Updates from October, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 21:12 on 2020-10-16 Permalink | Reply  

    I posted months ago about my iPad, and just noticed I forgot to follow that up.

    I run an older Mac with an older version of the OS for reasons, and it turned out that there was a specific iPad fix that needed to be done that was only possible with a more recent version of the OS.

    It was thanks to a friend (who sometimes reads this blog) who fixed it via his newer Mac that I’ve had a usable iPad all summer, and am still happily using it. I don’t think he’d want me to name him, but it was a kindly act at a time when the Apple store is inaccessible.

     

    • Kate 18:47 on 2020-10-16 Permalink | Reply  

      Annalisa Harris, the woman on whose account Sue Montgomery was punted from the Projet caucus, says the city refused to take her complaints seriously when she alleged she suffered psychological harassment in the borough offices. Harris also says Mayor Plante damaged her reputation. (Maybe it’s just me, and slap me down if I’m wrong – but does Harris not look a little young to be appointed anyone’s chief of staff?)

      Meantime, Montgomery is trying to get an injunction to prevent other councillors from communicating with borough director Stéphane Plante without her knowledge.

      This is important news, I guess, since it’s in several media, but reading about this is getting to be like hearing about anyone’s internal office problems.

       

      • Kevin 20:08 on 2020-10-16 Permalink

        I’m not sure how old she is, but I know I looked even younger* when I had my first position of responsibility in giving people tasks.

        Some handled it well. Some screamed at me. Some defended me for doing a hard job.

        My immediate boss pulled me into her office after someone filed a complaint about something and she gave me great support and some better advice: she told me to always keep in the front of my mind that all these people I was directing hither and yon did not work for me, they worked for *her*.

        It’s a minor mental leap, but it was good advice that I still use to this day, decades later.

        *One weekend after the birth of my second child I was carded five times. That only stopped when I lost my hair 🙂

      • Ian 08:12 on 2020-10-19 Permalink

        Worth noting, Montgomery herself has noted that Harris was the victim of sexism and ageism (Sept, 10, Gazette)

        FWIW Harris is 27- young, but not astoundingly so – and Montgomery has noted on many occasions that Harris is extraordinarily competent & hard-working.

      • Su 09:22 on 2020-10-21 Permalink

        It does concern me that an unelected bureaucrat Burrough Director seems to have more sway over policy implementation than our elected officials.

    • Kate 18:37 on 2020-10-16 Permalink | Reply  

      A Montreal man who issued online death threats against François Legault and Justin Trudeau was picked up Thursday night and was in court Friday. He’s going to be psychiatrically evaluated: the La Presse piece suggests they think the guy is unbalanced.

       

      • Kate 18:34 on 2020-10-16 Permalink | Reply  

        Grumman 78, one of the early movers in the revival of food trucks here, has decided to close up shop in response to a decline of business during the pandemic.

         

        • Ian 08:05 on 2020-10-19 Permalink

          With all the restaurant and bar closures I wonder if, in some of the more gentrified neighbourhoods, the old style places might come back after covid. I realize Grumman 78 wasn’t one of those locations but they are in the same wave of gentrification that led to the disappearance of almost all the diners along Notre Dame from Atwater to St Remi.

          Like the wild turkeys that have suddenly re-emerged with covid, I wonder if the grill cooks will slowly come back…

      • Kate 18:32 on 2020-10-16 Permalink | Reply  

        It’s difficult not to see the timing of the SPVM announcement that the Quiétude team captured 30 firearms and took them off the street as a response to this week’s critical study of the team’s tendency to arrest a preponderance of Black men. Although the seizures and arrests are being announced Friday, it seems this is a summary of actions taken over months.

         

        • Ephraim 20:22 on 2020-10-16 Permalink

          What was the cost per firearm? Have we just stumbled into a giant waste of taxpayer money… AGAIN? What was the total cost of this operation? How many officers? What’s the estimate of these kind of weapons on the street? What percentage of these weapons have now been removed from circulation? What the desired result? Did it achieve this result? Did it really do anything other than waste money?

        • Jebediah Pallindrome 21:04 on 2020-10-16 Permalink

          ^ I was waiting for the Ayn Rand fanboy approach to police reform

          By this logic, abandon all homicide investigations… particularly the difficult ones. Also stop investigating rapes and definitiely don’t look into any crimes involving children, as they are not typically high earners.

          From now on the SPVM will only look into crimes with a high potential cost-benefit ratio:

          Art theft, car theft, grand larceny, property crimes, drugs (but only for resale purposes). Also this logic means all cops should dedicate practically all their time on bylaw enforcement and issuing parking and speeding tickets

          Next time don’t rage comment.

        • dwgs 21:13 on 2020-10-16 Permalink

          I think maybe you’re reading a little too much into the comment Jebediah. Also, does this mean that you are a fan of Operation Quietude? Seems a strange stance from what I’ve seen of your stance on things. One more thing and Kate can rap my knuckles if I’m out of line but it’s bad form for the commenters to try to order each other about. It’s Kate’s place, she’s the only one who gets to make such suggestions.

        • Kate 21:14 on 2020-10-16 Permalink

          Thank you, dwgs. I was just about to suggest Mr Pallindrome shouldn’t drunk-comment either.

        • Ephraim 22:26 on 2020-10-16 Permalink

          @Pallindrome – Well, I guess you don’t know very much about policing, budgeting or stats… or me. For the most part, most police don’t really solve crimes anymore, they report crime. They also arrest, not prosecute, which many people forget.

          It’s important to know what this cost, what the objectives were and if this is at all efficient to know if maybe we can better allocate funds to more effective programs that will actually help…. like in actually catching up on DNA rape kits, doing genetic genealogy to catch people and investing in housing for the homeless. Oh and a top priority for the Montreal police, learning how to stop discriminating against people of colour.

          Police don’t really do much about car theft, nor can they, other than setting up traps. Technology stops car theft… try stealing a Tesla car… it reports where it is, you can’t use a supercharger, etc.

          And the murder rate is so low that most cities no longer even have a dedicated homicide squad. The solve rate is particularly low and police often hide the numbers by reclassifying murders into “drug related” or “mob/gang related” categories.

          Can I suggest that you look up an episode on policing in the US… “You are wrong about… Murder” if you want a general introduction. As I have pointed out on here, there is no statistical correlation between crime and reported crime (and I have explained that before on here.) The statistical correlation is between crime and apprehension. But I’ve been a proponent for a long time of making our police more personal, less army-like and clearly making them understand that they have to lead by example. And we really really really need a civilian oversight board. And we need to stop punishing police with paid time off or vacation time. In fact, I pointed out just a few weeks ago about a policeman who was paid his salary for 3 years while doing NOTHING and who’s now asking to be re-instated.

        • Ephraim 22:36 on 2020-10-16 Permalink

          BTW, think of this as the Pareto’s principle question. At what point are we wasting money, versus getting better (or effective) results. Especially when we have a limited budget.

        • Jebediah Pallindrome 23:36 on 2020-10-16 Permalink

          You’re all right, and I am wrong. I apologize.

        • walkerp 08:54 on 2020-10-17 Permalink

          It’s worse than just a waste of money. This squad was formed specifically in response to a report that said they were profiling. They did this to generate statistics and create a false narrative that there was an increase in gun crime and that it was mainly done by people of colour so they could justify their ongoing racist practices.

      • Kate 15:00 on 2020-10-16 Permalink | Reply  

        The 19-year-old accused in the stabbing death of 87-year-old Normand Paradis last week was just out of jail. I can’t reconcile the statement that he entered Paradis’ house “dans des circonstances toujours inconnues” with the subsequent information that he pretended to be a police officer to gain access.

         

        • Kate 14:57 on 2020-10-16 Permalink | Reply  

          Montreal residents planted a record number of trees this year, 4,400 having been planted in the “Un arbre pour mon quartier” project.

           

          • Jebediah Pallindrome 21:05 on 2020-10-16 Permalink

            but what does Terry di Monte and whoever’s left working the CJAD chitchat robot think about this?

        • Kate 13:50 on 2020-10-16 Permalink | Reply  

          Projections say we need to reduce contacts even more if we want to squelch the pandemic here.

           

          • Jebediah Pallindrome 21:06 on 2020-10-16 Permalink

            …for a highly contagious disease?

            …doesn’t sound right.

        • Kate 10:10 on 2020-10-16 Permalink | Reply  

          A study says that Quebec should brace for mental health consequences from the pandemic lockdown, especially in Montreal.

           

          • Ian 11:00 on 2020-10-16 Permalink

            It’s already really, really hard to find any psychologists willing to take on new clients, especially teens. Even the wait lists for psychiatrists is extremely long.

          • Kate 11:10 on 2020-10-16 Permalink

            Maybe Legault needs to create a fast training session for emergency therapists.

          • steph 11:44 on 2020-10-16 Permalink

            Kate, I can’t tell if you’re serious or not. Amateur psychologists with 6 months of training will causing more harm.

          • Michael Black 12:04 on 2020-10-16 Permalink

            I think it was a joke, based on the calls for retired health care people (or those in other fields) to step in and help.

            Of course, there’s a spectrum. Someone might just need someone to talk to, there are trained volunteers for that. And others need much more help. If the former can get low level help from a phone line, it leaves the pros for the rest.

          • Kate 13:22 on 2020-10-16 Permalink

            It was more or less a joke, although Michael Black makes a good point about trained listeners as well.

          • Blork 14:42 on 2020-10-16 Permalink

            Anxiety levels have really spiked because of all the uncertainty. If anyone here finds themselves experiencing abnormal levels of anxiety or chronic worrying, I highly recommend “The Worry Trick” by David Carbonell. This isn’t just another self-help book; it’s actually recommended by, and used by, therapists. And it’s an easy read; not technical or anything, but it gives you a really good insight into worry and anxiety and offers counter-intuitive but effective ways to deal with it.

            https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23845923-the-worry-trick

          • Kate 14:54 on 2020-10-16 Permalink

            Going by what I see around the internet, I don’t worry enough.

          • JaneyB 09:32 on 2020-10-19 Permalink

            @Blork – Another resource for anxiety I discovered only yesterday…”Breath” by James Nestor. For the general reading public, it explores some of the research and history of different breathing techniques and current health issues around breathing. Assorted interviews on youtube etc are worth a view. Very surprising and many rave reviews.

        • Kate 10:03 on 2020-10-16 Permalink | Reply  

          Fifty years ago, Pierre Trudeau activated the War Measures Act at the request of Robert Bourassa and Jean Drapeau. It was the only time the Act was invoked during peacetime – there’s no such act any more, although governments have various emergency provisions available.

          The armed forces have a virtual exhibit about how the events felt from the military side. It’s online here.

          Le Devoir is adding more pieces to its October Crisis category.

           

          • Kate 09:55 on 2020-10-16 Permalink | Reply  

            Police have rebuffed the study that showed the Quiétude squad, tasked with getting illegal guns off the street, had basically gone around arresting Black men but not charging them with firearms offenses. One is quoted here: ” La culture des armes à feu […] est liée au phénomène des gangs, à la criminalité de rue et à la pauvreté, et est malheureusement, par le fait même, souvent liée à l’immigration.”

            Toula Drimonis has a good piece today on CultMTL about the Quiétude squad and the mirage that Montreal is facing a lot of gun violence.

            Two young Black men are suing the city for $4 million over a claim they were profiled when police stopped them as they walked up the Main five years ago. What happened next resulted in injuries to the men, who had asked the police why they were being stopped, and the case is based on their claim they also suffered extensive psychological trauma afterwards.

            Another Atikamekw patient has died in hospital after reporting that he overheard racist remarks made about him.

            A new report lists 200 criminal investigations launched since 2015 following allegations made by First Nations individuals against police officers.

             

            • Meezly 10:11 on 2020-10-16 Permalink

              Hopefully the new city commissioner of racism will tackle Quiétude, perhaps a full review of that department would be a good start.

              You don’t need a special OCPM report to prove how systemic racism is embedded in our fair city.

            • Chris 22:47 on 2020-10-16 Permalink

              “Ce policier déplore que des zones existent à Montréal où la direction du SPVM ne veut pas que se rendent les policiers … Il dit que les policiers ont l’ordre de ne pas arrêter des individus dans certains secteurs”

              I hadn’t heard that before. Anyone know of any independent confirmation/denial?

          • Kate 09:45 on 2020-10-16 Permalink | Reply  

            Some notes on where not to drive this weekend.

             

            • Kate 09:44 on 2020-10-16 Permalink | Reply  

              A fire overnight damaged two apartment buildings in Mercier and left three people injured. TVA says it looks like the fire was deliberately set.

               

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