Updates from August, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 20:24 on 2020-08-30 Permalink | Reply  

    The fallen statue of Sir John A. Macdonald was hauled away by a city truck Sunday morning. No decision has been made yet what to do with it, although there has been a wave of reactions.

    I’d say beat it into plowshares, but we don’t need plowshares any more.

    That Radio-Canada piece includes a discussion with an historian, who says “vandalizing a statue becomes part of its history. It’s also the history of a society in evolution.”

    CBC also spoke to an Indigenous education professor in P.E.I. about the toppling. She makes a good point that nobody got hurt in the gesture, among other things.

     

    • walkerp 08:46 on 2020-08-31 Permalink

      Good one on the plowshares! 🙂

    • Ephraim 09:14 on 2020-08-31 Permalink

      I’m sure that it would look good in the foyer of a museum, along with a plaque explaining his negative and positive attributes, for future generations to see, learn and judge.

    • Uatu 10:39 on 2020-08-31 Permalink

      Moment factory should install some holographic projector to display some 3d image of a statue. Maybe a clown….

    • Ian 17:32 on 2020-08-31 Permalink

      Melt it down for summer of covid souvenir medallions.

  • Kate 20:19 on 2020-08-30 Permalink | Reply  

    A convoy of Black drivers drove from Montreal to François Legault’s riding office in L’Assomption on Sunday to protest racial profiling and arbitrary stops by police.

     

    • Kate 16:22 on 2020-08-30 Permalink | Reply  

      The city is ending its parking sticker grace period, so you need to get a new one if you use them.

       

      • Ian 17:33 on 2020-08-31 Permalink

        Thanks for the reminder! I forgot mine sitting on my desk and had a moment of panic before I found it under a pile of books.

    • Kate 10:32 on 2020-08-30 Permalink | Reply  

      I was looking up something else in the blog archives, and was reminded that, not so long ago, people were worried about the REM construction in the Mount Royal tunnel and how it would make it difficult for suburbanites to commute to their downtown offices. Not so much any more.

      I’m seeing articles both about how influenza could be naturally spiked by the distancing measures imposed for the pandemic, but also how a bad flu season could overwhelm hospitals if it coincided with a second wave of Covid. I prefer to be optimistic, and hope in future people will be saying “Do you remember colds and flu, and how they just stopped after 2020?”

      Also, on thinking about it: haven’t had any religious proselytizers at the door either. Also a plus.

      Although… thinking again… I’ve recently had several of those recorded scare phone calls claiming to be from the federal government. I think the scammers are going to ramp those up as CERB ends and people get nervous about their right to financial aid.

       

      • mare 11:39 on 2020-08-30 Permalink

        Guess who’s going to pay for the contractually guaranteed 15% Return-On-Investment the REM has to make? I wouldn’t be surprised the contract also has a guaranteed start date, wether the REM is running or not, to prevent delays by unknowns like construction problems, permits and legal challenges. You could say a pandemic is and “act of god” and is excluded, but since the contracts are secret we will never know. My prediction is that new transport tax is going to be straight into the coffers of CDPQ-Infra.

      • Spi 13:24 on 2020-08-30 Permalink

        @mare that’s completely false and you’re spreading misinformation, there is no contractually guaranteed ROI of any sort attached to the REM project. If there is I’d love to see some source documents. What there is a concrete framework as to how any (if there is a profit) ROI will be split up amongst the parties involved the first tranche (I believe 9%) goes entirely to CDPQI, I’m a bit fuzzy on the details for the tranches above the first one, the second tranche it is split between CDPQI, Qc and Fed government (in a 50/25/25 share I believe, potentially up to 15% which may be the source of this figure) and the third tranche (Excess of 15%) would be split 50/50 between Qc and Fed.

        The closest thing that resembles a guaranteed ROI in place is the fee that the ARTM will be paying la caisse per passenger-km.

      • mare 00:01 on 2020-08-31 Permalink

        @spi My percentages are probably off, it’s been a while. But taking the first 9% of the profits and getting 70 cents per passenger kilometre (current cost is 30 cents for the Deux-Montagne line) sounds to me like a guaranteed ROI. And I’m very curious (and sceptical) if the losses will be carried by CDPQI, or just transferred to the Quebec Government e.g. the tax payers.

        This project just stinks on so many levels that I’m sure there will be surprises along the way. But maybe I’m wrong, time will tell.

        Regular commenter Anton Dubrau wrote a lot about it over the years, if people want to refresh their memory.

        http://www.cat-bus.com/category/rem/

      • ant6n 04:49 on 2020-08-31 Permalink

        Not a guaranteed ROI, but in practice there will be a very high ROI, based on the high fees the REM will get per passenger-km (more than double of the old, inefficiently operated commuter rail line), plus the various extra income like development taxes etc. The tranches relate to the distribution of profits of the REM: the governments and the CDPQ both “paid” about half for the project and thus get a 50.5% vs 49.5% split on ownership (although that is already a lie, because the government shovelled all sorts of money and assets towards the project without getting equity in return – like the deux-montagnes line, at a fraction of its value). At the same time most of the profits go to the Caisse, because suppossedly they`re taking on more “risk” somehow. Anyway, the whole scheme, is about funneling infrastructure and public transit spending towards the Caisse. We´ll get a suburban-centric mini-metro in return, which isn´t terrible, but the system could`ve been designed to serve many more people, and it is very expensive in the long run.

        Whatever happened to the story about the airport REM station, didn’t the airport say they couldn’t afford it anymore or something?

      • Kate 08:55 on 2020-08-31 Permalink

        ant6n, in June the airport was begging for a handout to build the spur.

      • Uatu 10:34 on 2020-08-31 Permalink

        The non compete clause to cross the Champlain bridge means there’s a guaranteed ROI. Everyone using south shore transit will be funneled to the train station so the new fare increase is effectively a tax/toll for South Shore residents anyways

      • ant6n 17:10 on 2020-08-31 Permalink

        As an aside, it seems they used to say they’ll begin operating the South Shore branch in 2020. Now their website says “a representative segment will be implemented on the South Shore in late 2020.” I wonder what this means: will they only have for example some sort of a shuttle going back and forth between two South Shore stations, and only on Sunday afternoons? It’s a funny wording that sounds like they want to manage expectations, while still formally opening the line in 2020, for _some_ sort of operation.

    • Kate 09:35 on 2020-08-30 Permalink | Reply  

      A Quebecor columnist complains about service in English in a store in NDG. But she says it’s evidence that Montreal is a bilingual city, which is not the problem. Do I even believe her anecdote? A major grocery store chain hiring someone who can’t speak French to do a public-facing job – is that even likely? In NDG, you will need English, but even the most fractious anglo has to admit that anyone anywhere in Montreal whose job involves interacting with the public should be able to respond in French.

       

      • DeWolf 10:45 on 2020-08-30 Permalink

        I’m surprised that would happen at an IGA, but this kind of thing does happen. I was in the Uniburger at St-Denis/Ontario last winter (not exactly the most anglo neighbourhood!) and the clerk simply did not speak French. Several other customers came in after me and he served them in English without so much as a “bonjour.” Most of them were young and switched to English without a second thought, but an older couple seemed a bit miffed and insisted on speaking French.

        I don’t want to seem sympathetic to the recrudescent bout of anglophobia that has been in the media lately, but since moving back two years ago, I have to admit I’ve been surprised at how much more English the city seems. The other day I walked past some temporary STM bus stop signs on Bernard and one of them was simply written “NO PARKING.” And that was a sign from the STM of all organizations.

      • Myles 14:32 on 2020-08-30 Permalink

        That’s surprising to me, but I guess I’m insulated from it, living near Parc Laurier where France French seems more common than English.

      • Hamza khan 15:58 on 2020-08-30 Permalink

        I wish she had been more specific because the only IGA near NDG is in CSL , where I could imagine someone Anglo could end up in this kind of job

      • Joey 16:43 on 2020-08-30 Permalink

        @Hamza I think there’s a new IGA on CSL road near Clanranald. Where Amazona used to be.

      • Kevin 19:06 on 2020-08-30 Permalink

        That’s a column? Yeesh.

        Is it possible that Mme. Latraverse was speaking inaudibly through her mask?

      • Hamza 22:33 on 2020-08-30 Permalink

        In either case, if you’re located on the north side of CSL boulevard, you’re in CSL (or hampstead if you’re east enough)

      • DeWolf 11:20 on 2020-08-31 Permalink

        Not quite, Hamza. CSL starts 1.5km east of the new IGA. Monkland is only a block away from it. It’s definitely the most francophone part of NDG.

      • PatrickC 13:23 on 2020-08-31 Permalink

        I wonder what Mme. Latraverse thinks about that Verdun campaign to put some ” *luv* dans ton panier”?

    • Kate 09:09 on 2020-08-30 Permalink | Reply  

      Masson Street is launching a second wave of crowdfunding, following the success of the first one. I haven’t heard of other SDCs doing this, but it seems to be working for Masson Street.

       

      • JohnV 09:55 on 2020-08-30 Permalink

        La Promenade Wellington here in Verdun did essentially the same in May : http://www.promenadewellington.com/fr/quartier/du-luv-dans-ton-panier/

      • DavidH 14:49 on 2020-08-30 Permalink

        Plaza St-Hubert had one this summer as well.

      • Kate 16:21 on 2020-08-30 Permalink

        These are nice to hear about. I don’t live close enough to any of the dense shopping streets to have such a useful offer nearby.

        Update: Spoke too soon. Jarry’s SDC is also making a similar offer!

    • Kate 08:55 on 2020-08-30 Permalink | Reply  

      La Presse asks and answers Why Macdonald, why now? with a UdeM historian.

      Alberta premier Jason Kenney is all bent out of shape about it, and says we can send the statue to him.

      Now we have a really nifty plinth in Place du Canada – whose statue should go there?

       

      • DeWolf 10:51 on 2020-08-30 Permalink

        In response to Jason Kenney, indigenous journalist Robert Jago posted on Twitter, “Fair play, Blackfeet, Cree, Metis deserve a shot at him too. Hell, they could do a tour.”

        Valérie Plante must be feeling burned by the recent negative media attention because she is all over this, insisting that the SPVM will investigate thoroughly and the city will restore the statue. I guess she’s worried the kinds of people who freak out over bike lanes also love Sir John A?

      • Kate 10:54 on 2020-08-30 Permalink

        I think it’s more a question of simply asserting order. As mayor, she has to be on the side of order, officially.

      • AA 14:52 on 2020-08-30 Permalink

        The most Montreal thing to do would be to replace with a statue of the Botero family: https://twitter.com/Montreal/status/1288196045906862080

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