The Journal claims that apartment vacancies are up as Moving Day approaches – but this data is coming from the landlords’ club, CORPIQ, so the grains of salt are big ones.
Updates from May, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Little has changed since two reports a year ago described racism among city blue-collar workers in Montreal North. Black men working there say there are still nasty jokes, snide comments about their food, expressions of surprise that they can even read. I can’t believe that the foremen on the floor never hear these remarks, but what are they doing to shut them down?
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Kate
Two La Presse editorialists are concerned about the public mood Friday. Nathalie Collard spins off the story of the man punching the young soccer referee to generalize to the anger and volatility seen on social media. Patrick Lagacé, in a piece titled Le monde est pas bien, recounts how he reported a death threat to police, only to find that not only did the menacer not know him, he had not even read him, but had read something on social media criticizing him, and had responded by sending a death threat. Lagacé includes some footnotes to articles and stories supporting his conclusion that the world has a short fuse.
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Kate
There’s a thoughtful column in the Globe & Mail Friday from a local CEGEP teacher on the implications of Bill 96: she sees, as I often do, echoes of Quebec’s fervent religious past in its willingness to welcome so intrusive a law. (I’m citing an archive version, not the paywall link.)
In the Gazette, Allison Hanes also writes a last gasp about the bill and about a protest planned for Saturday.
As an anglo it’s difficult to write about Bill 96 without automatically tarring oneself a bitter angryphone, so I’ll leave it there.
Update: Neither François Legault nor the PQ’s Paul St‑Pierre Plamondon – a graduate of McGill and Oxford – will deign to participate in any English‑language debate before the election.
Further update: There will be no English‑language debate.
Tim S.
“As an anglo it’s difficult to write about Bill 96 without automatically tarring oneself a bitter angryphone, so I’ll leave it there.”
Exactly. I’m a little disappointed that there hasn’t been more been more opposition from those francophones who have benefited from anglo CEGEPs and Universities, and from aspirational parents who hope to send their children. These are the groups losing out, more than anglophones (leaving aside the constant ‘othering’). But as a friend pointed out, probably they’re all convinced their children will make it into the tiny quota of elite francophone students who will continue to get in. Clever move, leaving that faint-hope provision.
Curious to see if tomorrow’s march gets any coverage in non-English media.
Steve
Despite the hand wringing over bill 96 (I do not see a need to capitalize it) things will be fine here. My window looks over an elementary school yard. 80%+ of the children screaming and running around are not white.
They are the future of Quebec.
We are living in the Decline & Fall of the Quebecois de Souche Nation. An enjoyable incongruity in the movement towards global normalization.
Kate
This afternoon I was all caught up on work, so I went to Jean‑Talon Market to buy a few plants to pop into the ground around my place. And all over the market, people were speaking a mixture of English and French, sometimes switching mid‑sentence – something I’m sure we’ve all done, a style of communication heard all over town. I even got to try out a bit of Spanish on a guy working for one of the stalls. (“¡Un poco, señor!”) And nobody got pissed off or felt hard done by.
Earlier this week I met with my new nurse practitioner, and she and I also communicated in a mixture of English and French. It was a good encounter and, once again, nobody got pissed off or felt hard done by.
That’s the reality here. I need to hang onto that knowledge.
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Kate
Here are your weekend driving crises.
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Kate
Quebec’s mask mandate will mostly be gone on Saturday except for public transit, health care facilities and seniors’ residences.
Update: 30 new Covid deaths ticked up Friday. This is fine.
Kevin
How does a province celebrate tripling the rate of death from a disease? By pretending it never happened in order to increase the death toll.
Denis 08:21 on 2022-05-14 Permalink
Fun fact: ce chiffre n’est pas une hausse. La CORPIQ manipule toujours ses publications.
La CORPIQ avait annoncé 6% de vacance en décembre 2020 et 5.6% de vacance en juin 2021. Nous sommes à 4.7% là. C’est une baisse graduelle des appartements disponibles depuis plus d’un an.
LA CORPIQ compare avec les résultats de la SCHL, qui est sondage complètement différent et toujours très loin de leur chiffre. Comparer les deux est une horreur statistique.
Ils mentent aussi sur la “hausse phénoménale des ménages qui quittent Montréal”. Le dernier bilan démographique du Québec montre qu’il y a une hausse, mais pas phénoménale, et surtout ce sont les autres phénomènes exceptionnelles de la pandémie qui a coupé les entrants qui ont eu beaucoup plus d’impact.
La CORPIQ est ignoble.
Kate 09:07 on 2022-05-14 Permalink
Merci, Denis!