Anyone want to check out this gloomy Aaron Derfel thread on the state of Covid in Montreal?
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Kate
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Kate
Two people have been charged with criminal negligence over letting their alligator bite a child. This is the famous gator that was spotted crossing Jarry last December, and is really not a full-size Florida-type beast but some sort of overgrown caiman. Still, not something you’d want nipping at your fingers.
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Kate
The N-word has been in the news here, with our politicians defending a University of Ottawa professor who used the word in a discussion about how certain communities reclaim negative expressions. (An earlier such case at Concordia involved a professor using the word in reference to a certain book by Pierre Vallières which includes the word in the English translation of the title; I saw a discussion earlier today, which I forgot to note, claiming that the French word used in the original title has less of a sting.)
Now a north-end high school teacher is in hot water for saying the word in a discussion of current events.
Some of this is about confusion of the use-mention distinction, basically taking any utterance of the word to be a use. But it can’t be so difficult for professors to find some way to approach a discussion that might involve such a highly offensive expression that doesn’t involve actually uttering the word in class.
…Oh here we go, Pierre Trudel in Le Devoir: “Le fait qu’en français le mot n’ait pas la même connotation échappe à plusieurs.” Is it for him to say so?
Ian
I bet they position it in the same way as how swearing in English doesn’t count like how that guy got away with swearing at a cop back in ’08 because it was in English and they were both Francophones.
Ian
…and rather reliably, MBC says «On est victime de l’accouplement morbide du racialisme américain et du multiculturalisme canadien» . Of course he thinks the “N-word” is a conspiracy to destroy QC culture. What a brave champion of his people.
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Kate
Valérie Plante has announced that parking
downtownwill be free on weekends from mid‑November till the end of the year. Extended shopping hours have also been announced.I should clarify: the parking will be free all over town during those six weeks.
Meezly
This could be tied into the shop local post, as this is part of the measures announced earlier today to support local businesses leading up to the holiday season.
Kate
True, but this was new news Thursday morning and, with all the fuss about parking, I thought it deserved its own post. Here’s the shop-local story.
Ian
I wonder how this will affect the “temporary” no-parking zones in places like the commercial streets in Mile End Mile End.
Has anyone heard anything about the expiration date for the public gathering hotspots Mile End’s “shared streets” have been turned into? Most of St Viateur looks like a superspreader event just waiting to happen.
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Kate
A fire in a small apartment building in Park Ex displaced 20 people who are bound to have difficulty finding new places to live.
TVA seems to be trying to make a scandal of the fact that the city’s still paying to house victims of a north-end fire in April. The building in that case was found unfit for occupation but this item isn’t clear on whether the landlord will have to pay the tab.
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Kate
A man has been charged with making death threats to Valérie Plante. The mayor reveals that getting threatened and harassed has been part of her life as mayor.
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Kate
Radio-Canada digs into the knotty question of how a gangster can be a member of the Quebec bar and what the implications are.
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Kate
More than 7000 people have signed a petition deploring the anglicization of Montreal. Here’s the page for the petition.
Ephraim
What’s the quorum on 4 million people in the metropolitan area?
Ant6n
Who’s doing a counter petition celebrating Montreals diversity.
qatzelok
Commercial media is.
Ant6n
Bullshit. In Quebec, a good chunk of commercial media is celebrating bigotry. Eg. Richard martipuke.
thomas
I find it interesting that one of the sponsors of the petition is a translator. I guess she is looking for a different career.
Ian
Qatzi, you don’t think Québecor is commercial? Interesting.
Uatu
The translator wants to corner the market by keeping everyone from learning English…
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Kate
Restaurant owners are pleading with the Quebec government to be allowed to open their dining rooms.
Ephraim
Government should put in a specification for air exchange and HEPA filtering and see how many of these restauranteurs are willing to do that. I haven’t been inside a restaurant to eat since March. I do try to pick up and order directly when I can, so they don’t have to pay commission. And a few restaurants are now doing mise-en-place including Danny Smiles from Le Bremner. Delivery that you finish the cooking, so you have a restaurant quality meal that is served as hot as it is supposed to be served.
Douglas
Government should just tell restaurant owners to die off close their businesses.
Then they won’t have to worry about them anymore.
Who’s next on the list.
MarcG
I don’t understand how restaurant people are different from other people, why don’t they just collect EI and watch TV like everyone else?
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Kate
Candidates for the mayoral election next year are gradually materializing although it’s still not clear whether Denis Coderre will attempt a comeback.
CE
I did a survey a little while ago about a possible election. All the questions pitted Plante against Coderre. I’m curious if it was commissioned by Coderre’s team to see what kind of support he might have.
MarcG
Nitpicking: “I participated in a survey” is better suited to your meaning – had me confused at first.
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Kate
Curious how glitches like the Workday snafu at McGill always seem to leave workers unpaid, rather than giving sudden raises or unexpected bonuses.
jeather
I’m always curious why we don’t see a discussion from the CNT, which should have something to say about employees not being paid for months.
jeather
Though having known people who did this kind of TA/grader/casual work at McGill, taking forever to get on payroll is not a new snafu.
dwgs
HR at McGill has always been slow and unresponsive but this new system is absolutely ridiculous.
Mark Côté
I’m one of the victims (though teaching is not my day job so the lack of pay isn’t really affecting me). I had no idea the problem was so widespread until I saw that article. Explains (kinda) why my recent emails on the subject to the department chair and associate chair have gone unanswered. I’m virtually certain that the main reason this hasn’t been fixed yet is that they know instructors aren’t going to leave their students in a lurch by quitting suddenly. If this had been any other job I wouldn’t have even considered continuing to work after not receiving any pay for 8 weeks (and counting).
Joey
I’m not excusing McGill by any means, but it’s worth noting that educational institutions have lots of employment categories that don’t fit nicely with broad-based HR information systems. It’s not a surprise that the problems are concentrated among TAs, casual lecturers, etc.
At least it’s not Phoenix-level bad… BTW Kate, I recall a lot of the problems related to Phoenix involved federal workers being overpaid. Worrying about to deal with paying that money back, especailly since nobody had any idea how long it would take to sort out, sucked all the joy that may have come from being accidentally overpaid. Imagine you get overpaid on every paycheque in the last half of the year, but the problem isn’t resovled untilt he middle of the next calendar year. In the meantime, you owe hefty income taxes on money that isn’t yours, and you have no idea when it’s going to be resolved (or how) and to top it off, your employer is also, basically, the taxman.
jeather
Ok, so why did you specifically not go to the CNT complaining you hadn’t been paid, given that you’re probably less worried about risking being fired? Not as an aggressive question, just that I don’t understand why this is allowed to go on and why people aren’t complaining.
Tim S
I was once overpaid as a grad student. It took me 6 months to convince them to claw back the money, as I was afraid they would discover I owed 10,000$ just before I was set to graduate. At least I got some minuscule interest out of it.
I think some McGill people are being overpaid, in fact. Sorry it’s not you, Mark.Mark Côté
jeather, not sure if your question was directed to me, but it’s fair so I’ll answer.
So first, I have been complaining, starting with the admin, then the department associate chair, then the chair, and next will be the dean.
Second, I literally only just realized yesterday that I can (and should) involve the union. I’ve never actually had a unionized job before in my two-decade-long career because they aren’t, for whatever reason, really a thing in the software world (yet, anyway).
Third, as I mentioned, the money isn’t actually a big deal for me, so the emails that I’ve sent so far have been more on principle, and in solidarity with anyone who is actually depending on their pay. In fact since it is a contract position I had previously assumed I’d be paid in one or two lump sums; I only found out that I was supposed to be paid every two weeks just before the semester started.
And finally, this whole teaching thing has been a bit of a gong show from the beginning; not being paid is actually less of a concern for me than the total lack of onboarding of any sort. I was just thrown into this as though there was some sort of implicit assumption that I knew how any of this worked, despite the faculty knowing that I don’t have an academic background. That’s been a lot more stressful for me (again, given that I’m in a privileged position where the money isn’t that important to me).
jeather
Yes, I was asking you specifically. Given that the money isn’t a big deal, and that you probably don’t need this job, there would have been less concern about pushback if you brought in the CNT, which regulates things like “how soon after you start do you need to receive your first paycheque” (answer: no more than one month). You still don’t seem to be calling them — your next step is the dean or the union. But surely if you complained about not being paid they would see that it’s a lot of other people, and that also would be solidarity?
Kate
Joey (and everyone), I should not have been so lighthearted about people dealing with overpayment. I realize getting more than you’ve earned and having to cope with the consequences isn’t good either.
Kevin
A lot of unions are terrible about actually reaching out to new hires.
I had one job where my boss told me, six months in, that the union reps were upset I had not yet officially joined the union.
Several complicated conversations ensued.At another job I was overpaid for nine months. They clawed back half the overpayment over the next year.
dwgs
Speaking as someone who has been a McGill employee for over two decades;
Tim S please tell me where you saw something about a McGill employee being overpaid, i’ve heard many many stories over the years of people being underpaid or having to wait months for a cheque but never once have I heard of anyone being overpaid.
The story makes it sound like the many people being hired is an unusual circumstance and that’s why the system had problems. Please remember that the university usually hires this many people and more every single August. If anything there may be fewer people this year because pandemic.
When I was hired the standard practice was that they would keep you as a casual for a full year because that is what was the maximum time allowed before you became permanent and had the right to join a union. That way the uni saved money on your pay, had one less union member to deal with, and you accrued one less year on your seniority which affects retirement, pay scale, pension, benefits, vacation time, etc.
If, as it says in the story, other schools had already experienced significant ongoing problems with Workday perhaps administration might have considered a different system.
The admin person in my department, who is an absolute rock, super efficient responsible person and largely responsible for our place functioning smoothly, has been stressed over this like I haven’t seen them stressed in the 20 years I have known them. Morale is at an all time low.Tim S.
dwgs: sorry, personal anecdote that I absolutely don’t have permission to explain in detail here. But I suspect related to the current situation. Perhaps not typical.
Nicole
Also: a lot of the new hires who didn’t get paid are graduate students and postdocs in financially precarious positions. Bad choice of system, bad timing, and bad implementation
Mark Côté
“But surely if you complained about not being paid they would see that it’s a lot of other people”
Pretty sure that’s clear now from the fact that it’s made the news. And yes, I have a lot of clout since I could just walk away, meaning the administration should be more motivated to fix my situation than someone who can’t, yet that is probably not the right approach either.
I’m actually not sure I am technically in the union; I had to fill out some piece of paper related to unions, but dwgs seems to be saying that I wouldn’t be in the union. But no one explained anything to me so I’m pretty clueless.
dwgs
@Mark, there are a couple of recently formed unions for course lecturers and the like, it would probably be one of those but I’m not very familiar with how their membership works since it would likely be more transitory due to the impermanent nature of the position. My example was for support staff (MUNACA, the trades, etc).
Mark Côté
I signed something that was labelled a union form, but there is no actual mention of the union in question (it was basically just a personal information form).
I was told the reason I wasn’t paid is that my contract was accidentally entered as $0. Apparently fixing this is incredibly complicated.
As for Workday, it is far from the best software out there (usability does not seem to be a priority in HR apps), but it is very common. Both my current and previous employers use it.
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Kate
The mayor is asking us to shop locally for Christmas instead of doing it all online. It’s a nice idea, but this year in particular, people will feel safer shopping remotely for items to be delivered remotely. What chance is there of a return to big social gatherings by the end of the year?
Ian
Many local businesses also have websites so you can make orders for curbside pickup or local delivery. Even if they don’t have a website and you know what you want, you can just call or email orders in for a lot of places.
Kevin
Gimme a website that lists all stores in Montreal so I can order online and have it delivered by a person on a bicycle or I can pick up from the curb.
Sort it by theme (Gifts for your mother) and location.
Include restaurants.
Have multiple boroughs start at once and feed into a master page.
Aren’t we supposed to be a digital hub city?
Ian
Great idea but consider nobody at the municipal level is even counting parking spaces, don’t hold your breath.
walkerp
Get all your books locally. No need to use Amazon at all. Argo Bookshop, for example, can get you anything (though some books may take a week or two if they need to order them) and they will deliver them to your door.
Meezly
Drawn & Quarterly! They are also online, offer curb side pickup and free bike delivery in the surrounding area (certain postal codes).
DeWolf
“Gimme a website that lists all stores in Montreal so I can order online and have it delivered by a person on a bicycle or I can pick up from the curb.”
yellowpages.ca
lepanierbleu.caor you know… maps.google.ca (it literally has all stores in Montreal).
EmilyG
I’m missing out on selling my art and crafts at local craft fairs.
I’m thinking of maybe offering my items for sale in my neighbourhood Facebook groups, to places I can reach on foot.MarcG
I think Kevin meant to say “lists all stores in Montreal where I can order online…”, in which case I think the Panier Bleu thing is trying to accomplish that. Not sure about the bicycle delivery though.
Kevin
@DeWolf
Yellow Pages sucks at that. So does google for that matter, since it’s an advertising company and prioritizes the people who pay it.I want something like Hamilton’s Hub page https://hometownhub.ca/local-online-shopping-made-easy/
MarcG
@Kevin – That seems very similar to lepanierbleu.ca, no?
jeather
lepanierbleu is very hard to use, has a screwed up view by map, categorizes too much in “other”, misses a bunch of places I know of, and is only in French. No thanks.
jeather
Incidentally I do order from stores that only have French websites (the cat groomer I went to, some bakeries), it’s because this is a government thing.
Kevin
MarcG
Like jeather said, lepanierbleu, but if it wasn’t so glitchMarcG
If it wasn’t low quality wouldn’t we all be a bit disappointed, or at least confused?
Raymond Lutz 06:18 on 2020-10-23 Permalink
No , thanks. I prefer this Zac Labe thread about Arctic ocean not refreezing.
Jonathan 09:37 on 2020-10-23 Permalink
nah
Faiz imam 11:15 on 2020-10-23 Permalink
I follow Aaron regularly, and while I value the data he communicates, I find he goes out of his way to have a pessimistic view.
Often that is valuable, but sometimes there is data that is pretty neutral and doesn’t mean much, good or bad. But he really reaches to make it sound bad.
I tend to skim his tweets when I see them.
Ian 11:17 on 2020-10-23 Permalink
How is “Montreal crossed the threshold of 40,000 #COVID19 cases Thursday, a number that’s higher than the tallies of Greece (28,216) and Hong Kong (5,281) combined” gloomy or pessimistic? Those are facts, not some conspiracy to promote bummers.
DeWolf 12:01 on 2020-10-23 Permalink
That’s a classic example of Derfel’s habit of making arbitrary and irrelevant comparisons that do nothing to enlighten readers or provide context. What do those numbers mean? Nothing except that the epidemic in Montreal is worse than some places and better than others.
Montreal crossed the threshold of 40,000 #COVID19 cases Thursday, a number that’s higher than the tallies of Uruguay (2,701), South Korea (25,698) and Barbados (224) combined.
Montreal crossed the threshold of 40,000 #COVID19 cases Thursday, a number that is less than 1/20th the tally of the United Kingdom (813,451), multiplied by half the tally of Madagascar (357), minus the tallies of Brazil (5,323,630), Russia (1,453,923) and Chile (442,164).
Another example of what I stopped reading Derfel’s threads: awhile back, he praised the Hong Kong government’s response to the coronavirus without looking at any local coverage that has highlighted how that response has been highly problematic. It was cherry picking not so different in style from the random numbers he uses to fluff up his threads.
Ian 16:27 on 2020-10-23 Permalink
Comparisons of scale aren’t irrelevant, a lot of people really have very little sense of the rest of the world outside of Quebec. Point taken on the +HK thing but datapoints are constantly shifting so it’s pretty hard for someone doing analysis not to slip up a little here and there – overall he’s done a job nobody else is willing to touch for fear of inciting the wrath of Legault. I appreciate it, anyhow. It’s certainly more meaningful than the vague information we receive from Arruda & his crew.