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.
Updates from November, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Kate
-
Kate
MétéoMédia is predicting a mild December followed by a typically unpredictable shuffling of climate cards after the holidays.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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!
-
Kate
People started lining up at the Bell Centre from 16:30 for the national funeral for Karl Tremblay, which starts at 19:30 and will begin with a speech by François Legault.
Later accounts of the soirée from La Presse and Radio‑Canada.
-
Kate
The passenger link between the metro and the REM at Central Station is not a quick one, and La Presse says there’s a shortcut but CDPQ Infra doesn’t want to allow it to be used.
Ian
That whole area is a maze of shortcuts, it’s part of its charm … suppress the tunnel rats at your peril!
Anton
Back when they said they’d optimize the transfer, which meant just using existing tunnels. But they didn’t even manage that.
For the 7B project, they should’ve invested 10M to actually make a better physical connection (without having to go to ground level, so a 20m ped-tunnel connecting to the metro), but they couldn’t even manage to replace the doors and permit passage via place Bonaventure.
Kate
Anton, they didn’t even put up signage! Some university student posted signs to direct people from Bonaventure metro through the maze of tunnels and stairs to the REM.
mare
The fact that there is, for public transit built in 2023, no direct access at all for people who can’t use stairs is maddening. They have to go outside the station and cross a street. In Montreal, with snow and slush, both great in combination with canes and wheelchair, stroller and bicycle tires. If I were using a wheelchair it would mysteriously break down the moment I was halfway across the threshold of the REM, blocking the automatic doors. Every day.
-
Kate
The city is promising to deploy fewer cones next year.
-
Kate
A seal has been spotted in the river near the Bota Bota spa. They should take it on board and give it a massage.
-
Kate
When people decide they have to economize, one of the first things they cut is going out to eat. And restaurants are feeling the pinch.
I noticed last week in Little Italy that a couple of familiar restaurant façades along St‑Laurent were sporting brown paper on their windows. But you can’t make a campaign out of encouraging people to eat out when they may be having trouble getting enough groceries in.
Adding another link from Le Devoir about the hard times being experienced by smaller beer breweries.
jeather
Also, restaurants are becoming phenomenally expensive. The reasons make sense, but it becomes harder to consider worth it
Ephraim
There is also a backlash against restaurants raising the tipping amounts. The 15% doesn’t even show anymore, it starts with 20% and that’s 20% after tax, not before. We need to actually make tipping illegal and pay waitstaff a living wage and let them work staggered schedules, so they don’t all want to work Friday and Saturday and leave the restaurant with difficulty getting staff for other days of the week.
Heck, deps and some of the self-serve restaurants are now showing tipping screens. And then there are the tipping that the restaurants are taking for themselves and not even paying to their servers
jeather
Oh yeah, the tip screens at places where people get full wages. I never tip there, because it’s impossible to know who gets the money, as apparently the CNT says that if you aren’t a tipped position they don’t have to pass it along. This seems weird to me and clearly not the intent. Table service, yes, I tip. Self-service or a coffee shop? Not anymore.
Joey
Do coffee-shop employees not get tips?
azrhey
Coffee shops definitely get tips, the tip jar usually gets shared between cashiers and baristas.
I tip there and know several people who depend on those tips to make a (barely) living.The tip button on the Esso-Couche Tard machine around the corner is a big NO WAY.
jeather
Many coffee shop employees get tips! But apparently the coffee shop is not, in fact, legally obliged to pass on your tips to them as they are not tipped workers, and sometimes they are just kept by the coffee shop. I am happy to tip the coffee shop employees. I am not happy to tip the coffee shop itself.
Ian
It’s easy enough to just ask if they get to keep the tips themselves.
Chris
It’s funny, I pay everything cash, so haven’t noticed this tip inflation thing at all. I just round up change or do a quick 10% calculation (shift the decimal) and add a little more.
Kate
I always tip at coffee places. It seems like a double espresso is $3.75 everywhere now by a natural process of price-fixing, so I add a couple of quarters or a loonie, depending what’s left in my pocket. Usually the tip goes in a dish and I hope is fairly shared out by whoever’s working that day.
I haven’t eaten in a restaurant since the eve of the pandemic.
I flatly refuse to tip when I’m handed the machine by someone who’s done me no more service than to ring up a sale.
CE
I mostly use cash too and calculate the tip based around the taxes, meaning I generally tip around 15%.
I did some busing shifts last summer at a bar to help a client who couldn’t find someone to do the work. I was surprised at the end of the night when I didn’t get a wad of cash for the tips. The manager reminded me that almost all transactions were done by card and there was hardly any cash in the register. The tips were put on my paycheque at the end of the week. It kind of took some of the fun out of getting tips.
Ian
My wife was a bartender for a very long time, so out of solidarity I tip 20% but never less than a loonie on a drink if the 20% is lower than a buck, even if it’s a coffee – at a sit-down place, anyhow. I do ask if the server gets to keep their tips though because I know a LOT of restaurants hire international students to work under the table and just keep their tips.
If the employee isn’t making a tip-earner’s wage & getting to keep their tips, I don’t tip.
Of course I tip for “traditional” tipping services like food delivery, cabs, haircuts, or a valet – but being prompted to tip for retail? Hard nope.
Ephraim
I tip higher on breakfast than any other meal. Especially when it’s one of those $4.99 breakfast deals (I remember when Mike’s used to have one for $1.99 but only one egg) Because the staff shouldn’t lose out because the boss is having a loss-leader. But c’mon… if I’m doing a pick up order, you can’t expect me to put out cash… you moved the bag from the kitchen to the counter.
I don’t think we have done delivery in over a year. Almost always pick up. And have you seen the businesses that are using Uber for PickUp or order ahead? Poulet Rouge charges more if you order ahead for pick up. NO! And then a tip on top? No! Thai Express / Sushi Shop prompt you to tip for a pick up order. We have gone way too far with the tipping. Pay people properly and outlaw tipping. Set up a 3 year program, if you have to. But it’s time that restaurant tipping died! And there should be a law about order transparency. You know, I might be willing to actually use the service is the fees were disclosed. But taking part of the resto’s profit as a hidden charge… NOPE! That’s why we do pick-up. The resto pays them, then charges you and then takes a cut on the driver too. Nope Nope Nope Nope Nope!
Chris
>I haven’t eaten in a restaurant since the eve of the pandemic.
Wow. Why?
Kate
Use your imagination, Chris.
Chris
I don’t know anyone irl that’s still so scared of covid, so I was curious of the details to understand that view better.
Closest I know is a family member that’s had 8 vaccines (including pre-approval Medicago clinical trials), and still wears both a mask and face shield everywhere, but even she’s come to a restaurant once or twice for birthdays.
I’ll just let my imagination fill in the details I guess.
-
Kate
The city possesses 80 empty buildings but none of them is in a fit state to house people without a lot of work.
I wonder how strict the “normes” are. Surely there are people who’d be happy to have a roof over their head through the winter, even in a building that’s run down?
MarcG
Not if said roof caves in on you.
Kate
True. But I was thinking of something less drastic, like older bathrooms or inaesthetic old tile floors.
Ephraim
There was a podcast this week that delved into some of the “costs” and why everything related to building costs so much. See https://freakonomics.com/podcast/why-is-it-so-hard-and-expensive-to-build-anything-in-america/ if you are interested (it’s US oriented, but many of the salient points certainly apply to Canada.)
The short part of it is that all these consultations, regulations and requirements are essentially increasing the cost of building, while the industry isn’t innovating enough. Sure, we aren’t talking about the requirements that are needed, like a building being structurally sound, but all the NIMBY and the city requirements that have nothing to do with safety. For example, preserving 1 story buildings, where if you knocked down together that were side by side, you could likely house 6 households.Or even the problem they are having in the QdeS, where people move in and then complain about the noise, when it’s the house that needs to be soundproof because the business was existing. This increases costs all the way around.
mare
Most larger buildings have oil fired heating furnaces. If those haven’t been used or maintained for years they either don’t work or could produce carbon monoxide. And institutional buildings often have big rooms so to do a makeshift conversion to electrical heating will need a major upgrade of the hydro feed and internal wiring. And gosh, there’s asbestos in the walls, now we can’t drill a hole to run a wire. Etc etc.
I’ve lived for 5 years in squats (in the Netherlands where that was somewhat legal) and instead of paying rent we invested part of our money to make gradual improvements. I developed a lot of very useful skills during that time, like plumbing water and gas, and wiring electrical system. However the building owners weren’t liable for anything we did. Also, there weren’t laws that only union/guild members could perform those trades. (We had our work checked by experts, and the electric and gas company did a check before they connected the building(s) to their network.)
Montreal will never allow people to live as we did at the time, even though I had a blast and lived very comfortable. They could implement an anti-long-term-vacant-building law, but since the overlap in the venn-diagram of real estate developers and politicians isn’t exactly empty, that will be a tough call, and will generate a lots of lawsuits.
Joey
The same twisted logic doesn’t just apply to residential buildings. There may be lots of vacant commercial/office buildings in a particular area, and yet there’s often new construction happening on adjacent lots. It’s often easier to build to spec from zero than to retrofit or renovate a structure that previously suited a similar but still distinct purpose.
Kate
I was thinking, you know how the Camillien Houde city hall created work and improved parks and other municipal fittings during the Depression, it’s a shame that it’s no longer possible for city hall to summon up work gangs and put them to work retrofitting at least some of these vacant buildings for use. They could make it into an apprenticeship scenario where young people could learn construction and renovation skills on the job.
But it couldn’t happen like that now.
CE
It might if we saw unemployment rates like we did during the depression. It’s the opposite right now, there are too many jobs and not enough employees. That all could change very quickly though.
Kate
Is that still the case, CE? I saw a lot of reports about that kind of thing a year ago, not so much now.
-
Kate
Police are ramping up their visibility to deter hate crimes, but it doesn’t come cheap.
Ephraim
Ah yes, seeing policemen is going to stop crime…. being visible (I’m surprised they haven’t asked for more budget to put in more cameras, but I’m cynical in that way.)
And of course, this needs overtime, because well… who’s going to direct traffic when we need policemen on the street stopping hate crimes. We couldn’t train civilians to direct traffic, could we? Like the school crossing guards (lollipop men, if you prefer). Really, we can’t manage to hire, train and employ traffic guards to take the pressure off police… because of course, it’s all time and a half. We manage to employ them for highway safety, it can’t be that big of a jump to do it in the city
-
Kate
I don’t usually link to video reports, but this Radio‑Canada piece on rethinking truck deliveries is a good one. Should deliveries be made at night, should they move to using smaller trucks or even bicycles for the final mile? Pilot projects may be in the offing.
Ephraim
In many places in Europe, delivery on commercial streets is limited to early morning deliveries. After that time, the street is… pedestrian. And amazingly all the suppliers have managed to adjust and make sure that their deliveries are done on time. And many of the streets have specific parking rules. In some cities there are also low emission zones, so you have to have a low emissions classified vehicle (which makes delivery companies rethink their vehicles, so no big trucks for the “last mile” and specifically a 15 minute loading/unloading limit in the whole zone. And loading/unloading zones. If you aren’t a resident, you can’t even DRIVE through. The sign specifically says the exceptions include occupied taxis (meaning you need to have a customer or be picking up a customer), a hotel or a resident) and an implied exception if you are handicapped. So you can’t even drive around looking for a parking spot, if you don’t have a reason to be in that zone. So if not a resident, a taxi parked in that zone is subject to a ticket for violating the zone rules.
Joey
Given the amount of privacy-invading tracking software that integrated into new cars, the technological limitations to really controlling who drives where and when could disappear in the next few years. Tesla offers a glimpse of the concept of ‘car-as-subscription-service’ with moving goalposts around ‘essential’ features (like self-driving) but other car companies have also shown their hand a bit – making non-essential perks, like Apple Carplay, subscription-based. When you no longer own your car but pay a monthly rate for the privilege of driving it (with a variable fee based on usage), the idea that some entity (public or private) might limit where/when you can drive may not seem so far-fetched.
-
Kate
The Common Front plans a week‑long strike from December 8‑14.
-
Kate
The CAQ must be popping the champagne at the news that their tuition hike law means downgraded credit scores for McGill and Concordia.
bob
Pretty much nothing that these anti-literate faux-nationalist opportunists wouldn’t despoil for a buck or a vote.
They’ll be amping the bigoted stuff up now that the PQ zombie has been raised from the dead.
Ephraim 12:00 on 2023-11-29 Permalink
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 12:18 on 2023-11-29 Permalink
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 13:19 on 2023-11-29 Permalink
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 13:27 on 2023-11-29 Permalink
Festivals don’t already pay for the police overtime required to police festivals? That sounds like an amazing deal for the festivals.
Ian 18:57 on 2023-11-29 Permalink
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.