Blog sweep Saturday morning turned up this nugget which feels like a barb directed at CAQ politics: Montreal has joined Intercultural Cities, a primarily European group that “supports cities in reviewing their policies through an intercultural lens and developing comprehensive intercultural strategies to help them manage diversity positively and realise the diversity advantage.”
La Presse’s Denis Lessard ponders the stress between Plante and Legault and what it means for the city.
Police won’t be facing charges in the death of an Île Bizard man in 2017. The man’s own parents called for help because he was in crisis, but he died during the intervention – stressed by drugs he had taken rather than by the police beating alleged by the parents, or so the report says. Recalls a recent report on another man who died suddenly in custody, which said he had a heart problem that somehow only acted up when he was arrested. Funny that.
I haven’t read any of it, but it’s not totally implausible that the stress of being arrested could tip a known weak heart over the edge.
Obviously it’s not implausible, or the coroner wouldn’t attempt to make a case for it.
I’m not going so far as to allege that police wilfully killed these guys, but that most people have some physical frailty or condition that can be discovered and used as an excuse why they died suddenly under the care of the police. Simply being put face down with your hands cuffed behind your back can kill you. It’s called positional asphyxia.
Cops should be more aware of the limits of what they can do physically to restrain a person, at least.
Handcuff me behind my back and I’ll be screaming in agony immediately: my hands do not reach that position because of improperly healed bones
A Montreal man was shot and killed in a Brossard pizzeria Friday night. He wasn’t even known to police.
The long, grinding winter which has just grudgingly taken its bow has cost the city 15% more than projected for its snow removal budget.
The centralization pendulum has started its swing back: boroughs are to be given back certain powers of decision over snow removal. This is only good sense: it’s a big island with varied geography, and sometimes there’s more snow or ice in one area than another. Borough administrations should be trusted at least with the question whether to unleash the machinery on their patch.
Chris 11:35 on 2019-05-11 Permalink
Well, the list of member cities:
https://www.coe.int/en/web/interculturalcities/list-of-cities-by-country
includes a bunch in Moroco, a country where proselytizing for any religion other than Islam is punishable by up to 15 years imprisonment. I dare say quite a bit less intercultural than anything the CAQ has proposed.
Kate 11:40 on 2019-05-11 Permalink
That doesn’t mean that the feelings against proselytizing are held by everyone in those cities – in fact, connecting with a group like Intercultural Cities may be a way for them to try to instill a better spirit of mutual toleration.
Chris 11:41 on 2019-05-11 Permalink
Likewise here.
Kate 08:31 on 2019-05-12 Permalink
Further thoughts on this: is any visible presence of religious practice now equated to proselytizing for that religion? That seems to be how the CAQ and its supporters feel about it. I don’t take the sight of a hijab or a shtreimel, the presence of a cross on a church building or the sound of its bells to be religious marketing, but maybe some people do.
Chris 13:10 on 2019-05-12 Permalink
Maybe some do, I’m not aware of any polling. But I wouldn’t think so.
The Moroccan government seems to think so though, as Islam->Christianity converts have to worship in hiding. Their mere existence seems to be viewed as a kind of proselytizing against Islam. https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/438j9m/house-churches-and-silent-masses-the-converted-christians-of-morocco-are-praying-in-secret
Kevin 14:18 on 2019-05-12 Permalink
Many of the speakers at the Bill 21 hearings seem to think that seeing/hearing something they don’t approve of is equivalent to a violent physical assault.
These people are incapable of conceiving of living in harmony with people who are not exactly like them. How sad.
Ian 13:49 on 2019-05-13 Permalink
Bonjour-hi writ large