News continues to be about the deep freeze, with the Journal marvelling that there are no panhandlers in the Village and that a lot of drivers have needed a boost from CAA. La Presse looks at the refuges going into overdrive to get people off the streets.
Updates from February, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
My internet service just went down, connecting here via LTE. Anyone else? (Although I realize you may not be able to see this right now if so…)
Clément
shawn
Huh. I’m with Bell in Mile End and no interruption.
Kate
No idea whether the Videotron and Bell outages are connected, but the message on the Videotron line says it won’t be back till 10 tonight. I’m online via a kludge linking my laptop and phone.
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Kate
It’s been a big story this week that Robert Miller, billionaire CEO of Pointe Claire’s Future Electronics, has been accused of paying for sex with underage women for years (those are links to the same story on Radio‑Canada and CBC).
Miller has now resigned from his position, vowing to fight the accusations. La Presse finds that, while police knew about the allegations, they also knew Miller has the resources to fight tooth and nail in court.
Ephraim
There is a problem with the law as well that helps rich people hide this… an example is the case of “Katie Johnson” in the US. The parents take it to court and when their palm is sufficiently greased, the drop the case and everything disappears. When, in truth the courts should require that a guardian ad litem should automatically be required and the money, if any, should be placed in a trust with a annuity that pays out over 10 years or so after the child has reached age of majority along with an amount for mental health services.
We don’t do enough to protect children from bother those who may abuse them sexually AND financially. The parent should not be allowed to financially gain from the situation… EVER!
Meezly
‘There is no such thing as an “underage woman.” Underage women are girls.’
Meezly
Since that Atlantic article about Epstein, it’s at least been heartening to see reputable journalists avoiding the oxymoronic misnomer “underage women” when referring to minors who’ve been victims of sex crimes.
I hope Miller finally gets what’s coming to him.
Kate
Thank you for the clarification on “underage women” after I used the phrase above, Meezly.
In my defense, I’d say: a girl is a woman once she’s reached puberty, so there’s a period of time between then and the age of consent when she’s biologically mature but not regarded as old enough to assent to sexual activity. (Canada’s age of consent is 16, although you’ll find commentary written here in which the assumption is made that it’s 18 as in the U.S.)
Depending on context a female person aged 14 or 15 could be described as a girl or as an underage woman, I think.
Which is not to say, remotely, that it’s OK for a billionaire to use his clout to get access to women still in their teens. Age of consent, age of majority, whichever – it’s creepy and if they can get him on it in cases where it was squarely illegal, I hope they do.
MarcG
I think the test of this is to flip the gender and see how that feels: “14-year old underage man” sounds bizarre. Why?
Kate
I can’t justify it except that I write by the seat of my pants and, to me, “underage women” has a meaning while “underage men” doesn’t so much. The boundary between boys and men falls conceptually in a slightly different place than the one between girls and women. But I’d be hard put to defend why this is.
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Kate
A Côte St-Luc highrise had to be evacuated Friday night when the heating broke down.The Twitter account Montreal Weather Records says that at 6 am Saturday the city hit its coldest temperature in almost 30 years. The cold and wind are only expected to hang around till Sunday.
Advice for cold days from Le Devoir.
Meezly
The heating/ventilation system broke down at my kid’s elementary school midday yesterday and all parents/guardians had to pick up their kids early.
Kate
My heating is working, but I’m wondering why I’ve never bought myself a pair of fingerless gloves.
Joey
Not a smoker, Kate?
Kate
Nope, never been a smoker. Do smokers tend to have fingerless gloves?
Joey
Think so (also not a smoker)… you can hold the cigarette without exposing your whole hand…
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Kate
Manoir Lafontaine, the high-rise on Papineau that became a cause célèbre in 2021 when threatened with mass renoviction by a scion of the Shiller Lavy machine, is on the road to becoming an affordable apartment building although, as always, I wonder about the definition of affordable.
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Kate
La Presse went to check out the scene at Berri‑UQÀM. Lila Dussault describes a grim scenario of open drug use while Daniel Renaud sketches in the criminal side: there used to be a well understood structure of organized crime in the area, but since the pandemic even the crooks have stopped going to the office.
A judgment made in Ontario recently may make it legally tricky for authorities to remove tent cities, the judge having ruled that doing so infringes on rights. This is bound to be challenged, but for now, the law’s spoken.
A Côte St-Luc highrise
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