A man was stabbed and two women severely beaten up in a Monday morning incident in Villeray, near Plaza St‑Hubert. The man is in critical condition. There has been one arrest but several others involved are still to be caught.
TVA says the male victim was a well-known merchant in Plaza St‑Hubert.
Quebec’s transport ministry says it will take a decade for public transit to return to its pre‑pandemic numbers. Or is this just an excuse to underfund transit for ten years? The CAQ method of calculation ignores the key point that if you allow transit to decline, fewer people will be willing to rely on it, so that over time the whole thing goes into a downward spiral.
This is a warning shot for when the REM isn’t going to make enough money because of fewer passengers and will require further subsidies.
“Our contract couldn’t predict the changed transport situation due to a pandemic, etc etc.”
Hopefully, if the REM can’t find enough passengers to make money for the CDPQ, a non-compliant government that actually represents the majority of Quebecois will offer to buy it at a discount. These are rare.
But rational policy can only be formulated by a non-bought-and-paid-for government, which Québec hasn’t had in decades. The current Housing Minister is all too typical of the kind of governance we have been subjected to.
And previous Transportation Ministers:
On the subject of the housing minister…
https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/politique/2023-06-20/la-commissaire-a-l-ethique-ouvre-une-enquete-sur-la-ministre-duranceau.php
If ridership goes down, so should the # of routes to save the city/province money.
Ridership isn’t going to go back to pre-pandemic levels just like office towers won’t get back to prepandemic foot traffic.
The number of routes should not go down. Unless maybe the bus system is reconfigured to still cover all the area that bus routes have covered.
If ridership goes down, we should adopt policies and practices — congestion charges and higher licensing fees — that encourage public transit use and are better for the global and urban environment.
Meant to add “for example’ after “higher licensing fees.” Another example would be tolls. And the proceeds should be directed toward improving public transit: more frequent service, increased security, more comfortable interiors, extended hours, etc.
Two men have been arrested in the attempt on Leonardo Rizzuto’s life in March. They’re accused of being the driver and the shooter when Rizzuto was shot at the wheel of his car.
Update: Radio-Canada now says that Francesco Del Balso rented the two cars that were used in the attack on Leonardo Rizzuto. Del Balso was killed on June 5, only leaving us wondering why he thought he could get away with turning against the Rizzutos, with whom he used to be associated.
I still wonder about the ethics here: “Averti par les policiers que sa vie était en danger, Del Balso cherchait à fuir hors du Canada. La SQ était alors intervenue en mars dernier pour lui confisquer son passeport.” It doesn’t say which police warned him, but when the SQ took his passport, effectively boxing him in with his enemies, surely they knew they were throwing him to the wolves?
Everyone’s entitled to justice and to reasonable protection from danger. Even mooks.
Yes, everyone’s entitled to justice and reasonable protection from danger. That’s what makes us civilized.
However, it could be argued that confiscating such a person’s passport doesn’t necessarily put them in danger. After all, they have this entire vast country in which to hide, and this guy in particular had money, so it’s not like he couldn’t leave Laval or whatever.
I suspect the intention of confiscating the passport was to ensure he didn’t leave the country because charges against him were imminent. Those charges would fly out the window if he left. In fact this inverts the justice argument, because if he had left the country he would have been escaping justice.
No, I agree the authorities had a valid reason to confiscate Del Balso’s passport, but they did so knowing that he was a target. I don’t know whether it makes sense, but they also knew he wasn’t the guy to go hide out in some rural spot indefinitely. This was a guy who broke his parole conditions to visit a Little Italy café because he wanted a good espresso. Did they have any obligation to take this into account?
I’d venture a guess that Del Balso also liked being a big shot in his world. But thinking he could get away with switching his allegiance openly from the Rizzutos to the Hells and take blatant pot shots at Leonardo Rizzuto, and trying to extort money from a church over a bogus claim about missing jewelry – these don’t speak of the smartest guy. And the cops must have had a profile that made that clear, but knowing this, they kept him here and allowed the mob to deal with him.
(I suppose it’s possible they also didn’t want the diplomatic hassle of allowing him to go to Italy and cause trouble there, to be fair.)
Do we have a duty to protect guys like this from their worst impulses? Probably not. Just thinking aloud here.
Two men were shot outside a bar in St‑Léonard early Monday. The shots came from a car: photos to both these stories show an immobilized taxicab but this isn’t explained in the text.
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