The city says that the “voies actives sécuritaires” are popular, and are encouraging cycling and walking.
Updates from August, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A survey shows that nearly three quarters of the people who used to take public transit to work no longer feel comfortable doing so and it’s one of the things holding people back from returning to work.
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Kate
Black residents of Montreal suburbs have stories of chronic racial profiling by police. Can François Legault read a story like this and still insist profiling is not deeply embedded in Quebec’s law enforcement?
jeather
I would bet that he can and that he will.
Michael Black
I thought it was semantics. I thought he was picturing cops beating up Black people because they were Black. And there probably are “just a few bad eggs” in that regard.
It is more subtle. As I said, the cops see “criminal” and then set out to prove it. So they can swear at us and threaten to beat us up (and do so for some) and illegally search us, because they have for some reason thought we were criminal. We don’t count, so there’s no reason to treat us nice, or apologize afterwards.
That’s why this isn’t going to be easy, why the new “rules” haven’t change anything. This is their job, but instead they see as “suspicious” someone who’s Black or native or has long hair rather than actual suspicious behaviour like sneaking down alleys late at night.
This is why there have been so many empty statements. Nobody like racism (racists don’t see their actions as racism), but the announcements can be made because the real issue is down lots of layers.
It’s easy to be against racism, but harder to be welcoming of different people. We can all make mistakes until something makes us see otherwise, and then we can look back in embarrassment.
Just when does someone finally “belong”?
Ian
You never do, Michael. That’s the entire point of ethnonationalism. Loi 21 is a mere dogwhistle compared to the full intent of the concept of what it means to be “from here”.
Hamza
We need to stop acting like simply being aware of racism is an accomplishment.
Every few years((months)? there’s a rush of reports of racism and bigotry from state employees ,cops, politicians , STM workers , the province has a moment and it’s all swept back under the rug .
The people demand action . So far, I only see Quebec Solidaire with the courage to stand against Quebec’s ingrained structural racism .
Kate
We need to stop acting like simply being aware of racism is an accomplishment.
That’s a vital point, Hamza. People of good will tend to feel that calling out racism is enough – we’d be ashamed or embarrassed to be caught expressing or acting from racist feelings, and we’d be inclined to clean up our act. But it’s clear it doesn’t work that way for everyone.
Ian
Even Quebec Solidaire are still very firmly ethnonationalist, Hamza – they are separatists and French first, this position is very clear.
«Ça fait des années qu’on sait que la protection de la langue française pose problème à Montréal. Le gouvernement Legault attend quoi pour mettre en œuvre des mesures spécifiques?», s’est questionné le député solidaire Sol Zanetti.
Even on Zanetti’s WIkipedia page they find it necessary to specifically say “He is of Italian and Québécois descent.” That’s a dogwhistle if I ever heard one.
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Kate
CTV reports that the Apple store on Ste-Catherine is closed until further notice but leaves hanging the question: why is this, specifically, news? There are hints about Covid, but nothing definite.
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Kate
A judge has granted a stay to part of Bill 40 mandating the end of school boards, sparing the anglo side only. The anglo boards will be holding an election November 1.
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Kate
Parents will no doubt want to inform themselves in more detail, but the Quebec rules now say masks will be mandatory in school in grade 5 and up, but not in classrooms, not at recess, etcetera.
We can hope this is not going to be a shitshow panic, but when one kid tests positive…
Tim S.
My son came home from daycare this week with a runny nose and a bit of a cough, and it took two hours on the hotline to be told that he could be tested but didn’t have to be, which was not super-helpful. I hope they raise their game before they start getting a wave of 8AM phone calls each weekday.
Also, it turns out that germs are still circulating freely, despite all the precautions (and we schedule his daycare time so that he’s mostly only there during outdoor playtime). So much for that hope.Kevin
My kids started dance camp today and every participant has to fill out a health checklist every day.
I am surprised the province didn’t do the same.I am astounded Arruda said to send kids to school if they are sick.
paul
My son had a sore throat and congestion last weekend after daycamps, brought the whole family for testing (quick, 20mn) and got a negative result in 24 hrs. I told him this will likely not be the last time we need to do this in the near future!
Despite all the accolades foir their management during COVID, I think that the Province has has horribly managed the Education sector, and I expect the rentree will be a complete shit show. Regardless, I think the positives of returning to school outweigh the negatives…even if it results in the inevitable spread of COVID at the grade-school level.
Ian
Where did you go for testing? I ask because I too have kids going back into the public school system in a few weeks.
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Kate
Lurid tale here from a teenager who narrowly escaped an attempted kidnapping off an Outremont street. A suspect is in custody.
Update: A man with a gruesome history involving multiple rapes is accused of this kidnapping. He had been let out on parole on the premise that he no longer posed a danger to society.
Benoit
Strange thing that only Global seems to be reporting this story. Nothing in the French-language media, to my knowledge.
Kate
QMI’s got it and I linked the detailed La Presse account in my update, but I don’t see it yet on Radio-Canada.
Global did have the scoop on this story, Monday morning.
For stories like this, you often have to go to the Info-Patrouille section on TVA, and the Justice et faits divers section on La Presse.
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Kate
In the New York Times, Dan Bilefsky summarizes the story about renaming Lionel-Groulx for Oscar Peterson – or not. As usual, Bilefsky slightly simplifies the issue. I’m particularly irked by the misconceptions in this: “Robin Philpot, a prominent Quebec writer, argued that Montreal should guard against a longstanding drive by the British conquerors of Quebec and their descendants to Anglicize the names of streets and bridges in the city.” What? What?!
Ian
Ah well you know all the streets and bridges in Montreal were here before the English took over in 1965, which is why we had the Quiet Revolution in 1967. /s
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Kate
The ruelles vertes trend has been growing throughout this locked down summer, more people seeing the charm of having a nice place to walk and to socialize in a distanced way with neighbours.
Ian
When the borough came around asking if we wanted a green alley I happily signed the petition. It’s great having a nice green space just the other side of my gate.
This summer though I’ve actually been avoiding my green alley because my neighbours have taken to having gatherings in it – they sit around folding tables, not distanced, chatting and drinking. Very civilized and pleasant in other times but seeing 6-8 unmasked families and their kids socializing in an outdoor but still fairly enclosed area has made me realize that for some, green alleys have become a sort of private park where you & like minded people can get away with flouting the social distancing rules. I have been seeing alley parties all over, it’s not just mine.
I know the idea of green alleys was to create family space but it’s starting to feel more like private parks for the yuppies and bobos that are slowly taking over the neighbourhood, along with the rest of the gentrifiers to do whatever they heck they want. It should hardly come as any surprise that most of the bunch in my alley live in single family dwellings that used to be duplexes before they bought them.
Tim
I wonder if the neighbours you have typecast as yuppies and gentrifiers have noticed your absence in the alley. They’re probably too busy enjoying such a fantastic neighbourhood. I even bet those jerks don’t buy enough chips, smokes and beer to keep your local deps open either. 🙂
Ian
Oh I’m sure they notice absolutely nothing that hasn’t directly got to do with them. We all go to the same dep, and frankly they buy more smokes, chips and beer than I do … but one thing I can tell you for certain is they aren’t buying the masks they sell there. I’m kind of glad summer break is coming to a close despite being worried about sending the kids back to school, at least theirs all go to private schools.
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Kate
Longshoremen at the Port of Montreal began an unlimited strike Monday.
david28
The drop in trade has to be tough – with fewer containers to steal from and a lower flow of drugs/weapons/etc. for them to traffic to their mafia colleagues, it’s hardly worth the $100,000+ these guys make from their 3.5-4 day work week.
CE
I would be interested in seeing the sources you have that back up all these seemingly outlandish claims.
david28
Excellent contribution, thanks for that. If you’re having trouble, you could try google?
CE
You’ve accused a group of people of theft, dealing drugs and weapons, working with organized crime, corruption, and laziness. Each of these alone are serious accusations and together should warrant a major police investigation. If you want to have any credibility at all, the least you could do is provide a bit of proof to back up these accusations (and “Google it lol” doesn’t really cut it).
Kate
I’m in agreement with CE here, david28. Armchair slandering doesn’t cut it.
Mr.Chinaski
If it’s anything like in The Wire (and it probably is), it’s all corrupts out there on the docks…
Ian
While David(n) may safely be assumed to be blowing hot air most of the time, it’s not exactly an open secret that there is massive organized crime in the Port of Montreal, which very directly involves the longshoremen. Here’s a doc from 2001, not much has changed.
“The longshoremen are the individuals who unload the containers from the ships, put them on rail cars or trucks, and send them out. But one of the most important positions is the checker—in French they call them vérificateurs. They have what they call a stow plan, which is a document that says exactly what will be coming off a boat, and this way they’ll know exactly which container must go to which place and they will have these containers placed in a stack to move them with transport of any kind.
What we have noticed in the various investigations is that some containers, which were supposed to be placed in a certain place, were moved a few minutes later, and then five minutes later moved to another spot, and then moved to another spot and yet another spot, five or six times. This is because they know that there are cameras there and they know that sometimes police could be around with cameras or conducting surveillance on them. So this way it’s like the shell and nut kind of game and they’re trying to avoid being detected. And we know for a fact, through our investigation and through sources—we have human sources who give us that information—that they are doing this every time there is a specific container with illegal drugs.”
https://www.ourcommons.ca/DocumentViewer/en/37-1/SNUD/meeting-13/evidence
thomas
Isn’t it the “West End Gang” (Irish Westies) that has infiltrated (controls?) the Port of Montreal?
Ian
Historically there are a lot of different groups that have action going on through there including the bikers and the mafia as well.
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Kate
A mini heat wave warning has been issued for Monday and Tuesday, but this whole week has peaks around 30°.
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Kate
The Pride festival this year will be totally online, with no parade.
CE
Are many people “attending” these online events and concerts that have been happening since the beginning of the pandemic? Personally, watching a band play to an empty venue on my computer screen or attending a Zoom conference, even on a topic that interests me, does not sound appealing at all (especially in the middle of the summer).
Kate
CE, I haven’t seen anything reporting on participation, but it’s a good question.
I’m going to guess that any festival doing this is mostly keeping the seat warm for the future, possibly justifying any grants they got this year by producing something they can point to as an ongoing concern.
CE
I hadn’t really thought of the online events as being a seat warmer more than an actual thing to be consumed. There’s definitely a “use it or lose it” mentality around grants and funding. I’m just glad nobody I know has asked me to fill a virtual seat at one of their virtual events and that Zoom happy hours have all but disappeared.
Ian
I do a Zoom happy hour every Friday, it’s been fantastic. Mileage may vary.
Even Burning Man is going virtual this year.
CE
To each their own but for me, trying to do any socializing over Zoom has been miserable unless it’s one-on-one. I had to do a few classes to finish up a couple courses I was doing via Zoom and I don’t think I got anything from them. I can’t imagine doing an entire semester of it.
Ian
I’ve been teaching classes on MS Teams all summer, every day – it’s different than a classroom experience but I have a lot fo experience working remotely on a distributed team so I have a few tricks up my sleeve to make videoconferencing feel more like a forum for creative discourse. I know some teachers are just posting videos and assignments, not having real time classes at all. That seems weird to me.
CE
How have the students been feeling about it? I found that when I did the Zoom classes, I couldn’t keep my attention and by the end, had a bit of a headache. The few social things I participated in had the same affect but not as bad. I found that more than anything, the sound of people’s voices bothered me quite a bit.
Ian
Well it’s definitely an issue that not everyone has a fast internet connection or decent headphones. People with kids or only one computer shared across a household with no private area to work in suffer a lot, too.
Obviously getting back to classes in person will be better but for now it’s better than nothing. I have been doing this 5 days a week since April, maybe I’m just used to it now.
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Kate
The people who pick returnable cans out of your trash have collected a record 1.5 million cans since July 1. The issue whether it’s risky to do this these days isn’t mentioned here.
Ian 00:15 on 2020-08-11 Permalink
Something something causality… maybe we could focus on workable spaces instead of agendas for one furshlugginer second, or *GASP* tax relief…
John B 08:56 on 2020-08-11 Permalink
As someone who is often on a bike, I find the Wellington version, where cycling is officially forbidden, frustrating. The promise of VAS, where we could use mixed active transport, including bikes, to get places, has transformed into a street where we’re not allowed to ride our bikes, and I don’t feel welcome to stop on my way home & pick something up.
On the other hand when I’m walking it’s great. Overall I like it better than when cars were allowed, and I hope it comes back – and is improved to allow some officially blessed cycling, and maybe a way for people to pick up heavy things at places like Rona.