Updates from March, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 22:16 on 2021-03-21 Permalink | Reply  

    In a long-simmering labour situation, the longshoremen’s union has almost unanimously rejected a recently proposed contract. No strike is threatened in the short term, but it remains a possibility.

     
    • Kate 15:33 on 2021-03-21 Permalink | Reply  

      More than a thousand people were at the anti-Asian-racism protest downtown Sunday.

      Meantime, the minister appointed to work against racism, Benoit Charette, says we have to stop seeing racism everywhere. I leave this story in the hands of my readers for comment.

       
      • Ephraim 16:51 on 2021-03-21 Permalink

        I can’t see the ostrich, because it’s head is in the sand.

      • steph 18:03 on 2021-03-21 Permalink

        So the straight, white, middle-aged man has expressed his opinion on this. Now that his job is done, can we put someone else in the position?

      • Meezly 00:41 on 2021-03-22 Permalink

        We might as well put a parrot in that position, mimicking the party line, as it’s a powerless symbolic one anyway, “an empty shell” as the article put it.

      • Kevin 07:43 on 2021-03-22 Permalink

        Someone said that Quebec’s leaders believe that for there to be discrimination, there must be intent.
        And now I know why so many people online get hung up on Lord Durham.

      • ant6n 08:44 on 2021-03-22 Permalink

        Its really funny how, when this appointment was announced, there was this discussion about how just because he’s white and male, it doesn’t mean he’s unqualified for this particular position, and how it may actually be racist to assume that he wouldn’t be good at this job. “We have to stop seeing racism where there isn`t any.”

        It seems this guy is a minister without a ministry, without a budget, without functionaires (according to the article), … one has to wonder whether he’s also without a purpose.

      • jeather 10:51 on 2021-03-22 Permalink

        The clip of Patrick Huard explaining systemic racism was pretty good.

      • Meezly 11:56 on 2021-03-22 Permalink

        I appreciate his calm, measured tone, to make sure he is understood.

      • Meezly 22:08 on 2021-03-22 Permalink

        Speaking of calm, measured tones, can someone tell me why Amir Attaran is not getting more traction with his tweets? I find him cutting, honest and funny. And he’s getting Quebec leaders in a real tizzy!

        https://montrealgazette.com/news/quebec/pq-leader-wants-university-to-tell-professor-to-stop-bashing-quebec?fbclid=IwAR2a5zrpu-8e0AtdXAnCc5J8kIufELzkM4RXdpoIuTA2wx-mA9ZH-fLiF24

    • Kate 15:31 on 2021-03-21 Permalink | Reply  

      Two people were sent to hospital after a kitchen fire in Côte-des-Neiges, with firefighters adding a note that people keep putting food on to cook and then getting distracted by their computers till something in the kitchen catches fire.

       
      • Blork 21:24 on 2021-03-21 Permalink

        I did that once! It was 20 years ago and I lived in a big apartment building on Ste-Catherine W. I put some potatoes on to simmer and went to my computer and fell into a rabbit hole. After what felt like 10 minutes but was probably an hour the smoke detector went off. I ran to the kitchen and the pot wasn’t in flames (there was no oil) but the potatoes were completely black and thick smoke was billowing out of the pot.

        What to do? I was worried the pot might explode if I poured water into it, so I opened the window and held the pot up to the screen for a couple of minutes while it cooled down. In retrospect I’m surprised the fire department didn’t show up because there was a LOT of smoke coming out of that window. Pot was ruined and I never did it again. Things are easier now because it’s so easy to set a timer on your phone or watch. Lesson learned.

      • Kate 09:35 on 2021-03-22 Permalink

        Blork, you remind me of the time I saw a neighbour, at my old place, rush out and slam an old-style pressure cooker onto the cold sidewalk. He looked up at me and we both laughed, but it was probably close to a meltdown.

    • Kate 11:18 on 2021-03-21 Permalink | Reply  

      CTV presents a discussion about real estate prices: will the bubble burst, or not?

       
      • dmdiem 12:54 on 2021-03-21 Permalink

        While prices are really starting to get out of hand, it’s basically impossible to call the top of any market. But there are a few things that could bring the prices down:

        1) Rising interest rates from the Bank of Canada due to increased inflation.
        2) Decreased immigration.
        3) Increased development.
        4) New regulations on corporations/investors purchasing properties and leaving them vacant.
        5) Flight off island. Either from the work from home crowd looking for a better quality of life, retirees downsizing or just generally people looking for a home they can actually afford.
        6) That thing that cratered the real estate market some decades ago.

        Also I just want to point out that realtor Mark Broady did not, in fact, sell a tear down bungalow for 680 million dollars.

      • steph 13:14 on 2021-03-21 Permalink

        “We’re often listing properties where we think the market value will be and they end up selling for way over what anyone could have expected,” he said.” This is a lie. Realtors are equally listing things below market value seeding confusion to cause blind bidding wars. In a sellers market, where over-bidding is commonplace, under listing will gets the owner the highest offer

      • dmdiem 14:05 on 2021-03-21 Permalink

        Looks like they fixed the 680 million dollar thing. Too bad. That was funny.

      • Ephraim 06:29 on 2021-03-22 Permalink

        There are still quite a few FLIPPERS in business and I wish they would stop. They don’t have a light touch at all. Like this one… https://www.centris.ca/en/houses~for-sale~montreal-cote-des-neiges-notre-dame-de-grace/17778827?view=Summary&uc=1 on Grand in NDG… $2.22 million… on Grand! Every damn sink is so wide that there is no counterspace in the bathroom. So modern that it’s actually awful. And because they redid everything, there is no place to really customize it to your own particular taste. Put in a minimal staircase… removed all that storage that you could have under it. Great for architectural digest… horrible if you want to live there. So many of these guys go so over the top with the changes… instead of making it livable and functional. Something you want to live in, not simply show off, once, in a newspaper article.

      • Kevin 10:26 on 2021-03-22 Permalink

        @Ephraim
        Awful taste but great execution.
        Would not live there.

      • Blork 12:37 on 2021-03-22 Permalink

        I like “modern” but that house has me shaking my head. It’s like someone took a book of modern design ideas and APPLIED ALL OF THEM willy-nilly without any sense of restraint. And $2.2million for what oughta be a $600K (before all that MODERN)? No thanks!

      • MarcG 12:51 on 2021-03-22 Permalink

        That house is around the corner from LCC.

      • Kevin 15:56 on 2021-03-22 Permalink

        @Blork
        According to friends who have bought in the past few weeks, $600,000 is the price for a home that must sell and close in 30 days in DDO, or a losing bid for an upper duplex, no access to basement, in NDG.

      • Blork 18:02 on 2021-03-22 Permalink

        Well, the stories are certainly out there about things like that. OTOH I know someone who just put their DDO townhouse on the market for $350,000. It’s not a mansion, but it’s in good shape and has a sweet, recently renovated modern kitchen. I have no doubt he will sell for well over the asking price.

        So my $600,000 price is based on a fairly plain NDG house in regular times, but even that is low-ball unless it’s a dump. However, this one has a total do-over inside, with everything sparkling and modern, so I’d expect that to add a couple of hundy or so. But ultimately it’s not a mansion, so anything over a million seems excessive, and $2.2M is more than double that!

      • dwgs 19:07 on 2021-03-22 Permalink

        Places on my modest ndg block (between de Maisonneuve and Sherbrooke) are going for around 800k and the being gutted and redone. It’s madness.

    • Kate 10:00 on 2021-03-21 Permalink | Reply  

      Daniel Renaud looks back 20 years at the concerted police effort to thwart the power of the Hells Angels, especially once they understood how the bikers and the old-school Mafia had teamed up to bring drugs into Quebec.

      Renaud only sketches briefly how much crooked money is in legitimate businesses here – real estate, restaurants, cars. You’ve got to launder all that excess cash somehow.

       
      • Kate 09:40 on 2021-03-21 Permalink | Reply  

        A sex doll brothel has opened on the South Shore and is putting out publicity. A journalist goes to check it out.

         
        • Mr Sprocket 09:47 on 2021-03-21 Permalink

          I guess it is less expensive to rent than buy. Still, yuck.

        • Meezly 10:18 on 2021-03-21 Permalink

          I’m sure he’s checked it out very thoroughly.

        • mare 10:32 on 2021-03-21 Permalink

          For a sexologist and psychotherapist she does an excellent job kink shaming the clients of this place.

          And really, “live” sex workers are still doing business, albeit more underground than before. For some people they provide an essential service.

        • Raymond Lutz 11:14 on 2021-03-21 Permalink

          «La spécialiste se dit surtout préoccupée par ces objets sexuels qui peuvent déshumaniser le rapport amoureux des individus. » !!! Don’t click on any porn link on the web! Also, her right hand… brrr.. Uncanny valley.

        • Chris 15:36 on 2021-03-21 Permalink

          Meezly: what do you mean there?

          «La spécialiste se dit surtout préoccupée par ces objets sexuels qui peuvent déshumaniser le rapport amoureux des individus. » Also: never buy/use a dildo! It dehumanizes men and reduces them to mere objects, don’t you know?! 🙂

          Puritanical sexual prudishness is a long lingering effect of religion on our culture. Looks like it’s going to take a few generations yet to get past.

        • Meezly 09:45 on 2021-03-22 Permalink

          Chris: I meant exactly what I said. Before I read the article, I was fairly certain the journalist would apply his investigative skills on this establishment. And sure enough, he did: “Pour tenter de lever le voile sur cette mystérieuse entreprise, j’ai décidé d’infiltrer la maison close comme un client régulier. “

        • Ant6n 14:37 on 2021-03-22 Permalink

          Wait, „regular client“, does that mean he came there multiple times?

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