Updates from April, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 20:12 on 2024-04-08 Permalink | Reply  

    It’s an established fact that Ali Ngarukiye killed his cellmate in June 2021, but now a jury has to decide whether it was murder or manslaughter, or whether Ngarukiye was not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder.

    Ngarukiye was found guilty in December of trying to kill policeman Sanjay Vig in January 2021. This Gazette report suggests that Ngarukiye’s sentence for that incident will depend on the verdict of this one.

     
    • Kate 17:22 on 2024-04-08 Permalink | Reply  

      I agree with the comments below that the eclipse was beautiful and otherworldly. There was a quality of light I’d never seen before. I’d expected totality to bring down darkness like a black velvet curtain, but it didn’t.

      I wasn’t planning to photograph the sky, because I wanted to experience the event unmediated by technology, and I don’t have the proper equipment anyway. But I was on a rooftop near Jean‑Talon metro station, four storeys up, and as the eclipse descended over the city it was truly magical and I took one shot. This is just a phone photo.

       
      • Myles 18:24 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        I was excited for it, bought glasses far in advance and all that, but I was completely unprepared for how spectacular it was to see the sun’s corona at totality. I had always assumed pictures of it were embellished a little in editing!

      • Ian 18:40 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        The weird desaturated quality was a real surprise for me, too. One of my friends thoguht it looked almost sepia toned, and opined that perhaps we were in a flashback sequence 😀

      • Mozai 19:03 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        I knew to expect the desaturated look of the city from the partial eclipse in Montreal a few years ago. This is the first time I’ve seen “the black sun” of a total eclipse and it was haunting.

      • carswell 19:21 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        Still in awe of the experience. Totality is so different from a partial eclipse. The quality and colour of light was unique and the corona — safe to view without glasses during the minute or so of totality — jaw-dropping.

        Pressed for time, I’d been planning to go to the promenade in front of the UdeM’s pavillon principal but from my rooftop could see and hear a crowd assembling and a party atmosphere reigning by 15:00, so I stayed put. In the moments before totality, the yelling and applause reached a loud climax and then… stunned silence. A couple of male cardinals launched into their evening song ritual and a dog began barking, but all creatures fell silent during the totality.

        Unexpected was seeing the edge of the path of totality — a line sharper and straighter than any caused by clouds — sweep in from the (Montreal) west-northwest and over Mount Royal.

      • carswell 19:38 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        Also, the veil of clouds ended up not being a disaster: thin enough not to interfere with appreciation of the event, including the corona, but also, from where I was standing, producing a rainbowish halo at a distance of (guessing) 15 or 20 degrees around the darkened sun. Magical.

      • TC 21:35 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        You took your shot. It caught the moment. Thank you.

      • azrhey 09:22 on 2024-04-09 Permalink

        I was in Magog and it was stunning as everyone else said. We had over 3 minutes so real time to look around and what was the strangest for me ( besides the show in the sun ) was the darkness above but light sky 360 all around the horizon. We are so used to have one part of the sky dark and the other light for sunrises and sunsets have light sky all around and a done of darkness above was really eery!

      • azrhey 09:23 on 2024-04-09 Permalink

        oh yes, and it took us 2h15 to get there from VSL on sunday morning and a total 5h30 to make it back last evening.. the ONE TIME being stuff in traffic was worth it!

      • kb 09:56 on 2024-04-09 Permalink

        We went to the AstroLab on Mont-Megantic. It was such a fun atmosphere – they brought out all their different telescopes so everyone could try them, and so many people came with their own telescope set-ups, and were happy to let people look in those as well.

        Not a single cloud, and 3 minutes of totality! And unlike azrhey, there was really no traffic coming back home.

      • jeather 11:21 on 2024-04-09 Permalink

        I was near the rapids in Lachine and it was fantastic. The looks like sunset, the weird wind changes, the really sudden temperature change right at the beginning and end of totality, the diamond ring image, the oddly shaped shadows. Sadly the trees were too bare so I just used a colander for that one.

        Neither the ducks nor the geese acted more oddly than ducks or geese ever do.

      • nau 13:57 on 2024-04-09 Permalink

        It really was marvelous. The temperature change was the most unexpected for me and started well before totality. I was surprised to feel not only excitement but immense good fortune to be able to experience the eclipse and in such ideal conditions. The daytime fauna didn’t seem to react much, but it definitely confused the bats, who came out for a couple turns.

      • Kate 12:41 on 2024-04-10 Permalink

        Yes! We also noticed the change of temperature and winds.

      • Tee Owe 15:45 on 2024-04-10 Permalink

        Speaking as one who wasn’t and couldn’t be there, I am deeply envious – thanks for your accounts, treasure your memories – lucky you all!

    • Kate 11:36 on 2024-04-08 Permalink | Reply  

      It’s the big day. Here’s some eclipse etiquette from Plateau Astro man Trevor Kjorlien.

      Seeing highways moving southeast of the city turning red already on Google Maps.

       
      • Blork 12:51 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        I’m seeing clouds in the sky off to the west, and the Environment Canada forecast has changed from “sunny” to “mostly sunny.” Apple weather says “partly cloudy conditions from 3PM-4PM, with mostly cloudy conditions expected at 4PM.” DISASTER AWAITS!

      • Blork 12:51 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        We really cannot have anything pretty, can we?

      • Kate 13:20 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        This is what I get just now:

      • Blork 14:46 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

      • MarcG 15:56 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        That was absolutely spectacular

      • Blork 15:57 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        Yay! No more eclipse FOMO!

      • JP 15:58 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        It was truly beautiful and special.

      • Daisy 16:01 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        It was so beautiful I almost cried.

      • Blork 16:06 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        I have to say, it was better than I expected and I didn’t even have glasses.

      • Ephraim 17:43 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        It was fantastic. It was difficult to take a photo even through the glasses that showed how spectacular the light show was when the moon finally covered the totality of the sun. The corona was wild! But it is equally amazing how strong the sun really is, that even a little sliver of the sun, from behind the moon can light up our daily lives so much.

      • Kate 17:49 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        Ephraim: exactly! When totality was over, it was surprising how fast it felt like “everything is light again” even though it was just a fingernail sliver of sun peeking through.

      • MarcG 18:02 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        Here’s a tangentially related presentation on light and human health.

      • JaneyB 22:02 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        @Kate and @Ephraim – same. Just the tiniest sliver of light was enough to make our world bloom. We earthlings are such solar beings. We know this at some level but to see it is humbling.

    • Kate 09:36 on 2024-04-08 Permalink | Reply  

      It was news last year when Ste‑Anne‑de‑Bellevue was to lose its only grocery store, then someone swooped in and reopened it. Now it’s closing again.

       
      • Ian 10:27 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        A particular shame because for Sainte Anne that’s the only real grocery store in walking distance.

      • Chris 10:44 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        It’s Sainte Anne, I doubt many walked. Indeed, owners point to Ile-aux-Tourtes Bridge, suggesting their clients mostly drive.

      • MarcG 10:48 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        That doesn’t change the fact that the people who *did* walk are now rather fucked. How is food not considered an essential service? Nationalize the grocery industry.

      • Chris 11:10 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        Are you arguing that it should be a *right* to have food stores within walking distance? Seems a bit extreme to me. How would that work in rural areas? Seems to me there comes a point where certain places are just not dense enough to support that, like say a cottage on a lake. It’s a spectrum, and it seems Saint Anne has just fallen off that spectrum.

      • Kate 11:45 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        I suspect the store may have been undermined by delivery services. I haven’t seen any articles studying the trend, but the guys who run the local fruiterie tell me that, since the pandemic, their sales are down because more people have acquired the habit of getting groceries delivered. And this is in a fairly dense central residential area with no major grocery store for blocks in any direction, a spot that was profitable for several years before Covid, not a marginal suburb.

      • Josh 11:53 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        I tend to agree with Chris. In many parts of Quebec and Canada this is simply not a realistic idea.

      • dwgs 12:35 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        No, of course it’s not a right to have a grocery store within walking distance. However, if one chooses a place to live based partly on the ability to find the necessities of life within walking distance and then one of those places goes out of business that is unfortunate. It makes that neighbourhood less desirable to some.

      • Ian 14:25 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        @Chris
        So let me get this straight, you don’t think people in West Island towns should have cars, but also don’t think they should be able to get groceries in walking distance. That’s some real galaxy-level urban planning there.

        As I’ve mentioned before, even Baie d’Urfé has a higher population density than Sherbrooke. The West Island isn’t a “marginal suburb”, and Sainte Anne really is a walkable town for many people that live there.

        Sure, lots of clients came from off-island to this grocery store but there are lots of older folks that don’t drive in Ste Anne and lots of students that don’t have cars. This isn’t in the middle of nowhere, it’s right downtown across from the library. Literally the only other place to get anything remotely resembling groceries in Ste Anne is the Couche-Tard.

      • Kate 17:32 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        OK, marginal suburb is a little unfair. But presumably that store is in a location where profits are marginal, or else it would be worth keeping it open.

      • Ian 18:37 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        It does make you wonder, as there are several large grocery stores in île-perrot, just over the bridge.

      • Philip 23:01 on 2024-04-08 Permalink

        I just find it regrettable because when I lived in Ste-Anne, the store felt important. Or at least that the quality of life would not have been as great had it not been for the store. It was centrally located to the whole village and easily walkable from anywhere. Great operating hours. It was a blessing to be able to just walk over to the store to grab nearly everything I needed, whenever I needed it – I was probably there 2 or 3 or 4 times a week.

        I’m a bit nostalgic, but living there was great. I was a student and while a lot of my friends lived downtown, I chose to live there. It wasn’t a particularly easy choice, because I loved living downtown and having everything in walking distance. I did not want to live in a suburb where everything would require driving and parking. I was happy to find that living in the village had everything I needed only a few steps away.

        I also am a bit curious about what the books looked like. Grocery margins are notoriously slim, but are they that slim that a store like this can’t exist (or can’t exist anymore in 2024)? Is it that they can’t compete with the big chains at the autoroute exits east and west of there? Is the commercial rent prohibitive? Is it a labor thing?

        In any case, the family who stepped in and tried to save it a few years ago should be applauded for trying to make it work. It’s a big loss to the town and that more than one iteration has failed makes the outlook bleak.

      • Chris 20:43 on 2024-04-09 Permalink

        Come now Ian, I didn’t say any of that. I asked MarcG to elaborate on his comment, and didn’t even give my own opinion (beyond saying I thought his extreme). Don’t put words in my mouth, please. I would love for Saint Anne to keep this store (and have others), but that doesn’t mean I support nationalizing it, let alone the whole industry.

      • Ian 08:41 on 2024-04-10 Permalink

        I didn’t mention nationalization, don’t put words in my mouth.

        You DID say this :

        “Seems to me there comes a point where certain places are just not dense enough to support that, like say a cottage on a lake. It’s a spectrum, and it seems Saint Anne has just fallen off that spectrum.”

        You are literally handwaving the closing of the only grocery store in Ste Anne, as you don’t think west island boroughs matter. Not very civic-minded of you.

    • Kate 09:26 on 2024-04-08 Permalink | Reply  

      A young woman was killed last summer in St‑Michel when a truck driver, ignoring a stop sign on a street where trucks aren’t permitted, knocked her down. The driver isn’t being charged, although the reasoning is not being given out.

       
      • Robert H 01:16 on 2024-04-09 Permalink

        “…la victime se trouvait dans l’angle mort du camion et que celle-ci ne « regardait pas du côté d’où venait le camion avant de traverser ». En effet, au moment de l’impact, la jeune femme faisait dos au camion et était engagée d’un mètre sur le passage piéton.”

        So it’s Dilan Kaya’s fault that she didn’t make a left-backward glance before crossing the street? That she was careless enough to not anticipate her path would intersect with the blind spot of a driver at the wheel of a vehicle that was prohibited by law from being in that area?

        Is no one responsible? Is there no penalty to the truck driver for simply operating a prohibited vehicle on that street in that district? Is the DPCP’s decision final with no follow-up? And why is the reasoning kept private? Will there be no initiative, as has already happened in the U.S., to require the installation on large trucks of lateral protective devices, cameras, and sonic warnings?

        I don’t understand this, and the missing information is infuriating. Someone here said it before, but I think it bears repeating that if you want to kill someone with impunity, the best way to do it is with a motor vehicle. I’m succumbing to cheap cynicism, but events like this make it seem like there’s no justice, and I already feel vulnerable enough on foot or on two wheels.

        I’m afraid Dilan Kaya’s young life has become the latest sacrifice to universal indifference.

      • Tim S. 08:10 on 2024-04-09 Permalink

        Agreed, Robert H.

      • Ian 18:02 on 2024-04-09 Permalink

        Is it just me or does it seem like most of these kinds of accidents are big trucks and/or “working” vehicles?
        There seems to be some actual impunity where they are involved, I suspect in part because the cops are loathe to impose moving or parking violations on them.

    • Kate 09:18 on 2024-04-08 Permalink | Reply  

      Shots were fired Sunday evening in Rosemont, and a man was arrested when he turned up injured at a hospital. CTV item doesn’t explain why the victim was also considered a suspect.

       
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