The city’s state of emergency has been renewed to face the current surge in Covid cases.
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Kate
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Kate
Some UQÀM students say they no longer feel safe after a squabble over student government turned nasty. I know nothing about this except what’s here in Le Devoir, but something tells me it’s not what it seems. The supposed leftist extremists here, calling themselves “woke”, are described as the provocateurs, but is that likely? Is there any chance these people are the exact opposite, right‑wing people pretending to be “woke” (who calls themselves that now, in Quebec?) and acting as provocateurs to tar leftists as violent extremists?
ste
I can imagine a spectrum of “woke” to the point of violent provocateurs. The fuuther left you lean, the more it seems like EVERYONE else is to the right. The student government could be left-leaning – but are they left leaning enough, thus the enemy.
Blork
Yeah, the leftright dichotomy is false in many ways. I tend to see it as more of a loop, where the extreme left and the extreme right actually come together and overlap, like a snake eating its tail. But even that is simplistic and needs to be rendered in four dimensions to even come close.
What I mostly see in that story is the continuing unravelling of social conventions and contracts. Between the madness unleashed by non-stop “engagement” on social media and the embracing and emboldenment of the absurd and the ridiculous that came out of the Trump presidency, we now have a society that only knows how to yell and scream and has no idea how to listen.
Ian
Reactionaries on both ends are ding-dongs but I can absolutely guaran-frickin-tee that anyone self-describing as “woke” is not, even if their intentions are good.
To @ste ultimately if you go far enough into right or left in politics it becomes a system of ritual cleansing and demonstrations of purity. Not entirely unlike cults.
MarcG
Self-identifying as woke might seem ridiculous to us anglos today, but it wouldn’t have been just a few years ago when the term emerged. Don’t forget how there’s a bit of a cultural delay between Quebec and the rest of North America; Montreal had street punks and headbangers with Metallica shirts way after everyone else had moved on.
Joey
“Woke” may not be in vogue but “wokisme” is definitely a source of consternation for our political commentator class, as you can see here: https://www.lapresse.ca/recherche?q=wokisme#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=wokisme&gsc.page=1
Robert H
«Une fête étudiante sur le thème hautement ironique de l’assaut du Capitole par les partisans de Trump a semé la discorde. Le bureau de l’AEMSP a eu beau préciser que l’événement se voulait sarcastique, que l’Association n’approuve aucunement les mouvements antidémocratiques et violents, une poignée d’étudiants a dénoncé le bureau comme un repaire de fascistes.»
This, as you said Blork, is the “snake eating its tale.” People who consider themselves to be advocates of justice, freedom, and equality resort to methods characteristic of fascist police state thugs. The frenzy of righteous outrage is so intense that irony, satire, and sarcasm simply do not register. Diversity and coëxistence are forgotten, and the right gets to carp disingenuously about left-wingers going wild. It’s almost comical, yet this eruption is taking place within an institution devoted to higher learning and the free exchange of ideas in the service of mutual enlightenment. Instead we have like Ian described “a system of ritual cleansing and demonstrations of purity. Not entirely unlike cults:” of which, the vandalism at the offices of AEMSP is a manifestation. I console myself with the fact that this is a phenomenon occurring on university campuses across North America, and not specific to some outbreak of extremism in Quebec. More than a soupçon of zeitgeist here.
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Kate
The Catholic church’s ombudsman says her job has been difficult as many priests refuse to respond to her requests. Who would’ve thought that Catholic clerics would be so resistant to change?
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Kate
House prices are up 18.5% since last spring.
An expert says there’s a drastic shortage of housing here, as multinational corporations gobble up housing units. I suspect all those condo towers won’t fix the problem – they’re being built to raise money fast when they’re sold off to corporate owners, not to individuals who simply need a place to live.
Joey
But, as the article points out, the evil multinational corporations rent the properties out to “individuals who simply need a place to live” – not ideal if your objective is to maximize home ownership and minimize renting, but that’s hardly been the consensus around here.
Kate
True, but this is what’s pushing rents sky high here, although wages are hardly keeping pace.
Joey
New construction is pushing rents sky high?
Cadichon
Am I mistaken or there’s just more of these real estate industry reports everyday? Last week it was a builder’s association, noe it’s Royal Lepage. It seems like twice a week there’ll be some bank or mortgage broker or real estate broker’s association or JLR/Equifax or good old CMHC putting out something about house prices going up. I wonder to what extent is this intense coverage just sending the message that buying houses is a fantastic investment that you shouldn’t miss on.
Kate
Joey, if new construction is snapped up by multinationals, they will of course price the apartments at world levels, so that people making Montreal wages would have to be paying New York rents. Globalization!
Kevin
There are so many things at play when it comes to housing in Greater Montreal: A shift in demand as WFH becomes permanent, and so the one-room condos and apartments become even less desireable; double-income families desperate to spend whatever it takes to buy; the boomer’s generational shift to stay at home as long as possible instead of downsizing; airbnb; the rise of slumlord conglomerates; money laundering…
I’m sure there are other factors.Joey
@Kate Montrealers are paying New York rents? What?
Kate
Joey: Not yet, but global corporate ownership of rental real estate will tend to equalize rates worldwide, and it won’t be downward.
Blork
Here’s how it works in theory, from a Neo-liberal/trickle-down economics perspective:
Put up a condo tower offering modern, classy condos for $800,000 (or if rental, $3000/month). Financially successful people living in older/cheaper places but who are upwardly mobile think “let’s go live there, since it’s so nice and we can afford it!” They move out of their $600,000 house (or $1500/month rental), creating a vacuum that is filled by less financially well-off (but upwardly mobile) people who in turn vacate their $250,000 house ($900/month rental). That creates another vacuum at that lower level, which is filled by people entering the market with their first house, or in the case of rental, who can only afford $900/month.
That’s the theory. By building expensive places, people move up and create vacancies in the lower-cost spaces.
But oh, the reality.
The reality is way more complicated, and includes too many variables to summarize in a comment. But it includes things like: when people vacate their $900/month apartment to move into a $1500/month apartment, the landlord thinks “wow, people are paying $1500 a month for apartments!” resulting in the landlord doing whatever they can to raise rents (often illegally).
Or, the landlords realize it would cost them too much to bring the apartment up to $1500/month standing, so they basically let it rot. So where once the $900 apartment was affordable and well-kept, now the $900 apartment is a roach-filled dump.
Or, those old buildings filled with reasonably-priced apartments get gobbled up by corporations who renovate them excessively and put the rents up to levels like in the new towers.
Other effects include the normalization of high rents due to corporate ownership, as Kate mentioned.
Ian
We already have nearly empty condo and office towers all over downtown, a shortage of space isn’t the issue.
Foreign investment laws to restrain multinationals aren’t a particularly strong lever. Jack interest 2%, make mortgages 20 years max, require 15% down. Require 5% 2+ bedrooms for all new condo dev, and 10% social housing on site. Disallow renovictions & enforce it. Ban AirBnb in residential neighbourhoods & enforce it. Eliminate welcome tax for first time home buyers. Establish a non occupancy tax for all commercial properties including property management companies dealing with residential holdings.
as far as rent increases are concerened, I’d like to see the Régie actually have some teeth but everyone who I’ve ever known that went to them with a problem only saw success if they could afford a lawyer, and even then all they ever got was a settlement.
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Kate
The city will be holding public consultations over the choice of the next police chief. This piece says that Fo Niemi is happy with the plan; some reports also add some sneers from city hall opposition, although it’s clear that if city hall excluded the possibility they’d be saying the exact opposite.
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Kate
La Presse tells us about how some white aspirants are angry at being excluded from a program meant to encourage women from visible minorities to train to become police. Nothing here says white women are barred from becoming police officers in the regular way, only that the program was conceived with the intention of making Quebec’s police forces more diverse.
I’m not sure what to make of the argument that, since men still predominate in police forces, women are already a minority in the sense intended.
Meezly
It would not surprise me that an affirmative program overseen by our province’s ministry would not be going about this the right way.
Ian
Obviously women of colour are at the bottom of the discrimination pyramid. Maybe instead of being upset about women of colour getting solving treatment white women should be contributing their significantly stronger political power toward all women but particularly POC getting a bigger slice if the pie.
We gain across the board when we act in solidarity.
Ian
*apologies for me and my fat thumb phone typos
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Kate
A man of 75 was murdered Tuesday night in a residence in Centre‑Sud. A suspect, the victim’s son, was arrested.
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