Now that we all have masks, I have a question: where did you get your most comfortable one? I bought a couple from Camélia Couture, via Etsy, and they’re as pleasant to wear as possible, considering. These are not friends and this isn’t a paid ad – I simply wanted to give a recommendation.
Updates from August, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Kate
-
Kate
CBC has a rather flaccid piece about the future of nightlife featuring an interview with one professor. Of course the city needs to operate into the night because of shift workers, but that’s not what people usually mean by nightlife. The rest of the ideas here – spreading things out in space and time – seems to come from someone who forgets what it was like to be out in crowded places with other people under 30.
JaneyB
Over the past few months, I’ve been struck more than once by how oblivious many middle-aged and older people are about how the more sociable, more urban, less married, and unlawned people live. It’s like they can’t even imagine it lol. Some have blithely bandied ideas of 1-2 year semi-lockdowns etc. I get that we’re in a crisis, will be for a while, and things can’t be normal but really, how hard is it to remember that 50% of people in this city live alone or in yardless situations or that tens of thousands are looking for a mate? Likewise, that people go to university in large part to meet new people and partners, not simply to receive information transmission. It would be nice even just to hear those losses lamented from some of our pandemic planners and pundits once in a while.
-
Kate
A protest overnight and carrying on into Saturday is reminding the federal government of its promise to regularize the status of asylum seekers who have been essential workers through the pandemic. These links are French and English versions of the same CP story.
-
Kate
Op-ed in La Presse by a man who abandoned the city to go live in Mascouche. If you wondered why.
Dhomas
Good riddance to bad rubbish, I say. Let someone who wants to live here buy the building.
Ian
Haha he sounds like real delight. Maybe if somebody had visited him with some clowns?
Tim
I can’t be the only one who couldn’t get past the first paragraph’s complaints about the cost of parking. No need to read any further…
Ian
The hilarious part is that there are lots of parts of Montreal where you even now you can park for free – lots of boroughs don’t have sticker parking – but I get a feeling Mr. Privilege doesn’t spend a lot of time in the Point, for instance.
-
Kate
Matthew Pearce is retiring from running the Old Brewery Mission which he’s done for 12 years.
-
Kate
A group of McGill students is keeping up the pressure to remove the statue of James McGill, which dates from 1996 and is more casual than idolatrous, but nonetheless, it must go. There’s meant to be a demonstration on Saturday. The next step will have to be the removal of his offensive name from the university.
Update: The Gazette talks to one of McGill’s ten Black professors about systemic racism at the university.
Meezly
Ogunremi: “From my experiences with the university administration…the university needs to be pushed, needs to be pressured constantly to do the right thing. They won’t do the right thing unless their hand is forced,” and this often needs to be done by “the people who are most affected.”
So true. Their track record has consistently proved so, from refusing to launch investigations on sexual misconduct, divesting from fossil fuels, even taking years to rename a bloody sports team. I feel if they give in to one thing, they will have to follow suit with others. God forbid that they become a more progressive and inclusive university!
david184
I don’t disagree that the administration will basically do nothing unless chased. But chasing them on this is just kooky. Renaming the school! Like, what’s next, renaming Montreal itself? Should I change my name because of something some ancestor of mine did? We’re all beneficiaries of some old injustice, is the next white ultra-progressive position that we should organize a mass suicide to atone for this fact?
ant6n
McGill is one of the few Canadian universities known internationally outside of academia. It may take a couple of decades to get back to that point if one were to rename the school.
(That said, I agree with Meezly, the school itself should be more proactive about dealing with its shit)
Blork
They should name the university after a fictional character. Suggestion: Saul Goodman from “Better Call Saul,” whose real (fictional) name is Jimmy McGill.
Kate
I’m sure once it is renamed it’ll be obvious, but clearly it can’t be the University of Montreal, because that’s taken. Maybe the University of Tiohtià:ke?
JaneyB
This is unfortunately a very tricky problem because foreign students (who fund much of McGill due to their exorbitant tuition fees) actually go to McGill expressly for the name. Maybe they could hyphenate it somehow? Any replacement name will also need to be English because Americans are a bit afraid of non-English names. It also can’t have ‘of’ in it, because Americans associate that with (lower quality) state universities rather than private ones eg: University of Michigan vs Harvard, Stanford, MIT etc. I’ll bet that all Americans assume McGill is a private university, even the ones going there right now.
Kate
JaneyB, good points. But who to name it after, if not the founder? Who have we notably failed to honour in public life?
They could get tricky and say they were renaming it for Peter McGill, the city’s second mayor, and no relation to the unsainted James.
Jebediah Pallindrome
I think this is silly. Aside from donating the land and providing the start-up funds McGill had nothing to do with the institution that bears his name.
The issue of McGill’s reputation derived primarily from the name of its initial benefactor, rather than the actual work of professors and students, is a problem unto itself. McGill didn’t do any of the work that gave the institution its well-earned academic reputation.
As to whether foreign students will continue to flock to Montreal if the name is changed, I can’t imagine highly-discounted Ivy League quality education will in any shape be deminished should the institution re-brand. Corporations literally do it all the time with minimal impact to their botom lines. This is what marketers do, and McGill can afford a ‘product re-launch’ as it were.
As to a new name, we’re not limited in our options: Harriet Brooks, William Osler, Wilder Penfield, John Peters Humphrey (the guy who wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights!!!).
Norman Bethune’s an option too (and would have plenty of name recognition in China, arguably far more so than the name McGill).
Alternatively, Mount Royal University, Montreal University, Hochelaga University, Kondiaronk University…
We have *a lot* of slavery-free options.
david13
Just so goofy. Canadians have this tendency toward self-abnegation, and this American-imported racial moment perfectly feeds into that. Where other cultures want to (and do) believe the best about themselves, we seek (and inevitably find) the worst, and then elevate the voices that articulate our sins most damningly, as a sort of cultural practice. This has been going on for so long that so many of us have been raised with this hate/contempt for our “culture,” and are glad to see this contempt confirmed by external sources.
This latest latching onto the American movements of the moment, which argue in some basic sense that ‘whites’ have lost the moral authority to govern, it’s so obviously a ‘Canadian’ move. But, of course, it’s nothing close to a true problem in Quebec.
When were growing up, the anglos were the conservatives/nationalists, and everything that happened was a franco move eroding our culture, as it was.
Like, truly, how crazy do you have to be to suggest that we change the name of McGill? Seriously, just so so crazy.
david13
And this Jebediah poster – what’s the odds that he’s an American? 3/1? Better?
Like, move to our country, demand that the school you chose to attend changes its name, because of something you learned about the guy who donated the land/money almost two hundred years ago.
Yeah, that’s not privilege.
Hamza
privileged McGill students should put their weight behind a more practical, effective response than this . i can assure you that BIPOC students will feel almost no difference from this action, despite the legitimate reasons behind it
Ian
David(x) I find it interesting that you think everyone who is socially conscious is somehow being influenced by American thought to the extent that you consider it an “American import”. This speaks loudly to how little you know about our intellectual history in Canada and Quebec, or even about socially conscious thought in general. Even more worrisome is that the implication is you think that not being socially conscious is not only the better way to be, but emblematic of thought “chez nous”.
Your line of “foreign influence” reasoning is ignorant dull, and offensive… and has been addressed on many occasions here. Please stop.
-
Kate
The longshoremen’s union has warned of a second four-day strike at the port to begin Monday.
-
Kate
Boat owners plan to fight the city’s intention to turn the Lachine marina into a public park.
Er
The report was kinda painful to watch… really felt like « oh no, these poor rich people won’t be able to enjoy their boats »
Honestly 16 000 000$ just so 450 people can keep their boat parking spot screams 1% entitlement.John B
Turning the marina into a park fits the current political trends, but we live on an island, and having the ability to use boats should increase our awareness of the river, and by extension the local environnement.
I would question some of the numbers: 16 million is a lot, but I question the management. For example::
1. Why does a marina need a sewer system, beyond maybe toilet for someone who works there. Make people who need pump-out facilites go elsewhere to do it.
2. Should a gas station be something that makes a profit, not something that is a cost? If selling gas doesn’t make enough money to maintain the gas-selling facility you’re doing something wrong. If there’s really no way to make it work eliminate it and boaters will have to go elsewhere to fill up.
3. If it’s running at a deficit then raise the prices. For someone with a boat large enough that it needs a mooring like at Lachine an extra $600 per year, (enough to make the marina break-even), barely changes the annual cost of boat ownership. Heck, raise the price even more. If there’s really $16M of work to do, that’s $35k per boat. Maybe make it cost $2500/year to park your boat there for the next 20 years. If there’s really as much demand as it seems it’ll get paid.
4. Erosion happen whether it’s a marina or a park. Maybe there’s more without mosquito-producing, maybe not.
Boating is a pretty 1% activity, but it doesn’t have to happen in a way that 100% excludes the other 99%. If renovations are going to happen maybe find a way to fit more boats, (thus increasing the amount of money coming from private pockets), and find a way to incorporate some non-motorized activities in the area.
The bit about the rowing club is a bit rich. Saying “if it’s a park maybe the rowing club can have some space to store more boats indoors.” That means other people are already eying the park as a place to put their buildings. And rowing clubs are maybe even more 1% than marinas.
-
Kate
A new political party is forming with its eye on the 2021 municipal election. It’s just reserved the name Action Montréal with the DGEQ.
walkerp
Is there a naming convention document somewhere for Montreal municipal political parties that they must have the most boring, generic and unidentifiable names possible? + Montreal.
Forward Montreal
Avant Montreal
Direction Montreal
Progress Montreal (rejected, too political)Kate
There’s a whole list of them here and they’re mostly like that. Unlike federal and provincial parties, they tend to spawn in reaction to each other and crumble away after their initial leader quits or dies. I think since they don’t tend to have set political positions like “conservative” or “liberal” that they tend to just grab a name off the rack.
Dhomas
Is it just me, or is (was) Saint-Leonard over-represented in terms of number of parties on that Wikipedia list?
Kate
Dhomas, it does seem that way. But I don’t know that the list is complete. Might be that someone with a particular interest in St-Léonard history added all this stuff to Wikipedia and linked it up.
If you read the brief article on Action civique de Saint Léonard you’ll see that the parties were constantly splitting, and some of this dates from when it was a distinct town and not a borough of Montreal.
denpanosekai 20:14 on 2020-08-01 Permalink
my wife made a bunch. quite a few people in my neighborhood started offering masks on our local facebook group
Kate 20:38 on 2020-08-01 Permalink
I have a decent one made by a neighbour and offered the same way. It’s also nice, but I don’t think she wants to keep cranking them out.
John B 21:25 on 2020-08-01 Permalink
My business partner ordered some from China for his other job, and at the same time put in an order for some with our logo on it. They’re super comfy and have the metal nose thing. It’s not locally sourced or organic or whatever, but I like it. If you want some Montreal City Weblog masks he might share how to get them 😉
And it arrived, which is more than we can say about the ones we ordered from Bigarade back in April…
Sean 22:35 on 2020-08-01 Permalink
Kim Yen makes some great ones! https://instagram.com/kimyencrafts
Francesco 23:19 on 2020-08-02 Permalink
I have a couple of custom-pattern masks made by a good friend, an Expos mask from Claridge courtesy of Exposfest, plus a few Tilley masks (made in China!) from Costco.ca along with a few disposable masks and N95/KN95 respirators. I only really wear the custom mask with disposable filter medium in it. It works well and is comfortable.
Ian 08:13 on 2020-08-03 Permalink
I have a short-trimmed beard but even so haven’t been able to find a custom mask that actually fits well enough to stay in place, even the ones with the metal strip and adjustable straps. The disposable paper masks stay in place well enough to get by, but still…
I’ve seen a few places that made smaller masks for children but never any large ones.
I’ve got a professional quality N99 cartridge filter mask that fits great, but it’s a shop mask so has one-way valves – not really the point of the masks in the contagion. I’ve been seeing a lot of people wearing one-way masks – mostly the kind for joggers with pollen allergies. I’m surprised the word hasn’t gotten out that those are actually worse in terms of transmitting the disease than no mask at all.