As planned, Côte-Vertu metro station is closing for 12 weeks for construction connected with the new underground garage. Item outlines changes in bus routes and so on. The station closes on Saturday.
Updates from May, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Eater tells us to beware of a few glitches as terrasses reopen.
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Kate
A ticket to see the Canadiens-Leafs game Saturday evening could cost as much as $12,000, and you have to buy a pair. The cheapest ticket is going for $1,500.
j2
To be fair that’s an asking price, and it might be what we in the industry call ahem eff you money, ie for $10000 I will give up this once in a lifetime opportunity so I can pay for my season tickets or whatever. Speaking of which, I don’t have $10000 for entertainment and these are lower bowl so they start about there.
(Prices, at the bottom: https://www.nhl.com/canadiens/tickets/waiting-list)
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Kate
The National Assembly passed a motion this week asking for the creation of a Quebec flag emoji. The thing is, one already exists. It’s not available on all platforms, but neither are many of the other regional flags that exist.
My iPhone, for example, has a Scots and a Welsh flag – but technically Scotland and Wales are different countries from England. Quebec clearly would like to see itself in that sort of category, and not like individual provinces, or individual states in Australia or the U.S., none of which are on my phone either.
Blork
Is there an emoji for banging your head against a table?
ant6n
Does anybody have a link to the actual motion? News sites never link to sources.
Kevin
This is the kind of thing that, when you stop to think about it, symbolizes exactly how much change there has been in Quebec since the ’50s — and how some people have completely failed to recognize how much life has changed.
Daniel D
Here’s the entry in Emojipedia (perhaps the best reference for looking up Emoji as it’s kept fastidiously up to date): https://emojipedia.org/flag-for-quebec-caqc
There’s no mention there of it being available on any platform yet, but that’s not to say some platforms don’t support it (it just seems it’s none of the major ones).
I would imagine the issue is the Unicode Consortium would only implement the Quebec flag alongside all the Canadian provincial and territorial flags as well as US states. I’m sure there’s demand for this though, but I’m exceedingly doubtful they would be willing to just implement Quebec’s on its own.
Mark Côté
Assuming I do understand this issue properly, it’s not really up to the Unicode Consortium, is it? They have already added it. Rather, it’s just platforms, e.g. OS vendors, to implement it, and they’ve apparently decided it is not worth the time and effort to add every single emoji to their software. So if the Quebec government really cares, they need to start lobbying Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc.
MarcG
Relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1953/
Blork
The great thing about standards is we have so many to choose from.
Uatu
FFS, now that the pandemic is under control it’s back to nonsensical bullshit from the caq. Give me a fucking break
Ephraim
There are over 3500 different provinces and states around the world. If we give them each an emoticon, we’ll never be able to scroll through them all in a day.
Ant6n
Well it’s already on the Unicode standard, just no platform implements it. That’s why I’m curious what the motion actually says. Like, who are they demanding should implement it.
Also, this thing passed unanimously without debate, like nobody could bother to check with an expert what the status of this is?
Ant6n
They actually asked the government to request this from the Unicode consortium, and its already in the standard!
Kate
Thanks for finding that, ant6n. I had a look but couldn’t find it.
John B
It sounds like a way to encode it exists, but it’s not “Recommended for General Interchange.” In short, stuff that’s Recommended for General Interchange gets implemented by everyone, stuff that’s not does not. What they should have requested is that the consortium Recommend the Quebec emoji for General Interchange.
Interesting to note that the text of the motion includes
QUE l’Assemblée nationale constate la présence de plusieurs émojis représentant des drapeaux de nations non indépendantes parmi la banque d’options disponibles;
“Plusieurs” = 3 apparently. Only England, Scotland, and Wales are RGI. WhatsApp also supports Texas.
Quick correction for Ant6n’s link – the vote results are on page 31, but the text of the resolution is on page 10.
Ant6n
Okay well this is really deep in the Unicode spec, the encoding of regional flags is part of the emoji spec and defines how regional flags are encoded: https://www.unicode.org/reports/tr51/#emoji_data
It links to the list of valid regional sequences, which includes „caqc“. https://github.com/unicode-org/cldr/blob/maint/maint-38/common/validity/subdivision.xml
the rgi sequences are defined here, and Inge only include england/scitland/wales: https://www.unicode.org/Public/emoji/13.1/emoji-sequences.txt
I don’t know what is required to make these sequences rgi – or which OSs support which non rgi sequences.
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Kate
People working in Montreal’s health services are tired, but establishments are having trouble recruiting more workers. Is it surprising, when you see stories about so much forced overtime and such pitiful raises offered by the government?
steph
The government is complicit in intentionally sabotaging the public health system.
Uatu
Yes, get rid of the public health system because we can all see how well privately run old folks homes handled this pandemic./s
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Kate
St-Léonard’s councillors have responded to Justin Trudeau’s formal apology to the Italian community over the internment of Italian-Canadians during World War II.
david90
Does Trudeau have a dedicated staff member tasked with poring over the historical documents to identify things for which he can apologize?
Kate
I think there’s been some pressure on for this apology since Mulroney apologized to the Japanese internees in 1988. The Italian situation was a little different, because a few of the people involved actually were supporters of Mussolini, but the mood of the time allowed for a wide net and none of the Italian internees were ever charged with anything.
If there’s anything governments need to apologize for, en masse, it’s the instances in which they’ve ignored habeas corpus.
dhomas
@David# Reading the story, I can see that every single party with elected officials, from the Conservatives to the Greens, agreed with the apology.
Do you also find fault with those other parties and their leaders? Are you dedicated to poring over everything Trudeau does to identify things for which you can fault him?Chris
Criticizing a prime minister, who ever he is at the time, seems eminently appropriate. Withholding criticism because you’re ideologically aligned, on other hand, is exactly not appropriate (not saying anyone here is doing that). Finding fault with other parties and their leaders is great too, but they’re not in power, so it’s less pressing to hold them to account.
I think david90’s jab is spot on. Trudeau has been much stronger on virtue signaling than actually addressing issues.
dhomas
When Trudeau campaigned on doing as much as possible for climate change, for example, then bought a frickin oil pipeline, I called him out on it.
Apologizing on behalf of the nation he currently leads for being shitty in the past to a certain group of individuals? It costs virtually nothing and is just a decent thing to do. If a party other than the Liberals would have done it, I doubt David# would have had any problem with it either.
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Kate
The curfew is over (for now) and other rules are changing on Friday. CBC has a guide to what will be different.
walkerp
Probably for the better that it is going to be chilly tonight. We need to ease back into this late-night freedom.
Daniel
I had a chat with a restaurant owner yesterday who was saying that they’re eager to open but not necessarily sad that they’re skipping this very first weekend, which could be fraught with bad behaviour and the ill-mannered release of pent-up demand. (I’m not talking health violations, just general diner boorishness.)
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Kate
Here are some weekend driving notes.
No heat wave this weekend. I had to get my fuzzy slippers out again this morning after overconfidently putting them away for summer.
MarcG
Relevant FNoMtl post (from a month ago!): https://www.instagram.com/p/COTAv3YH6SU/
Kate
Yes!
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