Mike Ward, ordered last year to pay $35K in damages to Jérémy Gabriel for mocking him in his comedy routine, will have his appeal heard by the Supreme Court. He’ll be standing on freedom of speech; the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal backed up by the Court of Appeal held that Ward had violated Gabriel’s rights. It’s an important decision: can we be penalized for saying things that are in poor taste?
Updates from July, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
The transport ministry has signed a billion-dollar contract to renovate the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel. Work should start in 2022.
Chris
Still spending immense money on automobile infrastructure, and pennies on pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure. Sigh.
Ian
Let me know when your food and commercial goods are delivered by bike.
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Kate
There are accusations of violence in the Port of Montreal strike, the employer alleging that scabs have been attacked. (In English, it says managers were replacing workers, but the French version simply says “les employés effectuant le travail de remplacement.”) The strike is a temporary one, scheduled to end Thursday night at 23:00.
CE
Are managers replacing workers considered scabs? I always thought it was just workers that were brought in to replace the striking workers.
Kate
CE, that’s why the disparity in phrasing struck me.
Ian
It’s a rather crucial distinction and sloppy not to note it clearly!
Kate
TVA says it was ‘cadres’. Given that this was by definition a limited four-day strike, I doubt they brought in outside workers as scabs. It was only the way the Radio-Canada piece was written that it wasn’t ultra explicit that the workers allegedly attacked were managers.
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Kate
I listen intermittently to CBC radio mostly for the news, but the shoe dropped today: they do traffic, and there seems to be an awful lot of traffic given that most office people are still working from home (aren’t they?). I know there are a lot of jobs that can’t be done remotely, and there’s still trucking and commercial traffic, but are there really enough people moving around on the 9 to 5 to cause traffic jams?
Or is CBC simply giving their traffic guy something to do, noting accidents and so on? I’m not a driver, so I can’t judge.
EmilyG
Listening to the traffic reports during the pandemic, it seems that when they first opened some additional things up after locking most things down, there was more traffic.
(Sorry this sounds non-specific, but I can’t remember exactly what was shut down when and what reopened when. The traffic increases started maybe late March/early April? Mid-April?)And of course, the perennial people on Friday afternoons going to the proverbial cottage.
EmilyG
Also: I think many people who would normally take public transit now see it as unsafe, and are driving.
Ian
Delivery jobs haven’t stopped and a very large portion of Montreal traffic is trucks, especially around the Triangle – where traffic jams occur. Our groceries, the stock for all those big stores hat have re-opened, even our milk and beer all come in tractor trailers. Then there are the fleets of cube vans… none of it really stopped. CBC gives traffic every few minutes in rush hour, they didn’t stop doing that during the pandemic.
Meezly
The only time when there was literally no traffic were the few sweet weeks after the initial shutdown in March. I was riding my bike whenever I could because the streets were so empty. And it was still cold enough so there weren’t many other cyclists. Then traffic started to pick up again in mid-April, maybe? And when the weather got warm, cycling suddenly got all trendy cuz Covid. I remember how fleeting it all seemed to ride those empty streets, repeating to myself, enjoy it while you can, this isn’t gonna last. It really didn’t. Don’t think that situation will happen again anytime soon.
Kevin
Traffic was nonexistent until June, then it increased slightly. It’s still light, with three caveats:
Everybody works on Wednesday and Thursday.
There are many roads blocked by cones, more than normal, even if no work is being done.
Today there were a few big crashes.Oh, and the key thing about traffic now is how long it takes to get through a jam. will you be stuck for 5 minutes or 25 at Jean Talon and Decarie?
Today more colliUatu
I still listen mostly for the metro status because the orange line still seems to break down even if there are only Sunday morning levels of riders using it
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Kate
Not surprising to hear that this year’s marathon is cancelled. To fill out the article they mention the young man who died last year, but it’s got nothing to do with the reason for the cancellation, which is simply because it’s impossible to ensure pandemic measures during such an event.
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Kate
It’s being reported in various of our media that Gildan Activewear is facing losses; it has crossed my mind that a lot of people will have no reason to buy new clothes this year.
Speaking of saving money, it finally dawned on me this week that I could cut back on my phone data plan. I should be saving at least $30 monthly. Mentioning it in case this hasn’t occurred to others. If you’re not going out much, not commuting…
Ian
I remember when, without warning, Gildan closed down its Montreal distribution centre & manufacturing, moving production to the Caribbean… to reduce costs and evade Canadian taxes. They also have a strong reputation for union busting. Kind of hard to feel sorry for them now.
Blork
I though “activewear” was the only clothing segment that was thriving. After all, nouveau-homebodies generally don’t walk around naked. Instead they wear comfy “activewear” because it’s like spending the day in your pyjamas but without looking (much) like pyjamas.
Speaking for myself, the only clothing I’ve purchased in 2020 so far is four pairs of activewear pants.
John B
Yeah, but has anyone ever had a comfy Gildan shirt? My only experience with them is that they’re the uncomfortable T-shirts that get stuff printed on them & given out free at events & conferences. If that’s the case their sales may actually be down because there are no conferences.
Ian
Like most garment brands they have quite a range – those blanks used for trade show swag are the cheapest you can get. Some of their more premium lines are actually very good quality.
I mean as long as you don’t mind unethically sourced exploitation of developing countries so you can have a nice t-shirt for cheap that is.Meezly
I can understand if nobody is buying new office and evening clothes, but active wear should be more popular than ever, as everybody and their dog seems to be jogging and working out. II have a friend who’s a clothing & shoe horse, and even though she has saved tons of money not buying new clothes this year, she still likes to browse online. She laments that all she sees on her fave sites are pages devoted to casual, active and athleisure wear.
Ian
There have been lineups at the Lululemon in Saint Viateur… I guess not all activewear is created equal.
Kate
I feel moved to create a line of inactivewear branded with Montreal City Weblog.
MarcG
Haha. Montreal City Web Blob?
GC
Let us know when the site goes live, Kate.
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Kate
The Darling-Pie-IX section of Ontario Street will become a beer garden for awhile; brace for complaints about lost parking.
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Kate
A young man was shot in Dollard-des-Ormeaux Wednesday evening, after a dispute. He’s not expected to die – unlike the teenager shot dead in Laval overnight. I don’t usually do Laval news but shot dead in a schoolyard at 17, that’s notable.
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Kate
I try not to get too repetitive with themes on the blog, but it seems every day brings a new article about how merchants on some street are annoyed about temporary displaced parking. This time it’s in Sud-Ouest borough.
I can see why. But did the same merchants get annoyed when streets were closed for festivals? Was there enough parking before, and did people actually drive to shop along there? I ask this last question because a recent study showed that most people shopping along Mont-Royal were not driving there. They shop there because they live in the area. There’s still a place for local shopping streets.
Mtlparking
I own a business for 25+years..we always experienced our worst weekends of the year when the street would be closed for the sidewalk sales and never liked/wanted them but always felt it was ok to sacrifice a couple of weekends if closing the street benefited the majority of merchants so kept quiet (turned out it didn’t so they ended a couple of years ago but that’s a whole other discussion..) Removing parking would be disastrous to our business..Joe McMillan expresses our sentiments exactly https://twitter.com/joebeef/status/1288796709905195008
walkerp
We are in a period of transition. If your urban local business is so dependent on automobile traffic, then it is doomed. Taking away parking is only a small factor in that. People with cars who live outside the city have access now to most of the services in their suburb. Joe Beef is complaining because his is a hipster destination restaurant, so people from the suburbs drive in. That’s not the case for most local restaurants, so he may want to not act like he is speaking for everybody.
Ephraim
Sometimes I wish these people would travel to cities like Phoenix and see what happens when you don’t have a central core… you travel 30 to 60 minutes to go to a good restaurant, if it can survive and the marketplace is dotted with chains, because no one else can really survive.
Kevin
People get upset when they aren’t told what’s happening in their neighbourhood. They get more upset when they realize that only a select few were informed and so they feel excluded.
But after Projet Monteal doing this for 3 years for the entire city, it’s not going to change.Kate
Kevin, I see that, but do these merchants get involved in the commercial associations (SDCs) for their streets? In some ways this evokes the people who don’t vote, but then go on to complain about issues. I’m sure the bureaucracy around the SDCs can be a pain, but how else can a group of businessmen with common concerns unite to communicate with the city?
Of course, I don’t know if the city has made these changes via the SDCs, or whether the SDCs are staffed up to the max with city fonctionnaires and not, in fact, representatives of the businesses concerned. Knowing this city’s style as I do, I suspect the latter may be the case.
DeWolf
The Joe Beef guy is complaining about the SDC being “corrupt” but apparently it did reach out to merchants in May asking them about Notre-Dame summer configuration. Maybe there was a communications breakdown after that. His “take back our city” histrionics on Twitter are a bit much.
Kevin
Kate
During the Monkland street festival debacle a couple years back, the main complaint from merchants was that nobody could ever reach the guy who ran the SDC. It was, for all intents and purposes, a one-man organization pretending to represent every business on the street.
Much like the way you feel about Fergus Keyes being the voice of the Irish community 🙂
Ian
The Gazette version of the article is slightly different and not quite as reactionary as a lot of the comments here…
“Sauvé, the councillor, urged merchants to “keep the conversation going” if they’re unhappy with the project. City officials will be monitoring traffic patterns over the coming days and will be ready to act if issues emerge, he said.
“People can talk to us,” he said. “We’re super open to doing adjustments. This is a temporary project, and nothing is set in stone. Our merchants are having a hard time and we’re in a period where we have to try new ways to make things work. We wanted to be proactive.””
The big thing to remember here is that PM isn’t trying to suppress cars, it’s trying to increase business. That might seem like semantics to some but the thing is that if making streets into pedestrian zones and allowing for temporary terrasses instead of having parking doesn’t increase business, then obviously this one-size-fits-all implementation is not the answer to how to keep businesses from failing. Remember the main source of income for the city is property taxes, they definitely don’t want businesses to fail. They are largely powerless over many aspects of this so they are flailing about trying to come up with ideas, which is why they are so eager to hammer square pegs into all the holes – this idea worked on Mt Royal and they want to see if it can made to work in places like the Little Burgundy – St Henri corridor because they have no other good ideas.
Maybe they could send in the clowns.
Em
Quite a few people in St. Henri seem to be mad about this, and not just business owners. Buses have been rerouted up to St-Antoine, which is pretty far to walk. Some are also unhappy about how much construction there already is in the area, and are worried about traffic being pushed onto small residential streets or St-Ambroise, which already had a fatal accident involving a child just recently.
I think removing a few parking spots would have been fine (well, except normal grumbling), but turning a main artery into a one-way does cause some chaos on already-clogged streets.
And while I like Projet Montreal, there’s a perception in some circles that they’re being a bit sneaky, and using the pandemic to push an agenda. I think they need to be careful not to go too far, because citizens don’t like politicians who are seen as deliberately making their lives harder (as Coderre learned during the Formula E debacle).
Ian
“there’s a perception in some circles that they’re being a bit sneaky”
QFTEven in the before times when I was getting my license my driving instructor used to take me driving on Notre Dame, he said it was good practice dealing with crowded unpredictable streets with aggressive drivers and heavy traffic flow. He was right! Got me used to honking and aggressive behaviour from delivery rucks, too. I can only imagine what an utter shitshow that area must be now with all the construction & one-way streets. Dave M, whatever, he’s a fancypants gentrifier who from the sounds of his tweets does too much blow. On the other hand, I’m not surprised the guy at Nouveau Systeme is freaking right out. I lived in the bowels of Saint Henri for years, and it’s not teh same thing as the Plateau. PM has never really understood the gritty working class side of the SW and it really shows here.
jeather
The other issue is that with the turcot closed most weekends we already have all the people driving through, mostly along St Jacques, to get back on the 15, and now they are funneled even more.
CE
@Ian, have you been on Notre-Dame between Atwater and St-Remi lately? I have some clients on that stretch so I’m down there often now (after quite a few years of almost never being there). It’s amazing how much of the grit has been completely wiped away on that street! I was really surprised by how expensive most of the people’s clothes/dogs/cars/coffees looked. I sat outside of a pizza shop eating my overpriced slice of pizza one day and was treated to a passonate one-sided phone conversation about strategic use of hashtags for her startup. That conversation is about how I would sum up the new demographic of St-Henri.
Ian
Well see that’s the thing – there is certainly a lot of that. Long gone are the days of buying a triplex for 60k – or even 350k per floor. My old favourite place to get breakfast turned into an artisanal $20 hamburger place, the old biker bar on St F is now an ice cream parlour… but all those people that are poor working class still live in and around there, just pushed to the margins, and a lot of the older businesses still exist. Same thing is going on in the Point & Verdun. Gentrification is a huge problem in many parts of town – basically the gentrifiers are pushing out the older inhabitants. PM talks a good game about slowing gentrification but in reality they are very much part of the gentrification.
Joe Beef and its ilk aren’t part of the old neighbourhood either, that whole strip of ND by Atwater of pricy restaurants is also relatively new – and they aren’t there to cater to people in Little Burgundy that live in social housing, for instance. I’m not saying the neighbourhood should be reconfigured to suit the needs of the fancy new money businesses, either. This is the whole problem these neighbourhoods face, they are rapidly changing with new money coming in and the older residents & businesses feel that they are being simply ignored and even further marginalized – but now in their own neighbourhoods. I don’t know what the solution is, but one-size-fits-all street planning isn’t it.
Kevin
Dorais announced (on Facebook :/ ) that the borough is backing down
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Kate
A camp of homeless folks has grown up in Hochelaga although I wouldn’t characterize the location as “près du centre-ville” exactly.
Update: Metro has a good photo of an organized campsite although I do have to wonder what the denizens do about bathrooms and washing.
DeWolf
Reminds me of West Islanders who consider anything east of the airport to be “downtown.”
Ian
To be fair a lot of people that live centrally imagine the city more or less fades out into uninteresting suburban fog at the Decarie to the West, the 40 to the north, Pie IX to the east, and the Lachine canal to the south. Having your head up your ass geographically isn’t limited to any one group.
In any case while I know where that camp is and I certainly wouldn’t characterize it as a stone’s throw from downtown, it is certainly well within walking distance, it’s maybe a half hour’s walk east of Papineau.
Dominic
@Ian For those of us downtown, the “city” is Atwater to Berri, and Notre Dame to Sherbrooke. Everything else is the suburbs 😉
Kate
I’m reminded of Nick Auf der Maur saying he never wanted to live more than a $5* cab ride from Crescent Street.
*Adjusted for inflation – he may even have said $3.
Ian
@Dom Wow, Notre Dame? I would have imagined anything south of Rene Levesque to be “otherwhere”. 😀
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Kate
A non-enviable party of people dressed up as Botero characters are wandering around downtown. Are they there to warn us against overeating?
MarcG
If you could illustrate an anglo saying “tear-asses” instead of “terraces” that is what I would put on the anglo-Montrealer flag discussed earlier.
EmilyG
One time Ryan Stiles (of Whose Line Is It Anyway) was in Montreal and he joked abut “tear-asses.”
EmilyG
I hadn’t heard of Botero, but I looked up his paintings and realized he’s the guy whose paintings I sometimes see in internet memes. (Though I wouldn’t have made the connection to the actual costumed people.)
Kate
Fernando Botero‘s stuff has been poster fodder for years. I’ve never seen the attraction myself, but a lot of people must do.
Blork
I spotted some real life Botero people at Venice Beach a few years ago:
dwgs
Getting pretty close to clowns…
walkerp
There is a Botero statue of a man on a horse on the front lawn of a mansion on Maplewood Avenue in Outremont. My child was laughing about their bums on the way to camp yesterday. Interesting synchronicity of timing!
JaneyB
Strange and yes, very close to clowns lol. Mind you, those sales numbers are pretty alarming, actually worse than I thought.
If they want families to come downtown, they’re going to need to say loud and clear: ‘Parking is Free’ and ‘very clean toilets are available’. Many people are very anxious about the metro and public transit in general right now. That would help.
mare
It’s a warning against global warming. It must be unbearable wearing foam fat-suits In our current humid and hot weather.
Uatu
I dunno but they creep me out. They’re like some kind of robots that’ll turn against and kill all the humans in an episode of Black Mirror
Kevin
Absolutely everyone I know who has seen these photos is horrified, scared, and wondering what on Earth Tourism Montreal and the city of Montreal is doing.
My children wanted to know why Montreal wanted people to stay away.
EmilyG
They don’t even really look like his paintings. The costumes are weirder and creepier and less human-looking.
Also, on Toxique Trottoir’s page about these costumes of theirs, they mention that the costumes are supposed to evoke both sensuality and childhood memories. Umm, eww.
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Kate
TVA is sort of bragging that Montreal and Quebec City are rated as good places for a tech business, but is it so wonderful that the main draw is that Quebecers are willing to work for cheap?
Alex
Maxim Baru
if anybody feels like a salary catch up is in order via a union, don’t hesitate https://iww.org/#organize
Tim
If a tech worker feels like a salary catch up is in order, they should find a different company that pays more or work harder, get recognized and benefit. If you want to see the office offshored, start a union.
MarcG
If a company moves away because it’s employees demand a larger slice of the pie, have we actually lost something of value, or has an abusive relationship come to an end and something better can take its place?
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Kate
This summer’s boredom is being blamed for an outbreak of illegal late-night fireworks around town; Montreal North is boosting its fines, with one councillor mentioning that people have mistaken firecrackers for gunfire.
Dominic
They seemed to have moved downtown. Large fireworks displays near the Palais des Congres the past two nights!
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Kate
A 12-year-old girl died in a house fire in Lasalle on Tuesday morning because she was trapped in the basement.
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Kate
Leafy little Île Gagnon in the Mille-Îles river will soon be transformed with a hotel, fancy restaurant, a spa and 660 condos. It’s in a biodiversity zone allowing only 24 condos, but the developer is confident of getting a waiver – there’s money to be made!
Blork
No surprise there. That’s Celine Dion’s old address. Money follows money.
david182 02:55 on 2020-07-31 Permalink
If you know me in real life, you know how utterly unimpressed I am with Canadian stare decisis. But this is one where we can be pretty certain that the Supreme Court of Canada will come down with a strong precedent restricting speech.
Andrew Stewart 11:28 on 2020-07-31 Permalink
Actually, I hope the Supreme Court of Canada sides with Mike Ward. If Mike Ward’s comedy has offend people, they have the right to not attend his shows.The fact that Mr. Ward make a joke about Mr. Gabriel was treating him like a normal person and not like a special interest group. Mr. Gabriel had the right to also walk out of the show. When we sue like this, we start to become like the States with litigious lawsuits. I think anyone should read 1984 by George Orwell to understand the themes about dangers of censorship.
Andrew Stewart 11:59 on 2020-07-31 Permalink
I agree with you with the statement, can we penalized someone for saying something in poor taste? The other interest note, was Mr. Gabriel was 12-13 years old at the time of attending this show. His parents or legal guardian should have done their due diligence on what type of show Mr. Ward. We don’t bring our 12-13 year children to a rate R film and then when the child has nightmares, litigious sue the movie studio or even the theater.
Em 12:38 on 2020-07-31 Permalink
Andrew: Gabriel’s mother was also originally awarded money (though I believe that part was reversed on appeal), so she was very much a part of this.
david291 19:17 on 2020-07-31 Permalink
Actually, this is very much unlike the US, where essentially the only actionable speech of this kind is slander. Canada is charting its own distinct course with this type of restriction on speech.
Andrew Stewart 11:45 on 2020-08-04 Permalink
While I understand your intention, my hopes are Canada charts it is distinct course where they are not restricting speech. By have more speech, you are more likely to de-radicalize and depolarized extreme points of views and meet in the middle. “the strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression, it is more speech—the voices of tolerance that rally against bigotry and blasphemy, and lift up the values of understanding and mutual respect.”