The Chamber of Commerce says it expects 100% of downtown workers from pre‑pandemic times to be back at the office by September. Evidently the Chamber has no concern for the notion that working from home (at least part of the time, if your job allows for that) is good for the environment.
Updates from March, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A man in his sixties was killed by a truck Thursday afternoon as he walked on Beaubien East.
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Kate
Park Ex residents are pressing for traffic calming measures in response to motorists using their residential streets as high-speed shortcuts from the 40 down to Jean‑Talon.
In other Park Ex news, the Office de consultation publique de Montréal (OCPM) wants a Marshall Plan to put the brakes on the gentrification of the area, keeping it affordable for those of modest incomes, as it was for so long.
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Kate
The city has promised seven million dollars to counter armed violence especially among young people. Community and sports facilities are mentioned, as well as help for families who fear their kids are turning to crime. No new money was mentioned for police, but the mayor was accompanied by Sylvain Caron, the police chief who’s soon stepping down from his job.
A growing number of cases of armed violence have their roots in social media. The theory is that the pandemic lockdown led to nasty words, which then led to violent acts.
English-speaking minority groups are not happy they were left out of these discussions.
dwgs
It’s a good initiative but also, https://twitter.com/TedRutland/status/1509855706886950925
Kate
Ted Rutland is right – as usual!
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Kate
A group of Mohawk women are going to court to have all work suspended at the old Royal Victoria Hospital site: they believe that pre-colonial burials may have taken place on the grounds, and they also suspect that there were more recent burials, indigenous and otherwise, in the area of the swimming pool during the MK‑Ultra era. They want careful excavations done. But this was already reported back in October.
On thinking about it, even if there had been pre-colonial burials on the site, isn’t it likely that all the work done there from the 19th century onward would have already dug up the ground and made them impossible to find?
Spi
What work exactly are they asking for injunction against? As far as I know the entire site is dormant and there’s absolutely nothing going on. Although unmarked burial sites at residential schools seemed to be a common occurence, do we actually think they did the same in the middle of the city?
Kate
I wondered about the site too, but the Metro piece says “les travaux de l’ancien hôpital Victoria et de l’Institut Allan Memorial pour la construction du projet «Nouveau Vic» par l’Université McGill.” I assumed it meant at least some preliminary work was going on.
Like you, I also have doubts that anyone could have been buried in the grounds in the mid 20th century with no questions asked, but when this story was reported in October last year suggestions were made that bodies could have been buried at the time the swimming pool behind the Vic was being constructed. As i commented at the time, the people running the Montreal experiments probably had access to more efficient disposal methods than constructing a swimming pool and hoping everyone involved kept their mouths shut.
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Kate
Simon Jolin-Barrette is promising there won’t be any other secret trials, but it’s hard not to see this as sheer pique that he doesn’t know what happened and nobody wants to tell him. (Just imagine if he found out the trial was held in English!)
The La Presse journalists who first revealed the story now write that the chief federal prosecutor in Quebec did not authorize the secret trial, but that it has something to do with an RCMP informer who was accused of a crime, but who could not be openly tried without revealing their identity and endangering them.
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Kate
Metro has a possibly useful list Thursday of ways to save on food, including links to borough food collectives, apps for locating food wastage deals at grocery stores, and information about deals at the public markets.
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Kate
The plan to give heritage protection to only part of Morgan Park in Maisonneuve is criticized here by Le Devoir as they observe that heritage seldom wins when the government has big plans. The government maintains that the Maisonneuve heritage plan sticks to the borders of the old city, but that was a century ago and the park now has an identity of its own – until the REM runs through it.
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Kate
Yoo-hoo. Covid’s back and many people are tired of it but it’s still important to remember that this is not something “they” are doing to “us” – it’s a fact of life we’re all coping with. This Guardian piece is as applicable here as it is in the UK, debunking several myths and pointing out that we simply can’t rely on Covid to get milder, or that having it become endemic means a return to the old carefree days. “Returning to normal behaviour does not return us to normal life. It returns us to a life with more disruption, more sickness and more strain on the [health services].”
Quebec has seen 1200 Covid deaths since sanitary measures have been lifted.
Update: Quebec public health czar Luc Boileau now says all options are on the table to face the sixth wave, conflicting with Christian Dubé’s intention to open everything up – although even he is wavering on his reopening bill.
It does feel sometimes like Quebec favours allowing the weak to die off.
Later Thursday: I may not have Covid but I may have whiplash from trying to follow the Quebec government on Covid. Try to figure out what Dubé is trying to do.
Michael
I don’t think a lot people are tired of covid itself since covid is statistically not harmful to people under 50. We are mostly tired of Legault playing yo-yo with restrictions, back and forth just to show the public he is “doing something”. There is a very vocal minority that screams every time there is a wave.
Legault shuts down the businesses that have shown not to be the cause of covid spread. Restaurants, gyms are always first to go and they account for less than 1% of covid spread.
Quebec’s public health did not recommend a curfew yet Legault did it anyway so he can placate this vocal minority.
If Legault does the correct actions, follows the science, lets it ride out and allow Quebec to live with the virus, people will stop caring.
Kevin
There is no way to say that restaurants and gyms account for less than 1% of covid cases *now* because contact tracing stopped at some point in 2021 — when restaurants and gyms were mostly closed.
People have an attitude that if something wasn’t safe, there’d be a law against it. So when the government has said for a long time that many things closed because they weren’t safe, that means when they are opened they suddenly are safe, like restaurants and bars.
The science is still recommending that people wear masks, improve ventilation, and get booster shots to minimize the chances of getting very sick if you get infected. It does not recommend “riding it out” because that means the virus will continue to mutate and some people will get infected every few weeks as another variant comes along.
MarcG
@Michael I think you mean “follows the healthy under-50 small business owner with no vulnerable friends or family”.
Chris
>The science is still recommending that people wear masks…
“The science” also says that we shouldn’t burn fossil fuels. As I recall you ride a motorbike, likely powered by fossil fuels.
Point being: since when do we run our society only based on what science says? Since never. There are other considerations.
EmilyG
My dad’s company is saying things like, “post-Covid era.” But no, Covid is still here.
At my dad’s workplace, they planned a party. Of course, many people at the party got Covid.
We’re not in a “post-Covid” era, we’re in a “post-many-people-caring-about-Covid” era.walkerp
It’s quite maddening because it keeps changing. It’s weird that people have so many definite opinions when we really don’t know how the next mutation will behave. We could be in a manage with vaccines program for many years where the vaccines work to reduce hospitalizations and deaths, but we’ll still have enough selfish idiots to keep the disease mutating and harming a certain proportion of the population. And then it could jump to something that our vaccines are useless against and it will be another medical race with renewed lockdowns and restrictions. At this point the only certainty is uncertainty.
Kevin
Chris
So are you agreeing with Michael that the science is saying to let it ride out?As for my bike, yes it runs on gas–less gas and less resources than a car.
Kate
Letting it ride out means accepting a lot more deaths as well as all the as yet unknown damage being caused by long Covid. There’s a lot of arrogance in this thread.
Tim S.
Based on the people around me, especially at my work, I feel like we’re now in the crisis we’ve worked so hard to avoid over the past two years. It’s frustrating, because we’ve developed all kinds of contingency plans and hybrid options, but now no one’s talking about those because, well, it’s just been decided that we’re done. Meanwhile, there’s nothing normal about a 25% absence rate, and even if I stay healthy (knock on wood) I can see the next few weeks being busy covering for others and helping people catch up with what they’ve missed.
And I’m not even a healthcare worker.In short, lockdowns aren’t great, but making everybody act as though things are normal when they’re not is going to cause its own share of real, but hard to measure, psychic damage.
Joey
It’s nuts that while all this loosening of restrictions and devil-may-care attitude is proliferating among the CAQ leadership, no fewer than eight CAQ MNAs, including the premier and deputy premier (!), have COVID.
nau
How long have I been waiting to see Chris and Kevin with their mirror-image views finally have a go at each other over science? Kevin’s science over self-indulgence for COVID but not the climate has always been a bit grating. Before COVID, I would’ve said Chris was motivated by climate science, now it’s harder to tell how much he actually cares about that vs. it being a convenient rhetorical move against science-based COVID restrictions (but in any case other posters’ reactions suggest I’m not the only one who finds his posts grate as well). Yes, science isn’t the only consideration that is used to organize society, but in both these areas as well as many others, it would be better if it was the most influential one.
Kevin
@nau
Ha! 🙂I’m not anti-climate, I’m just broken and using public transit every day takes a lot out of me.
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Kate
A landlord couple who openly gloated over their ploy to evict a tenant on false pretenses have been shown up and fined, and lost commercial sponsorships as well.
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Kate
Quebec media – everyone but QMI – have written an open letter deploring that secret trial which only became known once the verdict was appealed. (This item mentions the open letter but I can’t find a link to it online.)
This piece also reports that neither the Chief Justice of Quebec Superior Court nor the Chief Justice of the Cour du Québec knew this trial was being held. Of course, neither did the justice minister, Simon Jolin-Barrette, who’s now deeply in conniptions demanding to know who was involved.
On thinking about it: is a secret trial with no record even a trial at all? A trial is an event with possible consequences. If there are no traces, no record of the charges in legal history, no identification of the main participants, and no known consequences, how can a trial be really said to have occurred?
Kevin
Kate
Found the French version here.
H. John
Kate
Thank you, H. John and Kevin.
(mmm, caviardage!)
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Kate
Quebec is now officially in the sixth wave of the pandemic as hospitalizations climb again. Nine MNAs have tested positive recently and other people in government are also out sick.
jeather
Calling a sudden press conference on a Sunday to say we are definitely not in a 6th wave really made it clear that yes, we are already in one; I’m only surprised INSPQ stood up to the political pressure so quickly.
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Kate
La Presse has a summary of the Quebec health reforms in ten points.
Blork
I’m a big fan of #2: “end of the fax machine.”
walkerp
I am not an expert in health care policy and this is just words now, but they are quite promising. It does seem like they are taking the health sector seriously and are willing to spend money to improve it. Sure wish they would also do the same for education and stop shooting their own plans in the foot with their racism. But still, a promising start to undo years of slashing health care by past governments.
DeWolf
The creation of a digital record that you can access is great news. So is the Guichet d’accès à la première ligne, because at the moment it’s ridiculously complicated to see a doctor if you don’t have a family GP.
Bad news: it seems there’s no plan to make it easier to access family doctors. My wife and I have been on the waiting list for four years. And even my friends who had family doctors have recently lost them because the doctors are now opting out of the public system.
Still, any focus on primary care is good, because that’s the Achilles heel of any Canadian health system. Everything is set up to treat you very well if you’re sick, but there’s very little effort made to prevent people from getting sick in the first place.
Kate
It will be good if they keep the promises up after the election. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them say afterwards, well, we can’t afford all that, we’re going to have to cut it back.
Ephraim
The Carnet Sante is great. I wish all the doctors were on the system, so we could make an appointment via Carnet Sante. But it’s great that we can read the reports, 30 days later. My doctor skimmed it… but it allowed me to see exactly what was happening… 30 days later, when I was already waiting to see the specialist.
Ephraim
Incidentally, the Carnet Sante lets you see what the government pays for certain processes. Like the $49.15 my doctor gets for a doctor’s visit and the $2.20 for a nurse to stick a needle in your arm.
Janet
Thanks, Ephraim !
I’ve been meaning to look into this, and your handy link provided the impetus I needed.Uatu
I hate being cynical, but I have to agree with you Kate. It’s all a load of hot air. These recommendations have been said before by the staff especially the”more personnel, more beds, less centralization” bits and in the past two governments we got exactly the opposite. Now they suddenly agree? I thought we had to be “lean and mean”. Guess that’s changed. I’ve heard all the promises now I’m waiting for the post election/pandemic austerity measures where unionized employees will be once again vilified as a parasitic expense instead of the current “heroes of the pandemic” . What a crock.
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Kate
Seven parked cars were damaged in Ahuntsic Tuesday evening in a hit‑and‑run incident. The driver of the offending vehicle has not been found and his condition is unknown.
Also Tuesday evening, a police chase ended with a car slamming into a building in Anjou.
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Kate
Almost ten years after the election night shooting at Metropolis, four people are in court with a claim that police were negligent in not keeping tighter controls on the event. Stagehand Denis Blanchette was shot dead, and his colleague David Courage was seriously wounded. It’s not clear from these accounts whether Courage is one of the four plaintiffs making the claim, based on their having suffered post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety since the incident.
Update: La Presse names the four plaintiffs and gives more detail. David Courage is not among them. They’re suing both the SQ and SPVM for not having been more present at the PQ election celebration that night.
Meezly
Heard on the radio that a police spokesperson said that the only person to blame is the shooter. For that comment alone, I hope the plaintiffs get some compensation and accountability from the SQ.
steph
If they don’t want to be accountable, do we need them on the payrole?
JP
Not exactly what this specific news item is about, but it seems the shooter’s doctor also breached the patient-phsycian barrier and may have taken missteps.
A few years ago, I went to a walk-in clinic where I encountered this physician…it was a weird experience (and I won’t go into the details here), but it prompted me to look him up online and the link above is what I found.
[see link below from MarcG]
JP
I’m not sure why but the link I posted above doesn’t seem to be going to the right article….
MarcG
This is the correct one https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/richard-bain-trial-day-22-1.3694529
Kate
Interesting stuff, JP, and thanks for the link, MarcG. I don’t remember seeing that odd piece about Bain’s doctor before.
Kevin 23:01 on 2022-03-31 Permalink
Nobody expects everyone to return to the office all the time. Not even the Chamber is that delusional.
I spoke to a CEO yesterday who said any time he hears a company wants people back in the office, he reaches out so he can hire.
The Chamber would be better off telling real estate companies to transform their towers into residential space, like the European cities they claim to admire.
DeWolf 08:56 on 2022-04-01 Permalink
This is a strange bit of posturing on the part of the Chamber of Commerce, especially since its own study suggests a permanent 25% reduction in the number of downtown office workers (which is mentioned in another La Presse story today).
If it is only 25%, that will actually be offset by downtown population growth. According to the latest census, downtown Montreal’s population grew by 24% from 2016 to 2021, the second-fastest rate in Canada, and there are even more housing units under construction or slated to begin construction over the next five years. By 2025 the downtown population will be 50% larger than it was in 2016. That won’t quite replace all the missing office workers in terms of sheer numbers, but it will make for a more sustainable economy, since a downtown resident spends more money downtown than a 9-5 office worker.
As for office tower conversions, there are already a few of these projects, like the Tour Fides (under construction) and Encore on René-Lévesque (completed in 2019). But there are still enough empty lots, parking lots and small buildings that can be easily demolished that office tower conversions aren’t that attractive for developers. I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing demolitions instead, especially those dumpy office blocks along President Kennedy. That’s a good location but new towers but the existing buildings aren’t particularly attractive for condo conversions.