STM service will stay in pandemic slowdown mode throughout 2022 as it struggles with a $43M deficit.
Quebec could bail it out, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.
Updates from January, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Prominent anti-masker François Amalega Bitondo was forbidden to enter the Palais de justice Friday to defend himself against charges of breaking curfew, thus racking up more fines he has no intention of paying. Another anti-masker was also barred from entering on different charges, but was apparently able to participate in court via his phone.
ant6n
It’s a bit odd, legally speaking. As long as there’s no legal mandate to vaccinate, it seems odd to bar people from basic government services (that are closely related to your civic rights). This reduction of civic rights for unvaccinated is problematic since in practical terms, vaccinated people can also catch and spread the virus, and a same day corona test (even antigen) is likely a better protection against the spread for a particular event than being vaccinated.
My feeling is they should allow quick tests to access services that relate to your rights. Or they should legally required vaccination.
The anti vaxxers will probably also reject the test, so perhaps it’s moot in practical terms. But refusing a legally mandated, simple nose test would really be on them, compared to refusing what is arguably a non legally mandated medical procedure.
Dominic
” it seems odd to bar people from basic government services”
Is it that odd? To enroll in school you need proof of all kinds of vaccinations.John B
Before reading the article I thought that Bitondo was refused access because he didn’t vaccinate, but that’s not the case, he was refused access because he refused to put on a mask. That’s not a reduction in civil rights because of the unvaccinated, that’s refusing to follow a dress code.
Also, at least according to the judge, Bitondo could have made arrangements to participate by videoconference, but didn’t. I assume by now he knows how the justice system works, so these are choices that he made intentionally, and 100% on him.
I’m not trying to start a fight – I just expected to see an actual rights violation based on the headline, but instead found someone trying to stir up even more trouble!
dhomas
When I was about 18 years old, I contested a speeding ticket. At the time, I was working in a factory, cleaning some metal milling machines, so I was quite dirty to the point that even my hair was greasy and gross. The court appearance was during my lunch break, so I thought it best to keep my baseball cap on to hide my unkempt hair. The first thing the judge told me was that one does not wear a hat in court and that I should remove it or remove myself. Needless to say, I lost that court appearance.
The dress code in court is that “every person appearing before the court shall be suitably attired.” (http://www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/en/document/cr/C-72.01,%20r.%201%20/)
The wording leaves enough wiggle room to allow it to be the judge’s decision as to what it means to be “suitably attired”. Right now, that means wearing a mask.walkerp
I caught shit from a lawyer for wearing shorts to court. He said it wasn’t “respectful”. But they didn’t block me from testifying. Was a boring neighbours conflict that we got caught up in just because we lived in the same building.
I felt that “respect” in the courthous as your example underlines dhomas seems to really mean this is a place for the rich and powerful (and white) to make decisions for you.
Kate
That principle was cited by the judge in 2015 when she told Rania El-Alloul she couldn’t wear hijab in court. The judge apologized five years later.
ant6n
@johnb
Fair. I admit I just read the headline and assumed the issue was vaccination.
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Kate
McGill’s Covid guidelines are making some students nervous: as the student quoted here says, “the university was actually planning on many, many students getting sick.” Classes are supposed to resume in person on January 24.
A pizzeria in the Mile End is getting some free publicity by announcing it plans to flout restaurant dining room closures sometime soon. And you can be sure they’ll call up the media when they do.
Notre-Dame and Verdun hospitals are ramping up to level 4 délestage.
La Presse says Quebec left 7 million rapid tests from the federal government on the table so that it was very short of supplies when Omicron hit.
walkerp
I always wondered about that place, looked kind of interesting but also kind of douchey. Good to know they fall on the douchey side. That opening day is going to be a lineup of douchebags.
I am sympathetic to the argument that the government should have been investing in health care and education, but even if they had done that (and they did in health care to some degree), it still would not have eliminated the real risk of omicron. It’s such a self-centered, immature argument to talk about your restaurant as a scapegoat. Yes, it sucks and may even be fatal to your business, but it is a global crisis.
Joey
I guess the pizza I ordered from Keste last month will be the last pizza from Keste I ever order (it was fine). As for McGill, I find myself surprisingly feeling for the university on this one – they’re in a bit of a no-win situation (the province is essentially ordering everyone back on campus at the end of January) and at least they’re planing for the inevitable spread of Omicron and encouraging profs to be accommodating rather than sticking their head in the sand.
Kate
walkerp, exactly! I want to shake people like that and say “It isn’t about you!” Also, the virus DOES NOT CARE what you want, or what you think. It isn’t manmade. It may be somewhat embittering to have to reshape our lives around it, but we all do. If YOU want an exception made for YOUR business, that means a bump in contagion that will affect everyone else! It means putting your workers and your customers at higher risk!
Sorry about the bangers. I got into something of a minor dust-up today on Twitter when I responded to a tweet about La Presse’s piece about Renaud-Bray wanting to be an exception to the vaccine mandate for access, posting that whenever I read that kind of thing, my respect for a business goes down. Some people dogpiled on saying they respected it more.
Kevin
45% of covid deaths in the country over the past 2 weeks have been in Quebec.
I’m increasingly convinced that Arruda quit because he was being asked to promote bullshit.
Kate
Kevin, the same thought has crossed my mind.
Blork
Will be adding Keste to my personal forever-boycott list. I’m less bothered by Renaud-Bray. It’s one thing to openly flout the rules that are clearly beneficial, but it’s another thing to ask for an exemption in a rule where others have that exemption and it isn’t all that clear that the rule does much. (Spending hours in a crowded restaurant and popping into a book store are two very different things in terms of risk.)
Blork
…unfortunate, as the video shows a nice bourbon selection at their bar. 🙁
DeWolf
I think you may be giving Arruda too much credit. He’s been wrong on the science for the entire pandemic, from masks to airborne transmission to the threat of Omicron, and he has been perfectly happy to parrot whatever nonsense the CAQ has peddled. He even saw no problem with occupying a political position (adjunct deputy minister) in addition to his role as the head of public health, unlike his counterparts in other provinces.
And now he has a crisis of conscience, right when the criticism against him was piling up and there was public pressure for him to resign?
Arruda is the architect of Quebec’s failed pandemic response. It’s good that he’s gone.
Kevin
DeWolf
Regarding masks and airborne transmission, the WHO and Canada Public Health has been right there too.I am not saying he was pushing for stricter and safer measures. I am saying that looking at the past week, it appears the CAQ has been wanting to loosen up measures without justification, and is treating medical staff like replaceable untrained workers.
walkerp
I’m not defending his work in the pandemic, but saying he is the architect of the failed pandemic response is ridiculous.
Not defending the CAQ either and they have done a lot wrong, but I think we are not ready to say failure yet. They did a better job than many places of keeping schools open and they inherited the CHSLD mess (though didn’t help it and may be continuing the legacy now). They may be on the path to failure, but as we discussed Covid-19 is a major disaster and it’s not easy to not fail.dhomas
An interesting read about Dr Arruda:
https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/chroniques/2022-01-11/les-predictions-du-dr-arruda.phpKate
Good read, dhomas, thank you.
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Kate
Radio-Canada’s Pascal Robidas followed the SPVM’s Équipe de concertation communautaire et de rapprochement as they visited a homeless encampment under the Ville-Marie and talked to people in the metro. A lot of emphasis is put on how the homeless individuals do not fear the members of this squad, but the quote from its supervisor says a lot: “C’est une façon de faire de la prévention en allant vers les gens avant qu’ils ne soient judiciarisés.” Evidently the possibility of handing out charges is not entirely off the table.
Ephraim
Are they actually trying to prove the point that need social workers to do this, rather than the police? We need to change the wording… instead of defund the police, we need to “reorganize peacekeeping”. Divide it between the job of law/crime and order/control. It’s clear that the police themselves can’t be peacekeepers when they are feared… unless of course, they want to walk away from the fear… go back to blue/white uniforms, white/blue cars, do street patrols, etc. Fear doesn’t keep peace.
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Kate
A man who robbed the Desjardins branch in Little Italy in 2020 made a comic series of errors that enabled police to find him easily. The folktale Petit Poucet mentioned by the judge involves the hero leaving a trail of pebbles.
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Kate
A teenager was shot on the street in the Plateau on Thursday evening and is in critical condition.
Update: this has become the first homicide of the year. TVA’s headline emphasizes that the corner of Roy and Rivard is a quiet neighbourhood, which isn’t quite true. It’s a short block from St‑Denis, not the busiest of corners, but not exactly buried in suburban slumbers either. On the other hand, the Plateau is not one of the city’s usual hotspots for gunplay.
Second update: CTV identifies the victim. He was not known to police.
La Presse has added some detail. Amir Benayad had just turned 17, and he was living in Ahuntsic‑Cartierville. No reason he shouldn’t have been in the Plateau, but it’s not next door. This is one case where I find myself hoping police can sort it out fast.
walkerp
That’s really sad. I at first thought it might have been related to the clubs down on the lower Main, but clearly nothing is happening there.
Kate
Admittedly it’s an odd location, residential adjoining commercial, but in no sense a hotspot. There’s a little park on the corner, plus parking lots for the big old institutional building on the south side. Places where someone could have set up an outdoor meeting for some purpose?
dwgs
As the father of two teenaged boys I have to say that the seemingly sudden influx of guns on the streets is scary as hell.
Kate
dwgs, I can only imagine. I’m sure yours are good kids, but there’s always the concern of mistaken identity.
JP
It is very scary. The one in New Bordeaux the other day that happened around 8 pm is a 20‑minute walk from where I live and close to my community garden. I still went for a walk last night (in a different direction and around 7 pm) but couldn’t help feeling uneasy and anxious. There’s the matter of mistaken identity (perhaps unlikely for me as a woman, not sure) but also just being at the wrong place at the wrong time, caught in crossfire, road rage, etc.)
Pre-covid 8 pm wasn’t late and people were still out and about, but I guess 8 pm is the new midnight and/or they gotta get their shooting in before curfew, I suppose.
JoeNotCharles
dwgs: “Seemingly” is the important word there. The amount of gun violence in Montreal is actually steady or declining, and it has been for years. The difference is that the police and media are reporting on it more. The police have made an official policy of “highlighting the good work we do”, which translates into more frequent press releases about the amount of crime they’re investigating, and since each instance of a gun crime is a attention-getting story, media started reporting on crimes that previously would have passed unnoticed to the city at large. And once that started happening, nobody in media or politics wants to risk looking like they’re minimizing the impact of gun violence so they all lean into the message that “there”s a problem that needs to be solved” instead of pointing out that these crimes were already happening, just not being widely advertised. But really only the perception has changed.
(i can’t easily find numbers on guns in Montreal specifically, but homicides in Montreal fell from around 4 per 100,000 people in the 1980’s to about 1 per 100,000 in the 2010’s: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510007101&pickMembers%5B0%5D=2.2&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=1981&cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2020&referencePeriods=19810101%2C20200101. At the same time, Canada-wide, the percent of homicides that involved firearms went from around 30% to around 40%: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3510017001&pickMembers%5B0%5D=2.6&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=1981&cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2020&referencePeriods=19810101%2C20200101. Even if firearm use in Montreal increased vastly more than in the rest of Canada – which seems unlikely – it can’t have gone up enough to offset a 75% drop in the murder rate.)
I heard that in the reporting on this crime: somebody who lived in the was quoted saying “I’ve lived here for 35 years and nothing like this has happened before” . But that’s absolutely not true: I remember somebody was shot in a car about 2 blocks away, 5 years ago. (That was deeper into the residential streets and farther away from St-Denis, even!) I’ve seen random violent confrontations not involving guns over the years, too. But if you think about the sheer number of people passing through a popular commercial/residential area over that many years, it puts in perspective how comparatively rare these things are.
dwgs
@JoeNotCharles, I wasn’t clear, what I meant was that the increased number of teenagers killing teenagers is what really alarms me. Gun violence overall may be static or even declining but it seems to me (granted, anecdotally) that a lot more teens are being killed lately.
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