Anti-mask militant François Amalega Bitondo was arrested Tuesday at the municipal courthouse for refusing to wear a mask during a hearing over obstructing police in a grocery store (presumably also for refusing to wear a mask, although the item doesn’t specify). Amalega, a noted anti‑vaccine agitator, has run up $40,000 in tickets for various transgressions since the start of the pandemic.
Updates from September, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Following the death of a cyclist Monday at Park and Mont‑Royal, both major municipal parties are promising improvements at what’s always been a tricky intersection. Denis Coderre’s solution, of adding a roundabout at that spot, seems notably outré even for him.
Blork
Oh FFS. That will take a tricky intersection and turn it into a chaotic intersection. And make it completely impassible for bicycles!
Kate
See comments below about another Coderre story from today, Blork.
DeWolf
La Presse has an article today in which Coderre says this is all Valérie Plante’s fault, that everything has gotten worse over the past four years, and when Projet was in opposition they were super mean to him about cyclist safety. Then the article neatly contradicts him by pointing out that cyclist deaths were much higher when he was in office, and even higher before that.
// Selon le candidat à la mairie de Montréal Denis Coderre, la situation a empiré depuis 2017. « Malheureusement, dans les quatre dernières années, il y a encore plus de décès [chez les] cyclistes notamment », a-t-il dit mardi, en décochant une flèche sentie à l’endroit de Valérie Plante. Peu après, M. Coderre a d’ailleurs affirmé que l’« opposition de l’époque qui aujourd’hui est à l’administration [le] traitait de tous les noms et ils n’ont rien fait eux autres non plus ».
Les chiffres montrent pourtant le contraire. Depuis que Valérie Plante est mairesse, 7 cyclistes sont morts sur les routes de la métropole, contre 11 sous Denis Coderre. Dans les quatre années précédentes, soit de 2010 à 2013, on en avait recensé 19. //
Coderre is a liar and an egomaniac. You can’t trust anything that comes out of his mouth.
Jeff
I was biking around the other day, and I feel like on his campaign posters in french neighbourhoods, he has a big beard and moustache, but in other neighbourhoods, he is clean shaven. This guy is BS.
j-elventybillionandone
@Jeff that’s interesting. Is there a reason why beard + moustache would connect more with francophones and clean-shaven with anglo / allophones? He certainly has been clean-shaven in all of his public appearances.
dhomas
I live in a pretty francophone area and I’ve only ever seen clean shaven Coderre.
Kate
Yes, same here. In fact, I can’t say I’ve ever seen Coderre with a beard.
MarcG
Maybe it was very well executed graffiti?
david82
If they really wanted to sort out that Parc/Mount Royal intersection, they’d buy up that service station and turn it into a tower. Get rid of that type of traffic and you’re getting rid of like 2/3 of the dangerous pedestrian/automobile interactions.
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Kate
A hot shot real estate guy, whose name you’ve probably seen on signs outside posh houses – including the premier’s house in Outremont – was fined $20,000 for letting someone else take mandatory real estate training for him.
To be honest, I had no idea you had so much formal training to take for this job. I thought all you needed was a plausible manner and plenty of greed.
Blork
That fine is a fraction of his commission from the Legault sale, plus look at all the free publicity he’s getting.
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Kate
A respiratory virus that isn’t Covid is rife among young children in Montreal. There is no vaccine yet against respiratory syncytial virus.
The city has put up a new phone line so parents can get a medical appointment for their kid rather than taking them to the ER.
MarcG
I’m really not a fan of this future we find ourselves in
Ephraim
From the reports, vaccination for kids 5 and up should start in November with 1/3rd of a dose.
The thing is, if we know that the largest group at the moment are kids 10 and under (likely 12 and under), then WHY are they at in-person school? Or am I the only one that doesn’t think that sending them to schools with poor or no ventilation is questionable?DeWolf
Kids are back in school because the risk of long-term harm due to Covid is lower than the risk of long-harm due to having missed two years of education and socialization. Online learning is pretty much useless for young kids. That’s why most pediatricians have been advocates of in-person schooling throughout the pandemic.
Mark Côté
Another reason is that France has been very adamant about kids needing to attend school in person. As I think was remarked here once, if a Quebec policy seems out of place, look to France to see what they’re doing.
Kate
if a Quebec policy seems out of place, look to France to see what they’re doing.
It is so true. I don’t remember who said it here but it’s a tendency I’ve been noticing for years.
Ephraim
The reality is that the government should have insured proper ventilation, but that wasn’t done. So we are sending kids to school to get sick. The problem isn’t the need to educate kids, the problem is the government that didn’t ensure a safe place for kids to go.
Same idea as with Chicken Pox… which explains why we have a whole generation dealing with shingles. We just don’t know the long term effects of Covid.
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Kate
Starting Tuesday, performance artist Victor Pilon will shovel the equivalent of 300 tons of sand from one side of the East Hall at the Olympic Stadium to the other. It will take one month.
I have questions. Is this Pilon’s way of getting arts funding for a program of getting into shape? Could Pilon be putting his physical efforts to more practical use, e.g. helping with a harvest somewhere outside town, or working as a hospital orderly?
DeWolf
But that wouldn’t be art. You might as well ask what’s the point of painting or sculpting when you could use that energy to go work in a factory.
dwgs
Perhaps he could single handedly build a retractable roof as his next project.
Kevin
He’s calling it an ode to suffering, and says he is still suffering after his husband died in a car crash four years ago. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/students-colleagues-mourn-john-abbott-professor-sylvain-duguay-1.3971253
Kate
DeWolf, painting and sculpting at least creates an artifact we can look at.
Meezly
Art, esp. performance art, can be ephemeral. Having no physical artifact can make it more precious, even memorable. It can also be a f**k you to the commodification of the arts-industrial complex.
jeather
I’m not against performance art — some of it can be really exceptional. I am a big fan of this new one.
Kate
Ah well, I guess I’m a bit of a philistine in this area. Maybe as a graphic designer, who has to create concrete and effective work to order, I have misgivings about art which just sort of hangs in the air as an idea and doesn’t leave us with an artifact.
JS
Kate’s right you guys. All those musicians and dancers are wasting their time performing their art in public instead of changing diapers or picking fruit.
dhomas
@JS Music and dance can be recorded to be appreciated later, so it’s not really a fair comparison. I suppose they can film this artist shoveling sand, but I don’t know that anyone will want to watch that.
Also, I find your comment’s sarcastic tone was a little disrespectful.Kate
Thank you, dhomas.
JS, you’re quite right to reprimand me. Thank you also.
Jeff
It reminds me of that one artist who stood in public and said “you can do anything you want to me” and people did all kinds of stuff to her. I think it’s like abstract art, where the art is in the provocation of feeling and thought, like, what would people do to her? What would I do? What does she think will happen? And with this digging guy, it raises questions like “is this really more pointless than my job?”, and in my case, I don’t think so. Also, I somewhat enjoy digging dirt. I find it therapeutic, so theres that aspect of it too. Maybe it’s a meditation. I can dig it
JS
(I jest in light ribbing; no harm intended)
Kate
Jeff, that would be Marina Abramovic.
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Kate
A man was shot as he walked along a posh residential street in TMR early Tuesday, drove himself to hospital, and is not talking to police.
TVA also reports that shots were fired at a car dealership on Decarie overnight. Cops don’t know whether these two incidents have any connection except they both happened in TMR.
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