Urbania’s Jacob Khayat “infiltrated” the John Molson School of Business – which turns out not to be a beer-making school.
Updates from February, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Paramedics demonstrated outside SAQ warehouses on Friday to draw attention to their strike. It’s not made clear why they chose that location, as they don’t seem to have any beef with the SAQ.
Saturday, Radio-Canada says these demonstrations are over.
SMD
I talked to a paramedic about it today. He agreed that they have no beef with them, rather he said it was a way to draw attention to the fact that when the SAQ workers went on strike in December they were able to negotiate a new contract with the state within 24h. Paramedics have been waiting much longer despite being, I think we can all agree, more essential to society. (I suggested to him that next time the ambulances could block the ministers’ limousines, like 500 nurses did in 2015.)
MarcG
SMD’s link is broken
Kate
Yes, and I’m not sure what story he was looking at, because the entire link disappeared.
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Kate
François Legault is considering having the SAQ boycott products from Russia, but only ten vodkas and one beer are listed. I was surprised to learn that Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya come from Latvia, not the Russian Federation.
It would be a gesture, but gestures can be powerful. The LCBO is already doing it.
There are only two Ukrainian products at the SAQ, two vodkas, and one is out of stock.
Update: SAQ is now under orders to remove Russian products. Sunday night, only two Russian products remain at the SAQ link above, and neither is available.
Blork
Unfortunately, public opinion counts for nothing in Russia. This would only make a difference if Putin owned those distilleries, and even then it would only matter if it represented a large part of his income and the Quebec boycott represented a significant loss of that income.
IOW, hurting Russia doesn’t do much. You need to hurt Putin personally.
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Kate
François Legault tweeted Friday morning: Les anglophones représentent 9% de la population au Québec. Les cégeps anglophones ont 17% des places au Québec. Steve Faguy riposted: According to Statistics Canada, 19% of Quebec’s population speaks English at home. About half of them also speak French at home.
Good example of arranging statistics to support a position, no?
Not sure it’s helpful to bring Ukraine into the Quebec language debate, but here we are.
Kevin
Legault, the CAQ, the PQ, the SSJB, and others only consider people with certificates of eligibility to be anglophones.
Your neighbours who immigrated from the USA or UK or Jamaica are people who haven’t been properly assimilated.
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Kate
Watch out for that blowing snow. I was out this morning clearing the steps, and now it’s snowed under again and blowing around like mad. At least it’s light and not hard to move, but right now your shovel’s likely to be emptied by the wind before you can chuck it aside.In general, driving has been difficult and there have been highway crashes.
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Kate
A man was arrested after allegedly attacking an Air Canada worker at the airport last weekend.
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Kate
Radio-Canada has a glimpse of the SPVM’s Eclipse squad, which counters armed violence. Its numbers have been increased recently to allow it to work days as well as nights.
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Kate
While some would like to force a complete return to the office, it seems we’re likely to see hybrid work patterns into the proximate future.
Although I understand the economic pressure to make people go downtown and spend money, nobody is mentioning the environmental cost of all that commuting. Plus, it’s a break for workers, who – as we’ve learned – don’t only save money on expensive coffees and restaurant lunches, but don’t have to spend so much on office clothes either.
We’re also not coming to terms with how much office time is empty make‑work – so many bullshit jobs, as the fellow said. But that’s a bigger problem.
Metro notes that the STM is hoping to see its ridership recover by this fall.
Kevin
I think the city, and the Chamber, would be better off building better neighbourhoods and developing some entrepreneurial spirit.
Ditto for the Committee to valorize French, since the Census is going to show just how many francophones have left.
steph
My whole department has been working from home for 23 months. 100% of our work gets done. Everyone in the department, including my boss, is happy to maintain the status quo. But his boss told him we have to start returning, because his boss said so, because his boss said so, because Leagault said so
What a waste of everyones energy.
But if I have a runny nose or a light cough, those count as covid symptoms and I can stay away from the office for two weeks for everyones safety, no need to get tested. cough cough. So we’ll see how I’m feeling next week, cough cough. Hopefully this cough goes away in time.
Blork
I’m glad I no longer have to commute, although I was typically only doing it about three days a week even before the pandemic, because I have the great privilege of full control over my work schedule, plus a cool team and company that has always allowed a great deal of flexibility.
That said, I do miss the casual social contact. I’ve worked for companies where there were very few people I wanted to be social with, but my current gig is the opposite. I also miss the after-work drinks and dinners, which were not frequent but were always loads of fun when they happened.
I also miss eating lunch downtown. I loved going to Bhandari on de Maisonneuve for a Thali plate, and would go there almost every week. The guys at Boustan always knew my order as soon as they’d see me, which was fun. For years I’ve complained that there were no good pizza slices anywhere near Guy and Ste-C (the Double Pizza at de Maisonneuve and Pierce — now permanently closed — was OK but not great), but a Soda+Slice has recently opened a block from my (old) office. (Isn’t that typical; I spend 8 years there with no slices, and as soon as I leave, boom! Slices!)
JoeNotCharles
I’ve also been working from home for 23 months, and it was awful. Can’t wait to get back to the office to see my co-workers in person.
I get that other people have the opposite preference, so employers should be flexible. It would suck to be ordered back if you really dislike it. But at the same time, “everyone” should not be forced to work from home (past when public health reasons require it) if they don’t want to.
Uatu
I like leaving the house to work just to keep my relaxation time and space my own. But if I could get away with working in some shared telework area near my house without going downtown then that’d be great. I heard an interview this morning on the CBC with the downtown chamber of commerce head and he was hoping the rem would bring more folks into the city. He also noted that it could backfire and make people head to the burbs instead which made me think of the people I know who work for Bell on nun’s island and who go across the bridge to Champlain mall for lunch at the restaurants and food court. He’s interested to see how it goes
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Kate
The committee meant to “valorize” French in the city has been formed with Louise Harel as chairman. CTV defines Harel as “former interim leader of the Parti Québécois” but it seems to me more relevant that Harel ran for mayor of Montreal in 2009, and now she’s getting to flex over the city after all.
Louise Beaudoin is also part of the committee. This is going to be fun for the editorial cartoonists, at least.
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