My phone just made some new noises and I got an Amber Alert about two kids in Lévis. Never had an Amber Alert before – anyone else?
Just glad it’s not aliens or explody things.
Updates from July, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
The usual advice is being given out about how to cope with the heat wave. Thursday’s high is supposedly going to be 35° (later in the afternoon) and Friday’s 36°.
My cat is lurking in the shadows under the back porch. I’m half tempted to crawl under there and join her.
Update: A redditor who follows weather (/u/YOW-Weather-Records) says: “Today is Montreal’s 3rd ≥34°C day this year which raises 2020 from 5th to 2nd place for the most in any year since records began.”
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Kate
The mayor has ordained the removal of Cabot Square benches with hostile armrests and suggested time limits. These were installed recently, I gather, although designed and planned during the previous administration.
Valérie Plante must know that, once the Children’s project is complete, she will forced to do something about Cabot Square. But for the time being, this is the right thing to do.
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Kate
There isn’t much detail here, but Lafarge says it has fired someone after a noose was found near the car of a Black employee.
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Kate
So there’s to be no dancing at bars and last call at midnight and doors locked at 1 a.m., and their maximum capacity is halved. These rules take effect as of Friday.
Blork
It’s like everyone in Montreal turned 50 overnight.
Bert
No one puts Montreal in the corner!
Kevin
There’s going to be a massive increase in the number of people fighting when the bars close.
Kate
Yes. They’ll be two hours less tired and spoiling for a rumble.
Jack
Disagree, the 3 am fights will always be king, three hours more of boozing, dancing, rejection and drug taking. On top of it you’ve just paid the club tab and you got the bottle charge…someone is getting hit.
Chris
They’ll just start drinking 3 hours earlier.
Paul
We can dance if we want to
Kevin
Paul,
I speak from experience of living in a place with an early closing time.At midnight people are still alert. At 3 am most people have already gone home because they are tired.
dwgs
Paul, don’t listen to Kevin, we can go where we want to a place where they will never find.
Raymond Lutz
As long as we abuse it, never gonna lose it, Everything’ll work out right!
Jack
Well they’re are no friends of mine.
Kevin
Whoops. I meant Jack, not Paul.
But at least you’re all amusing 🙂Jack
No worries Kevin and I appreciate the Irish euphemism for being drunk…..tired and emotional.
GC
The thing about kicking people out at three is the crowd naturally thins out because you have people choosing to leave at any time between 12 and 3. Also, some people really do cut out of there to make sure they catch the last metro or bus or whatever. Push people out at 1 is going to mean a bigger crowd. Yes, they might be less drunk but there will be more of them and they’ll also have more energy.
MarcG
Wow, betting on fights is so deeply rooted even the intellectuals can’t resist! 🙂
Ian
Early closing times have been a well-known contributing factor in the UK’s bar fight culture. People start drinking heavily earlier in the day and pound back as much as possible knowing they have a small window to get shitfaced in.
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Kate
The city has plans to create a new waterside park in Lachine by gradual conversion of its marina. It will be open to the public next year.
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Kate
An STM bus driver posted on Facebook that Covid is a false pandemic and that he doesn’t disinfect his bus because the pandemic is a hoax to control people. (CTV helpfully adds here “There is no evidence to support the driver’s claim that the COVID-19 pandemic is ‘false.’ “)
This driver also said he’s “against” wearing masks. Here, the item reminds us that François Legault says it will be “up to bus drivers to refuse entry to passengers who aren’t wearing masks” which made me blink. Right now, bus drivers don’t even see their passengers. I rode the bus for some time the other day and at least 1/3 of the passengers were not in masks – mostly young people and intransigent-looking older men. The driver only drove the bus and didn’t concern himself (or herself) with how passengers were behaving. (If Legault said this, it’s because he doesn’t take transit, doesn’t realize that passengers don’t even go past the driver right now.)
Footnote: the CTV item is illustrated with a photo of the 24 bus on Sherbrooke Street, but there’s no indication in the text which routes the covidiot driver has been covering.
walkerp
A big problem with the internet is that actually not everybody needs a voice. We would all be better off if this covidiot (nice in passing use of the term, btw, Kate) kept his thoughts to himself.
Jack
I was on the 55 Sunday afternoon and I’d say about half of the riders were not wearing masks. It is obvious that the bus drivers will not enforce this rule.
Does anyone here have a strategy ?
As a passenger can I say “Hey you are not wearing a mask, get off the bus.” or ” Move to the States you’ll be happier there.” etc.etc.Kate
This is the thing, isn’t it. Nobody wants to be the person who takes it on themselves to order other people around. We’ve all seen the videos where people get aggressive if reprimanded.
Plus, now if you sit alone on a double seat with no mask on, it ups the odds nobody will sit next to you.
Kevin
My daughter wanted to take the bus to see a friend in the Mile End on the weekend. I drove her instead and made sure she was wearing a mask when she stepped out of the car.
That’s my strategy.
Tee Owe
Masks protect others from you way better than they protect you from others. So, the queston to a mask non-wearer should be, ‘when did you get your coronoavirus-negative test result?’ Should make them think about what it means (and maybe get tested), and think about wearing a mask as long as they don’t have that result
Chris
Jack: strategy advice: you do your thing, and let them be them.
MarcG
This is a philosophical can of worms but if someone “being themselves” is going to cause me to get a potentially deadly illness I’m not sure how much of a hippy I am in that situation.
Kate
Your freedom to “do your thing” is limited by the risk “your thing” is causing to others. Do we have to explain this to you, Chris?
Chris
>Your freedom to “do your thing” is limited by the risk “your thing” is causing to others.
Obviously.
And what is that risk? The non-mask wearer would have to be 1) infectious 2) manage to transmit it to you and 3) you’d have to catch it. Otherwise, they’ve done you no harm. It’s a very low risk.
And people are constantly doing things that are detrimental to others, yet socially acceptable. You drive your car and you are responsible for your portion of the millions that die from air pollution each and every year. To say nothing of the countless more who get asthma or other reduced quality of life. The probability of doing harm is 100%. Yet car driving is not just socially acceptable, it’s encouraged. You wash your polyester clothes and you contribute micro-plastics everywhere in our food chain and water supplies. You eat meat and you’re contributing to zoonotic viruses that jump to humans. There are a million other examples.
So in my books, if you want to be a mask-shamer, then I hope you’re also shaming drivers as you walk past their open windows, shaming people as they’re hanging out their laundry, shaming picnickers, etc.
Perhaps everyone is allotted a small amount of harm it’s ok to do unto others? If someone has forgone owning a car, and is taking public transport, perhaps it’s ok for his allotment of harm to be from not wearing a mask during a heat wave?
dwgs
“Come down off the cross, we can use the wood”
Kevin
Chris,
You went straight up Chinese Communist Party-style malevolence with your last comment.
Skip encouraging evil and read about Typhoid Mary.
Chris
Kevin, “CCP-style”?! Encouraging evil”?! What are you on about?! To borrow another Christian phrase, I’m saying “Let he who is without sin can cast the first stone”. I’m not saying don’t wear a mask. I’m saying everyone is harming and/or putting his fellow man at risk everyday. Don’t get your knickers in a knot about it wrt masks but not every other thing.
dwgs
That wasn’t a Christian phrase, it was Tom Waits. And nobody likes a scold.
MarcG
Damn I was hoping I could go vegan, make my own clothes, ride my bike everywhere and then cash in my “harm to others” chips on something big. Seriously, though, Chris, in your attempts to be anti-car you end up being pro-car by saying “people drive and it’s bad and nobody cares so nobody should care about anything else”.
Raymond Lutz
Two words (and a link): excess mortality. Sure, people die of car usage. But it’s DIFFICULT in our society (at least in a city without adequate public transit system) to go without a car and it’s EASY to wear a mask. False equivalence… COVID-19 deaths were (and are) easily preventable simply wearing a mask. Japan didn’t even had a complete lock down and fared very well «the government launched a nationwide campaign warning people to avoid the “Three Cs”: Enclosed spaces with poor ventilation; Crowded places with many people and Close contact settings such as face-to-face conversations » (BBC article).
Kevin
Chris,
If you don’t understand what I was talking about, then I suggest you read about the CCP and China’s Social Credit score.
Or you could watch The Good Place and reflect upon its flawed judgment system.
Either way, what you proposed was straight-up evil: a ranking system of indulgences and sins to permit people to behave badly in order to risk the health of others during a global pandemic.
You’re highly concerned about climate change. I get that. But you don’t get permission to become Typhoid Mary because you’re vegan or whatnot.
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Kate
Media are saying that Quebec is going to make bars close at midnight. This and other new rules for bars should be announced Thursday afternoon.
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Kate
Le Devoir has the scuttle on strife at the Fine Arts museum, where there’s a power struggle involving the flamboyant director, Nathalie Bondil. Bondil has been in that job since 2007 with a contract ending next year. I get a sense that with ventures like this, the top people always wear out their welcome after a point – it’s almost inevitable that there will be factions fomenting discontent, sometimes building to the point where they’re forced out.
Su
So it would seem that Mary-Dailey Desmarais has had a special position created just for her within the museum administration? Even though she came 4th in a qualification round. And Nathalie Bondel, a person qualified to be a Louvre administrator in 2013 has agreed to this posting.
Or did I not understand the article?Kate
You did. A little googling finds that Mary Dailey Desmarais is married into the Desmarais clan which means big money and power in this town.
Su
Hmmm. So how much taxpayer subsidy is given to this Museum I wonder. And how does Mary the new co curator decide which private art collections are showcased?
So many unanswered questions in these situations.Patrick
Interesting this emerges just as the Signac exhibition (which looks fabulous) is getting a lot of press. On the MBAM website, it’s Bondil who “presents” the show, but I’ve seen several other sites where the focus is on Desmarais, the curator. I’ll be interested to see who’s left standing at the end of the day.
Su
The MMFA is an nonprofit, and does not receive public funds. I was surprised by this fact.
So goodluck to them …no concern of mine.Orr
Tax deductions for museum donations are “public funds.”
I found this an interesting commentary on the superrich taking charge of art institutions. There is a whiff of this here.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/14/opinion/sunday/modern-art-museum.html
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Kate
Two men were stabbed in the Plateau (obv joke “That’s gotta hurt!”) overnight, one found in a bar, the other some blocks away on the street. Nobody’s dead.
I’ve noticed that while media often simply write “a bar” or “a restaurant” in the text, TVA usually gets around this by showing a photo, as they’ve done here.
walkerp
I’ve never encountered the term “à l’arme blanche” before. It just means hand-held weapon (or melee weapon in D&D terms)? Anybody know the etymology?
Bert
Every time I hear the expression I say to myself “what is that” then 5 seconds later “oh, yeah” According to the link below it relates to old French terms for the types of metal and-or the final look of the metal.
You have the related ferblantier which is a tinsmith . You often see the term used for those who do rain gutter and metal railing work.
Kate
Arme blanche = a knife. I can’t find the history, presumably in contrast to firearms which use black gunpowder?
walkerp
Very cool. Thanks!
Marky 15:42 on 2020-07-09 Permalink
Gave me a heart attack! First I’ve experienced with these alerts, even the ‘test’ alerts they ran last year never made it to my device, but glad to see it’s working.
Nicole 15:46 on 2020-07-09 Permalink
At least it wasn’t 3am. Apparently it cannot be disabled (at least for iOS)
Michael Black 16:06 on 2020-07-09 Permalink
I was watching tv via an internet gizmo, and the screen went red and a message in text, maybe voice too, I can’t remember. I pressed the wrong button and it went back to the movie. I meant to switch channels to see if it happened on others.
I have no cellphone, so this is the fjrst amber alert I’ve seen directly.
Sprocket 16:51 on 2020-07-09 Permalink
I was having a nap (as one does) and my cell phone went bonkers and.the show I fell asleep on playing on the PVR had a red screen about it too.
Nick D 17:08 on 2020-07-09 Permalink
Yes — and it seemed to kick me out of my facetime call automatically.
GC 20:36 on 2020-07-09 Permalink
Yes! I received some SMS alerts last year, but this seemed to pop up out of the OS. It was bilingual in text and then the text-to-speech automatically kicked in and read it. Really butchered the French version…basically the same voice Google Maps uses to give directions.
Kate 21:26 on 2020-07-09 Permalink
I wonder why some phones read aloud but others (incl mine) did not. iphone here. Old SE.
Chris 00:06 on 2020-07-10 Permalink
>Gave me a heart attack!
You joke, but these things happen. My ER doc friends have told me many stories about that blazing sound startling people to fall off ladders, slip on the gas/brake peddle, fall off their bike, etc., etc.
Of course if you argue that amber alerts should be toned down, you get called a child hater, but I’ll say it anyway: they should be toned down. They could start as a regular buzz/beep like any text message, which many many people love to look at instantaneously anyway. It could progress to being louder if not acknowledged after some time, etc. They could also geographically constrain them better. Do they still go to the entire province? It’s probably not even physically possible for the abductor to be more than x km away, so blasting it to the whole province is not so useful either (if still done).
Kevin 07:51 on 2020-07-10 Permalink
The kids went missing Wednesday evening. By the time the Alert went out they could be in Thunder Bay…
Kate 09:59 on 2020-07-10 Permalink
I did wonder about that, Kevin. I thought the main point of Amber Alert was to be called within an hour or two of a kidnapping.
Chris 10:03 on 2020-07-10 Permalink
Kevin, ok, so in this particular case whole-province notification could be justified, but I recall previous cases where it was the opposite.
Kate, you don’t always know within an hour or two, and have to do some due diligence before sending the alert, otherwise you risk false positives and ‘boy who cried wolf’, and thus people ignoring the things.
Bert 07:30 on 2020-07-11 Permalink
I seem to remember an alter a year or two ago. I see to remember 5 kids. I wonder if there is some sort of historical registry of these somewhere.
One of the criteria for issuing and AMBER alert is that it be done in a timely manner… https://missingkids.ca/en/help-us-find/amber-alert/
Mark Côté 16:35 on 2020-07-11 Permalink
The story is looking grim. 🙁