The Gazette’s Allison Hanes spells out what Bill 15 will do to healthcare in Quebec.
Updates from October, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A worker at a Maxi store on Masson stabbed a colleague Tuesday morning, nonfatally. He didn’t use a work implement, but an eight‑inch blade he was not supposed to be carrying on the job.
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Kate
Owners of small apartment buildings in the eastern Plateau are angry to find out that their lots have been contaminated by old gas station tanks from a station that used to be adjacent to their properties, but the current owner of the gas station lot is blowing off any responsibility. It’s bound to end up in court.
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Kate
REM commuters want a fallback option to be on hand in case of system breakdowns this winter.
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Kate
Police cruisers aren’t going to be washed till next year, in order to save money, and all kinds of other little economies are being encouraged, if not enforced, in the SPVM.
Ephraim
Does that mean they will stop the current paint job as well. It’s one of the worst designs for a police car. They should be painted to be be Hi-Viz, not black and hide. The same with their uniforms. They stand in the street in traffic, children need to see them… they should be wearing Hi-Viz vests. Maybe that is the first reform we should push Plante to enact… making the police wear Hi-Viz, so we can see them, so kids can find them when they need them, so they don’t look para miliatary.
Ian
They got a budget increase nearly equivalent to the STM shortfall and they still can’t afford to do what they do? Sounds awfully fishy. Here’s a thought, not flying police helicopters over peaceful protests would save them 12k an hour. One tuition protest alone might save enough to get ALL the cruisers the fancy wash at the gas station automat.
Orr
I have the opinion that all government -owned vehicles (all of them – no exceptions at all!) should be white.
Or pink, I’d be ok with pink. With big “govt” signs on the side.Tee Owe
White with pink wheels?
Ian
Pink glitter-finish, with whitewall tires.
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Kate
It’s refreshing to see Montreal‑area mayors ganging up on Quebec over transit funding.
Orr
THere is a big cohort of young progressive mayors across QUebec.
They are doing good things.
The days when the chambre of commerce and their chosen candidate ran the cities is over.
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Kate
Not only did the REM go down Monday for two hours, there was little or no communication to passengers about the state of the situation in the trains or on social media. CDPQ Infra admitted this Tuesday but also said the breakdown wasn’t caused by the snow, really it wasn’t. They’re promising to communicate better.
jeather
After the recent orange line failure that I only didn’t get caught up in due to a luckily timed text from a friend, I check the service status when I leave work, and there was nothing there about the REM being down.
Uatu
Nobody mentioned that it was also broken down on Friday morning. Had to take a bus to downtown. At least it was sunny and wfh meant that there wasn’t a lot of traffic. Kinda worried what’ll happen during freezing rain or blizzard.
Ian
And it’s down this morning, too.
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Kate
La Presse has more details on the woman paralyzed and left on the sidewalk by police after an encounter with them last month. Reporters talk to witnesses and even, briefly, to the woman herself, who only told them she was still in hospital.
Update: La Presse says Wednesday that the three police involved in the affair were arrested and released and are now doing administrative work while an inquiry decides whether criminal charges should be made.
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Kate
Schoolbus drivers at four service centres are on strike Tuesday, keeping roughly 15,000 students away from their schools.
bumper carz
Whereas those schoolbuses are usually “keeping kids off their bikes” by making the roads extremely dangerous at the exact times that kids might need to use them to bike to or from school. I have been side-swiped by these monsters many times in my lifetime. I think most of the drivers are ex-cons or soldiers who went awol because of mental distress.
Kate
I don’t know what to make of your slanders against schoolbus drivers, qatzelok.
As discussed on this blog previously, kids used to routinely go to a school close to home, which would tend to make it easy to cycle. That’s no longer true. Kids are often shuttled quite long distances now, distances that would be hazardous and arduous for kids, hard going in winter, and impossible for kids with any kind of physical disability.
In other words, there will be schoolbuses.
jeather
It’s a weird change from the attacks on parents who drive their kids in SUVs, something which is probably riskier for the kids.
Kevin
Schools have really, really changed this century.
Even in elementary school, my kids had classmates who lived 20 or 30 km away. It’s now normal for kids off-island to attend a high school in a central borough.jeather
Kids in high school don’t take school buses, as a rule.
bumper carz
@jeather: “…parents who drive their kids in SUVs, something which is probably riskier for the kids.”
Right beside the school, yes, SUVs are more dangerous. But SUVs then jump onto highways and arterial roads – away from the hoods.
School buses lumber along dense residential streets – the exact streets that kids would need to bike on.
These mastodons are also 1950s-era vehicle design – dangerously wide boxes with lots of blindspots and a high front bumper that will drive a collision-victim under the vehicle.
Car companies love school buses because they eliminate the normal daily bike ride of children.
Ephraim
School bus drivers take a lot of abuse. From the parents, from the children and apparently now, from the public as well. It’s a damn tough job with weird hours and not great pay. They are entrusted with children of helicopter parents and kids who gang up on them. And they have to watch the kids cross the street as car drivers pass them with the flashing lights to protect the kids. It’s a damn tough job!
dhomas
@bumper carz: If you’re interested in actual statistics for school bus safety, instead of making general assumptions, the data is publicly available here:
https://www.ourcommons.ca/Content/Committee/421/TRAN/Brief/BR10487380/br-external/FederationDesTransporteursParAutobus-10047135-e.pdfHere you can see the accident reports for all vehicles:
https://saaq.gouv.qc.ca/blob/saaq/documents/publications/bilan-routier-2022.pdfOr in greater detail here:
https://saaq.gouv.qc.ca/blob/saaq/documents/publications/bilan-routier-2022-annexes.pdfWe can see that about 1% of all school buses are involved in some form of accident yearly, on average.
The SAAQ doesn’t separate cars from SUVs in their statistics, unfortunately. But we can see that combined, about 0.43% of cars/SUVs are involved in accidents, if my calculations are correct.
Deaths involving school buses, on the other hand, are quite rare. About 0.028% deaths (only 3 deaths). Cars/SUVs were responsible for 0.0079% (392 deaths).
Critical injuries: 0.018% for school buses vs 0.14% for Cars/SUVs.
Anywho, there’s lots of data here, for anyone who is interested.
dhomas
@jeather: some high schools have school buses. Ex:
https://cssmv.gouv.qc.ca/secondaire/transport-scolaire/Kate
Thanks for all the research, dhomas.
jeather
Sorry, kids in Montreal — not those going to school on off-island suburbs — tend not to take school buses. There are some exceptions, but the EMSB, for instance, doesn’t even show it as an option.
Ian
Welcome to today’s episode, in which it becomes painfully obvious that qtzi does not have kids.
@jeather the Hassidic schools have buses. Lots of ’em, several times a day, 6 days a week. The kids don’t get summer break, either.
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Kate
Yves Desjardins has written a book on the history of Park Avenue. Le Devoir talks to him about the street and his links to it.
Desjardins says Park is the city’s third main street, after Ste‑Catherine and the Main. He may be right – remember the swell of popular revolt when Gérald Tremblay wanted to rename it after Robert Bourassa?
DeWolf
I got a copy at the book launch last week. Haven’t read it yet but looking forward. (Especially since, to my surprise, I make a cameo appearance.)
Incidentally, there’s an exhibition of old photos of Mile End from the 1980s and 90s at the Mile End Library. One of them is from around 1985, depicting a newsstand at the corner of St-Viateur and Park with the block towards Bernard visible in the background. Wow, was the street looking rough back then. No trees, asphalt sidewalks, garbage everywhere, horrible highway-style lampposts. The revamp in the late 80s really made a difference.
Ian
Alhthough I was regularly coming to Montreal since 1986 I only first came to this neighbourhood in 1991 so that exhibition was a real blast. St V is barely recognizable!
My kid went to Lambert-Closse, pretty wild that they just had a paved yard back then compared to what it is now!
Blork
I don’t think I have ever seen a “then and now” comparison in Montreal where the “then” had more trees than the now. No matter when the “then” was (OK, anytime in the 20th century basically) there is always a dearth of trees compared to now.
Kate
I must get to that exhibit before it closes.
When I was small we lived in Verdun, but we sometimes went to visit my godmother, who lived in one of those big dark apartment buildings on Park south of St‑Viateur. Park Avenue was a different urban vibe from Verdun, which was very white bread in those days. I liked it.
dwgs
DeWolf, is that the Richler library? If so, do you know when the exhibit ends? I looked at the website but didn’t see anything.
Meezly
Our retired neighbours have lived by Ave du Parc since the 80’s and recalled how junkies would shoot up in the alley and how they’d hear the occasional gunshot, so they attest that the area has improved significantly over the years!
I was at the Richler library briefly (a quick in and out to return my kid’s library books). I did notice some photos on display but didn’t stop to look. I’ll try to go back there today!
Kate
dwgs, the exhibit is indeed at the Richler library. This item says it ends on November 12.
DeWolf
@Blork Downtown before Dutch elm disease. Sherbrooke and other streets were lined by huge, glorious trees.
But yeah, most working-class neighbourhoods were completely denuded.
GC
Thanks for the tip, DeWolf–and details, Kate. I’ll definitely check out those photos.
Ian
Strangely Toronto used to have way more trees than it does now, especially downtown. I think part of their being heavily treed is that there were way more maples than elms. It’s stll surprisingly green, the Don Valley Ravine runs just the other side of Jarvis & Bloor – it’s not unusual to see foxes and sometimes even deer at Yonge & Bloor in the morning. There are surprisingly large & fairly wild green patches all over.
As an older, more industrialzed city, Montreal opted for the European style narrow sidewalks up to the stoop then rough streets with no grass divider. Look at Old Montreal. Old Toronto was a port, some stockyards, and a fort.
Kate
Further note on that photo exhibit at the Richler library: on November 12, the day it closes, there’s to be a two‑hour event at 2 pm with the photographer, Michel Élie Tremblay, Yves Desjardins, and Michel Hardy-Vallée, who organized the exhibit, discussing the neighbourhood and its evolution.
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Kate
The REM was stopped for nearly an hour at afternoon rush hour Monday by unspecified technical problems.
Ian
I sure hope it wasn’t the light snow…
Kate
This item says vaguely that it was a computer problem.
Tuesday morning, radio news essentially said they turned it off and turned it back on again.
Also Tuesday morning, a piece of maintenance equipment was stuck on the tracks, which held up service again.
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Kate
Two experienced Black firefighters are bringing a comprehensive complaint of racism against the fire department, the city and their own union, which they say has done nothing to stop a barrage of racist bullying to which they’re subjected daily.
One of the men most concerned by the accusation, a lieutenant in the service, even invoked freedom of speech when his frequent use of the “mot en N” was discussed.
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Kate
A bike path along Terrebonne in NDG which was abolished after causing endless alarm and despondency during the first wave of the pandemic is being revived in a somewhat different format.
James
My house is at the corner of Terrebonne so I’m impacted by this. The first attempt in 2020 was 1 lane each direction for cars and 2 uni-directional lanes for bikes and all parking was removed.
Seems that the new version will be : 1 travel + 1 parking lane for cars plus 1 bi-directional bike path
Seems a bit strange that 200 spaces will be removed from approximately 250 available. Would expect a 50% reduction.Previous attempt in 2020:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/terrebonne-bike-path-removed-ndg-montreal-1.5708689Ian
Oh it’s ok, only 1% of parking on the whole island is affected.
Tim S.
I am optimistic about the bike path overall, but I really, really can’t stand it when cycling groups use pedestrians as rhetorical cover:
” “We welcome this initiative, as Terrebonne Street desperately needed to be reconfigured, not only for people cycling to work or school, but also for pedestrians who don’t feel safe crossing the street,” said Jason Savard, president of the Association of Pedestrians and Cyclists of NDG”
If you want to do something for pedestrians, encourage cyclists to obey stop signs and red lights, stay off sidewalks and out of parks.
DeWolf
@Ian I thought you’d be happy that in this case, a traffic study was conducted.
Ian
Oh, I am – I’m just being snide about stats 😉
TBH I think it’s a great location and it does seem like the residents are being considered.@Tim suggested edit: If cyclists want to do something for pedestrians, etc.
While we’re at it I’d love to see cop cars not driving/ parking in parks and bike cops setting an example by not riding three abreast on sidewalks & pedestrian park paths.Joey
Glad to see the city not abandon the idea altogether but also not refuse to compromise somewhat. That said, I am really not a fan of bidirectional bike paths (or painted lines that run opposite the flow of traffic on one-way streets). Terrebonne is a quietish street so the risks are probably pretty low, but you just need to spend a couple of minutes watching the chaos on the Rachel St path, or a lesser extent on Clark, to see how dangerous things can get when you add a busy bidirectional path to a street with lots of cars turning.
Orr
Should be called the Marvin Rotrand Memorial Bike Path.
(Coderrite City councillor Marvin Rotrand was the driving force getting Version 1 of this bike path closed and removed, and he was darned gleeful while doing it.)Kevin
Projet really doesn’t like to take no for an answer, do they?
Members of my household use Terrebonne every day and we have never seen anyone doing any sort of traffic study, and I am extremely dubious about their measurement of traffic levels given the multi-year projects that started earlier this year on Cote St. Luc and Somerled.
DeWolf
@Joey Bourbonnière is a brand new bidirectional path that is a good example of how it can be done safely. The key is making it safe at intersections, which either means four-way stops or completely separate traffic signals for cars and bikes. That’s easier on north-south streets because the blocks are longer and there are fewer intersections.
Rachel is crazy because there are tons of intersections, most of which have only a stop sign for the cross street, which creates a lot of unsafe interactions between all road users.
Generally speaking the city has moved away from bidirectional because it is demonstrably unsafe in most cases. There was even a public health report about it. But in certain cases they make sense.
Orr
Team “I didn’t see it so it didn’t happen” has entered the conversion.
Personally, I am happy my mother can take her grandchildren for bicycle rides now, safely.
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Kate
University students are holding a protest downtown Monday afternoon against the tuition hikes for anglo universities. Video from CTV at that link.
Not seeing any report on francophone media, but it may yet show up.
Ian
UdeM is pretty mad, you never know.
I’m seeing some talk in the French media but no corporate media.I do find the spin of this headline from La Presse regarding the most recent protest rather telling:
“Manifestation contre les frais pour les étudiants des universités anglophones”So much for the claim that this bill is not meant to punish anglo universities specifically.
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Kate
La Presse dissects the reasons why work on the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel is running late.
bob 10:46 on 2023-11-01 Permalink
Legault is just consolidating state ownership of the commanding heights of the economy, like any good communist would.
Clément 13:59 on 2023-11-01 Permalink
Is there a Godwin’s law, but for communism?
Ian 18:47 on 2023-11-01 Permalink
It’s implicit.
Besides, Legault is. good old-fashioned capitalist mononcle with tendencies toward invoking ethnicity, traditionalist historicity, and culture wars. If you want to call him a dictator, fascist seems more appropriate than communist – though still an exaggeration. For now.
bob 19:45 on 2023-11-01 Permalink
How is it an exaggeration? Websters defines fascism as “a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.” This describes the CAQ quite accurately. They exalt the Quebecois nation while officially denigrating all other cultures and eliminating the individual rights of members thereof; they are seeking to dismantle or neutralize all competing institutions (English or French) and rule society by means of an étatiste bureaucracy that answers only to the premier; the economy, justice system, and unaccountable civil service are systemically racist, and this order is maintained by a set of systemically racist and unaccountable censorial and policing entities; and the population is effectively divided into permanently unequal castes based on class, ethnicity, and race while equality of opportunity and of condition and social mobility are intentionally diminished by educational and social welfare policies, and privatization of socio-political enclosures with authority over increasingly large areas of common life, but no legal or political responsibility.
Ian 20:27 on 2023-11-01 Permalink
Well we’re still allowed to vote and they don’t have snappy uniforms
… yet