Obligatory masks for public transit begin July 13 for everyone over age 12 – but nobody will be enforcing it, Premier Legault apparently relying on peer pressure. I can’t say peer pressure has been impressively effective till now, so I don’t understand what will change as of July 13.
Updates from June, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Renaming a key metro station like Lionel-Groulx would be too confusing, says Émilie Thuillier, heritage czar on the city’s executive committee. Competing petitions continue to either support the status quo, or plead for a change of name to Oscar Peterson.
j2
Ok that’s the dumbest argument ever. We’d never rename anything.
And Lionel-Groulx is difficult for non-francophone tourists to say, it’s not exactly catchy, they’d remember anything better than Lee Noel Groo.
Alison Cummins
j2, I thought it was lin’l grulx?
Yan Carpentier
i don’t give a flying fuck if non-francophone find the name hard to say, Pitorsone.
Alison Cummins
Yan,
Si une des justifications pour garder le nom actuel est de ne pas porter confusion aux touristes, évidemment qu’il y a *quelqu’un* qui se souci des non-francophones.
jeather
Yes, would hate to rename major streets or anything, that would be confusing.
Max
It’s been Oscar-Peterson to me for years now. If I tell my friends I’ll meet them at OP in 25 minutes they know exactly what I mean. Try it. Perhaps common usage might eventually prevail?
JaneyB
@Max – I like it. I’m gonna try that. It could work as Oscar’s or Oscar’s Place too eg: I’ll meet you at Oscar’s in 10.
ant6n
Let`s just rename it “Gru”.
CharlesQ
I thought mayor Plante wanted the stations on the pink line to be named after important women. I guess they won’t be able to do that anymore.
Tim F
How about “Peterson–Groulx?
Dan
Do I love having the station named Lionel-Groulx? Of course not. But this would be a particularly complicated, confusing and costly name change, that I can only assume for whatever reasons would cost way too many millions of dollars.
Be like Max and call it how you like. Donate those millions of dollars to a charity of his widow’s choosing, or start a neighborhood piano program for kids. Install a statue of Oscar right in front of the doors so tourists are more interested to learn about him than the weird name above the metro doors. Make good use of the money put behind his legacy, don’t throw it down the pit of STM mismanagement and bureaucratic nonsense.
Francesco
Too confusing? How? But renaming sections of major boulevards, nah that’s fine. People are smart.
Too costly? How? Putting a sticker on a few hundred maps? But renaming sections of major boulevards, nah that’s fine. The thousands of corporations and individuals residing there are happy to change letterheads and websites and do all the work and cover costs for something they never demanded.
Metro and commuter train station names *have* been changed often in the past — in fact, *most* of the Deux-Montagnes Exo line (Roxboro-Two Mountains line ;)) station names have been renamed. It’s rather not as difficult or as costly as changing street names.
Uatu
Just call it petit Bourgogne and be done with it
j2
Yan, rude? and maybe misses the point. The assertion was that changing the name would be confusing, my point is it already is. And the city has changed landmark names countless times, clearly. Yours, is that so is Peterson – sure, makes sense – and you hate tourism?
I actually have no interest in calling it Peterson, either way, but an interesting assumption by you. I am a bit surprised of the interest in retaining the name of an, at least alleged, anti-Semite. It seems to me it might be better to have a name that was more universally usable for the last stop for the 747 bus and from the metro.
(Well until the REM destroys that).Ian
Remember when changing the name from Berri-de-Montigny to Berri-UQAM bankrupted the STM and confused all tourists forever? Yeah me neither. This is a war of symbols, let’s not play the logistics game because that’s got nothing to do with it and we all know it.
Francesco
The multiple assertions I’ve read recently that Groulx was steadfast in his protection of “minorities” because he was protecting the “francophone minority in Canada” are truly bizarre.
Ian
There is an ongoing narrative within nationalist circles that Francophone Québecois cannot possibly be racist as they are the victims of racist persecution by English Canada.
This was actually a fairly common argument laid out by a wide variety of minority groups and was used to silence other forms of activism (i.e. “you are distracting from the cause”) but the obvious logical flaws in that kind of single-issue approach is in part what led to intersectionalism… granted that in turn led to a form of identity politics hat unvoices people for a variety of reasons. There are no easy solutions, but claiming immunity from racism because you are from a persecuted group suggests a fairly obvious incapacity for introspection & empathy – at the very least.
That we have the CAQ introducing legislation like Loi 21 with the support of the majority of Québecois shows that the legacy of Lionel-Groulx is strong. For what it’s worth, even Legault claims to be protecting women by enforcing a law against hijabs. Paternalistic, lacking introspection… plus ça change.
Francesco
Thank you Ian, well said.
So as a member of the persecuted anglophone minority 😉 I can’t possibly be called a racist for calling Bernard Landry a racist (on another forum). Oy vey my head hurts.
Kate
Just crossed my mind that calling it Peterson could be mistaken for Jordan Peterson, ew.
I like “Oscar” or “OP” though.
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Kate
According to Metro, the pedestrianization of Mont-Royal is looking like it’s working with merchants finding more business from the foot traffic.
Update: Metro also says some Mile End merchants are now asking Plateau borough to pedestrianize one of its streets – Bernard, St-Viateur, or Fairmount.
CharlesQ
Just wait until the Quebecor empire finds that disgruntled business and do write up article saying the complete opposite.
david182
All three could be pedestrianized, at least for the summer. Rachel was probably too much – it’s a significant cross street – but these are small streets with lots (or used to be) of local commerçants.
I think my top street for pedestrianization at his point would still be Sainte-Cath in the Concordia ghetto. Even with all the foreigners and others out of town, that area is certainly the highest population density in the city, particularly with all the new buildings that have gone up between the Bell Center/Sainte Cath/Atwater/Dominion Square. 10,000+ people in 10 years just in that small area.
They don’t have a huge number of commercial offerings, but it’s not either them or us (with Mont-Royal, etc). They should shut it down to cars and let people get out there!
Ian
“foreigners and others” not even trying to dogwhistle anymore, eh dave(x)?
As somebody who actually lives in Mile End I could see it working on Bernard. It’s a good wide street with lots of mixed business and few patios. There are a few spots where there are empty storefronts but no worse than on other Mile End streets, and it might be just the thing to get local businesses up and running again especially that bit between Clark & St-Laurent.
Saint Viateur would be problematic because there are a LOT of businesses that get all their deliveries by truck along the street, as the alleys are narrow and aren’t passable by large trucks – only the alley between Parc and Jeanne-Mance is viable for that. Since the streets were intentionally narrowed to slow traffic a few years back, trucks have become a real menace on Saint V. Also worth noting Lipa on Parc does almost constant grocery van deliveries all day so the mouth of the alley behind Parc would need to be kept open at Saint Viateur. The SAQ on Parc also uses big trucks that can only get in and out in that alley.
Fairmount is actually pretty underpopulated business-wise between Waverly & Parc – it’s almost all school buildings except for Arts Café which already has a terrasse so unless they only wanted to pedestrianize the trendy strip between St-Laurent and Waverly, I can’t help but wonder what the point would be.
Were it not for the perpetual construction I’d also suggest Laurier, it was actually kind of recovering for a couple of years before Gascogne closed & the luxury hotel started being built in what is possibly one of the slowest construction projects I’ve ever seen.
I don’t really see what the problem is with Atigh though, Fabergé has a terrasse, Kem Coba basically had a terrasse built for them by the city… unless the problem is that only between St-Laurent & St-Urbain is zoned for terrasses? But that would be an easy zoning fix, I would think.
My main concern with removing parking spaces on those commercial streets is that all the people that drive to get their bagels or coffee or overpriced brunches or artisanal sorbet or yoga pants or hibiscus pop are going to park on the residential streets, inconveniencing residents. I asked Richard Ryan about it and he hand waved the question because there is sticker parking. While this is true, a third of the street parking is open to non-residents, and there is overflow. Unless PM also makes all adjacent residential streets sticker parking only, it’s unfair to create special zones for business at the expense of residents.
David986
Dogwhistle? When you’re using an imported American term, I’d thank you to use it properly. In normal times, that stretch of Ville Marie is packed with foreigners and others (Canadians), most of whom are students of some kind. Not much of a controversy in that observation. Since Covid-19, many of these are back in their homelands/provinces, so that the area has fewer people than usual – potentially an argument against pedestrianization.
Ian
Your “de chez nous” routine is tiresome, paternalistic, and utterly transparent. You know exactly what I mean, we are also Canadians. Stop trying to “other” people. Unless of course you mean in a colonialist occupier of unceded indigenous lands sense, but somehow I doubt that was your meaning.
I know I shouldn’t stoop to your level but “dogwhistle” is not “an imported American term”, it was first used politically in Australia and is now widely used throughout the English-speaking world – which, despite what you may think, Montreal English is part of.
david93
Yeah, I guess in your world it’s called “othering” to describe people who come from “other” places, but in mine, it’s perfectly normal to describe, say, foreign/Canadian students who move to Montreal on a temporary basis and have now emptied out an entire part of town, as somehow qualitatively different in habitation patterns/behavior. What a crazy thing to say! I’m so glad you’re here to set me straight. Thanks!
Ian
This is the beauty of dogwhistling, is that when you get called out on it you can simply say “oh, is that how you took it? That’s not what I meant at all, how absurd to accuse me of such a thing” while slyly winking at your audience. Well played dave(x).
“Even with all the foreigners and others out of town, that area is certainly the highest population density in the city” … clearly, not trying to make us think those “others” somehow don’t belong in Montreal. You meant foreigners and those from other places, not in the sense of “otherness” at all! Of course 😉
david93
What would that even whistle? Are you really trying to tell me that Canadians are an oppressed group such that they can even be “othered” in this context to their detriment? Canadians trash Quebec all the time, they have totally different values, they’re often smug and annoying, and they assume a lot of things that I’m not enthusiastic about – for instance, that their lack of culture (which is a culture) is a universal law that all countries should follow. But they’re definitely not going to suffer from having their Canadianness pointed out, particularly when we’re discussing their habitation patterns in Montreal.
And I’m not anti-foreigner – I posted at length about the provinces new scheme just a few days ago, and I’m probably the only regular poster on here that has any idea how immigration even works in Quebec or Canada. I’m pro-immigration. Though moderately anti-French, as I find them almost as annoying as I find many Canadians.
I think you need to take your Woke 120 textbook of the shelf and review it to get a better sense of what constitutes ‘dogwhistling’ – both on form and content.
Ian
So your defense is that you’re just a bigot? Interesting.
david03
Yeah, I’m a bigot against Canadians and French, exactly. Sound the alarm and sign the song for the politically marooned left wing anglo-quebecker on the island of Montreal – you’ve found your enemy.
Kate
Ian, david doggedly holds that Quebec is not in Canada and has an entirely different culture. I don’t really care what he believes, but this line of debate is sterile and doesn’t go anywhere because it’s counterfactual – an article of personal faith, not of fact.
Ian
Fair enough.
In any case I still don’t see why the borough won’t just let Atigh and whoever else on Fairmount wants a terasse to have one, they already have terasses at Arts Café, Belle Corée, Barros Lucos, Fabergé, Kem Coba (effectively) … we don’t need to shut down the whole street as it doesn’t make sense. Bernard, though, would be great – especially since there are also several decent bars on Bernard that would clearly benefit from a terasse in a way that maybe a place specializing in hibiscus pop might not.
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Kate
Music venues around town are facing bleak prospects as there’s no chance of getting a crowd in for the foreseeable future.
MarcG
I read yesterday that the La Vitrola is closing and Casa del Popolo is turning the stage into a retail store for local arty stuff.
MarcG
… aaaaand that information is in the linked article. (To be honest I hardly ever click on Kate’s links, I prefer her editorializing)
EmilyG
This is really depressing for the arts community.
Ian
word on the street is that the classic dive/ music venue Brasserie Beaubien is also closing
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Kate
Aaron Derfel analyzes the latest Covid numbers on Twitter. He looks sideways at some of the numbers coming from the U.S. and makes some predictions. I also see that my neighbourhood has some of the worst numbers of community infections at the moment, so I won’t be holding that back yard beach party I promised everyone.
DeWolf
It feels like people are trying to find excuses to freak out. But we aren’t Texas or California. The US has a dysfunctional health care system that excludes the people who need care the most. Texas and many other states very quickly opened back to full capacity after a lockdown that lasted the blink of an eye, and they have a huge contingent of Covid-denying Trump supporters who take needless risks. France and Italy have opened their bars without incident, but I guess they’re too far away to count. I’m not saying we haven’t taken a gamble by opening bars, but I also think it’s useless making predictions based on what is happening in places with very different health rules, cultures and sociopolitical contexts.
Kate
I don’t think that’s Derfel’s aim. When I read his threads I realize he’s searching for tipping points. What rules or decisions are being made that make a difference in outcomes from one place to another? Also, which rules can you realistically expect the populace to follow, and which not?
DeWolf
Yes, my issue is not with his reporting but with his audience, and by extension the panicky threads and comments we are seeing all over social media.
Ian
So you liked it better when CAQ said they weren’t going to release data any more? Derfel is doing a public service…
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Kate
It’s alleged that the West Island CIUSSS paid a PR firm a lot of money to concoct a line for them to take throughout the deadly CHSLD story in March and April.
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Kate
A young man died of heart failure last summer during the marathon, and now the coroner’s report is in. It mentions disorganization and poor communication as reasons why an ambulance didn’t arrive till too late. But the Gazette story says Patrick Neely suffered from congenital heart disease. If someone with such a condition pushes himself to the limit, I’m not sure anyone else should be blamed for the outcome.
Update: the man’s father accuses the organization of gross negligence.
Michael Black
But the report talks about problems. If someone else had died, those problems were still there. How can the organizatiin improve things?
Kate
After that race, Lassonde ended its sponsorship and the director stepped down, so it seems likely that if a new marathon ever materializes, it will be run differently by different people.
EmilyG
People who are not in perfect health shouldn’t be treated poorly.
Kate
I did not say they should. But google for “marathon waiver” and you’ll find a lot of examples. To participate, everyone has to sign a document attesting they know the risks and are in good health.
This doesn’t excuse the organizers last year of everything. They should have tested the emergency communications better and made sure everyone was on top of procedures.
EmilyG
Yeah.
Blork
As Michael Black says, it’s not about this one guy, but about safety and procedures in general. For example, I heard one person (some kind of expert, I think) saying that 90% of marathon heart attacks happen in the last couple of kilometres. So if you’re going to have defibrillators (and you ARE going to have defibrillators!) then that is where you put them. Not stuck somewhere far away where it takes 12 minutes to get it to the scene. Etc. etc. etc.
Alison Cummins
I think if you have a cardiac condition and you sign a waiver, you’re thinking “This is a summer marathon. Even if I have a heart attack, they have defibrillators and ambulances on standby. I’ll probably be ok. I can’t live my life worrying about ‘what if.'”
You aren’t thinking, “If I have a heart attack, any first responders will be untrained and unequipped and unable to call for help and I will be dead before an ambulance can get to me. This is not the marathon for me.”
Kate
Nonetheless, you’re undertaking a challenge that pushes even the healthiest to their limits. If you do so, knowing you harbour a relevant physical weakness, you’re taking a bigger risk than others.
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Kate
Rental income has soared since 2005 for owners of properties, so the next time the landlord group moans about low profits, the horse laugh is on them.
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Kate
The Cirque du Soleil has filed for bankruptcy protection after months with no revenue.
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Kate
A garage in St-Michel has had its second fire within 24 hours, tending to solidify the arson theory.
Uatu 18:26 on 2020-06-30 Permalink
Was on the metro this afternoon and the majority of riders were masked. There were a few who weren’t and they stuck out so maybe some will become self conscious and wear one? Anyway if most riders are masked then hopefully it’ll slow down spread. Better than nothing I guess
GC 20:26 on 2020-06-30 Permalink
I saw a compliance rate of about 30-40%, but that was a couple of weeks ago and maybe people have grown more considerate. When you say “majority”, Uatu, do you mean 60%? 80%?
I fear the peer pressure model will have a lot of people putting them on as they enter and then taking them off on the platform or partway through the ride. Or just spending the whole time with a chinguard, which perplexes met no end.
Uatu 06:25 on 2020-07-01 Permalink
@GC- yeah it looked like 60-80%. I was kinda surprised but figured that everyone heard the announcement from the government that afternoon. I even saw a masked 5yr old and his mom. The metro was also crowded compared to the last 3mos. so it’s getting harder to keep social distance. Also noticed a lot more bespoke cloth masks which is typically Montreal; facing a pandemic with style.
Mr.Chinaski 09:17 on 2020-07-01 Permalink
I wonder this winter if a scarf will be considered as a mask
Kate 10:25 on 2020-07-01 Permalink
Mr.Chinaski, that wouldn’t be very comfortable. Who keeps a scarf up over their face once they’re aboard?
Faiz imam 10:27 on 2020-07-01 Permalink
As far as the government is concerned, I have seen examples of a bandana over the face shown as recommended in various ads and documents.
walkerp 11:07 on 2020-07-01 Permalink
Could have been pure coincidence, but yesterday for the first time I saw 4 private vehicles with the passengers all wearing masks. We anglos forget, but Quebecers do listen to their government on things like this. I suspect we see a big upsurge in mask use in general now.
Francesco 11:23 on 2020-07-01 Permalink
I’ll say it again, it has been dismaying to leave the West Island — where mask use has been consistently high over the course of the crisis — to go to Costco and Home Depot in Vaudreuil and witness fairly low use.
DeWolf 12:07 on 2020-07-01 Permalink
Has Costco stopped handing out free masks? They were last time I went to the Marché Central location and more than 90 percent of people were wearing them or their own face covering.
Francesco 14:16 on 2020-07-01 Permalink
I only ever visit Pte-Claire and Vaudreuil; it has been a month since I bothered with Vaudreuil but Pte-Claire definitely hands masks to those not wearing one and mandates usage.