It’s a somewhat indecisive report: a teenager may have been shot Saturday evening on Côte‑des‑Neiges downtown. He’s expected to survive.
The story is a little clearer Sunday. The victim was only 14, and was inside an apartment downtown when it happened. Other details, like whether it could’ve been an accident (and, if so, why people were horsing around with loaded guns), have to be puzzled out by police.
A worker in a Montreal North SAQ is accused of punching a customer several times after the customer refused to be served by a cashier not wearing a mask. But there are some odd details here, like why did the customer have the cashier’s phone?
Maybe it’s been updated since you first posted it, but it says the cashier handed him the phone with his manager on the other end.
It does sound very Hollywood, with shattered wine bottles and everything.
I don’t think it originally explained the phone business. But nonetheless, a weird scene.
In Villeray, in the two SAQs I’ve been in since the pandemic, the workers have always been masked, and always friendly. The SAQ was one of the first establishments to put up plexiglas, and while that may be pandemic theatre, it showed a willingness to make changes. There’s one worker that even makes a point of chatting with me in English, but I won’t say where in case it gets him in trouble.
It sounds like the manager is supporting an anti-mask environment in that particular outlet, otherwise how to explain how employees are so brazenly flouting the rules, calling their manager to back them up and then attacking the customer like that?
Article only mentioned one employee being suspended so was it just one employee who attached him and then put a knee on head? I hope there’ll be a police investigation as well because it sounds like it’s more than just a mere employee responsible for this snafu.
Yeah, I know the online articles sometimes get edited after you crosslink to them. It says it was updated about twelve hours after being posted, but I don’t think is transparent about what those edits were. 10-15 years ago, I would have expected there to be a landline at each cash, which would make it extra odd that the worker used his mobile. Just dating myself here.
I’m only in the SAQ about once a month, and I’ve only been in 2 or 3 different ones around the Plateau/Rosemont. So, my data sample isn’t exactly exhaustive. But, yes, in my experience they are all quite well-masked. It’s one of the few shops where I can’t remember ever even seeing an employee with an exposed nose. (Unlike various grocery stores, bagel shops, restaurants, etc. where they are not so vigilant.)
I agree with Meezly that it does seem to be being encouraged down the chain here.
I’ll just add to the chorus noting that the SAQ has been one business that seems particularly diligent about health restrictions.
That said, there does seem to be a big difference in the way each location is managed. I’ve been to many over the years, hunting for odd bottles of spirits that aren’t widely available, and in some the employees are notably grumpy whereas in others they are consistently friendly and helpful. The staff at the Parc/Fairmount branch are particularly upbeat, and I notice there’s a sticker on the window saying it won an award for best-managed SAQ in the province. So maybe each location is a reflection of the manager’s approach and personality (and politics, in this weird Montreal North case).
According to CultMTL, the SAQ employee had called his boss, then handed the phone to the victim (so he could hear the boss say that employees were not required to wear masks). The victim then slammed the phone down, which prompted the employee (owner of the phone) to attack.
That explains the phone situation. Now somebody explain to me why the boss hasn’t been suspended for saying that employees don’t have to wear masks.
The cell phone has become a human right. Attacking somebody’s phone is akin to attacking their very soul.
walkerp, if you happen to live alone, without a landline, it kind of is.
Also, it’s more about smashing someone’s $500 object than specifically smashing a phone. It would be the same if it were an expensive wristwatch or some other object worth hundreds of dollars.
When’s the last time you bought a phone, Blork? 😀 The latest iPhone can cost over 2000$! Not justifying what the guy did, just adjusting the potential value.
@dhomas
Nobody actually buys the top of the line iPhone. That’s only there to make you feel good about dropping $900 on a middle-of-the-range phone.
@dhomas, if I had cited $2000 there would have been a line of comments telling me that not all phones are that expensive, you can get a free one with some phone plans, etc. etc. So as usual I looking for the middle ground.
Pleased to count a few SAQ store employees among my friends. Almost to a person, they have Android phones and, while I’ve never asked why, I’m pretty sure the answer would be price; you don’t get make a bundle working on the sales floor at the monopoly. $500 sounds about right.
I know some people who’ve bought the iPhone Pro Max, though Kevin is right in that the upper end is mostly to make the mid-tier look more palatable. Then again, there are some folks who “must” have the top of the line.
About the free or subsidized phones with plans, you only get those about once every 2 years. If someone breaks your phone within that period, you either need to pay the remaining subsidy on the broken phone or pay a new one full price.
But yes, I agree with carswell in that most people would not opt for the most expensive phone model (though a guy who is douchey enough to brag that his girlfriend is unvaccinated might be the target demographic for flexing with the most expensive smartphone, maybe?).
The emergency room at St Mary’s Hospital was damaged by a serious water leak that brought the ceiling down, so people are being told not to go there, for the moment.
You know that at least one person said “you’ve got to be fucking kidding me”.
A teenage passenger died in a car when it crashed into a tree on a side street in the Bellerive section of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve on Friday evening.
Is it heartless to add “No news of how the tree is doing”?
The city has bought a piece of land on Île-Bizard to add to its Grand parc de l’ouest, although .75 of a hectare is not a lot.
I am always trying to figure out a new, creative way to remove all the waterfront housing on Ile Bizard. This ring of suburban houses allows only peepholes of public waterfront access.
Ile Bizard is like a face that has been totally tatooed where you can barely make out the eyes and nostrils. Ile Bizard’s face has been tatooed with bungalows.
Perhaps if we could introduce some kind of genetically-modified winter tarantula there. Even if harmless, this might scare people into moving inland a bit while society builds waterfront parks.
Rising flood levels?
transplant web-hoofed deer from the south shore?
A cause célèbre that sank out of sight when the pandemic came, Nathalie Bondil’s claim against the Museum of Fine Arts for her abrupt dismissal was settled out of court, no information given on whether money changed hands.
The pattern of Omicron admissions to our hospitals is laid out by Benjamin Shingler. It must be really something to remain staunchly anti-vax in view of simple numbers like these. Radio-Canada has a history of vaccine resistance over the years.
Urbania sent a writer to the Chrome hotel, now a refuge for homeless people with Covid. It was no holiday. (I’m annoyed the lede says it was -35 outside, though. It can’t have been. We haven’t gone nearly that low this winter.)
La Presse spent three days at the St Michael mission in the red-roofed church on President-Kennedy.
They included the wind chill for that -35 number. However, a thermometer would not have shown that number (as stated in the article).
It’s a weird Canadian thing to inflate temperatures like this. Maybe people do it in the US, too, but I’ve never encountered it elsewhere.
We only moved here in 2004, but it feels like this temperature inflation (and using windchill without being transparent about it) is a new phenomenon. Were they doing this in the last century? I wonder if is one more pernicious outcome of social media and the desperation for clicks. Since when is a decent snowfall a “winter storm warning”?
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