A driver was shot at in Anjou at midday on Wednesday. He was able to get to a gas station off the service road of the 40, but his condition is not described here.
Updates from October, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Christian Dubé has delayed the healthcare workers’ vaccine mandate by a month. Will people unwilling to be vaccinated change their minds in four weeks, or is he just putting off the inevitable?
dhomas
They were both playing chicken and the government lost.
John B
I saw on the news there’s a good chunk of nurses that have 1 shot, maybe he wants them to get their 2nd, then the pain won’t be so bad.
Also, it looks like the various professional orders are still suspending members who don’t get vaccinated by Friday, unless they change their minds too, so some people won’t be able to work even with this decision.
jeather
We all just lost in this game of chicken. Wonder what happened in the past 24 hours.
Love this quote, which is meaningless as it could be used just as easily to explain why he is keeping the mandate: “The risk right now is too high, and it would be irresponsible to roll the dice with the health of Quebecers”
jeather
One less horrible choice would have been to say that if you’ve had ONE dose by the 15th, you can keep working as long as you get your second dose by Nov 15. But no.
Em
One issue that was raised was that the government’s decree didn’t give workers enough time to get two shots (plus the requisite waiting time required to be considered fully vaccinated) by the time it came into effect. Last week Dubé said that 300-400 health workers were still getting a first shot each day.
jeather
Then you announce “300-400 workers are still getting first shots, so the mandate is first shot by Oct 15”. Now they won’t be able to have any other mandates because everyone knows the government will blink first.
Kevin
THE ANTI-VAXXERS ARE IN THE ASSEMBLEE NATIONALE.
Kevin
But seriously, I think this is a reaction to Legault’s personal popularity dropping ten percentage points since June. He’s still one of the most popular premiers in the country (tied with BC’s Horgan and Newfoundland’s Furey) but Legault governs by opinion polls.
jeather
Really hope this causes his popularity to crash more.
Ephraim
Putting off the inevitable. Arrange walk-throughs in the COVID units. It’s just not hitting home for these people and only seeing it of being exposed to it will get through their heads.
mare
Despite relatively low case numbers compared to our neighbours south and out west Montreal’s ERs are still very far over capacity.
https://www.indexsante.ca/urgences/#Montreal
Why are people on stretchers in the hallways? Because there are no beds to move patients to. Losing thousands of nurses will be devastating.
Chris
Wow, y’all are really overestimating the risk, and indeed we humans are bad at risk analysis. Air pollution kills twice as many people *every year* as covid has grand total. Yet you’re all bent out of shape over this, but probably never give a second thought to air pollution.
96% of heath care workers are vaccinated, and they all wear PPE, plus *you* are vaccinated. Your chance of catching covid, let alone suffering serious consequences, is vanishingly small.
Better to have a tiny risk of an unvaccinated nurse, than to have *no nurse at all*. Government made the right calculation here, good on them.
Max
The vaxtard nurses are a particularly evil part of the overall vaxtard problem. My landlord was diagnosed with cancer the other day. Thankfully, he’s been given a slot in the ER Friday to have his prostate removed. At Lakeshore General two operating rooms have closed so that nurses can be reassigned elsewhere. There’s a secondary death toll that’s quietly rising thanks to deferred medical care caused by these idiots that don’t give a shit about anyone but themselves.
Do your best to stay healthy, kids. Our health care system’s under serious pressure.
qatzelok
Max, it’s interesting that you use the word “tard” to describe nurses.
They DO work in the medical profession.
Kate
Not thrilled about “tard”, Max. Please leave that out in future.
But qatzelok, the fact that these deniers work in the medical field, and must have had several years’ training to get a nursing licence, and yet remain boneheaded about vaccination, that does tend to put them in the less than intellectually gifted category.
As someone pointed out here not long ago (I can’t find the comment because we’ve had so many discussions about vaccination issues), nurses are obliged to have a whole list of other immunizations anyway. It isn’t optional to have your MMR, tetanus, hepatitis, and other shots. So what’s the problem?!
jeather
Nursing gets its share of women who would be otherwise be cops for the power it gives them over other people.
Kate
jeather, I, and two of my good friends, have (or have had) sisters who were nurses.
And you never said a truer word.
(To be fair, I couldn’t do a nurse’s job for five minutes, but some of them are battleaxes.)
MarcG
Yikes
steph
Wheno only”9 out of 10 dentists agree”, how do you convince that last one? You pull his license and you’re left with “100% of dentists agree”
It seems easier to dismiss these nurses then as dumb, than to listen to them. Our medical system has been under pressure for years since before Covid. IMHO there’s been an ongoig agenda to privitize healthcare by sabotaging the public system. You’d think these educated nurses that aren’t interested in getting vaccinated might know something. Is it illigal yet to publish articles aganist covid vaccination?Kevin
I once attended a child care class taught by a nurse who said breast milk contains embryos. And I have known many nurses who disliked getting vaccines because they felt bad the next day (which is why you know it’s working, duh). So i don’t exactly put a lot of stock in the medical training of nurses.
That said, it’s not just nurses. There are PABs, orderlies, secretaries…
Kate
steph, because nurses have legitimate complaints – understaffing and mandatory overtime are rife – it doesn’t follow that the anti-vaxxers among them have any credibility about vaccination.
dmdiem
85% of the eligible population has had the covid vaccine. You know what the vaccination rate for chicken pox is? 83%.
We’ve done a fantastic job. Everyone should be patting themselves on the back. Instead you’re all running around like chicken little. Acting as if only three people have been vaccinated and 99% of the population are anti-vaxxers hiding behind every bush waiting to pounce out and cough in your face. Stop it. Just stop.
As proud as I am of all of you, unfortunately I’ve got some bad news. There’s every indication that covid has joined the ranks of the other corona viruses and is now endemic. That means, vaccinated or not, everyone will catch covid eventually. Everyone. But the good news is that since you’ve been vaccinated, your chance of dying or even getting very sick is extremely low. Congratulations.
But instead of being happy for a job well done, you’re screaming that if only a few hundred more nurses get vaccinated then the pandemic will finally be over! Well, it’s not. Ever. No amount of mandates, passports, masks or distancing will change that.
This is as good as it gets.
So my advice to you is… pour yourself a nice glass of wine, curl up with a good book and stop acting like fucking crazy people.
Kate
This topic has raised far more hackles than anything on this blog in years.
dmdiem, keep in mind there are 2 huge problems with healthcare workers: 1. they are likely to be working around people in a weakened immune state and 2. they should know better. This is why the issue is at the forefront.
Kevin
Dmdiem
22,000 unvaccinated health workersIf you’re going to downplay it, use the right number.
steph
Sept 9th 2021: “Among the public sector, 92 per cent of workers have received one dose and 88 per cent have received two.”
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-health-care-workers-unvaccinated-1.6168812can anyone find the current percenteges?
General population statistics: https://covid19tracker.ca/provincevac.html?p=QC
74.634% of all people in Quebec are fully vaccinatedMark Côté
89.3%/84.0% for the eligible Quebec population according to CBC.
MarcG
Covid diary – day 582: Lots of big feels, cursing.
@steph: I had found some stat tables a few weeks ago that showed vaccination rates specifically in the health sector, broken down by job type, but now I can’t find it. I could have sworn I posted a link on this site as well but the search doesn’t find anything.
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Kate
I wrote about getting a cat permit in 2019 for 2020. I just got a renewal notice for next year.
First, out of the box, the link from the email went to a 404. So I had to rummage around the city site to find the domestic animals department and then narrow down to my borough.
It was clear the city has a file on me and my cat but in wading through the dozen screens that followed I had to solemnly attest to a lot of stuff and had to photograph and send them pictures again of my health card and my bank statement. I did that before. It’s still me – really!
The one thing they didn’t want was a picture of my cat.
But that initial 404 was the real treat. I haven’t seen a real 404 in awhile, and the city one has a cone:
All of this to pay $12. Last time, the payment got hung up on my having registered myself as Kate while my legal name is Catherine. I changed my name this time first. I wonder what else can go wrong.
Update: Actually it was fine, the payment went through, and my cat is street legal for 2022.
Blork
We are approaching a frightening time in our Internet history. Sevices and systems are developing faster than people’s abilities to understand them. In the old days it was pretty easy once you “got it.” A web server, some files, FTP to connect them. Then along came some content creation platforms and CDNs (content delivery networks). A bit harder to grasp what was going on, but ultimately easier to use. Now it’s getting to the point where nobody knows what’s going on or even how to use these things.
The old joke about getting your 10-year-old to do your technical things has been reversed. Young people — the ones who use this stuff the most — are the ones who understand them the least, and they’re the ones who will be running things soon.
I recently read an article in either the NY Times or The Atlantic about how fundamentally computer illiterate the current generation of young people are, because they never had to learn anything beyond the user interface. It talked about how so many teenagers and even young adults who use computers (or at least phones) don’t even understand the basics of files and folders. After all, when you’re doing everything through your phone there are no files and folders, just apps.
Photos are all just in a big bucket, as are files, which you find by searching, not browsing. According to the article, these kids did not understand that files don’t just live in the apps, or that there is anything other than just a big iCloud bucket that holds everything.
I see this on my Mac, where I used to be the boss of my file hierarchy, but with iCloud everything falls under “Documents,” which is considered a separate location on Finder’s sidebar (separate from the computer’s file system). Furthermore, some of those files are synced and some aren’t, which creates a level of abstraction that makes sense if you’re very well versed on cloud computing and file management, but is just weird and random for most regular people.
Someone close to me taught a class a few years ago to university students about online content creation. These were UNIVERSITY STUDENTS, and many of them did not even know that a web browser has a URL bar, or what it is used for. To them, “the internet” always started with Google. Everything they did online was through a link or a Google search (and thus a link). They had no concept of how content is organized on the web. No understanding of domains, file structure, nothing.
These are the people who are now charged with running things like the site for cat permits.
Kate
Blork, I worked in 2018 and 2019 for an agency, and my closest coworker and I were the oldest people in the shop. And he and I knew much more – as you do – about things like filesystems and file formats and other key stuff. Some of the younger folks were startlingly naive about them.
Jonathan
Cute cat! I only ever registered my cat once and now I got two but never renewed or registered again.
MtlWeb
Kate, I just had to post that your cat is as cute as one can be, except of course my little Maddie. .
jeather
Guess I will continue to break the law about my cats (who are now exclusively indoor with no access the balcony because one had a stroke and I’m scared he’d fall somehow).
Kevin
It’s gone from everybody knowing they didn’t know how it worked to everybody thinking they know how it works and being dead wrong.
Kate
Kevin – ?
Oh, you mean the city website. Yes.
Spi
You willingly sent and presumably are ok with a municipal government storing a photo of your personal ID and bank statement?
Am I the only to think that’s demonstrating too much faith that they’ll even do the bare minimum to safeguard your private information.
walkerp
Kate
Spi, that’s the deal. They don’t see my whole bank statement, just the header, my name and address and a date.
walkerp, that’s great. Thank you.
She is a nice cat.
Kevin
Kate
The internet and IT in general…
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Kate
QMI’s Bureau d’enquête reveals that one of Denis Coderre’s Verdun candidates makes illegal real estate flips that inflate rents in that previously modest enclave. With a list of other “pratiques douteuses” Antoine Richard is on record as having done.
steph
Verdun mayor Jean-François Parenteau side hustles as a real estate agent. Was 2013 & Applebaum far enough to forget? Bump from last week: https://mtlcityweblog.com/2021/10/01/landlords-are-running-for-office/
Ephraim
If no one brings it to the board, it didn’t happen. And you can’t be disciplined for it. I know an agent who accepted a property that had been declined for purchase. Which legally requires a disclosure as well as showing the inspection report and acted as if it didn’t happen and didn’t disclose. But the purchaser didn’t pursue her, so she never got disciplined. No complaint… no crime.
steph
The decliner (the buyer with the original conditional offer) paid for the inspection report – it belongs to them. They don’t have to share it.
It’s sill expecting realtors to be honest, closing a deal and profit will always a conflict of interest. Like any profession, realtors will always protect each other.Ephraim
Sorry @steph, but that’s not how the rules work. When you decline a property because of the inspection report, you have to hand over a copy of the inspection report. And anyone who sees the house has to be told that the house had an offer and it failed because of the inspection report.
You MUST disclose all known faults. The next buyer can go back for 20 years on any fault that was known and not disclosed. See https://www.caaquebec.com/en/at-home/advice/tips-and-tricks/tip-and-trick/show/sujet/hidden-defects-when-the-seller-is-sued/
And a real estate agent who takes a listing is required to ask if there were offers, if they were declined and if there is an inspection report as well as all known defects.
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Kate
Montreal wants to institute a tax on foreign real estate buyers but needs Quebec to agree, and that’s not likely. Both Vancouver and Toronto have such a tax, but knowing B.C. and Ontario said yes is exactly the kind of thing that will make Quebec be contrary and say no.
steph
Does Quebec ever do anything for Montreal? It seems systematic and oppresive. We clearly have a distict identity. Is independence a solution?
mare
@steph I remember a special law was made to expressly forbid separation from Quebec (ironic isn’t it?). If you get the Assemblée Nationale to agree on separating it might be possible, but the likelihood of that is very close to 100%.
Not only applicable to Montreal, but also to the Indigenous lands up North, the location of Hydro Quebec’s dams and several mines that dig up, according to a quick DuckToGo search, almost 10B$ worth of gold, iron, nickel, titanium, niobium, copper and zinc.
Ephraim
It’s doubtful that this would do anything, really. And they will simply look for a way around it. What we REALLY need is a tax on unoccupied properties… both commercial and residential. And a hefty tax on them. You have space above your store that you aren’t renting… too bad, find a tenant or pay a property tax on that area at 10X the rate. Chase out your commercial tenant and let the space stay empty? 10X the rate until you find someone.
Want to raze the house and build a new bigger house? Sure… increase density or pay into a social housing fund. We need to tax our way into having properties fully occupied.
steph
@Ephraim, how do you police “it’s my office, and that one is my 2nd office, and that one over there is my 3rd office” type occupations by landlords?
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Kate
The city has named as its first French language czar Roseline Fréchette, but weren’t we told just last week it would be Louise Harel? I guess piloting the action plan in the matter of valorizing the French language is a different job?
Kevin
I’m surprised the city hasn’t resurrected Sol. But I suspect that will only be a matter of time.
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Kate
Arrests are being made in the early August shooting in Rivière‑des‑Prairies which killed three people and injured others.
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Kate
A man was stabbed at the Old Brewery Mission late Tuesday and is in critical condition.
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