Aaron Derfel’s latest is about inconsistencies in Quebec’s Covid stats, especially as concerns transmissions in bars.
Updates from July, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
It’s not a Montreal story but it’s one of the larger stories in Quebec since Covid: the SQ say they’ve found the body of Martin Carpentier, who appears to have suicided. A funeral was held Monday for the two daughters who, to all appearances, he murdered a week and a half ago.
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Kate
A woman was shot while standing on a balcony in Montreal North. She is not expected to die; police are looking for the shooter.
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Kate
The management of the Museum of Fine Arts says it knew there would be a fuss when it let Nathalie Bondil go, but it couldn’t ignore the allegations in the external report – which it won’t release – but says it welcomes an investigation from Quebec.
If there’s already been a report, I wonder what else they think they need to find out.
Patrick
What they may need is political cover. A CAQ government will not be seen as too cosy with the Desmarais. Plus, the government may well support the notion, advanced in La Presse today, that MBAM has neglected its Quebec collections in favor of splashy international shows.
Kate
I did wonder if there wasn’t a CAQ-PLQ angle to this story, the Desmarais clan having been so visibly linked with the Liberals over the years. If so, let’s hope that comes out.
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Kate
The city is co-developing an app to help people find parking downtown in private lots for 2 hours at street rates. Explanations are in the item.
Em
When I went to Toronto last fall I used an app called SpotHero which allows user to compare prices of available spots in downtown garages and reserve one. Seems it might be easier to just partner with an existing app that works great rather than trying to develop their own.
Kate
Montreal, and Quebec generally, have a tendency to reinvent the wheel.
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Kate
Delayed from the original planned start a year ago, work on rebuilding the Pie-IX bridge over the back river should start this fall. It’s meant to be a link in the SRB Pie-IX.
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Kate
CBC surveyed 170 health experts on their approach to risk levels from previously common activities like going to restaurants or getting a haircut, and made some infographics displaying the results.
Alison Cummins
Where’s “send my kids to school”?
Kate
Quebec has just released this.
Alison Cummins
It appears compulsory. What if people want to homeschool, say if there are vulnerable people in the home?
Ian
You can take your kid out of school at any time and homeschool if you want, you just need to formally notify their current school board. I did it with my kid last year with zero pushback.
Alison Cummins
They didn’t mention this option though, and they didn’t offer distance-learning support. Either your kid shows up at school or you’re on your own.
JaneyB
That directive is as of July 3. I would consider it a wishful sketch at this point. There might not be distance-learning support for K-12 right now but outbreaks are inevitable. Parents will panic, kids will be pulled out and the online learning support will have to be created. The govt might not be saying it but of course, they must be anticipating it, as are the schools. The teachers I know are themselves hesitant to even go in to teach.
McGill and Concordia are still planning for mostly online classes in the fall. I guess we’ll basically watch the rest of the world experiment and plan our response for the winter term.
Ian
I am teaching ContEd intensives online at CEGEP and we are already seeing problems with some students not having a decent laptop, or headphones, or a mic, or unlimited high speed internet. I’ve had moms calling me, crying because their kid has to get an incomplete. I’ve had students miss half their classes because they used up their data, an they can only be in “class” on wifi in the Timmy’s parking lot. I can only imagine it will be far worse with primary age kids trying to do distance learning.
Kevin
The last I heard, Montreal high schools were planning on students being present only half the time.
Of course, we are currently in the period where nobody is working at any school, so we’ll see how they scramble in 3-4 weeks.Michael Black
But I noticed back to school items in this week’s Jean Coutu flyer. No internet equioment, just notebooks and gluesticks.
dwgs
Sec 1 through 3 will be at school every day but stay in the same class among small groups (6 I think) while the teachers move from class to class. I assume there will be a few groups of 6 in each class.
Sec 4 and 5 will likely attend every second day.
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Kate
After worrying that they wouldn’t get their strawberry harvest in, farmers found that people were very keen to pick their own this summer, and the job is done. I guess when families can’t travel for vacation, it’s a thing they might do instead.
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Kate
Two teenagers were shot in Snowdon early Monday, and they were already known to police. No arrests, nobody died.
dwgs
Since when is Snowdon ” dans le sud-ouest de la ville.?
Kate
I wondered about that too.
david192
Reporter lives in Ville Saint Laurent? Laval?
DeWolf 09:21 on 2020-07-21 Permalink
I’m not sure why he is waging a crusade against bars while dismissing the impact of private gatherings. “There’s no doubt that many community cases have occurred after house parties,” he writes, but that’s about all the attention he pays to them. But bars are public places that are regulated and capable of enforcing physical distance and mask-wearing rules, whereas private gatherings are hidden out of sight. All you have to do is walk down an alleyway to see that many balconies and backyards are full of people who aren’t taking the necessary precautions at all.
I worry about bars too, and I think it was a mistake to allow bars to open their interior spaces. But I think the emphasis on them has been disproportionate. There have been 1,902 new cases since July 1 and if only 113 of them can be traced to bars — that’s less than 6 percent — then it really doesn’t seem like they have been a major source of infection. So why the single-minded focus on them?
Kate 09:41 on 2020-07-21 Permalink
I think it’s partly because Derfel suspects the government is soft-pedaling the bar numbers – either to save jobs or save tourism or some combination?
DeWolf 10:14 on 2020-07-21 Permalink
Maybe. But a journalist shouldn’t make insinuations if they don’t have the facts to back them up.
I’m probably just cranky because I can’t stomach the sanctimonious, portentous tone of his writing, even if I can’t fault his reporting.
EmilyG 10:15 on 2020-07-21 Permalink
I think Derfel may have had an article from a few days earlier about why he thought the bar statistics were inaccurate, but I can’t find the article at the moment.
walkerp 11:23 on 2020-07-21 Permalink
I want to see some data from the government backing up their house party scapegoat. I am sure it is a factor, but they also seem to be downplaying bars, which is super suspicious given the history of the industry, corruption and lobbying.
EmilyG 16:51 on 2020-07-21 Permalink
Here’s Derfel’s July 18th article about how the government might be downplaying the bar data.
https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/analysis-why-isnt-quebecs-latest-covid-19-bar-data-being-released
Also maybe relevant: his July 17th article about goings-on in the Quebec government related to some of the things they’ve been telling Quebec about the virus data.
https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/analysis-legault-fuming-behind-scenes-over-quebecs-pandemic-response
EmilyG 16:52 on 2020-07-21 Permalink
I just tried leaving a comment with some relevant articles, but it doesn’t appear to have been successfully posted.
Kate 17:46 on 2020-07-21 Permalink
EmilyG, comments with links are automatically held for my approval because this makes them potentially resemble spam.
Douglas 21:40 on 2020-07-21 Permalink
Derfel is just throwing crap at the wall at this point. Whatever sticks to get clicks and viewers.
I remember having to spam write 30 analysis for a university project. After a while you are just throwing whatever garbage you can throw together to make it look important.
Kate 10:41 on 2020-07-22 Permalink
Douglas, you don’t want Aaron Derfel to be right, but you don’t have any legitimate counter‑argument against his analysis, so you’re just mindlessly sneering. Why even comment when you have nothing to say?
Uatu 17:49 on 2020-07-22 Permalink
Well Derfel knows that getting clicks and views= putting food on the table, right? ;P
Ian 08:06 on 2020-07-23 Permalink
So wait, Douglas, because you are a self-admitted bad faith actor, you don’t trust others? Classic.
If you want to be cynical the same could be said of anyone who works for the media, and if you automatically distrust everything that comes from the media, there’s no point singling out Derfel. I mean really, why read anything, or even bother commenting on it? At the very least you may as well stop bothering people that actually do take the news seriously.