New laws against tail-docking, ear cropping and declawing of pet animals come into force next month, and not a moment too soon.
Next we need a law against the banning of animals in apartment leases.
Updates from January, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
If anyone needed an object lesson in why private involvement in medical services is a flawed idea, the sudden closure of a private children’s clinic this month is leaving 300,000 patients without recourse because of the bankruptcy of the parent company. Irony is that parents probably felt it would be more reliable than the public system.
JP
Clicking on that link and reading that article led me down a rabbit hole of other articles (had no idea the walk-in clinic at Westmount Square also closed. I got help there for an important issue a couple of years before the pandemic. I actually miss the days of real walk-in clinics, even if it meant lining up at 6 or 7 am. At least you knew there was a way. No wonder ERs are crowded. I actually feel kind of helpless these days and am glad I don’t currently have any issues.
Nicholas
This is another great example of CBC Montreal copying a RC story, and badly. The CBC story they have 125 employees, and is one of the largest medical groups in the province. 125 is tiny, that’s like 3 clinics (the Glen location has 50). That’s also 2,400 patients per employee per year, a huge number even for walk ins. The RC story says 125 not including doctors, saying there are 175 doctors. That makes way more sense.
Also worth pointing out that nearly all family doctor clinics are private, in that they are owned by doctors or investors, but most are paid for by RAMQ, and this has been true for decades. This group has public(ly insured) clinics (and privately paid ones), and ELNA, which might buy it out, does too. The only fully public health care (in that people are government workers, rather than people who charge the government for reimbursement) is hospitals and CIUSSS and their progeny (like CLSCs).
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Kate
Eating Tide pods is still sending kids to Montreal ERs.
CC
The article mostly speaks of ‘coming into contact’ with the substance, and it only mentions ingestion toward the end. Sounds like skin contact with a burst detergent pod is more toxic than generally assumed.
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Kate
Right-wing American commentator Tucker Carlson has waded into our affairs, claiming that Montreal has been “cleansed” of its anglo legacy. This wouldn’t matter except it’s all over social media Saturday morning.
Ian
Wait, Tucker Carlson has friends?With that backpfeifengesicht?
Marco
Still doesn’t matter.
Ephraim
He’s still around? I thought he was cancelled. Fox sent him packing after paying $787.5 million to Dominion Systems, no? (They still fighting the Smartmatic lawsuit) Is he still playing his covert WP stuff? Couldn’t we just ban him from the country for that?
Chris
If Tucker’s name wasn’t on the article, it would look like what a lot of local anglo-activist types would say (about the Montreal stuff).
dhomas
@Ian In Quebec, we call him “une tête à claques”. 😉
Ian
In Quebec we speak many langauges, despite what Tucker’s “friends” tell him 😉
Kate
Chris, workers at the SAQ have been forbidden to say Bonjour Hi.
Am I allowed to laugh?
DeWolf
When was the last time any clerk actually said bonjour-hi at the SAQ? I’ve certainly never heard that and I’m a fairly (ahem) frequent customer.
I remember one time when I was being helped by an SAQ worker – a francophone Black woman, for the record. Just as she was finishing explaining something to me, we were interrupted by a pair of older white American women asking a question in English. The SAQ worker looked at them a bit haughtily, then very slowly and deliberately said, “Bonjour!” The women both looked embarrassed and the one speaking responded, “Oh, bonjour, I’m so sorry.” The SAQ clerk then laughed and proceeded to help them in very fluent English.
I found it quite funny. A reminder that SAQ workers are (in my experience) generally quite helpful and competent, but they don’t take any shit, and they certainly aren’t going to bend over backwards to accommodate a customer whose behaviour they don’t appreciate.
Ian
I have also found that regardless of what part of town you are in, even *gasp* in the West Island SAQ workers are francophones and have absolutely no desire to speak English unless they have to … though I have had several switch to English if they found my accent in French too cringe … though in those cases I insist on speaking French anyway since apparently I need the practice, a tleast to be able to speak French to their satisfaction. Those people are rare, thoguh, and overall my experience of the SAQ has been pretty much “speak French and everyone is friendly”.
Kate
Near where I live, there are 2 SAQ outlets where workers have actively spoken English with me, even though I’ve spoken French (not much French – just saying I don’t have a points card, basically). Both are older men and clearly have no objection to embarking on speaking English, even extending my interaction at the cash. I suppose I look anglo – blue eyes, reddish hair – and they’re probably bored as hell when things are quiet. But I’ve never said Bonjour Hi to anyone at the SAQ.
Annette
«[Bloc Québécois MP Jean-Denis Garon] told La Journal this week that, “without the richness of French and its culture, what distinguishes Montreal from Milwaukee or Madison, Wisconsin?”»
Just think about how sad and misguided that mindset is.
Meezly
A recent visit at a SAQ in the Plateau, they were playing the entire album of a “vintage” Irish shoe gaze band. It wasn’t music you heard at a typical SAQ. At the cash, I asked in English, so who’s the MBV fan? He made a kind of sweeping gesture, “We all are.”
MarcG
My wife is Montreal-born-and-raised and did French immersion, her French is excellent, but has strawberry blonde hair and grey-blue eyes. My French is bad considering I did French immersion in Ontario and have lived in Quebec for a long time – but my father is Quebecois so I look Quebecois. When she interacts with public service people they immediately switch to English to accomodate her even though she doesn’t need it and I mostly get served in French with a confused look on their faces while I stumble along.
Chris
Kate: better to laugh than cry!
JP
I actually didn’t realize there was a Quebecois look….I didn’t think there was a unique hair or eye color. This is interesting.
Ian
There are definitely steroetypes, but as in all stereotypes, there are exceptions.
carswell
@JP Franco Quebecers invariably peg me as an anglo, even before I utter a word. (My genetic background is northern European, including a quarter French.) Decades ago, I assumed it was because I’m tall and Québécois weren’t. But now a number of them are (am reminded every time I go to CEPSUM) so it’s got to be something else.
Tux
That guy should stay in the states, so, for that matter, should fear-based reactionary politics.
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Kate
It’s a pleasure on a Saturday morning to read Isabelle Hachey calmly demolishing Mathieu Bock‑Côté’s claims one by one.
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Kate
The mayor, having read various Journal pieces claiming that having a “quartier de la francophonie” reduces French to the status of a quaint relic, defends her plan, but also says the area will remain the Quartier latin, and doesn’t even use the phrase “quartier de la francophonie” once in this Le Devoir opinion piece.
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Kate
A man was shot dead in a taxi in Park Ex, late Friday.
MB 11:07 on 2024-01-28 Permalink
Article says the breeding regulations will be enforced through a complaints-based system, which — as far as I can tell — doesn’t work to any significant extent in any regulatory area.
I’d guess the breeders will fissure their companies to stay below the caps on paper.
Ian 11:38 on 2024-01-28 Permalink
Hopefully it’s more effective than the complaints-based tenants’ rights system.