Greta Thunberg is said to be hoping to visit Montreal while she’s on this side of the Atlantic. The scale of student involvement in the international climate protests here has come to her attention.
Updates from August, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Public schools start classes Wednesday, and a lot of students will be going to class in new or enlarged school buildings. The increase in immigration also means more classes d’accueil in the Montreal area.
walkerp
Just had our kid’s first day of school today and the big message was that they are short of teachers and service de garde staff. Good work, racists!
Kate
walkerp, is it your impression that the school board will be unwilling to hire people wearing religious signifiers even for the service de garde, where it shouldn’t technically be a disqualifier?
Mark Côté
EMSB schools actually start after Labour Day this year, for some reason.
Mark Côté
Also a shortage of French teachers has been going on for a while now (this in no way should be taken as a support for Bill 21).
walkerp
I am making a bit of a logical leap, but when you see the obvious demand while a government policy is telling the people who could supply it that they are not wanted, it isn’t hard to draw conclusions. Service de garde may be hiring, but if you wanted to wear a headscarf, don’t you think you would be seriously looking outside of Quebec for work at this point?
Chris
walkerp, in fact, you are making a massive leap. Have any evidence? Those that are now (regrettably) unhirable are a small fraction of the population, likely a small fraction of job applicants, and thus a small reason for any current shortage. It’s just honest math.
Uatu
Saw a story about this on the news and it has a lot to do with teachers leaving the profession. And I don’t blame them. Teaching is a crummy job. Unpaid hours (lesson planning/grading at home), dealing with problem students and their problematic parents, controlling a class, dealing with administrators, school board, the ministry etc. and on top of that cynically derided of choosing the profession because you were a failure at your 1st choice (…”those who can’t, teach”). Something has to change (more pay, flexible hours) or no one will stay in teaching for long. And Bill 21 just makes the field of candidates even smaller…
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Kate
CBC looked at why there are poles in the middle of some streets in the Plateau.
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Kate
A woman was killed this morning as she crossed a highway in Kirkland.
EmilyG
It’s so sad that this happened.
It’s also sad that the first news items about it just said that the accident involved vehicles and a pedestrian, and said which highways were open or closed, and didn’t mention anyone died.Ian Rogers
Sweet Jebus, trying to cross the 40 on foot during rush hour? That’s not a good idea.
Blork
There’s gotta be more to this story than meets the eye. No sane person would try to cross that highway — it involves six lanes of highway, four lanes of service road, and climbing over two fences. Clearly she wasn’t just out for a stroll.
The most likely thing that comes to mind is she was driving and had a breakdown. Perhaps her car stalled on the outside lane and she was trying to get off the highway on foot. But that’s not hard to figure out as a reason, so why would the police say they don’t know why she was on the highway?
A less likely and more nefarious reason is that she fell, jumped, or was pushed from one of the Chemin Ste-Marie overpasses onto the highway below.
Otherwise, this is a mind-boggler.
Kate
I guess in a sense it isn’t a pedestrian death. I was uncertain about that but if she was darting among busy traffic, yes, something was wrong in a different way.
Bert
Blork, you seem to have no read the article. While not explicit, it is implied that there was no car: “Police do not know why she was on the highway”. I would think that if there was a car, there would have been mention o it .
Blork
Bert, I read the article. Like you say, it wasn’t explicit that there was no car, and this is obviously a hastily written article based on almost no research, so maybe there was a car maybe not. All I said was the obvious thing that comes to mind is that she came from a car. But then I questioned that assumption right there in my comment. In the end my thesis is simply that it is highly unusual for someone to be walking on that highway, so there must be more to the story.
Bert
Blork, if she was in a car, presumably broken down or otherwise disabled, why would the police be quoted with “Police do not know why she was on the highway”. If she had a car it would be a reason why she would be on the highway? Perhaps to get fuel, sure, but the article also says “was walking across the highway”. Would this not be an opportune time to say something like “was walking across the highway, to go to a nearby service station.”
“it wasn’t explicit that there was no car”. Why invent something that is not being reported? It wasn’t explicit that there was no (gun, hot air balloon, etc.) There are lots of things in life that don’t always make sense and sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
Blork
“… if she was in a car, presumably broken down or otherwise disabled, why would the police be quoted with “Police do not know why she was on the highway”.” For Pete’s sake, Bert. They might say that because for some reason we don’t know about, they are keeping quiet on details.
Or maybe that particular cop didn’t want to go on record with a speculation. Because if the woman is dead then she wasn’t able to give a statement, and seeing her car there would be SPECULATING that there was a breakdown or she was out of gas.
Or maybe the reporter was in a hurry and didn’t ask the right questions, or misinterpreted the answer. The article was very brief and short on details, and when you see an article like that you KNOW there is information missing, such as the presence or absence of a car. This kind of thing happens all the time.
My point was that a car breakdown is the ONLY LOGICAL EXPLANATION that comes to mind with such little info to go on. But since no car was mentioned, then that’s PROBABLY NOT the explanation, so WTF is the explanation? Unless she’s mentally ill, there is no other reason for her to be walking on that highway. It’s not like a country road out in the Laurentians. Only an insane person would try to walk across that highway unless they felt they had no choice.
Sad
There’s a back story to the accident. I got the story from my wife who works with one of her relatives.
She worked in one of the shops close to the Colisée movie theater and was running late for work. She had taken the wrong bus and landed on the opposite side of the highway with only a couple of minutes to report for her shift. Apparently her boss was a nightmare and had fired several employees that month for tardiness.
She’d gotten off the phone with her father in a panic and rather than walk along the overpass and risk arriving a couple of minutes late, she had told her father that she would run across the highway. You know the rest of the story.
Kate
Oh man. Thanks for telling us, but that’s such a horrible reason to lose a life.
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Kate
Quebec plans to change the rules for the Olympic park so’s to hand over management to private groups for years, groups likely to put on noisy festivals and shows regardless of the proximity of residential neighbours nearby.
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Kate
Tests of city wastewater show that Montreal and Halifax are using more cannabis and less methamphetamine than other Canadian cities, and a good thing too.
Authorities are all of a tizz about the coming federal approval of cannabis edibles, drinkables and topicals, all of which the CAQ intends to ban like the stern father it is.
Michael Black
I’m still trying to figure out if some of the nitpicking about the legalization is simply because it was illegal before, but is now legal. The Quebec government is fussing because they don’t want underage people getting access, but it seems like more than that.
I’ve never tried it, but could have started when I was 12, and now that it’s legal I can’t try growing it or buy premade edibles. I don’t intend to start smoking now, so when I finally get around to it, I’ll have to make my own brownies, suddenly they will be “special”, though all brownies are special.
International Overdose Awareness Day is August 31, and today and tomorrow the Okanagans are having a caravan between reserves to highlight the issue. They say that natives are five times more likely to experience an overdose than non-natives. This is the opioid crisis. They rarely send out email since they stopped doing a newsletter, but they sent out email today, it’s important.
Michael
Kate
Michael, people seem to be mostly concerned about the chi-i-i-ildren.
I had to sign a paper at the pharmacy so I could get my one little regular Rx in a non-childproof tube. Maybe they should do something similar at the SQDC – have you sign a paper attesting that you don’t share your living quarters with children, and then they will sell you the CBD jelly babies or whatever.
ant6n
I bet many parents would prefer their neighbors eat cannabis rather than smoke it.
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Kate
Experts are saying there are too many rooftop beehives since they’ve become a trend, and they want to see legal limits put in place.
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Kate
Electric Bixis are being launched Tuesday with 100 of the blue bikes appearing alongside their grey brethren in the same docks. They cost $1 more per trip than a standard Bixi.
In other tangentially related news, use of the city’s electric recharging stations is on the rise, while parking meter income is down.
Ephraim
And in fakish news, http://news.hydroquebec.com/en/press-releases/1536/desjardins-and-hydro-quebec-partner-up-to-create-quebecs-first-urban-vehicle-charging-superstation/ announced the first urban vehicle fast charger. Both Tesla and the Electric Circuit have superchargers/fast chargers in the city already. Tesla has official ones in St-Laurent at Place Vertu and two unofficial ones on Ferrier. The Electric Circuit (Circuit Electrique) already has one at Centre de services communautaires du Monastère
4451 rue Berri and the Atwater market. The FastDC from the Electric Circuit are 50kw. The Tesla Superchargers in Montreal are all 120kw. Apparently Tesla is looking at installing in Griffintown (somewhere near Mountain/Ottawa.)Incidentally, most of the Electric Circuit chargers are $1 per hour for 7.2kw. The 50kw are $12.50 per hour and the Tesla Superchargers are $26.40 per hour for over 60kw and $13.20 per hour for under 60kw.
Chris
En ce qui concerne les espaces tarifés sur rue, les automobilistes doivent s’attendre à des hausses selon l’offre et la demande. « Dans les secteurs plus populaires, on veut faire en sorte qu’il y ait une plus grande rotation », dit-il
Cool, maybe there are some Shoupistas in the Projet administration after all.
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Kate
Four people are facing various charges in an attack on two off-duty police officers on the weekend. Radio-Canada names all four suspects, although a CP report in Metro says one is a minor, possibly a slip. Curious footnote: the cops are brothers.
Ian Rogers
Why it’s almost as if they all somehow know each other and we will never hear the full story.
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Kate
Taxi drivers held a protest at the airport Monday as the impending Bill 17 threatens to abolish taxi permits.
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Kate
I’ve seen a few really good exhibits at the Grande bibliothèque, so I’m sad to read that, for obscure reasons, the BAnQ has decided not to do them any more after this fall. This Le Devoir open letter makes a plea for the BAnQ to reverse the decision.
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Kate
Bixi offered free rides Sunday to celebrate a record million rides in July.
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Kate
A pedestrian is in critical condition after being hit by an STM bus on St‑Laurent Blvd. in Ahuntsic.
Update: On Twitter, CJAD’s Shuyee Lee is reporting that the woman has died. Lee makes it 15 pedestrians killed in traffic this year. I had it at 11, same number as homicides. CTV has the report but isn’t giving any number.
John B
I got an E-mail from the police last week saying “le SPVM recense 13 piétons victimes de collisions” They don’t say they all died, but I would assume there were more non-fatal collisions involving pedestrians, so maybe it is 15.
Kate
On July 3, Radio-Canada counted nine pedestrian fatalities here. I don’t think another half dozen have been killed in the two months since that item, but it’s possible that some didn’t make the news.
Chris
John B, there’s an order of magnitude more pedestrians hurt than killed. Not sure their exact meaning of “victimes”…
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Kate
Save the date. A major climate strike is coming on September 27, and it won’t only be students this time.
Gordon Truesdale
when? where?
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Kate
I don’t often do “good news” pieces but here are a few: 7000 poorer kids got free backpacks and school supplies from community groups for the new school year; two 11-year-old girls were given an award for their quick response in rescuing a drowning boy at a pool in Lachine three weeks ago; STM inspectors will be given training in helping the homeless and people in crisis (rather than beating them up, as is customary); food bank Moisson Montreal held a successful fundraising campaign this summer. Better news would be that we’d eliminated the need for food banks entirely, but we’ll take what we can get.
Hamza 10:20 on 2019-08-28 Permalink
I hope she makes it. She’s an inspiration to so many and it’s awesome seeing the Extinction Rebellion symbol graffitied all over town. (It’s the crude hourglass with a circle around it)