Responding to a study by HEC researchers claiming that Quebec’s public transit authorities are more expensive to operate than others in Canada, STM spokesperson Amélie Régis counterclaims that the STM is not more expensive than Toronto or Vancouver. Seems the discrepancy is at least partly due to how the different cities manage transit debt.
Updates from November, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
The body of a young man was found in an apartment in Lachine on Wednesday evening. Police are investigating but no homicide number has been given out yet.
Thursday morning, this has been declared the 32nd homicide of the year. Radio‑Canada adds the tidbit that the 23‑year‑old had a criminal record.
Dominic
6:30am: “Le corps policier a confirmé jeudi matin qu’il s’agit du 32e meurtre à survenir sur son territoire”
Kate
Thanks, Dominic.
The current homicide total still remains lower than the 41 recorded last year. And seven of this year’s 32 (so far) died in that fire in Old Montreal, without which it would be a low tally compared to recent years.
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Kate
The city was faced with twice as many challenges to property valuations for the 2023‑2025 period as for 2020‑2022.
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Kate
Two men have been arrested in a double homicide late last year in which a grandmother and her granddaughter were both shot dead. One of the men was already imprisoned over another double homicide.
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Kate
Police chief Fady Dagher has floated the idea of making major festivals pay for police security. Not surprisingly, the president of a coalition of major festivals hates the idea, calling it a form of police privatization.
Ephraim
It depends on the service. But it should be done by private security, not city police. And even if they were to pay, that money should go to the city, not the police. We need to denormalize paying police for overtime. It should be a job with good pay, but like any job, under 40 hours. We need to move the safer parts of the job to the general public, like traffic wardens. And we need to have certain parts of the system moved to the central government, like technological detectives, because the average policeman can’t follow the trail of a credit card fraud case. They just aren’t trained for that.
Kate
I haven’t decided what I think, but any city that establishes a “quartier des spectacles” should define what that means, and it might mean the city pays the bill for its security (as well as tolerating noise levels that surpass what’s OK in a quartier sans spectacles).
Joey
Given that so many of the festivals rely on public funds to function, won’t they just turn to government to cover additional security costs? So Fady Dagher can save a little on his OT budget, but it amounts to robbing Peter to pay Paul if some other gov’t department is picking up most of the tab.
John B
Festivals don’t already pay for the police overtime required to police festivals? That sounds like an amazing deal for the festivals.
Ian
What I’d like to know is why after grotesquely inflating the cop budget Dagher is still shambling around like a Dickensian orphan begging for more gruel.
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Kate
MétéoMédia is predicting a mild December followed by a typically unpredictable shuffling of climate cards after the holidays.
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Kate
Buses and trains are coming to the rescue of people who usually drive over the crumbling Île‑aux‑Tourtes bridge.
John B
Are these the first trains to Hudson since the Hudson service was cancelled a couple of years ago, or was service to Hudson quietly restored before now?
Kate
I don’t know, John B, and it seems nobody else here has a response for you either.
Has it ever stopped being called the Vaudreuil-Hudson line, even though only one or two trains a day go all the way to Hudson?
carswell
IIRC the last time I checked, about a year ago when a friend bought a house in Hudson, there was one early morning train to Lucien-L’Allier and one early evening train to Hudson on weekdays. Minimally workable for commuters but not even that for day-tripping centre-city dwellers.
MarcG
I don’t see any references online for the Hudson service ever being cancelled completely. The name was changed from “Montréal/Dorion-Rigaud” to “Vaudreuil-Hudson” in 2010. (ref)
John B
I think I’m confusing Hudson with Rigaud. I thought that when they stopped running to Rigaud they no longer went further than Vaudreuil, but it seems they kelpt that one morning train from and one evening train to Hudson as well.
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Kate
La Presse has a dossier of three stories on the profitable mob enterprise of sports betting, which is run like a tight ship. This isn’t new, but it seldom figures in accounts of organized crime the way drugs and prostitution do. There’s also a lineup of names and faces beginning with Leonardo Rizzuto.
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Kate
Striking teachers at several schools have seen police called by teams of construction workers sent to cross the picket line and work on the school buildings.
steph
These construction companies need to be named and shamed.
It’s really lame how some people are working hard to make sure these strikes don’t cause any inconveniences. I see my employer bend backwards to accommodate parents whose children are at the affected schools. I say let these parents feel the consequences and then vote their frustrations against the CAQ at the next election. Let the employer feel the consequences.
Neo-Liberalism is gutting our society and the majority is just worrying about their own skin.
Kate
I pondered offering to coach any of the kids on our block in English, but decided it would be a minor undermining of the strike efforts. The microlocal Facebook group here is full of mutual offers to babysit kids during the day, though.
Ian
One more example of cops supporting union busting, like they have for literally hundreds of years. They shouldn’t be allowed to have a union.
Meezly
I’m surprised and not surprised that the teacher’s strike is now in its second week. But if this goes on until the holidays…? Am I willing to sacrifice my kid’s education if this spells doom and loss of faith in the CAQ?
Ian
It’s the sort of thing you might even call your MNA to complain about 😉
Tim S.
Kate, I don’t think it would be at all undermining the strike to work with neighbourhood kids. If anything, think of it as undermining the gap between public and private school kids.
Ian, my read of the story is that the police allowed the workers back in the retrieve their tools, which seems like a reasonable compromise de-escalation. But maybe I missed something.
Michael
What’s the problem exactly? Construction workers are suddenly not allowed to work on buildings that need repairs?
Kate
Michael, are you my new right-wing troll?
Nobody should cross a picket line.
Tim S., I’m not likely to consider it seriously unless the strike goes past the new year. I’m not a teacher by profession and my apartment is not set up as a teaching space. I’d love to see the neighbourhood kids put on a couple of scenes from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” though…
Ian
In my neighbourhood some parents have started pooling time for informal “daycare” – there may be something similar going on in your area, Kate, and adult women offering to help out would be appreciated, I’m sure. Many people view men with suspicion in regards to child care but there are other ways men can help out, like food preparation & delivery.
Meezly
@Ian, in fact I did email my MNA about the urgency of the situation before I made my post. She’s an elected rep of the QS so the best I can hope for is that she relays the message to the CAQ during assembly or whatever it is that politician do to communicate!
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