On the first snow day, drivers always have to relearn how to cope with the conditions.
Updates from November, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Chinese national Yueshang Wang, accused of spying on Hydro‑Quebec’s industrial secrets while working there, remains locked up for now, but it takes the Journal to ask the real question: why was Wang hired when he can’t speak French?
thomas
I am more puzzled by the assertion he can’t speak English. For someone, who doesn’t speak English he has contributed to an impressive number of papers in English journals.
Kate
He could be brilliant at engineering development and other people could’ve written it up.
Al
If he was working for a specific project that requires expert knowledge, I don’t see why French should be a barrier. I’m sure they make exceptions when necessary.
Kate
French should always be a barrier. Bill 96 doesn’t have any notwithstanding clause.
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Kate
We’re to expect a phone alert at five minutes to two, Wednesday afternoon.
Update: Yep, there it goes.
mare
Hah, I have a doctor’s appointment at that time, will be fun to hear that soothing sound propagate through the hospital. (Remember when cellphones weren’t allowed in hospitals? Seems like decades ago.)
EmilyG
One time I was in a mall when the phone alert went off on many people’s phones at once. It was kinda fun to watch.
Blork
I think I got it. I was flipping through some stuff on my phone at the time and it just hiccuped and a screen flashed for half a second (just as I was flipping something) so zing, it was gone. Did I miss anything? 🙂
CE
I had a job interview today right when the test was set to happen. I’m glad I remembered to turn off my phone before hand.
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Kate
The city will be increasing parking fines next year.
Ephraim
Even if there is no correlation between crime and punishment, the fine for parking in handicapped zone are still not enough. They need to be SHOCKING to get people to change… maybe adding to the sign that the fine is $500+ might get some people’s attention. The rest won’t really change anything
MarcG
@Ephraim: You may be right, but we just don’t want to, and won’t. You can whinge about it until you are blue in the face, but it won’t change. (Just seeing how it would feel to be against improving society – feels bad!)
Blork
I agree that the fine should be hefty. But corresponding to that, the signs must be very visible.
Years ago, when I worked in the McGill Ghetto, there was a spot on Milton that had a faint smudge of paint on the ground, which a decade earlier had been recognizable as an indicator of handicapped parking. There was also a sign on a post, but it was lost in the foliage of a tree.
The neighbourhood parking cop basically spent his day going back to that spot over and over and issuing ticket after ticket. No incentive to improve the signage because they were making a killing.
Chris
MarcG, don’t confuse a statement of fact (“You can whinge about it until you are blue in the face, but it won’t change”) with a value judgement as to whether that’s how it ought to be.
Tim S.
Blork, it’s very optimistic to think that the people who give out tickets talk to the people who put up signs.
dwgs
Chris, thank goodness we have you here to scold us on pretty much every thread, otherwise anarchy might ensue.
Blork
Tim S, I didn’t say that. I’m saying that the people who give out tickets take advantage of situations that create sitting ducks for them. (And by extension, it’s not fair to create hefty fines for infractions if you don’t correspondingly make it very clear what the infraction is.)
Joey
The $9 base fine increase may seem like a lot (18%), but since it hasn’t been indexed since 2020, it’s only $2.11 more than it was two years ago after adjusting for inflation. Hard to imagine a 4% real increase will “change the delinquent and problematic behaviour of motorists,” in the city’s own words.
Incorporating fine amounts into signage would do more to change behaviour than simpy raising fees – how many drivers actually know that parking in a bus lane can yield a fine of $271? Why hasn’t the city explored automating parking infractions – surely there are off-the-shelf cameras that can capture license plates of cars parked illegally.
Last, why no increase in the fines for non-EV cars parked in EV spaces?
Ephraim
Joey – Many cities use this. It is likely why the city wants to move to pay by plate, like Westmount already has. I think it’s Calgary and Edmonton where they have these trucks that go by every few minutes and record the licence plates. So even if you are simply STOPPED in a spot, and they go by twice and you haven’t paid, you get a ticket for parking
Something needs to be done about handicapped parking. It’s too important to those who need it and too easy for people to use as stopping zones. I think a sign warning them that the fine is over $300 would at least make people think twice. Better if it said “No stopping or standing” Or instead of a no parking handicapped sign, it was actually a no stopping except handicapped sign.
Maybe the city should use a glue stick and have them stick the ticket on the windshield… bet they will remember that!
Dominic
What happened to the rule that “If the penalty for a crime is a fine, then that law only exists for the lower class.”?
Ephraim
@Dominic – I’m not against have the value of the car as a multiplier on certain tickets.
thomas
There is a bill under consideration in New York City that would allow anyone to report, with a photo or video taken with an approved app, illegally parked vehicles and receive 25% of the fine. This is already done with idling commercial vehicles, but would be extended to cars in handicapped spots, in bike lanes, crosswalks etc.
Ephraim
Please… we still don’t have SMS 911 in Montreal. It’s standard in many places. I mean, how do you send the cops a picture of something when they don’t have the ability to get them…. twitter. And if you do, they complain that twitter isn’t monitored. They have cameras on streets… but can’t get a photo from a citizen?
thomas
@Ephraim not sure why the police would get involved. Upload a photo (like what is done now with potholes via the webform), a bureaucrat verifies it and if verified sends a fine to the vehicle owner.
Ephraim
That resembles the cars passing a school bus thing. And if I remember correctly, the footage has to be shown to a police officer to issue that ticket. That the law currently doesn’t allow anyone else to issue the ticket but an officer of the court.
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Kate
An 89-year-old pedestrian was killed in traffic Tuesday when a van knocked her down on St‑Denis.
shawn
I’ve never hit anyone THANK G-D but I often wonder what it actually entails when it says the driver is being “treated for shock.” What does that really mean, anyone know?
Simon
@shawn It means they got away with murder
Ephraim
A sudden loss of blood flow in the body. Anywhere from fainting to their heart stopping to vomiting. I was in a bank robbery and held my composure until I walked out and called the cops from a payphone. At that point, my feet gave out and I was down on the ground, not able to move and my hands shaking.
shawn
Thanks Ephraim. I was once caught in a hold up at gun point (though I’m still not sure the gun was real)… two guys, the other with a knife I think. Everyone kept their cool and then the robbers took off. We were all shaken afterwards but when it was done and we went out separate ways I felt strangely exhilarated. Like there was something about facing this and getting through it that I even liked in a weird way. I guess we all react differently, or maybe you knew you were more at risk than I felt I was.
That said, jesus, if I’d ever hit someone with a car I’d be a mess. So thank my lucky stars.
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Kate
TVA has photos of the road barricades that have begun to appear in a perimeter around the Palais des congrès for next month’s COP15.
If anyone’s thinking of protesting the event, I say look carefully at your group for agents provocateurs.
bumper carz
CARS (!!!) are allowed to use the Viger Street bike lane during the COP15?
What do the other species have to say about that?
Kate
The diplomatic corps will be travelling in cars, qatzelok. Unavoidable.
Spi
Pretty sure the cars using the bike lane is a temporary measure while they setup the barricades.
DeWolf
COP15 closing a metro station, rerouting bus routes and blocking a bike path while keeping the sacrosanct Ville-Marie car tunnel open is everything you need to know about this bit of political theatre.
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Kate
MBC was clearly uninspired when he wrote this aimless piece about how Montreal is getting so dangerous and women feel more and more vulnerable. I swear Quebecor has a rota and each opinion writer is obliged to write at least one anti‑Montreal piece every few weeks so the readers in small‑town Quebec feel vindicated. It was MBC’s turn and he couldn’t even get fired up about how dangerous multiculturalism is.
GC
I wonder if he actually spoke to any women about it, before he wrote it.
Kate
MBC doesn’t actually have to speak to people. He knows in his soul what the true Québécois(e) is feeling.
…While living in France, of course.
steph
The article is just crystal ball gazing. ‘It is not dangerous now, but it will become!”. Halloween was 15 days ago, drop the scare-mongering.
GC
You summed it up well, Kate, but then why do people actually care what he says? I guess because he’s telling them what they’ve already decided they want to hear.
Kate
In some circles MBC has a reputation as an intellectual.
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Kate
We’ll wake up Wednesday to 10 cm of snow or thereabouts.
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Kate
One of the last vestiges of Expo 67 was the La Ronde minirail, a separate loop from the minirail that served the rest of the site. But it’s now being demolished by Six Flags without any discussions with the city.
Taylor C. Noakes
I thought Six Flags was operating La Ronde under an emphyteutic lease agreement… you’d figure they’d have to run nearly every major decision by the city first, no?
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Kate
Not nearly as many commuters are availing themselves of the alternative methods of transit being offered to folks who’d normally drive through the tunnel, two weeks after its partial shutdown, as had been hoped or expected.
The transport ministry is also limiting access to trucks southbound, soon, to keep traffic flowing.
Chris
> Not nearly as many commuters are availing themselves of the alternative methods of transit being offered
Of course not. Free tickets won’t help, cost is not why people don’t use transit.
Taylor C. Noakes
I kinda love the idea of a bunch of the usual bridge and tunnel crowd, having heard of traffic hell for weeks on end, sitting in traffic halfway through the tunnel yelling aloud: “wHY DIdn’T aNYoNe wARN uS!?!”
nau
Lots of people would use transit more if it cost less but they’re not the people who commute by car through that tunnel by themselves. Those buses also take the tunnel, so they can’t get through any faster than the cars. Sure, if more people switch to the bus, both bus riders and drivers will spend less time in the tunnel, but which of these car commuters thinks they should be the one on the bus helping the other people who stay in their cars get across faster. Next to none.
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Kate
A mild earthquake registering as 3 on the Richter scale was felt in some parts of town Monday evening at 9:30.
I have to admit I felt nothing at my place.
Tuesday morning, Radio-Canada reports that the quake did no damage.
JP
Felt it! If it were winter, I would have thought it was some big snow-clearing truck..
Thomas
Oh wow, I felt it shake here in Ahuntsic but it never occurred to me it was an earthquake
Blork
I heard a thump but didn’t feel anything.
Mitchell
Westmount Snowdon — I’d dozed off — it woke me up.
MarcG
Verdun reporting: I more heard it than felt it and told myself it was a truck or unusually noisy train.
Sprocket
Not a hint of it in VSL that I noticed
shawn
I think I felt something in Mile End but I live over a busy alley and atop a old triplix that seems to shake so easily. In fact it occurs to me that it would have to be a fairly big tremblor for me to recognize it as anything other than the usual hubbub.
dhomas
I felt it out East, close to Radisson metro. It hit pretty hard for me. I went outside to check if someone had opened my (heavy wooden) garage door.
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Kate
Metro has a list of Christmas markets around town.
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Kate
Nasty story here about George Epoch, a Jesuit priest who left a trail of sexual abuse that appears to have started at Loyola High School then led to Indigenous reserves in Ontario.
(My father occasionally went to Manresa, the Jesuit retreat mentioned in the story, where Epoch lived between 1963 and 1969. I remember hearing the name when I was small. By the time my dad went there, he was well past the age group that Epoch preyed on – I hope.)
Epoch died in 1986 but the Jesuits have not come to the end of paying out damages on his account.
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Kate
The Gazette interviews the teacher who survived being stabbed by a student last year about his experience and lingering malaise.
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Kate
The Quebec college of physicians is back to recommending the wearing of masks in public places.
The Journal has an infographic showing the Covid variants and their prevalence in Quebec.
Spi
If the concern is RSV amongst children and paediatric emergency numbers, wouldn’t a more logical/ effective measure and public recommendation be to mask children, their parents and kindergartens and schools?
The point being don’t ask everyone to do their part before asking those directly affected and at risk to do theirs first.
Kate
You’d think so, but I read somewhere recently how difficult it is to make little kids keep their masks on, and how impossible to make them keep a safe distance from each other. You have to ask adults to do their part because little kids pretty much can’t.
MarcG
I picked up either Covid or Influenza at the hospital last week where masks are still required. Hour-long doctor’s appointment at the General (old building), in a small stale room, me wearing an N95, doctor and pretty much everyone else wearing near-useless surgical masks. We need a lot more than “please wear a mask” to manage this.
walkerp
Does seem like we should be masking everybody in school. And in my experience, children are way better at masking than adults, both in actually doing it when they are supposed to and doing it correctly.
Tim
@spi: you realize that those suffering most from RSV are around 3 years old? The theories that I have read say that they have not encountered enough bugs during their lifetime to help build up their immune system.
How would masking school kids help out kids in daycares? Seems like a pointless, knee jerk reaction to me.
Spi
Most kids have siblings, said siblings are in contact with at a minimum in 25-30 other kids in just their classrooms. Children bring home illnesses from school all the time.
How does asking me to mask in public when I’m literally not in contact with any children help?
Tim
I don’t understand where your question is coming from @Spi. Nowhere in my original post did I ever suggest that you masking is going to help children with RSV.
Children do bring home illnesses from school all the time. I believe this will continue to happen even if they are masked.
I am over putting the blame on kids for covid. Articles such as https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/im-a-public-school-teacher-the-kids or Robyn Urback’s latest (https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-since-the-start-of-the-pandemic-canada-has-not-stopped-short-changing/) show how much kids have suffered due to covid policies that have prioritized the needs of adults over children.
Again: the kids who are sick now are probably sick because they did not develop their immune system. The horse has left the barn. We cannot put the genie back in the bottle. The only definite accomplishment in requiring school kids to mask is that it will again put the burden of covid back squarely on the shoulders of school children. I don’t think that’s right.
But that’s just my opinion, as a parent.
MarcG
“How does asking me to mask in public when I’m literally not in contact with any children help?” Thinking only of yourself and your immediate contacts is evidence of not understanding how viruses spread. The person next to you at the grocery store has kids, or they are a teacher, or will see a doctor the next day and give the virus to the doctor who will then give it to parents who give it to children. Part of the reason we’re failing so hard at this is because no matter how much we like to think we’re different from Americans, we’re devoutly individualistic at heart and refuse to accept that the only way out of this is through collective action.
Kate
MarcG, you are totally right about this. It’s not a matter of individual choice and responsibility but too many people can’t see that.
MarcG
We grasped the concept at first but then it was beaten out of us by the business elite and their minions (“back to normal”, “lockdown”, “mental health”, “mild”, “meet people where they are”, “covid exhaustion”, etc). A huge stink was made about “think of the children!” when they had to do remote learning or wear masks… where are those people now?!
Spi
@Marc & Tim you’re purposely misinterpreting my comments.. My initial point was very clear, asking everyone to do their part before asking those most directly impacted and also most likely to spread RSV to the aforementioned is illogical.
We’ve been through two years of how viruses spread, everyone knows. My response to Tim about personal masking vs masking the children was a sarcastic reproach to his “How would masking school kids help out kids in daycares?” If you’re not going to require children in a schools/daycare (which are a massive vector of transmission) to mask up or at a minimum tell me parents to reduce their children’s social contacts, then asking the general population to mask up isn’t the most effective public health recommendation nor the most practical. You don’t wear a mask at home, kids don’t wear masks at school or daycare that’s a much more direct line of transmission than any interaction an adult is likely to have with a stranger in a public setting, or do we need to revisit the pandemic concepts of duration and intensity of contacts in closed indoor settings?
I’ll agree with Tim that kids are likely to have a weaker immune system and that many more will require hospitalisation than normally would but that doesn’t mean the “horse has left the barn” have we forgotten the lessons of flattening the curve? Who’s putting the individual above the collective now?
Ultimately I’m not the one that potentially has to bring my kid to the ER or watch them suffer because I thought society would shoulder that responsibility instead of me and my family.
Chris
>…it was beaten out of us by the business elite and their minions…
LOL. Have you considered that most people just legitimately disagree with you, and that your ‘business elite’ conspiracy is just not the case?
>The Quebec college of physicians is back to recommending the wearing of masks in public places.
They’re also recommending we eat healthier, exercise more, drink less alcohol, etc. They may be right, but we just don’t want to, and won’t. You can whinge about it until you are blue in the face, but it won’t change.
Kevin
Tim and Spi:
This concept of immunity debt is hogwash promoted by anti-vaxxers. https://globalnews.ca/news/9272293/immunity-debt-covid-19-misinformation/amp/Kids have awesome immune systems specifically because they are young.
The problems right now are a) decades of provincial govts scaling back healthcare has reduced capability and b) healthcare workers are burnt out.
MarcG
Sure, I could be wrong that mass media isn’t owned by business elites and it has no influence on public opinion.
Tim
Kevin, while the reduced capacity and burn out are two problems, you ignore the other major problem: there is a massive upswing in serious RSV infections.
This was predicted a year ago. From another Globe article: “As a neonatologist at BC Children’s Hospital and co-chair of a provincial program dealing with respiratory syncytial virus, Pascal Lavoie knows exactly how many cases of RSV are reported in the province.
In an average year, B.C. sees 1,450 cases of the common virus, which usually infects all children by the time they reach the age of two. But during the first full winter of COVID-19 in 2020-2021, with extensive public-health restrictions in place, there were only five.
Dr. Lavoie saw similar trends in Australia and the United States. However, in the summer of 2021, a major resurgence of RSV infections in those countries sent many children to hospital well before the usual fall onset of the virus.
In an article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in July, 2021, Dr. Lavoie and two colleagues warned that an upswing of RSV infections “could stretch resources in pediatric intensive care units across Canada.”
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-kids-hospitals-rsv-infections/
Chris
MarcG, you’re moving the goalpost. Sure media influences public opinion, I think most everyone agrees on that, though to what degree of course if up for debate. You said “We grasped the concept at first but then it was beaten out of us by the business elite and their minions (“back to normal”, “lockdown”, “mental health”, “mild”, “meet people where they are”, “covid exhaustion”, etc).” Perhaps I’ve misunderstood you, but you seem to be saying that the listed opinions were not commonly and genuinely held by many people until they were beaten into us. I’m saying those opinions *were* widely held, and the media covered them more than it created them. Perhaps in your bubble they were uncommon opinions, and you clearly wish others didn’t hold them and agreed with you instead, but alas it’s not the case.
MarcG
Perhaps I got it backwards then and it was concern for collective health that was beaten out of us rather than short-sighted selfishness beaten in.
Tim S.
69% of Canadians support or somewhat support the return of mask mandates if necessary.
MarcG
And 90% of Québecers wear seat belts when in cars. I’m learning that the majority of people need to be coerced into behaving intelligently.
Kevin
Tim
As that article points out, the real problem is surge capacity.Blame the politicians for making stupid choices without thinking of consequences
Tim
I’ll blame the politicians, universities for not graduating enough doctors/nurses and the many layered forms of hospital administration that are incapable of making any type of substantial improvements that could lead to better patient outcomes. Just last week the premiers rejected money from the feds because it required the provinces to supply data so that the feds could actually measure the progress.
I’ll also blame the general public who are also highly resistant to any type of change in healthcare. The boogie man of American healthcare looms large in any discussion.
Did I miss anyone? 🙂
Chris
Tim, that CTV poll is dubious. What does it mean to support a mask mandate “*if necessary*”? Everyone has a different line for where ‘necessary’ is. So sure, if *I* think it’s necessary, then *I* support a mandate. Surprising the number isn’t higher than 70% really.
Tim S.
Actual question from the poll: “Would you support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose or oppose a return to mandatory wearing of face masks in indoor public places this fall if authorities deem it necessary due to rising COVID case numbers?”
So not relying on personal position but trusting government.
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