Updates from November, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 21:51 on 2021-11-24 Permalink | Reply  

    Is there any point in an article like this one with advice to seniors about not falling in icy conditions that makes no mention of crampons?

     
    • Kate 21:48 on 2021-11-24 Permalink | Reply  

      Well-known chef David McMillan of Joe Beef and Liverpool House is giving up the restaurant trade as he reaches 50.

       
      • MarcG 08:57 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        Despite his bitching and moaning about parking over the years, the man is very funny.

      • Joey 11:16 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        Reading this (very long) story reminded me of Joe Beef’s contributions to the local community over the year – kicking out Lily and Oli (with Shiller Lavy?) to make room for another high-priced restaurant and getting a baseball field shut down. Too bad Brownstein only had 1,400 words for his exaltation.

      • Ian 11:35 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        Still an eye-opening read: http://headspacepress.com/joe-beef-and-the-unfortunate-appeal-of-ignorance/

        an excerpt:

        “Now this is where I will, for the sake of clarity, remain vague. David McMillan, Frederic Morin, Dany Lavy, The Schiller Group, all seem to be shareholders in some way or another. McMillan and Morin run the restaurants; Lavy and Schiller are investors and real estate people. Who owns how much of what? Who makes the decisions on the next move? Who gave the final word to kick Lili&Oli out?

        I don’t know. I contacted Mr. McMillan and offered him a chance to comment, but he declined. And so to avoid any misrepresentation and because I don’t really give a shit about their inner workings, McMillan, Morin, Lavy, Schiller, Liverpool House, Le Vin Papillon et al – will thus forth be known as Joe Beef. If anyone wishes to correct or clarify, they know where to find me.

        And anyway, the details aren’t important. I don’t care who said what when. I don’t even care about how badly things were handled, about changing the locks on the café, or moving straight to aggressive legal action and forcing the Hébert brothers (Pat & Dan) to borrow thousands of dollars for lawyer fees – all without first trying to sit down and work things out with your neighbor.

        Keep your dates and claims of written notice; those are handy little blankets to help you sleep.

        Because it doesn’t matter how Joe Beef executed this asshole move, the point is the move itself, and that they did it even though they didn’t have to.”

      • walkerp 11:51 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        Yeah, despite the guy’s sort of sympathetic “I recognize that I became an asshole due to burnout” he actually seems to truly be an asshole with or without burnout.

      • walkerp 11:52 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        Let’s not forget forcing the reversion of the pedestrianization of Wellington so his rich clients would have a place to park.

      • carswell 11:52 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        People in the business who know the whole story tell me the Gazette article is a “whitewashed” account (quoting one of them) of what prompted DM’s exit. Haven’t asked for details but, given the article’s author, not surprising if true.

      • MarcG 11:54 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        walkerp: That was Notre-Dame, not Wellington.

      • Ian 12:00 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        To be fair all the delivery drivers along that strip were making a big stink too, the guys at Nouveau Système were justifiably flipping right out. I mean yeah I get it, pedestrianized streets are awesome and besides bus service issues it worked great on Mont-Royal, but the N-D business owners say they weren’t consulted.

        To a hammer everything looks like a nail, and PM’s tendency to barrel through without consultations or studies have caused issues in other areas, too. Let’s not forget the baseball field, the double repaving of Clarke, the dangerous bike paths in PSC, etc.

    • Kate 21:41 on 2021-11-24 Permalink | Reply  

      Various media are looking at the deepest station of the REM, shown to journalists Wednesday morning. The Gazette says it fulfills Jean Drapeau’s dream and says that Édouard-Montpetit station on the blue line has a “hidden chamber” meant to link the metro to a possible rail line below in the Mount Royal tunnel. Engineers talk about the difficulties of working around the hundred-year-old tunnel, equally old water mains and the infrastructure of the UdeM while constructing this thing.

      Also video from CTV and photos in Le Devoir.

       
      • ant6n 11:10 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        I always think it’s funny that they keep insisting that the elevator ride only takes 20s, but they forget to mention the design isn’t exactly efficient. It includes long walk ways and stairs between the elevator and both platforms. I think it’s like that because they chose a design that would be cheapest to build – using a single giant shaft at a convenient location.

        Oh well.

      • Joey 11:19 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        Would the alternative have been multiple elevators with shorter walks? I guess the trade-off depends on how you feel about standing and waiting vs. walking.

        There’s a blitz to promote this aspect of the project, probably to distract from the nonsense happening with the REM de l’Est, but the construction is indeed impressive. I pass through that intersection a few times a day on weekdays and the impact on traffic/pedestrian circulation/bike lanes hasn’t been too bad (the bike lane on Edouard-Montpetit just kinda dies, but that’s par for the course I suppose). No major gridlock, etc. The work being done on the high-end condo project further east on is a considerably bigger PITA.

      • Kate 11:27 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        Joey, high-end condo project further east on where? (I can edit it in.)

      • carswell 12:01 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        @Kate Joey’s referring to Le 1420, the former convent scandalously sold by the UdeM to a mafia-related developer. https://www.le1420.ca

        @Joey The Édouard-Montpetit bike path has been detoured to Willowdale between Stirling and Vincent-d’Indy.

      • carswell 12:04 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        Hasten to add that, due to those relations, the original developer was forced to abandon the project. AFAIK the current developer has no connections with organized crime.

      • walkerp 12:44 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        carswell, do you have a link to any story about the mafia-related developer purchase? I ask because I once literally saw a very high-end luxury sedan and a cop car parked driver’s side window to window on the construction site there very early in the morning. The image looked straight out of a mafia movie. So suspicious.

      • carswell 12:49 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

      • carswell 12:53 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        @Ian Super glad to be rid of Perez but it’s almost a given that one of the main reasons Projet parachuted in an unknown (to locals), non-resident, novice politician with no connection to the borough other than as a place she occasionally travelled to to work as a nurse was precisely because she would do what she was told to and not create friction with the borough’s functionaries, who rank among the most uncaring, unhelpful government employees I’ve encountered, or “head office.”

        In the last days of her campaign and much to her credit, Montgomery said something I never expected to hear coming out of the mouth of any CDN-NDG elected official: that the borough should be split in two. We can probably kiss that enlightened idea good-bye too.

      • carswell 12:56 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        Please delete above post, now reposted in the right thread.

        And an idea for a future upgrade since this kind of misposting is a semi-regular occurrence: a reply button on every post in the thread, not just the top post.

      • Joey 14:12 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        @kate the infamous 1420 Mont Royal, I believe. Also I think the city/borough did some curb extensions in the last few weeks that royally screwed up rush hour (and the construction on Remembrance/CDN means that if you’re going east/west you’re taking a bit of a gamble, meaning Cote Ste Catherine was seriously overwhelmed while Mont-Royal just east of Vincent d’indy was closed).

        @carswell and yet many cyclists, especially those going up Vincent d’Indy to UdeM, opt to stay on Edouard-Montpetit.

      • carswell 15:03 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        @Joey Old habits die hard. Also, the detour is great if you want to get to and from the Côte-Ste-Catherine bike path. But not if you’re heading to upper Outremont and points southeast, in which case you’re best to stay on ÉMP to the end and jog up Vincent-d’Indy to Mont-Royal. That’s the route that a lot of fitness cyclists take.

      • Kate 15:56 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        carswell, I’ll look into the reply thing, but from bitter experience I know how difficult it can be to add features to a WordPress theme after the fact.

      • ant6n 19:01 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        @joey
        A more effieicnt layout with less walking doesn’t mean more waiting for elevators. I think older plans for the Edouard/Montpetit station envisioned building a deviation tunnel on the deep level, then building centre platforms, with all elevators connecting to the platform. so one could connect all elevators to a mezzanine below/above the existing metro stations. Or even better, have two sets of elevators, one for each blue line platform.

        That would be very expensive, but there’s a spectrum between expensive/optimal paths and cheap/long paths.

    • Kate 15:57 on 2021-11-24 Permalink | Reply  

      It’s linked just below in a comment, but the story is important enough that I’m posting it again up top: Gracia Kasoki Katahwa is confirmed as mayor of CDN-NDG. Despina Sourias, also from Projet, has also been confirmed as councillor for Loyola district.

      The city has a new executive committee of 14 members and four associate members – 12 women and six men. Dominique Ollivier is the chairman of the committee, and Eric Alan Caldwell replaces Philippe Schnobb at the head of the STM. The rest of the positions are listed in this item.

       
      • walkerp 10:07 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        She seems quite promising. Now let’s see how she deals with the entrenched, corrupt bureaucracy in NDG-CDN.

      • Kate 11:30 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        I do hope Katahwa sits down with Plante and talks through whatever issues Sue Montgomery had, so’s to get a picture of that situation. I hate to say it, but Plante seemed to think Montgomery should have learned to live with it, work around it, and not attempt to change it. Whether that was the best thing for the many residents of that borough seems doubtful.

      • Ian 11:32 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        Well I guess condos are going up in the old theatre after all. Just be sure not to ask to actually see any of the “studies”, it’s business as usual in NDG.

      • carswell 12:54 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        @Ian Super glad to be rid of Perez but it’s almost a given that one of the main reasons Projet parachuted in an unknown (to locals), non-resident, novice politician with no connection to the borough other than as a place she occasionally travelled to to work as a nurse was precisely because she would do what she was told to and not create friction with the borough’s functionaries, who rank among the most uncaring, unhelpful government employees I’ve encountered, or “head office.”

        In the last days of her campaign and much to her credit, Montgomery said something I never expected to hear coming out of the mouth of any CDN-NDG elected official: that the borough should be split in two. We can probably kiss that enlightened idea good-bye too.

      • walkerp 13:38 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        I’m confused because people keep saying that Lionel Perez was the long-running mayor of CDN-NDG but wasn’t that the role Sue Montgomery had?

      • Mark Côté 13:40 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        Indeed, he was only a (long-serving) city councillor; however, he was the interim lead of Ensemble, so his utterances were splashed all across the news for the last few years.

      • Mark Côté 13:41 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        And now that he lost the mayoral race and a different (Ensemble) person won his district, I’m guessing that means he’s out of politics, for now at least.

      • Ian 18:39 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        One can only hope. It’s like his only role was to be a naysayer. Regardless of the corrupt borough functionaries and all the Montgomery vs Plante drama it’s good to see a fresh face and I wish Katahwa best of luck. This last term was an exercise in reductio ad absurdum stubborness from everyone concerned.

    • Kate 11:51 on 2021-11-24 Permalink | Reply  

      It’s really more a province-level story, but Covid deaths at CHSLDs hit this city hard, so I will summarize: The ombudsman report into how the province mismanaged the first Covid wave in the CHSLDs came out Tuesday, in which Marie Rinfret says that Quebec was much more concerned about hospitals, thus neglecting the situation in the care homes. Rinfret is contradicting a recent testimony by former health minister Danielle McCann, who claimed that the regional health authorities were informed they needed to prepare the CHSLDs for coronavirus as early as January 2020.

      The PLQ was already accusing the CAQ of hiding or destroying reports on CHSLD inspections last week.

      The Journal has notes on reactions from family members and other interested parties, but managed to find a few people to say the Quebec government did all right.

      There will be a lot more said about the care homes and the treatment of seniors during Covid.

       
      • Uatu 12:01 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        Private sector FTW!/s

    • Kate 10:37 on 2021-11-24 Permalink | Reply  

      The two recounts requested by Projet in Outremont and Tétreaultville have been accepted, so now there are six recounts going on around town. No items I’ve seen suggest how long it’s likely to take before we know the results.

       
      • Mark Côté 14:47 on 2021-11-24 Permalink

      • Kate 15:03 on 2021-11-24 Permalink

        Excellent. I didn’t want to see Lionel Perez dislodge Gracia Kasoki Katahwa – that borough needs someone fresh to politics at the helm. Thanks, Mark Côté!

      • Ian 18:42 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        …and Tomlinson is out from Outremont with Laurent Desbois the confirmed winner.

      • Kate 19:58 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        Wow, 23 votes. That’s got to hurt.

        And Caroline Bourgeois confirmed Ensemble mayor of RDP-PAT as well. I’ll make a post.

      • MarcG 20:19 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

        To the post machine!

    • Kate 10:35 on 2021-11-24 Permalink | Reply  

      CTV has a striking story about Covid deaths in the Laval Greek community, where three previously healthy but unvaccinated men, all under 60, died of the disease in short order.

       
      • Kate 10:32 on 2021-11-24 Permalink | Reply  

        The issue of François Legault making a point of mourning Thomas Trudel but not Jannai Dopwell‑Bailey is not going away. The premier maintains that he was chiefly concerned about Trudel because of gun crime and not because he felt Trudel was “one of our own” in a way that Dopwell‑Bailey was not.

         
        • Kate 10:27 on 2021-11-24 Permalink | Reply  

          The Journal reports on the alleged murder-suicide in the Mile End early this month, alleging that escorts would not see the man because he was known to be aggressive, and also alleging that the woman who was killed was a sex worker from out of town who didn’t know about his reputation.

           
          • GC 12:01 on 2021-11-24 Permalink

            Since I live and work in the area, I tried Googling to find out what he looked like and if I had seen him around the neighbourhood. (Yes, his photos is right there in the Journal article…but I hadn’t scrolled down.)

            I stumbled across his obituary, which spoke in glowing terms about his compassion. Yes, I realize his family isn’t going to dwell on his darker side–if they even knew about it. And, I also realize it’s possible that he was kind to some and aggressive to others…but it was still jarring.

            Do no articles identify the woman in the case by name? Is it because her family asked for it to be withheld? Can a family even do that, in a possible murder case? She’s the one who should be humanized here.

          • Kate 13:12 on 2021-11-24 Permalink

            Here’s the obituary as described.

            I don’t know what the journalistic policy is on names. Maybe the family did not want her name mentioned and they agreed?

            One thing about living here all my life and going to school here – I seldom consult the obituaries without running across some other name I knew, or relatives thereof. This time it was my high school chemistry teacher.

          • GC 14:02 on 2021-11-24 Permalink

            I don’t know, either. I totally get why living victims of sexual crimes and minors are not named. I thought it was pretty standard to name murder victims, however, after they’ve been identified. If they are respecting the family’s wishes in this, I guess that’s a good thing. I just didn’t know it was possible.

            And, yes, I don’t generally browse the obituaries. The only time I did was when a friend went missing a couple of years back. (She wasn’t really missing in the legal sense, but no one in our friend group knew who to find her and we also didn’t know how to contact her family…) In this case, it was just one of the first hits that came up when I Googled his name.

          • Meezly 16:49 on 2021-11-24 Permalink

            This is so sad. I’ve been going to Fairmount Bagels regularly this past year. Can’t help but wonder if there were factors that led to this tragedy.. toxic family dynamics, drug use… I guess we may find out as investigations continue.

          • Jeff 18:12 on 2021-11-24 Permalink

            @Meezly the fact that the boy was deep into hookers, who were afraid of him, and he was STILL in line to take over the business should tell you something about the organization. Between Fairmount and St. Viateur, I don’t think I’ll be eating fresh bagels anymore.

          • Kate 18:22 on 2021-11-24 Permalink

            Item says (translating): According to observers, he worked [at the bakery] like a madman, often more than 100 hours a week. He used drugs and sleeping pills to keep up this hectic pace of life.

            I’m going to surmise that, since he was the heir to the business, people working around Shlafman were well aware he was in trouble, but felt that if they spoke up they could lose their jobs. It really is sad for an old established business like that to go sideways in this way.

          • Ian 18:52 on 2021-11-24 Permalink

            Well at least it wasn’t a Pâtisserie de Gascogne scenario as far as the longevity of Fairmount Bagel is concerned but yeah, wow. I wonder how many of the workers there breathed a sigh of relief.

            Sad that the cops don’t care about bad trick lists. Sex workers need to be protected by the law.

          • GC 18:57 on 2021-11-24 Permalink

            Jeff, was there a recent controversy with St-Viateur Bagel that I missed or have forgotten about?

          • Ian 19:04 on 2021-11-24 Permalink

            The owner has a bunch of AirBnbs, contributing directly to the gentrification of Mile End & the housing crisis in that sense, but other than that I haven’t heard anything either.

          • Tim 00:28 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

            The late local CBC news just reported some details on the victim of this murder. At no point did they bother mentioning the name or picture of the suspect/murderer. It was like the perpetrator of the crime was some phantom that could not be reported upon. Of course they focused on the fact that she was a sex worker. Pure cowardice. I feel sick to my stomach.

          • Jeff 09:51 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

            @GC not that I know of. It’s just that one evening I was walking by the bakery on the corner of St. V and Parc, and I could hear somebody getting yelled at from the street. I went inside and a little white guy was berating his Sri Lankan staff, who were just clearly upset, and just trying to work through it without saying anything. When he noticed me standing there, he was all nice; “Hello! What can I get for you?”. I asked “why are you yelling at these people?” and he said “I wasn’t yelling at them”. I told him “you can’t treat people that way”. He was clearly used to abusing people, and he was managing the place. I can’t stand bullies, and I’ve not eaten a St. Viateur bagel since.

            @Ian, @Tim, yeah. Prostitution and other sex work needs to be legalized. These workers don’t belong out in the cold, so marginalized that reporting on their murder is taboo. On the other hand, maybe the family didn’t want their last name associated with a murdered prostitute. I suspect not all of the blame belongs with the media.

            @Tim, is there a link the latest coverage?

          • Kate 11:33 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

            Jeff, the link to the Journal/TVA piece I put up Wednesday is the last report I can find online.

            Thank you for that dispiriting report on St‑Viateur Bagel. Anyone know if the place on Beaubien near St‑Hubert is any good?

          • Ian 11:50 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

            On CBC radio this morning they were interviewing Sandra Wesley from Stella & they mentioned the victim by name and what town she is from, but I haven’t seen anything in print or online yet either.

          • CE 11:55 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

            I used to go to Beaubien Bagels regularly when I lived in the area. They’re a little denser but hold up well, especially toasted. My favourite one there was the onion bagel.

          • GC 12:03 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

            Thanks for elaborating, Jeff.

          • Kevin 12:24 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

            I get my fix from Henri Bourassa bagels. They also make good samosas, although I liked their bhaji better before they started adding cilantro.

          • Joey 15:10 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

            Heaven help us if we stop eating at places where management treats the staff badly!

          • Kate 15:52 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

            Joey, I also happened to hear a boss shouting at his workers once in a bakery, and one of the women crying. I never went in there again, and it closed up not long afterwards. If the boss was doing that kind of thing a lot, I’m sure I wasn’t the only person for whom it was a good reason to stay away.

            CE, I’ve never stepped into Beaubien Bagel, but a toasted bagel can be really nice. Thanks for the tip.

          • Jeff 19:07 on 2021-11-25 Permalink

            @Joey the customers and workers can do something else. Pray for the owners

          • B 01:35 on 2023-08-22 Permalink

            i was one of the companions that was seeing him in fact i was sleeping at his regularly and nights before the murder i had a terrible gut feeling that told me to get out, and i took a train to toronto two days later to escape, i have no words to explain my grief after this situation for the girl that this happened to and that it would have been me if i had not left in panic because of my intuition. i started having seizures shortly after the incident which i honestly believe were induced by the stress of the situation. this person was very charismatic and easily fooled me at first but thank god my instinct told me something was wrong but also just in a sense trust your instinct and gut at all costs.

        • Kate 10:01 on 2021-11-24 Permalink | Reply  

          The anti-vaxxer who led the blockage of the L-H-Lafontaine tunnel back in March is now planning to create a blockage in the courts with arguments over things like whether the Crown has the right to lay charges at all. Mario Roy is planning to call 30 witnesses and is clearly enjoying the hell out of it.

           
          • Ephraim 10:05 on 2021-11-24 Permalink

            Planning and calling them are two different things. Wonder if he realizes that loser pays court/legal charges?

          • MarcG 10:48 on 2021-11-24 Permalink

            I love their after-school-gang matching jackets! What’s the deal with having the names of giant beer companies on them – some kind of obscure racist dogwhistle or just normal everyday madness?

          • dhomas 19:21 on 2021-11-24 Permalink

            @MarcG I couldn’t find anything documented about Carlsberg and Sapporo and any link to alt right groups or racist ideology. Whatever their reasons for the matching tags, it must be specific to this group.

          • H. John 20:50 on 2021-11-24 Permalink

            Ephraim, this is a criminal case.
            The article refers to a summary charge (the U.S. equivalent would be a misdemeanor).
            Losers do not pay court/legal charges in criminal cases.

          • Ярослав 10:48 on 2021-11-26 Permalink

            With the rapid rise in requests for vaccine exemptions, many people are realizing for the first time just how flexible these standards can be. When an employee sends you a letter claiming that their religious belief prevents them from receiving a vaccine, what do you do? If you are a school administrator and a parent writes a letter, perhaps co-signed by a pastor, stating that their child cannot wear a mask due to their sincere beliefs, how can you respond? What mechanisms are there to determine whether these are bona fide religious claims or whether the claimants are truly sincere?

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