Updates from August, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 10:09 on 2019-08-31 Permalink | Reply  

    An app called Aeroplainte has made it easy to complain about airplane noise in Montreal so, not surprisingly, complaints are piling up.

    And yet, you’ll notice nobody is suggesting that we should have kept Mirabel open and gradually phased out the airport formerly known as Dorval. When you’re travelling or bringing people to or from the airport, you’re happy enough that you can get there in under an hour.

    I live under a flight path. I hardly notice it all winter when the windows are shut tight, so that for me, the sound of planes is also the sound of summer. Occasionally – late afternoon, mostly – the influx of planes is a bit noticeable, but no more than a bit.

    I think people need to chill, or – if they’re living where it’s intolerable – move. Planes aren’t going anywhere. I mean, they are going somewhere, but – well, you know what I mean.

     
    • DavidH 10:26 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

      Flight paths were modified this year for work being done at the airport. I think that has more to do with it. People need to speak up where it wasn’t a good solution. You don’t want the temporary fix to be considered a good idea for new approaches.

      People who own their houses can actually move as swiftly as you seem to imply. You don’t uproot a family and sell your house for a temporary flight plan supposed to last a few months.

    • nYULimby 19:24 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

      Does anyone know why they can’t have the flight path directly above the Met where it’s noisy anyway?

    • Kate 20:18 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

      Planes mostly used to come in more or less along a line with the Met, but in the last while it seems they’ve been crossing from (Montreal directions here) southeast to northwest. I see them coming roughly from the direction of Rosemont, then crossing overhead in Villeray into Ahuntsic.

    • Bert 21:44 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

      The reason that they fly over Rosemont and Ahuntsic is due to how instrument landings are typically handled. Primarily, there is a radio signal that goes out from the runway center line and planes are directed in a way that they will intercept and capture the the line. They then follow the line in at a slope that is also a property o the radio signal. So, draw a line through the main runways and you will see where the planes will fly.

      This is the most straightforward and safest way to do it. There are airports where maneuvers are required close in to the airport, but this increases risk of accident and missed approaches. It also requires special pilot training and some times certification.

    • Susana Machado 21:44 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

      I live in VSL, straight under the landing path. I hear the planes they don’t bother me one fraction of what the ***** drivers of cars and motorbikes that think Marcel-Laurin is a race track!! At least there are not planes between 3 and 4 am, when they come out in hordes!

    • Bert 22:00 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

      Also, this was discussed a while ago on this blog, but the sound levels from a plane are greatly different during takeoff and landing, as is the approach and departure flight profiles. During a landing the planes are more or less at idle or low throttle. They also fly at a lower altitude with a modest glide slope, on the order of 300-500 feet per minute. So a longer noise area but lower volume.

      On departure, engines are at more or less full throttle but when they get airborne the climb rate i on the order of 2000-2500 feet per minute. Once airborne, at low altitude engines will often be throttled back for noise abatement until a minimum altitude is reached. So a higher volume but a smaller noise area,

    • qatzelok 07:59 on 2019-09-01 Permalink

      “The noise is so loud sometimes that you can’t even hear the lawn-mowers.”

    • Kate 19:41 on 2019-09-01 Permalink

      Bert, thanks for the information about the radio beacons.

    • Anna 12:50 on 2021-01-11 Permalink

      Anyone here who has problems with noise from Mirabel, what postal code is on the flight path as of 2021?
      Anyone here who has problems with noise from Dorval, what postal code is on the flight path of 2021?

  • Kate 09:59 on 2019-08-31 Permalink | Reply  

    Good thoughtful Le Devoir piece celebrates the history of union organization in Montreal for Labour Day.

    The writer handwaves the history of the day, though. It was set up in the U.S. to counteract the original, more radical and internationalist tradition of May Day, and Canada fell into line.

     
    • Kate 09:37 on 2019-08-31 Permalink | Reply  

      The federal Liberals departed from tradition in Saint-Leonard-Saint-Michel by choosing a candidate who was not Italian-Canadian, but their choice, onetime imam Hassan Guillet, has already been sacked by the party for alleged antisemitic remarks made on social media.

      That riding has something of a jinx on it. It was held by Alfonso Gagliano from 1988-2002, when he was named in the Gomery report on the sponsorship scandal, then by Massimo Pacetti from 2002 to 2015, but he was dismissed after accusations of harassment. The most recent representative, Nicola Di Iorio, elected in 2015, announced he was quitting politics at the end of 2018, then showed up again, wavered on whether he was really quitting, and finally left in January. The riding has been vacant since then.

       
      • qatzelok 08:07 on 2019-09-01 Permalink

        It’s hard to believe that the Liberal’s originally chose a candidate who wasn’t 100% pro-Israel in the first place. Now, the Conservatives appear to be winning the “pro-Israel” race.

      • Raymond Lutz 10:46 on 2019-09-01 Permalink

        From the Global News article: “The [B’nai Brith Canada] organization said it has uncovered several since-deleted social media posts made under Guillet’s name, including one in 2016 that referenced Zionists controlling U.S. politics, an anti-Semitic trope, and another made in 2017 that praised the release of an Islamist cleric jailed in Israel for inciting violence.”

        wow, c’est du solide! Critiquer l’influence Israélienne sur les politiques domestiques est également ce qui a déclenché des accusations diffamantes d’anti-sémitisme contre Ilhan Omar… Pourtant elle a raison. https://www.thenation.com/article/ady-barkan-aipac-ilhan-omar/

      • Kate 11:40 on 2019-09-01 Permalink

        During an election a party has to control how things look more than anything. Even if we can agree that criticizing Israeli government policy is not equivalent to antisemitism, that’s neither here nor there for the optics of an election campaign. Anyone whose views can be called down in that way has to be out.

      • Raymond Lutz 15:18 on 2019-09-01 Permalink

        Maybe if people fought against any social organization, structure, set of interactions that articulates solely on _how things look_ rather than obediently complying to their aberrant premise, we wouldn’t be dans la merde jusqu’aux yeux. This is not antisemitism and shouldn’t end a political career (neither speeding tickets). Crimethink? Yes, and here’s your directions for room 101.

      • qatzelok 18:29 on 2019-09-01 Permalink

        The article mentions the “trope” that is Zionist control of our politics and media, in the same color ink as it mentions that a candidate was dismissed for not being pro-Zionist enough.

        Mainstream media is money-seeking, not truth-seeking. Same with mainstream politics.

      • Ian 19:26 on 2019-09-02 Permalink

        Zionist control of media is Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Pro-Israel sympathies in media that may be interpreted as supporting Zionism as a larger editorial slant are a very different thing. What you are saying, qatzi, is getting dangerously close to simply being anti-Jewish.

        These are subtle, yet extremely important distinctions.

    • Kate 09:02 on 2019-08-31 Permalink | Reply  

      La Presse says the arrival of electric scooters has been chaotic and that although the city had warned of severe controls, nobody has had anything but warnings so far.

       
      • Roman 09:43 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

        They are just a bunch of complainers.

        When horses arrived in NYC, they were chaotic. There was literally a horse poop apocalypse. Dead horses left laying around on streets. Manure was thick and covered everything.

        When cars arrived it was chaotic too. No regulations. Sharing space with horses. No signals or signs. Roads without markings.

        Yet we survived. Adapted. Made new rules and now we are ok.

      • DavidH 10:20 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

        Electric scooters are not bringing the type of paradigm shift cars brought. They are probably more on the level of the 90s rollerblading craze. No need to put up with so much crap for them. Less able-bodied will find some usefulness but for everyone else it’s a novelty for a summer or two.

      • Roman 14:18 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

        I like them. But I wish they were a bit cheaper. I live 15 minutes walk from the metro. It’s sometimes too far to walk and too short to take the bus.

        Scooters fit perfectly into that picture. I did use them in that context a couple of times already and found them to be very useful.

        I think if it can get mass adoption and people will start using metro more as a result it could be a huge win.

        I’m often too lazy to walk to the metro and take the car instead to the destination.

      • Faiz Imam 17:58 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

        What i’m wondering is what their plans for winter are? Because the risks of having them underfoot are dramatically higher once snow falls. They better do what bixi does and get the off the street, or else come up with a much better plan for parking them.

      • Kate 20:19 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

        There’s no possible way anyone will be able to ride a Lime scooter past the first real snow, anyway.

      • Ian 20:58 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

        Yeah, basic logic of snow aside, insurance liabilty would be huge – batteries don’t work so great in the cold either, of course there’s no way they are going to overwinter this product.

      • Ant6n 23:33 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

        @Roman I understand horses where quite a problem, not just in the beginning, but until the day they got replaced.

      • Faiz Imam 18:39 on 2019-09-01 Permalink

        Just looked it up, according to this article from last winter, Lime generally keeps business as usual and work through the winter. The battery life is less, but still usable, and the scooters function on cleared paths.

        https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2018/12/winter-electric-batteries-scooters-lime-bird-snow-ice/578821/

        I’ve read quite a bit about battery performance in winter, and its not that big a deal. But Snow is a huge problem, and snow will be much worse than in most cities Lime has operated in.

        According to this article, Lime collects and ships away scooters from wintery cities based on low demand, but they don’t fully shut down. They have even stayed active in cities like Denver, which get as much snow as we do.

        https://www.ft.com/content/26888854-fdfa-11e8-aebf-99e208d3e521

        So I have no idea what will happen. I’m just hoping the city stays on top of it.

      • Ian 13:17 on 2019-09-02 Permalink

        Well seeing as many of the city’s streets had 2 inches of ice on them last year from mid-winter right up until the spring thaw, anyone dumb enough to try to ride a scooter on that is more than welcome to, I suppose – but the liability is going to go through the roof.

    • Kate 12:31 on 2019-08-30 Permalink | Reply  

      Quebec settled 90% of the refugees and asylum seekers that have come over the U.S. border in 2017 and 2018, so the federal government has written a $250-million cheque to Quebec to help out. François Legault had wanted $300 million. Not directly a Montreal story, but certainly many of the people concerned were settled here.

      Last year, Radio-Canada asked why most asylum seekers arrive via Quebec, and the answer is geography: New Brunswick has thick forests to traverse, Ontario has the moat of the Great Lakes, settlements are too sparse on the Prairies, and then there are the Rockies. Only here do we have towns at the border and a few easy spots where a person can simply walk across.

       
    • Kate 12:10 on 2019-08-30 Permalink | Reply  

      The city has had a tendentious relationship with Les Forges de Montréal, which has occupied the old Riverside pumping station in the Peel Basin for several years, but they have settled things with Mathieu Collette, who runs the forge and gives courses there. He no longer has to find a million bucks to invest in the building.

      My grandfather from Griffintown and all his people were blacksmiths and ironworkers. I’ve got to find time and funds to take one of the courses there sometime.

       
      • Kate 07:57 on 2019-08-30 Permalink | Reply  

        Got some weekend traffic notes for the long weekend.

         
        • Kate 07:48 on 2019-08-30 Permalink | Reply  

          La Presse did an even-handed assessment of the 445, the new express bus on Papineau. Most riders like it – for some folks who live in Rosemont and work downtown it’s perfect.

          Drivers on Papineau, on the whole, are peeved about giving up an entire lane on the busy side at rush hour.

           
          • Joey 09:21 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

            I guess you could call it even-handed, though it wouldn’t have been too difficult to do break out the stopwatch and see how slowly traffic was actually moving. My anecdotal contribution to the discussion is that la rentrée is in full effect – traffic everywhere, in all directions, all the time, has been much worse this week than last. Summer’s over.

          • Frédéric 10:28 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

            The photo shown under the 7 h 40 subtitle has been my usual experience while riding on the 45, going south in the evening, before the reserved lane was opened. There seems to be a lane where cars cannot go, but it is not wide enough for the bus to move on, so it is stuck with car trafic. Seeing this false bus lane while spending 5 to 10 minutes from one stop to the next was really frustrating and confusing. I really hope this situation improved, both in the morning and in the evening.

          • EmilyG 10:44 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

            I took the bus from downtown to my place once. I found it a really nice experience.
            There’s a whole lot of traffic on de Lorimier street, though, where the bus runs northward in the evening. So it takes longer than the metro, as several people mentioned in the article, but as the people mentioned, I found it a nice, non-crowded experience. Much better than having to sit on the floor of a crowded metro car.

          • Kate 12:20 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

            Someone I don’t know had a cromulent comment on Twitter in response to this:

            Always funny how they put the 2 sides as equal. Except they are not. For the space of 2 cars, you get 50 people in the bus. “Oh it’s impossible to drive here”. It’s not for the 50 people in the bus, WTF.

          • Ian 18:45 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

            Well yes but then you’re riding not driving, which brings me to my next question about the vagaries of language, why do we “ride” bikes? Is it the motorized aspect? If so, does one ride or drive an e-bike?

            In any case anyone that takes the Pap for their driving commute already knows it sucks, taking out a lane for buses isn’t going to make it much worse especially since it includes some people who might otherwise be driving.

          • Ian 19:10 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

            …another thing worth thinking about though is that everyone loves floating the 1 bus equals 50 people not driving cars thing but let’s also remember buses only come every 10-15 minutes at best, and 50 cars pass in about 1 minute, so actually there are way more people getting from point A to point B if you rely on cars so it’s a way more effective use of road space unless your primary goal is that the buses are on time and your public transit system is seen as improved. It would be great if we could eliminate wait times on buses or at least reduce them but as we have seen over the last few years the STM is increasingly befuddled as to what to do about it.

            I really wish I could rely on the STM to get to work on time but I’ll be dead honest, I totally don’t miss waiting at a bus stop 15 minutes or more in the dead of winter every single workday while some jackoff idles his bus 50 feet from me but won’t let me on because it’s the end of the line.

            To be honest though even if there were an extra 45 minutes on my commute, it would still be faster and more reliable than taking the bus.

          • Faiz Imam 19:18 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

            Not really ian.

            Any decent reserved bus route will be designed not for one bus, but for many.

            I’m not sure how many buses run on Papineau, but its at least 5 buses, and i’m pretty sure one runs every couple minutes.

            All to say, if you actually stand there and count vehicles, a bus lane carries significantly more human bodies than a lane of cars.

            A lane of cars carries about 2000 people per hour. a decently busy bus lane can do 10,000 people per hour.

            Its not close.

          • Ian 19:29 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

            Fair enough, I was thinking of Parc where only the Parc bus runs.

          • Ian 19:53 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

            I’d love to see where you’re getting those numbers from, by the way – I’ve been seeing more along the lines of up to 2,500 cars (hypothetically, but more like 5-600 given traffic lights etc) vs about 1000 people in a bus lane (hypothetically, assuming a full articulated bus every 5 minutes ) but I’d be happy to stand corrected.

            Let’s say that you had a full 50 person bus every 5 minutes, that’s fewer than 1000 people. Let’s say you had a 50 person bus every minute (impossible, but let’s say) that’s only 3,000 people. Where are you getting 10k from?

          • Faiz Imam 20:14 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

            you’re right, 10k is a max number. Just a transit planning rule of thumb when thinking about BRT lanes, 10k is about the maximum normal buses can do.

            a 40ft bus packed to the doors can hold around 75 people so 133 buses an hour(or just over 2 buses a minute) gets you to about 10,000. And a bus every 30seconds is about the max possible in a trunk line, and even that is a stretch.

            Actual numbers in Montreal are less, though I don’t have numbers off the top of my head.

            But the maximum theoretical saturation capacity per hour of a lane of cars is a well known value, I just looked it up. Its 1,900 to 2,000 vehicles per hour per lane.(so about 2500 bodies)

            Thing thing to consider about this situation is that an efficient bus lane does not look full. A full bus passing every minute or so down an empty lane seems like a waste of space, especially next to a lane packed with cars. But in fact its apparent emptiness is a consequence of how well it works, and also how poorly cars work at moving people.

          • Ian 20:27 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

            “Actual numbers in Montreal are less”…Hahaha no kidding! A completely full bus every 30 seconds on Papineau? Please, that’s dreaming in technicolour.

            A bus every 30 seconds? Come on, man. You can’t seriously be using that as a talking point.

          • Faiz Imam 20:45 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

            As I said when I corrected myself, its a theoretical max, just like 2000 cars an hour (this number is also rarely reached since drivers are often driving sub-optimally)

            Point is, as long as you have a full 40′ bus passing every ~2.5mins or better, then a reserved bus lane is carrying more people than a pure car lane. Throw in the occasional articulated bus, and that number increases to almost 4 mins.

          • ant5n 21:16 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

            Back in 2011, the 45 bus alone had 18K trips a day. With the express bus, and some growth, I’d guess there’s probably 20-25K trips a day now. A lot of this ridership is in the rush hour direction, and knowing that peaks can be very significant, I’d guess the maximum throughput is probably 2,000-2,500 pphd. Given that the 45 and 445 run at about 10 buses in the peak direction each, that’s 20 buses per hour with 100-125 passengers each.

          • Jack 09:57 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

            Thats why I like this blog. I learn stuff, thanks.

          • Ian 11:03 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

            Okay so let’s just accept these wild estimates getting thrown around for the sake of conversation –
            20 buses with 110-ish passengers each (despite the fact that articulated buses only hold about 75 people max) is still only 2200, basically in line with how many people would get moved by cars in rush hour according to other estimates offered in this conversation, as optimal road lane use is designed around the ability to throughput a minimum of 1900 vehicles per hour.

            Point being I think we can agree that the whole “buses are far more efficient than cars” is only hypothetically true, when you look at actual transit schedules on super busy routes it’s about the same as cars even if you tweak the numbers.

            If I worked downtown I would way rather take the bus than drive for a multitude of reasons, but that it’s a more efficient use of road space is not one of them. The reason we have dedicated bus lanes is not because buses are more efficient, but because it’s almost impossible for them to stay on schedule in rush hour traffic otherwise as they can only drop off and pick up passengers in one lane, and if there is anything else in that lane it slows them down.

          • Filp 16:35 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

            Ian, I think you’re misunderstanding the efficiency part. No need to get caught up in the exact numbers. The bus lane is already far more efficient. The fact that a seemingly “empty” lane can carry as many (or close to as many) people as a jam packed snail paced car lane, is the efficiency part. It is an efficient use of road space because, well, it barely used any of the lane capacity at all, while still carrying as many people. There’s still plenty of capacity to scale up the bus service in an “empty” lane, whereas the regular car lane is maxed out and full.

          • Faiz Imam 18:15 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

            “despite the fact that articulated buses only hold about 75 people max”

            It would be better if you got your facts straight before getting into this argument.

            A normal 40ft bus has seats for around 30-40 people, and crush capacity of around 75.

            A articulated bus has seating for about 70, and crush capacity of about 115.

            I will agree with you on your last line though: “if there is anything else in that lane it slows them down”

            Yup, and this is why we need dedicated lanes to actually improve flow.

            Right now much of the bus network is bursting to capacity during rush hour. One issue is that we don’t have enough buses, but even if we had more, we can’t use them because they get stuck in congestion.

            If we want to increase capacity of our bus networks, the only way to do that is to have mroe reserved lanes, if not fully featured “BRT” like we have on Pie-ix (which btw serves *on average* 32,000 people a day.

            That’s 1600 people an hour on an average hour of the day and an average day of the week. almost hitting the same level as most car lanes.

          • dwgs 18:42 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

            There also has to be a will to maintain those lanes. When they instituted the express lane on Sherbrooke in NDG a few years ago there were cops and tow trucks every morning to clear the lanes. After a while that changed to cops giving tickets pretty regularly and you would sometimes see a tow truck. Now there’s a parked car blocking the lane about every three or four blocks on average and hardly ever a ticket to be seen. People also do stuff like park in the bus lane, put on the four way flashers, and go to pick up their dry cleaning, run into the dep etc.

          • ant6n 19:11 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

            In terms of estimates, my first estimate based on daily ridership was that theres a peak throughout of ~3000 pphd, which I rounded down since I don’t believe the buses are actually at such crush capacity. I’d say at frequencies of 5 minutes, a bus land starts carrying more ppl than a car lane — and that’s still a pretty low frequency, many bus lanes are operated at higher peak frequencies.

            But the question which carries more ppl shouldn’t be the only deciding factor. After all, we want to encourage the use of public transit, so it has to be competitive to driving. And in the case of the 445, the bus has to be competitive to the orange line, in order to actually shift passengers away from the metro onto the bus.

            I’d say it’s likely that once the stm will get more buses, and after some time off people getting used to the new service, the frequencies on papineau will increase to higherter than 20bph, and then the bus lane will very obviously carry much more people than an equivalent car lane would.

          • Mark Côté 19:25 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

            dwgs Huh you think so? I take the 105 at rush hour several times a week and don’t recall the bus having to go around cars very often. But I admit I’m not paying really close attention.

          • Chris 18:05 on 2019-09-01 Permalink

            There are other metrics to consider. Like how much GHG per person per km. I bet buses win that easily.

          • Ian 07:33 on 2019-09-03 Permalink

            That’s really not the point, nobody disputes that. The argument here is whether buses are really a more efficient use of the road space in terms of getting people around.

            By way of example. as with most morning on my way driving out to Saint Anne, I passed a mostly empty articulated 80 bus on Parc with an ad on it saying “this bus = 70 cars” (in French of course) and while there are definitely 70 cars on that stretch of Parc every 10 minutes as per the bus schedule, since they all had drivers we can safely guess they were moving more people than the mostly empty bus.

            But whatever, unless we get some real numbers in here we are just going to be throwing anecdata and educated guesses back and forth, and it’s pretty obvious that pretty much everyone here has their minds made up that reserved lanes and more buses are the way to go simply because cars are “bad”.

        • Kate 19:02 on 2019-08-29 Permalink | Reply  

          The owner of the Old Port ferris wheel has been accused of extortion in a matter unconnected with the operation of the tourist attraction. Odd little story four sentences long. Bit more Friday morning in the Gazette.

           
          • Meezly 10:07 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

            So he installed hidden cameras in the cabins in the hopes of capturing people getting it on?

          • Kate 12:22 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

            Article doesn’t say the photos were taken on the wheel itself. Doesn’t say they weren’t, though. La Presse has a tiny bit more as well as reminding us of another issue concerning the wheel that came up earlier this year.

            If this wheel is owned by people of allegedly shady antecedents, isn’t it time it was either bought out by the city or taken down?

          • Alex L 13:13 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

            Not to mention it was installed in a heritage site, without the proper authorizations https://www.ledevoir.com/politique/montreal/549866/des-batons-dans-la-grande-roue

        • Kate 19:00 on 2019-08-29 Permalink | Reply  

          Despite the CAQ sticking to the grandfathering of existing teachers in hijab, some parents are stubbornly refusing to have their kids taught by a woman in a headscarf.

          I suppose they could always pay to move their kids to private schools.

           
          • steph 04:57 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

            Racists hate being called racist.

          • js 10:00 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

            These parents should be asked how they would feel about their kids being taught how to use Arabic numerals in math class.

          • Ian 10:29 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

            Exactly! Also worth noting algebra is an Arabic word and frankly I’m not comfortable with an enseignante in hijab filling my 8 year old’s head with foreign notions /s

          • Jack 13:26 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

            With Ian, Im just not comfortable with it, and I want my child to be a xenophobic racist like me.

          • Chris 00:34 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

            speph & Jack: Muslims are not a race. The word you’re looking for is ‘bigot’.

            js & Ian: Interesting that you have to go back over a millennium for your examples of Arabic numerals and algebra. In recent centuries, the anti-intellectual doctrines of Islam have been holding that part of the world back. Few books are translated, few scientists per capita, etc. See for example https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/why-the-arabic-world-turned-away-from-science

          • Dhomas 02:35 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

            Chris, the fact of the matter is that if they are teachers here, they’re obviously not anti-intellectuals. Also, I can pretty much guarantee that those “bigots” are also racist…

          • Michael Black 07:01 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

            Stereotypes exist because people take one element and apply it to a bunch of people who somehow can be grouped together. They see people in one dimensiin, and hen can’t see anything else. The classic “some of my best friends are…” happens because familiarity show a difference from the stereotype, but the person doesn’t take that exception to question their stereotype assumption.

            there are traits we don’t like, not a crime in itself. But some white guy who has no sense of humour is seen as someone to avoid, rather than define all white guys as lacking humour. Yet ae do it with groups we can separate out.

            Thsre’s a big difference between someone spewing stereotypes and racist things, and people who neer say anything but who for some reason believe the stereotypes. The latter probably can change with familiarity, I’ve changed and certainly was never sexist or racist but once I changed I can see it wasn’t a good state before.

            Bad traits can be spoken about as something bad, without condemning a group of people. Anti-science is a bad trait, but remember Malala was Muslim and shot by the Taliban for wanting education for herself and other young women. Do we dismiss all Muslims because of this, or dismiss a subgroup while applying pro-learning to all Muslims?

            I once held a door open for a man pushing a stroller, then his wife wearing a hijab nodded towards me. She doesn’t fit the stereotype, and rather than tell her she shouldn’t wear a hijab, we can make change by treating people differently. Men pushing strollers is a lot more common than it was thirty years ago.

            Michael

          • Ian 11:10 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

            “That part of the world”, Chris? I thought we were talking about people in Quebec being allowed to teach or not depending on what they wear.

            Your over-generalization based on what people do in some parts of the world is at the very least a logical fallacy, but definitely verges on bigotry if not outright racism.

          • Chris 18:58 on 2019-08-31 Permalink

            Dhomas, I agree racists and bigots overlap, but they are separate concepts, often conflated. Sometimes deliberately so I find.

            Ian, if I said communism held Russia back, would you cry racism? But for another ‘ism’ (Islam) you do?

          • Ian 19:00 on 2019-09-01 Permalink

            That’s a cute misdirection but you are evading the point that these people are being told they can’t teach here based on what they wear, not their beliefs – let alone those of people in different countries.

        • Kate 12:53 on 2019-08-29 Permalink | Reply  

          Roadwork plans for the fall have been unveiled.

           
          • Kate 12:35 on 2019-08-29 Permalink | Reply  

            Tracey Lindeman writes about the impending transformation of the Molson brewery lands for Citylab.

             
            • Kate 12:28 on 2019-08-29 Permalink | Reply  

              Archives de Montréal has just posted a new feature on Belmont Park in 1953, with brief looks back to the even older amusement parks, Sohmer and Dominion. I don’t think anyone still alive remembers the two older parks – my mother had faint memories of going to Dominion Park when small, but Belmont was the park she loved, even though getting there had involved a long trip back and forth on the Cartierville streetcar. So of course she took me on the Wild Mouse as soon as I was old enough. The full photo set is on Flickr.

               
              • Kate 12:16 on 2019-08-29 Permalink | Reply  

                So this is TVA, not CBC or CTV, telling about an experienced teacher in hijab who says she’s feeling fear this term for the first time on account of her garb.

                Good pieces this week on the secularity law from Toula Drimonis and Martin Patriquin, the latter raising an issue I’m starting to see brought up on social media: will any of the federal candidates broach the topic of the CAQ’s law?

                 
                • Ian 15:12 on 2019-08-29 Permalink

                  My guess is no, the feds have always been chicken to get involved with QC stuff for fear of rankling those who feel that QC has special rights to determine its own destiny in defiance of Canadian norms or common decency. Especially with the conservatives and liberals runing neck in neck at the moment nobody wants to upset the apple cart. The NDP of course knows it is already super unpopular in QC, they should take a principled stand IMO. They have nothing to lose, Singh wouldn’t be allowed to teach garderie here, we all know that giant racist elephant in the room but the feds refuse to acknowledge its presence.

                  It’s all a bunch of jockeying IMO. None of them dare actually be anti racist for fear of losing the racist vote. They are a bunch of cowards.

              • Kate 10:29 on 2019-08-29 Permalink | Reply  

                Lots of folks talking about this Montreal video. I just got smacked down by a Montreal “name” because I expressed this opinion: that while the basic footage is fine, it’s edited to be way too zoomy, to the point of headache – and although he collected some nice sounds, they get swamped by the conventional soundtrack music.

                What do people think?

                 
                • Alex L 10:43 on 2019-08-29 Permalink

                  I think it’s great. But it sure represents a specific Montreal, seen from an anglo/touristic point of view.

                • CE 11:09 on 2019-08-29 Permalink

                  Odd that there’s no footage showing exterior residential staircases or the spiral rear stairs. I’ve always thought of them as defining characteristics of many parts of the city.

                  Anyway, the style of video isn’t particularly original. This video of Bogotá was uploaded almost three years ago and is in the exact same style (and, in my opinion, is much better).

                • Ginger Baker 11:11 on 2019-08-29 Permalink

                  Yeah, I’m of a similar mind… it could be a decent tourism video they maybe show at the airport or something.

                  By chance, would this name be part of the local Anglo media establishment?

                  Because IMO they have this whole hangup about how they lost ‘their’ Montreal and they have to ‘get it back’. And so new media pops up now and again… seemingly with every new technology or tech fad… and it always has this pensive, slightly dramatic feel to it… like a “never forget this is yours too’ kinda thing, “remember you belong here too… you’re part of this beautiful tapestry blah blah blah.”

                  And there’s nothing inherently wrong with presenting that kind of an image… it’s just more mindless feelgoodery… if it makes you feel good then fine, some of us would prefer a more critical eye on our city, and aren’t afraid of being critical. At times I feel the Anglos don’t handle any kind of criticism particularly well, and would prefer to retreat into some soft dreamland.

                  But anyways, these heartfelt tributes are very warm and soft and nice and great and I look forward to walking past televisions playing them on repeat next time I’m cruising through Trudeau.

                  Also, get a Nexus card.

                • Kate 11:30 on 2019-08-29 Permalink

                  A Nexus card? Not everyone has a sweetie in the United States, Ginger Baker.

                • Blork 11:31 on 2019-08-29 Permalink

                  Um. It is way too zoomy for me, but I’m 1000 years old and grew up in a time when content was supposed to make you think and not just feel. I suspect this works well for millennials, who grew up in, and live in, a world of total media saturation, where thinking about what you’re seeing is secondary to your emotional reaction.

                  Don’t interpret that as a slag against millennials; it’s just an observation. It’s like we’re living in a time of visual impressionism, where the sheer volume of visual media (in particular, video) has transformed the expected response away from thinking and towards feeling, because you can feel much more quickly than you can think.

                • Ginger Baker 11:40 on 2019-08-29 Permalink

                  @Kate – I’d say it’s worth it even if you only ever use it once, just to avoid standing in line (either going through security or coming out of customs), or so that you don’t have to get to the airport two hours in advance. You can even use it at land and maritime crossings! No one would ever admit to it but I swear I get preferential treatment… literally a guy who was barking orders at a group of people turned to me and politely addressed me as sir (I was easily half his age) and told me none of what he said applied to me.

                  DHS can have all the retina scans and finger prints of me they want, I absolutely do not care if it means travelling can be marginally more sophisticated and less of a hassle.

                  I’ll save my screed about wearing pyjamas and crocs on airplanes for another day though…

                • Mark Côté 11:51 on 2019-08-29 Permalink

                  Nexus cards can also be used for domestic travel, although they are really only of benefit at the busier airports.

                • CE 12:11 on 2019-08-29 Permalink

                  @Blork, I’m right in the middle in terms of age for Millennials and I also found it too zoomy and fast moving. There were some good shots but the overall package isn’t very good as a stand alone video (I agree that it would work well on a screen in an airport or tourism office though).

                • CE 12:15 on 2019-08-29 Permalink

                  I’m also very curious about what this person’s response was to Kate’s valid criticism.

                • Kate 12:17 on 2019-08-29 Permalink

                  “Your critique could not be more tone deaf and blind.”

                • Ginger Baker 12:25 on 2019-08-29 Permalink

                  ^ may we ask what your critique was? or where we can read it?

                  does this person’s name rhyme with Fred Gird? or Berry Del Monte? or Darryl Fleishman? or Melinda Godin? or Farren Bland? or Nommy Hershmaker? or Fitsumi Crackahashi?

                • Meezly 12:56 on 2019-08-29 Permalink

                  The style of the video certainly does not ascribe to the “less is more” approach. While the earnestness and effort is obvious, I too find it overly flashy, jarring, and derivative. It’s reminds me too much of graphics-heavy opening credits of some trendy new show. The videographer seems young and starting out in his career. Post production software has so many bells & whistles these days, it’s too easy to rely on flashy FX or filter the heck out of an image – you forget how to let a shot have a life and rhythm of its own.

                • Kate 14:08 on 2019-08-29 Permalink

                  Thank you, Meezly.

                • Ian 15:17 on 2019-08-29 Permalink

                  All transitions, no actual footage. I am sure the celebrity voice you offended knows this kid’s parents, I can’t imagine why else this editor-as-director masturbation would merit attention otherwise.

                  To be fair, it’s technically very well done, but unless you’re from here you probably wouldn’t recognize much as it zips through your consciousness like a series of strung-together interstitials … which it effectively is.

                • EmilyG 21:03 on 2019-08-29 Permalink

                  I tried to watch the video, thinking that “zoomy” meant just that it had that slow-zooming-in-on-still-pictures feature that I find annoying. But boy oh boy, this video is constantly moving very fast. I couldn’t even get through the whole video as it was almost motion-sickness-inducing.

                • Kate 23:47 on 2019-08-29 Permalink

                  EmilyG: exactly. That’s why I find the chorus of praise puzzling. But then one lays oneself open to “well, why don’t you make one then and show us how it’s done?”

                • Raymond Lutz 07:14 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

                  And I was thinking “at last, he’s not using tilt shift” and then…

                • Tim F 07:22 on 2019-08-30 Permalink

                  There’s some great technical execution of the camera work and the transitions, but it all goes by so fast you don’t have the chance to appreciate them. I think more than the zoom, the breakneck speed it’s played at doesn’t let the viewer focus their attention before the shot’s changed. I watched it without the sound on, so I don’t know how well the transitions are timed to the soundtrack, but imagining this as an airport display, I feel like you could play the whole thing at half-speed while cutting down on the number of shots used (there are a LOT of statues) and the result would be amazing.

              c
              Compose new post
              j
              Next post/Next comment
              k
              Previous post/Previous comment
              r
              Reply
              e
              Edit
              o
              Show/Hide comments
              t
              Go to top
              l
              Go to login
              h
              Show/Hide help
              shift + esc
              Cancel