This is the final season for the strands of coloured baubles over the Village, and you can buy a string of them, with some of the proceeds going to community groups, but most of the take going to finance a new installation which has not yet been chosen.
Updates from September, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
What is wrong with Mathieu Bock-Côté? Here’s his Tuesday column. Four fifths of it is a well expressed, level-headed summary of the history of World War II. But he rounds it off with a coda saying people are wrong who think we’re fighting the same fight today: “Le combat antifasciste appartient à cette époque, pas à la nôtre.”
We’re surrounded by fascists, both the very obvious type who flaunt the hateful WWII-era symbols with pride, and many others who dissimulate their fascist sympathies under a thin glaze of civilization, but whose opinions can’t so easily be hidden. What is Bock-Côté’s motivation for pretending he can’t see them?
CE
I’m not sure how much it applies in this case but I remember reading about the process of “Gleichschaltung” in Germany as the Nazis were gradually changing the shape of society. It loosely translates to “co-ordination” in English and describes how subtle and not so subtle steps were taken to normalize the new regime and its way of seeing the world. Many people didn’t really notice it happening.
Up until recently, I wouldn’t have made this leap, especially when talking about a well-known columnist in a mainstream newspaper. But up until recently, columnists in mainstream newspapers generally didn’t feel a need to defend white supremacists or fascist sympathizers. There’s an unsettling cultural shift happening right now and I worry about its end-point.
walkerp
He’s a racist and a fascist.
steph
Every time I read his column I feel stupider and I’m filled with regret. There’s nothing even handed about his commentary and there’s always a dose of bigotry.
Raymond Lutz
Loosely related: the latest Terrence Malick movie (A Hidden Life, to be released this December) depicts up close the social tensions re nazism in WWII Austria. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8k3Xt280Ws
Jack
I dont care how he cloaks it MBC is a cultural supremacist, of a culture that happens to be 99,92% white, so what do we call him? Let’s be honest why he wants to make that separation between now and then is because if this was the nineteen thirties he would be marching with Adrien Arcand.
https://ricochet.media/fr/2705/critiquer-l-immigration-massive-une-tradition-bien-de-chez-nousqatzelok
I’m not seeing the shocking intolerance or subtle racism that other comments have mentionned.
But the column does seem to be incomplete. It just stops suddenly. I was hoping to see him develop his “not-the-same-today” a bit more than he does, since this is the main thesis.
Chris
I’d say it depends who he’s talking about, and even who are you talking about Kate? “We’re surrounded by fascists”? Are we? Who is “we”? And do we even agree what fascist means? Wikipedia’s first sentence is: “Fascism is a form of far right-wing, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and of the economy”. I don’t see that surrounding me. There are fringe groups to be sure, but nothing like the Third Reich. Or are you talking beyond Canada? China’s ‘reeducation camps’ for Uighurs and Saudi’s theocracy better fit the bill. Perhaps MBC is referring to those that think opposing Trump is tantamount to opposing Hitler? Because those people are stretching! I have nothing good to say about Trump, but he’s nothing like my China or Saudi examples, let alone Nazi Germany.
Blork
@Chris, the Wikipedia definition is for “fascism” not “fascist.” Arguably, we are not surrounded by fascism (” dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society and of the economy”) because the fascists who surround us have not yet attained the level of power they need to implement fascism.
thomas
It is very wrong to think that fascism is a thing of the past.
Two days ago there was a state election in the German state of Brandenburg (the area surrounding but not including Berlin). The biggest gains were realized by the party AFD (Alternative for Germany — which started initially as anti EU morphed into anti-immigrant and now they have added anti-climate change and anti-elite). Now it is the second largest state party. The party leader has clear fascist roots, as described in https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/leading-afd-pol-in-brandenburg-has-extremist-background-a-1284477.html The photo in the article is from a rally in which he participated.
This party only just missed winning this election by a few percentage points. Incidentally, while the party finds plenty of external scapegoats a major reason for their popularity is a general mailaise in the region that come with an aging and shrinking population and young people escape to the cities. The same demographic pressures are happening in Quebec.
@Blork They may not have achieved power but in Austria, Germany, Poland, Netherlands, Denmark, Italy and especially Hungary they are certainly driving much of the political discourse.
Blork
@thomas: I didn’t say they’re not driving the discourse. I’m just commenting on Chris’s comment that he doesn’t see any overt fascism “surrounding him.” My point is there can be fascists without fascism. But if you ignore the fascists, it could very likely lead to fascism.
At the risk of having some idiot yell “Godwin’s law!” I would elaborate that Germany in 1930 wasn’t fascist, but it was full of fascists. Germany 1935? Fascists and fascism.
ant6n
Trump is for the moment being kept in check by the deteriorating institutions that surround him.
walkerp
“To be sure, one of the first steps taken by the Nazi government, back in 1933, had been the exclusion of Jews from the Civil Service (which in Germany included all teaching positions, from grammar school to university…”
from Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt
Just because the house hasn’t burnt down doesn’t mean you don’t put out the fire in the basement.Chris
Blork, actually, wikipedia redirects fascist to fascism. Your point is well-taken that we can have fascists without fascism. Indeed their numbers are the main deciding factor. I don’t deny there are fascists, as I said, “there are fringe groups to be sure”. But to be “surrounded”, to me at least, implies they are numerous and everywhere. OED defines “surround” as “be all around” or “encircle so as to cut off”. Again, I don’t think in Canada we meet that bar. Don’t get me wrong, we should be vigilant against any fascist advance, mais faut pas exagérer.
ant6n, exactly, Trump is in check by other institutions, i.e. “dictatorial power” is not satisfied. No doubt he’d prefer otherwise, but it ain’t so.
Beware the boy who cried wolf.
Raymond Lutz
What is fascism? Glad you asked… 😎
For video buff, https://youtu.be/uBIawt5m91U?t=52
and for those who still read text, https://kottke.org/16/11/the-14-features-of-eternal-fascism
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Kate
TVA visited with writer Yves Beauchemin as he ate the last meal at the Binerie Mont-Royal’s 80-year location on the street of the same name. The Binerie’s moving around to the corner of Marie-Anne and St-Denis. Beauchemin featured the restaurant in his popular 1981 novel Le Matou.
Jack
I know I am beating the same drum but as anyone ever read that book ? It makes “The Merchant of Venice” seem banal and it was written only 500 years after.
Kate
I admit I haven’t, Jack. I take it Beauchemin’s got a Jewish villain in the piece?
Jack
Ratablavaskvy (Rat) and Slipskin, with Slipskin moniker having another message ( consult Freud) . Ironically the Beanery itself was celebrated as the place that sold “pur laine” cuisine until those two, by nefarious means… “stole” it. I’ll stop here but its worth a read to see how embedded some of these tropes were in popular franco culture. I truly think that this book would be seen by most young francos for what it is.
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Kate
One man is tracking illegally parked Lime scooters around town, while a Journal writer scoffs at the drama around the arrival of the new.
jeather
My uncle has been using the Jump bikes and he says he often sees them locked up in someone’s backyard, sometimes a locked backyard, since you can lock them wherever. I haven’t seen Lime scooters in the middle of the sidewalk yet though I have seen cars parked in the scooter parking zone. I’ve seen people using the Lime scooters, it looks like a lot of fun.
jeather
This is the link to the flickr account that the Gazette does not share.
CE
I’ve seen the JUMP bikes locked up in pretty isolated areas. Obviously someone who used it to get somewhere and plans to use it to leave. I always wonder what happens with those people if someone else decides to take the bike. I can imagine some conflict arising.
jeather
Yeah, seems clear that the idea is that they will always have a jump bike available because there it is, locked safely in their backyard. (I do not remember if he said he complained about it.)
Blork
It’s funny how I have only a passing interest in Lime and Jump bikes (mostly interested in the phenomenon more than actually riding them). Also, I’m a fan of the concept of Bixi, but I’ve never ridden one. I have a Car2Go membership but I’ve only used it once in the three or so years I’ve been a member. Uber? I’ve never hailed one, but I’ve been a passenger on someone else’s dime.
So it goes, until I sat down over the weekend to scope out a trip to the west coast that I’ll be doing soon. What? No ride hailing in BC at all? No Jump? No Lime? No Bixi-Like things, as far as I can tell. I found a few bike sharing systems but they are very limited in scope and therefore utterly useless to me.
I’m shocked as to how much this has put a damper on things. How am I going to get around? The idea of phoning for a taxi and then waiting around for 30 minutes for it to show up seems retrograde beyond belief. The idea that I won’t even be able to cycle around short of paying a $60 daily rental fee that I have to cross town even to access? WTF is that?
I will pop my Uber cherry in Seattle, and I’m looking forward to it. While I despise Uber as a company and don’t like it’s gig-oriented “disruption” bullshit, I’m all-in on its app-based way of hailing and paying for rides (which is why I was such a fan of Téo).
OK, so this is off-topic but I just had to say it.
Ant6n
@blork
If you refer to Vancouver, they do have okay transit, and transit app also shows two bike sharing systems: mobi and hopr, although I don’t think you can pay for them within the app.John B
There’s also Car2Go in Vancouver. You might have to tweak your account a bit, but I think it’ll work. I’ll second Ant6n’s mention of bike share – I have family there that have mentioned it existing. The bus system is better than most too – and you can ride a trolleybus like you may remember from the movie Heart & Souls.
I saw a jump bike under the Victoria bridge out on the seaway today.
Meezly
I visit Vancouver every year and the bike sharing system is indeed quite limited (for now) compared to Bixi. However, the transit buses haven noticeably improved in recent years (ie. vehicle upgrades and reliability) within Vancouver proper. Even though we had a rental car, we found it easier at times to take the bus.
What’s cool is that you can simply tap your credit card at the fare box to pay as you go. Not exactly secure, but in terms of efficiency, makes it much easier to just hop on a bus! Not to mention that many of the buses are electric trolley buses (been like this for decades).
DeWolf
As others have said, transit is good in Vancouver and Car2Go is actually cheaper and more abundant than it is in Montreal. The bike share is useless for visitors are there are no short-term passes. But I would suggest renting a bike for a few days as it’s a really nice way to get around Vancouver. The bike infrastructure there is often much better than in Montreal, although there are many more hills to deal with.
(Sorry to turn this into Van City Weblog.)
Kate
No worries, DeWolf. I’m happy if people get good information about anything via a thread here.
Blork
Unfortunately I’ll be spending more time in Victoria than Vancouver (don’t ask).
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Kate
A court case will open Tuesday on the issue of the city having allowed construction on land known to be contaminated around Baldwin Park in the eastern Plateau. This isn’t a recent problem: the dump dates back to the 19th century and the buildings around it are fairly old. My father lived in a building facing that park when he was a young man, decades ago, for example, which is still standing.
walkerp
How bad is this decontamination? It always seemed weirdly fussy to be so freaked about potential heavy metal in dirt that people are not allowed to grow plants in it yet we are surrounded by a gazillion cars and a corrupt garbage/recycling system with trash blowing around in the street.
Kate
There’s more detail in this Le Devoir piece Wednesday. Seems the contaminants go down deep, there’s biogas seeping out, but – the cause of the court case – the city never levelled with developers or property owners about the existence of the old dump until an investigative TV show revealed it in 2015. It may be difficult for anyone to prove that anybody at city hall even consciously knew about it, but it was marked on survey maps of the era.
Angelo
Canada: Municipalities And Contamination: What Are You Going To Do When Homeowners Come For You?
Last Updated: November 15 2016Article by Donna S.K. Shier and Joanna Vince
Willms & Shier Environmental Lawyers LLP
Municipalities continue to grapple with environmental liability. A recent lawsuit in Montreal shows what can happen when municipalities knowingly allow residential development on contaminated lands. Municipalities will want to keep an eye on this case to understand the circumstances that can give rise to municipal liability.
The Lawsuit in Montreal
Property owners in Montreal are suing the City after discovering that their properties were built on the site of a former garbage dump. The land contains biogas contamination generated by the former landfill. The property owners are claiming that Montreal failed to inform them about the contamination and the historic use.The history of the properties follows:
1907 to 1924: the area was used by Montreal as a landfill for municipal waste.
1994: Montreal discovered biogas and became aware of potential health concerns. Montreal had a plan to disclose the information, but did not do so.
2006: the Quebec Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment, Wildlife, and Parks issued a warning to stop using a local community garden due to lead contamination concerns. It is unclear if the lead contamination arises from the former landfill use.
The property owners bought their homes from a variety of individuals (including builders and private owners) over a time period ranging from 1982 to 2013. It is unknown when the homes were originally constructed.
The property owners are claiming damages for the diminution of property values, costs for remediation and restoration, additional costs to sell the land and inconvenience. The property owners are claiming that:Montreal should not have issued building permits without disclosing the contamination. Montreal should not have allowed development or renovation knowing that there is contamination.
Montreal failed to warn the property owners at various points in time; for instance, following the 1994 investigation, following the discovery of lead contamination in 2006, when Montreal issued construction or renovation permits after 1994 to the property owners or their condo boards, and when Montreal assessed properties for tax purposes.
Montreal breached the Environment Quality Act by allowing the development to occur without the approval of the Quebec Ministry of Sustainable Development, Environment, Wildlife, and Parks.
The current lawsuit against Montreal is interesting because it involves a landfill used by the municipality for many years. Montreal was not only an approving authority for the development, but also the party that caused the contamination. No other party is available for the property owners to claim against.Should Montreal be worried?
This isn’t the first time the issue of municipal liability has arisen in the context of contaminated land:In the early 2000s, Calgary residents discovered contamination in an area where the municipality had approved a residential development on a former Imperial Oil site.1 In response to residents’ concerns, Alberta Environment issued an Order against Imperial Oil to remediate. Imperial Oil claimed that the City of Calgary should have been named in the Order because the municipality granted the planning approvals. Calgary argued that it was not liable under the Alberta Environmental Protection and Enhancement Act, as Calgary was not in “charge, management or control” of the contamination. Luckily for Calgary, the polluter, Imperial Oil, was available, named in the Ministry Order, and able to take steps to address the contamination.
In 2004, a homeowner purchased property in Chatham-Kent that, unbeknownst to it, had been used as a municipal waste disposal site.2 After discovering contamination and proceeding to develop, the homeowner sued. At trial, the municipality was held to be negligent. The Court found that the municipality owed a duty to the homeowner in the municipality’s capacity as prior owner and vendor, as well as for the municipality’s responsibility for the building permits. The Ontario Court of Appeal overturned the trial decision on the issue of damages but declined to comment on the municipal liability in negligence aspect.3
In 1994, homeowners sued the developer, the City of Lévis, and the Ministry after discovering contamination on their lands.4 The developer had ceased operations and had no assets. The Ministry ordered the polluter, Imperial Oil, to settle the civil claim and remediate. Lévis argued that Imperial should be required to comply with the Order. The Supreme Court of Canada held that Imperial Oil must remediate because it caused the pollution. Lévis was fortunate that the polluter was available and had funds to comply with the Order.
Municipalities are faced with a dilemma
Municipalities need to keep in mind their constituents’ view that local governments have an obligation to protect their residents.Where contaminated land is developed for homes, homeowners have claimed and will continue to claim against municipalities. When the polluter or developer is not available or is impecunious there will be great pressure on the municipality to resolve the problems.
Municipalities should avoid issuing planning approvals and permits where contamination in excess of applicable standards is known to be present.
Municipalities have to be extremely careful where the municipality suspects contamination. Where contamination is only suspected, the conundrum for municipalities is that if the municipality raises the issue publically, property value may be affected, giving rise to the municipality liability. If the municipality fails or declines to raise the issue, it could find itself in the same situation as the City of Montreal.
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Kate
As I suspected on a walk in June, the new UdeM campus is not ready to welcome students this September.
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Kate
I tweeted the STM recently about a loud shrill noise being made by an Azur train in motion. I didn’t know the STM had already been investigating because a lot of other people had alerted them too. This item explains how the sound is generated, and why it wasn’t a problem at the launch of the new trains; the good news is that work is already being done on a fix.
In other metro news Tuesday, the CBC looks at the domino effect of small delays in the metro and shows infographics of every sort of delay. 80% of delays last less than 5 minutes and most are due to actions by passengers, not equipment failures.
Chris
Are we talking about the high pitch hiss that’s been there since day 1 of these new metros?
Kate
It’s not a hiss, it’s a high-pitched whistle, noticeable when a train starts up out of the station, or if it accelerates at any point. I noticed it for the first time last week. The article says it’s caused by a gadget added to the train doors after it was discovered that gravel tracked in on winter boots was getting into the door grooves and impeding closure. Since that fix, air gets trapped in the train and makes an unholy shriek, but they’re working on a new fix.
John B: I think that’s why I only noticed it recently. I’ve usually ridden the train up front, but only lately have had reasons to be riding in the last car instead.
John B
It sounds more like squealing brakes, but really loud.
The air-through-the-doors explanation explains why I only hear it at the back of the train.
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