The city was ordered to pay $115,000 in a police brutality case and has now given up its intention to appeal. The original incident took place in 2012 when Didier Berry was beaten up by three cops as he tried to film the arrest of someone else.
Updates from April, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
CBC lays out the plans for the farewell to Guy Lafleur including two days of visitation at the Bell Centre and coverage of the funeral ceremony on radio and TV.
Update Sunday: a lot of people have lined up all day to say a personal farewell to Lafleur.
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Kate
La Presse profiles Faiz Abhuani, a man who became a real estate agent so he could work for social justice in Park Extension.
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Kate
François Legault called the planned Moderna vaccine plant a victory for Quebec on Friday, the selection of Quebec over Ontario being regarded, as someone said on Twitter, like the Habs defeating the Leafs.
I’d still like to know what it’s costing the taxpayer, in grants or tax breaks, to bring this facility here.
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Kate
Le Devoir’s Isabelle Paré considers the impact of 15,000 Covid deaths in Quebec as people seem to have become blasé – all except those who’ve lost someone to the virus.
mare
I’ve read an article in the Atlantic about the same subject and one of the most striking facts was that one of the first questions people ask when meeting a relative of a Covid victim is ‘Were they vaccinated?” And if they were old. As if that makes it less sad. Not something you want to hear over and over when you are grieving.
(And asking ‘did they smoke?’ or ‘were they overweight?’ are hopefully not questions people ask grieving relatives of people who died of other causes.)
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Kate
I haven’t had a cheese bagel in years but am glad to know they still exist. The Gazette inquires into the origin of the horseshoe-shaped pastry, which has little in common with bagels tout court – and seems to be specific to Montreal, although its origin remains a mystery.
CE
I’ve only had them a couple times (a long time ago) and remember being but off by their sweetness.
jeather
I love cheese bagels a lot and have to explain them to everyone. I don’t see then as much as I used to, even in the places I used to find them regularly.
Kate
jeather, another thing I remember from living in Snowdon was salt sticks, which I loved. Do you ever see those any more?
JaneyB
And more Snowdon treat questions: the kosher cinnamon rolls in the foil plates or as logs. Are they still around? I’ve made a few tours to the awful IGA by metro Plamondon that used to have them but haven’t seen them. I hope that bakery is still around.
Ian
Babka? They have them at PA on Parc and Chesky’s on Bernard. Lipa & Fooderie too.
jeather
I’ve never really been a fan of salt sticks, so I’m not sure. The cinnamon babka are around at the Ashkenazi bakeries and honestly, they’re not that hard to make. I don’t see the cinnamon danishes they used to sell at the cafe in the YMHA back when I was a kid, though. I used to find them at Cantor’s or REAL bagel occasionally.
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Kate
There’s the air of something not being told in these accounts: a man, visibly drunk, is questioned briefly by police in Pointe Claire on Friday night, then walks away. Twenty minutes later, he’s struck by a train and dies. The location of the conversation and the incident are not being disclosed. But why is the BEI investigating, which they normally only do when police are directly involved in a fatality? Is it just that the man should’ve been taken to the drunk tank for his own protection, rather than let loose to fall into danger?
Update: Sunday, the locations of the police interaction with the man and of the fatal accident are still not being mentioned, but at the same time, the BEI is asking any witnesses to speak up.
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Kate
Once again, don’t think of driving to Longueuil for a haircut this weekend. The outbound tunnel is closed.
There are other obstacles too this weekend.
Ian
I remember when there were ads for topless haircuts in Longeuil in Âllo Police.
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Kate
A video of an SPVM cop shoving an itinerant so that he falls and hits his head has been shared on social media. There’s no evidence in the video that the man was threatening them or fighting back.
The force simply says it’s analyzing the video.
Update: The force now says it has launched an investigation.
Second update: Global found and talked to the man, originally from Senegal. ““Police have to help people, not hurt people,” says Bader Niang.
steph
Looks like attempted murder to me.
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Kate
QMI’s being clickbaity here with the headline Cinq balles dans les jambes pour rien (and the same on the TVA site). Yes, it did happen in Pointe‑aux‑Trembles – but it was three years ago. The current story is an account of the trial, which is also covered in the Gazette.
If anything, the story is a reminder that even when a shooting is not fatal it can have serious consequences. Shot in the legs, the victim can no longer work, and has undoubtedly suffered a lot. Who the assailants thought he was and why they were sent to kill that person (the actual victim claiming to be innocent of gang involvement) was not explained in court.
Blork
I don’t think the assailant was sent to kill the guy. When you see the video it’s pretty clear that he was deliberately shooting him in the legs. What’s most unusual about the video is how completely uhfazed the elderly couple standing nearby are; the sort of shuffle out of the way as if the most disturbing thing going down right in front of them was a drunk bumming change.
Kate
I noticed that too. Quite nonchalant about the guy lying on the ground there, and I doubt he was entirely sllent after taking five bullets in the legs.
MarcG
They fought in Korea and see darker shit than that in their dreams.
Ian
Getting shot in the legs is always a warning
MarcG
Alternate idea: they thought it was a JFL gag
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Kate
24 Heures looks at three neighbourhoods it says have been recently gentrified but that depends how you define “recent” – the trend began even before this millennium.
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Kate
Like a stopped clock, the Legault government has to be right sometimes: they’ve told both federal Conservative front‑runners a firm no to reviving the GNL-Québec project to build a pipeline to a terminal for liquefying natural gas.
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Kate
I’m struck by this news that two journalists have been awarded for their mastery of the French language by the Conseil supérieur de la langue française. It seems particular to French (and a tribute to its syntactical difficulty) that you could give two working journalists a prize for writing French properly. In English-speaking countries there are all kinds of prizes for doing journalism, but I’ve never heard of one that’s given out simply for writing the language correctly.
Joey
True that this does seem to be something particularly French, though it sounds like it’s not a prize for “writing the language correctly,” so much as for writing artfully.
Clément
What Joey said. It’s not that they use proper spelling, syntax and grammar, which should be a given.
It’s about the richness of their style.
Le prix Jules-Fournier est décerné annuellement à une ou à un journaliste de la presse écrite en reconnaissance de la qualité de ses écrits, tandis que le prix Raymond-Charette est remis à une ou à un journaliste de la presse radiotélévisée pour sa contribution exemplaire à la diffusion d’un français de qualité.
Blork
Generations ago, good “elocution” was a thing to be prized in English. Broadcasters only used people with specific clarity and tones in their elocution, and indeed provided training for young reporters and news readers in clear speaking. But of course that fell by the wayside as being inappropriately classist. And rightly so.
Unfortunately I think it’s fallen away too much. Now the problem isn’t classism, it’s the prohibition on any sort of “shaming.” So if someone applies for an on-air job at the CBC and they lisp, and crackle with vocal fry, and mumble, no one will point that out, and they will certainly not do anything to correct it as that might hurt their feelings and result in CBC being cancelled. As a result, TV and radio is now filled with GenZ people mumbling and murmuring their way to the top of the broadcast biz.
Note 1: I’m not referring to accents. Accents are great. It’s the affectations and impediments that I’m complaining about.
Note 2: No one should be shamed over a speech impediment, but maybe if you have a speech impediment and you want to make a living with your voice, you should be open to a bit of speech therapy that will make you more suitable for the job. That isn’t shaming, that’s just skills development.
Note 3: Yes, this is a diversion from the topic, which is about WRITTEN French and English, but as Kate points out, written English isn’t all that complicated, especially when writing for straight communication, where the emphasis is almost always on simplicity. But this discussion triggered my frustrations over the state of spoken English in broadcasting, so there.
Kate
Joey, Clément, maybe I was distracted by the word “maîtrise”? In English, if I were to congratulate a working journalist on their mastery of the language, I’d expect to be knocked down a peg or two for my condescension.
JaneyB
@Blork. Good point on elocution. Agreed. The continual stammering of so many CBC interviewers is just pitiful. I assume it’s an effort to create ‘indirectness’ so that the guest doesn’t feel threatened by the focus on them but…that in itself is a crazy dynamic. I thought the purpose of the interview was to get answers for the public not to become a sympathetic friend to the guest. I used to be a regular listener but over the past 15 years or more, I find English CBC mostly terrible, both radio or TV, in part for this very reason.
Tim S.
@ Joey: maybe there can be an award to improve the coherence of headline writers, at least?
Kate
JaneyB: Plus there are more switching errors than a national broadcaster should be making, cues to the wrong audio report, dead air – a few weeks ago they hit such a bad patch that I texted them to say it was like listening to student radio, and not good student radio either. There used to be a few glitches in summertime, and you could forgive that since it suggested vacation replacements – but now it’s year-round.
Blork
Note 4: The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain. The ants in France are mainly in the pants.
(What’s s the matter with you people? I gave you an 11 hour head start and still nobody beat me to this?)
CE
Journalists can be some of the sloppiest writers you can imagine. Why? Copy editors. Writers know their copy is going to get looked over and ruthlessly marked up with the proverbial red pen, so no need to submit perfection. I had a side gig as a copy editor and some of the writing I saw was atrocious! We would work our magic and eventually, it would be pretty good and the writer would get all the credit! It’s an interesting and under-appreciated profession. For those interested, the New Yorker’s copy editor, Mary Norris, has an excellent video series about some of the things she comes across while editing the magazine. This piece, also by her, is one of my favourite New Yorker articles.
Maybe I’m too young to have experienced some golden age of the CBC but I’ve been a regular listener of English CBC Radio for decades and I find most of the hosts, especially on the flagship shows, to be very good. I can’t think of a single host who goes through their show “mumbling and murmuring” but maybe my tolerance is higher. Interviewees are a different story but that’s hardly the fault of the Mother Corp. I’ve noticed lately that I hear a lot more people whose default voice is that of someone on the verge of tears.
@Tim: The CBC recently had a story with the headline “Aurora borealis? At this time of year, at this time of day, localized entirely within B.C.? Yes” Give whoever wrote that one the Pulitzer! I’ve heard that the headline writers for the UK tabloids all have to have at least a Masters in creative writing or English to get the job. Some of those headlines are works of art!
@Blork: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/corpse-corps-horse-and-worse/
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Kate
Not only is Quebec’s mask mandate expected to end on May 14 and they won’t bring it back, no matter what. Politicians have heard loud and clear that the populace is hardened to seeing several dozen Covid deaths daily and that we don’t expect (or want) the authorities to do anything about it – a useful piece of data.
Some are even objecting to hand sanitizing. This convention began when we still didn’t have a clear picture of Covid transmission and it probably doesn’t do much against it, but I don’t think it’s a massive burden (and it doesn’t cause antibiotic resistance either).
Kevin
I don’t think it’s hardened as much as it is numbed and confused by numbers.
It will be interesting to see what French media does in the next few weeks when we hit those two milestones (15,000 dead, and matching last year’s death toll).
cc
denmark (the country with the best COVID tracking and response) has been done with mask mandates since february, and they are also stopping their vaccination programme
Tim S.
“The two doctors later said, when asked, that even masking could still go through phases if serious crises arrive in the future — especially considering that cold weather brings worse COVID-19 waves — but that they don’t foresee it right now.”
I’m OK with that. I note, though, that the provincial election and wave 7 are scheduled for about the same time. It would be nice to know who will be calling the shots during that period.
Tim S.
Actually, to add on:
For the sake of people who are still more vulnerable, masks should be mandatory for essential services – schools, grocery stores and so on – or they be obliged to offer curbside pick-up + work from home options for their employees.Kevin
@cc
There are so many differences between regions that comparisons are difficult. General health and age of the population, which tranches have been vaccinated and boosted, what was the weather like over the past month, what’s the ventilation situation indoors…As for Denmark, that country started getting hit by Delta last November and Omicron in December– weeks before those strains arrived in Quebec — and it shut down schools, told people to WFH, and started giving boosters much earlier. While it’s no longer issuing ‘invitations’ for boosters now (the overall number boosted in that country is higher than in Quebec), it’s current plan is to have a new vaccine campaign in August.
jeather
I hate the hand sanitizing a lot lot more than masks. And I don’t LIKE masks, but at least they work.
Tee Owe
The (for me) interesting thing about Denmark is that despite complete abolition of any restrictions, infection rates (percentages of those tested) and hospitalizations (Covid+ numbers who were admitted because of Covid) are both going down. Lots of people are getting Covid,but it’s mild – something to look forward to?
Mr.Chinaski
At work, each friggin computer spot (500+) has a giant bottle of hand sanitizer + a large box of wipes. I haven’t seen a single person use them. It’s useless, like the 3-ply and cotton mask BTW. Only properly-fit K/N95 would do a real credible job.
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Kate
The shelter tent on Cabot Square will be taken down this weekend and there’s no intention to replace the services it offered.
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