Police are looking for an exhibitionist who’s been seen in both the McGill and UdeM libraries and is accused of groping women and flashing.
The CBC trigger warning strikes me as redundant when the headline already indicates that the report is about incidents of sexual assault.
The orange line is down at rush hour between Bonaventure and Henri‑Bourassa, expected back at 17:30 with luck. Medical emergency.
Update: Pushed to 18:15.
Update: It came back slowly after 18:15. La Presse reports on the incident with the snappy headline “Une panne de métro et Jésus compliquent le retour à la maison”. A crucifix on a vehicle got stuck under a Rosemont overpass.
Code 904 for a suicide attempt at Beaubien, sadly
There’s another code 904 on the orange line just now, 8:45 pm. Seems to be at du College.
A South Shore woman is facing multiple charges of promoting and inciting hatred after she allegedly spraypainted swastikas on businesses and institutions in the Chateauguay area. Whether she’s disturbed or just nasty, we aren’t told.
Why not both? But this seems a little random. That tag on the A&W in the linked article has an odd vibe for a purported purveyor of hate. She seems to have a Facebook account but the last post was in 2015.
The CAQ, the PQ and QS are all condemning Justin Trudeau’s plan to protect tenants.
I do so love paying federal taxes but having federal benefits blocked by Quebec’s nationalist parties. It makes me feel warm all over.
Wait until you hear about the duplication of federal services with national offices. It’s a byzantine cash spigot that has no turn-off valve.
But hey, people hear English downtown, Quebec’s culture will collapse if we let those dirty federalists tell us what to do.
Contrary to federalism rules as clearly provincial jurisdiction per S. 92(13) of Canada Act, 1867 (aka BNA Act).
You know what, Loyo? I don’t give a shit. If we can get better treatment from the feds on housing or healthcare why shouldn’t we? We’re actually still in Canada even if CAQ policy has always been to simply proceed as if Quebec’s a separate republic. Je m’en fous de “jurisdiction”!
I’m actually happy that the feds have noticed that the provinces have fumbled housing and that people are falling into homelessness and suffering. Would I rather have a place to live, or sleep in a cardboard box safe in the knowledge that S. 92(13) of Canada Act, 1867 has been respected?
It’s a failure of our education systems, but the vast majority of Canadians are completely unaware that there are provincial and federal jurisdictions of responsibilities.
People just want stuff to work.
Yes, sooner enough the various nationalist politicians will have to explain why other Canadians can get contraception and diabetes medications for free but we can’t. There’s a populist argument to be made that the interests of the political class in defending jurisdiction are not necessarily the interests of the people. I just hope someone on the left gets there before Duhaime.
That’s not exactly true. According to the CTV article, It was CAQ who quickly condemned Trudeau’s new tenant protection plan while the PQ and QS are targeting Legault for letting the feds interfere in the first place (which strategically makes sense for the opposition). Also the PQ wanted more details before they take a clear position, which actually sounds quite reasonable, unlike the CAQ’s reactionary stance.
Meezly, I think you are giving the CAQ too much credit on this one; they clearly are opposed to Trudeau’s plan (otherwise they would have included elements of it in their own housing reform). The idea that Legault’s “study” of the LPC proposal will lead him to conclude anything other than “Ottawa should F off and send us money while we do nothing” is preposterous. Sad that the only level of gov’t that sees protecting tenants as a vote-getting issue is the one that, despite the grumbling here, has no jurisdiction to do very much. Kate may not give a shit, but the courts eventually will.
Joey, I’m just fed up with watching the provincial and federal governments waste our time and money in sparring, duplicating efforts and playing stupid games. Maybe I shouldn’t have said I don’t give a shit – but when the feds say “We’re going to do something beneficial for you” and Quebec says “Not on our watch, you don’t” it wears me down.
Is credit scores linked to rent payments actually a good thing? There’s no “credit” in the transaction as tenants pay rent at the beginning of the month.
@steph, there is still “credit” in a more abstract sense, in that if you don’t pay the rent on the first day of the month you are not automatically ejected out of the apartment. Besides that, the idea (AFAIK) is that a credit score is a score of reliability for meeting financial obligations. So paying your rent always, and on time, should affect your score as someone who reliably meets their obligations.
@Joey, I kind of bungled my second sentence there, but I didn’t give the CAQ any credit at all on their quick, reactionary position. Kate wrote that the CAQ, the PQ and QS all condemned Justin Trudeau’s plan to protect tenants, when it was just the CAQ that did so.
And I agree with the PQ and QS – even though their blaming Legault was likely also a political strategy, if Legault had put in place a law that actually helped protect tenants properly, the feds wouldn’t be interfering in the first place.
Here’s the open and closed for the thoroughly nonreligious holiday weekend of Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday. Oh, and today’s Holy Thursday, too.
Sales are still down at the SAQ, as the populace continues to face hard times inconceivably sober.
I quit drinking on Jan 1st and it’s done me nothing but good. Here’s a book recommendation for anyone interested in the facts.
Worth noting,
“Under the act (pdf, French only) that created the SAQ, the government corporation is required to pay an annual dividend to the Government of Quebec.
All Quebecers benefit from this dividend because it is reinvested in various government programs, including health care and education, and a range of government services.
In each of the last ten years, the SAQ has remitted a dividend of more than a billion dollars to the Quebec government. In fiscal 2022-2023, the amount was $1.426 billion.”
…so even in this inflationary environment that is so bad the SAQ finds it necessary to increase prices they still pulled in 1.426 billion in profit.
Marc, I’m apparently supporting the economy by drinking, contributing to the nearly billion and a half dollars dividend from the SAQ that benefits all Quebecers. Why do you hate Quebec?
The costs to society from alcohol consumption apparently outweigh the benefits. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/reports-publications/health-promotion-chronic-disease-prevention-canada-research-policy-practice/vol-40-no-5-6-2020/alcohol-deficit-canadian-government-revenue-societal-costs.html
I was, of course, joking. Looks like there’s a competition for the role of Prince Virtue around here.
;P
If my math is right (which it rarely is) that SAQ profit is around $170 for every human in Quebec. Given that many of those humans are children, and many of the adults don’t drink, it’s probably on the order of $1000-1500 or so per drinker. (I assume this includes revenues from all sources; SAQ outlets, bars, restaurants, etc.)
All kinds of factors at play here. The economy (and for most people beverage alcohol is a discretionary expense; if they’ve not stopped buying, they’re buying fewer or cheaper products). The ageing population (older people drink less). Changing tastes (older customers prefer spirits and wine, younger customers tend toward coolers, which are cheaper and have a smaller $ markup). Etc. The provincial government wants its dividend to continue growing, however, hence the recent increase in the markup and introduction of other money-making schemes (get ready for commercials on in-store sound systems).
I find it interesting that by far the biggest drop in sales is to the grocery and convenience store network. Note that those are sales by the SAQ to the stores and may not correspond directly to sales to consumers. Without consumer sales data, it’s hard to know what this network has to say about consumer buying trends.
@MarcG Old age and health issues have forced me to pause or maybe give up regular drinking since December. These days, I only consume alcohol at occasional weekend dinners with friends and usually limit myself to a glass or two over the course of the evening. Even that small amount is now enough to make me feel lightheaded. OTOH sleep has much improved. Society doesn’t really talk about it this way, but alcohol is a powerful drug.
Coolers will rot the brains of our youth.
Maybe we can make booze out of figs and cauliflower to make it less appealing.
Ian, now I want to try boukha but it’s not listed at the SAQ.
There are fig liqueurs too but the SAQ doesn’t carry them, either. Clearly a niche ripe for profit, no wonder sales are down.
Everytime I see a reference to “coolers” a voice in my head says “Thank yew for yor support,” which was the tagline for those two guys who advertised Bartles & Jaymes wine coolers back in the late 80s.
The mayor is handing off responsibility for the proposed rent register to Vivre en Ville.
Sheer stupidity. We need a rent register and even a lease register to verify the tax rates on houses. And even more so as we move towards taxing vacancy. We should know exactly how many apartments in this city as sitting empty, how many are renting on a standard lease, how many are on monthly leases and maybe have different rates for them. An apartment that is furnished and rented monthly for corporate users isn’t useful to people who really need a home.
@ephraim: how does the tax rate on a house change based on whether it’s rented out or not? Does it pertain to short term rentals or all rentals or some other criteria?
A young man died in a car crash in Rosemont early Thursday and the other occupant of the car is in critical condition. Item also has some reports of shots fired around town. CBC says the crash vehicle had two other occupants, both seriously injured. TVA links the stories, alleging that the occupants of the car had been responsible for the shooting on Pie‑IX shortly before.
An older man is in bad shape after being hit by a truck in Longue‑Pointe on Wednesday.
CBC radio linked those stories this morning, too. Also with the car shooting at St-Joe and Henri-Julien, though the TVA story seems to suggest the timelines don’t match up.
And Global explicitly links them up. Instant karma.
CBC radio at noon now says two people died in the crash.
Shots fired on that stretch of Henri-Julien twice in one week… as long as they steer clear of Chez Claudette…
Hands off Chez Clau !
One of the last great bastions of the old neighbourhood.
A young man was stabbed in St‑Michel early Wednesday, and won’t help cops find his assailant.
Johnny Tightlips, where’d they hit you?
I ain’t sayin’ nothin’.
But what do I tell the doctor?
Tell him to suck a lemon.
I admit when I read “la victime aurait catégoriquement refusé de collaborer avec les policiers pour les aider” I didn’t imagine him having said anything nearly as polite as “suck a lemon”.
Deaths on the Santé Québec Covid page have quietly ticked up to 20,005.
…And nobody has mentioned this fact in the media.
The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation finds that other Canadian cities are building apartments relatively fast, but Montreal isn’t.
It’s not like we’re not building though. I recently updated my panorama comparison of the René-Lévesque corridor (2012-2014) where it shows 23 new buildings put up in that time, most — probably ALL — of which are residential. Plus there’s all that stuff in Griffintown and a few other development hotspots. But it’s not really the right KIND of residential, is it?
Arguably, some of the people filling those shiny and tiny condos (some of which are rentals) are vacating more affordable apartments elsewhere in the city, creating vacancies for others to fill. But does it really work like that? Sounds good in theory…
That’s a wild image, thanks for sharing.
Where can one find the names of the buildings linked to the numbers?
Not from me. The numbers are just for enumeration purposes and in case any commenters want to refer to a specific building.
My partner used to work for a big property development company, we hears\d all kinds of crazy stories about the construction/urbanism disconnect – all the Tour Canadiens units sell off like hotcakes but entire floors basically stand empty as they were bought as “investments”.
A few years ago I did some contract work on a fancy book about a then‑new condo development in Toronto. The development was explicitly pitched at people from China already living in Toronto who would be buying additional condo units as investments. So that doesn’t surprise me at all.
I have a friend who had a job a few years ago cleaning airbnbs in the Tour des Canadiens and she said the place was empty. Most units were unoccupied, a few were airbnbs. The whole time she was going there she only met a single actual occupant. I think this is pretty normal for a lot of these buildings.
The mayor has announced a program for protecting tenants, the Responsible Landlord program, in particular by doing more inspections on older buildings especially in areas with more poverty. Item notes that 60% of the city’s residents are tenants.
Where are the poorer neighbourhoods now? The traditionally working class hoods in Sud‑Ouest and around Hochelaga‑Maisonneuve have been vigorously gentrifying for years.
The prime minister also says the impending federal budget will include help for tenants, which La Presse notes will almost certainly annoy Quebec.
The perky headline on this CBC piece saying that fireworks aren’t that bad for Montreal’s air quality is swiftly contradicted in the second paragraph: “pollutants released by the explosives tended to drift into nearby neighbourhoods where they reach harmful levels.”
In addition, an expert is quoted saying “fireworks displays are a tradeoff between the economic benefit they bring and the not insignificant air pollution they cause.” But that’s just a microcosm of every polluting industry everywhere.
Don`t take my fireworks away. I like the loud banging noise.
>The smog from the wildfires caused the city’s air quality to plummet and led to the cancellation of fireworks displays. While they would have been a negligible contributor to smog, according to the study, Weichenthal said conducting a fireworks display when air quality is already bad would not make a lot of sense.
lol. But god forbid we ban, or reduce, car usage during wildfire smog days. That must continue unabated!
lol, god forbid anyone live outside the immediate range of the STM.
How do you think people that live in the not-urban parts of this province live?
Fireworks are clearly a frivolity, drawing a prallel between an exploding art show local to Montreal and transportation for all of Qubec is a real apples & oranges move.
Unless you were advocating for more public transportation with an increased schedule on smog days, because then I’m all in.
There’s a photo of the Royalmount pedestrian link over Decarie on this CBC piece and maybe it’s just the angle, but that thing…! Nobody could make Decarie even uglier? Hold my beer, says Carbonleo.
In addition, there’s concern that the walkway is not sufficient, and extra road space will be needed for all the millions of cars wanting to access the area.
What if they held a mall development and nobody came?
Carbonleo CEO Andrew Lufty said the pedestrian overpass is “transformative for Montreal, for our society, for our planet” so I guess it must be true and has no overblown hype at all, just like the rest of the project.
He also says “We’ll probably drive about 20 million visits or passengers through the sky bridge on an annual basis.” I like that verb. Definitely isn’t thinking of people as a herd of cattle or sheep!
That angle is useful to get a sense of the thing but not a viewpoint most of us will ever have. Not exactly Architectural Digest material, but it might not look so bad when the whole thing is built. Decarie is so ugly it’s almost glorious.
Yeah, it definitely looks like a walkway created by a junior IKEA designer who is used to working with Meccano sets. Definitely optimized for “cheap” not “beautiful.” But if it was more elegant (imagine a rounded swoop and less clunky attachment to the piers) then maybe it would stand out weirdly and draw attention to the ugliness around it. Lipstick on a pig!
There are construction compromises that have to be made, if you want to minimize the impact on decarie then you pretty much have to design something that can be craned into place and that means something that can be pre-built. It’s hard to build a prebuilt structure without making it look like it was well prebuilt.
We’re complaining about the aesthetics here? Decarie is a waste land and nothing short of blowing it up and restarting will change that (or maybe decking it over, but the service roads and car-oriented development would still be there). This is not going to happen, as much as I would like it. And since pedestrians will be inside it mostly, they won’t spend much time looking at it from the outside. This is like my friends saying the REM is ugly on the West Island, when the 40 and service roads and parking lots are right there! Sometimes cheaper is better. Hopefully we can spend our money making other places nicer.
Sure it’s ugly, but let’s be realistic – this is what it looked like before:
More egregious, I think, is the sci-fi utopia that artist’s rendering of the fully constructed mall compex. The only thing missing is some flying cars and white people in togas.
Hope there’s security. Looks like a great place for the homeless to squat or pedestrians to get mugged.
According to the article, ‘younger people who represent the majority of luxury shoppers, will be coming by metro.’ Yes, if there’s two things I naturally connect, it’s youth and expensive shopping habits,…followed closely by public transit use for high-end shopping. Utter nonsense from these people. When does it end?
Yeah, that raised my eyebrows, too. Regardless of the age bracket of luxury shoppers, surely most of them do not arrive by public transit?
The prediction that 2/3rds of shoppers will arrive by transit also elicited some side-eye. The article doesn’t mention how the developers arrived at this estimate, other than wishful thinking. I wonder if that’s even true of the underground malls downtown. I suspect it’s not even close to true for Dix30.
Bored teens taking a metro to Ardene is one thing, but wealthy bored late milennials luxury shopping via the loser cruiser? Good luck.
Taylor C. Noakes on the trouble with trams as a solution for the east end.
Blork 12:33 on 2024-03-29 Permalink
The CBC trigger warning is redundant, but it is likely there as a matter of policy, not editorial judgement, so redundancy is not even considered.
I’m curious about the timing. These events took place last summer, so why are they just reaching out to the public for help now?
GC 16:31 on 2024-03-29 Permalink
I’m curious, too. Maybe they were only reported to the police recently?
Blork 17:59 on 2024-03-29 Permalink
Maybe. More likely it’s just low priority (especially since there hasn’t been a reported event since last September) so it languishes in the backlog and only now and then does someone put in a few hours’ effort.