I notice that the city will soon mark 5000 Covid deaths. This is no time to hold a huge memorial in a public place, but it feels like a fact that the city needs to acknowledge somehow.
Updates from January, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Kate
-
Kate
The STM is planning to experiment with rear-view cameras on a couple of its buses.
qatzelok
“Sorry” is being used like “whatever” used to be, in the second clip.
“Sorry” is commonly used today as an expression meaning “I totally don’t care.”
-
Kate
I don’t watch TV so I’ve missed this duelling language war commercials dust‑up. Anyone seen these or have any opinion?
Jebediah Pallendrome
We all speak French just like that don’t we?
Kate
My spoken French will never be perfect, because I’m old enough that I was allowed to go to school in English. But most people younger than me, who had to go to school in French, do not have the same impediment.
MarcG
The speak-french-or-die pub really embraced “othering”.
dhomas
The “sorry” lady in the first ad was not convincing. She seemed to have a québécois accent on the only word she spoke in the whole ad. I don’t think they could find an actual Anglophone willing to participate in that train wreck of an ad. Also, if the person couldn’t speak French OR English and answered “lo siento” or something, the ad would just seem like bullying. But somehow it was ok for these idiots to pick on Anglophones.
The response ad was much more realistic (if you ignore the ridiculous ham acting). Most people in Quebec (Michael Rousseau notwithstanding) would speak at minimum some French, even if with an accent.
-
Kate
The National Observer has a piece on the weekend’s anti-vaccine protest as a manifestation of the burgeoning right-wing tendency in Canada.
I’m struck by the repeated use of the phrase “That’s only the beginning” from Maxime Bernier. I’ve always tended to think he’s an idiot, but then right-wing leaders don’t mind being thought idiots, do they?
Chris
Was it an anti-vaccine protest or an anti-vaccine-mandate protest? Very different. The linked article says “The protests were driven mostly by opposition to vaccine mandates and curfews.”
Kate
Do you think most of the protesters would have split that hair, Chris?
walkerp
Both are equally stupid and selfish and most likely driven primarily by disinformation on Facebook.
GC
I’m sure there were some who are just anti-mandate, but the anti-vaxxers would also show up, for sure. (Is anyone pro-mandate but anti-vaccine? I suppose anything is possible…but I imagine it’s a small population?) Probably some flat-earthers, too. The presence of the latter would make me question my life choices, if I were already in one of the other groups.
Daisy
I wasn’t at the protest or any other protest, but I am anti vaccine mandate although I am personally double-vaccinated. I’ve never even had a Facebook account, but thank you for calling me stupid and selfish for having a different opinion from the majority.
walkerp
You’re welcome. Were you actually stupid enough to attend the protest?
Mark
Disagreeing with someone because they have a “different opinion from the majority” is not the same as disagreeing because you think their premise is faulty. Plenty of people here disagree with the majority in various contexts.
walkerp
Oh my bad, I just reread your post and see you did not attend, Daisy. My apologies for the flippant and disrespectful response. We don’t have to get in to the nuances of our respective positions, but my point about stupidity was specifically towards the people who are actually motivated to go out and protest. I am very much in favour of civil disobedience and protest in principle, but these people have demonstrated (no pun intended) that they are either brainwashed, stupid or selfish. Their behaviour is actively harming society and especially the more vulnerable in our society, so I will not pull any rhetorical punches.
Chris
Kate, I don’t think it’s splitting hairs at all. It’s a huge difference.
Almost 90% of the (eligible) population is vaccinated, and therefore not anti-vaxers. I’m pretty confident much much less than 90% of the population are in favour of *mandating* people get vaccinated. Daisy and I for example are pro-vaccine but anti-mandate. Hopefully some scientific poling will come out soon. A non-scientific poll here shows the *majority* are anti-mandate: https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/talkback-results
walkerp: being anti-mandate is “equally stupid” to being anti-vaccine?!? You have a strange definition of “equally”.
walkerp
Again, I was referring specifically to people who protested alongside anti-vaxxers.
Though at this point, given that we are in a crisis, I question all the hysteria around “mandates”. Feels very much like the pervasive neoliberal confusion of freedom of consumer choice with actual liberty. I come from a generation that felt it was right to do one’s duty for society and not rant about body autonomy and freedom so I can go to Tulum.
-
Kate
The Wall Street Journal looks at Chalet BBQ and some of its competitors. I had not been aware that Laurier BBQ had been revived, although not in the same location – it’s now on St‑Viateur. Would a Montrealer put Portuguese chicken in the same mental category as the conventional BBQ places?
Joey
We ordered in from there the other night. The chicken was tasty and not too greasy/gross like, say, St-Hubert. The fries were great. The sauce lacked punch. It’s Laurier BBQ in name only. Doesn’t come close to CSL or Chalet (had no idea that Swiss Chalet is a descendant of Chalet) This quote is ridiculous:
“Before the original one closed, it was kind of my head office, even if the fabulous chicken and the famous ‘moka’ cake made you feel you needed to do a long workout right away,” said Daniel Fournier, a businessman. “But now that it’s back, all of Montreal no longer is in mourning.”
Ephraim
Chalet is what Swiss Chalet copied. But over the years they have dulled the sauce. No one’s sauce is as good as Chalet. You can taste the cardamom and spices.
jeather
No, I like both conventional BBQ and Portuguese chicken, but they are different. (My family is a CSL BBQ family; it’s also very well-liked among the feline members.)
Tim S.
So many things in my life make sense now that I learned that Swiss Chalet is a descendant of Chalet BBQ. I always wondered why Swiss chicken was such a big thing in Canada, and no where else. (Though I was relieved to come across a few rotisserie chicken stands in Switzerland, proving that we weren’t in the midst of a national delusion. They weren’t as good)
-
Kate
The rapper turned community worker Don Harley Fils-Aimé, aka Don Karnage, has died and Montreal North is in mourning. No age or cause of death is mentioned.
-
Kate
The Globe & Mail reports that the Cree nation is funding the construction of a large, fanciful new building somewhere down Boulevard Robert-Bourassa (and not in a location most of us would call Old Montreal, despite the lede).
Francesco
It’s the old Cour de la voirie at the end of de la Commune, just across the street from Discreet Logic (AutoDesk Canada) and Ristorante Da Emma. I’d call that Vieux-Montréal, even if it’s also considered part of the meretricious “Cité du Multimédia.”
Max
It would seem to be on this lot, at the corner of Ottawa. If you go a couple of steps north on R-B you can see it’s been under development since last summer.
Kate
So that Art Deco façade on that block was not considered worth saving? Thanks, Max.
Francesco, I guess I think of McGill Street as the western edge of Old Montreal proper. I always thought the “Cité du Multimédia” label was bogus (“meretricious” is such a good word!) but that section of town, King, Queen, Prince and Duke Streets, has a different vibe entirely.
Max
Prior to the Multimedia silliness the area around the Bonaventure north of the canal was called Faubourg des Recollets. It originally extended from McGill to Peel Street. After construction of the CNR viaduct split the neighbourhood in two, Griffintown effectively includes the area west of the viaduct and the name Faubourg des Recollets (sadly) fell out of common usage.
Here’s an interesting paper on the recent history of the area:
DeWolf
You can follow the building’s development here:
https://forum.agoramtl.com/t/odea-26-etages/302
It’s being designed by Douglas Cardinal’s firm. He’s the Indigenous architect responsible for the Museum of History (formerly Museum of Civilization) among many other projects.
I agree with Kate – Old Montreal ends at McGill Street. As Max notes, this particular area is called the Faubourg des Récollets.
DeWolf
Also, I’m not entirely sure, but I think the demolished building on Robert-Bourassa was just a pseudo-historic façade slapped onto a modern building. There are a couple of actual historic buildings on Prince Street that are being preserved and incorporated into the project.
Francesco
Yeah there are pictures in *both* the local “urbanist” fora of that faux-façade as it was being levelled; it’s basically plaster mouldings.
Francesco
@Kate, I agree with the traditional boundaries, but as you astutely point out, Nazareth to King below Wellington don’t quite fit in with the Cité. Were it not for a string of contemporary condos from Queen to McGill disrupting the continuity of de la Commune’s patrimonial charm, we wouldn’t even bother discussing it.
Now, the next step is waiting for PJCCI to pull the trigger on the conversion of the remaining stretch of Bonaventure Expressway.
Max
277 Duke was a Jaguar dealership at some point. I guess that called for a certain amount of “gussying up” of the facade.
Last April’s Streetview shows that they’re conserving not just a facade but an entire section of a building on Prince.
-
Kate
François Legault announced Tuesday that a new tax would be levied on the unvaccinated, a story that immediately took up all the oxygen and pushed the Horacio Arruda story off the stage. There are debates whether it’s ethical, whether it’s even legal under the Canadian bill of rights (although Legault could notwithstanding-clause his way around that, I don’t doubt), whether it’s a step in going back to a user-pay system, whether we should not educate instead of punishing. Whatever the theory, there’s been a rush on first doses, so even if it wasn’t seriously intended, his threat has had an effect.
Update, more or less: On CBC radio at noon they kept saying there was no precedent for enforcing vaccinations. But when I was small, it absolutely was mandatory to present a smallpox vax certificate to enroll at school. I know I’m not imagining this, because my mother was very clear about it when we went to the doctor’s office, telling me firmly why we had to go, and I remember seeing the piece of paper, although I don’t know where it is now. Of course by that point the likelihood of a little Montreal kid catching smallpox was virtually nil, but it was still required. Government website says “Canadians born in 1972 or later have not been routinely immunized against smallpox” which is considered to have been eradicated since 1977, and I suppose no vaccination has been strictly mandatory since then.
And there were protests against smallpox vaccinations back in the day, too. The only way to make sure you wiped the disease out was to make vaccination mandatory. So they did.
walkerp
I hadn’t heard about the rush on first doses. That’s a good sign.
Joey
Not discounting the perspective of community orgs that think the solution to vaccine heistancy is more money for community orgs, but have we not reached a point where the carrots and the education campaigns have hit their ceilings? I have no idea whether the unvaxx tax will make a difference or not, but I’m not sure there are any tools left in the shed at this point…
Ephraim
Still think they should make a levy for healthcare for the pandemic and then rebate it to those who are vaccinated. It might amount to the same thing, but the cost is equal to everyone and it’s simply a rebate to those who are helping lower the costs and voluntary. You just fill in your medicare number on your form and give them permission to see your vaccination record. And it should apply to having ALL your needed vaccinations, because the unvaccinated cost the system up to 100X what a fully vaccinated person costs in the system… not just COVID, but MMR. Most of us are not up to date on Tetanus either. And it wouldn’t hurt to start to vaccinate everyone for Hep-A and B. And start rolling out the vaccination for shingles for people over 55. Vaccinations are likely the best protection our healthcare system has ever had and what makes modern medicine affordable.
Meezly
Just read about the effects of United Airlines’ vaccine mandate. Even though 3000 employees have covid, there has been zero hospitalizations. Before the vaccine mandate, they had one employee dying of covid every week. It’s a microcosm of what could happen anywhere. Education takes resources and time while we need immediate action to help ease the overloaded healthcare system.
And besides, I’m not entirely adverse to having the unvaxxed treated like misbehaving, irresponsible citizens.
Joey
@Ephraim what you are proposing is the bottom of the slippery slope that a lot of people are uncomfortable with – that unvaxx taxes will apply to all vaccines, even those that are not likely to end a global pandemic. I see the logic behind it (and the merit of it, tbh), but I would imagine that proposing such a policy would undermine the much more critical goal of getting everyone vaxxed against COVID. I’m surprised Legault isn’t massively expanding the use of the vaccine passport before resorting to a tax, but I suppose it makes sense to pull out the big guns at this particular moment. Seems to be working (though Dube’s tweet implies that 7K appointments were taken after the announcement; I’m sure a bunch happened before).
I’m really curious about the factors that affect someone’s decision to get their first dose at this particular point in time. I would assume it’s either the threat of some repercussion (lost job, tax) or watching someone close struggle with COVID.
Kevin
Kate is absolutely correct that this proposal ended all discussion of the Arruda dismissal and the flaws in pandemic response.
But governments have long taxed certain people that indulge in ‘risky’ behaviour (tobacco, alcohol, motorcycles) and there are easily ways to do it and not violate charter rights.
But a couple hundred dollars in income taxes due in April (2023 maybe?) is not going to convince anyone to get vaccinated now
Ephraim
@joey – it costs to to 100X to cover someone unvaccinated. Why should we put our entire system at risk for the few? It’s a societal value.
Joey
@Ephraim because we’re not in the midst of an MMR or Hepatitis pandemic… and thus our healthcare system is not being overrun by unvaccinated people with Measles…
steph
the “system at risk” has is our health care system that’s been slowly sabotaged by neoLiberalism for dozens of years. At this point, putting the blame on the unvaxxed is just lazy. Legault keeps mis-stepping and should be held responsible for it. This weeks theatrics of “tax the unvaxxed” is just another weekly episode of fearmongering – it’s tiresome, but we shouldn’t give in to their other agendas. I;m not saying COVID is invented and fake, but that they’re using it as a scapegoat to push other agendas that have been in the pipes.
Blork
Regarding taxing of people for “risky behaviour,” it’s not really the same thing. For one, what you’re taxing is the purchase, not the behaviour, so if I buy a bottle of wine for my neighbour, I’m paying the tax, but my neighbour is the one doing the risky behaviour.
But more importantly, it’s fairly easy to tax a consumption, and maybe even a behaviour, but it’s a whole different thing to tax the ABSENCE of consumption or behaviour. For example, we don’t tax people for NOT exercising regularly. We don’t tax people for NOT eating broccoli.
The only similarity I can think of is that we DO tax (fine) people for NOT wearing a seatbelt or a motorcycle helmet.
jeather
I am about 99% convinced that this was used as a distraction from Arruda resigning, and Legault appointing someone whose daughter is the press secretary to the ministry of health, who runs the group that, in December, was projecting that hospital numbers would be fine and everything was good. They will discuss it for a bit and then it will be memory holed, until a new distraction is needed, maybe.
Ephraim
@Joey we had a measles outbreak a few times in the last year. If people have continued to vaccinate with the MMR, measles would have been eradicated. And it’s a LOT worse than COVID or anything else. The R value is 12 to 18, versus COVID with it’s suggested 2.6 to 2.7. (Measles is so contagious that a person with measles walking through a room of 100 vaccinated people will still infect 1 to 2 people…. and 98 to 100% of the unvaccinated.) 1 in 4 are hospitalized and 1 to 2 per 1000 die. Complications from the MMR are less than 1 per million. Or if you prefer, if 1 per 1000 die that’s 1000 dead versus 1 with complications from the vaccination… a rate of saving 999 people per million.
Ephraim
Sorry… last few years. https://www.quebec.ca/en/health/health-issues/a-z/measles/measles-outbreak for a disease that was almost considered eradicated. In 2003 there were just 105 cases in the Americas. It was considered eradicated…. but isn’t anymore.
YUL514
Joey, every community has it’s ardent anti vaxxers although I’m sure some more than others. I believe in the US the number of black people vaccinated is way below the average but I understand the reasons for it.
Look at this story from November about the Greek Community here in Montreal/Laval.
As for Arruda, my thinking was that he didn’t agree with this tax and that’s the reason he stepped down. I believe it was Mulcair that mentioned that one of his sources had said that Arruda wasn’t in favour of this last curfew and he kept bringing up that our healthcare system is broken in meetings which rubbed Legault the wrong way. Well of course it is, we all know our fragile system has been exposed in the past 2 years and Legault is enacting a lot of unnecessary restrictions to show that he’s doing something about it.
YUL514
Wanted to add about the CTV link I included, these family members saw someone die from Covid and they still refused to get vaxxed. That’s how demented all these anti vaxxers are, good luck convincing this 5-10% group, they are nuts. Unfortunately I know some and they won’t budge.
walkerp
Steph, I agree that the whole health care system needs major improvement and investment, but that is a long-term problem. Given the current gutted system, incentives (be they carrot or stick) are much needed to reduce the immediate pressure on hospitals. We can have the antivax tax and then push for long-term investment in health care and education at the same time. One does not negate the other.
And while no fan of the bullshit “business” philosophy behind the CAQ, they have already spent way more than the Liberals on investment in health care.
Francesco
@YUL514 said “ That’s how demented all these anti vaxxers are, good luck convincing this 5-10% group, they are nuts. Unfortunately I know some and they won’t budge.”
Hit them in the wallet, and all their bluster vaporizes into the air like their cough droplets. I work with more than a few knuckle-draggers who lap up the conspiracy BS and were staunch in their proclamations of body autonomy, but as soon as the Feds issued the mandate for industries they regulate, and the directives tricked down to individual employers, they all called and made appointments. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
walkerp
Well put, Francesco.
I find it weird this fatalism about these anti-vaxxers. I guess it comes from trying to argue with them directly, especially if it is somebody in your family or social circles. But these inane ideas are very new for most of them and only glommed onto their brains in the last few years with the unregulated explosion of social media on mobile devices. They can also be removed from their brains and real world financial and legal restrictions are one of the many effective ways to do that.
We also need a full-on attack on the social media companies directly and the criminals who take advantage of their communication channels.
YUL514
Francesco, I completely agree with you. Unfortunately there are still holdouts, my wife works at a federally regulated company with about 15-20K employees, about 400 some odd employees are suspended without pay until they get vaxxed. Most will probably cave soon as I’m not sure where else they’ll earn such a high salary.
-
Kate
A truck jackknifed and caused a massive backup on the eastbound 40 in Anjou on Wednesday morning. But Google maps seems to think it’s over.
Kevin 22:46 on 2022-01-12 Permalink
The king would not allow that to happen. He is busy pretending that unventilated schools are safe, that a booster 2 weeks after having covid will do something, that the hospitals are just fine, and everything is a-ok and the pandemic is over.