Things to do on the weekend from Daily Hive, City Crunch, CultMTL, Sarah’s weekend list.
Updates from November, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Luc Boileau, in charge of Quebec public health, has put an end to the five‑day isolation mandate for people with Covid, but made a wish that anyone with any kind of respiratory symptoms should wear a mask and stay home.
I’m sure the little signs that say On continue de se protéger will do us a lot of good.
MarcG
Covid is the 3rd leading (creeping up on 2nd) cause of death in Canada and we decide to do *less* to prevent it. Who are these people acting on behalf of? Good article from WSWS and relevant meme.
MtlWeb
The hand sanitizer approach to Covid is roughly similar to the feel-good January ritual of joining a gym after realizing you don’t fit into your once-a-year clothes….
MarcG
Worldwide expert panel study published in Nature yesterday: “SARS-CoV-2 is an airborne virus that presents the highest risk of transmission in indoor areas with poor ventilation.” Agree/Somewhat agree – 100%. Other highlights and a link to the report here.
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Kate
A man was arrested in St Vincent and the Grenadines this week and charged with a murder in Ahuntsic in 2016. His victim was a man who’d arrived here as a refugee from Rwanda in 2009.
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Kate
A man in the news in August for shouting racist slurs at a couple in a car is facing charges on that account, and also for assaulting a CTV reporter trying to interview him.
Richard Maréchal appears to think that two people having a private conversation should only be speaking French.
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Kate
It’s been taking more than an hour to get through the Lafontaine tunnel on the outbound side, Thursday, and it’s expected to get worse.
dhomas
Day 4: the bridge/tunnel crossing might be pretty bad today, according to these reports. I don’t take the bridge, so I can’t really say. However, the spillover into the surrounding areas was not as bad today as it was yesterday.
mare
This afternoon at 17h00 I took the Navette from Mercier to Boucherville, which subsequently goes over the LH Fontaine tunnel and under the LH Fontaine bridge. The tunnel wasn’t visible, but the traffic on the bridge was actually moving in a pretty steady pace in both directions. Getting onto the 25 was a problem though, I saw very looong and slow moving lines on many of the feeder roads on both sides of the river. The Jacques-Cartier (an hour later) was pretty smooth.
/eyewitness traffic reports while happily cycling.
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Kate
The SRB Pie-IX was formally opened Thursday morning, although there will be a detour caused by the construction site for the blue line extension at Jean‑Talon and Pie‑IX for at least a year.
Daniel D
Well, I thought I’d take a detour to check it out on my way home from work today only to realise it’s not open yet.
The article link above doesn’t seem to be working now, but I seem to remember when I read it I came away with the impression it was now open for business. I perhaps didn’t read it closely enough.
Awkward.
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Kate
A project that’s been under discussion since long before the millennium, the extension of Cavendish to the 520 is again in doubt although if there’s anything I’ve become aware of, doing this blog, it’s that when journalists canvass what the “critics say”, it’s mostly talk.
Anyone who understands cities knows that if this thing ever gets built, induced demand means it won’t help traffic congestion for long anyway.
Blork
In general, yes, the induced demand thing means such a measure has only a temporary effect. But in this case I think there’s also the increased demand BEFORE the Cavendish thing is built to think about; i.e., the RoyalMount project. So one could argue that Cavendish is a reaction to RoyalMount, not to a steady-state congestion issue, and therefore (maybe) will help with congestion.
And by “help” I mean move it from a 12 out of 10 to 11 out of 10. It won’t REMOVE the congestion, it will simply make it ever so slightly less unbearable.
That said, I feel bad for the people who live on west Cavendish and in CSL and NDG in general, as it will definitely mean more through traffic. Particularly that neighbourhood around west Cavendish, which is sleepy AF right now.
Ephraim
The Decarie exit for Jean-Talon gets so backed up at times that it spills back beyond de la Savane. And it’s a very difficult fix, because you have an entry for the Decarie just before it (which sometimes gets blocked by cars waiting for the exit. There is one day going to be a disaster there, with an incoming car hitting the back of the traffic waiting for the exit.
I sometimes wonder if the best solution for this is to actually close that entry and extend the exit ramp so that you have to exit that either extends to Ferrier or de la Savane or in fact, an exit at de la Savane itself, rather than at Pare
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Kate
Eight vehicles were torched in an incident early Thursday in St‑Laurent.
Update: There were a lot of torched cars overnight in multiple locations.
mare
Victimless crimes, We need more police!
(I guess it’s this lot: https://www.google.com/maps?q=45.4868333,-73.7241389. This is at a car exporter so probably just a malfunction because cars are basically bombs filled with flammable liquids with an convenient electrical ignition built in. Cars parked at garages are likely to have things wrong with them and are parked very close together because the lots are always too small.
Meanwhile, on average 8 pedestrians and an unknown number of cyclists* are hit by cars every day, but that’s completely normal, not newsworthy.
*the SAAQ seems to only release numbers after Access of Information requests.
(What is it will all the car news lately? Or is there always car news?)
Kate
There’s been a bit more news than usual lately about vehicles being burned, I think.
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Kate
The Ville-Marie autoroute needs upgrades and will be a worksite till 2026, then the Metropolitan needs work too.
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Kate
Québec solidaire is going to swear the oath to the king with the ultimate aim of abolishing the practice.
I honestly do not see what improvement such a change will make in the lives of Quebecers – even if Quebec can change this unilaterally as part of Canada, which I doubt.
Also, wasn’t it just as “bad” for them when it was the Queen? The monarchy has the same conceptual role in Canada regardless of the individual wearing the shiny hat, but only since the death of the Queen has this become such a hot potato. Some of the MNAs who’ve recently resisted the oath have taken it before, in some cases several times.
Blork
I think it’s natural that the discussion would happen now.
When the Queen was the monarch there were many entrenched admirers; those who admired her as the monarch and those who admired her as a global political figure. She was also quite likeable. Sort of like the world’s grandma. While many people complained about the Crown, not so many people wanted to make a stink about grandma personally.
And then along comes Charles. While he’s got some good things going for him (ecological stuff, etc.) he doesn’t attract admiration the way his mother did. Plus he’s new to the role. Those two things make it much easier to get up in his face.
It’s a time of great change in the monarchy, so it seems natural that the periphery of the monarchy would also jump on the bandwagon of change.
GC
It was arguably “worse” do it under the Queen, because we can point to specific crappy things she did in the past. But, as Blork said, she was likeable and lots of people had a soft spot for her even if they didn’t really want the monarchy. That’s why I roll my eyes extra hard at QS and the PQ. If making the stand were so important, they would have also done it when there was a popular monarch. Instead, they just waited for the best moment for their political theatre.
Kate
GC, that’s mostly what I’m saying. If it’s a conceptual problem now it should always have been a conceptual problem.
Anyway, it’s all grandstanding. The whole legal system here is based on the Crown. The CAQ can’t make that go away with a bit of stage magic flimflam.
Blork
Of course. It has always been a conceptual problem, but human nature and other “soft” factors play into when and how the reaction to the problem manifests. This is normal, and is seen over and over.
GC
As you said, Kate–I think in another thread–the MNAs all (should) know that it’s fruitless. But they are counting on some of their base not to know that, so the grandstanding will score points with them. If there’s anything that the “freedom” convoy proved, a lot of Canadians have a stunning lack of understanding about how our government actually works.
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