Does the cross turn purple when a retired Pope dies?
Updates from December, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
TVA looks at ten incidents in Quebec that stood out in 2022 and La Presse talks about the homicides investigated by the SQ. The Gazette lists all the homicides in Montreal this year.
The Journal looks forward to court cases that should be heard in 2023.
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Kate
The Covid pandemic was worse in Quebec in 2022 than in was in 2021, with more of us hospitalized and more Covid deaths. Aaron Derfel tweets about a new subvariant called XBB.1.5 that’s rife just south of us in New York State.
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Kate
There’s a fog warning for Montreal on the weather page. Here in Villeray it’s gray and soggy, but there’s no fog. On a quick sampling of the city traffic cams, I see fog at the far ends of the island, but not much elsewhere, at nearly 11 am.
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Kate
A man was shot dead in St‑Laurent Friday evening, the 41st homicide of the year.
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Kate
La Presse shakes loose more details on the death of Nicous D’Andre Spring at Bordeaux Jail last weekend.
In short, there was a brawl in the prison, D’Andre Spring was pepper‑sprayed twice then put in solitary and not monitored. This is a hard article to read, because they walk us through exactly what the procedure should be to decontaminate someone who’s been pepper‑sprayed in detention, showing exactly where the procedure was not followed.
It will be hard for any investigative report to contradict what La Presse’s journalists have already found out.
A vigil was held Friday evening in NDG, and CTV also speaks to a lawyer about reasons why D’Andre Spring might not have been released despite making bail.
No Borders Media has a twitter thread about the vigil.
dwgs
And if I’m reading that correctly, it was the employee who objected to the mistreatment who was immediately suspended and not the team leader?
Kate
That’s how it reads to me as well.
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Kate
As announced a few days ago, the city has bought the land in Little Burgundy where the old Negro Community Centre used to be, and is turning to the community to find out what kind of centre is needed there now.
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Kate
A driver, said to have been intoxicated, drove through two fences in a public park before crashing his car into a house in Pierrefonds, early Friday. Nobody got hurt.
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Kate
Le Devoir looks into the rise of winter cycling in the city.
M
It’s never a good sign when you don’t give actual numbers to support your argument; An ‘83% increase in winter ridership over the 2015-2019 average’ could mean anything. I live in bike central and you hardly ever see a soul on the bicycle paths during wintertime. So, for all we know it went from 100 cyclists to 183. Admitting that cycling is not a winter sport is not a defeat for the cause, it’s just common sense with our weather conditions.
DeWolf
The numbers are right here:
https://data.eco-counter.com/ParcPublic/?id=630#
Last winter, the path on St-Denis just below Rachel saw between 300 to 700 cyclists per day. So far this winter, there has been between 400 and 1400 per day. (By contrast, last summer it was roughly 7000 per day.)
You’d have to do more digging to see the difference between previous years, but generally there is a measurable increase in the number of people who are cycling in the winter. It’s still a tiny fraction of the number that cycle in the warm season, but it’s not nothing.
If and when Bixi finally offers some kind of winter service, as they’ve been promising for years, you’d see an explosion in the number of winter cyclists, just like you saw a huge increase in cycling when Bixi launched in the first place. The only thing keeping me from using my bike in the winter is the hassle of increased maintenance due to the road salt.
bumper carz
I’ve been winter-cycling – almost every day – for the last 15 years – so I’ve learned a lot about cleaning your bike before and after a ride.
POST: If you keep your bike in a warm place, you can rinse off all the post-ride sludge with warm water while scraping metal parts with a plastic-bristled brush that you can buy at Dollarama.
PRE: Before cycling, it’s a good idea to examine the transmission (chain and moving parts) to see if they are dirty with chemical products (and the resultant rust) from the road-salt crew. If so, wipe your chain and moving components thoroughly with a paper towel (disposable) and then re-oil any parts that look dry.
It takes about 10 minutes per day to prep and clean your bike, but in exchange, you get to do cheap outdoor activities every day of the winter! This can save you thousands of dollars on your commutes as well.
And by the way, M, ‘common sense’ is traditionally created by live interactions in a community, not by interacting with commercial media alone, as is often the case in our day. Consider my input ‘community.’
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Kate
Paul Journet has a list of les maux de 2022 which is a lot more amusing than the many resumés of the year from the Journal, including MBC’s “Je n’aime pas les années 2020” – too bad we don’t have a time machine to send MBC back to the 1720s, where he’d fit right in.
CultMTL offers its most‑read stories of 2022.
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Kate
Quebec’s determination to offer cannabis edibles like dried beets and cauliflower is driving customers into buying from unofficial sources online, big surprise there. I like the gritted teeth almost audible as the SQDC spokesman says the weird edibles “allow us to respond to market demand” – I bet his marketing degree never covered this.
Mark Côté
They now have some sort of infused fruit bars that ironically look like something kids might have packed in their lunch boxes…
Kevin
My pet theory is that every edible has to be approved by weed-hatin’ Legault, who deliberately comes up with the most unappetizing items possible.
Kate
Mark Côté: I don’t see those products on the SQDC website – unless you mean the Pomme et Matcha, Abricot et Reishi type items in the same dreary packaging as everything else?
jeather
You also can’t get anything for topical use, and though I tried candies and wasn’t a fan, I did like the CBD bath salts and don’t entirely understand why they are illegal.
shawn
I may have mentioned this before but anyone looking for ingested SQDC products might want to try the Tweed Sativa “900” oral spray. It’s pleasant-tasting.
Ian
There are lots of legal weed retailers online.
One in particular that I know of that will deliver from BC and it arrives the next day by courier in an innocuous package. Gummy flavours like mango, cherry, strawberry. Weed vape, pre-roll, bud, whatever you like. Precise and consistent doses. CBD, THC, you name it – even shrooms, in several varieties. Plus of course the regular sativa and indica products. Even infused chocolates.
I don’t know what kind of silly game the CAQ is playing at but they are missing out on A LOT of revenue for no good reason, very much a cutting off your nose to spite your face moment. It’s not like this is the 1970s where Quebec can effectively isolate itself at the whim of the state.
Blork
Ditto what Ian said, although the one MY FRIEND USES delivers via Canada Post. It’s so effortless that this whole question about the technicalities in Quebec seems almost moot.
Joey
Pretty sure ordering weed from elsewhere in Canada is illegal (I think you can only legally procure it in Quebec from the SQDC). The bigger issue seems to be the lack of potency rather than the lack of tasty options…
shawn
Oh yeah I used to order for one of those BC online dispensaries and it’s totes illegal. I stopped because legal bud at the SQDC is just fine, much of the time. But I didn’t know about shrooms! Uh oh. Now you’ve got me tempted again.
shawn
BTW I see psilocybin, DMT and other psychedelic plants have just been officially decriminalized in Colorado. Going to be hard to stop this thing…
MarcG
A friend of mine has a prescription for weed from his doctor and that allows him to order stuff online from out of province legally.
shawn
Fwiw I remember now that that the BC dispensary I’d been buying from had a pull-down menu for the disorder that I was to have been diagnosed with (without needing to provide proof).
There was never any doubt in my mind that I was going to buy it legally when I could but one more thing that tipped it for me was when the federal government began cracking down and my particular online dispensary moved its credit card processing overseas. Just made me leery.
Mark Côté
Kate: yup those. They’re like fruit bars.
JaneyB
I confess I love the confidence of countering kid-friendly edibles with beets and cauliflower alternatives. Only in Quebec!
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Kate
I live in Justin Trudeau’s riding, so a small 2023 calendar featuring photos of the prime minister was just popped into my mailbox.
I’m a little disappointed that, given Papineau’s demographics, while Good Friday and Easter are marked, no Muslim or Hindu holy days are on it. And while there’s a photo of Trudeau participating in the Greek parade for March, there’s no note for Greek independence day on March 25.
Also, Family Day in February and Civic Day in August are both marked, although neither of these days is observed in Quebec.
There is a list of national, cultural and religious holidays in the back, in mouse type, but I think this could be done better.
I should have sent him a copy of the weblog calendar.
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Kate
As many as 9000 patients may have received false negative HIV results when recalled tests were used in three MUHC hospitals.
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Kate
Patrick Lagacé talked to Maxime Canuel, the high school art teacher stabbed a year ago by one of his students and, with his agreement, brought him together with the surgeon who saved his life that day.
Canuel hasn’t been able to teach since then. The unnamed minor assailant is serving two years in juvie.
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Kate
The man killed at Bordeaux Jail on Saturday should have been freed the day before, but for some reason he was kept locked up and treated to an “intervention physique” that killed him.
At least 132 people have died in Quebec provincial prisons since April 2017, only 43 from natural causes.
Ian
It would be interesting to know how many others were also POC.
Kate
Or Indigenous.
Ian
Let’s just say BIPOC.
Not Montreal, but relevant: https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2022/02/16/report-black-and-indigenous-inmates-experience-more-use-of-force-incidents-in-prison.html
Blork 16:00 on 2022-12-31 Permalink
I’m guessing “no.” Wouldn’t want people to think it’s the current pope who died (given that these protocols were established long before electronic media). That said, there hasn’t been a death of a retired pope in six centuries.
Ian 20:10 on 2022-12-31 Permalink
Red would be better, to match his ruby slippers.
Uatu 21:10 on 2022-12-31 Permalink
The secular cross knows no papal colours! ;P