Quebec and Montreal are both putting up more money for the homeless, including specifically for women and indigenous folks and for a wet shelter for those for whom regular alcohol is necessary. Time this city came to terms with the idea it’s better to offer people a roof without demanding they achieve sobriety first.
Updates from October, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Le Devoir has an open letter Friday against the previous Quebec government’s stated intention to make over the old Royal Vic buildings to McGill University.
Reading it made me want to ask questions:
1. Who owns the old Vic and its land?
2. Is McGill a private interest, as mentioned in the opening paragraph?
3. How much of the adjoining area of Mount Royal park, alleged to be “un vaste terrain sur le mont Royal”, is included in this deal? I don’t remember ever seeing a map of the perimeter when this was discussed before. Someone on reddit notes that part of the deal even involved removing some of the Vic’s parking lots and re-greening them.
Update: One reddit commenter put it this way: “Faut être stupide en esti pour s’opposer à l’agrandissement d’une université dans/à la place de batiments qui servent à fuckall.”
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Kate
Weekend driving notes from the Journal and from CTV.
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Kate
Spare a thought for the journalist who was sent to interview the mothers of other children murdered by their fathers in the wake of the Tétreaultville killings. Journalism can be a heartless affair sometimes.
In a close-the-barn-door gesture, the treatment offered to the depressed Jonathan Pomares is being dissected to figure out what should have been done differently. Pomares was briefly hospitalized for depression and suicidal thoughts not long ago – but then he was sent home.
Brett
It’s very touching to hear the stories from the widows who have lived through this filicidal situation.
But it’s a shame that these reporters haven’t done the job of reporting the whole story.
We haven’t heard anything about what drove the fathers to commit these awful acts. Such as the prospect of indentured servitude due to alimony payments, lack of visiting rights; in other words, the consequences of no-fault-divorce in our society.
Michael Black
If he killed only himself, then that might be an issue.
But children aren’t objects, if he cared about them he couldn’t have touched them. The mind boggles that anyone would even consider killing their children.
Michael
ant6n
Lack of visiting rights? By and large in Quebec, the courts are all about giving children access to all parents, getting sole custody isn’t easy, removing visiting rights altogether is very hard.
The “indentured servitude” line is exaggerated at best, sounds like the reactionary construction of man-victims.
Brett
Again, it’s impossible to get into specifics about the father’s situation because so few details have been released. Hence my comment about the poor reporting.
We only know that he was in extreme psychological distress caused, or worsened by, the impending divorce. We can therefore conclude that he killed his children in order to spite his wife. Does that make him a victim? I don’t know. Was Marc Lepine a victim?
Michael Black
People can be victims, but then once they cross that line and kill others, I’d say they mostly lost sympathy.
All of the local school shooters might have had a point, but they went a different way and I won’t even write their names.
Michael
dwgs
I have a friend who has been through two divorces, one in Qc. He says that the Qc system is actually quite fair as those things go.
Mrl
Horrified by this monstrous event. This occured close by. Living day to day in the community where this event has hppened is disturbing. From now on Ill be much more guarded.
Kate
Mrl, I see no reason you should be more guarded or feel at risk. This was a domestic crime and, while disturbing, reveals no wider danger to the community.
In fact, if anything, people should be less guarded and more mutually supportive in general.
Kevin
For sure. Murders are very rare and getting rarer. Living in the 60s, 70s and 80s was much more violent.
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Kate
The REM is meant to go across the back river on a new bridge, but the presence of a nesting area of the map turtle, Graptemys geographica, a species endangered locally, is in the way.
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Kate
A man was shot dead in Montreal North Thursday evening, and three others were also shot non‑fatally, 50 meters away. TVA also says shots were heard in the area in late afternoon.
Police are not even certain yet whether the murder and the other shootings are connected. Names and details have not yet been released. We’re looking at homicide #16.
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