Frederick Silva, already convicted of killing three men, has pleaded no contest in another case, in which he was accused of killing a Concordia student after a dispute in a strip club in 2017. Silva was going to be tried for the shooting, but cut things short Friday morning. In La Presse, Daniel Renaud explains the distinction between a no contest plea, and pleading guilty.
Updates from May, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
So soon we forget: the CAQ is giving up on the idea of nationalizing all the private CHSLDs, a notion that arose after the frightening death rate early in the pandemic revealed that capitalism is not the best way to provide services to the ill and elderly.
Sentencing for crimes was lightened somewhat because of the pandemic, but this clemency, an effort to reduce provincial prison populations prone to Covid outbreaks, will now be abandoned as the minister of public security brings down the hammer. Why fruitlessly locking people up is preferable to having them do community service I do not know.
Canada’s public health is advising us to be careful about tearing off our masks and going nuts, but we know that won’t work if it’s not the law.
TVA headlines this piece to imply that people are delighted to get back to the office, but there’s nothing in the article, which lists stats on how many are back, how many still work from home, that discusses the attitudes of people ordered to trudge back to office politics and bad coffee.
CE
I was in Ontario and Western New York last weekend where there are no mask mandates. I’d say about 30-80% of people in Ontario were wearing masks indoors (depending on the context) and about 1% no matter where in NY.
MarcG
It’s not just fruitless to lock someone up, it’s ultimately negative.
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Kate
This Sunday, Tout le monde en parle will do the final show to be broadcast from the fabled Studio 42 at the old Maison Radio‑Canada. The new season this fall will be produced in the network’s new building.
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Kate
Police seized a
revolvergun from a young man recently downtown and have announced that this means armed criminals are returning to the downtown area. Granted they know more about that scene than a regular citizen, it sounds like a jump to a conclusion to me, if based on this one incident.Blork
Technically, that’s a pistol, but not a revolver. It’s a semi-automatic, meaning the bullets are housed in a removable spring-loaded clip that pushes the bullets into the chamber when the previously shot bullet is expelled (usually but not always, from recoil). A “revolver” used a cylinder with chambers for the bullets, and the chamber revolves as shots are fired, putting the next round in position. #morethanyouwantedtoknow #wordsmatter
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Kate
The Quebec government is planning a travelling exhibit in praise of Camille Laurin, the father of Bill 101.
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Kate
Police have arrested a man alleged to be a serial jewel thief who may have cut through walls and safes to heist thousands of dollars worth of goods. CTV mentions a second man, and that police are trying to identify him, but they don’t show any images of the person.
Once again, media convict the suspect with the Journal headline Un voleur de bijoux en série arrêté à Montréal.
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Kate
An older man carrying an Israeli flag after a rally celebrating Israel on Thursday was assaulted by two young men who also assaulted a bystander. Although the assailants have not been identified, CTV obscures their faces in its version of the video capture. Police are investigating what may be considered a hate crime.
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Kate
Here are your weekend driving crises.
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Kate
Another Montreal MNA has bowed out of running again in this fall’s election. Paule Robitaille was a first‑time MNA in 2018, and won handily in north-end Bourassa‑Sauvé, but she has now joined Christine St‑Pierre, Lise Thériault, David Birnbaum and Hélène David, all Montreal island PLQ MNAs that have announced they won’t be back.
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Kate
Three new bus lanes have been announced, on Jarry East, Ray‑Lawson and Queen Mary. But the one on de la Commune is being removed as plans for transit along there, not detailed here, are set to change.
Joey
Good for Queen-Mary. The stretch between Westbury and Ponsard is consistently some of the worst driving in Montreal (I’m there a few times a week). Double-parking, u-turns across the yellow, left-turns with no signal, etc. A bus lane will either calm it down or make it insane. TBD.
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Kate
The city has decided that terrasses in the Village have to close at 11 pm which is angering some establishments trying to make up for business lost throughout the pandemic. Apparently it’s always been the rule, although often disregarded in practice.
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Kate
Some notices about water main work were distributed in English in Hochelaga. The city is blaming a contractor, but city czar of the French language Louise Harel weighs in, the OLF will be called in, Simon Jolin‑Barrette says it’s inconceivable, and the Mouvement Québec français says it’s an outrage. The Journal counts 160 distinct OLF complaints against the city since 2010.
Derek
It’s nice to see that with Covid numbers levelling off, we can finally get back to outraging about the things that matter most.
Blork
Well… that is pretty wierd, very stupid, and bordering on inconceivable. (It doesn’t cross that border because as carbon-based life units on planet Earth we are awash in “weird and stupid.”)
What’s also weird and stupid is the various angry people (Legault, Harel, SJB, etc.) going on as if this were some kind of conspiracy or a sign of the decline of French usage in Montreal, not not just another dumb mistake by a contractor who doesn’t give AF about distributing flyers around the neighbourhood.
I’m absolutely sure the contractor saw that part of the contract as just an annoying rider to the contract and simply pointed at a box of flyers and told some flunky to “stick those in mailboxes” without even looking at them. (The contractor apparently had access to the flyers in both languages. That probably means a bunch of poorly labeled boxes in a room somewhere.)
Oh, but what clickbait! So the media is all over it too.
Kate
Blork, I could picture the scene as you described it, a silly error by somene not paying attention. But there will be people now who believe Montreal is involved in an evil conspiracy to undermine French.
Kevin
@Kate
Only stupid people blame conspiracies when stupidity is the cause.Ian
It’s always charming to see ethnonationalism trotted out as an active concern, & passively accepted that Quebec’s culture is threatened by literally everything that is not French in Quebec. In the rest of the civilized world “white extinction” is considered a pernicious, racist lie – here it’s a valid political position on the civic, provincial, and even federal level.
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Kate
Several groups of anglo CEGEP students held protests against Bill 96 in various locations Thursday.
Some thoughts from some of the students on why Bill 96 may persuade them to leave Quebec.
Tim S.
Not much coverage in the French media, it seems. Guess it never happened.
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Kate
TVA counts two dozen vehicles torched in the greater Montreal area this year. The latest incident involves a Tesla and a Mercedes burned out early Friday in DDO, and the owner says he has no idea why he was targeted.
I bet the police feel that having your cars burned, or your building shot at, is a suggestion you’ve been involved in shady business, and you probably get added to a list of people of interest. Maybe that’s why the gangsters do it sometimes?
mare
Or people just hate (expensive) cars?
Kate
We all do, but we don’t set fire to them.
dhomas
Obviously, someone does. 🙂
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Kate
The Montreal soccer team has announced it will be changing its logo again but keeping the apparently not‑so‑popular name Montréal CF. I gather some had hoped for a reversion to the name Impact.
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