Updates from May, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 19:32 on 2021-05-16 Permalink | Reply  

    A pro-Israel rally downtown was met at Dorchester Square by a counter-protest. Then police brought out the tear gas.

     
    • Chris 20:52 on 2021-05-16 Permalink

      A microcosm of the real thing!

  • Kate 16:17 on 2021-05-16 Permalink | Reply  

    Québec Solidaire seems to be inching closer to being a more mainstream party, as its co-leader Manon Massé steps back to leave the top job to Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois alone. The party used always to have a policy of two co-leaders, so I guess that’s been handwaved. Nadeau-Dubois is only 30. Picture him going head-to-head with Simon Jolin-Barrette (age 34) in the Battle of the Hyphens.

     
    • CE 16:38 on 2021-05-16 Permalink

      Massé will continue to be co-leader of the party but QS always chooses one of the two leaders to run for premier as Quebec’s parliamentary system only allows for one premier. They’ve just switched roles.

    • Kate 19:32 on 2021-05-16 Permalink

      Thanks for the clarification, CE. More here.

  • Kate 16:06 on 2021-05-16 Permalink | Reply  

    City parks are getting very crowded on nice days, but there are few or no bathrooms. La Presse talked to a man living near Parc Lalancette in Hochelaga, who finds people are using his yard to relieve themselves.

     
    • EmilyG 16:45 on 2021-05-16 Permalink

      I wonder if those temporary urinal things like they had at Osheaga, would be something to try in parks.

    • MarcG 16:51 on 2021-05-16 Permalink

      People were taking their kids to piss in the bushes near my place so “the city” set up a port-o-potty a few days ago. I noticed the same model in another park nearby while walking around so I guess they bought a case and spread them around.

    • DeWolf 09:01 on 2021-05-17 Permalink

      Last year there were a lot of portable toilets everywhere. They seem to have disappeared over the winter. I wonder if they were paid for by the province’s emergency funds, the same ones that paid for the various VAS and corridors sanitaires around town.

      Thing is, even many of the permanent washrooms are still closed, and the ones that are open have severely reduced capacity in the same of “social distancing” – which by now is a relic of the early days of the pandemic when masks weren’t required.

      And of course this isn’t a new problem. Almost every North American city fails spectacularly when it comes to providing this most basic public service.

      All of that said, things should get quieter as summer progresses. Terrasses will open up again and people will spend weekends in chalets. It seems like we’re following the same pattern as last year, when the parks were overburdened in May and June but calmed down as restrictions were lifted.

    • Em 11:25 on 2021-05-17 Permalink

      They could start by opening up the permanent public bathrooms which are already there but still closed, such as the ones in the Old Port.

      As a woman who has to be out and about on the job at times, the lack of available bathrooms was a definite problem last year.

    • Kate 11:44 on 2021-05-17 Permalink

      Yup. Stepping behind a tree is not so convenient for us.

  • Kate 10:39 on 2021-05-16 Permalink | Reply  

    CBC says Little Maghreb wants to be put on the map but on Google Maps it’s already there.

     
    • Kate 10:28 on 2021-05-16 Permalink | Reply  

      An organization trying to fund a housing program for young people aging out of the child protective system is having a hard time dealing with government. You’d think it would be only good sense to help people at that stage make the step from a damaged childhood into adulthood without falling into self‑destructive habits and homelessness. Maybe they need to pitch it in terms of sparing the state the future expenses for policing, sheltering and mental health.

       
      • Kate 10:15 on 2021-05-16 Permalink | Reply  

        Bill 96 proposes giving immigrants six months to learn French and then they’re on their own.

        Can you go from zero to understanding the things authorities will be telling you about your immigration status, your finances or your medical condition in six months? What do language specialists have to say about this?

        Quebec can’t actually throw you out, of course, but they can make life more difficult for you. I’ve told the story before about going to a walk-in clinic in my neighbourhood, and while waiting, overhearing an incident. A couple had come in, and the man, who spoke English with a heavy accent I didn’t recognize, was pleading with the receptionist. His wife was ill, but they hadn’t understood a phone message in French and had missed an appointment. Can you please leave our appointment messages in English, the man begged. The receptionist – a man – coldly told him (in English): “Our first priority is the French language.”

        I would have thought their first priority should be the health of their patients, and I should have stood up and told him so, but at that point I just wanted to be seen and get out of there.

        That attitude is not a kind one, and yet it is the attitude that Simon Jolin-Barrette wants us to take.

        Something crossed my mind while blogging recently, and it is a phrase that struck a chill in my heart.

        Premier Jolin-Barrette.

         
        • MattG 13:33 on 2021-05-16 Permalink

          Kate! Don’t scare us like that!

        • Uatu 13:50 on 2021-05-16 Permalink

          Ok, 6 months to get your shit together and move to another province. Got it.

        • John B 14:12 on 2021-05-16 Permalink

          I’m tired of being uncomfortable reading & writing in French, so I’m currently enrolled in the online/distance ed version of francisation offered by my local school board. There was recently an email announcement congratulating a student on completing Level 7 in the record time of 6 months. That’s 6 months for Level 7, not 6 months for levels 1-7.

          Yes, I have to pay to be in the programme, but it was something like $80 dollars all-in. The problem is finding time to do the course. Even the remote learning version is paced for 10-15 hours per week. If I want to go in person I would have to spend 20-30 hours per week during the business day, or travel to Lasalle for 15-20 hours a week of evening courses. It’s basically a choice between working and learning French. IMO more diverse ways to learn French, especially at a slower pace, would help more people achieve a higher level of competency.

        • dmdiem 14:32 on 2021-05-16 Permalink

          The kind of people who think you can learn French in 6 months are the same kind of people who think homeless folks should just buy a house.

        • Kate 16:11 on 2021-05-16 Permalink

          dmdiem, maybe it’s just been my experience, but I’ve encountered the notion that you could simply will yourself to know French, so if you don’t, it’s a moral failing on your part. For me it started in high school, where some of the French teachers were hard-asses who clearly felt we could just go nnnnggrrrhhhhh like lifting a heavy weight, and then be able to parlez-vous instantanément, but we were slackers unwilling to make the effort.

          Not knowing French if you were born in Quebec. Definitely a moral failing.

      • Kate 09:24 on 2021-05-16 Permalink | Reply  

        La Presse enumerates ten eyesores around town, starting with the incomparable Canada Malting in St‑Henri. All ten sites are buildings that have been neglected. The city can force an owner to make the site safe for passersby but has no powers over the detriment caused in the urban fabric when a building stands in disrepair in the public eye.

         
        • j2 09:34 on 2021-05-16 Permalink

          The Canada Malting is a Saint Henri landmark. Like the milk bottle, I frequently check the Malting’s house’s state. I’m not familiar with the internal layout but it would be great if it could be retained as some kind of cross functional space. Turning it into condos would just be one more piece of waterfront ick.

        • DeWolf 11:52 on 2021-05-16 Permalink

          The abandoned greystone block on St-André is an interesting one. I’ve always wondered what happened and it’s somehow not surprising to find out it’s a scummy landlord who seems to be waiting for the building to collapse until he can redevelop it.

          People like that are like small-time criminals: in the end, they probably won’t make more money than if they had taken an honest line of work, but it must be awfully exhausting constantly having to dodge the rules and thwart the authorities.

          The article says he also owned a neglected historic property in Quebec City but it was recently expropriated by the city due to neglect. I wonder why Montreal isn’t doing the same.

        • Kate 14:06 on 2021-05-16 Permalink

          Maybe that nice row of buildings doesn’t count as historic here?

        • Orr 16:28 on 2021-05-19 Permalink

          Across the street from the #10 on the list 3744 St-Denis eyesore is the hideous chain link fence surrounding the very large parking lots at each end of the Institut des Sourdes-muettes at 3725 St-Denis. That fence covers most of a full city block and has been an eyesore for decades, and I have complained to the city and did so again when PM started to run the Plateau, but of course there is “nothing we can do about it.” So fugly.

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