Michel Brûlé, the publisher and sometime politician, who was facing sentencing for sexual assault here, has died in Brazil in a bike accident.
Updates from May, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Kate
-
Kate
Canadiens are up 2-0 at the end of the second. I can feel a disturbance in the force as the SPVM hands out the riot gear.
…And there we are. It’s not a typical hockey season but I could hear various neighbours whooping.
Ephraim
Toronto, the only city where the leafs fall in the Autumn and the Spring
Kevin
Bergevin just won himself another 2 years.
david287
For context: https://archive.is/ya65R
The Habs winning is always nice, but taking out the Leafs like they did, just beautiful. If only it had been a shutout, so achingly close to adding that additional indignity.
Kate
Yes, it’s too bad the shutout was spoiled at the end.
Max
Time to board up the downtown SAQs methinks. Pathetically.
Kate
Max, I don’t think there was any mayhem.
-
Kate
Nakuset has asked people to come to the Cartier monument Monday night at 7 to join in a drumming circle to commemorate those 215 lost children. But I’m afraid she’s got competition this evening against the hockey game.
-
Kate
The city is preparing a plan to save Chinatown.
-
Kate
Philippe Teisceira-Lessard tells us about the history of the Île aux Tourtes but not much about the passenger pigeon, and nothing about the pies.
jeather
Sadly, that one is probably a false etymology, it’s cognate to tart.
Kate
Who are you calling cognate to tart?!
jeather
If the pastry crust fits.
Janet
Stop, stop! These puns are tourtiere.
MarcG
What do you get when unilingual francophones and anglophones bump into each other on the metro? Passenger pidgin.
-
Kate
City hall flags will be at half mast to mourn the 215 indigenous children whose remains were found near a residential school in Kamloops.
Meezly
Lest anyone thinks this is a BC or Canadian problem, Quebec had about a dozen residential schools with about 6000 known survivors.
Kate
Yes.
The thing that’s stuck with me that I saw recently was a brief quote from one of the survivors to the effect of “Did your school have a graveyard? Ours did.”
dhomas
The more I read about John A McDonald, the more I think people are right about taking down his statue.
“When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with its parents, who are savages; he is surrounded by savages, and though he may learn to read and write his habits, and training and mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write. It has been strongly pressed on myself, as the head of the Department, that Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men.”
— John A McDonald
-
Kate
QMI is making a theme of texting and driving lately, their most recent catch being a reader’s submission of a photo of Denis Coderre doing just that.
Daniel
I guess we have to hope that the photographer is on a bus or walking along? And not, you know, using their device while driving to take a photo of someone using a device while driving… (Alas the reflection in the photo does not suggest a bus passenger.)
Daniel D
So, you’re saying it’s OK for our potential future mayor to be doing this because everyone else is just as bad?
-
Kate
A man was shot early Monday in Old Montreal when shots were exchanged between two groups of people. There have been arrests.
-
Kate
People living or running businesses in Old Montreal aren’t too thrilled by the gatherings seen there on the weekend. Fireworks, garbage and several acts of violence accompanied the outbreak of post-curfew partying.
-
Kate
A young man was killed Saturday afternoon in a drive-by shooting in Montreal North. This is homicide #10 this year.
-
Kate
Blind people are having trouble coping with crossing the REV, which adds an extra layer of difficulty to urban navigation for people who can’t see.
EmilyG
This is not just one of numerous examples of how Montreal is not a very disabled-friendly city, but also more generally an illustration of how disabled people are often not considered when plans are made.
Joey
This is the kind of thing you would expect a Projet Mtl administration to get right on the first try. I wonder how much of this kind of thing is due to an inadequate bureaucracy.
Kate
You’ll notice we’re not actually getting news about blind people being mowed down by cyclists.
Do blind people not have GPS on their phones by now, telling them where they are and warning of any particular hazards in the area? If not, I would think that’s the place to start. Clearly such a GPS-based aid would also have to be kept scrupulously updated.
Blork
It’s a legitimate concern. the article talks about major intersections where you have only 13 seconds to cross, and how the REV has lead to non-standard crossing patterns, which can come as a surprise and might be hard to parse if you can’t actually see what’s going on. The fact that no blind people have been mowed down yet is good, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t need a re-think.
Joey
Would we hear about if if a blind person were knocked over by a cyclist? The issue seems to be the short/non-standard traffic signals, not the lack of GPS phones (huh?)… presumably audio cues integrated into the lights could relatively easily solve this and make the new St Denis more accessible.
Kate
Joey, you’re right, the traffic signals should have audio cues.
Sorry if you think my idea of GPS on phones is stupid. I was thinking about what I’d want if walking around town blindfolded and alone, and having the phone tell me things seemed like one solution.
mare
My father-in-law is getting blind and use apps like this that can recognize all kinds of things. Objects, light, barcodes, faces, money, handwritten text(!) and more. Still experimental but it already works amazingly well.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/ai/seeing-ai
I’m not sure it can handle the REV though.
qatzelok
I’m wondering if it was easier for anyone (including the seeing impaired) to cross four lanes of moving traffic with no mid-block crosswalks, or if saying that “the REV is hurting the blind” is just more car-addict nonsense.
jeather
Did you read the article? Because it happens to answer your questions.
qatzelok
Yes I read it, and no it doesn’t, jeather.
jeather
Really, because I read quotes from a blind person who says that it was easier when they had the sound of traffic to guide them, that they would like audible walk signals (very common elsewhere), and that they like the bike lane and think it is better for cyclists but wish they were included in the planning. This isn’t a validated survey of all blind people, granted.
Orr
Wait until they hear the news about these new silent electric cars driving all around town.
-
Kate
Crowds of partying people, possibly invigorated by the Canadiens’ overtime win as they tied the series with the Leafs, were dispersed from the Old Port Saturday evening. Photos from TVA.
But there were also shots fired on rue de la Commune, where a woman was shot in the foot, and a young man found stabbed in the same location.
-
Kate
The city and the borough of Montreal North are promising to make changes in the management of its blue-collar workers following two damning reports recently about overt racism against workers of colour, including verbal slurs and a pattern of making those workers do the hardest and most unpleasant tasks.
-
Kate
A big fire in St-Léonard, upstairs of a row of small businesses on Jean-Talon East, forced six households out early Saturday.
Around the same time, another fire, apparently caused by a smoker, caused evacuations in Sud-Ouest borough.
A young man was stabbed in Verdun overnight as well. The only suspect is well under age.
Friday evening a passenger died when a car collided with a lamp post. The driver is in critical condition. Police note that it’s the 13th fatal collision in Montreal this year, giving cars the edge over homicide in reducing our numbers.
-
Kate
A big demonstration against the remaining anti-pandemic measures is planned for June 5.
dmdiem
Vaccine passports? Oh come on. By the time the government could implement such a program, everyone will already be vaccinated. It would be a complete waste of time and mon- … *sigh*. I guess I’m joining the protest.
Kevin
Almost Everyone with a shot has been given a QR code already…
M
@ dmdiem Vaccine passports are so you can travel. You may very well be vaccinated, but you may not be able to leave the country without one as many jurisdictions will require such a document. So yes, the gov’t should definitely implement such a program.
There is plenty to complain about, but there’s not much to gripe about when it comes to vaccinations. Canada, and more specifically Quebec, has been leading the pack.Remember to bring your Trump/QAnon flag when you go to the protest!
steph
I know a few non-vocal people who are against getting vaccinated.
dmdiem
ITT. Whoosh.
Nick
A vaccine passport is just another wall like your antagonist Trump promised his voters.
M
@Nick You probably think it made for a nice little quip, but, really, how so?
Certain visas already require visitors to have certain vaccines, so this isn’t new territory. Access to other countries inherently comes with restrictions and obligations. This added document may remind people that travelling is a privilege and not a right. If people don’t want to get the vaccine, then this is one of the consequences.
Ephraim
We already HAVE vaccine passports. They are called the “International Certificate of Vaccination or Prophylaxis” for “International Health Regulations (2005)” and I have one and keep it with my passport. It’s required when you go to certain countries that have Yellow Fever and after that in countries that don’t, if you have travelled to a country with Yellow Fever. See https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/travel-health/yellow-fever/procedures/recommendations-completing-international-certificate-vaccination-prophylaxis-poliovirus-vaccination.html
And let me tell you that getting a Yellow Fever vaccination isn’t easy, since there has been a very limited supply for a number of years. The centres give you a half vaccination, which is good for a year, unless you need it multiple times (on the second time, they gave us a full vaccination). And they try to get 6 people together, at the same time, because it’s a live vaccine and they don’t want to waste any.
qatzelok
If passports can eliminate Yellow Fever, who could possibly be against them?
Nick
If Biden finishes the wall on their southern border he won’t say it’s to keep out gangsters and rapists. He won’t be labeled a racist. He will say it’s to keep out those without proof of vaccination and no one will make a peep. Vaccine passports are just a way for countries gouvernements to turn away refuges without taking political damage. I don’t have the exact numbers but I’m under the impression that the wealthy countries of the world have received about 50% of the doses while making up less than 15% of the population.
In the next month or two we will have our second doses and be fully vaccinated. In a year from then we will probably have a booster. We will get that as well, probably with a stamp on our physical or digital passport. Since we are lucky enough to live in Canada we can go on like this for years or, if deemed necessary, indefinitely. How long can Angola? They can’t prevent yellow fever outbreaks while a vaccine has existed for almost a century.
ant6n
“#mybodymychoice”
uffChris
People aren’t worried about “vaccine passports” for international travel, they are worried about having to show such papers when taking transit, or shopping, eating out, that kind of thing.
I haven’t investigated what those QR codes contain, but very likely your full name is encoded there, so scanning them would allow a merchant to know it.
Tommy 22:06 on 2021-05-31 Permalink
The local paper in Brazil reports that he was not wearing a helmet.
dhomas 18:00 on 2021-06-01 Permalink
I actually read the Brazilian news articles about his death. None mentioned if he was wearing a helmet. Was that comment tongue in cheek, because local news outlets like to make mention of these things?