Despite the extra millions poured into policing, the police brotherhood says there aren’t enough cops in Montreal and that this is why gun violence is on the rise. The mayor had a quick response, saying she has to find a balance between what the force wants and what its union wants.
Updates from August, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
The city may be about to buy the Manoir Lafontaine, which was in the news not long ago after tenants bucked a massive rent hike.
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Kate
The family of a man who died after he caught part of a sawblade in his head while passing by the St‑Hubert Street roadworks in 2019 are suing the city and three contracting firms for $700,000, alleging negligence in how site safety had been handled.
Ephraim
Just $700K? They can likely go into arbitration with the insurance company and get more than that just to not bother suing them for negligence
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Kate
The city has begun thinking about what to do with the Blue Bonnets land with an appeal to nonprofits to propose plans for a 200‑unit project to be built by 2024 (or maybe 2025). Eventually the area is expected to include 6000 housing units. Note that the weasel word “affordable” is in play.
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Kate
Usage of public transit has come back to roughly two‑thirds of prepandemic levels, with commuter trains seeing the lowest recovery.
Chris
At what level is car usage at now I wonder, for comparison purposes?
DeWolf
@Chris, there were some stories last fall about road traffic returning to pre-pandemic levels, with the benefits of WFH being outweighed by the sheer number of new cars on the roads (105,000 from 2020 to 2021).
https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/grand-montreal/2021-10-19/les-gros-bouchons-sont-de-retour.php
DeWolf
Last year there were still a lot of people avoiding public transit because they were worried about Covid. I don’t get the sense that’s much of a factor anymore, at least not for a statistically significant number of people. Instead, people are avoiding transit because service has been cut, and so much of the transit system is geared towards 9-to-5 commuters rather than people who need more flexible travel arrangements.
Em
A lot of people are still working from home at least part of the time, as well. I’ve gone permanently hybrid and so have many others.
Kevin
The impression I get is that overall, rush hour has greatly diminished compared to what it used to be, but that daytime traffic is higher than previously.
My morning commute (on a motorcycle) used to be 25 minutes and it’s now 15. My commute home used to 25 to 45 minutes — it’s now 15 to 20 (the higher end is with construction).
I’ve also found there are some areas that are now permanently heavy *but* they are still moving. For example, this weekend I went from NDG to Industrial Blvd in Laval via Decarie North and the Eastbound Met — and it took 30 minutes. Pre-pandemic that trip would take an hour or more.
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Kate
A man injured himself while firebombing a business on St‑Zotique early Monday. It’s a small tailor’s business with an apartment upstairs and looks like it’s been pretty definitively destroyed. The suspect is in hospital.
jeather
Actual example of hoist on his own petard.
DeWolf
I live just around the corner from this, maybe 25 metres away, and was woken up by the sound of people shouting and glass breaking. I thought it was some kind of fight, which is pretty unusual for the area, so I got up to look out the window, and by then firefighters had arrived police were urgently knocking on the doors of adjacent buildings. I could see the flames reflected in the windows of the restaurant across the street and the fire looked intense. By then the smoke was so thick I had to close all the windows. I’m pretty sure some of my neighbours’ smoke detectors started going off.
I just took a look at the damage now. Arson investigators are still combing through the scene and it’s a total loss for the tailor shop and the upstairs apartment, but the fire seemed remarkably well contained. The dentist’s clinic next door is completely unscathed.
DeWolf
I just noticed that La Presse interviewed the dentist in their story about the fire. Apparently he and the other shopowners have been the victim of targeted harassment over the past two months — threatening notes, paint splashed on the building — and he’s not surprised they were firebombed. The only unanswered question is why.
Check out the note in the photo. It’s very strange.
Kate
DeWolf, that is odd. The owner of the building is not Giovanni Di Tullio, at least according to the online tax roll.
walkerp
The note is odd, but how is this not anything but simple extortion?
M
I also live nearby where this happened. At 4 am I heard what sounded like fire works — and then within 20 minutes the intersection was filled with various first response vehicles.
I’m not sure if fireworks of some kind were also used in setting this duplex on fire, or whether that’s just the sound the building made as a result of catching fire
A neighbour of long standing in the area said he’d been noticing increase in arson in the area as landlords try to gain control of properties through means faster than the Tribunal can offer, even at its most submissive
In addition to the two shop keepers it appears at least 2 residential tenants had their homes destroyed
DeWolf
@M – the fireworks sound was from a hydro pole transformer exploding. There were some loud bangs followed by a cascade of sparks that fell onto the street. The power went out soon afterwards.
dhomas
That whole block of buildings is owned by the same owner/group. A friend of mine used to have a business in one of the units. Apparently, there is foundation damage to these buildings (or at least, that’s what the owner told him to get him to leave). I’m pretty sure the owners want to tear it down to build something new/taller.
jeather 17:09 on 2022-08-22 Permalink
What about what the population wants? Do we want millions poured into policing and more cops? I don’t think we do.
Ephraim 17:45 on 2022-08-22 Permalink
We have enough cops, we just give them too many things to do that aren’t their job. We should start taking them off their plate, starting with creating a traffic warden squad who can direct traffic. A social worker squad to be able to help with domestic disputes, the homelessness and sex-crimes. And a website with PDF files for reporting the things they are never gong to actually solve (but we would have to admit all the things that we really can’t solve, like every burglary). And maybe have a squad dedicated to using/soliciting camera footage so that some of these could be solved, but it’s entirely useless to have a beat cop do it.
Kate 20:15 on 2022-08-22 Permalink
Ephraim, you know the Brotherhood wants to keep those nice easy overtime traffic direction hours for themselves.
H. John 00:18 on 2022-08-23 Permalink
I don’t know if Montreal has a civilian oversight board for police (I don’t think it does); but, I’d certainly nominate Ephraim if we did.
SMD 00:38 on 2022-08-23 Permalink
Of possible interest, the Defund La Police festival is taking place on Sept 10th at NDG Park. Workshops, arts and activities all afternoon and evening.
steph 08:21 on 2022-08-23 Permalink
They sounds like delicate flowers, like they’re the only ones experiancing a labour shortage.
Kate 10:12 on 2022-08-23 Permalink
H. John, there have been calls at times for a civilian oversight board, but we don’t have one. The closest we got was the BEI, in which police oversee other police.