A Montreal woman of Russian background has pleaded guilty in a New York court to exporting technology from Canada to Russia for use in the war against Ukraine.
Updates from February, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Kate
-
Kate
Fady Dagher presented the SPVM annual report on Tuesday.
The SPVM acquired a net 91 additional police throughout 2023, after 362 hires and, I suppose, a fair number of retirements and resignations.
Violent crime was down in 2023 – gun crime down 26% – although the Jewish and Muslim communities faced some hate crimes.
-
Kate
The SQ seized 53 stolen vehicles at the Port of Montreal on Tuesday. Someone’s lit a fire under a few asses, I see.
-
Kate
Projet Montréal’s last election platform included a promise of bodycams for SPVM police, but the mayor is still pushing Quebec on the issue. The provincial justice ministry has to give its nod, and it hasn’t yet.
-
Kate
For the first time in its storied history, some professors are holding a strike at McGill. The law professors have created a union and are pressing for an initial contract, saying McGill is loafing on the issue. This one‑day strike may be followed by others.
Interesting that Radio-Canada has the story as I type, but I don’t see it yet on CBC, CTV or the Gazette site. (CBC radio does have the story.)
-
Kate
The STM has struck a $200M deal with an outfit called Ground Transportation Systems Canada to create a new control system for the metro. It will be installed first in the blue line during its extension, then throughout the rest of the system.
I wonder how much AI will be included in the programming.
Nicholas
There’s a bit of AI everywhere, but CBTC is a mature technology, first installed in Toronto and Vancouver in the 80s. The company that won this bid installed these first systems in Canada, and is now owned by Hitachi, a Japanese conglomerate with a significant transportation division. According to a release from Thales, who owned the company until last fall, they say they use AI for analytics, which they probably do, but I think that’s just buzz because everyone is saying that. The important thing is we’ll be able to run metros faster and more frequently for the same cost, reduce the chance of accidents, save money on maintenance of the vehicles and signalling, save energy costs and, maybe, save driver costs, as the drivers already don’t drive the train. I look forward to CBTC on all lines.
Kate
Thanks for your thoughts on this, Nicholas.
I don’t doubt that the existing control system is on its last legs, as were the MR‑63 and MR‑73 trains it was originally used for. But like so many things Quebec did in the 1960s, people seem to have thought they’d achieved this thing once, and it would last forever (see: highways, school buildings, bridges), so maintenance and upgrades were not factored in till things started falling apart decades later.
-
Kate
Repentigny mayor Nicolas Dufour is squarely against Montreal’s east end tram idea, fearing that it would spark more densification in his off‑island suburb, which his electorate doesn’t want.
But that’s the point! Montreal’s population is bound to grow, and with better transit, people who can’t afford to live downtown will be able to commute more efficiently. Suburbs have to stop holding themselves apart from the city. They are not special.
qatzelok
Repentigny has among the worst urbanism in the region. The mayor really needs to explain to his “city” why despite having 12 km of river frontage, there are zero linear parks long the St. Lawrence. It’s all bungalows and a few senior’s towers and parking lots. Like in some poverty-ridden cities in the Global South.
Does he believe that his constituents hate parks and prefer watching TV alone behind lawns? That strip malls and hostas are in our sustainable future?
Ian
First smoke trees, now hostas? You’ll pry my hydrangeas out of my cold, dead hands.
Brett
It’s super swampy along that part of the St Lawrence in Repentingy.
That said, there is a nice walking path from Ile Lebel park along the St Lawrence where you can view the tall grass and dodge the copious bugs in the summer.
MarcG
Lovely beach here, no idea what any of you are talking about https://maps.app.goo.gl/XRhcmdpdrQvS82gw5
Kate
I’ll drop over with a towel and a parasol soon!
-
Kate
The Olympic stadium tower, which closed during the pandemic, was supposed to reopen eventually. But now the reopening is delayed at least till 2026 after $90 million in work is done.
In the past I’ve always been on the side of keeping the stadium because it’s such a grandiose folly, but the amounts of cash and effort it can soak up seem endless.
Chris
How about we close the whole thing off, leave it to nature to decay, then in a few centuries we’ll have something to rival the Roman Colosseum; it brings lots of tourist dollars.
Kevin
We can’t let it decay because of the risk that it would fling tonnes of concrete through the air when certain portions snap.
At some point we will need to demolish it in a controlled manner. It might as well be now and be done with it.
dhomas
The stadium is pretty useless, or at least not cost-effective. It will never bring in as much revenue as we put into it.
But the Tower is quite iconic and somehow “represents” Montreal. Maybe a compromise would be to demolish the stadium and keep the tower?Joey
One aspect of the recent coverage that’s been bugging me (beside everyone taking at face value the absurd demolition cost that was submitted by a firm that has ceased operations after paying the feds $300K in a bid-rigging scheme) is the lack of meaningful discussion of the opportunity cost of maintaining the stadium. It’s clear that, even if the roof worked as intended, the stadium just isn’t up to the AV, and particularly the acoustic, requirements for the big touring shows that we are told are thisclose to booking Montreal dates if only we had a renovated stadium. Beyonce, Taylor Swift, U2 – they all want to play big venues where they can do multiple sellouts and the tech is cutting edge. This is not – and never will be – the Big O.
Meanwhile, we have a major housing shortage and all kinds of bureaucratic/NIMBY obstacles to building meaningful quantities of dwellings in the city proper. If the province demolished the stadium developers could build an entire neighbourhood (even if you kept the tower) on its footprint. Tearing it down and starting fresh is such a no-brainer – moreover, the developer fees and residential/commercial taxes on whatever eventually gets built should more than cover the actual demolition costs, sooner or later.
walkerp
Is this notion that if we just let it deteriorate or if it is smashed with a wrecking ball it will actually explode and send chunks of concrete flying really a thing? It’s got be bullshit, right? Kevin, you are just being funny, yes?
So that inert looking thing on the horizon is actually a hunched over, quivering turtle of tremendous restrained stress and potential energy? Could be a good local kaiju origin story.
Kate
It’s all under tension, but I don’t know enough engineering to guess how much energy would be released if something went wrong with the main structure.
MarcG
Seems like even more reason to tear it down now while we still have the resources to do it. Imagine struggling to survive in the opening-sequence-of-Idiocracy world we’re barreling towards 10 years from now and suddenly the Big O turns into a massive concrete shrapnel bomb.
Joey
@Kate I imagine it would be something like the time a 55-ton concrete slab fell off the stadium in 1991? Hardly, you know, huge pieces of cement being flung down Pie-IX, but still worth avoiding…
Ian
Maybe if we could persuade Legault that the existence of the stadium is a threat to the French language the political will to demolish it would be forthcoming. After all, what could be more of a symbol of multiculturalism and internationalism than the Olympics?
Kate
Ian, you are devious.
Joey, was it really 55 tons?
Ian
Yup. Tons, not tonnes.
“In the summer of 1991, Montreal’s Olympic Stadium was closed after a 55-ton concrete beam fell and crashed onto a walkway, forcing the Expos to play their last 13 regular-season home games on the road.”
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/wonder/structure/olympic_stadium.html
Fun fact, I knew a guy whose dad worked on the stadium and refused to step foot in it once it was done – because they were in a rush to complete it, they were pouring new slabs before the earlier ones had cured properly. He was amazed it didn’t collapse. Now, I don’t have “proof” of this, but having lived here a couple of years it tracks with what I know about how things get done chez nous…
Kevin
walkerp
No, I’m not joking.
I’m not an engineer but I’ve spoken to enough of them to understand that concrete is really strong when it’s being compressed — but it’s relatively weak against forces coming from other directions.In order to make those incredible flying saucer arcs out of concrete, each of the ribs of the stadium is lined with steel cables that are tightened like piano wire, or spokes on a bicycle wheel. And like the hub of a wheel, the open oval of the stadium’s roof contains a lot of metal plates that the cables connect to.
If enough of the metal plates or the connections or the cables rust away, KERSPLANG and down comes a section of the roof, with massive cables and concrete being flung in all directions.
That’s why the stadium MAINTENANCE costs are tens of millions of dollars per year, even if it’s never hosting another event, ever.
-
Kate
Is it news that a bit of colder weather is coming? –4° is the high on Wednesday, and –6° on Saturday – not really the kind of Arctic blast we’ve seen in the past.
Something’s telling me we may get a snowy March though.
It was foggy on Tuesday morning, but it wasn’t smog.
-
Kate
A program that helps people avoid homelessness is a good thing – but it’s a charity. This kind of thing shouldn’t be run by charities, it should be an inherent part of how things operate all the time.
Reply