Car torched in the east end
Another car was torched overnight in the east end, out by the Repos Saint François d’Assise, only a few blocks from a similar incident in March.
In other car news, a car thief was pursued and caught by police overnight.
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Kate
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shawn 12:48 on 2023-04-24 Permalink
In brighter news, I see the new Mile End SQDC in the old Bank of Montreal branch at Laurier and St-Laurent opened this morning at 10 am.
Kate 12:54 on 2023-04-24 Permalink
That’s a nice building. Nice corner, actually – vintage buildings on 3 sides, and the park on the 4th.
But, as far as I know, SQDC workers are still in a labour standoff, although I can’t find any recent news about the situation.
carswell 13:16 on 2023-04-24 Permalink
The employees of some SQDC stores are on strike. Twenty-five of the 26 stores unionized by CUPE are affected, about a quarter of the total (98). The new store is unlikely to be among them.
Am surprised that locale meets the government’s distancing requirements. Would have expected there to be a nearby school or daycare centre.
The latest news release dates back to Easter: https://www.sqdc.ca/en-CA/about-the-sqdc/medias/2023/04/06/Français-Horaires-des-succursales-et-des-services-en-ligne-de-la-SQDC-à-loccasion-de-la-fin-de-semaine-de-Pâques-2023
shawn 13:20 on 2023-04-24 Permalink
Yes I was a little surprised at the location at first but it’s far enough away from the schools on Fairmount, clearly.
It’s my assumption that all of the newer stores are non-unionized but I haven’t been following that closely…
shawn 13:23 on 2023-04-24 Permalink
… and I didn’t think there was a distancing requirement from daycares?
shawn 13:32 on 2023-04-24 Permalink
In fact I just Google mapped it and there’s 290 m between the closest school, École secondaire Robert-Gravel, and the new store. That’s almost twice the 150 m required.
shawn 13:39 on 2023-04-24 Permalink
Sorry, me again. Tho it occurs to me that if you take into account in the adjacent soccer field behind the school which borders on the playground, which then faces the Parc Lahaie, I can feel a lot closer for people who may do concerns…
Kate 13:46 on 2023-04-24 Permalink
Thanks for the clarifications, carswell.
Daycares, really? Somebody expects toddlers to pop in for a pack of pre-rolls?
walkerp 13:53 on 2023-04-24 Permalink
These are the stupidest regulations ever. Quebec is embarrassing itself.
Instead of encouraging the agricultural and artisanal traditions of Quebec culture by allowing people to grow their own and allowing for small, local enterpreneurs to produce hipster brands and edibles, they go with giant agribusiness crap, excessive plastic waste and a lot of stupid “what about the children” hysteria.
Such a tremendous lost opportunity for the province because I guess “playing to the regions” or some nonsense like that.
shawn 14:01 on 2023-04-24 Permalink
Right, this comes down to Legault’s authoritarian side. He personally doesn’t approve of cannabis and neither does his base, from what I remember from the polling at the time. In fact, I think this province had the lowest level of support for marijuana legalization?
jeather 14:32 on 2023-04-24 Permalink
My opinion is that people — and especially cops — liked having it as a backup method for sketchy (but definitely not systemically racist) arrests.
jeather 14:36 on 2023-04-24 Permalink
If another party came in and legalized the four plants or allowed stuff like cannabis bath salts (which I definitely haven’t had a friend mail me from another province), I think probably the CAQ or whatever similar party could not easily re-ban it.
For whatever reason my home IP geolocates me in Ontario, and I got a lot of pot ads on twitter which I skimmed and mistook as being some group of small farmers trying to promote spinach.
carswell 14:56 on 2023-04-24 Permalink
The original minimum distance between SQDC stores and educational institutions — which the Cannabis Regulation Act defines as including preschools — was 250 m, except in Montreal, where it was reduced to 150 m. One of the first amendments the CAQistes made to the act on assuming power was to eliminate the Montreal exception (yes, they hate us). That’s why the Village store, first planned for Berri-Ste Catherine, was moved to the far east end of the Village, almost in the shadow of the Jacques Cartier bridge.
Since cannabis packaging is under federal control, blame for all the plastic and overpackaging can’t be placed on the SQDC or Quebec. The feds are reviewing current packaging requirements. Meanwhile, the cannabis control boards and the industry are seeking solutions within the current regulatory framework (eliminating outer boxes and other secondary packaging for some products, for example).
carswell 15:56 on 2023-04-24 Permalink
Neglected to mention that the original Village store got double-barrelled by the CAQ. The location wasn’t changed only because the government increased the minimum distance but also because it expanded the definition of educational institution to include universities.
So the store went from being in the shadow of UQAM (probably a good thing if, as claimed, the raison d’être of the SQDC is to draw users from the illegal market, no?) to being in the shadow of the bridge, far from the action, including the Village bar scene, and next to several largely unpopulated blocks.
The SQDC’s province-wide store network now appears set to plateau at around 100, a far cry from the original plan for 200+ stores.
shawn 16:11 on 2023-04-24 Permalink
Thanks for all that info Carswell. And I didn’t realize the minimum distance was reduced for Montreal. That is curious.
Tim S. 16:33 on 2023-04-24 Permalink
Yeah, I’m OK with having a minimum distance from educational institutions.
shawn 17:29 on 2023-04-24 Permalink
In other news, a segment of the Green line is now down until 2 am! Big one.
Here’s the tweet: “Interruption de service ligne VERTE entre L-Groulx et Frontenac. Incident. Reprise prévue vers 2h00.”
Kate 18:15 on 2023-04-24 Permalink
Tim S., can you explain why? The stores aren’t allowed to put anything attractive in the windows. Nobody under 21 is allowed to buy. What kind of risk do you feel they pose to kids in school?
walkerp 18:57 on 2023-04-24 Permalink
The kids already have all the drugs they want. They can get better quality and prices from their existing sources.
Tim S. 19:24 on 2023-04-24 Permalink
It’s an intoxicating substance. On the one hand, I think people should be able to consume it in private if they want, on the other hand I support the government using the means at its disposal to signal its discouragement of consumption.
That said, I doubt walkerp is wrong.
shawn 22:06 on 2023-04-24 Permalink
People here would know, but I am pretty sure there are some other rules about having other establishments within close proximity to schools.
Oh and can I kvetch? Legault’s virtual signalling on cannabis means that everyone who goes in has to show proof of age. I’m 64 and believe me I look it. It’s absurd.
walkerp 07:37 on 2023-04-25 Permalink
Yes, don’t get me wrong, there should be regulation and restrictions (as well as education and treatment) around cannabis sale, especially for adolescents. It’s just that these specific regulations are not about actually reducing harm but basically moralistic virtue signalling. I mean are deps near schools not allowed to sell beer and wine?
Tim S. 08:00 on 2023-04-25 Permalink
Well, we have a culture where in general people don’t drink before mid-afternoon (school hours) and tend not to drink in parks, bus shelters, etc. (I’m not saying it never happens, but a lot less than say, the UK). On the other hand, people who would never take a shot of hard stuff at breakfast seem to be perfectly OK smoking a joint on their way to work in the morning. So in the defence of “moralistic virtue signalling” I think there are basic cultural norms that we still have to establish.
walkerp 09:54 on 2023-04-25 Permalink
Indeed, I once surprised a (remaining deliberately vague) political figure smoking up in the park behind my child’s daycare at 8:30 in the morning. Awkward! 🙂
jeather 11:44 on 2023-04-25 Permalink
I don’t entirely care if the stores have to stay away from high schools and younger — honestly walking near a lot of them you can get high on the volume of secondhand smoke. I don’t see the point of those rules for anything post-secondary.