Now that we live in a secular state, the opposition is raising the spectre of secularism police. But the problem isn’t the creation of an actual inspection squad, distasteful though that would be. It’s that some people will now feel vindicated in appointing themselves secularism inspectors, and impose the law beyond even the terms of Bill 21 – like the bus driver last week who decided she wouldn’t stop for a woman in niqab.
Updates from June, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A trucking firm that was sending half-full trucks to snow dumps while claiming the cost of full ones will be blacklisted by the city for five years.
steph
How long before the company is sold to the brother in law to continue business as usual?
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Kate
Gouin East has been dubbed the worst road in Quebec again. CBC doesn’t tell us which section of the rather long road is the issue.
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Kate
A police cruiser slammed into a tree Monday morning at Park and Mont-Royal. The cop is hurt, a police dog aboard was conscious and taken to a vet – no word on the tree.
Blork
I hope the dog is OK. The tree looks completely unfazed. FWIW, that tree is about 15 feet from a bus shelter, a park bench, and (believe it or not) a phone booth.
Meezly
Wow, I was biking by there at 8:50am and was wondering why so many cop cars were there directing traffic. I didn’t see the wreckage so they must have hauled it away. Looking at how squashed the front of the car is, he must have been going quite fast down the narrowed passage from the construction at the Jeanne-Mance intersection.
CE
I just biked by there. The car has been cleared but it’s still pretty chaotic because of the construction. The tree looked fine but the bark was all stripped off the bottom.
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Kate
La Presse’s Yves Boisvert deplores the ruling in Sue Montgomery’s case, condemning the judge for saying Montgomery didn’t telegraph enough fear.
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Kate
The inbound side of the new bridge is to open June 24 and the outbound side on July 1. No mention of a ceremonial opening walk, which is disappointing.
Raymond Lutz
In the good old days, une messe spéciale aurait été dite sur les lieux (avec un évêques ou un cardinal) et le pont béni 😎
Kate
I know! Like the famous photo from the launch of the Montreal metro, with Cardinal Léger included in the small crowd:
Thomas H
Final cost of the project: ~1,050$ for every person in the metropolitan area (4.2$ billion total).
Hope you all are planning many trips to Vermont and the Eastern Townships! You paid for it, you deserve it…
Kate
I was looking forward to a mass walk because otherwise it will be a long time before I see it up close.
Clément
@Thomas H: Except that it’s paid for by the federal government AND there won’t be a toll. It means that everyone in Canada is paying for it. So 4.2 $B / 37 M is about 114$ per Canadian. Still a lot of money though!
We should be much more appalled about the CAQ project to build a NEW bridge in Quebec city, for about the same cost (probably 4$B) to serve a few 1000 commuters, paid for by provincial taxpayers only. All while using funding that could be used for much needed public transit in Montreal and Quebec.
Thomas H
Kate: Agreed! Huge missed opportunity. Though the article does mention a “cérémonie d’ouverture officielle” on June 28. Anyone know whether the public may attend/walk on the bridge.
Clément: Also agreed… Non au 3e lien! I’m a realist about roads: I realize that they are needed, if nothing else, to move goods in and out of the city. Nonetheless, your 114$ figure really does highlight how expensive our road subsides are. For the same cost we could pay for 3 years of STM operations that move 2,000,000 passengers per day versus 159,000 (mostly private) vehicles per day. An entire transit system versus one bridge…
Faiz Imam
Apparently there will be an official opening ceremony June 28th. Not sure what that entails though.
DeWolf
The new bridge includes an “accessible multi-use path for pedestrians and cyclists.” You’ll be able to walk across anytime you want.
Kate
Not the same as a mass public walk, though
Faiz Imam
Also, from what I understood, the path won’t be open for months, it’s only ready once most of the construction on the ends gets cleaned up.
Blork
I heard not before September for the Ped path (maybe even October).
Faiz Imam
The Gazette’s Jason Madger made a pretty good video of his tour of the bridge. A lot of basic info and shots.
Its on Facebook, but you do not have to log in to view it:
https://www.facebook.com/montrealgazette/videos/611275516049606/
Faiz Imam 21:32 on 2019-06-17 Permalink
Like clockwork. A FB snitch group has already been created for the purpose of calling out anyone breaking the new law:
https://twitter.com/xaviercamus1/status/1140759409548824576
mare 23:26 on 2019-06-17 Permalink
And nobody can break the law at the moment since current government employees are grandfathered in. But from now on the government will just hire white people who can hide their Catholic traditions before they step into their office.
Faiz Imam 23:57 on 2019-06-17 Permalink
eh, I don’t think the xenophobia is that explicit, this is focused particularly on Muslim women.
I have a family friend who is one of the most radical religious extremists I know. He’s also a practicing physician in the Montreal area. I would absolutely not trust him on sensitive medical issues, but other than a well trimmed beard, there is nothing about him that stands out. This law does not affect him at all.
At the same time my sister is a hijabi woman and also a wonderfully empathetic and effective social worker. She does not currently live in Quebec, but going forward there is no reason she’ll ever come back.
I say that to demonstrate how ineffective this policy is to actually do what it claims to do.
Anyways, all that is all stuff we’ve covered a dozen times before.
This just sucks, and in the long term it’ll probably be repealed, but it won’t be anytime soon.
jeather 09:34 on 2019-06-18 Permalink
And yet the Sud-Ouest renamed their nice secular solstice party after St-Jean.
Chris 11:20 on 2019-06-18 Permalink
mare, do you really believe that or are you just being hyperbolic?
dwgs 11:37 on 2019-06-18 Permalink
Well Chris it wouldn’t be a major step from what their hiring practices seem to be now.
Chris 12:48 on 2019-06-18 Permalink
dwgs, I disagree, it *would* be a major step. For which there is no evidence that I’m aware of. But they collect statistics on this, so we can see in a few years if indeed “the government will just hire white people”. Or do you figure they’ll forge the stats too?
thomas 13:13 on 2019-06-18 Permalink
Anyone what happens to an employee who “finds religion” during their employee and then dons a religious garment? Would they get fired or be grandfathered as well?
mare 13:55 on 2019-06-18 Permalink
@Chris it was hyperbole but it feels a bit like a law to be able to discriminate “others”. We’ll see what surprises the CAQ will include at the last moment in their immigration bill next weekend.
dwgs 14:22 on 2019-06-18 Permalink
Chris, we don’t have to wait to see what *will* happen, we can just look at what *has* happened.
https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/quebec-needs-hiring-targets-to-increase-diversity-in-workforce-study
I doubt that we will be seeing any widespread changes in hiring policies for the foreseeable future.
Uatu 19:59 on 2019-06-18 Permalink
Too bad about the Solstice fest being renamed. I was looking forward to seeing them setting aflame the human sacrifice trapped within a giant wicker man… 😛
Chris 09:50 on 2019-06-19 Permalink
dwgs, that article says “the presence of cultural communities in the workforce increased” between 2003 and 2017. Let’s see where it goes after Bill 21. I don’t think it’s a forgone conclusion.