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Caterers who normally have a big bump in trade with office parties and other events in December are facing a meager season this year.
There’s a Christmas market in Jean-Talon market and another Christmas market at Auberge Saint-Gabriel. La Presse lists fancy places for takeout (but please, call it emporter) in the Plateau, Mile End and Outremont.
The ceremony to commemorate the Polytechnique massacre will be held online this year. There are no links given in this article – the same CP article in English and French. The only media outlet that’s not reproducing that CP article is Metro, which looks at politicians’ responses and links the story to gun control efforts.
The Polytechnique itself has a page noting various events; Allison Hanes at the Gazette hails the publication of the English translation of Josée Boileau’s Ce jour-là: Parce qu’elles étaient des femmes on the topic of the massacre.
Suzanne Fortier, who heads McGill, writes on CTV’s site about a sustainable development innovation cluster as a project for the old Royal Vic.
As far as I can tell, the university has still not divested from fossil fuels. Maybe taking that step would give Fortier’s plan more credibility.
If you want to add a semi-interesting slowly unfolding saga to the things you follow, Exxon Mobil is undergoing a decline of epic proportions, and that story gives you insight into the ongoing world historical shift in energy use, production, and markets. Fascinating stuff. On the fossil fuel investment issue, some of the oil majors have tactically repositioned their long term perspective to evolve into essentially energy rail than oil companies, with diverse production investments. It’s pretty clear that over the coming decades, you’ll have your energy companies including some former oil majors but also including new players – the market is already rewarding that shift, so that maybe the market will do the work that the protests, red paint, and all the rest can’t.
@David∞ The market is reacting BECAUSE people don’t want environment-destroying energy (i.e. oil) to be the dominant form of energy anymore. So, “the protests, red paint, and all the rest”, as you call it, are starting to see results. The “market” would be quite content with the status quo, slinging oil until there is none left (or more likely no humans left), but thanks to a shift in what energy consumers want, the market is shifting, too. This shift is not happening by itself. Many people want cleaner energy; they vote for governments that reflect this desire; governments legislate (slowly) according to this desire (no more ICE vehicles in Quebec by 2035, for example); oil companies react. Don’t make it sound like oil companies would have done this of their own accord because they absolutely 100% would not have.
This isn’t good. For the first time, new cases of Covid over the last 24 hours in Quebec are up over 2000 (2031) and 48 deaths were added to the count. Numbers from the Santé Québec page. Some of the numbers may be due to a “catch-up” effect according to this public health page.
CBC talked to a man who lost his sense of smell in an early case of Covid, and still hasn’t got it back.
We also had a record of 35,391 tests performed, which is 8000 more tests than were performed last week. The more you test, the more you find. Hospitalizations are up, but how much is this due to patients being transferred from CHSLD? Encouragingly, ICU patients remain under 100 and have remained under 100 for the whole week (I don’t think they ever went over 100 in November). Don’t buy into the panic.
They’re converting offices into patient rooms at the new Royal Vic.
Maybe we didn’t see it as fortunate that Covid first bust out here at the start of spring. Now we’re facing winter with a pandemic.
Interesting anecdote because the Royal Vic currently has 2 beds free at 94 per cent capacity. With very few staying more than 24hours. Are they expecting a surge? Maybe work from home means more space available for patients?
The holiday season is always a burden on hospitals and there is no evidence that this winter is worse than average.
Vaccinations for Influenza are much higher than normal, and there have been hardly any cases at all this year in Canada—something like 24 when normally at this point we’ve had 1500.
This is good! If we had a normal or heavy flu season, which normally killls at least 8,000 per year when we *have* a vaccine and treatment [and most of that happens during winter]on top of Covid (which has killed 12,500 so far) then we would have people dying of diseases without being treated.
That is the whole point of pandemic rules: to make sure there is room in the ICU if you need it.
Because it’s not just a bed, it’s the team of doctors and nurses and orderlies needed to give a patient intensive care because their body is no longer capable of keeping itself alive.
And those medical staff haven’t had a break since March, and probably won’t get one until this time next year.
TL;DR: ICU staff have been running without a break for nearly a year. Stay away from people, wear a mask when you can’t, assume everyone you see is accidentally going to kill you
Kevin, that’s very good news about flu, in any case. Thank you!
A man was found unconscious on the road in Lasalle early Saturday with a head injury. Police brought him to hospital, but still don’t know how the situation came about.
To the extent that the tent city has a leader, CBC went to talk to him.
There was a fire at the encampment early Saturday, put out by firefighters, and no one was hurt. But it’s bound to raise more questions about allowing the tent city to continue.
The weather is going to turn cold this week. That should send most of the campers inside.
Apparently the city funded the shelter at Place Dupuis for only 12 hours a day… so people have no where to go for 12 hours a day… might be a reason why they don’t want to move there.
It’s standard policy at most shelters that you have to get out for the day, I doubt that the shelter is being used for some other purpose during the other 12 hours.
It isn’t, but it means that they have no place to go at a time of a pandemic. How many of us would want to be pushed out of our homes for 12 hours a day, during the pandemic?
And in the cold, too. And you can’t even go inside for a coffee anywhere.
They’re doing “warming stations” around town for this reason.
I’m not saying it’s right, just that it’s what happens. If they’re going to stay open during the day they need more money to pay for the extra staff etc.
I was originally asked by a reader to link the late week stories about road closures on the weekend, and it’s easy enough to do, but recently another reader reprimanded me for doing so, saying the information was freely available elsewhere. So now I don’t know what’s useful and what’s burdensome.
Anyway, it’s not usual for Radio-Canada to do a separate piece on a single road closure, so I assume having the Ville-Marie closed all weekend is a bigger story than a few ramps closed on the Turcot.
Road closure info is 43% of the reason I look at this site.
I agree that it’s useful and pertinent. I also recommend bookmarking this page for highway closures: https://mobilitemontreal.gouv.qc.ca/etat-du-reseau/fermetures-majeures/
I’m amazed that people continue to try to dictate the content you serve up to all of us for free, Kate. Since this site is primarily for reposting of news articles, I’d argue that pretty much everything here is freely available elsewhere. Many of us come here to find a lot of different things in one place.
Thank you, GC.
Tim S. 20:05 on 2020-12-05 Permalink
I went by the market in Atwater yesterday, it was more charming than other Montreal efforts that I’ve been to before but still oriented to upscale crafty gifts rather than actual Christmas stuff, like decorations or seasonal food.
And connecting to the thread below, I only went in because it seemed uncrowded and safely organized, but it turned out that there was a crowd at the end – I guess people weren’t ready to leave, even though there was a short-cut if you wanted to go around again. I’m not too worried that I picked up COVID from a few seconds passing through a masked outdoor crowd (famous last words, I know), but I can see how quickly the situation might become problematic.