TVA says that downtown office buildings, largely abandoned by workers, are getting full of rats. Don’t look at this one if you’re weird about rodents (or insects).
Updates from February, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Eater has an extensive and appetizing item on Chinese restaurants and their elaborate takeout plans for the Lunar New Year (February 12).
DeWolf
I just got takeout from one of the places on the list – Teochew Foodie. They serve a very specific type of regional Chinese cuisine (Teochew/Chiu Chow) that is hard to find outside of Hong Kong and Guangdong. I never thought I’d see it here in Montreal. If the idea of things braised in soy sauce appeals to you (duck gizzards, chicken, pork, tofu, egg), it’s delicious and worth seeking out.
Kate
ooh, they have chow fun, but it’s all the way down in the Hank.
DeWolf
They do a weekly delivery run every Sunday morning, so if you put in an order before then, you can enjoy some this weekend! I think there’s a minimum charge but you can pad out your order with frozen dumplings and refrigerated dishes (the lou mei is cold and keeps well for a few days).
Kate
I’m just outside their delivery range : (
Ephraim
See, I was hoping that they would have Teochew dumplings, the ones that the Cantonese call Chiu Chow Fun Gao, but I don’t see them. And none of the grocery stores seem to stock them. I can get them at Kam Fung, but I was hoping someone else had them as well.
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Kate
Police officer Christian Gilbert has been acquitted in the fatal shooting of Bony Jean-Pierre during a raid in Montreal North in 2016.
SMD
The SPVM is really outdoing itself this year for Black History Month.
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Kate
Mural artists are dealing with a perceived increase in tagging, a onetime understanding between artists and taggers having long since broken down. Some artists even sign a contract to restore their work after tags, for a set period of time.
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Kate
For some reason, La Presse saw fit to publish this open letter in support of policeman Sanjay Vig from a police tech instructor at Collège Maisonneuve.
Police are now investigating a different vehicle in connection with the alleged attack on Vig.
CBC news at 17:30 said that police are still maintaining that Camara is an “important witness” and at this point I find myself incapable of hazarding the faintest guess what is going on.
Worth reading Patrick Lagacé on this case.
MarcG
The article also mentions that they turned his apartment upside down and harassed his neighbours (who don’t want their names mentioned for fear of reprisal).
Kate
It’s appalling what that poor man was put through.
jeather
I read this article about it, which leaves me with a lot of questions, though it seems to clarify the timeline a bit.
GC
Thank you, jeather, that does help a bit. I originally thought that Camara was pulled over earlier in the day and then allegedly came back to find the cop somewhere. I didn’t realize that the attack happened shortly after Camara’s ticket and at the same location.
Still confused, though… Even if the resolution on the camera makes it difficult to ID the attacker, surely it would show that there were at least three people present? Unless Camara was around the corner out of frame and this video just shows someone running into frame and assaulting the cop… More needless speculation on my part.
Unless the video does have three people in it and that’s what suggested his innocence. But, then what took six days??? Did it take that long for the cops to get the video? Or that long for them to get around to watching it?
Lots of questions, as you said…
jeather
Right, this article clarifies the timeline of the day of the attack, not what happened since, which is still puzzling me. I assume the videos won’t be made public, but I would very much like to see them.
Kate
Excellent thread by Les Perreaux on this story.
mare
I’m speculating here, but this sounds a bit like a « bon samaritain » passed, saw (yet) another person of colour being stopped by a cop, and decided to come to the “rescue”. And then things got out of hand, obviously.
GC
Would a body camera have actually helped in this case, if the cop was exclusively attacked from behind? Don’t they only show what’s in front?
walkerp
Seeing scuttlebutt on twitter (take it for what it’s worth), that this cop was known for shaking people down in the parc-ex neighbourhood. There is a LaPresse article that speculates it may have been a planned revenge.
To your point, Qatzelok, this article is also an excellent example of how the police are able to control the media message. No problem arresting an innocent man and showing his picture all over the place with the assumption that he attacked a cop. But when they talk about the cop himself, no photo, utter assumption that his story is true and no one would dare suggest that he was anything other than “doing his job”
“Le policier serait connu depuis des années dans le quartier Parc-Extension comme un patrouilleur très actif dans l’application du Code de la sécurité routière et respecté de ses collègues.”
I would love to actually hear what people in the neighbourhood really say about him when they talk to each other. I bet it is a lot more than just applying the “code de la sécurité routière.” More likely it is our own little Training Day scenario.
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Kate
All year we’ve been pulled in two directions, and now it’s the feds throttling down international flights and banning cruise ships for another year, while Quebec gleefully prepares to reopen retail and hair salons next week and starts chivvying students back into CEGEPs and universities.
And we’re promised vaccinations, while news stories talk about reductions in vaccine availability, and while undertakers strain to cope with the number of excess deaths. Public health worries about the new virus variants, but François Legault seems determined to give the new viruses a chance.
Trash radio host Jeff Fillion (Quebec City and Twitter) tried to use a photo from Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital to “prove” that news stories about overwhelmed hospital facilities were all a lie. He’s been debunked.
fantomas
Good, I want an army of debunkers. Make that a public escouade! C’est le seul moyen de lutter contre la propagande et la désinformation (qu’elle provienne de milieux populaires ou qu’elle provienne des institutions). C’est sûr, les prétendus debunkers peuvent aussi être eux-mêmes des propagandistes (eg le site Décodex du journal français Le Monde)… qu’à cela ne tienne, eux-aussi seront démentis dans l’espace public!
Pour ce faire, il faut mettre fin à l’anonymat pour ces forums de debunkers. T’as une opinion? Tu affirmes quelque chose? Ça ne vaut RIEN si tu ne donnes pas tes sources et ça ne vaut RIEN si tu te caches derrière un pseudo. Qu’on rende les gens redevables et responsables de l’information qu’ils diffusent et des actions qu’ils incitent. MAIS qu’on ne les déplatte-forme pas comme Alex Jones, ou encore pire, qu’on ne les catégorisent pas comme terroristes s’ils “appartiennent” à un groupe aux idées nauséabondes! Sinon, demain c’est vous qu’ils viendront chercher.
Ant6n
This 2000$ fee to enter Canada for residents and citizens is excessive. I need to come back to Canada for family reasons, after having been abroad for more than a year, and i feel my right to enter the country is quite infringed.
Its the sort of rule meant to discourage tourism, but it will disproportionately affect immigrants, esp those who have been hunkering abroad.JaneyB
Legault’s opening option for CEGEPs and universities is clearly insane.
Concordia has nixed this plan pure and simple. Faculty associations are not going to let their often older members walk into the imminent British variant storm which we know is already in the country. Also there are all the foreign students who are doing their courses from home due to travel restrictions and vulnerable family members etc. Not happening.Wouldn’t it be nice if all the leaders could sing from the same hymnbook. Just a week ago we got the Feds to finally create Australian-style entry restrictions, now Legault is ready to party – but not at night. Ayoye.
dwgs
Meanwhile McGill is very gung ho on moving back to ‘normal’. Sigh.
Tim S.
JaneyB: I’ve been trying to compose my thoughts on this since the press conference, but can’t come up with anything better than “clearly insane.” I don’t get how the government has so little understanding of the functioning of institutions they supposedly run, starting with the fact that students don’t all have the same schedule.
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Kate
With retail reopening soon, free parking will continue downtown Friday evenings and on the weekend.
mare 00:21 on 2021-02-05 Permalink
I know this is a serious blog but I just (10 minutes ago) saw the *best* illustration to this story. I can’t post images, so here’s a link: https://mltshp-cdn.com/r/1KUXM.jpg
Kevin 01:01 on 2021-02-05 Permalink
How are they getting bedbug infestations in office buildings?
Ugh. I’m telling ya, office workers aren’t coming back downtown.
Jonathan 09:49 on 2021-02-05 Permalink
I really don’t believe this is as big of a problem as they mention. Rats, like all lifeforms, need food. If there are no people, then there is no food. It’s not like these populations of rats are just going to explode uncontrollably without a secure food source. Another anti-urban anti-Montreal smear campaign by Quebecor.
Kate 11:12 on 2021-02-05 Permalink
Kevin, the big library had bedbugs, with no beds either. It’s why they got rid of all the chairs with padding or upholstery and put in hard plastic seating. I think the STM may have made the same decision about buses.
Jonathan, I don’t know. I just link to stories. But it seems likely there’s still food in some of those offices, and rats will eat almost anything.
Blork 14:20 on 2021-02-05 Permalink
I think the bedbugs are a separate issue. As in, (a) empty offices are filling up with rats because of the reasons stated, and (b) the bedbug problem is growing because residential landlords are slacking off on taking care of the problem.