurs, je vous le dis : il est moins urgent de reconstruire la cathédrale de pierre que de sauver la cathédrale du cœur. Je m’étonne de constater que ceux qui chassent leurs prochains comme des vauriens en leur répétant à l’envi qu’ils n’ont pas un centime à leur consacrer, laissent ainsi ruisseler des flots d’or quand il en va de l’image d’une capitale que peuple l’égoïsme, la cupidité, les logements vides, la chasse aux pauvres et à l’étranger, les divertissements frivoles”
Chris
Raymond you’ll like this: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/apr/18/billionaires-donations-notre-dame-france-inequality
“… why those generous donors are so averse to giving their money to democratically chosen priorities, which is what taxes represent. If the ultra-rich can chuck in so many millions of euros for a building, then what stops them ending hunger and poverty? Few want to ask that question, nor the obvious follow-up about how much the mulltibillion-owning Catholic church will stump up. …”
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Kate
Sivaloganathan Thanabalasingham, suspected in his wife’s 2012 murder in Montreal, was deported from Canada after the Jordan ruling was invoked over delays in his case. He left for Sri Lanka and Quebec ruled that there was nothing to be done in pursuing the case, since Canada has no extradition agreement with that country. Canada’s Supreme Court thinks otherwise. Whether there’s any chance of getting Thanabalasingham back here and putting him on trial is another matter.
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Kate
Looks like we’ll be having a rainy Easter weekend.
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Kate
Hasidic groups in Brooklyn have been the site of a recent measles outbreak, so with Passover visitors expected here, the local communities are bracing for trouble.
The item doesn’t explain where anti-vaxx ideas intersect with Orthodox Judaism.
Passover this year coincides closely with Easter i.e. this upcoming weekend.
Ephraim
This is a second case. There was a case earlier, but the measles never transferred to Montreal because they vaccinate here. The reason is simple… it’s free. A lot of the Haredi community doesn’t have full healthcare in the US… where you have to pay for it. And in Israel, fully socialized medicine is only from 1995, so those older generally didn’t have coverage. Of course, since you have to buy it, not everyone follows the law…
Kate
How much can an MMR shot cost? (I’m prepared to believe it’s hundreds of bucks, in the United States.)
Brett
Just over 21 bucks a dose c.f. https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/programs/vfc/awardees/vaccine-management/price-list/index.html
Ephraim
@kate – See https://www.walgreens.com/topic/healthcare-clinic/price-menu.jsp it’s $99.99 for MMR per dose (and this is given at the pharmacy… it’s even more at the hospital, doctor or clinic in the US) and you need 2 doses. Incidentally, if you wonder what the maximum the RAMQ pays for a medication is, it’s all published online at http://www.ramq.gouv.qc.ca/en/publications/citizens/legal-publications/Pages/list-medications.aspx but standard vaccines aren’t there, because you don’t buy them with the pharmacare program, they government buys them in bulk. But it’s much cheaper to vaccinate than to deal with the medical costs of not vaccinating… never mind the coffins for the 1 in 1000 that dies of measles.
Ian
“When asked why people are opting out of vaccines, the New York city health department said anti-vaccine propagandists are distributing misinformation in the community.
The fearmongerers include a group called PEACH — or Parents Educating and Advocating for Children’s Health — which appears to be targeting the Jewish community with misinformation about vaccine safety, citing rabbis as authorities, through a hotline and magazines. Brooklyn Orthodox Rabbi William Handler has also been proclaiming the well-debunked link between the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism. Parents who “placate the gods of vaccination” are engaging in “child sacrifice,” he told Vox.”
Each community follows the advice of its own rabbis, presumably the Montreal Hasidim aren’t on board with this particular line of thought.
Ian
But important to note, that is a small group –
“Some Jewish community leaders are not wild about New York City’s new, shall we say, vaccination edict, but they, their organizations, and the overwhelming majority of local doctors are resolutely pro-vaccination.
Ezras Nashim, the women’s ambulance corps that serves observant Jewish women in Borough Park and the surrounding area, issued the strongest of statements encouraging vaccination, citing, among other things, the Talmud’s declaration that “all of Israel are responsible for each other.”
Rabbi David Niederman, director of United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn (UJO), a Satmar community-service group, was equally emphatic about the Halachic demand to vaccinate children. He stressed that those who opposed it are part of a fringe group, much like the anti-vaxxers in the United States as a whole.”
https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/283472/hasidic-community-health-emergency
Chris
Kate, there’s this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaccination_and_religion
I could imagine a correlation between religiosity and vaccination hesitancy. Both groups are prone to believing in things without evidence. (i.e. if virgins can bear children, then vaccines can cause autism.) Not sure if anyone has studied that…
Kate
Ian, Ephraim, thanks for the research.
Chris, you don’t see it. Because a person or group of people is religious it does not necessarily open them to new irrational ideas. I was curious where anti-vaxxers had found an opening into Orthodox Jewish culture, which is in most ways pretty realistic about medical care.
Mark Côté
The anti-vax stuff I’ve seen has had very little, if any, religious content, unless you count “new age” viewpoints.
thomas
@Mark It seems anti-vax proponents will make up any argument if they think it will stick to a target audience. There was a nytimes article over the weekend where an evangelical family objected to vaccinations because they are made from human abortion DNA.
Chris
Kate, of course. I did not say it _necessarily_ does, I said I suspect a correlation/overlap between groups. Religion is the ultimate fake news, if one can fall for it, one could be more likely to fall for another kind. A quick search reveals there is at least some data supporting my suspicion: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3906279/#R147
jeather
Wealth correlates negatively with religion but positively with anti-vaccine, so I wouldn’t think “those crazy people who believe in god probably don’t believe in vaccination” follows. (Historically vaccination and earlier variolation were invented and taken up by religious people as well-.)
Raymond Lutz
Wealth correlates negatively with vaccination? That’s not what Gapminder shows for vaccination rate VS GDP/capita
jeather
Wealth correlates positively with anti-vaccine in North America, the context of vaccinations is very different in other cultures and also not particularly relevant to the question of how it correlates with religion.
Chris
Correlation is not causation. I don’t think there’s a causal relationship like: religiosity -> anti-vax. I suspect it’s more like: predisposition to ignoring evidence -> anti-vax, predisposition to ignoring evidence -> climate change denial, predisposition to ignoring evidence -> religiosity.
jeather
Correlation is not causation, no. But your argument doesn’t even have the grace of actually fitting the evidence.
Chris
jeather, please reread my posts. I’m not even making an argument, I’m stating some suspicions that I indeed do not know are true, but merely suspect. I repeatedly used words like “suspect”, “could imagine”, etc. I shared two links showing that religion is indeed one (of many) reasons given by some for vaccination hesitancy. You’ve just asserted, showing nothing. Raymond already contradicted one of your assertions with data. How about you show something instead of just asserting? Show me a study showing no correlation, I’d genuinely like to know if there is or isn’t.
jeather
Low vaccination rates in Sudan are due to entirely different factors than North American or European rates and not relevant, as I mentioned.
Here are two links that show a correlation between wealth and lower vaccination rates in the US:
https://www.cnn.com/2015/02/03/health/the-unvaccinated/index.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4695929/Here is one link that shows an inverse correlation between wealth and religious belief:
https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/income-distribution/Feel free to imagine all sorts of new ways to dislike religious people. I’m not going to change your mind.
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Kate
City council did proceed to move that Montreal is a centre of excellence for metal music.
Tim F
Nothing says hard core heavy metal like a city council resolution.
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Kate
Reported on reddit a few days ago, the presence of a tiny white horse on St Helen’s Island is a mystery. Authorities are trying to locate it so it can be caught and looked after properly.
Update: the story has made it to the BBC.
Ian
Has anyone asked David Lynch about his whereabouts?
Kevin
This is the time of year when digital artist students are producing their ‘how real can I make it look’ work.
A couple weeks ago someone was trying to pass around a video of a toddler running down a street as real, but there were many things that looked off.
Kate
Kevin, the CTV report claims several different people have seen it.
mare
Not necessarily a VFX graduation video. In our neighbourhood (Petite-Patrie) there are at least two people with a mini horse. I saw and petted one white mini horse outside the dog park two years ago, and talked a bit with its owner and he said he knew another person who had one.
It’s illegal to keep livestock, but these are only slightly bigger than a Great Dane or Newfoundlander so they’re more like a pet. When you have an enclosed courtyard, or keep them inside at all times (they can be paper trained, but it would be kind of cruel to not walk them) nobody will know or tell on you.
Kevin
Well it is a hoax created by TVA The first article I saw was written by the Journal and both are owned by Quebecor. https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2019/04/16/curieux-mini-cheval-sur-lile-sainte-helene
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Kate
A regular reader has been keen on the idea of making restaurants post the results of cleanliness inspections, and now the city is pondering doing just that – grocery stores, too.
walkerp
Rather not do anything that empowers those inspectors. Their policies are based on industrial production of food and they come into wonderful local butcher shops and force them to upgrade their equipment and use techniques that are not relevant (like keeping portuguese sausages at freezing which ruins them). This is what kills local businesses.
Kate
I know. They also make Portuguese bakeries take freshly baked pasteis de nata out of the oven and refrigerate them, which turns that wonderful pastry into cardboard. And they’ve hounded Chinese BBQ pretty much out of existence here with their draconian – and pointless – rules about temperature.
Marco
They do this in Los Angeles and I think it’s great. It ensures that the restaurant management is serious about health and cleanliness. If you want to go to a place that has a C rating then it’s up to you but I would prefer to be informed. Health inspectors are not your enemy.
Ephraim
There are a list of best practices, but there is also just plain cleanliness. Yes, a nata doesn’t really need to be refrigerated, the sugar does the job. But how many restaurants with mouse/rat droppings and or not cleaning the hood or rotating the oil do you need? Most people can’t taste rancid oil… some people can smell it when they walk into a restaurant. We don’t need to go over the deep end… if we did, we wouldn’t have rare steaks. But we do need to ensure that things are washed and disinfected (e. coli), fish is fresh, etc.
Ian
Fair, but that level-headed approach is not what our inspectors take. Kate’s examples are not just hypothetical (though you can still get fresh natas and Chinese BBQ if you know exactly where to go, shhh)
Jonathan
I think this is a bad idea. I agree with most of the comments here that the system needs to be updated and consumers need to be more aware of what ratings mean before they are given a number or score.
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Kate
The kind of delays that plague city projects mean that the Sir George Étienne Cartier pool reconstruction won’t be complete till summer’s end – if then. That corner of St-Henri is a bit of a mess right now, with work also being done on the canal side adjacent to the park.
Joey
Why can’t the city manage these park projects properly? I heard that the tennis courts at Jeanne-Mance Park – which have been closed for reconstruction for two summers and appear to be done – won’t be open until 2020.
walkerp
Corruption. This is why excusing SNC-Lavalin is so unacceptable.
Kate
Joey, you’ll notice in the article that the city insisted on also including a meeting room in the pool project. It’s probably not just here, but I’ve always noticed a tendency to make renovation projects better and more “worthy” than the thing they’re replacing. While that neighbourhood swelters this summer for lack of a pool, the city will be putting together something more like a community centre – in a park.
mare
A few reasons I can see besides outright corruption.
Contractors bid on more projects they can handle, get too many of them awarded but then they can’t find enough skilled workers to carry out the work. I’ve seen so many projects that lay idle, without anybody working, for many days every week, and sometimes for weeks on end, with heavy machinery present but not moving an inch from day to day. Construction companies can make more money by having multiple job sites because there are apparently no stiff fines for not completing a project in time. So they can take their sweet time, then be ‘surprised’ by winter (and probably charge more because of hardship). Whatever they do, the city isn’t going to take the project from them and give it to another firm. The city doesn’t have a lot of skilled inspectors who enforce rules either, since they have been downsized years ago and now hiring them is hard because they are rare and can make much more money in the private sector.
Anecdotal evidence: all projects (mostly sports installations, but also a dog run) in the park that’s close to my house and that I visit daily while walking my dogs, have laid idle for extended amounts of time, and have taken absurd amounts of time to complete. In the last phase they were often rushed with suddenly lots of crews working at the same time and doing shoddy work. Such shoddy work, that it needed to be done again next year, and still wasn’t done right. At every point in time during the last 10 years an area of the park has been a closed off and muddy construction site.
Kate
Good analysis, mare. Thanks.
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