Police counted 350 people coming out of a religious gathering in the Mile End on Friday evening. Nobody was fined.
Updates from April, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
With more virulent strains of Covid around, STM bus drivers are now required to wear masks.
Jim
Completely insane that it took until now for this to implemented. I remember getting on a bus last December for the first time in 9 months and my jaw hit the floor when all 3 bus drivers were maskless. You mean an open driver’s window isn’t adequate protection. Better late than never, I guess.
Kate
I know. Especially since the STM union was quick to make passengers board via the rear door originally, and tape off the driver area. Then they totally put their faith in the plexiglas.
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Kate
Mamadi Camara was awarded the National Assembly medal on Friday, in recognition of his civic sense and his volunteer work.
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Kate
Some MNAs and councillors are speaking up against renoviction, but, as Aurélie Lanctôt says in this Le Devoir column, the CAQ is in denial of problems with the rental market.
Not surprisingly, landlords are against the proposed rental registry. This is exactly the same as bosses not wanting their employees not to discuss their salaries. In fact, exchanging information is always the first step to pushing back.
steph
The registry could also help with problem tenants. It’s a two way streeet.
Ephraim
@steph – But they won’t allow landlords (legally) to rate tenants. It’s one of the problems in the system. The only bow to landlords is, if you get a judgement, the judgement is good for 30 years, but then you need to hire a bailiff that you pay for and find them, and then garnish their wages and then they quit the job because they don’t want to pay it and you have to start all over again.
The system needs a number of serious repairs. Ask anyone who’s wanted to have a pet in an apartment, any landlord not being paid or tenants dealing with noise, smoke, smell problems, etc.
Bill Binns
When you look into being a landlord in this town as a business, it’s almost comically dangerous. It’s the only business I know of where you can be forced by law to give your product away for an indefinite amount of time. It’s very Russian Roulette. You just have to hope you don’t move someone in who decides on month 2 that they have better things to spend their money on than rent. Of course there are no corresponding laws that protect landlords from foreclosure based on sad stories.
We have built a system where the only people brave enough to get involved in the rental market (most especially at the lower end of the rental market) are those who are willing to use sleazy tools like renoviction to manage risk. Renoviction is one of the very few tools available and even that can take a year or more.
Kate
Renoviction has nothing to do with delinquent tenants, Bill Binns. People who have paid on the nail for years can still get renovicted. It’s not a question of getting rid of people who can’t or won’t pay, but of getting people out that landlords feel are not paying enough.
You can see how tenants may feel that their diligence means nothing when it comes to being turfed out like this.
Tim S.
I always though Quebec rental laws were a great example of balance rather than moderation. Any given rule seems to go all the way in favour of either the landlord or tenant, with not much compromise. On one hand, it’s impossible to break a lease before the year is up, even after death the estate is still responsible (I think – I don’t have my lease close at hand), which is to the landlord’s advantage. On the other, it’s not easy to evict tenants. So on and so forth.
Ephraim
@Time S. The estate is limited to one month if the person is in an RPA. But there is the 3 sublet rule… you try to get approval of 3 different sublets after the third refusal, you can petition to have the lease broken.
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Kate
Walk-in vaccination clinics have closed because the existing stock of AstraZeneca vaccine has run out. Mayor Plante got her shot of AZ in time.
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Kate
Five influential folks have signed an open letter in Le Devoir underlining the importance of Mount Royal as an abiding symbol and sign of our city, and of not overwhelming it with Hong Kong style condo towers.
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Kate
The Quebec Liberals have announced a 27-point plan for the future of French in Quebec, including a proposed dedicated brigade to intervene in downtown Montreal.
steph
Do we have political party that is willing to focus on more important things?
Kevin
As long as a large proportion of the population believes their culture is going extinct, anyone who wants to get elected has to focus on it.
Bill Binns
I honestly don’t believe that there is a single person in Quebec who really believes that French is in any kind of danger.
This is driven by people who live in places where they can live their whole lives while hardly hearing a word of English. They simply resent hearing a smattering of English during their twice a year visits to Montreal. I know that resentment. I have felt it during my visits to Miami or San Antonio or Southern California. Of course, If I were to suggest an American equivalent to bill 101 I would immediately be condemned as the worst kind of racist. Here somehow, it’s a legitimate cry for freedom by an oppressed majority.
Jb
“The inalienable right to work in French must be strengthened by only requiring other languages in limited and justified situations.” So now it’s an attack on all languages. When will people say it’s enough?
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Kate
The longshoremen’s union has called for an unlimited general strike starting Monday. The union maintains essential services like Covid-related shipments.
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Kate
The old Loew’s cinema downtown is going to be demolished and replaced with the inevitable condo tower.
Bill Binns
It’s too bad we don’t even (AFAIK) have at least one grand old movie theater that still shows first run movies. Paris, London, NY, LA etc all have at least a few. It’s really a fundamentally different experience than the typical megaplex.
Kate
I think the Imperial is still viable, but isn’t being used that way any more.
Max
What’s with the Imperial Theatre anyway? It seems to be in a state of suspended animation. I remember Fantasia made use of it for a few years when it was pretty shabby inside. Then it closed for renovations. And then… nothing.
Kate
I don’t know. It was used by the old Montreal Film Festival for awhile and I remember something about that organization having a claim on it, but the pandemic must have shut them down permanently. It wouldn’t surprise me to find it’s in the hands of a numbered company hoping to demolish it just as the Spectrum was around the corner, and Loew’s is about to be soon.
GC
I heard it was used for a VIP screening during FIFA recently. And isn’t is still used for “Rocky Horror” each Halloween? (Though perhaps not in 2020…) So, maybe just special events?
DeWolf
Quebecor owns the Imperial and it was still being used for film screenings and other events before the pandemic. They have sold the air rights to a developer who is building a condo tower next door, which means the theatre can’t be redeveloped.
https://forum.agoramtl.com/t/imperia-condominiums-22-etages/304
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebecor-imperial-cinema-montreal-1.4257547
Kate
Thanks for the research, DeWolf.
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Kate
One family in the west end is trying to find out how their mother died in hospital. Another is trying to find out more about how their daughter got killed by a bus in or near the Exo bus terminal.
The son in the first story is quoted as saying “We want justice” – but when a woman in her eighties dies in hospital, what does justice mean? In the second, the family is “looking for answers” – but when the answer is a misadventure, a young woman in the way as a bus pulls into a terminus, there may be no answers. A mistake was made. Someone died.
The families say they want information. But information is not going to magically bring an end to their suffering. You can feel sorry for these families and extend them your sympathy, but sometimes there are no further answers except that human life is fragile. And sometimes you can raise an eyebrow at journalists turning their stories into column inches.
Meezly
This hospital LIED to the family by saying something to the effect that Candida Macarine died of natural causes. Based on what I recall, the family didn’t find out that her mother was found dead on the floor of the hospital until they had her funeral, and by news reports, not by the hospital staff!!
If I were in their shoes, I’d be p*ssed! It sounds like her death could have been preventable and worse, she died alone with no one to help her, and most likely in pain. It’s awful.
I can see why the family wants answers and justice. And it’s possible that, yet again, racism could have been a factor. It really looks like the hospital was trying to hide how this poor woman died. It sounds like accountability and justice is indeed needed.
Kate
She would’ve had family members with her had it not been disallowed by the pandemic. A lot of people have died alone over the last year, whether from Covid or something else.
su
She was 86 suffering from a respiratory ilness that led to her hospitalization.
She may have tried to get out of bed on her own and fallen due to lack of oxygenatio from failing lungs and neurological effects of respiratory acidosis.Kate
I’m not maintaining there wasn’t a degree of neglect, Meezly. In fact, at the time it was reported that nurses had already pointed out to management that the room Candida Macarine occupied was difficult to monitor.
Reporters should find out whether this problem has been rectified. But assigning individual blame to overworked nurses in the middle of a pandemic would be a harsh response.
Meezly
That’s understandable about overworked nurses. But the hospital administration should have been honest about it. Admit a mistake was made, and not lie to the deceased family. I don’t know how it got leaked to the media, but maybe an insider leaked it for a reason, ie. there’s already rampant neglect…? To find out that your mother was the one who was left on the floor to die is a pretty harsh way to learn the truth.
Not totally following this story, but there seems to be a blame game going on between staff and admin, for sure.
steph
I know it’s not the USA, but admitting to a misting would open the door for a lawsuit that the administration can’t afford.
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Kate
Quebec and Montreal have announced funding of $25 million to integrate immigrants but I’m curious what this works out to on the ground.
Bill Binns
I am a poorly integrated immigrant. I’ll let you know how it goes. So far, I don’t feel any different.
Kate
We will send someone around to commence your francisation immediately.
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Kate
This La Presse piece on a shot fired in an apartment building in St-Léonard is notable mostly for the accompanying photo of the SPVM armoured vehicle.
Bill Binns 09:04 on 2021-04-24 Permalink
Can you imagine the police standing by passively and not writing a single ticket as 350 people poured out of a gym or a restaurant or a wedding? There seems to be some sort of privilege that comes with wearing 18th century garb in this town. Nice to see our leaders “following the science”.
Kate 10:18 on 2021-04-24 Permalink
Cops know how bad it looks if they’re shown rounding up Jews, Bill Binns, but I’m guessing the Hasidim are counting on that.
JaneyB 11:02 on 2021-04-24 Permalink
True but quarantining Jewish neighbourhoods will look much worse. La Presse could cover some of Israel’s struggles with the Haredi to help Quebecois realize there are many kinds of Jews.
Ephraim 18:00 on 2021-04-24 Permalink
Maybe they should be warned that if they don’t follow the rules, they will simply be shut down and locked until they agree to follow the rules.
Chris 21:43 on 2021-04-24 Permalink
Notice how the article doesn’t even state that it was (presumably) a Hasidic gathering? It seems rather relevant to the story that the people in question are not your run of the mill theists, but an intransigent cult. If it were a group of scientologists or QAnon, I’d wager they’d be named, and ticketed. Not that ticketing them would change their behaviour. I doubt anything in the world would.
Kate 09:47 on 2021-04-25 Permalink
I have since also linked the post to a TVA article that does mention the nature of the gathering, although anyone who knows this city doesn’t have to be told that a Friday night religious gathering in that location would be a Hasidic group.
jeather 10:03 on 2021-04-25 Permalink
An English article about this mentions that they are not ticketing for most religious gatherings breaking the rules. The last time this came up we saw province wide headlines any time it was a synagogue and tiny hidden local stories when it was a church. I am sure the same is happening again.