The CSN union representing the workers at the CIUSSS du Centre‑Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal filed more than 1,000 grievances on Tuesday to denounce systemic racism in the health care system. The issue is why people of colour are over-represented in the lowest and most menial health care positions, and what barriers hold them at that level.
Updates from October, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Sue Montgomery, who received suspensions in June for 11 ethical breaches then succeeded in having them lifted temporarily, is back in court to find out whether she will indeed be suspended till the election.
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Kate
There was a protest Tuesday at the last remaining stable in Griffintown over the conditions in which four horses are still being kept there.
John B
Ces chevaux vivent « dans l’obscurité et dans des conditions indignes »
Maybe if we didn’t want them to live in obscurity we should let them do their work in town….
There’s nothing in the article that actually backs up the idea that the horses are poorly treated or living in poor conditions. True, its not a wild open field, but many horses don’t have that. I see them out in the yard from time to time when biking by, and the guy seems to care for them when I see him out with them.
I think by more or less banning horses from town we missed an opportunity to make our city quieter and more human- (and animal), scale. If the city is “too dangerous” for the horses, maybe its also too dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists. Maybe the city needs to change, not the animals.
Kate
There are animal rights activists who think we should not “own” animals at all, and that the only ethical thing to do is let them roam freely. Shoeing horses, keeping them in a stable, riding them or having them do any work, seems unnatural and even cruel to some folks.
Kevin
Kate
15,000 years of history…Kate
Kevin: Yes. And they’ve been bred so they’re not wild animals any more, they were not a species native to North America in the first place, and we don’t have wild areas where we can just turn horses loose.
Blork
Sable Island. 🙂 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sable_Island
MarcG
Their hearts and in the right place (ex righteous vegan here) but as said already, anthropology and agriculture lessons are in order.
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Kate
A woman accused of killing one of her daughters and wounding the other will not go to trial now that both the Crown and the defense have accepted she is not criminally responsible. The woman’s been under treatment for a year and a half since the April 2020 incident in Villeray.
Update: Not so much an update, just a bit more detail from Radio‑Canada posted a few days after the last item. The court heard from two psychiatrists who diagnosed schizophrenia, psychosis and borderline personality disorder, supporting the notion, agreed on by the Crown and the defense, that the woman be declared not criminally responsible.
And yet more detail from TVA. It’s clear from these accounts that the woman was profoundly detached from reality. I don’t think we need more.
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Kate
Valérie Plante has made Louise Harel commissar of French for Montreal. Isabelle Ducas calls Harel “ancienne députée provinciale Louise Harel” here, but she’s also a previous mayoral aspirant herself (2009) and came within 6% of equalling Gérald Tremblay’s result.
mare
And she’s almost mono-lingual, which will an asset in this position
CE
I’ve heard interviews with her. She doesn’t speak perfect English but she can get by.
mare
@CE To be honest, the last time I saw/heard her was in 2009 and it was pretty bad then. Good to hear she did some continuing education.
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Kate
CBC talked to three “diverse” candidates, two Black women and one queer, non-binary person.
It could be good for CDN-NDG to have a Black woman mayor, although wouldn’t she run into the same issues of authority and management that Sue Montgomery did? If the civil servants in that borough feel they are the power that actually makes the decisions and runs the borough – and that elected officials are merely window dressing that should back off and let them get on with it – it will be hard for whoever wins.
Blork
Perhaps this is an opportunity to test the validity of that “if.”
Kate
For starters, it would help if the person elected mayor had their party behind them.
Jonathan
Too bad they didn’t look at Quartiers Montréal, the borough party for Villeray St Michel Park Ex. It’s 100% women and 4 out of the 5 candidates are POCs including one openly part of the LGBTQ+ community.
It’s really awesome to see their party posters around this neighbourhood. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a diverse slate.
quartiersmontreal.caTee Owe
Jonathan – just me being picky, haven’t seen the posters, but if they’re all women and 4/5 POC then it’s not a ‘diverse’ slate. Applause for them from me (don’t have a vote), but not diverse.
Mark Côté
Clearly “diverse” is meant in the context of our larger political system, which is mostly white, straight, and male.
MarcG
And there’s a lot of diversity under the ‘POC’ umbrella (in this case the ladies are Tunisian, Algerian, Indo-Caribbean, and Haitian).
NDG07
I imagine Projet hopes their candidate for CDN-NDG borough mayor wouldn’t have the same issues as Sue Montgomery because, unlike Sue, their candidate is not from the borough and as mayor would owe more loyalty to the party than to the borough. Like many progressive voters in CDN-NDG, I will probably hold my nose and vote for Plante for mayor because I prefer her to Coderre, but will not vote for her candidates for city council or borough mayor.
Tee Owe
Yes I know all that and that’s why I disclaimed being picky – but white straight and male can lnclude just as much diversity as POC – only saying – yes, stilll picky, but let’s see it from all sides – true diversity would include everybody
Blork
Tee Owe, “POC” is not a monolith, although it might seem like it to white people.
It’s not like the world is just “white and POC.” It’s white and African black and Caribbean black and American Black and east Asian and south Asian and western Asian and 100 different kinds of indigenous from all over the world, etc.
That’s a bit more diverse than the half dozen or so flavours of “white,” all of which pretty much enjoy the same privilege. Except for gingers… they are the oppressed among the whites.
(And yes, I know my POC breakdown is more geographic than ethnic, but y’all get the point and I’m not going to turn this into a two-hour exercise of looking up all the ethnographically correct labels.)
Tee Owe
Good, then I won’t either – nobody would win
Mark Côté
white men are so oppressed
mare
I hate, hate, hate that elections are a meat market here, with all the signs of beautifully photographed men and women. Hardly any sign tells voters what’s *really* important, the party’s and candidate’s platform. If you’re really ugly you might have a hard time getting elected.
I rode through the Lorimier district yesterday and one of the candidates had giant signs with a full body shot of herself. She could be a model selling clothes instead of empty election promises. I don’t remember her name or which party she represented, I was blinded by her beauty. I don’t think we have ballots with photos here, so you still need to remember names. Maybe that should be changed.
mare
(I like that there are so many women, PoC and QUILTBAG candidates, I hope a lot of them get elected.)
CE
@mare you’re probably thinking of Juliette Côté-Turcotte. She’s running as an independent and I’m wondering where she got the money to put up all those giant signs. It’s interesting that, as an independent without a party platform behind her, she’s basically just running on her photo.
Raymond Lutz
@CE, she’s not basically just running on her photo: you linked to her website… And wow, hearing Yves-Marie Abraham talking about Piketty, la décroissance et l’abolition de la propriété lucrative! Je suis charmé moi aussi! Take my money!
mare
@CE yup, that’s her. Thanks for the link, I browsed a bit through her website and had I lived in the Lorimier district I might have considered voting for her. So in a way those giant photos worked!
(Still curious how she is financing her campaign.)CE
I meant that she’s “just running on her photo” in that her signs only have her name and photo. People might be more interested in voting for her if there was a bit of information about her platform on the signs. How many people are actually going to look up her website after seeing her sign on the street? I really hope she has a good ground game.
dhomas
To be fair, Plante and Coderre have nothing about their platform on their signs, either. Only photos and names.
Meezly
“but white straight and male can lnclude just as much diversity as POC – only saying”
david144
^ Why do we even care if there’s diversity? Competence and corruption have been our two top problems pretty much the entire time I’ve been alive, and there’s not a lot of evidence to show that this decreases when the elected person is gay or Arab or whatever.
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Kate
McGill is participating in a study of Covid in the orthodox Jewish community here and in Tosh up in Boisbriand. Item says the groups have been “disproportionately affected by Covid-19” but doesn’t give any numbers.
DeWolf
There was an article from a few months back that talked about why vaccine uptake was so low in these communities, and somebody explained that it isn’t necessarily because they are anti-vax, it’s because so many people had already had Covid and assumed they didn’t need the vaccine.
Outremont’s vaccination rate is still a bit lower than average (78% in Outremont vs. 89% on the Plateau and 90% in Rosemont) which suggests there is still some hesitation for whatever reason.
Ephraim
They still mingle with the population, even in Kiryat Tosh. You see them walking along Chem. de la Rivière-Cachée to Faubourg Boisbriand, so, not really an isolated community.
Max
I went out to Cheskie’s about a week back for some of their sweet chocolate babka. Good Lord, that shit’s delicious. I stopped in at two other obviously Jewish-owned establishments on Parc afterwards. In both spots I witnessed staff and customers not wearing masks indoors. Needless to say I spent no money in either establishment. If these people are being disproportionately affected by Covid, it seems pretty obvious to me that it’s because they’re an ignorant bunch of dumb fucks that can’t be bothered to conform with common-sense public health rules.
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