Updates from April, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 17:16 on 2023-04-12 Permalink | Reply  

    The boyfriend of Rebekah Harry, killed in March 2021, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter. He had only been her boyfriend for three months when he attacked her – La Presse has details of the attack – they’re harrowing – so it isn’t surprising to read that the victim’s father had to leave the courtroom when they were read out.

    The Gazette is calling him her ex‑boyfriend. (Grim humour: well, he is now.)

    Brandon McIntyre gets off with manslaughter because the Crown couldn’t prove beyond doubt that he intended to kill Rebekah Harry. The French expression “homicide involontaire” encapsulates the meaning better. But reading that description makes me wonder how murderous McIntyre actually felt.

    He’ll know his sentence next month.

    On thinking about this… what if the perpetrator doesn’t plan to kill the victim, but clearly doesn’t care whether or not the victim dies? Surely that goes beyond manslaughter?

     

    • Blork 15:46 on 2023-04-13 Permalink

      I’m not an expert, but I think there’s sort of a grey area when the person committing the violence is in a state of rage. The idea being (I think) that “intention” or “care” recede to the background when in that state.

      I’m not defending it, BTW.

  • Kate 16:54 on 2023-04-12 Permalink | Reply  

    Several downtown highrises have been partly evacuated after windows detached and fell from the 55th floor of a building under construction.

     

    • shawn 18:15 on 2023-04-12 Permalink

      Holy smokes. Okay, so that’s the “Victoria sur le parc” condo tower.

  • Kate 16:43 on 2023-04-12 Permalink | Reply  

    Glancing at Le Devoir’s item on how libraries served as shelters for people fleeing their cold, dark houses following the ice storm, it struck me how fortunate it was that this event came now, in 2023, and not in the depths of the pre‑Covid‑vaccine days of April 2020.

     

    • Elene 01:50 on 2023-04-13 Permalink

      Interesting you say that, and exactly right. My region suffered a tragic war in autumn 2020 long before a COVID vaccine arrived in our part of the world. Civilians (mostly elderly) were forced into crowded basements/bomb shelters for 44 days. The infectious disease result was exactly what you’d expect. Those who died of coronavirus in those damp, dark hideaways weren’t counted in the war tallies though.

    • MarcG 08:33 on 2023-04-13 Permalink

      I just looked at the outage map and there are still some significant clusters of homes without power. I wonder if they’ve pretty much moved somewhere else by now.

    • Kate 10:39 on 2023-04-13 Permalink

      At least the weather’s getting warmer.

  • Kate 16:18 on 2023-04-12 Permalink | Reply  

    La Presse uses a time-lapse of images from Google Streeview to show how a row of cones has been sitting at the de la Cathédrale exit from the Ville‑Marie for 16 years. CTV reports that the cones have now disappeared.

     

    • Blork 16:26 on 2023-04-12 Permalink

      « On est rendus là dans notre culture de gestion des cônes. »

      We have reached a point where we not only have cone management; we have cone management culture.

    • Kate 17:17 on 2023-04-12 Permalink

      A distinct cone management culture.

  • Kate 15:44 on 2023-04-12 Permalink | Reply  

    Spring city cleanup is being slowed down by so many fallen branches. The city has some advice what to do if you’ve got branches to deal with.

     

    • Kate 12:58 on 2023-04-12 Permalink | Reply  

      The river boats that link the city to the south shore and various island landings will be back this summer and, if popular, will be extended till 2025 at least.

       

      • Blork 16:04 on 2023-04-12 Permalink

        I’ll do my part. I love those boats!

      • Margaret 07:56 on 2023-04-13 Permalink

        Me too. Boucherville to the Old Port…the best way to travel on an OPUS pass!

    • Kate 10:56 on 2023-04-12 Permalink | Reply  

      Mayor Plante posts on Facebook about the opening of Bixi’s 15th season, the new stations, and the plan to keep the service open year round.

      (I don’t like giving Facebook links so I’ll replace it if a better one turns up.)

      Here’s CBC on year‑round Bixi. It’s a pilot project, and electric bikes won’t be part of the winter test. Also in La Presse.

       

      • DeWolf 11:19 on 2023-04-12 Permalink

        Finally, winter Bixi! I assume the 150 stations available in the winter are those installed off-street, so it’s already possible to get an idea of where they are located.

        There were quite a few days this past winter when Bixi would have been very convenient.

      • Thomas 11:23 on 2023-04-12 Permalink

        Very excited for year-round Bixi, like they have in Toronto. It was always said that Montreal had too much snow to make this feasible, so I’ll be curious to see how it goes.

        For me, this will be the year I finally try winter cycling, which I have been too scared to try with my own bike.

      • walkerp 11:31 on 2023-04-12 Permalink

        Winter Bixi would be a potential game-changer for me.
        In any case, I was very excited last week to see the stands coming back and just today saw bikes in place!

      • Thomas 12:45 on 2023-04-12 Permalink

        Le Devoir and La Presse have the additional detail that the bikes are going to have studded tires, which I wasn’t expecting.

        The La Presse article is the most detailed I’ve seen so far, including information about the stations being winterized and located along the REV and at metro stations, as well as the specific list of boroughs that will be included in the pilot project. It also mentions that the seasonal membership doesn’t include winter bixi, which is unfortunate.

      • Joey 12:46 on 2023-04-12 Permalink

        @DeWolf that’s right, stations located primarily around the REV and Metro stations, with the docks not on the street.

      • shawn 13:15 on 2023-04-12 Permalink

        Thanks everyone for that extra info. I literally just got back in from my first Bixi ride. Three days ahead of schedule! Yeah, this is great news about the limited winter service. Surprised too about the studded tires!

      • shawn 19:33 on 2023-04-12 Permalink

        A prototype of the winter Bixi bike here. I don’t know what I’m looking at though. What is that life support system with the straps? https://twitter.com/B_Chapdelaine/status/1646165073570799621

      • MarcG 07:38 on 2023-04-13 Permalink

        They look like simple plastic ties to keep the electric wires attached to the frame. I’m surprised they didn’t use duct tape.

      • carswell 09:47 on 2023-04-13 Permalink

        Am surprised at the lack of mud slush guards. A prerequisite for riding these bikes during much of the winter will be wearing a waterproof, salt-resistant shell. Hard to imagine riding one to an occasion — work in an office, a concert at PDA, dinner in a restaurant — where a certain level of cleanliness and undrippiness is expected.

      • shawn 10:26 on 2023-04-13 Permalink

        But there are going to be fenders. That was made clear in one of the articles about the winter bikes. I don’t really know what this is supposed to be excepted some kind of concept bike? Because the winter bikes are not going be surrounded by electrical wires!

      • carswell 10:57 on 2023-04-13 Permalink

        @shawn If you say so. Not seeing any mention of guards in either the CBC or La Presse articles, only studded tires and special cale-pieds (clips?). Don’t do Facebook so maybe that’s where.

      • shawn 11:05 on 2023-04-13 Permalink

        Oh no I think I’m wrong then. I’m sure you’re right. Sorry.

        But I can’t believe that we’re going to be cycling on bikes that are wrapped in electrical wire hooked up to some kind of battery strapped to our back – which is for all the world what that looks like? those are should straps? – so I still think this is some kind of concept.

        In the meantime, I already encountered two bikes today that are in need of repair. Pretty disappointing. And already a dock that doesn’t work.

      • MarcG 12:05 on 2023-04-13 Permalink

        I wonder if that image is of the original Bixi prototype bike and not the new winter bike.

      • shawn 12:20 on 2023-04-13 Permalink

        If I see any other realer images I’ll let you all know.

        In the meantime, forecast high of 25 today! Crazy. And I can attest that spend time allergy season has started.

    • Kate 10:20 on 2023-04-12 Permalink | Reply  

      This Radio-Canada news clip shows the accelerating decrepitude of one of the city’s many big disused churches, about hopes from nearby residents to save it, not as a religious asset but as a benefit to the community, and about the vast sums of money needed to prop up these buildings, impractical in themselves as community centres, but at least already in existence. They also talk to Phyllis Lambert and Dinu Bumbaru about the situation.

      Text piece that goes with the video.

       

      • Kate 09:53 on 2023-04-12 Permalink | Reply  

        Another regular reader has alerted me to this STM announcement about plans to enlarge metro access for cyclists, relaxing the old rules, and keeping only the proviso that bikes are unwelcome at rush hour and may be barred around very popular events.

        The item also mentions continuing the pilot project to permit dogs in the metro.

        Report from La Presse.

         

        • jeather 11:00 on 2023-04-12 Permalink

          Those seem pretty reasonable rules, bikes allowed any time except morning and evening rush hours, in any car instead of just the first one.

        • Kate 11:31 on 2023-04-12 Permalink

          Especially since the Azur doesn’t have separate cars.

        • carswell 11:56 on 2023-04-12 Permalink

          The rule restricting bikes to the front car wasn’t thought through. Once or twice I’d been the fourth bike in the car, which was supposed to be the maximum number, when a couple of other bikes would embark at later stations, effectively turning the car into an obstacle course and a safety hazard. It also became an issue when groups of school children crowded into the front car, as they always seem to do. And changing trains on the same level at Lionel-Groulx meant you had to push the bike diagonally across the entire length of the often crowded platform, an accident waiting to happen.

          Am also pleased to see bikes allowed from 05:30 to 07:00, meaning cyclist riders don’t have to wait till 10:00 and can get off to an early start, and especially the decision not to shut down the entire system for certain events. The blue line is almost never crowded except during rush hour but was off-limits many summer weekends and evenings (e.g. Osheaga and fireworks). Same was true for a route I often take (after biking out to Lachine and back via the canal to Atwater market): Lionel-Groulx to Snowdon.

          I suppose we owe some of this to reduced ridership. If so, a silver lining to the pandemic.

      • Kate 09:32 on 2023-04-12 Permalink | Reply  

        A regular reader suggested this excellent Guardian piece about a Montreal man who has devoted his life to helping asylum seekers make their case and find their lives here.

         

        • Kate 08:58 on 2023-04-12 Permalink | Reply  

          A shooting in the east end and a shooting victim found downtown Tuesday evening may be linked.

           

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