The mayor has a number where you can text her your ideas: 514‑700‑7337. I hope she also has a whole switchboard of assistants filtering out the abuse.
Updates from June, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Two deplorable news items Wednesday: onetime journalist Michel Venne has been found guilty of sexual misconduct and exploitation of a woman who was 17 at the time, and Luc Wiseman, who used to be a co-producer of TLMEP, has been ordered to stay away from minors after accusations of perving on someone under 16 years old.
Jack
This a terrible event, but this made it worse. “Le procès s’était également penché sur le rôle de feu Lise Payette dans cette histoire. La première ministre d’État à la Condition féminine avait sollicité en 2015 une rencontre avec Léa Clermont-Dion. Elle lui a alors demandé de signer une lettre pour blanchir l’homme.
Lors du procès, elle a raconté qu’elle n’avait pas été contrainte par Mme Payette de la signer. Mais elle l’avait fait, car elle était « dépourvue de ses moyens ». Lise Payette la lui avait dictée mot pour mot, selon elle.”walkerp
Man, that generation of feminists did not age well. I thought it was just white male boomer celebrities who had to do the anti-woke heel turn after a certain age, but here in Quebec the female side is representing. Really gross.
thomas
Lise Payette also defended Claude Jutra when he was accused of being a sexual predator.
Janey
Fortunately, there is Denise Bombardier shoring up the side of the angels. Her condemnation of Matzneff on prime-time French TV in the 1990s was fearless. Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0LQiv7x4xs
Kate
Denise Bombardier has written many narrow-minded, xenophobically nationalistic things since then, but there’s no denying she stood up against a damagingly laissez-faire French attitude that day.
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Kate
Moving Day will be no party for some, as the city expects more people this year will reach that day without finding an affordable place to live.
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Kate
Some notes on what’s open and closed for St-Jean.
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Kate
Montreal is in good condition vis-à-vis the pandemic, and will probably go green soon. But the Covid delta variant is still coming, and public health is still concerned to get young people vaccinated.
Chris
Covid deaths are now just about down to flu levels. In an average year 4000 to 8000 die of flu in Canada, which, if we assume is spread evenly, would be 900 to 1800 in Quebec (Quebec is 22% of Canada), which is 2.5 to 5 deaths a day. That’s right in line with Kate’s stats here showing 4 COVID deaths yesterday.
Just as exponential growth was hard to wrap one’s head around at the beginning, exponential decay is also hard to wrap our heads around now.
Tim S.
Hopefully one thing we’ve learned in the past year+ is how to keep flu deaths down in future.
I’ve only had one real flu as a grown-up, but 15 years later I still have some aches and pains from that episode. For that reason the “it’s just a flu” narrative has been driving me nuts this entire time (never mind that COVID is much worse – does influenza normally kill 4 people a day in June?).
Blork
A couple of things to keep in mind: with vaccinations up, and therefore serious illness from COVID down, it’s likely that fewer people are volunteering to get tested. (I.e., they don’t feel sick so they don’t get tested.)
So those impressive numbers we’re seeing (+84 new cases in Quebec yesterday, etc.) are just the ones we know about because that many positives were found AMONG THE PEOPLE WHO WERE TESTED. In a CBC report last night a worker at a testing facility (I forget where) was saying that they’re mostly just seeing people who have mandated testing because of their jobs or travel.
Also seen on CBC last night was a report from the UK, where the Delta variant is the main cause of COVID now, that symptoms have changed. People getting sick with Delta report headaches, runny nose, and sore throat as the main symptoms. Which makes my eyes pop open a bit given how many people I know in and around Montreal who have recently mentioned they “have a cold” but haven’t gotten tested because the symptoms are not consistent with (non-Delta) COVID.
Nick
So your saying it’s possible those 85 people may not have even felt ill at all or just had a runny nose and headache? Is your point the vaccines are working as exactly as advertised?
DeWolf
I saw the same report on CBC, Blork, and I can’t help but ask myself, if vaccines reduce Covid to something equivalent to the common cold… what’s the problem? If the fearsome Delta variant manifests itself in vaccinated people as a runny nose and slight headache, is it really worth freaking out over?
Of course, the real problem is the 30% of the population that is completely unvaccinated. Even when you subtract ineligible people from the equation (ie, kids), there’s still 20% of people out there who don’t seem interested in having any protection whatsoever from this virus. They have a lot to be worried about. Vaccinated people, not so much.
Kate
Summarizing from Wikipedia, while most colds are caused by rhinoviruses, a smaller percentage have always been caused by coronaviruses, although not by SARS-CoV-2 before 2020. I suppose SARS-CoV-2 could fizzle out as nothing more than one variant of the common cold.
Blork
Regarding the question of “if vaccines reduce Covid to something equivalent to the common cold… what’s the problem?” I don’t know, I’m not an expert. But it does raise some possibilities, such as:
It fizzles out for vaccinated people but is still a threat to more vulnerable people who might not be vaccinated (whether for legitimate reasons or not).
The nasty Delta variant circulates widely because it is “not a problem” to vaccinated people, but in fact this is a Trojan horse and it’s just a matter of time before it spawns another variant that can beat the vaccines.
The nasty Delta variant seems like it’s been tamed but possibly creates some kind of “long COVID” in many people but this doesn’t become obvious until six months or a year down the road when the vaccines start to wear off.
I suppose my only point is that we should still be wary at least for the short- or medium-term keep some level of distancing and mask wearing. I’m NOT saying any of the above are probably going to happen, just that it’s POSSIBLE they might happen. Be aware the difference between THE VIRUS IS GONE and THE VIRUS JUST ISN’T KILLING US RIGHT NOW.
Nick
Most immunologists believe that COVID-19 will become endemic. Meaning, much like influenza, it will recur seasonally killing hundreds of thousands of people globally each year. Forever. That’s the realistic best case scenario.
jeather
The seasonal flu is probably the endemic version of the Spanish flu, so that’s likely what will happen for Covid — possibly taking turns in the winter with the cold and RSV and the flu (which already take turns), or possibly overlapping them, we don’t know yet.
The next few flu seasons are also going to be interesting, because we didn’t really have one — they think maybe some strains have died out now — and guessing which will be big this year is going to be a new problem. Though with some luck, mRNA yearly flu shots will be good.
Kate
jeather, I’ve also seen claims that flu will get worse because, after two seasons of limiting contacts and staying away from sources of infection, our immunity may naturally have subsided to some extent.
I guess we’ll see how this plays out.
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Kate
Held or not, the Grand Prix continues to cost the public more all the time.
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Kate
Language complaints to the OQLF are way up over the last two years, and Montreal is inevitably the hotspot. Analyses suggest there are simply not enough Montreal families speaking French to their kids at home; the other side of the coin is that more of us are capable of speaking French in general than ever.
Ant6n
In a democracy, its not the government’s business which language ppl speak at home.
Blork
Quebec pulls the Notwithstanding Clause on that one.
Kate
It’s an interesting point. If a lot of people in Montreal are speaking French from necessity, but when they go home they speak another language to their families, and presumably consume entertainment in languages other than French, doesn’t that begin to hollow out the culture?
I was surprised yesterday to hear a lot of English spoken by people in Villeray, east of St‑Denis. Including some kids.
Blork
I recall it being an issue a few years ago when kids where speaking English to each other in the schoolyard at break time. Teachers would yell at them and tell them to speak French only at school (even if they were talking to their own siblings), which made me think of residential schools. (Not making a direct comparison, but it comes to mind.)
Kevin
This is the massive blindspot of language legislation: Bill 101 was the shock that got almost everyone to the point where they are capable of speaking French, but the law’s creators and supporters operate under the false paradigm that language IS culture, and culture IS language, and so there is only room for one.
It’s why they despise multiculturalism so much, because that is a living breathing vibrant demonstration that they are wrong.
EmilyG
Around 2012-2014 I was taking an adult-ed course, which happened to be in French, though it wasn’t specifically a French-learning course. We did get admonished when we spoke English to each other even during breaks and in personal, one-on-one conversations with other anglophones.
Ant6n
I find attitudes where ppl treat each other thus way utterly strange. Like there’s something pure about french and dirty about other languages, and it’s the solemn duty if everyone to police everybody else on being pure.
Kate
Ant6n – well, yeah. That’s how it is. English is a contaminant. Other languages – well, it would be better if they weren’t used in Quebec either, but English is the real toxin.
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Kate
A man was hit by a car and killed Tuesday afternoon in Anjou. TVA says there have been eight pedestrian fatalities so far this year in Montreal.
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Kate
Céline Dion choosing to be photographed in Vegas Golden Knights gear is a story Wednesday morning, following the Canadiens’ win Tuesday night.
jeather
Guess that takes her off the Quebec hold music list!
Jim McDannald
It was a Photoshop, fake troll job by Vegas.
Bob R
Photoshopping a celebrity’s photo to promote a product is not something you’re allowed to do in the United States. It’s actionable, if Dion opposed it; she would clear millions of dollars, given her celebrity, and the visibility of the use. This is not a grey area of law.
The fact that she hasn’t come out with a statement about an impending lawsuit means she approves.
EmilyG
Dishonest photoshopping.
walkerp
I’m not even native born Quebecer but this one really hurt. How could you do this Celine!? Or maybe it was the ultimate reverse motivation job because the Habs won 4-1. Let’s crush them on St-Jean.
Spi 20:07 on 2021-06-23 Permalink
It’s the same campaign/audience management tool that celebrities use to get a direct line of contact with their audience. It’s an even more invasive form of twitter.
https://www.community.com
If you text that number expect to be to be solicited come the fall election.
Ephraim 08:18 on 2021-06-24 Permalink
Just what I need, more phone calls from Projet Montreal. I’m getting them a few times a week at the moment. Honestly, I wish there was a way to opt out of these calls.