Some possibly useful notes on what’s open and closed for the New Year.
I hope all my readers have a new year with only good news!
Updates from December, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A Uniprix store in Lasalle has had to apologize after taping off hair care products for Black people as inessential, while other hair care products were freely available.
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Kate
CTV lays out how to put your Christmas tree out for city recycling.
MarcG
I already saw one this evening uncermoniously chucked in the gutter
Mark Côté
This made me chuckle:
2. Put in on the sidewalk with the base facing the street
3. Make sure it’s not obstructing the sidewalkNot sure of the average size of tree here but I definitely could not put mine *on* the sidewalk without also obstructing it… But I usually put mine on the lawn close to the sidewalk.
Bert
Interesting that for the purchase of a durable electronic good there is an environment handling fee. But for a durable good that is effectively destroyed by it’s purchase, the disposal is free
dhomas
Next year, I’m thinking of getting something like this instead of a cut tree:
https://houblonsfranklin.com/produits/fr/le-titi-sapin-p160/
I don’t really understand how cheap cut Christmas trees are. Seems unsustainable.
But @Bert about your comment, trees are pretty much compostable, whereas electronic goods will need to be processed at the end of their lifecycle.Bert
And doesn’t composting require processing? Turning over the compost pile, etc. Add to that that once dead, the tree off-gasses CO2. If the only thing is that these carbon sinks are intentionally destroyed and not put to practical use (e.g.making 2X4) seems such a waste.
Kate
The city chips the trees it picks up and uses the result for garden mulch. A low-tech but effective process (and it also smells great if you’re anywhere nearby). I don’t think it’s the same process as composting.
Chris
Bert, it’s not that you’re strictly wrong, it’s just that there’s orders of magnitude difference between biodegrading a tree vs all the water, fossil fuel, rare earth metal, etc. that goes into making electronic trinkets. It’s like you’re worried about a single dripping faucet when a 2 metre water main is broken.
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Kate
Quebec’s cumulative Covid numbers cracked the arbitrary but striking 200,000 mark on New Year’s Eve, with 62 new deaths over the last 24 hours. The Santé Québec page has more statistics including a new table listing how many vaccinations have been given out by region – 6,857 in Montreal to date.
(I may have kvetched about this before, but every time I look at that page I get annoyed again at Quebec making Montreal region #6. And no, it’s not in alphabetical order, it’s just an attempt to put Montreal in its place.)
There won’t be new numbers Friday or Saturday, as last weekend.
Clément
Sorry Kate, the first 10 administrative regions were created in March 1966 (of which Montreal was already #6). In March 1966, the provincial government was liberal, a “Montreal friendly” political party if there ever was one.
http://bilan.usherbrooke.ca/bilan/pages/evenements/1789.html
Kate
I still don’t like it! 😉
Happy New Year, Clément.
Tim F
Well that led me down quite the rabbit hole. I found what seems to be the original government document proposing the regions and their numbering for the first time. https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/3476223
I’m looking at it on my phone (not the best reading experience) but skimming through I’ve found nothing that explains the numbering. It almost looks like they tried to number them clockwise from the Gulf of St Lawrence. But I can’t explain Saguenay—Lac-St-Jean as région 02.
These numbers always remind me of French department numbering for some reason. It has that pseudo-Cartésien, revolutionary feeling to it. At least their numbering is (primarily) alphabetical.
Clément
Happy New Year Kate.
Keep up the great work, you’re one of my reliable connections to Montreal as I bid my time in purgatory. All the best!
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Kate
There was a fire in a Pierrefonds restaurant overnight which probably was set on purpose.
I’m curious. Neither of these items (La Presse, TVA) names the restaurant. Neither does the account in the Gazette, which is usually more assiduous in reporting West Island stories.
I occasionally skim back through old newspapers available online (the Gazette on Google, La Presse on BAnQ) and, back in the day, the papers were very specific about naming. Individuals were often even identified not just by name but by address (“John O’Malley, of 1232 Centre Street, was charged with drunken brawling this week…”) and any reporter covering a story involving a commercial enterprise would not have hesitated to include the name and address of the business.
In this story, at least TVA has some photos, tells you the street name and shows you the address, so you can google if you’re curious. Neither La Presse nor the Gazette has any photos, putting up boring placeholder shots of emergency vehicles.
I write “back in the day” because I don’t know when this practice ended, or why.
Is such vague news reporting useful to anybody? Or do these media groups simply have very cautious lawyers?
Blork
A couple of months ago there was a TV documentary playing on one of the French channels about Léopold Dion (child serial killer from Quebec city circa 1963, dubbed “Le monstre de Pont-Rouge”). I’m not sure if it was in the documentary or in some of the other media surrounding it, but at some point you see the newspaper articles from back in the day regarding the victims, and they would name the dead child, give his address, and list his siblings. This is while the killer is still on the loose. Seems absurd by today’s standards, but that’s what newspapers did back then.
I suppose at some point people complained enough and better standards were set in the industry when it comes to naming victims and giving address of both victims and perps.
I doubt that extends to the naming of restaurants that get fire-bombed, but perhaps the specific reporters or editors in this case simply take the rule a bit farther than they need to.
vasi
The vagueness isn’t just around names or addresses. There are regularly articles like “The National Association of Something issued its report…” or “New Leger poll suggests…” or “Government announces plan….”. Rarely do they link to the document in question, or even provide enough identifying information that I can find it of my own accord. I’m not really sure what the point of this is!
John
For what it’s worth, the restaurant is Pasha Lounge, which serves Turkish food. It’s a few streets away from my house.
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Kate
A woman drove her car into the front of a house in Montreal North overnight. Nobody got hurt. She’ll be up on drunk driving charges in the new year.
Bill Binns
No trial till March but does that mean she’s driving in the meantime?
Kate
Nether that account nor this one say anything either way about whether she can drive between now and her court appearance.
Meezly
According to QC law, if you were caught DUI and your blood alcohol content is above legal:
Immediate licence suspension for 90 days
Immediate seizure and impoundment of the vehicle for 90 days, in the case of a repeat offenceKate
Thank you, Meezly.
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Kate
Mathew Roberge, last in the news six weeks ago when he failed to report to his halfway house, is once again on the loose, and his most recent victim wants the public to know it. Roberge stabbed her in the neck randomly four years ago in NDG, and had previously done time for manslaughter.
Bill Binns
Just a thought but maybe a halfway house is not the correct facility for someone who randomly stabs women in the neck?
david225
I think the ‘4 years ago’ bit is the big flashing light here. After he’s killed someone, and randomly stabbed another person in the neck, he should have been incarcerated until Trudeau III is running the show.
Tim S. 20:26 on 2020-12-31 Permalink
Happy New Year Kate et al!
The sanity and solidarity of (most) of the commentators on here has actually cheered me up a lot this year. Even the ones who are cheerfully urging the sacrifice of people I care about are informative, in their way. Thanks everyone.
JP 20:39 on 2020-12-31 Permalink
Happy New Year, Kate!
Thanks for all the work that you do. I also really enjoy the high-level discourse that takes place in the comment section.
Best wishes to all for a joyful, safe new year!
J 22:07 on 2020-12-31 Permalink
Cheers!
dwgs 22:31 on 2020-12-31 Permalink
Happy new year one and all. And here’s to Kate for babysitting one of only two comments sections that I actually visit and participate in. Major thanks as always to our host, who somehow manages to let people speak freely and keep the peace. It really is a fine line between clever and stupid.
Wishing the best for all of you.
Tim F 22:55 on 2020-12-31 Permalink
Happy 2021!
Raymond Lutz 09:56 on 2021-01-01 Permalink
“sanity and solidarity” in rough time? Here’s the complementary video-essay: Who We Really Are… When Everything Goes Wrong. Watching LSOO (this video-essay YT channel) is a spiritual healing for me, a good way to start 2021!
And as a “mise en bouche”, the author’s presentation:
In this dark and difficult year, the year that gave us so many reasons to be cynical, to become divided, to fall into despair, hopefulness isn’t exactly what’s on people’s minds. And yet, this is exactly what I set out to explore. Alas, no jolly take on my favorite Christmas films, but a real search for hope in the dark; a critical reflection on humanity in times of disaster.
Studying human responses in the wake of calamities revealed a lot of things; fear, pain, loss, but it also revealed something that is often overlooked, something that might just restore your faith in humanity (if only a little bit). So, as we move towards 2021, I figured it’s high time to try and rekindle the light, and to discuss who we really are… when everything goes wrong.
Bill Binns 12:02 on 2021-01-01 Permalink
Thanks for another year Kate. Have been a daily reader for all but the first two of your 19 years. You must be close to setting some kind of record. How many blogs can there be out there with an unbroken string of daily posts as long as yours?
PatrickC 16:15 on 2021-01-01 Permalink
Happy New Year, Kate! and to all my fellow readers. You all help me keep in touch with the city with news and insights I couldn’t get elsewhere.
walkerp 16:19 on 2021-01-01 Permalink
Happy New Year, Kate! Thanks for all your hardwork this year. This is far and away the best local news and opinion/analysis site for montreal.
GC 17:58 on 2021-01-01 Permalink
Happy 2021, everyone!
JaneyB 02:23 on 2021-01-02 Permalink
A very Happy New Year, Kate! Thanks for your sage mayorship of Montreal City Weblog 🙂
Chris 12:43 on 2021-01-02 Permalink
Happy new year to all!