I just saw a tweet suggesting Ottawa change the name of its Charlotte Street, where the Russian embassy is, to Zelensky Street.
Montreal could do the same. The Russian consulate is on avenue du Musée, but on the spur north of Doctor Penfield. That spur could easily be renamed rue Zelensky.
The Lachine hospital will be getting a new wing and the existing building upgraded, but it’s still facing staffing shortages.
Two young men have been arrested in an alleged grandparent scam in which they are accused of extorting thousands of dollars from older people. They’re also accused of having pretended to be police for part of the scam, a masquerade I suspect may have sharpened the SPVM’s teeth against them.
Police fired 28 rounds when dealing with a shooter in the Old Port in September 2020 and two people were hit by their bullets, but there will be no charges against the three officers. A policeman and a bystander were injured by the shooter, who was taken down by police bullets. Nobody died.
Like the worst kind of prankster or sociopath, Gabriel Sohier‑Chaput, on trial for disseminating hatred, claims it was all a joke – the antisemitic ranting and the pro‑Nazi declarations in an article posted on the far‑right Daily Stormer site, which also hosts items hating women, Black people, Muslims and LGBTQ folks. It was all written to provoke lefties, Sohier‑Chaput says. Do any lefties read the Daily Stormer?
Update: A regular reader recommends this twitter thread from No Borders Media, who are covering the trial.
In pro‑Nazi circles, this is known as “Locker room talk” which somehow makes it more acceptable to the cons.
Wow, Marco. Thanks for risking your life by revealing insider information.
@qatzelok how did you know this was insider information?
Here’s a Huffpost piece from 2017 on The Daily Stormer’s Playbook:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/daily-stormer-nazi-style-guide_n_5a2ece19e4b0ce3b344492f2
And, here’s Jaggi Singh’s report on day 1 of the trial:
Jaggi Singh writes a pretty good piece. Thanks, H. John.
Speaking of fascists, Is the Montreal Greek community marched in the streets to support “the people of Ukraine”? Maybe this is of interest: Greek in Mariupol: “The fascist Ukrainians are killing us, they don’t let us leave the city” (VIDEO)
@Raymond Lutz
I don’t understand how some really poorly done Russian propaganda is relevant.
@H.John I read the article linked by RL out of curiosity. Then I looked up the Azov Battalion:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azov_Battalion
Now I just don’t know what to think anymore. I mean, I know almost anyone can modify Wikipedia (including Russian propagandists), but some of the sources check out (thehill.com, for example).
Pontic Greek population of Mariupol is less than 5% of population. Fascist population of Ukraine is less than that. Disappointing to see widely-discredited Kremlin talking points here, Raymond Lutz.
@Netta Ukrainians make up a similarly small proportion of the global population. Does that mean we should be indifferent to their suffering? Citing the size of the Greek minority is not a very thoughtful approach.
@dhomas There are fascists in Ukraine like everywhere (this is a thread about a Canadian fascist). It’s not everywhere that they’re organized in a combat group that the government recognizes as legitimate, but then it’s not everywhere that has to conduct a war against secessionists armed by its much more powerful neighbour. There’s no proof that the current government of Ukraine is itself fascist, and certainly most Ukrainian civilians are not. It’s not worth debating whether Putin qualifies as a fascist or not but he is clearly a vicious authoritarian dictator who will have no qualms deploying the most heinous brutality to achieve the objectives of his invasion of Ukraine, which are decidedly larger than simply annihilating the Azov battalion.
References to “Russian” propaganda are grating. Some Russians have courageously spoken up against Putin’s war and I’m sure many more would like to. There are no doubt many Russian nationalists who support Putin, but they don’t represent all Russians anymore than the Azov battalion represents all Ukrainians. Putin’s propaganda or, as Netta uses, Kremlin talking points convey the intended meaning perfectly well.
à voir la popularité (au près d’Ukrainiens de tout âge) des marches aux flambeaux honorant la mémoire des Bandera, Shukhevych et Stetsko, je doute que la mouvance fasciste Ukrainienne se limite aux seuls membres du Bataillon Azov. Et je réfute la justification de devoir bombarder depuis 2014 des villes parce qu’elles sont sécessionnistes.
Pour ceux qui lisent le Français je recommande fortement le site d’Olivier Berruyer, qui, comme moi, dénonce la guerre, mais insiste sur l’importance de l’histoire, lointaine ou récente, pour aborder les questions géopolitiques. (Duh!) Ex: la situation actuelle ne peut être évaluée par quiconque ne connaît pas les dessous de l’Euromaidan (2014) et les implications des USA (le “Fuck the EU” de Victoria Nuland vous est inconnu? il vous manque des notions essentielles…). Les missiles d’octobre vous font penser à un film? Aller lire un peu. Tiens, je vois que les-crises.fr ont traduit une de leur video sur l’expansion de l’OTAN et sa promesse non-tenue.
For the anglos, Yves Engler has written some good pieces recently which provide similar background: https://yvesengler.com/category/ukraine/
Pour ceux qui sont pas au fait de l’histoire, la vice-première ministre Canadienne Freeland qui s’exclame “Gloire à L’Ukraine” et porte une banderole de l’UPA (Ukrains’ka povstens’ka armiya) c’est comme si Legault exhibait un drapeau de La Meute ou Storm Alliance. Oui, Hitler a fait emprisonner Bandera (puis libérer pour tenter de s’en faire un allier), c’est compliqué, mais l’association UPA et fascisme est indéniable. Je n’affirme pas que les Ukrainiens soient fascistes mais qu’une portion importante de leur population l’est, est bien organisée, est instrumentalisée et armée par l’OTAN pour mener une guerre de proxy contre la Russie. Importante signifie quoi? Yevhen Karas affirme qu’ils composaient 8% des participants au coup d’état de l’Euromaidan et que sans eux (S14, un groupe néo-Nazi Ukrainien issu du parti Svoboda), le mouvement aurait été une “gay parade”.
Merci MarcG pour le lien vers Engler, c’est encourageant, here’s another one for our mtlcityweblog English readers: https://gilbertdoctorow.com/
North-end CEGEP Marie-Victorin has been evacuated after reports of an armed individual near the building.
Update: TVA says the individual was not alone, but made no threats and was not found when police showed up. No weapons were found.
I thought provincial and federal elections were bad for local news. Then I thought the pandemic was bad for local news.
Turns out that Russia attacking Ukraine is really bad for local news.
I made a Twitter quip last week that wasn’t it time to rename poutine, since the name of the Russian president rendered in French is Poutine.
Now Le Roy Jucep in Drummondville, one of the claimants for inventing poutine, says it has temporarily withdrawn the word from their menu and renamed the dish frites-fromage-sauce (CTV says “fries-cheese-gravy” but I assume the menu is in French).
The word “poutine” is still all over their website though.
It’s freedom fries all over again!
Since when do we (humans) translate (written) proper names? Oh, yes… Now I remember:
Orteil Blake
Patrick King
Justin Water-Hole
Jacques Newtown… (O.K. that one may already be answered)
John Flag
Larry Fils-de-Rouge-Gorge
When will the madness end?
But this sort of situation has always intrigued me. How does one go about pronouncing a name, in particular when the speaker is a polyglot and further, when the regional pronunciation may be different. Take for example, a Quebec English/French speaker in New Orleans. Tran-blé vs. Trem-blay.
I never understood why they “translated” his name in the first place rather than stick with the linga franca spelling… Isn’t it like if they started calling the other guy Joe “Bidaine”?
It is not translation, it is transliteration from Cyrillic into Latin alphabets. Putin is how it is transliterated in English, Poutine into French. Neither is more correct than the other.
Bert, the CTV item goes into it:
If written as “Putin” in French, Putin’s name is spoken in a way that sounds very close to “putain,” which is one of the most common French curse words.
So French-speakers, at some point around Putin’s rise to power in 1999, instead decided to be diplomatic. People “embraced phony phonetics, unanimously choosing to mispronounce the name of the president of Russia,” as the New York Times’ language columnist wrote in 2005.
Luckily, this restaurant already closed during the pandemic, or they would have a difficult rebranding to do:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/MyaXxq15ZC1bh1SR6
dhomas, 1234 de la Montagne, that’s quite the building for a poutine restaurant.
@Bert , so I take it you will start writing Путин instead of Putin from now on?
@Kate I don’t buy the NYT’s explanation. If you want to make his name sound like the way it’s pronounced in Russian, you have to write “Poutine” in French. I really doubt it has anything to do with trying to be diplomatic.
@Kate: It was actually 1234A de la Montagne. It was associated to the club next door, if I recall correctly.
Also, it’s probably hard to make rent slinging poutine, no matter how “high end”, which may have contributed to their demise.
I have also heard the Putin/ Putain explanation and it sounds legit. You could also argue that calling him “Poutine” is diminishing and disrespectful to a world leader. Not that the French pronunciation really matters as the emphasis should be on the first syllable and they simply won’t do that.
How do I know this? My name is not pronounced “Yan”, and yet inexplicably for the last 30+ years…
This 2005 article on the government of Canada’s website makes it clear, with many other examples, that Putin/Poutine is a case of differences in transliteration: Traduire le monde : Poutine en français et Putin en anglais. Pourquoi?.
Transliteration is important. Today La Presse announced that it would from here on out be referring to Ukraine’s capital using the Ukrainian name “Kyiv” and not the Russian “Kiev”.
Car thefts were up by 25% throughout 2021.
Among the many things that were never predicted about a global pandemic were the weird effects of supply-chain disruptions, in particular, with cars. I suppose the disruptions affect many places, including the middle-east (where most of these stolen cars are apparently destined).
Locally, a friend went to buy a Subaru recently. He had these two options:
~ Get the current year model, brand new, but wait two months for delivery.
~ Get a USED last-year’s model, and drive it off the lot today, but PAY $5000 MORE!
@Blork yeah there’s a big shortage of semiconductors since 2020 running up the demand for used vehicles
I got my nearly 10 year old minivan (2012 model) stolen right in front of my house at the end of August. I remember the day because it was the first day of school and I couldn’t get my three kids to class.
They just found the minivan somewhere in Laval with a door missing last week, about 5 months later. I guess this one want worth of being shipped to the Middle East.
Insurance was stingy with the payout and the money was nowhere near enough to buy another used car, because they are so expensive right now. The van was worth much more to me than the monetary value. It’s not a “victimless crime” because “insurance will pay”, as some unscrupulous people may say. In addition to the added cost for a new car, insurance premiums also go up. Very annoying and frustrating.
dhomas, what a pain. A family van like that must have had belongings in it which also got lost in the theft?
Yup, lots of family stuff the insurance company refused to refund because they weren’t specifically for use in a car. Things like sunglasses (which I used exclusively for driving), portable potty for the little one, picnic mats, kites, etc. They said I would have to make a claim with my home insurance (which is the SAME COMPANY), which would cost me a second deductible, plus more premium increases. I just didn’t bother.
Also, 3 X 500$+tx car seats, which were only refunded with a depreciation of 10% per year since the original purchase. Everything was depreciated. Because, you know, I was able to buy new ones with depreciation. :rolls eyes:
Long story short, the theft started with the car, but continued with the insurance company. Bunch of crooks.
I even had my tenant insurance premium increase when I claimed for a bicycle theft ten years ago. Been paying somewhat more than I should ever since. Crooks!
My policy is to shop around for a new insurance provider around every 2 years. Often, my current insurer will match the lower rates. If they don’t, I just switch. I have no loyalty when it comes to insurance providers.
Possibly useful info: If you have a university degree, the alumni associations often have really good deals with car insurance companies. Folks with degrees are considered better risks, supposedly.
Is it not strangely convenient that the UPAC closes its ten-year investigation into Jean Charest’s alleged role as the instigator of corruption in the Quebec Liberal Party just as his name is being mentioned everywhere as a new leader for the federal Conservatives? J‑F Lisée in Le Devoir says bluntly that Charest should be on trial, not on his way to a possible coronation.
bill 09:52 on 2022-03-02 Permalink
It took an approval from Brezhnev to change the name of Ontario Avenue to du Musée.
mare 10:51 on 2022-03-02 Permalink
Renaming streets is a bad thing. It disorienting and expensive for people and businesses.
Naming streets after living people is a bad idea. They might do horrible things during the rest of their lives and then you have to rename the street again. (Not saying this will happen with Zelensky, who hopefully will have a long and productive life.)
Maybe just don’t name streets after people, period. Especially not after politicians, local or foreign.
MarcG 10:51 on 2022-03-02 Permalink
Imagine we were invaded by the US and Kiev renamed a street Trudeau – it’s ridiculous, no?
Kate 10:59 on 2022-03-02 Permalink
I’d just like to imagine the Russians gritting their teeth as they changed their letterheads to read Rue Zelensky.
I had a school project to do: an in-depth report on a country. I don’t remember whether I was assigned the USSR or chose it myself. But my dad was excited. He read a lot of spy novels and wanted to see the Soviet consulate from inside. On the way over, he warned me that a consulate is legally considered the territory of that country, so you could be kidnapped and whisked away and nobody could stop them!
So it was with a delightful feeling of lurking danger that we walked up from the 144 stop to the big house on du Musée and rang the bell.
Later, my father referred to the man and woman who greeted us as as Boris and Natasha, so I now remember them as a tall, gothically sexy woman and a short gruff man, although at the time they were disappointingly ordinary-looking.
Boris and Natasha gave me an armload of materials. There was a hardcover book with a red cover embossed with a hammer and sickle, full of facts, which I wish I still had, brochures, maps, booklets, all kinds of stuff. With all this, I created a killer presentation, probably strongly inflected with Soviet propaganda, but that didn’t keep me from getting top marks.
Ephraim 11:45 on 2022-03-02 Permalink
There are SO many names you could use for the street that would annoy the Russians, like Raoul Wallenberg… Boris Nemtsov or Alexander Litvinenko. Or how about Peredvizhniki after the art movement?
GC 11:59 on 2022-03-02 Permalink
I’m all for sticking it to the Russians, but I also agree with mare. Not naming streets after living people just seems like a wise policy–and possibly just never naming them after people. See also: statues.
qatzelok 12:45 on 2022-03-02 Permalink
And our government could rename Russian Roulette…. “Freedom Roulette.”
CE 12:48 on 2022-03-02 Permalink
Cool idea bro.
Kevin 14:23 on 2022-03-02 Permalink
Sergei Magnitsky would be an appropriate choice.
Sal 16:41 on 2022-03-02 Permalink
It should be a French name, how about Poutine?
Le Hibou 12:11 on 2022-03-03 Permalink
How about a sign blade?
JoeNotCharles 11:30 on 2022-03-04 Permalink
“Rue Ukraine” would be simplest, doesn’t pull in any extra associations that a person’s name would, and would outlast the current conflict to be a permanent tribute to Canada’s Ukrainian population, which IIRC is 2nd or 3rd highest in the world (outside Ukraine itself).
For historical context which I just found out this week, BTW, Canada’s Ukrainian population is so high because of racist government policies, who deliberately targeted Ukrainians with offers of land in the prairies, choosing them to be white enough to be acceptable, but not a “respectable” kind of white so that they could still be an underclass to be manipulated.
(Also FTR the Ukrainian transliteration of the capital city is Kyiv. Kiev is the Russian transliteration. In English at least, not sure if it’s the same in French.)