A man was stabbed in broad daylight Friday morning on Prince Arthur, after an altercation with several others.
Updates from November, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Ted Rutland gives his thoughts on Fady Dagher and community policing, in a twitter thread.
The risk is that instead of providing community services, the city can simply provide police. I also like his point that “the police don’t so much work with communities as *produce* communities. The people and groups they work with become “the community,” a police-community alliance that informs and feeds the repression of non-allied community members.”
I remember being enlightened some years ago, in a piece concerning the experiences of Black people in Montreal, that journalists tended to talk airily about “the Black community” but that there wasn’t any such thing. There were anglophone Black folks, Haitians, Black francophones from Africa, and many Black people not fitting into any neat category, not all fitting into one tidy community definition.
Anyway, read the thread.
Dagher is promising a balance between repression and prevention.
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Kate
This revelation of the forced sterilization of Indigenous women collides with Quebec’s challenge to the court ruling that police can’t randomly stop people, the judge having said clearly that random stops give police a way to express their institutional racism. Because after all, Quebec has absolutely no institutional racism, except when it’s snipping the tubes of some Cree woman because she has “too many children.”
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Kate
Quebec has finally decided to make the flu shot free for everybody – an “exceptional” measure for this year only.
I’ve been getting a flu shot every year for at least ten years, and never had to pay. I’m not a senior citizen, I don’t have any obvious risk factors – but nobody has ever asked me, or anyone within view, for money. I tend to think that Quebec wanted people to believe they had to pay, to keep numbers down, but in fact if you went and asked for a flu shot they gave it to you, no questions asked.
Kim
I also get a flu shot every year at the pharmacy, and have had to pay every year, as well as my partner.
jeather
In my experience at a pharmacy, they are strict about who gets a free shot, while at a clinic they just give it to anyone who wants.
Kate
Previous years I went to the CLSC, once – in the first year of the pandemic – to a special flu shot clinic. But this year, Clic‑Santé sent me to the closest Pharmaprix. A few people were lined up, people of various ages, I waited, I got the shot, and I didn’t have to pay – maybe because this was an arrangement with Quebec rather than the pharmacy itself? But there wasn’t a cash desk or card machine anywhere in sight.
Mark Côté
Same, I’ve rarely paid. Last year I did, although my daughter was free because she has light asthma. This year I went to the same pharmacy and when I asked about paying at the end the nurse just sorta smiled and shrugged.
EmilyG
I’ve never had to pay for a flu shot. I’m prepared to mention my asthma if they ask if I’m in a priority group, but they haven’t asked.
Daniel D
When I went for my COVID shot last week at the Olympic Stadium, they offered me the flu shot as well free of charge even though I’m not in a priority group. Perhaps this was unofficial policy?
jeather
Guess the pharmacy depends, I haven’t heard stories of it being free before. I’ve never paid either, but I only have gone to vaccination centres. It was very weird going in asking only for flu (because I had gotten covid booster a few weeks prior), most people wanted both and a few just covid. I’m hoping the good news about mRNA for flu comes soon because I got so sick from the vaccine when the COVID ones have had no effect and I’m convinced it is the reason. (All vaccines make me sick, though only temporarily.)
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Kate
For the first time, the metropolitan community has adopted a housing policy, focusing on social housing and the needs of different kinds of households.
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Kate
CBC talked to Expo 67 historian Roger Laroche about the loss of the last operating Minirail.
(did Matt Galloway really say “How big of a deal….”? Yuck.)
Ian
It really was a fun little ride and a real godsend when visiting the park with small children, the ferris wheel is off at the far end of the park from the entrance…
It’s sad (and frankly a bit gross) how many of the older rides are closed or in poor repair. Like, when was the last time the calliope worked on the carousel, or the Haunted House ride was actually in operation?
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Kate
Bixi says its numbers were up 55% and membership up 30% in the recent season.
Meezly
BIXI was definitely more reliable than the bus.
Poutine Pundit
It wasn’t more reliable than the bus. Offer has not kept up with demand. The station next to my place never had any bikes available.
Meezly
I’m speaking of my own experience, not everyone’s. At least with BIXI, I could consult the map to find the nearest station with bikes.
The bus app I was using completely threw me off, even with GPS. It kept saying in 10 minutes, 5, 2… 1…, and the bus never showed. Complete waste of time. If I knew the bus would be a no-show, I could’ve just taken a BIXI and not be so late to where I needed to go!
Sure, maybe during rush hour there would be a dearth of BIXIs in a given area, but the times when I waited for a bus that never showed, I was able to find a BIXI.
DeWolf
Poutine Pundit and I have the same Bixi station and it was a nightmare all summer. I’d say it was empty about 90 percent of the time. And so were many of the nearby situations, to the point where I’d often have to walk 15 minutes out of my way just to get a bike.
I also remember going out very late one night with some friends during the Francos. We closed out a bar in Chinatown, which was fun because I can’t remember the last time that happened, but after getting some post-drinking food, we realized there were absolutely no Bixis anywhere downtown or on the lower Plateau. Taxis were scarce, Uber was surge pricing insanity, and we didn’t want to be crammed onto a night bus, so we ended up walking an hour up to Gilford before we found a station that had any bikes at all. And weirdly, returning to my always-empty station, we found it… nearly empty. Where were people going with all the bikes?
Kate
At the beginning of the season Bixi was practically begging people to work for them, so I presume they never managed to hire enough folks to drive the truck-trailers that move bikes around. Which isn’t an excuse but it might explain the problem.
DeWolf
Yeah, it was a perfect storm. A huge surge in ridership along with a staff shortage. Things did get much better in September and October.
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Kate
I’m trying to make sense of this story, which even a lawyer cited in the text says is a very rare circumstance: the police brotherhood is suing the city of Montreal for not investigating sources of risk in police parking lots, and not making them safer for police to use. Thing is, who would the city consult on making things safe, besides the police themselves?
steph
Maybe we can pay cops minimum wage and use the rest of the money to give them protection? /Reductio ad absurdum
Marco
Maybe take away the parking lots until this is settled. Cops can take public transit.
Ephraim
Are the police paying to use the parking lots? If they are, they can have an expectation. But if they aren’t, it’s a work benefit and it is 100% taxable as a benefit to them under Quebec law and has to be reported by the city on their tax forms. Maybe some of the reporters should investigate that… ask the brotherhood about that…
Hub
so the city now can use something like metapolice– supercops that can protect those everyday cops.
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Kate
A reduction in transit service from the STM is being considered for next year because ridership is not showing signs of returning to pre‑pandemic levels.
Daniel D
I think this is understandable. I hope the reduction in frequency isn’t accompanied by a reduction in reliability. If I had to choose between the two, reliability would win out every time.
Em
Wonder how this is related to making service free for seniors next year.
While I understand they may have no choice, it’s also a chicken and egg scenario. They reduce service because not enough people take transit. Consequently, even fewer people take transit.
My personal feeling is that a bus that comes less than once every 15-20 minutes will not be used as a primary option for anyone with another choice.
Joey
Seems a lot of bus-riders opted for (probably electric) Bixis this year: https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/grand-montreal/2022-11-24/records-d-achalandage-et-de-membres-pour-bixi-en-2022.php
Ridership up 55%, membership up 30%.
DeWolf
Ridership will never recover if service keeps getting cut.
Ian
unreliable, uncomfortable … and underfunded. Gee I wonder why ridership isn’t bouncing back.
DeWolf is absolutely right, this is precisely the worst thing to do to the system right now.
This also plays into why people aren’t flocking back to their office jobs. If you can’t rely on regular service it isn’t a practical option for commuters except those who have literally no other choice.
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Kate
The Amtrak Adirondack was cancelled early in the pandemic. Despite some demand, there’s still no date for its return.
EmilyG
I hope it comes back. I’ve enjoyed taking that train.
Ian
Same. Plus if that train is cancelled the likelihood of any other line that isn’t a milk run becomes more and more unlikely.
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Kate
Former PQ MNA Harold LeBel was found guilty on Wednesday of sexual assault. The PQ isn’t making a scintillating impression lately, what with former leader André Boisclair having been turned down for parole last week; he’s doing time for two sexual assaults.
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Kate
Contradicting recent news, Radio‑Canada has the scoop that Fady Dagher will be the new SPVM chief. Dagher has been chief of Longueuil police since 2017. La Presse has confirmed the story, tipping their hat to Radio‑Canada’s scoop.
The official announcement is to be made Thursday.
Update: Patrick Lagacé’s reaction is pretty positive.
Ian
As Ted Rutland notes,
“After two years of the SPVM winning unprecedented budget increases based on racist fearmongering, they’ve now got the perfect leader for winning even larger increases based on improving community relations (using very old ideas that will be celebrated as something new).
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Since it seems Fady Dagher is going to be the next director of the SPVM, reposting this piece on the Dagher/Longueuil model of policing. In short, the model involves hiring hundreds of cops to be social workers (with guns and without the training).”
DeWolf
This bit from the story in La Presse seems like the SPVM attitude in a nutshell:
« Ça tire beaucoup à Montréal ces temps-ci, ce n’est pas le temps de faire de la police communautaire. Il faudra être répressif durant un certain temps », a réagi un enquêteur sous le couvert de l’anonymat, car il n’est pas autorisé à parler aux médias.
Ian
At least it’s not clowns dressed like cops like they had “patrolling” the pedestrianized streets this summer
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Kate
So many homeless people hang around inside the Palais des congrès that people doing business in the concourse are getting angry. Philippe Teisceira‑Lessard talks here to a lot of the merchants, all of whom say similar things about the disturbances caused both to their customers and their employees.
Interesting how Palais security washes its hands of things that happen inside the businesses, then the SPVM washes its hands of things that happen inside the Palais. Teisceira‑Lessard doesn’t mention it, but I bet there will be one almighty security sweep there before COP15.
Speaking of which, La Presse also looks at how the CHUM hospital is bracing for COP15, both for possible incidents, and the possibility of protests blocking access to emergency vehicles along Viger.
steph
If the landlord can’t provide adequate security, take your business elsewhere. How is it the police have no jurisdiction inside the Palais? Somthing is beyond fuzzy.
Spi
It’s private property? Just as the police can’t just barge into any dwelling or businesses unless requested or pursuing an active crime.
steph
private property… so the garda cops can unquestionably escort any undesirables out and away. Or call the police to do it. ya know, like they do at the Eaton Centre, or EVERYWHERE else in montreal. This isn’t a unique problem.
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Kate
A man arrested for assaulting random people in the street in Snowdon was freed but has since been accused of murdering a 75‑year‑old man. A lot is omitted from this account, such as where and when the murder took place, and how police linked him to the victim. I don’t think this was reported at the time as a homicide.
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Kate
The city is planning to offer free public transit to people 65 and over, as of next July.
DeWolf
This is great. When I was living in Hong Kong, the government began offering a flat HK$2 (about 30 cents) fare for all buses and trains. There’s always a lot of old timers hanging out in parks and in the streets, but suddenly you started seeing a lot more old people leaving their neighbourhoods and going to far-flung places just for the fun of it.
Nicholas
It’ll be interesting to see the details. Will you need an age d’or OPUS (meaning most visitors and very occasional users will need to pay), or RAMQ (out of province will pay) or any random ID? Is it just valid for city residents (budget from city), or agglo residents? Is it valid only on STM, or on Exo and REM? Only within city limits or all of Zone A, or the whole network of the STM including metro off-island? Laval lets Laval residents get an OPUS with free service on STL buses only (not STM or Exo), regardless of which zones the STL passes through, and Laval seniors need to buy a second OPUS to load reduced fare tickets outside of the STL. Lots of ways this could go.
Blork
Here’s how it will work.
Seniors 65+ will have to go in person Berri/UQAM where they will need to purchase a special OPUS card. They will need to pay the regular rates for a monthly pass or individual tickets. Once a month they will need to log into the STM website, where they must be registered, and download the official trip log that was generated by the system. However, the site will almost always be down, but no worries, there’s a backup plan: they can go to an administrative office in Rivière-des-Prairies where they can obtain a printed copy. They must then submit their trip log to their local borough administrative office BEFORE the 5th of the next month. At the end of the year, they must submit a request to City Hall, along with supporting documents from the STM and their borough office. This will result in a tax credit against their property tax for the coming year.
Renters will instead receive a report from City Hall that must be submitted to the Regie des Logements, who will authorize their landlord to rebate the amount from the tenant’s rent, after which the landlord can submit a request to City Hall for an equivalent tax credit.
See? Free transit!
Tim
Another gift for the least poor demographic in our society. They could have easily made it means based for seniors that need it. Disgusting.
Blork
Tim, that’s a shitty way to look at it. It’s only a gift to those who take it. The wealthy seniors will not use it so for them it’s moot and costs no one anything. But there are loads of seniors on fixed incomes, and with no prospects for gaining any additional wealth (too old to get a new job, never going to inherit anything, etc.). This is for them.
It’s completely wrong to assume that all seniors or even most seniors are wealthy just because they’re wealthy as a demographic.
Tim
Blork, I do not assume that all seniors are wealthy. I even suggested that the program should be means based, making it free for those that are truly in need.
I don’t agree that a wealthy senior would not take advantage of this either. I believe that they will and that they should be paying something (it was already a reduced fare)
Blork
I suspect the number of wealthy seniors you’ll see riding free public transit will be negligible, and given that the only cost is opportunity cost, then I don’t see why anyone would find this “disgusting.” It’s not like they’re handing out bundles of cash or scarce resources that could be used elsewhere.
Tim
Easily identifiable risks for this policy include the fact that this could increase the load on the system and could change usage patterns (maybe more seniors will take transit during rush hour if it’s free).
We have an aging society where the proportion above 65 continues to increase. This suggests a shrinking base of paying users for the foreseeable future. What impact will this have in 5, 10 or 20 years?
Not to mention that once this change is made next year, it will become intractable and pretty much impossible to change from a political point of view. When Harper tried to raise the target CPP age from 65 to 67 with a 20 year horizon it was a political landmine.
I do hope that there is some type of special OPUS card so at least management will be able to measure the impact directly. Maybe a couple of years from now we can revisit the topic with some real data.
Maybe “disgusting” was harsh, but I just don’t like the arbitrary nature of this change. What is so special about 65? Why didn’t they choose 60 or 70? Why not have a policy based entirely on need that does not bring age into the equation? If you are poor, no matter what your age, transit is free for you.
Blork
Tim, you’re tilting at windmills. There is virtually no risk of an increased load on the system, especially at commuting times. Most people over 65 are retired, so they don’t have a commute. And if they have any sense at all, they’d do their chores or social visits or whatever in off-hours. The odds of this changing transit usage patterns in any significant way are extremely low.
What’s so special about 65? It’s when most people retire. It’s the upper limit of the age at which various “senior discounts” set in. It’s generally considered the point at which we transition from middle age to old age.
The idea of giving discounts and other special treatment to seniors is well established in our society and generally well regarded. It’s a thing we do as a sign of respect for our elders, many of whom are on a fixed income and have declining health and mobility, and all sorts of other issues to worry about.
Making it a blanket age-based “gift” is far easier and more cost effective than implementing some Byzantine system of needs checking that would cost actual money and effort (see my first comment in this thread). Again, it’s not like they’re handing out something tangible, where the wealthy 65-year-old gets a bag of money and the poor 64-year-old gets nothing. All this does is offer free entry into an existing service for people who probably won’t even use it very often.
When I think of the seniors I know, I can tell you this: very few of the ones “with money” will use the free transit with any regularity, and especially not on commuting times. They’ll continue to use their own cars, or taxis, or whatever. If on occasion they take the Metro to some event or other, big deal! I’ll be the first to hold the door for them.
I disagree that this is “arbitrary.” Sure, it would be nice if transit and other things were priced according to people’s ability to pay, but this is the real world. Such a thing will never happen, and if it ever did it would be rife with confusion and corruption and would be expensive and wasteful to run. Free transit starting at 65 — a non-arbitrary age (see above) — makes perfect sense, costs nothing, helps some people, and is a visible sign of respect for elders.
Tim
Looking forward to analyzing the data with you in a couple of years Blork. 🙂
We’ll see if it’s only a $40 million dollar hit (number taken from https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/public-transit-to-be-free-for-seniors-on-island-of-montreal-as-of-july-source-says) or otherwise.
Blork
It’s a date!
jeleventybillionandone 19:02 on 2022-11-25 Permalink
I walked by this morning and saw the dog handler without her dog. She wasn’t obviously a cop, and it was weird to see someone walking around with a gun but no uniform.
jeleventybillionandone 19:03 on 2022-11-25 Permalink
Oops. I was referring to the person pictured in the first (TVA) story.
Kate 20:41 on 2022-11-25 Permalink
You’re right. I even looked twice at that photo because I wondered about her expression. It didn’t click that she wasn’t in uniform, although I don’t know whether police dog handlers always wear them.