Added to the plans for a celebration of Camille Laurin, a full year of celebration of the centenary of René Lévesque is in the works. Nobody’s naming a park after Edgar Trottier, though.
Updates from May, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Sophie Roy is the city’s first woman police chief, albeit a temporary one. She faces a long list of challenges.
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Kate
Santé Québec is registering 35 Covid deaths over the last 24 hours.
I saw a doctor’s twitter thread the other day: “Quebec’s 2022 covid death toll has officially surpassed the 2021 death toll. We matched the death toll for the entire year of 2021 in just the first 4 months of 2022.”
But at this point, we’re hardened to it. Losing a few dozen people every day, what’s the big deal? I’ve seen people handwave it, saying hey, they were old, they were fat and unfit. I would not be surprised to find out that some in authority are not entirely displeased at this pruning of those who are expensive to keep alive.
EmilyG
I once saw a very depressing tweet that someone was writing about their sick grandmother, saying that their grandmother was one of the people that society has decided they don’t care about.
EmilyG
Also, at the very beginning of the pandemic, I remember seeing people say, Covid isn’t that much of a danger, it’s mostly older and/or chronically ill people who will die!
I felt like shouting at them, Why don’t you care about those people?
And then it actually happened.mare
Even if you subscribe to the ‘it’s just old and weak people’ there’s also Long Covid and that is less discerning about age and fitness. According to research, it might affect 10% to 50%* of the people who were infected, even when their original symptoms were mild. Our faltering health care system is not ready for that, but our government think it’s more important what language they speak.
*depending on country, research methods and the definition of Long Covid.
Tee Owe
Important to distinguish dying with Covid versus dying because of Covid. As infectious variants increase, more people will have Covid. Any cross-section will reflect this – more vegans, more heavy metal fans, more tennis players are Covid+ – same goes for people who die. Not denying any of your comments about callousness I totally empathize but we need to recognize what these numbers mean and don’t mean.
Kevin
In Quebec, the numbers mean dying OF Covid. Hospitalizations distinguish between with and of.
jeather
People are dying because of but not of covid, too.
Chris
>…that society has decided they don’t care about.
I don’t think that’s so. It’s just that society cares about multiple things, and only cares so much. If we could have our cake and eat it too, that’d be great. But we care both about saving as many as possible, but we also care about living unencumbered lives. There’s a spectrum. I presume you don’t advocate for the Chinese model? Why not? It could save more lives. For the same reason some want the mask mandate gone, just your line is not quite where their line is.
steph
Just look at is excess mortality, and blame covid for that portion. You clearly see the covid deaths in 2020, 2021 seems to not have any of the excess. The data isn’t in for 2022 🙁 . https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-607-x/71-607-x2021028-eng.htm
Tee Owe
@Kevin – ‘In Quebec, the numbers mean dying OF Covid’ – i clicked around and couldn’t find verification of that – can you provide a link? Thanks
Faiz imam
Honestly covid is one of many things we decide we’re fine with killing people.
Cars. Pollution. Electricity.
We still use leaded gasoline in airplanes!
In all the talking I’ve done with people in the past 2 years, I clearly am willing to sacrifice my personal comfort and freedom to help other people, more than most people are.
Peoples capacity for empathy is limited, and we’re at the end of if.
Tim S.
I’m not sure that we are at the end of people’s capacity for empathy. I’m actually struck by how many people still diligently wear masks, even though when they don’t have to (many of the high school students I see, for example). We’ve been conditioned to assume much worse about each other than actually seems to be the case.
At least in Montreal, and I think much of Canada. Everywhere else, I can’t say.
And, I’m not picking on you here Faiz, but I find it really weird when people on this blog say we don’t care about cars and pollution. Like, do they read the things we’re writing to each other? We’ve built a civilization around cars and it’s hard to unravel, but I really wouldn’t describe the vibe on here as indifference. And the voters of Montreal have twice elected Project, which for all it’s faults is not-exactly pro-car.
And now it strikes me that I’m lecturing Faiz of all people about optimism.
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Kate
Ensemble wants to rename a park for Henry Morgentaler in Hochelaga‑Maisonneuve, near where Morgentaler’s first clinic opened. Morgentaler, a tireless abortion rights activist, died in 2013.
Taylor C. Noakes
Which PM will reject because they didn’t think of it first…
Kate
I doubt it. The article suggests it was already planned.
TCN… don’t let being a contrarian go to your head.
steph
I’d like to see more done. A street. A bridge. A holiday.
Ian
They should rename Parc Lahaie across from the old Morgentaler clinic on St Joey, especially as anti-choice protestors still gather there!
Kate
Yes. A few years ago I occasionally worked in a studio on the third floor in the building on that corner and the shouting and singing and praying could be really annoying. But I have a feeling that the proximity of the park to Saint‑Enfant‑Jésus church might, even now, make it a hard sell.
jeather
Have we considered renaming McGill after Morgentaler? Two birds etc.
Taylor C. Noakes
I’m not sure I’m a contrarian but I’ll happily check myself before I wreck myself. That said, it’s not unheard of for the two parties to propose things they know the other would have preferred to have proposed themselves.
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Kate
A 17-year-old soccer referee at a junior match was punched by an older man in DDO on Sunday, an act that’s being widely condemned by participants in the sport. The man, apparently the grandfather of one of the players, may face a permanent ban from attending matches.
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Kate
CBC bemoans that summer road trips will be scarce when gas costs $2 a litre and TVA collects social media cites about how cars are only for the rich.
Well, see, the limit of 1.5°C global heating limit is about to be broken. It is not a tragedy that going for gratuitous jaunts in a fossil fuel vehicle is coming to an end.
Tim S.
Maybe not, but it would be really nice if we had a transit system that let people get into the countryside from time to time. Also, a countryside with some kind of public access rights, but I suppose that’s a thread for a different blog.
Kate
The right to roam is a very European thing. I don’t know how farmers feel here if they see you walking across their land.
I was thinking this morning about how both in Ireland and the Netherlands, I was easily able to get away from the urban area I was staying in, into countryside, either simply on foot or by taking a short train ride, not something I can do here. Is it partly because Montreal is an island, so there’s clearly a physical and possibly also a psychological boundary around the city? Is it because distances in North America are a whole different world from those in small, densely settled countries? Or, as you say, is our transit simply not tuned to that concept? The schedules have almost always been about 9‑to‑5 commuting.
(On the other hand, both when staying in London and in Dublin, on different trips, I got stranded outside the city because of intermittent train service strikes I hadn’t been aware of because I was a visitor…)
mare
I love the British Right of Way laws, I’ve hike some long distance trails there and it’s nice you don’t have to make giant detours over busy tarmac.
It’s not farmers that are the problem, it’s people who bought large swaths of forests around their lakefront chalet, to use the wood for heating. Related, it’s also almost impossible to access a lake to have a swim, even though we have the largest fresh water reserves in the world. Almost all lakes and rivers in Quebec are dotted with chalets and are private property.
Also, almost all public hiking trails are off-limits for dogs now, even when they are leashed, or demand high access fees.
DeWolf
It’s the transit. Quebec has virtually no regional train service and even coach services are paltry. Just for example: Sutton is a lovely, walkable town surrounded by mountain hiking trails and some very scenic cycling routes. It’s only 124km from Montreal so close enough for a day trip. But the only way to get there is to drive, because train service was suspended decades ago, and even the bus (which took two hours and was more expensive than driving, even with $2/litre gas) doesn’t run there anymore.
Daisy
Navette Natur is an option for day trips to national parks without a car.
Blork
Kate blames the extended distances, Mare blames the privatization of lakeside properties, and DeWolf blames transit, and they’re all correct. It’s a complex problem with no easy solutions.
Even with a car, it’s not easy to find a lake to stick your feet in. Ste-Adele has a tiny municipal beach, and Ste-Agathe has a fairly big one, but they can be really crowded on summer weekends. Same with Douglass Beach on Lac Brôme.
I’m sure there are others, but it’s not obvious like in places like the UK or continental western Europe where the routes between the cities to the countryside/seaside holiday spots have been well established for hundreds of years (and most importantly, they were established before the automobile).
Similar thing with hiking and biking trails. There are plenty of them around, but none anywhere near any kind of public transit, and because they’re so scattered it’s unlikely there ever will be any kind of public transit to those places.
qatzelok
Tim S: “a countryside with some kind of public access rights”
The car and cheap gas, in the 20th Century, led to the countryside becoming privatized suburban crap. Like you, I long for a return to a natural condition for most of the suburbs.
Maybe five-dollar-per-liter gas will free up some waterfront land for everyone to enjoy? With a bit of help from flooding and water boiling advisories.
Tim
“It is not a tragedy that going for gratuitous jaunts in a fossil fuel vehicle is coming to an end.”
But gratuitous jaunts in an EV are fine right?
Kate
Tim, an EV is powered by renewable energy, in Quebec anyway.
I saw a man plugging in his electric car on my corner the other day. It had Massachusetts plates, so I asked him how it was, driving up here in an EV, and he said he’d had to stop once to recharge, and now he was recharging again before setting off to drive home. Seemed pretty reasonable, if there are charging stations in truck stops and so on. You could do quite a jaunt before needing to plug it in.
Tim S.
I think they’re two different problems. Transport to places that are accessible is limited: Navette Natur is a great initiative, but 28$ to sit on half of a yellow school bus bench to get to St Bruno, which is basically a suburb? I’m glad it exists, but..
But even with a car, there aren’t that many destinations you can just stop and explore. In the Laurentians every now and then I come across a nice spot by a river or little lake, and even if it isn’t explicitly private, there’s nothing there. No hiking trail, restaurant, cafe, not even a picnic bench. Just keep driving.
Anyways, I have hopes that the Grand Parc de l’ouest will have accessible nature just off an REM station. Hopes, but maybe not expectations.
dhomas
I bought an EV right before it got crazy, last summer. It wasn’t about saving money on gas, but more about principle. I consider myself an environmentalist and always said my next car would be an EV, but I’m also not the type to throw out something usable just to replace it (like my old gas car) as this creates more waste. I bought my EV for city commuting as it has a relatively short autonomy. But with Level 3 chargers around, I can recharge to 80% in about 15 minutes and go pretty long distances with few stops. It just needs some extra planning.
I also got my second car stolen late last year. I’ve been looking for another EV since then and they’re nearly impossible to find, used or new, at least not for reasonable prices. The same used car I bought last summer is being sold for 60% more than I paid, with more than double the mileage.
So, if you want to go for a road trip this summer, you’ll likely either be paying a ton for gas, or not going unless you ordered an EV months ago.EmilyG
I guess that I’m fortunate to be one bus ride away from a few nature parks, in Ile-Bizard and Pierrefonds and such.
jeather
@dhomas, do you have a charger at home? I’d like an EV when I need to replace my car but I don’t have a charger (I live near enough several) and I park outside, I’m not sure if this would lead to battery issues.
dhomas
@jeather I have a charger that plugs into a standard 110V outlet, just like any other electric device. It takes forever to charge up with it, so I’ll eventually install a Level 2 charger at home. Since my range is quite short (between 150km and 170km), it doesn’t take very long to charge at a nearby Level 3 charger. I get to 80% (around 120km) in ~15 minutes, which costs a couple of dollars (maybe 4$ on the Circuit Électrique network). Since I only ever bring my kids to school and back, I can go a couple of days between charges. From what the dealer told me, consistently charging via the trickle charger (the 110V plug) is not recommended and nor is charging above 80%. So, I try to keep it within that range and will only fully charge overnight when I expect to go a “long” distance (over 120km).
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Kate
A victimless shooting occurred Monday evening in Villeray. TVA has a good photo of the police device used to measure bullet holes.
Also, another car was torched overnight.
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Kate
Another CBC-Concordia collaboration is looking at the role of community kitchens in providing food for people who can’t afford enough to eat. A list of such organizations might have made the article more useful.
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