Updates from January, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 18:14 on 2021-01-31 Permalink | Reply  

    There won’t be any St Patrick’s parade this year, it was announced Sunday.

     
    • Michael Black 20:12 on 2021-01-31 Permalink

      So do they get a gold cane to be the first to publicly cancel their event?

      The smaller the event, the more flexible it is. March is definitely too early, but later in the year, if a group cancels maybe it’s the wrong choice. But if a group plans, that costs money and effort that will be lost if things aren’t viable by event time.

      I’m really concerned about way smaller events, volunteer organized. If the key organizer goes away, losing two years completely kills continuity. Will there be enough structure in place after two lost years?

    • Mark Côté 21:51 on 2021-01-31 Permalink

      I was thinking about this when I read another email from Opera Montreal about their upcoming performance of The Marriage of Figaro in May. I don’t know how many tickets they plan to sell but it feels… optimistic. Not to mention the average age of opera-goers being on the high side… Maybe they’re hoping the Montreal 60+ crowd will be mostly vaccinated by then?

    • Joey 00:24 on 2021-02-01 Permalink

      There was a story in La Presse a few weeks ago that said, IIRC, that event promoters (concerts, etc.) had to reschedule performances, rather than cancel them, to qualify for government aid.

    • Kate 09:27 on 2021-02-01 Permalink

      CBC is saying the Irish parade will be postponed, yes. Although I don’t see any point in holding that parade at some random other time.

    • Bill Binns 11:54 on 2021-02-01 Permalink

      Was there anyone anywhere that thought the parade would happen? I think it’s pretty obvious we are headed into a 2nd canceled summer and I wouldn’t make any elaborate Halloween plans either.

      It’s going to be an interesting social experiment to see how much of this people will take. The video coming out of the Netherlands sure looks familiar to this Quebeker.

    • Michael Black 12:13 on 2021-02-01 Permalink

      They should offer deep sleep, “wake me up when it’s my turn to be Vaccinated”.

    • MarcG 13:14 on 2021-02-01 Permalink

      That’s a million-dollar idea, sign me up.

    • Kate 13:17 on 2021-02-01 Permalink

      Bill Binns, I don’t think anyone had given the parade a thought yet, except the folks responsible for running it. They’re being very sensible to announce it before anyone gets overexcited about it.

    • Tee Owe 13:24 on 2021-02-01 Permalink

      Slightly provocative thought maybe, but if we can do Christmas in July, why not St Patrick’s Day in September? I know how you will answer but maybe we all need to loosen up a little, help us get through these times

    • Michael Black 13:53 on 2021-02-01 Permalink

      One year there was a Mardi Gras parade in July, I can’t remember if it was the jazz or comedy fest that organized it. Complete with a float for the Quebec Carnivale.

      It is a good idea, but the St. Patrick’s Day parade means the hope of spring, mostly with a large portion of winter weather (though I remember at least one time in the early nineties when it got up to about 18 degrees C). I’d rather see Carifete in September, if it could be squeezed in before temperatures drop.

    • Chris 14:35 on 2021-02-01 Permalink

      >Although I don’t see any point in holding that parade at some random other time.

      The point would be a fun activity, socialization, getting outside, meeting friends, etc.

    • Uatu 14:49 on 2021-02-01 Permalink

      After the pandemic is under control, I think it’ll be the roaring twenties again with people going nuts after being cooped up so long

    • Michael Black 15:03 on 2021-02-01 Permalink

      I’m thinking of that picture when WWII ended, the sailor kissing the woman in Times Square.

    • Daisy 16:42 on 2021-02-01 Permalink

      You mean women should expect sexual assault by a complete stranger? I hope we’ve learned something since 1945.

    • Michael Black 17:07 on 2021-02-01 Permalink

      No, I think it might be mutual.

      It’s an image, I’m not sure it would literally happen, but I think it represents people’s feelings.

    • Kate 17:50 on 2021-02-01 Permalink

      if we can do Christmas in July…

      Do we do Christmas in July?

    • Bill Binns 22:11 on 2021-02-01 Permalink

      Think of the lives that would be saved by pushing St Patrick’s day into a warmer month.

    • Alison Cummins 00:10 on 2021-02-02 Permalink

      Michael Black,

      It wasn’t consensual.
      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greta_Zimmer_Friedman

    • Tee Owe 03:33 on 2021-02-02 Permalink

      Kate – I recall people doing Christmas in July at a campsite somewhere near Sherbrooke many (>30) years ago – it was surreal. I was told it was ‘a thing’. Maybe it was then, but not any more – ?

    • dhomas 05:19 on 2021-02-02 Permalink

      Re: Christmas in July. It’s kinda a thing, but it’s mostly one of those manufactured “holidays” created by marketeers to get people spending money.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_in_July

      Also, it’s largely been replaced by a much more overt celebration of consumerism in the form of Amazon Prime Day, which usually occurs in July except last year when it was delayed because COVID. Amazon apparently makes about as much during this event as they do during Black Friday. It still pales in comparison to Singles Day, which is mostly a Chinese shopping “holiday” held on November 11 (11.11) and the biggest shopping day in the world. Annoyingly, North American retailers are trying to jump on this bandwagon, too, despite it already being Remembrance Day.

  • Kate 10:41 on 2021-01-31 Permalink | Reply  

    Under the headline Montréal n’est pas mort, Philippe Mercure makes the case that the demographic shift of families to suburbs is nothing new, and will balance out in time.

     
    • Kate 10:28 on 2021-01-31 Permalink | Reply  

      Police have arrested a local rapper who features in videos showing real, but prohibited, weapons.

       
      • MarcG 13:06 on 2021-01-31 Permalink

      • dhomas 18:07 on 2021-01-31 Permalink

        FYI: If you watch more than 10 seconds of the video, he gets monetized (paid for the click). Just in case Kate was purposefully not linking the clip so as to not encourage people continuing to do stupid things because they see they can make money from them.

      • MarcG 11:38 on 2021-02-01 Permalink

        Support local business?

      • Bill Binns 11:38 on 2021-02-01 Permalink

        Not to mention your YouTube feed being dominated by rap videos for the next 3 months.

    • Kate 08:36 on 2021-01-31 Permalink | Reply  

      We’re expecting a major snowstorm Tuesday.

       
      • Michael Black 12:12 on 2021-01-31 Permalink

        That will put a damper on groundhog day.

    • Kate 21:22 on 2021-01-30 Permalink | Reply  

      A man was shot in Montreal North on Saturday evening, and is in critical condition. Details are currently scanty.

      TVA says there was another shooting Saturday evening, this one in Rivière-des-Prairies. Cops are trying to figure out whether the two incidents are linked.

      Update: the man shot in Montreal North has died.

       
      • Kate 19:26 on 2021-01-30 Permalink | Reply  

        Montreal was supposed to get a small piece of the FIFA World Cup 2026, but Quebec has pulled the plug on funding it as the projected cost inevitably keeps climbing. La Presse focuses here on city disappointment, particularly the likelihood this will put the games out of reach of the only francophone city in the running to host games for the first three-country World Cup.

         
        • david225 19:46 on 2021-01-30 Permalink

          Would have been something to have the Olympic stadium host a game or two. With Trudeau showering money on everyone and everything he can think of, hopefully someone puts this in front of him, and the feds can throw another bunch of millions onto the debt to give us this, among the greatest of all circuses.

        • Kate 20:35 on 2021-01-30 Permalink

          It’s hard to have any sense how things will be going, and what the public mood will be, by 2026.

      • Kate 18:53 on 2021-01-30 Permalink | Reply  

        A Longueuil homicide, so it won’t go on my board, but at least one person who reads this blog sometimes visits Michel-Chartrand park where a body was found Saturday morning. There’s now a police perimeter around the park, as the body had signs of violence on it.

        Update: Police now think it was a case of suicide.

         
        • Blork 19:31 on 2021-01-30 Permalink

          I walk in that park almost every day. Not today though, obv. So instead we drove into the city and harassed the plateau with the presence of our tiny automobile. Although it’s snowy and icy, it’s the first time I’ve had a good look at the work done on St-Denis (bike lanes, mid-block pedestrian crossings, etc.) and I must say, it seems like they did a great job. It will be interesting to see what it’s like in warm weather and without a lockdown.

      • Kate 10:18 on 2021-01-30 Permalink | Reply  

        A teenager was stabbed in Pointe-aux-Trembles Friday evening during a fight with several others. He isn’t dead but neither of these stories sounds hopeful.

         
        • Kate 08:01 on 2021-01-30 Permalink | Reply  

          Earlier this week QMI’s Joseph Facal wrote a piece bluntly titled Montréal n’a jamais été un territoire mohawk which I saw but didn’t link, seeing it was just more QMI provocation. Now Radio-Canada looks at the Mohawk side of the story.

           
          • Jack 09:53 on 2021-01-30 Permalink

            If you want to see how intellectually incurious Joseph Facal is check out his list of must reads for “understanding” Quebec. It’s the conservative nationalist canon. I wonder if he reads them to Sophie and Richard. https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2020/12/24/10livres-pour-comprendre-le-quebec-actuel

          • GC 10:20 on 2021-01-30 Permalink

            The fact that MBC is one of the authors on that list is probably all I need to know.

          • Poutine Pundit 13:22 on 2021-01-30 Permalink

            That Radio Canada piece also gets some credible historians to look at the other side of the story, which is complicated. It’s a debate between oral history vs. written sources, and politics plays out on both sides.

          • JaneyB 14:31 on 2021-01-30 Permalink

            Breathtaking idiocy. Next we will be hearing that Quebecois go so far back that they coexisted with the dinosaurs. I just do not know what to do with this level of ignorance…sigh.

          • DeWolf 14:32 on 2021-01-30 Permalink

            When conservative nationalists argue that Montreal was never Mohawk territory, they’re only partially concerned about the Mohawks themselves. Mainly they’re trying to write the narrative that the St. Lawrence Valley was uninhabited, that the Iroquoians that Jacques Cartier had simply disappeared and therefore the land was ripe for the picking. It’s erasure.

            I think one of the most egregious examples of this was on r/Quebec when some amateur historian was arguing that the Mohawks originally came from New York (you know, that ancient political jurisdiction that has existed for thousands of years) and were therefore foreigners – and even worse, they had allied with the British and were therefore conquerors. (The same person argued that the Huron-Wendat were good natives because they were friendly with French colonists.) It’s the kind of argument I would have expected from the 19th century, not the 21st.

          • david225 19:51 on 2021-01-30 Permalink

            We don’t really know if the specific area of Montreal had permanent Mohawk settlements, but the bigger point is: why does this guy give a shit?

            If I were one of these Quebec nationalist historians, and I felt the need to say anything at all (which would be extraordinary), I’d be explaining that the Mohawks were conquered, as the Quebecois later were, not that the historical record is patchy, and so it may well have been terra nullius. The French defeated their enemies in battle and claimed the land! If you’re going to talk about the past, own it!

          • qatzelok 10:13 on 2021-01-31 Permalink

            For many anglos, the First Nations are just another wedge issue to use “against” non-anglos.

          • Kate 10:44 on 2021-01-31 Permalink

            DeWolf, you encapsulate the situation well.

            Terra nullius is a strange concept. No, the people who lived here before 1492 didn’t have a European-style system of land ownership. That doesn’t mean the land belonged to nobody. It meant the land belonged to everybody. This isn’t to say that all indigenous people were noble idealists – there’s evidence of clashes over access to some of the better territory – but there wasn’t anything like a system of allodial title.

            qatzelok, for conservative nationalists, the First Nations are a pawn in an argument “proving” that only the French have a right to Quebec.

          • qatzelok 11:37 on 2021-01-31 Permalink

            “for conservative nationalists…”

            Strawman of the week? I’ve never heard “only the French have a right to Québec” from anyone who is officially in this category. Of course, one can always find some crazy with this opinion somewhere out there. But to smear all nationalists with this statement is more wedge-issue-aggression.

          • Ant6n 14:13 on 2021-01-31 Permalink

            Why defend conservative nationalists? I thought you were a proper lefty.
            Shouldn’t you be comparing the whole „Montreal was empty“ idea with the „Palestine was empty“ idea of zionists?

        • Kate 07:24 on 2021-01-30 Permalink | Reply  

          A Concordia student was shaken to find out that the professor with whom he’d been taking a course in art history had been dead for two years. The university hadn’t been clear that the prerecorded lectures were made by a faculty member who was no longer available.

          The story was first covered by Slate then tweeted by Steve Faguy.

           
          • JaneyB 18:56 on 2021-01-31 Permalink

            Oh wow. That story is going to go straight to the union. Yipes! For sure, there will be a lawsuit for copyright infringement against the university. The union (and my department) informed the profs to include an intellectual property clause in all their syllabi indicating that all their coursework remains their own. It’s also true that students retain copyright for all the work they hand in, even if it’s submitted electronically.

            Incidentally, I’d be surprised if anyone (but the very time strapped) is interested in online courses in the future. The medium is so, so shitty – even live. Both students and faculty just hate it and students resent paying for it. Covid has set back MOOCs probably a generation. It’s something…but barely.

          • JaneyB 19:02 on 2021-01-31 Permalink

            And…I’m reading the article more carefully. I think there might be a difference between deliberately developed online courses versus the general e-misery that we’re all in under covid. He might have signed something giving the university a right to use it. Also, as a tenured prof, he might be under different rules than part-time, temporary faculty (like me). I don’t think Concordia’s online offerings are especially successful so…small mercies. Still, the students should raise hell over this ultra low-effort offering by the university.

          • CE 22:34 on 2021-01-31 Permalink

            I have a friend who is doing a few classes through TÉLUQ, which has been doing distance-ed since long before computers were in everyone’s house so they know what they’re doing. The experience he described didn’t sound so bad. At the beginning of the course, he received a big package in the mail with all this course work including work sheets, readings, and sample work. He would fill everything in based on his readings and research and mail it back. Other than research, I don’t think he really needed a computer. He could book a call with an adviser whenever he needed to get help. Compare that to what I’ve been hearing with online classes at normal universities (or the online classes they normally offer) and it seems to be night and day!

            When I was studying at Concordia, they were always trying to get me to do online classes and I always refused, I’m glad I never did. Anyone I knew who took them (usually because they had to get some credit and couldn’t fit it in their schedule) always complained about how terrible the experience was.

          • Kate 09:33 on 2021-02-01 Permalink

            JaneyB, it seems the lectures done by the Concordia prof were part of a planned collection of recorded lectures, so presumably the professor knew this and assented to it. But the university should not be claiming – even passively implying – that the course is taught by François‑Marc Gagnon.

            I suppose the step from “professor does lectures, student work and questions are dealt with by TAs” to this is not a big one, but the union surely will have something to say about the promotion of courses as supposedly taught by people who are no longer with us. How could any lecturer get tenure if all the important teaching posts are held by the dead?

        • Kate 06:38 on 2021-01-30 Permalink | Reply  

          Sabrina Rose Dufour, charged with the manslaughter of her partner Philip Lloyd Celian in February 2019, was acquitted Friday after she made a case it was self-defence after years of domestic abuse. It took the jury three days of deliberations.

           
          • Kate 18:34 on 2021-01-29 Permalink | Reply  

            Here we go again, a report on how ceremonies to commemorate those killed in the Quebec City mosque shooting, four years ago, will be held online – with no links to the online events. You have to go on Facebook to find anything.

            Do mainstream media realize how much they’ve handed off to social media over the last 2 decades, and what this means for their future, and for the general credibility of information?

             
            • Raymond Lutz 18:58 on 2021-01-29 Permalink

              «handed off to _corporate_ social media» puis-je humblement préciser (see my sig). There’s even a Mtl angle to it! The fediverse is mostly based on a protocol developed here by Evan Prodromou…

            • Kevin 21:28 on 2021-01-29 Permalink

              I don’t understand it. When I was writing online I put in links whenever I could.

              I think writers are just completely ignorant of the SEO importance of linking out to sites.

            • Kate 10:52 on 2021-01-30 Permalink

              There was an early web design dictum not to outlink because it leads the user away from your site, and you want to keep eyes on your site as long as possible. But that has ended up with mainstream media maintaining this pose of floating somewhere above social media but not “of” it – even while they keep up Twitter feeds and Facebook pages. It puts them in a closed box, and paywalls don’t help. No wonder so many people find their “information” on social media, with all the dangers that involves to truth and democracy, q.e.d.

              Raymond Lutz – do you use the Mastodon/Fediverse stuff? Is there anything on there you would recommend? I think I signed up for Mastodon ages ago, but things like:

              Gaming (5) – Technology (16) – Academia (1) – Furry (4) – Food (1)

              kind of put me off. Any platform that has more forums dedicated to furries than to food is probably not for me.

            • Raymond Lutz 17:29 on 2021-01-30 Permalink

              Kate, Yes I do have a Mastodon account (it’s https://mamot.fr/@lutzray). I choose mamot.fr merely because they speak french and the association running it (LQDN) has political goals I subscribe to:

              «La Quadrature du Net promotes and defends fundamental freedoms in the digital world. We fight against censorship and surveillance, both from States or private companies. We questions how the digital world and society influence each other. We work for a free, decentralized and empowering Internet.»

              My account runs there but I don’t follow their public timeline anyway. You don’t have to find a thematic instance nor a geographic one: being at one place doesn’t limit you to follow exclusively local people. Example: out of the 88 accounts I’m following, only 13 are from the same instance as mine, mamot.fr; the others are all spread around the world, on instances I don’t even know the name of.

              Recently a (french speaking) Quebecer started an instance (and others fediverse application servers) at https://fedi.quebec/ . Here an electronic teacher started a Pleroma server (Mastodon compatible) about information guerrilla, DIY, self-hosting and IoT: https://social.technodruide.ca

              If you will, I can even help you start your _own_ instance about graphic design, treadmills and typesetting 😎 . Many people start a microinstance where there is only one or two accounts and link to the outer world… ex: https://kicou.info/about/more

              What’s the goal? Decentralization of hosting and of moderation (you can, and must, block instances with illegal content… gasp! Think of the children!)

            • Raymond Lutz 22:38 on 2021-01-30 Permalink

              @manu@mastodon.fedi.quebec vient juste de me signaler l’existence de ce plugin WordPress qui permet de diffuser les updates d’un blog WP vers le fediverse via ActivityPub. Ce n’est quand même pas rien: un Montréalais d’adoption développe un protocole qui finit par être adopté (jan 2018) par le World Wide Web Consortium!

            • Kate 10:54 on 2021-01-31 Permalink

              Merci, Raymond Lutz. Si je comprends bien, il faudrait que je devrais établir une instance Mastodon d’abord, puis y canaliser un feed? Comment ça diffère de RSS?

            • Raymond Lutz 13:26 on 2021-01-31 Permalink

              Hmmm… Not exactly: you don’t have to deploy a Mastodon instance. I presume this plugin will broadcast each of your new blog entry (and their comments?) to existing ActivityPub servers (which Mastondon being part of) and users there will see your content (if they’re following you).

              It’s effectively kind of a RSS functionality, but as far as I know, RSS (and its sibling ATOM) are more of a one to many broadcast protocol whereas ActivityPub is bidirectionnal… Me think: I’m really guessing here 🙂

              One should see those bridges (the WP plugin and the mastodon-twitter bridge I’m using) as temporary tools with limited functions while the internet wakes up, leaves the GAFAM facehuggers behind and adopts open federated social webs.

              “In short, federation distributes governance and cost, and can allow us to tackle challenges that we couldn’t overcome without it. The free software community needs to rally behind federation, because no one else will. For all of the reasons which make it worth doing, it is not rewarding for corporations. They would much rather build walled gardens and centralize, centralize, centralize — it’s more profitable!” Drew DeVault.

          • Kate 18:20 on 2021-01-29 Permalink | Reply  

            I don’t know why this is only available on Facebook, but CJAD’s Shuyee Lee reports that a teacher in St-Laurent has died of Covid.

             
          • Kate 18:17 on 2021-01-29 Permalink | Reply  

            The man arrested after a violent traffic stop in Park Ex Thursday will be charged with attempted murder as well as several lesser charges. Police held a demonstration (in cars, of course, what, you expect them to walk?) at Sacré-Cœur hospital in support of the wounded cop.

             
            • Kate 10:50 on 2021-01-29 Permalink | Reply  

              Weekend driving notes, this time from La Presse.

               
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