Police are seeking 19‑year‑old Steve Napoléon in connection with three shootings – none of them fatal – last weekend in Montreal North.
Updates from January, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A bar on the Main, not currently allowed to operate under pandemic laws, has received a letter from the OLF ordering it to put more French on its Facebook page. Another resto operator has received a formal complaint about his workers not speaking good enough French. These complaints may have some validity, but it’s a hell of a time to hassle people running this kind of business.
steph
“In Québec when businesses will go bankrupt, we’ll make sure they do it in French.” Sugar Sammy
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Kate
Those who have served as borough mayors or councillors, but who either chose not to run again last November, or were not re‑elected, collect a year’s pay as a golden handshake. Item has some details on the sums handed out.
Tim S.
This sounds bad, but if you want qualified , accomplished people to run for a job with no long-term security you have to promise them something on the way out.
Kate
I wasn’t meaning to sound critical, nor I think was the original article, except toward the end where it points out how Michael Applebaum benefited from the practice, so that it now has a proviso that you can’t collect the dosh if you’ve been convicted of things you did while in office.
Tim S.
No I guess not, but anytime pay for politicians is mentioned it’s usually negative, which I think is unfair to the many people who get involved with the best of intentions.
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Kate
The proposed plan to close neighbourhood police stations to save money has been cancelled by the SPVM with a lot of verbiage – “sollicitera la Commission de la sécurité publique (CSP) de la Ville de Montréal afin d’établir les modalités entourant les consultations publiques qui seront menées dans le cadre de sa réflexion sur son offre de service.” French is a lovely language for blowing smoke with.
dwgs
Too late for NDG where they merged the station into the one in Cote St. Luc…
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Kate
STM director general Luc Tremblay has handed in his resignation. He’s been in the position since 2014 and will end his stint at the beginning of April. Tremblay says the lack of financial support is suffocating the STM.
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Kate
An historian is writing up a paper on the oft-repeated truism that Quebec anglos are the best‑treated minority in the world.
Ephraim
There are 4 different languages in Switzerland and 3 of them are minorities.Belgium has recognized German speaking areas and of course, 40% speak French. It’s all nonsense.
Kate
But is the Swiss government obliged to provide services in all 4 languages? I understand Belgium is legally bilingual, but does it have to provide services in German in a few areas?
Poutine Pundit
Thanks for this, Kate!
Switzerland and Belgium are more decentralized than Canada. Cantons in Switzerland are mostly unilingual–a German resident in Francophone Geneva can’t demand federal services in German, for instance. Same goes for Belgium. Canadian provinces have “official language minorities,” and are required to provide federal services in both French and English “where numbers warrant.” Therefore, you could argue that national minorities in Switzerland have more rights than in Canada, but not cantonal/provincial minorities.
The advantage of Switzerland and Belgium is that none of the linguistic groups experience the same linguistic insecurity as the French do in North America, who feel lost in a large Anglophone sea and are therefore more likely to be defensive.
Despite this, there are still lots of tensions. Based on my own experiences speaking French in Belgian Flanders, I suspect unilingual Anglophones experience less tension in Quebec than a unilingual Francophone would in Flanders. Belgium also has a hard time forming governments because the linguistic fragmentation is so extreme. Belgium is not really a great example of a functional binational state. Switzerland seems to function better as a whole for the national minorities, but I wouldn’t want to be a nonwhite immigrant there.
Orr
My swiss friend speaks Italian because “the swiss canton of Tocino is the only canton where Italian is the sole official language.” He does, however, actually speak “swiss-italian” which has bonus French and German words.
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Kate
Some retired cops and a defeated borough mayor have proposed a law‑and‑order plan for the city, which unfortunately is getting mentioned in the media, yet has already been neatly skewered by Ted Rutland.
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Kate
Quebec has enforced a new standard on the CMM to allow more carcinogenic nickel particles in the air.
Update: A new piece in the Journal contradicts the above and says Montreal can keep its own standards in this matter.
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Kate
A man who protested having the REM go along Sherbrooke East in his area has got his comeuppance now that a new plan puts the path along Souligny, right past his house. Man, that’s a lot of trouble to deliver a “fuck you” to a private citizen.
Actually,
the plan diverts the REM onto a segment of CN track.Mercier
The REM always equals ugly aerial structure. They’re only moving the structure from Sherbrooke street to the Souligny train tracks. No sharing of tracks
Kate
Thank you.
James
If the proposed track on Souligny is like what REM did for a similar area in the west island (unused CN Donney spur between Hymus and Hwy40) the line will still be elevated but as low to the ground as possible. Where it crosses roads it will rise up to get the necessary clearance.
Faiz
The essential feature of the East rem that makes it cheaper (fully elevated) means that any route that makes the line more central and effective makes it more disruptive and unpopular.
I’m 5050 on the overall project, and similarly this specific change has positives and negatives. Losing a metro connection is a big hit for example. But higher traffic to stations in these residential areas are going to be a pain in the long run.
DisgruntledGoat
@Faiz, another reason that the REM must be elevated is because it has to be grade separated from traffic as the trains are driverless.
dhomas
We’re going to be stuck with this potentially for 198 years (https://www.lapresse.ca/debats/editoriaux/francois-cardinal/201803/28/01-5159129-rem-la-caisse-en-demande-trop.php). Can we just do it right from the start and put the damn thing underground? Seems to me like driverless trains could be impacted by weather if overground. Other cities get metros. Why can’t we? Why are we in bed with this disaster of an organization? Gah!
ant6n
Compared to the pink line the REM 2 is a dud. But whatevs, metros in Montreal are built to pay pensions and try to get votes for prime ministers.
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