Metro tells us about the commemorations planned for December 6 and CTV about the young woman who was awarded the memorial scholarship this year. Later, CTV also added information about memorials as did La Presse and Global.
Following from comments below: a spokeswoman for the Canadiens says Carey Price was unaware of the Polytechnique massacre.
The STM has put out a call for tenders to construct the blue line tunnel extension.
I’ll get together with a bunch of my Newfoundland cousins who are home from the oil patch and we’ll put together a proposal. I figure we can do the blue line extension in about six months for maybe half a million bucks.
Mind you, by the time the job is finished it will have taken seven years and cost $400 billion, but that’s pretty much expected, right?
Always the optimist!
I know! Wait ’til you see the spectacular new driveway I’m going to have installed!
La Presse on how the city is now braced for COP15. There’s a feeling in the air that while COP15 may raise the city’s profile internationally, it won’t be painless.
The tourism people are hoping to make a good impression despite the barriers and the police.
The Journal has a brief preview and summary of what COP15 is for. The Guardian looks at what should be hoped for. For one, Mayor Plante is hoping for radical change.
Quebec is happy with the progress on the tunnel work after a month. Traffic has been reduced to slightly less than half its usual amount, and there’s been a minor increase in metro ridership since it started.
A woman pedestrian was killed on Nuns’ Island Monday morning when the driver of a large truck apparently didn’t see her crossing at a stop sign.
There’s not a lot of detail in there, so I guess we have to take the SPVM statement of “The driver could not avoid the pedestrian…” at face value, but it’s a narrative I’m sick of hearing. As the pedestrian tragically lost their life, we won’t hear the other side of this story.
The article explains that the woman was crossing in front of a city bus, meaning she would have been out of the truck driver’s view until the last second – but any careful driver should anticipate potential pedestrians in this scenario. If the bus is stopped at the corner (and there’s a bus stop), the odds are good that one or more passengers have just got off the bus and are likely to be crossing the street. I suppose there’s a bit of a design flaw here – the bus presents a major obstacle to other drivers’ fields of vision. Until we move to a model where passengers are unlikely to get off the bus and cross right in front of it (e.g., bus stops at the end of a block instead of the start of it), drivers need to be extra cautious. That this truck driver was not doesn’t mean “the driver could not avoid the pedestrian,” as the SPVM spokesperson said – it just means that he didn’t take the time to be certain the intersection was clear before hitting the gas. I would assume that the truck driver did not make a full stop before accelerating, but who knows.
Yes, what Joey says seems to be what happened. This is not an unusual scenario. Probably the most well know case of this is the one a few years back where the jogger crossing Parc at the monument was hit by an Ontario driver who blew the red light that the bus was stopped at. In that case the pedestrian wasn’t even getting off the bus, merely passing in front of it.
So that’s a huge danger zone that both drivers and pedestrians both need to be more aware of and more cautious with. Joey is right when he says “any careful driver should anticipate potential pedestrians in this scenario” but the truth is, most don’t. I certainly do, but I’m also at that older and more cautious age because I’ve lived long enough and have heard about enough tragedies that I don’t suffer from the sense of invulnerability that so many younger people feel.
After all, you can drive quickly past a parked bus ten times a day for 15 years and nothing bad happens. Then one day it does. Old cautious geezers like me always slow down when passing a parked bus (or any large vehicle) — in fact I hover over the brake as I do so — but that’s sadly rare, and you should see the way people driving behind me get impatient when I do that.
Pedestrians need to be aware too. Not because it’s all up to them to avoid such collisions, but because self-preservation demands a bit of caution now and then. It’s ultimately the driver’s fault when that kind of thing happens, but when you’re laying in the hospital or the morgue then who is at fault is less of a concern than “how could this have been avoided.” You cannot trust all drivers to be cautious in that situation.
Now put that pointy stick down before you poke your eye out!
There’s a reason school buses have stop signs and four-way flashers. A ‘watch out, pedestrian crossing’ sign attached to an STM bus’s driver’s side might be a fairly easy fix (until we get into a prolonged argument about whether bus drivers should be expected to mitigate bad roadway design).
I wasn’t waving a pointy stick Blork. You made a thoughtful and detailed counterpoint to my comment, there was no need to round it off with a patronising comment.
Daniel D, I think Blork was only making fun of himself for being a cautious old codger. It’s the kind of thing a grandpa would say.
What Kate said. That was not directed at you, Daniel D.
A man was shot in one of the entrances to Atwater metro on Sunday evening. His life is not in danger.
Shots were fired in two other locations Sunday evening but no victims turned up.
Kevin 15:35 on 2022-12-05 Permalink
And we’re all learning how impenetrable the bubble is around athletes with the Canadiens letting us know that Carey Price has never heard of Polytechnique.
It explains rather a lot about the actions of Hockey Canada too, come to think of it.
shawn 17:33 on 2022-12-05 Permalink
Yes the Carey Price thing is getting a lot of attention on SM. Brendan Kelly was among the first to raise it on on twitter and maybe he’ll file something. As someone pointed out there. didn’t the Habs even have a commemorative moment before games when Price was in goal? His ignorance/indifference is shocking.
Tim 23:10 on 2022-12-05 Permalink
I do not understand why the spokeswoman would reveal his ignorance of the massacre. Sure, admit that he didn’t know about the use of poly in a social media campaign.
Are they trying to run him into the ground here or is the organization completely out of touch with how people would react to this?
Taylor 02:36 on 2022-12-06 Permalink
@Tim
Take it from a journalist: never underestimate the stupidity of professional public relations people
shawn 09:37 on 2022-12-06 Permalink
Can Habs fan tell me if the team would have done Dec 6 commemorations (i.e. moments of silence) at the Bell Centre?
walkerp 10:17 on 2022-12-06 Permalink
To me what’s most insane is how this lobbying group or company or whatever they are got away with using “poly” as a promo code. Should they not be driven off the internet by now? Does the Carey Price ignorance kerfluffle deflect and protect them? How are the people behind that decision not being exposed and then tarred and feathered in the public square?
Kate 10:43 on 2022-12-06 Permalink
walkerp, unforunately, the kind of people who would belong to that group wouldn’t feel any shame. Some of them probably think it was funny and that the group is being unfairly shamed about it.
Kevin 11:42 on 2022-12-06 Permalink
@walkerp
I interacted with the leaders of that group in the past and wondered how they remember to breathe when they’re asleep.