La Ronde had promised a single fireworks show this summer, to be held on September 4 in honour of essential workers. Now it’s cancelled as the official tone tightens up again around Covid. Quebec announced Tuesday that health care workers will have to be vaccinated and masks obligatory in CEGEP and university classes.
Updates from August, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A man has been charged with attempted murder in the knife attack on a young woman in St‑Marc tunnel on Friday night. Police are seeking other possible victims; the attacker and the victim did not know each other.
Jeff
I kind of feel like that tunnel should be closed to pedestrians. Its too long, dark and sparsely populated for anybody to be safe there.
Kate
I was surprised a young woman would use the tunnel at night, but she did live in the area and was simply on her way home, as mentioned in reports. (And I don’t want to sound like I’m blaming the victim.)
DeWolf
I think this incident stands out as an exception. The tunnels are creepy but well used. The lightning needs to be improved a lot, and they’re not pleasant, but I’ve never been alone when I’ve walked through them. It would be silly to close the main access point between two neighbourhoods. There are no supermarkets in Little Burgundy and an abundance of them in Shaughnessy Village. By closing the tunnels you’d be reinforcing a food desert.
Kate
The thing about an attack like this is the chilling effect. When I was young I had people (relatives and others) telling me the city was dangerous for young women, that I should stay home after dark. Ha, what a thought. But incidents like this give weight to that kind of warning.
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Kate
The city has plans to ban single-use plastics and Quebec is testing machines that will accept wine bottles, cartons and plastic. Let’s hope this isn’t all theatre.
David744
A long time coming. Years ago bags should have been made like $.50 apiece to discourage their consumption.
qatzelok
At the same time, rich people aren’t hindered by this charge at all. Only the poor are disciplined by a fifty cent charge.
So there are other things to consider besides pecuniary “discouragement.”
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Kate
CBC talked to some Montrealers about the issues that matter in the federal election.
To me, steering a recovery from the pandemic that doesn’t throw environmental concerns out the window is the only challenge right now. Every government will be pushed by lobbyists (and by more right-leaning elements in its own party and other parties) to ignore environmental commitments and focus only on economic recovery.
And yet: Our public pensions are heavily invested in fossil fuels while parts of the planet are burning, including here in Canada. If that’s not enough to indicate we’re making the planet uninhabitable, July was the hottest month on record worldwide. How much worse will it have to get before someone like Legault is no longer able to say that protecting the environment will not come at the expense of jobs, as he did last week?
Legault believes in the economy and jobs in the way he really doesn’t, in his heart, believe we’re damaging the environment. How much worse will it have to get?
walkerp
Hear hear!
This is a global emergency and should be treated that way at every level of government and every aspect of society.dhomas
We missed a tremendous opportunity with this pandemic. People were out of work, airlines were hemorrhaging money, the economy was in terrible shape, etc.
We should have created make-work projects to put people to work building sustainable infrastructure like fast, electric trains. Let the airlines fail without giving them a bailout, then nationalize them for overseas travel only. By the time the infrastructure projects are done, there would be no reason to allow for domestic/US air travel as trains could move people just as fast. Air travel is already hub and spoke, so trains would work similarly. Government should also have invested in green tech and training/education in environmental technologies. A local company like Lion Electric, for example, shouldn’t have needed to get investment from US shareholders. Our government and pension plans should be investing in companies like these instead of fossil fuels. Make a local Tesla, then make sales of new gas cars illegal in 2 years. (I still don’t understand why/how Quebec is not a leader in EV technology, given the advantage we have with cheap and clean electricity)
Environmentalism doesn’t need to come at the expense of the economy. There’s plenty of money to be made in green tech, it’s just that it will be different companies making it, so the oil and gas companies fight it. They fight it to the point of making the oil industry part of some people’s “culture” (see here for an example: https://images.thestar.com/Wn4SJ7buRnhM1cSkVi7dI8eKY9Q=/1280×1024/smart/filters:cb(1574912398407)/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/edmonton/2019/11/25/was-jason-kenney-booed-at-the-grey-cup/jasonkenney.jpg).
In any case, we need to make a change, now. By the time everything is literally on fire or under water, it will be far too late.
Tim S.
I wish some politician would take up the cause of working from home, if it makes (some) people happier, reduces transit emissions, reduces the amount of garbage we produce – I remember a pre-COVID thread here about the amount of waste produced by a single food court meal. This is a real opportunity to create 15-minute neighbourhoods everywhere, and could all be in danger because a bunch of bosses only feel like bosses if they can see their underlings in person. Though I suppose Labour code provincial thing, but federal politicians are happy to ignore that distinction if it suits them.
Chris
The environment takes a back seat to just about everything, not just the economy, but to covid too. We now know covid doesn’t transmit by touch, yet they’re going to be killing extra trees to make single use pencils for this election, and many stores still force you to do the sanitizer theatre, and the CNESST requires workplaces to use disposable masks instead of reusable ones, etc., etc. Sigh.
DeWolf
The amount of waste created by the pandemic response is outrageous. Many cafés still haven’t gone back to using ceramic cups even if they are allowing people to sit indoors and on the terrace, which is mind-bogglingly nonsensical.
At the same time, I’m not sure what Chris is going on about with regards to “sanitizer theatre.” Yeah, washing your hands and frequently cleaning surfaces may not help with Covid, but it’s done wonders to reduce the common cold, the flu and gastroenteritis. When I was living in post-SARS Hong Kong, one of the things that always stood out to me when I came back to Canada was the low standards of hygiene and the overall level of filth everywhere.
John B
@DeWolf: The guidelines for cleaning surfaces are often “surfaces must be disinfected between every use” so stores, if they’re trying to be 100% compliant, may do things like sanitize a door handle every time someone goes in our out, or the PIN pad, or sanitize the whole cash area between customers. Since over-sanitizing can lead to super-bugs, and uses stuff that needs to be produced and disposed of, some amount of it is wasteful theatre.
Chris
John B, yes, that’s exactly what I was referring to. Some of the stores I go to have chilled out and, though they still have sanitizer in the entrance, there’s no one there to force you. Other stores are the opposite and still have an employee watching the sanitizer and forcing you to use it or leave. This will save approximately zero lives from covid, but probably cost several lives from air pollution to create and transport the sanitizer. It’s not like sanitizer, disposable masks and disposable pencils grow on trees, as the saying goes.
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Kate
Côte-des-Neiges–NDG councillor Christian Arsenault has abruptly resigned citing mental health problems. He had already left Projet to sit as an independent last year.
dwgs
We could use a little more drama in our borough.
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Kate
The bloodied mattress and domestic possessions of a murder victim were disposed of on the sidewalk in Park Ex over the weekend, on the apparent order of the landlord. The borough picked them up after a report on Facebook.
Jeff
This landlord really is a different kind of person
Blork
Sadly, I think not. There are many people among us who are just like that. People who don’t give AF about things that are “not their problem,” and if something is their problem (such as having an apartment full of stuff that nobody owns because the two tenants died in a murder/suicide) then they take a shortcut to making it not their problem by just pitching it out on the sidewalk. It’s terrible, but not at all uncommon.
dhomas
It’s truly disgusting and morally questionable, but I don’t think it was illegal per se, so long as it was put on the curb between 8PM and 7AM. Mattresses are disposed of during regular household waste collection (i.e. garbage day), as per info-collecte:
“Bulky objects that are upholstered or covered with fabric (sofas, box springs, mattresses, carpets) must be deposited with household waste, they are collected during this collection. Collection is offered ONLY to residential buildings.”
As a landlord myself, I’ve had tenants throw mattresses in my front yard (I moved them to my driveway so they wouldn’t damage my lawn), and they are disposed of correctly. I’m not sure what I would have done in this situation (and I hope I’m never faced with it), but I probably would have called 311 to see if I could have dumped it directly at an eco-centre or something.
But yeah, a total lack of class and respect for the community (though, the landlord likely doesn’t care as he probably doesn’t live there).
MarcG
A landlord has a few hundred bucks lying around they could easily hire GotJunk to come carry it all away… but leech is gonna leech I guess.
JP
I wonder where the kids are and if there were any toys they may have wanted to keep or baby photos or photos with their mother that they might value when they’re older.
dhomas
Yeah, the landlord is a real POS. I mean, we can see in the photos that there was kids’ toys and stuff. There was probably also personal belongings, souvenirs, and/or keepsakes in there that those orphans are going to regret not having later on in life.
My comment was mostly about the mattress as it’s what struck me as the most disgusting part of the story.js
Using Google street view you can find out the address of the building in the photos of the JdM article, and with the address you can look up the building’s owner in the municipal property rolls, and using the provincial companies registry you can look up the name and Verville street address of the actual owner and that a neighbour a few doors down is the company’s director.
Nick
Maybe the city should take care of blood soaked mattresses once the murder investigation is over.
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Kate
It won’t go on my incidents tote board, which is just for the island of Montreal, but a young man was shot dead in Laval overnight and yes, he was known to police.
Do cops sometimes feel like standing back and letting the gangsters deal with the gang problem themselves?
Tim S.
Wasn’t that their strategy during the biker wars? Until an 11-year old was killed.
Kate
More or less. There was a 15-year-old girl shot dead here this year, but it didn’t cause the wave of outrage that the death of Daniel Desrochers did.
David744
The ‘death wish’ option.
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EmilyG 22:10 on 2021-08-21 Permalink
Meanwhile, here in Pierrefonds this is the third night in a row there’s been fireworks. There were 2 rounds of fireworks tonight. I don’t know what’s going on.