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Updates from November, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

• Kate 21:31 on 2021-11-04 Permalink | Reply  

  A piece on the new independent media platform Pivot says there’s no security problem in Montreal and that crime’s been going down steadily.

  I’ve got to translate an excerpt: “In 2021, police and media reported numerous shootings. But these were often gunshots without victims or other crimes, notes Ted Rutland, professor at Concordia University. Familiar with the SPVM data, Rutland points out that the police service never counted simple gunshots before this year. ‘You have to be wary when the police invent new categories [of events] to show us that we are not safe.’ According to Rutland, police are seeking to regain the legitimacy they lost with the Black Lives Matter movement and revelations about the seriousness of racial profiling in Montreal.”

  Dominic, steph, qatzelok, and 1 other are discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • Ephraim 21:59 on 2021-11-04 Permalink

    And since Sex Garage, they can’t exactly run around raiding Gay bars as a way of showing force…

  • qatzelok 11:14 on 2021-11-05 Permalink

    Cities like Baltimore and Chicago probably NEVER see a headline announcing “gunshots were heard.”

  • steph 13:49 on 2021-11-05 Permalink

    Following calls to “defund the police”, THIS is how they decide to serve the public. Crooks will be crooks. Can we defund them now?

  • Dominic 15:37 on 2021-11-05 Permalink

    Pretty sure the cops fired those shots themselves.

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• Kate 21:24 on 2021-11-04 Permalink | Reply  

  A poll commissioned by L’actualité puts Valérie Plante well ahead of Denis Coderre.

  SMD, Ian, Joey, and 2 others are discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • Vazken 06:32 on 2021-11-05 Permalink

    Good, I can’t imagine more years with Coderre in charge.

  • dhomas 07:12 on 2021-11-05 Permalink

    I’m not sure how much I trust these polls. Don’t take anything for granted and go out to vote.

  • Joey 08:54 on 2021-11-05 Permalink

    “ Parmi les électeurs décidés et enclins à voter, les appuis à Valérie Plante atteignent 49 %, contre 43 % pour Denis Coderre.”

    That’s a big lead.

  • Ian 09:49 on 2021-11-05 Permalink

    Given that there was only 51% turnout in the last municipal election it could still swing pretty far. If everyone who says they support Holness actually votes and only a quarter of the population votes for Plante or Coderre all three of them could be neck in neck.

    I know everyone is discounting Mouvement Montreal but it wasn’t that long ago that Projet was considered a fringe party that could only get elected in the Plateau, and nobody had ever heard of Valerie Plante.

  • Joey 12:20 on 2021-11-05 Permalink

    @Ian the fact that Plante is well ahead among all respondents and among likely voters bodes very well for her. The idea that MM gets out 100% of its vote and the other parties only get out 25% is pretty imaginative… if anything it looks like Holness will help securing the victory for Plante.

  • Ian 16:26 on 2021-11-05 Permalink

    Oh I don’t disagree that I’m dreaming in technicolour about Holness’s chances, but that 49-43 spread is pretty close depending on who actually votes, since we can’t assume equal distribution among those that show up.

    Coderre himself said a vote for Holness is a vote for Plante FWIW so I wouldn’t be too sure about the direction or impact of vote-splitting.

  • Ian 16:28 on 2021-11-05 Permalink

    …which is funny because I’ve heard a lot of people saying Holness will be splitting the “progressive” vote.

    (sorry about accidental the post-splitting, Kate)

  • SMD 12:37 on 2021-11-07 Permalink

    This take on Mouvement as progressive is the best I’ve read yet: For a party with the word movement in its name, Mouvement Montréal is anything but.

• Kate 21:22 on 2021-11-04 Permalink | Reply  

  Lionel Blair isn’t a household name here, since he made his career in the UK, but he was a Montreal boy originally – like Mort Sahl and Saul Bellow, a Jewish kid born to parents from eastern Europe. Parents who, in short order, saw greener pastures elsewhere. Died this week at 92.

   

• Kate 14:37 on 2021-11-04 Permalink | Reply  

  Allegations of a sexual assault in 2012 have blown up against a Projet incumbent, with CBC saying bluntly that Valérie Plante “falsely claimed to have no knowledge” of the case. Denis Coderre is making hay, demanding the withdrawal of Craig Sauvé, who has represented Projet for two terms in Sud-Ouest borough, but was not yet involved in the party in 2012. Sauvé says the allegations are unfounded but there’s some very intense stuff about mediation being invoked and the claimant saying mediation was unsuccessful and demanding money.

  CharlesQ, Jebediah Pallendrome, MarcG, and 5 others are discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • walkerp 15:44 on 2021-11-04 Permalink

    I’m very confused by this story. Is the story the sexual allegations or is it that Plante knew about it and said she didn’t?
    Why did this resurface now?

  • Kate 15:52 on 2021-11-04 Permalink

    CBC broke the story and they’re headlining a claim that Plante knew Sauvé had been accused, that the party was helping him counter the claim, and that the timeline shows that she must have known this when she said nobody on her team was facing accusations of sexual impropriety.

    The articles all agree that there are no legal charges against Sauvé. From what I know, he’s been an exemplary councillor and people like him, but Plante may be forced to push him out before the election.

  • ant6n 16:12 on 2021-11-04 Permalink

    He doesn’t strike me as somebody who’d be involved in sexual assault.

  • jeather 17:10 on 2021-11-04 Permalink

    He has in fact been a great councillor, and I know nothing about this accusation, but “he seems so nice why would he” is not a great argument against it.

  • Ian 17:21 on 2021-11-04 Permalink

    Plante has taken people off the ballot for less, but maybe it only applies to women?

  • MarcG 18:16 on 2021-11-04 Permalink

    Welcome back, Ian, bring the zing. ant6n, I hope that’s sarcasm.

  • Jebediah Pallendrome 18:25 on 2021-11-04 Permalink

    Okay, help me out here:

    Coderre has a press conference before noon today where he asks Sauve to resign
    It’s based on a CBC story that came out this morning, one that doesn’t state who victim/accused are
    Sauve goes public to CBC in the early afternoon
    TVA also gets access to all the docs CBC had access to

    Do I have that right?

    Is that a smidge odd (to say nothing of the peculiar timing)?

    I want to know what y’all think.

  • CharlesQ 18:33 on 2021-11-04 Permalink

    There’s also a story about Coderre’s alliance with Luis Miranda in Anjou. Miranda is accused of rape. https://journalmetro.com/actualites/montreal/2721318/agression-sexuelle-aveuglement-denis-coderre-victime/

• Kate 08:35 on 2021-11-04 Permalink | Reply  

  La Presse has posed a mayoralty quiz which you can try out. I passed, but not as well as I expected – there are some tough questions about budgets and other numbers.

  James and Blork are discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • Blork 21:01 on 2021-11-04 Permalink

    Jeez I only scored 45 out of 110. All those numbers!

  • James 09:01 on 2021-11-05 Permalink

    Proud of my score of 75. I was way off on the numbers questions ! I think the readers of this blog will score way higher than the average Montrealer.