The brothers of the teenager whose kidnapping set off an Amber Alert this week are staying in jail while a judge makes sense of what’s going on with that family.
Updates from July, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A man was shot near the Bell Centre on Friday afternoon. He’s not expected to die, and no one has yet been arrested.
Update: An arrest was reported Saturday, but the shooter is still at large.
TVA reports on a July marked by shooting, although only two fatalities by gun.
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Kate
Since we’ve discussed this before, I’ve got to post this story on how Longueuil has even more deer in Michel-Chartrand park than it did when this was first a story, and is still not decided what to do about it. The park can support 15 of them, but a rough count finds 70 deer now nibbling at the greenery there. That’s a lot of deer.
Blork
But they’s so adorbs! 🙂
What few people mention is that there’s an authorized hunting area in the Boisé du Tremblay, literally 2.5km from Parc Michel Chartrand. (And yes, that’s a whole other discussion about how it’s legit to shoot high powered rifles just a few hundred metres from people’s houses, but I digress.) Maybe they oughta just Pied-Piper a few dozen over to the Boisé come hunting season.
Spi
That’s fine, let nature run its course. The same people that were against culling them will be the first to complain when little Timothy finds the body of doe that died of starvation or they run one over with their car because they’ve left the confines of the parc to look for more food.
Blork
The problem with letting nature run its course is that it’s very hard on the whole ecosystem. After the Asian ash beetle and then this year’s unprecedented swarm of caterpillars, the park is looking grim. Dead trees everywhere. There are sections where it seems like there are more dead trees than living ones (although fortunately there are also parts where there are not many dead trees). All those Bambis chewing up new growth does not help. As much as I love having a doe sniff my fingers every day when I’m out for a walk, it’s a real problem.
CE
That’s a lot of meat.
Kate
Maybe Longueuil needs to start a tradition of transhumance where they have a festival: clear the streets between Michel-Chartrand park and the Boisé du Tremblay, and lure the deer to relocate to the Boisé, where happy hunters can deal with the surplus, and then everyone can have venison kebabs.
Blork
The Annual Longueuil Venison Kebab Festival works for me!
qatzelok
I like the Transhumance idea a lot.
I would go a step further and demolish all the housing between parc Michel-Chartrand and Boisé du Tremblay, as well as the suburban cul-de-sac subdivisions between PMC and the river.
The waterside highway 30 could also be removed in this section, and drivers would have to “portage it” for a few km so that the deer can access fresh water without stress.
MarcG
I just want to say that I love the mental image of people portaging their automobiles.
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Kate
A study has found that English has not contaminated Quebec’s French-language universities as much as was feared. However, the general dominance of English as a common language in many fields is still to be lamented.
“The study concludes that offering English-language training at French-language universities in Quebec is a phenomenon that needs constant observation.” And, I hope, firm suppression. You can’t go letting university students learn a second language.
Meezly
God forbid that francophone graduates will find jobs outside of Quebec, like in Ontario, Europe or the U.S., if they learn some English. Or attend international conferences where English is the common language.
“The authors of the CSLF study point out there is a trend in many western countries where English is not the national language to offer bilingual training, resulting in its dominance in the economic, social and cultural worlds.”
Like no shit, it’s common sense and the current reality. Are Quebec universities so anti-English that they can’t or won’t offer this? Are other non-English universities in the world complaining about the English language? Or is this an unique Quebec phenomenon?
It’s fine if they “lament” the lack of French support and recognition, but the reality is that there had to be one language, and it sucks that it ain’t gonna be French, so deal with it. Would they have preferred Mandarin?
JP
Do people also forget that bilingualism/multilingualism is also simply good for the brain in terms of aging and all that?
And, yeah, I think many places accept that English is, for instance, the language of science. It doesn’t mean other languages have no value, no worthy literature, songs, books…whatever. It has just worked out that way. As global citizens, it makes sense to be able to efficiently communicate science using a universally(?) understood language.
vasi
I wonder if the study counts keywords like “if” and “else” in programming languages as English content? Thankfully, it shouldn’t be much work to migrate all computer science courses to a new, linguistically pure programming language used only in Quebec.
Uatu
That would be a great example of le Leadership! 😛
jeather
The government did actually considering writing a new programming language and something for CSS/html/whatever the tech of the day was so that the tech people could work in French. But apparently no one was willing to do that.
This really shows that the idea is not to protect French but to protect the ability to be successful in any field, unilingually. And there are jobs here where that is possible, but it’s never going to be true for every job.
Raymond Lutz
@jeather I don’t remember (and can’t find) any ‘in house’ effort for developing any new programming language. The nearest I can imagine is the PQ government asking Logo Computer System Inc to translate and port their LOGO interpreter to the MATRA MAX 20e from Bytech-Comterm-Matra circa 1983 (http://www.ti99.com/exelvision/website/index.php?page=axel)
JoeNotCharles
LISP for everything!
Raymond Lutz
(LOGO
(is
(LISP
(without
(parenthesis!))))).Forth reversed is LOGO and ref
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Kate
Another piece Friday on how restaurants are coping with staff shortages, in some cases reducing hours, or even closing.
I’ve been doing a job* that involves a lot of walking around central neighbourhoods – Villeray and Petite-Patrie mostly so far. And this much I can tell you: on nice days, Little Italy is bustling, every terrasse packed with people evidently enjoying themselves. Equally, Villeray, wherever there’s a terrasse, is jumping. So some restaurants are doing just fine. Maybe these places with problems should look at other restaurants and what they’re doing, because there are places efficiently serving a populace ready to go out and get Lucullan.
Added later: It’s not just restaurants that can’t fill job vacancies.
*I’ll talk about it later.
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Kate
Here’s La Presse’s driving notes for the weekend. And there’s always Mobilité Montreal to consult.
On reddit, the sign above was posted warning of closures on René-Lévesque for a film shoot. Robert-B to Guy is quite a slab of road to shut down – they must be planning a car chase at least.
JP
I wonder what movie it is. I know a couple of weeks ago the Transformers film shoot was taking place all over the city it seemed. Not sure if they’re done.
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Kate
The city’s consultation bureau says the tower proposed to be built on top of the Bay building downtown is too tall and too dominant and should be scaled back.
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Kate
Superior Court has lifted Sue Montgomery’s suspension as borough mayor, while a judge looks into her appeal against the municipal commission.
Montgomery’s tenure as borough mayor seems to have produced nothing but legal wrangling, although I doubt she went into the political fray with such an intention. But after her well publicized troubles with a certain unnamed harasser, which date back to her time as a Gazette journalist, is it not possible that someone identified her weaknesses and set out to bring her down legalistically? (“Just keep throwing complaints at her and you’ll keep her so busy defending herself that she won’t have time or credibility to make any changes in the borough”?)
Ideally someone would eventually tell the whole tale objectively, although even trying to interview people and get the real story would probably founder on more “he said, she said” accounts that would shed no more light on the matter.
Dominic
What drama. I dont think we will ever find out.
walkerp
Would be nice to see a list of actual things completed in the borough while she has been in power.
I do feel like there is a failure of local journalism here. Not critiquing any individual as maybe the background to a story like this requires too much speculation and it’s not big enough to merit that kind of gossip. If blogs were still around, we might have got some real dirt.
ant6n
“Montgomery’s tenure as borough mayor seems to have produced nothing but legal wrangling (…)”
What’s Plante’s tenure produced? I guess there’s the REV. St-Denis is indeed much nicer now, too bad I don’t live in the area anymore. Oh they also did buy a bunch of diesel buses right at the start. Oh they are doing a study now on the pink line, which I guess is now a tram to Lachine. Did I forget something?
dhomas
Plante and her team also accomplished:
-Getting us out of the ridiculous Formula E dealAllowed car sharing services downtown
Transit fare cuts for the young and the elderly
Made the city more livable for people actually living here (not people driving in from the suburbs)
Did quite a bit to advance social housingI’m sure there’s more. But I can say I much prefer what she’s accomplished, given the fact that she also had to contend with a pandemic. Coderre had a ton of money to play with for the 375th anniversary of Montreal and basically just used it to try to make himself look like a big shot.
walkerp
I’ve got issues with PM but they have done more to improve Montreal from my perspective than any other previous mayor in the 17 years we’ve been here. It’s easier to get around, looks nicer and several minor services have improved.
Kate
PM has calmed streets a good deal. There’s more to do, boroughs vary, but it’s been something good but non-showy that they’ve focused on.
MarcG
It’s hard to know who’s responsible for what but in my neighbourhood there have been a lot of new speed bumps, stop signs, whatever those bump-outs with a little garden in them at street corners are called, and bike paths over the last few years and I like it.
Mark Côté
my neighbourhood there have been a lot of new speed bumps, stop signs, whatever those bump-outs with a little garden in them at street corners are called
FWIW it’s the same in NDG, so apparently the city council here has been able to accomplish some things. They even tried to put in bike lanes on Terrebonne but that was a step too far for car lovers.
Tim S.
I can say that in NDG, my PM councillor has been able to respond to many of the requests or suggestions I’ve made – better signage, adding pedestrian measures and so on. Sure, they’ve been small-scale,but it’s proof that at least part of the borough government is still functioning and able to deliver for residents.
H. John
Here’s Justice Phillips preliminary ruling:
Kate
Thank you, H. John.
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Kate
The story told here by La Presse about Joe Ortona – currently one of Denis Coderre’s star candidates – is a little vague around the edges because of a confidentiality agreement at the heart of it. But Ortona “stepped down” as city prosecutor in 2016 after some sort of deal was made, although it’s alleged here that it was actually a dismissal, after Ortona tried to fight parking tickets.
Nothing yet about Coderre dismissing Ortona from his team, though.
Ephraim
The same Joe Ortona from the EMSB school board, right? Do we need to say more?
Kate
That’s the guy.
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Kate
A man displaced from his apartment by his landlords has had a hell of a time finding a new place to live.
walkerp 10:32 on 2021-07-31 Permalink
That poor girl. Where is she supposed to go? Sounds like the family is treating her as an asset.
Ephraim 17:47 on 2021-07-31 Permalink
Too many people think that Children are a possession, when in fact, they are wards. Sometimes the best choice is to remove a child from the situation entirely… and this sounds like one of those cases.
Kate 08:48 on 2021-08-01 Permalink
Most families want their kids to carry on their beliefs and their way of life. And there’s often trouble when they don’t.