The menu for Aunt Dai restaurant has gone viral because of the owner’s honesty about the quality of the offerings.
Updates from January, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Threats from right-wing conspirators on social media have police keeping a closer eye on our bridges.
There are also threats against vaccination centres.
qatzelok
Might be because of stories like this one:
https://www.outkick.com/stanford-study-questions-benefits-of-lockdowns-and-stay-at-home-orders/
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Kate
Mario Girard ponders the demographic woes of the city as more people leave than arrive, but does Montreal have a problem that isn’t plaguing other cities? Toronto has also seen population loss through 2020, and the Globe and Mail compared their situations this week. New York has also seen a decline in numbers.
DeWolf
You’re exactly right. This isn’t just Montreal’s problem. In fact, it’s not even a new phenomenon, it’s just that in most years the outflow of people is balanced out by immigration – and in 2020 there were virtually no new immigrants admitted to Canada. I’d be curious to know when was the last time Montreal’s population growth was fuelled by interregional/provincial migration rather than international migration. 1960?
su
In 1980 there were 1 million less people living in Montreal, and I don’t recall anyone complaining about how underpopulated the city was .
Tim
The Globe article states clearly that the city continues to grow based on “international migration” , so no, the city population is not actually decreasing.
Kate
Maybe, Tim, but immigration was way down in 2020. The CAQ wanted to cut immigration levels, but Covid went well beyond anything they had dreamed of.
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Kate
Christopher Curtis writes about the plight of sex workers caught up in the pandemic.
Ephraim
This… “. Because many can’t show proof that they earned over $5,000 last year, people in the industry don’t qualify for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit or unemployment insurance.” and that’s exactly the problem. We need it to be 100% legal, for them to be able to declare their taxes and get social benefits. It’s hiding it that is the root of the problem. Just like everyone else, they need a pension, an RRSP, a TFSA, medical care, safety and security. It’s not just those selling themselves on JustFans/OnlyFans, or what ever other website they sell themselves on, that should get legal protections.
In many countries, declaring income from illegal sources is encouraged and protected. The information on the tax authority forms cannot be seized or brought into evidence… unless taxes weren’t paid. You steal and rob, declare the income, because otherwise they go after you for tax evasion….
Raymond Lutz
Socialist countries faring better than others (Vietnam!). UBI, salaire à vie as a solution for universal aid. M4A in USA, as pressing as ever… The pandemic is revelatory: market based societies suck.
Raymond Lutz
Synchronicity! The last video of Mexie (uploaded dec 2020) is about sex workers! Mexie is a national marxist treasure.
j2
Hmm whenever sex workers post in /r/personalfinancecanada, the advice is to always file your taxes using terms which are discreet but honest enough. Tax fraud is a bigger deal than sex work.
Ephraim
It’s all Stephen Harper’s fault anyway. Sex work is perfectly legal in Canada, the supreme court affirmed this.
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Kate
There’s a smog alert Friday morning.
walkerp
Oh no I was worried that the lovely atmosphere this morning was smog and not fog.
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Kate
A man was stabbed Thursday evening at the Place Dupuis hotel during a fight among itinerants there.
Marc
Curious as to whether there are any témoignages from people close to these hotels-cum-shelters as to how things are going. Seems like a very high concentration of people who are statistically more likely to have substance abuse/mental health concerns, and if the goal is to get folks off the streets you would want the places prepped for them to be welcoming, supportive environments.
Is conversion of hotels really a better plan than mass booking empty AirBnBs in the community? Yes, support networks would be more spread out, but there may be less need for them if folks were better integrated in the community, rather than being warehoused…
Ephraim
Even in the current situation, about 90% of the AirBnBs in town are illegal. But they are much easier to block you from booking them, cancel the booking on you and have furnishings that they will charge you for damage.
I’m willing to bet that the hotel wanted to refurbish and that’s priced into the deal. They removed any furniture of value and moved it into some sort of storage.
What we need are two things… rooming houses and wet shelters. Rooming houses provide some security, some privacy and a step forward. Wet shelters for those who disturb others, aren’t sober, aren’t on their meds, etc. And in the long run, an end to shelters run by groups who are just there to try to convert them to their religion and/or give them skewed values. (Sorry, I have a REALLY big problem with the Salvation Army and their motives.)
Bill Binns
@Ephraim – I have asked my wife to search around in French and see if that contract is available to the public. I would bet a paycheck that a full reno job of the entire hotel at city expense is baked right in. Of course that’s assuming it ever stops being a shelter in the first place which is far from guaranteed.
It’s sad because Place Dupuis is one of the best managed buildings in the city. It’s an island of calm and safety in an ocean of crime and danger. Now the dangerous people have the keys. If that IGA is driven out of business we will be reading sad stories about the Village being a “food desert” in 6 months.
Michael Black
But how many religious groups still run shelters? I don’t read about the Salvation Army. Some are religious-based, but their purpose seems to be to do good.
Yes, the very religious groups of old wanted to get people off alcohol. But drugs and alcohol do present real problems to shelters, and that seems to be driving things. Every group sees the need for a wet shelter, but they aren’t changing their shelter. That’s not religion, that’s practical.
Ephraim
@Bill Binns – That hotel didn’t have a good reputation, which is why the management team was changed. But it has as much to do with the area as the management. I don’t know that a re-do will fix it anyway.
That Jean Coutu used to have guards standing as you left and accusing everyone of shoplifting. Every once in a while a guard would suggest that I took something… I told them to call the cops, so I can sue them for false arrest. Quickest way to get them to back off.
@Michael Black – There are some religious groups that are doing it for the right reason. The Salvation Army is a Protestant proselyting religion. They have been PUBLICLY pushing that they aren’t anti-LGBTQ+, this from an organization that turned down money because it required them to sign anti-discrimination policies. But the tide turned on them and they needed to update their image… and that’s the point, their image… they are spending enormous amounts of money to show a new “face”… because the previous one was eating into their collections.
Bill Binns
@Ephraim, not sure about their reputation but that hotel appeared to be very busy right up until Covid. Lots of youth sports teams, buses full of Asian tourists and flight crews. I always thought it was odd that they were so busy being so far off the typical tourist map but it looked like they were filling those rooms.
JS
@Bill Binns wouldn’t the locale of that establishment exert a downward pressure on room rates? The tourists you describe don’t sound like the executive suite types.
Ephraim
@Bill Binns – Thank you for proving my point. Those are all considered DEEP DISCOUNT groups. In fact, Hockey groups are the WORST guests… screaming kids!
Joey
I spent a sleepless night in Moncton once, sharing a hotel floor with kids in town for a hockey tournament.
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Kate
Ste-Justine Hospital wants parents to know that if your kid is sick enough to go to the ER, you should break curfew.
Uatu
Just get ready to have your lunch inspected by the cops
Joey
It will be interesting to see what happens when snow removal operators need people to move their cars after 8pm. Guess we’ll find out how that works this week.
steph 21:21 on 2021-01-15 Permalink
I may be a sour skeptic, but couldn’t this be simply clever marketing? It’s almost TOO good and cute.
dwgs 21:25 on 2021-01-15 Permalink
You’re a sour skeptic. They interviewed the owner on CBC radio yesterday morning and he was personable and a bit quirky and sounds like a decent person.
MarcG 21:25 on 2021-01-15 Permalink
I’ve ordered from there and it was good.
Meezly 22:15 on 2021-01-15 Permalink
I just read the entire menu and it was very entertaining. Best to read it with a totally full stomach, which thankfully was the the case for me!
mare 00:25 on 2021-01-16 Permalink
I ate there many years ago, and (then?) you got a free desert if you left a Google Maps review and sent them a screenshot. I’m a sucker for free things, but the food was actually quite good. And the owner is definitely social media savvy.
DeWolf 03:41 on 2021-01-16 Permalink
I’m a little mystified as to why this is going viral now because this menu has been up for awhile and there was definitely some social media buzz about it three years ago.
In any case, it’s a good restaurant and they have a lot of classic dishes from mainland China, along with some Canadian-Chinese stuff.
Kate 09:56 on 2021-01-16 Permalink
Virality is one of those imponderables. Sometimes it just takes being noticed by the right person at the right moment.
Meezly 11:08 on 2021-01-16 Permalink
Also as we all know, restaurants have been struggling, so loyal customers have been trying to support their fave restos cuz they want them to stick around. I didn’t know about this restaurant until now.
Kate 12:10 on 2021-01-16 Permalink
Meezly, originally he had a resto of the same name near Côte-des-Neiges metro. I’d just begun to hear good things about it when it burned down. That was a few years ago. But he built the place up again downtown, near Concordia.