A man and woman had such a domestic squabble that they sent each other to hospital Saturday afternoon, and a third party was also arrested.
Updates from February, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Kate
-
Kate
People may kvetch about the mayor, but her party collected twice as much in party contributions as Ensemble last year.
Tim S.
This municipal election will be an interesting contest between determined party activists and disgruntled mainstream media.
Jonathan
Tim, agreed!
Kate
I think a lot will depend on how we all feel if the pandemic fades between now and November. Will an ongoing quality-of-life party win, or will enough people be up for a post‑pandemic fandango of Coderre‑style bread‑and‑circuses administration?
I think this year we’re all going to have to face that government coffers (at all levels) are not bottomless. Someone campaigning on big parties may not have much credibility if people can feel it in their wallets that the parties mean a bigger tax bill. But blow enough smoke and it might work.
Also, I always remind myself that barely 40% of eligible voters can be bothered to cast a ballot in municipal elections. Even after the debacle of the end of the Tremblay era, the impulse to throw those bums out barely moved that number.
Michael Black
Mail-in voting would be useful.
I looked into it for the last federal election, but unless you were in a remote area, it wasn’t available.
Kate
For a municipal election, remote areas won’t be relevant, but I’m pretty sure Elections Quebec must be working on ramping up voting-by-mail options for the municipal elections to take place this November all the same.
Conventional polling stations may be over. You can’t stay distanced if you’re working at a table alongside other people, or counting ballots with them. Once the system is in place for people to vote conveniently by mail, it may simply continue.
I’ve worked for elections, and in a way I think something will be lost if we can’t vote in person any more. There’s a concrete feel of democracy in action as you watch people of all types and ages coming in to vote. But time will tell.
dhomas
I like voting in person because it lets me show my kids democracy in action and gives me the opportunity to explain to them how it works. I quite liked the election where kids got to vote (I think their options were more parks, more pools, or more libraries). You don’t get that same feel with mail-in voting (which I do for Italian elections). Also, I like getting my “I voted” sticker. :p
Kate
dhomas, do you get to vote for one of those overseas constituencies?
GC
Do we actually give out stickers here? I’ve voted in every election–at all three levels of government–since 2010 and I can’t remember getting any stickers. Have I been doing it all wrong?
Kate
GC, I’ve worked on elections at all three levels over the last decade, and there were never any stickers. American friends have mentioned them, though.
dhomas
I know I got a sticker for the last municipal election in 2017. I know for a fact because I have a picture with my daughter and her “électeur en herbe” sticker. I don’t think I’ve gotten stickers for every election, though.
About voting in Italian elections, Italian citizens abroad get to vote in many but not all elections (for some, like EU elections, you need to be present in Italy, but I don’t know which others). I believe the Italian government considers all Italians living abroad (except those temporarily away from home) one big electoral district.Kate
dhomas, maybe they didn’t do kids’ elections at all the polling stations. I worked for that municipal election at a school in Park Ex, but I don’t remember any special feature for kids.
As for overseas constituencies of the Italian Parliament there are four.
dhomas
Shows what I know! My voting card usually says “Circoscrizione Estero” (“Foreign District”), so I thought there was the one “zone”. However, that one electoral district is indeed split into 4 distinct constituencies (“ripartizione”) for each geographical area. TIL
Orr
I made my first political donation in my life recently to Projet Montreal because I don’t want to see the many recent quality of neighbourhood life improvements disappear or be reversed if the anti-good-things-for-Montrealers Ensemble-Montreal opposition party gets into power. Long live the REV St-Denis!
-
Kate
Bordeaux Jail is coping with a big Covid outbreak. Imagine the torment of knowing you’re locked in with that thing and can’t leave.
The STM is accused of allowing its buses to get crowded well after curfew. If there are essential businesses operating late, maybe extra buses could be put on some routes?
-
Kate
Deaths from Covid in Quebec are teetering at 9,999 as the numbers come in Saturday morning.
-
Kate
Yves Boisvert points out that the police chief’s apology Friday to Mamadi Camara mentioned the inconveniences they had caused him, and says what happened to Camara was not inconvenience, it was injustice.
La Presse talked to a man who claims he witnessed the attack on the policeman but, while he’s pretty clear about what he saw, and that it absolves Mr Camara, it gets no closer to identifying the attacker.
Justin Trudeau said Friday that he’s concerned about the wrongful arrest. The item doesn’t point out a relevant fact: Trudeau is MP for the riding where the attack took place, so he’s speaking up as MP as well as prime minister.
I’m curious what the
police chiefpolice brotherhood president means about Mayor Plante interfering with the police. In law, who are the police answerable to, if not the elected representatives of the people?DavidH
That’s the police brotherhood’s president in the last item, not the police chief.
My guess is it’s a pre-emptive move to defend whichever of his members will get blamed by the upcoming inquiry. The department’s defense will be by the city’s lawyers. The City publicly taking a stance against its own employees certainly does not guarantee that its prosecutors will feel free to fully defend the employee in question when the time comes.
ant6n
Wait, Trudeau actually knows what riding he’s MP for?
Kate
DavidH: thanks for the clarification. Reading too fast.
ant6n: yes, he does.
-
Kate
The city is warning of treacherous ice on waterways around the island. Seems the fire service had to make twice as many ice-and-water rescues this January as in most Januaries because people are out restlessly looking for something to do.
Reply