A young man was shot Thursday afternoon in Rosemont. Then a police cruiser on its way to the incident got into a collision on St‑Michel Boulevard that resulted in the policewoman breaking an arm.
Updates from March, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
NASA produced its latest eclipse maps this week. We have more than a year to wait, but we’ll be seeing a total solar eclipse around 3:27 pm on April 8, 2024.
Plenty of notice to get eclipse glasses and stake out a spot on Mount Royal for the afternoon.
Andrew
Plateau Astro is a good resource for all your local astronomy needs. I bought glasses from him for the partial eclipse in 2021.
CE
I’m getting old! April 8 is my birthday and I still clearly remember reading somewhere when I was just a little kid that there would be a total eclipse on my birthday someday waaaaay in the future (2024 seemed impossibly far away to young me in the early 90s) and we’re finally almost there!
Mr.Chinaski
Unfortunately if you look at early april stats, chances of clouds in Montreal is about 85%. Basically, we’re screwed unless you really want to drive 6hours
https://eclipsophile.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Noam-centre-cloud.png
Faiz imam
I’ve had April 8th 2024 in my calendar for years.
I really want to try taking the day off and going to a scenic view point to watch it.
Anton
I’ve travelled much longer than 6h to see a full eclipse, twice.
Worth it.
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Kate
A Women’s Day ad by Frite Alors – which I first saw on reddit – is causing a mild stir.
walkerp
I’m sorry, I LOL’ed
MarcG
Yupik had a free gift on orders over $69
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Kate
A man in a wheelchair was attacked and robbed by four men who got in the elevator with him at Berri‑UQAM recently. He also says the elevators are often disgusting and used as toilets.
The Journal also has a report from a young woman who has been busking in the metro, where she says she’s often been the target of indecent behaviour.
Meantime, the Gazette reports on lenient treatment of a metro creeper who had just pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual assault. The female judge didn’t want to give Moomen Rhouma a criminal record that could see him deported from Canada.
carswell
Don’t take metro elevators often but when I have, they’ve been pretty grimy. Have yet to encounter an “eloovator” but not surprised they’re being used as such, probably by itinerants who come to the stations to sleep and shelter and don’t want to leave. Have read that NYC is installing urine detectors in some of its subway stations; maybe that’s what’s needed here.
OT: Last fall I was leaving Jean-Talon station with a friend who has knee problems. We got on the elevator to the lobby and the door almost closed, then opened. We pushed the button again and the same thing happened. After a couple more times, I looked more closely at the door and found a small piece of cellophane maybe 5 cm x 2 cm lying on the bottom track. I kicked it away, the door closed and up we went. A bit too sensitive, no?
JaneyB
Not happy about that judge. I don’t know how he could be put on the sexual offenders registry and still get to stay here. Berri-UQAM needs a lot more of every kind of surveillance as well as cleaning.
Ephraim
Clearly the elevators need cameras
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Kate
The RCMP are investigating two alleged Chinese police stations disguised as benevolent organizations, one in Brossard and one in Montreal’s Chinatown. Both are run by a Brossard councillor who says they have no connection with the government of China.
This follows reports of alleged surveillance by China in Toronto and elsewhere in the world.
Ephraim
Maybe more people should read Robert Spalding’s books. Jordan Harbinger has a good podcast on the Chinese Social Credit system, if someone’s interested (as well as interviews with Spalding.)
We also should stop saying “China” when it’s the government and specify that it’s the CPC (Communist Party of China) and not the people of the country.
Kate
And here I was being careful to write “China” rather than “Chinese” because there are a lot of people and cultural things that are Chinese without being tied to the government of China.
But unfortunately, China (as a country) and the Party are pretty much synonymous, geopolitically, in this era.
Not my usual handle because I don't want to get arrested when I go back
Imperial China considered all Chinese people to be perpetual subjects, no matter where they were in the world. That’s why most 19th century Chinese migrants in North America still wore queues, which were legally mandated by the Qing dynasty as a symbol of submission to the foreign Manchu rulers (aka the Qing dynasty). After the revolution in 1911 people were free to cut them off because they were no longer subjected to extra-territorial policing by imperial forces.
For all its Marx-Leninist pretence, China under Xi Jinping is just a new dynastic order. It’s the empire reborn.
Ephraim
Specifying that it is the CPC makes it clear for others that it’s not the opinion of the people, but rather those who control them. Especially important in the news when they talk about Taiwan. They make it sound like they have consensus when in fact everyone is scared to say otherwise, or like in Russia, not given enough information to make an informed opinion.
Kate
Tangentially, I find it so odd that Manchu culture has simply fizzled out. Nobody speaks or writes the language any more. And yet they managed to dominate one of the biggest populations on the planet for a couple of centuries, not so long ago.
Not my usual handle: how does China (now, or how did it in the past) feel about people of Chinese heritage born elsewhere?
Meezly
The Manchurians had always been an ethnic minority to begin with the Han Chinese making up the majority of China’s population. I think everyone has seen or at least heard of The Last Emperor, Pu Yi and what happened with the Cultural Revolution.
For me, it’d be like saying I find it odd that there isn’t a French royal family. Or why aren’t there any French monarchists anymore?
jeather
There very much are French monarchists nowadays.
DeWolf
As Meezly said the Manchus were a very small group and when they formed the Qing dynasty, they gradually sinicized and assimilated into the Han Chinese population.
That said there are lots of ethnically Manchu people in their traditional homeland and some people still speak Manchu (though I think the last native speakers have probably all died at this point).
Meezly
Indeed, Kate did bring up an interesting point, did the Manchu culture die out? And in China, are Manchu people still discriminated against? This article sheds some interesting light: https://www.latimes.com/world/la-xpm-2013-jan-30-la-fg-china-manchu-20130131-story.html
“Courses in the Manchu language are now offered at Ethnic Minorities University in Beijing and at other schools around China. Because the Manchus have no separatist aspirations, they are considered a model minority by the Communist Party, and the government has encouraged some elementary schools in northeastern China, the heartland of old Manchuria, to offer the language so it doesn’t die out.
Nowadays, fewer than 100 people are believed to be native speakers of Manchu, the largest cluster of them in a single isolated village, Sanjiazi, in northeastern China.”
Meezly
I believe many staunch pro-China advocates consider the RCMP investigations part of a global Sinophobic smear campaign.
They regard also Chinese people who grew up in Western societies to be brainwashed by our Euro-centric education, so if we ever have any nuanced opinions on China’s policies, it’s almost always dismissed as our colonized way of thinking.
I assume the CCP feels the same way.
Chris
>Specifying that it is the CPC makes it clear for others that it’s not the opinion of the people, but rather those who control them.
It’s already clear. It’s the case even for democracies. If one sees a headline “Canada does such and such” no one thinks it’s the opinion of all or even most Canadians.
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Kate
A wide study by McGill researchers goes against current received wisdom in asserting that the pandemic didn’t damage mental health generally.
MarcG
In July 2020 my wife, who has immune issues, was losing her mind and tried to organize a small group meetup outdoors sitting far apart. The reception on social media was negative (“stupid!” “stay home!”). I often wonder about those people and how they’re behaving now while we’re still essentially still isolating.
DeWolf
Did you end up having the outdoor gathering, MarcG?
I think the key words in your paragraph are “social media.” One thing the pandemic has taught me is that social media (some platforms more than others) are ultimately destructive. Using them too much is like drinking too much: you feel good in the moment and awful afterwards. I left Twitter when I realized it was making me angry and anxious all the time. I don’t miss it.
DeWolf
Building on my last comment, I’d love to see a study that looked at the mental health of people who used social media heavily during the pandemic and those who didn’t.
I was definitely a heavy social media user and I’d say my mental health suffered. My wife? She’s never really used Twitter or Reddit, and barely uses other platforms. And she was mostly fine.
JaneyB
Interesting. I work with college-age students and there’s clearly been some effects; many students are still behaving like they’re behind their avatar on zoom eg: less engagement etc. I’d like to see some data on general civility (if that’s even possible). People seem to me to be less aware of their environment and more disconnected. Not sure if it’s the pandemic or the smartphone problem though.
MarcG
She had a few gatherings over that summer. I think they should do a study on clinically vulnerable people’s mental health now that everyone else is pretending the pandemic is over.
Meezly
I remember McGill seeking volunteers to participate in a study post-lockdown, esp. teenagers.
Perhaps there wasn’t mental health damage and yes, people can be resilient, but it was definitely a difficult period for certain groups. They looked at differences between men and women, but I didn’t find other socio-economic distinctions in their study.A friend of mine was extra cautious in regards to Covid and even when measures were being lifted, still didn’t allow her 13yo son to participate in a lot of group activities. And when he could attend events, he missed key milestones like social functions related to graduating from elementary school because he got sick. He got quite depressed and it was really hard on both of them, as often he was the only one missing out on stuff. They’re at a better place now, but even though they techinically didn’t suffer mental damage, they still suffered mentally.
EmilyG
I know that my mental health, which has often been not the best, has deteriorated during the pandemic.
I wonder if my experience is not typical of people generally. And I wonder if the study authors have been “pinkering” (finding statistics that prove the point that they want to prove.)
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