Updates from March, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 10:05 on 2022-03-28 Permalink | Reply  

    The coroner’s report is in on the death of Jean‑Philippe Gaudreau, killed as he walked along Plaza St‑Hubert in 2019 when a piece of a saw blade being used to cut a concrete block hit him in the face.

    The recommendations are pretty mild, suggestions that contractors should leave a wider perimeter and use their tools properly – things you’d hope they would be doing already. A telling detail is that the worker didn’t even notice anything had gone wrong till he was alerted by a passerby. The firm paid a $2400 fine to the CNESST.

     

    • Daniel D 13:01 on 2022-03-28 Permalink

      Chilling. I shall give power tools on the street a wider berth going forward.

    • Tim S. 21:33 on 2022-03-28 Permalink

      I often come across plugged-in power tools lying on the sidewalk where contractors put them down. Much smaller scale than this incident, but you’d think “don’t leave running saw unattended in public space” would be a pretty basic safety habit.

    • CE 21:56 on 2022-03-28 Permalink

      I often use with power tools in my work and they’re definitely dangerous and should always be given a wide berth. The operator may (or, unfortunately, may not) have control over the tool being used but not necessarily over what is being worked on. A piece of concrete could shoot out, a splinter of metal could go flying, sparks could start a fire. It’s unpredictable and it’s best to avoid as much you possibly can.

      Heavy machinery such as backhoes, bulldozers, plows, etc. should be watched out for too. You never know where the operator’s blind spots could be! They’re also doing a number of different operations at the same time and keeping an eye on you as you walk next to their machine might not be one of them.

  • Kate 09:48 on 2022-03-28 Permalink | Reply  

    The Greek Independence Day parade was back on Sunday in Park Ex after a two‑year break.

    Justin Trudeau dropped in for the festivity, then paid visits to two Ukrainian churches in Rosemont.

     

    • Kate 09:19 on 2022-03-28 Permalink | Reply  

      Homeboy Denis Villeneuve’s Dune won six Oscars Sunday night but this tidbit has been submerged under a tsunami of news, commentary and memes about Will Smith’s punch slap at Chris Rock.

       

      • Blork 10:13 on 2022-03-28 Permalink

        It was actually a slap. But still…FFS!

    • Kate 09:07 on 2022-03-28 Permalink | Reply  

      Kahnawake has voted to remove the remains of a Jesuit priest buried 23 years ago near their church, a man accused, but never convicted, of sexual abuse. Léon Lajoie’s remains will be removed and buried elsewhere by the Jesuits.

      Mentioned in passing in this piece (the links go to French and English versions of the same CP story) is that Mohawk traditionalists don’t vote. It would be interesting to know more about how a traditional community would come to a consensus, if not by voting.

       

      • Bob R 10:32 on 2022-03-28 Permalink

        I do not know what the statistics are for sexual abuse crimes, but I do know that for rape, in the US, only 1 in 200 rapes results in a conviction. That is a rate far below that of, for example, murder. That rape and sexual abuse crimes typically target people other than adult white men may be related to this.

        Until such time that our systems of justice are changed to alter this horrific fact, justice is going to look different than court convictions.

    • Kate 07:33 on 2022-03-28 Permalink | Reply  

      Police closed streets and even a metro station Sunday as they surrounded a building in Point St-Charles where a wanted man was holed up. He turned himself in by 9 pm and no violence occurred.

       

      • Kate 13:28 on 2022-03-27 Permalink | Reply  

        Dr Luc Boileau isn’t saying there will be a sixth wave of Covid, but he says it’s very likely. But he isn’t introducing any new sanitary measures. Experts keep bandying the notion of living with the virus but not mentioning that this means continuing to keep distances and be masked, work at home if you can, and not think it means dropping all contagion concern and going back to status quo ante. Politicians don’t want to say in so many words that everything changed for good in March 2020. We still haven’t got the full measure of what long Covid entails.

        Update: To quote Christopher Curtis: “The Qc government calling a press conference on a Sunday morning to announce that we’re not in the midst of a sixth wave seems like a sure sign we’re in the midst of a sixth wave.”

         

        • carswell 13:52 on 2022-03-27 Permalink

          And Dr. Legault puppet Boileau exhorts people at risk to take the necessary precautions even as he refuses to let non-invalid seniors whose third shot was eight or more months ago to get a fourth.

          Vax manufacturers now recommend a fourth shot as do many European countries. The States are reportedly gearing up to offer one to anyone over 50 who wants it.

          Meanwhile a January 17th La Presse article quotes a Ministère de la Santé et Services sociaux official as saying “Et, oui, M. St-Pierre, comme toutes les autres personnes dont la dernière dose remonte à plus de trois mois, est admissible à une dose de rappel … Dans son dernier avis le Comité sur l’immunisation du Québec permet à ces personnes de recevoir une « quatrième dose », pourvu qu’elles sachent qu’il existe encore des incertitutdes sur les bénéfices et les risques associés à l’administration d’une telle dose de rappel.”

          I’ve gone to vax clinics and pharmacies. I’ve called the Santé Québec hotline. I’ve offered to pay. My physician is alarmed and would prescribe me one. But the government says no, condescendingly of late. So the message to people like me is remain in semi-isolation for the foreseeable future or “plan on getting sick and good luck with the hospitals if you have the misfortune to end up there”? What a bunch of fuck-ups.

        • mare 17:23 on 2022-03-27 Permalink

          I’m surprised that regular rapid testing is not part of the “living with Covid” strategy. Everyone we let into our house this year (only a few people so far) had to do a test first, and even then I stayed masked. I’m high risk and pretty vigilant, but I do go grocery shopping sometimes, wearing a KF94. Haven’t been in a restaurant for two years.

          Can’t wait for the summer so I can meet people outside again.

        • Mr.Chinaski 18:53 on 2022-03-27 Permalink

          Normal masks (so 99.9% of what people wear) are useless for Omicron. They should drop them now, why wait for the 15th? It’s only theater…

        • Kate 19:00 on 2022-03-27 Permalink

          Masks serve a social purpose, though. If you’re masked and near others in masks, it reminds everyone to keep some distance. Yes, it’s socially isolating to some extent, but that’s how it has to be.

        • carswell 19:54 on 2022-03-27 Permalink

          The smart thing to do would be to widely distribute N-95-type masks free of charge and insist they be worn. I had to take a bus twice this week and found the ignoring of mask guidelines by many passengers, some of whom removed them entirely before they sat down, harrowing. Ended up disembarking 15 minutes before my stop and walking the rest of the way.

          It’s going to complicate my life and cost me more but I don’t plan to get on another STM bus in the foreseeable future.

        • Mr.Chinaksi 20:11 on 2022-03-27 Permalink

          Yeah lets ask all men to shave to wear a N-95 properly : it wont happen. 3-ply masks did work, now they don’t anymore. To keep them is only theater.

          Also, Kate you said they serve a social purpose: they did, but not anymore. Omicron (ba.1 and ba.2) is proving that the virus is too virulent and masks are useless whatever distance you may be. The only logical place is tight spots (hence public transports, which I do think is necessary for a couple more weeks) and hospitals/long care residencies.

        • carswell 20:26 on 2022-03-27 Permalink

          In January I shaved off my beard for the first time in 30 years. So yeah, no probs with that.

          Just about all trustworthy sources I see — including epidemiologists and infectious disease specialists — are adamant that N95s are effective, including against BA.2. But hey, world authority Mr.Chinaski’s unsubstantiated claims mean it’s all theatre, so they must be crisis actors. Thanks for clarifying.

        • Mr.Chinaski 21:02 on 2022-03-27 Permalink

          I never said N95 won’t work (they would!), I said people won’t shave and won’t put it properly. It’s pretty obvious, just look at how people can’t even wear a 3-ply mask over their nose.

          3-ply or cloth mask are used by almost everybody (easily >95% of the population), they are useless with Omicron ba.1 and ba.2, that’s a fact. Wearing them outside of public transports, hospitals or long-term care is only theater.

          Heck in only 20 days from now we’re gonna exactly do that (you know, like the 300+ million people around us in Canada/USA are already doing)

        • Kevin 23:24 on 2022-03-27 Permalink

          The infectious disease experts I know all wear N95 or procedure masks when dealing with patients and everywhere they go.

          They are also all triple vaxxed and minimizing contacts and using ventilation.

          Quiver full of arrows, no silver bullets.

        • Tim S. 08:13 on 2022-03-28 Permalink

          “just look at how people can’t even wear a 3-ply mask over their nose.” Now that I’m back to working in person, I’m in closeish contact with up to 120+ people a day, and maybe 3-4 of them don’t wear a mask properly.

          And so far cases but no outbreaks among them. Fingers crossed.

        • MarcG 08:27 on 2022-03-28 Permalink

          The job of the government during a health crisis should be effectively relay the advice of medical professionals, which at the moment is: get vaccinated, keep masks on, improve the masks, improve ventilation. The reason people “can’t” do things is because they can’t see the reason to – if it’s explained properly why they should, they’ll do it.

        • j2 11:52 on 2022-03-28 Permalink

          MarcG, I 100% agree but maybe that ship has sailed. It wouldn’t be politically expedient at this point. (Eyeroll emoji.)

          Mr.Chinaski: It may be that the effectiveness has dropped vastly but clearly something is better than nothing. Redirecting airflow might help in brief encounters. Maybe that’s only single-digit percentage better. And maybe it’s easy to increase that number eg by layering especially to improve the seal. But single-digit % less people in the hospital for COVID sounds good to me.

        • Kevin 15:54 on 2022-03-28 Permalink

          MarcG
          The government’s job is to get re-elected in October. It’s decided the best way to do this is to pretend the pandemic is over and to shift the blame onto citizens if they get sick and die.

          To emphasize that it’s all your fault if you get sick, the government is:
          a) eliminating testing so you can’t even figure out how many people have the disease https://twitter.com/MoriartyLab/status/1508443120115015690 ;
          b) eliminating the Vaccine passport, so restaurants and stores can’t even check on your status if they wanted to;
          c) failing to promote boosters, even though growing evidence indicates that an Omicron infection provides no immunity from future infection;
          d) telling people they don’t need masks anymore when in public even though mass mask-wearing is one of the most effective ways of limiting the spread of the disease; and
          e) actively denying we are in a new wave even as the province has the highest number of people in hospital (absolute, not just per capita) with Covid-19 in the entire country.

          This government does not care about you. It never has.

        • MarcG 16:24 on 2022-03-28 Permalink

          That’s based on the assumption that this approach is appealing to their voters. I guess their polling backs that up, but who are these people?

      • Kate 10:02 on 2022-03-27 Permalink | Reply  

        Robert Lepage has made an intelligent move here, planning a lavish show about Jean-Paul Riopelle, instead of giving us a lot of worn‑out clichés about other cultures, like he did about Indigenous people in 2019.

         

        • Kate 09:55 on 2022-03-27 Permalink | Reply  

          The Centre des mémoires montréalaises piece Sunday is a profile of Fred Barry, who pioneered Quebec theatre as the clergy were losing their iron grip on the Quebec psyche and Quebec culture.

          Barry, like Émile Nelligan, had an Irish father.

           

          • Tee Owe 15:51 on 2022-03-27 Permalink

            Any relation to Stephen Barry of the Stephen Barry Blues Band?

          • Kate 09:53 on 2022-03-28 Permalink

            Tee Owe, at a cursory Google, probably not. Fred Barry married quite late and I don’t see any indication he had kids with any partner or spouse, and I can’t find anything about Stephen Barry’s origins.

            It isn’t an unusual surname, after all.

        • Kate 07:50 on 2022-03-27 Permalink | Reply  

          Saturday at the Bell Centre the Canadiens honoured the First Nations in the presence of several chiefs.

           

          • JaneyB 09:00 on 2022-03-27 Permalink

            They really did everything right, even summing it up with the win against TO. Nice to read.

        • Kate 07:42 on 2022-03-27 Permalink | Reply  

          Quebec has been allowing more people to work as teachers without any formal training in education. But clearly there are people with a flair for teaching, and they’re just doing it, whereas we can all remember teachers who may have had a diploma but were terrible in the classroom.

           

          • dhomas 10:24 on 2022-03-27 Permalink

            I’m conflicted on this topic. There are a lack of teachers, so reinforcements are welcome. However, it is somewhat insulting to teachers who have spent the time and effort to compete a 4-year university degree (sometimes more) just to see someone with no degree teaching in the class next to them.
            Maybe part of their provisional hiring should include a condition that they acquire some kind of teaching certificate, so they can continue teaching beyond the 10 year limit? Also, maybe that limit should be less than 10 years, unless the “informal” teacher gets certified?

          • Kate 11:40 on 2022-03-27 Permalink

            I share your ambivalence. But teaching is one of those trades where I really do think the training is largely to impart to those who don’t have the natural flair some of the traits of those who do.

            The guy they talk about first is even teaching a class of kids with special needs, and so far from having a PhD in special ed, he has no teacher training at all, yet he seems to have an instinct for how to do it. You can’t give someone the instinct, but you can systematize and describe their approach and then pass that understanding to others in teacher training.

            Yet I tend to think it would be a waste of that man’s time to force him to take classes and formalize what he already knows by nature. I’ve only taught a tiny bit myself, but I realized quickly how much time one has to spend outside the classroom making plans and preparing quizzes and other material, and I wasn’t even teaching a course where there was homework to correct. Making that man take courses himself might be asking too much of his time.

          • Ian 18:20 on 2022-03-27 Permalink

            It’s a bit more complicated than it’s made out to be, hourly paid teachers are nothing new. Worth noting this is all very strictly controlled by the Ministry of Education.

            You get a fixed pay scale based on your years of experience. Same with casual supply teachers. For regular teachers, your rate of pay is determined according to your scholarity (level of schooling finished) and years of experience (teaching or equivalent). Getting hired as a specialist teacher has not required a certificate all along, it’s usually for people teaching specialized subject areas, and you’re not on track for permanence. It’s up to the school board how many to hire and how to distribute them. Hourly paid and casual supply teachers are not on track for permanence and aren’t protected by the union or labour regulations the same way, they only work contract to contract.

            Anyhow this is all a matter of public record https://qpat-apeq.qc.ca/collective-agreements-and-salary-scales/

            For more detailed explanation see page 9 here – https://qpat-apeq.qc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Handbook-for-New-Teachers.pdf

            Also from that page:

            Teacher Certification:
            There are many ways to be legally qualified to teach. The most common way is to have been a recent graduate from a four-year education program in Quebec. Any such recent graduate is given permanent qualification. Teachers who are certified in other Canadian jurisdictions may also be eligible for permanent qualification in Quebec.
            Other people may go through a period of probation in order for certification to become permanent.
            A number of other legal qualifications exist (temporary permits, provisional teaching authorisations). If you are unsure about your situation, it is recommended that you contact the ministère de l’Éducation et de l’Enseignement supérieur Certification Department (http://www.education.gouv.qc.ca/en/teachers/teaching-in-quebec/teaching-authorizations/).

          • Ian 18:41 on 2022-03-27 Permalink

            Apologies, that last link from the pdf seems to be out of date since the Ministry rejigged its site IA.

            Here’s the current link to getting a teaching authorization: https://www.quebec.ca/en/employment/obtaining-teaching-licence

            Side note, I love how the new version of the blog parses links automatically!

          • Maxim Baru 11:39 on 2022-03-28 Permalink

            I work for a labour union that unionizes teachers, among other workers — and while fully acknowledging the reality that some people with a flair for teacher are way better than those with a diploma for it — I see employers in the sector selling the image of skilled educators to families while in practice aiming to rely on a high turnover workforce of newbies in education to keep costs down. And in some ways more importantly to keep managerial control over the workforce. People who are new, lack formal qualification, are easily fireable, and don’t stick around for long aren’t given and less frequently demand a seat at the table to set policy.

            The educational establishments are selling one thing and delivering something else. At some point when people lose the skills to operate the processes, procedures, and tools corporate US-Canada need out of the workforce they’ll probably have to step in for a course correction themselves. Or substitute the local workforce with people who’re coming from a less smashed up education system. Do people want to wait for that or work for a course correction on their own terms?

          • Ian 10:09 on 2022-03-29 Permalink

            Hi, Maxim – I agree completely, but I was wondering – does IWW actually represent any teachers in Canada? I see there is a union 620 division but I can’t find any info beyond that.

            AFAIK primary and secondary school teachers in Quebec are represented by QPAT (English) and CSQ (French), and CEGEP teachers by CSN.

        • Kate 07:26 on 2022-03-27 Permalink | Reply  

          Three thousand students in southwest Montreal get lunch every school day from an organization called Le garde-manger, but it’s facing the same soaring food prices as everyone else.

           

          • Kate 11:30 on 2022-03-26 Permalink | Reply  

            A woman was found dead in a Hochelaga garage two years ago, but although there were signs she had been in an abusive relationship, her family and friends are dissatisfied that police have made no arrests.

             

            • Kate 11:13 on 2022-03-26 Permalink | Reply  

              Ensemble Montréal emerged from the November election $760,000 in debt. There’s some flapping here from Aref Salem, but no real sense of how the party will raise the funds to wipe out the debt.

               

              • Meezly 10:56 on 2022-03-27 Permalink

                So they were already about 400K in debt when Coderre took over, he put them in more debt and when Coderre failed to win the election, he retired, leaving EM to deal with their debt? Well, another good reason they didn’t get elected!

              • Kate 11:09 on 2022-03-27 Permalink

                Certainly this would give Projet some snark ammunition if Ensemble accuses them of poor financial management.

            • Kate 11:08 on 2022-03-26 Permalink | Reply  

              The old heart of the Cité de Maisonneuve has been granted heritage status, including the building that was originally the city hall and is now the library, the old market building and firehall, and all of Morgan Boulevard and Morgan Park.

              It isn’t mentioned in the item, but I can’t help wondering if this is an attempt to block the REM de l’Est from going through that part of town.

               

              • Kate 09:57 on 2022-03-26 Permalink | Reply  

                A survey found that three quarters of the folks in Lachine would swim in the river off the beach park that’s meant to replace the contentious marina in that area.

                 

                • Thomas 10:14 on 2022-03-26 Permalink

                  The potential footbridge between René-Levesque Park and the Marina mentioned in the article would be amazing, right now it’s a pain to go between the two sites. It would tie the whole thing together into one big waterfront park, one of the nicest in the city imo, making it the crown jewel of the Lachine Canal bike path.

                  And yes, Montreal needs more places where you can go swim in the river, it is an island after all. And a tropical one at that for much of the summer.

                • Mr.Chinaski 18:45 on 2022-03-26 Permalink

                  The irony here is that René-Levesque Park isnt much used by Lachine people. It’s too far, you only enter by 1 place and it’s too far away from the bourough. It’s almost all Lasalle residents that go there, or bike people at the end of their Canal Lachine trip.

                  The best thing would be a bridge from the promenade Pere-Marquette, but logistically it would be impossible, (it would need to be high so that boats can go under).

              ← Older posts

              Newer posts →

              c
              Compose new post
              j
              Next post/Next comment
              k
              Previous post/Previous comment
              r
              Reply
              e
              Edit
              o
              Show/Hide comments
              t
              Go to top
              l
              Go to login
              h
              Show/Hide help
              shift + esc
              Cancel