Quebec cut off funding for the SPVM’s community policing (ECCR) squads earlier this year, but the force itself is going to deploy them again in nine boroughs starting in September. But this article suggests that ECCR squads have continued to work downtown past the end of the funding.
Updates from June, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
The city has forked over millions to compensate merchants whose businesses have been blighted by construction sites, and intends to continue doing this.
Ian
Other cities don’t allow construction sites to sprawl over the entire area for the entire duration of the project. Is there anything more frustrating than seeing a blocked off area with no actual work going on for weeks at a time simply because the contractors don’t have to put away the fences and cones? In some cities they actually make work sites put everything away and secure the site at the end of each workday. Here we have entire blocks fenced off for contractor parking for the duration of the permit even when the workers aren’t on-site. I guess paying off affected businesses is more cost effective, but it doesn’t do much for hte urban landscape – and definitely drives people away from downtown.
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Kate
Dogs and bicycles are to be allowed on the REM as of Monday in a pilot project to last till mid‑August. After that time, they will be excluded during rush hours.
Ian
Bicycles, great. But wtf is it with dogs on public transit?
Kate
I can’t say I like the idea, but I suppose some people at least need to bring their dog to the vet by public transit, or take it to a dog park that’s at a distance. I haven’t yet been faced with dogs on the metro and would tend to move away from them if possible.
(One of my favourite local cafés is very dog‑positive. It’s a small place and I tend not to go in when there are dogs present. I don’t know whether they’re aware that allowing dogs might keep some customers away. They might not care. The STM evidently doesn’t.)
jeather
I am fine with the existence of dog friendly cafes because it means there are also dog unfriendly ones and we can self select.
See also cats in bookstores, where I come down on the other side.
Ian
I’d rather have cats in bookstores than mice, but I’m not allergic to cats. Dogs serve no purpose in a café or on a train unless it’s a service dog – and those were permitted anyway
JP
I don’t get it either….I just came back from a trip to NYC. I hadn’t flown anywhere since February 2020. My observations include seeing a lot more dogs at the airport in Dorval. Maybe I’d just forgotten but it seemed like there were a lot more than before. But also, lots of dogs at stores, cafes, etc.
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Kate
Superior Court has ordered Quebec to pay $143 million to people who had paid thousands for taxi permits which were allowed to become valueless in 2013 when Uber arrived here. The class‑action lawsuit began to be heard in April.
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Kate
Four people were kidnapped in Old Montreal on Friday morning in a case related to cryptocurrencies. Police are seeking victims and suspects.
Sunday there’s a report that three of the four victims were rescued Saturday afternoon. Although the initial report said the group consisted of a man and three women, now they’re reporting that a man and two women were freed, while a second man is still being held.
Meezly
Quite the local news story!
Kate
There’s a lot of scuttle on Saturday morning about the guy, who was a known cryptocurrency influencer. He’s named in this La Presse piece.
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Kate
CBC has a video report on why the much vaunted launch of food trucks here has fizzled out.
Nicholas
Nothing should surprise anyone. The only thing that surprised me was how many restrictions there are, even though I knew there would be a lot.
Ian
The restaurant lobby made sure to nip that one in the bud.
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Kate
Between them, Ottawa and Quebec have provided $57.5 million to create emergency and transition places for the homeless in Montreal. CTV clarifies that it’s this much per year for two years.
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Kate
The STM says its buses are moving at an average 17 km/h because of obstacles from all the roadwork.
Ephraim
Instead of buses, we should have trans, on bus lanes that are covered in cobblestones and earth, so that no one but the trans want to use the path. No cyclists, no taxis, not cars. Just the trans, so easily just roll right over the cobblestones.
Kate
We could just start with drag queens and see how people like it.
Chris
Boy the autocomplete has gone woke I guess, preferring that word to the other all 3 times. 😉
Ephraim
trams… trams… trams
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Kate
Denis Coderre is the first to put in his bid for leadership of the Quebec Liberal Party.
Ian
Coderre is turning into the political embodiment of “why are you punching yourself” except he’s both bully and victim.
Kate
Note that he’s planning to run in Bellechasse, well away from Montreal.
(Well, that’s what he says. Isn’t it up to the party to decide who runs where?)
Ephraim
Can we get him to promise to never move back?
dhomas
At this point, I think he’s developed some kind of fetish for losing. No kink shaming, though. You do you, Denis.
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Kate
Friday is National Indigenous Peoples Day and there are various events around town.
Weekend ideas from CityCrunch, La Presse, CultMTL, Sarah’s Weekend List.
Some weekend traffic notes, also in English.
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Kate
I doubt it will disappoint many that the Canada Day parade has been cancelled this year. Global manages to evoke a response from Ensemble, but even Aref Salem can’t get his knickers into much of a twist.
DeWolf
“Too much red tape” sounds like a weak excuse when there are dozens of other parades and street fairs that somehow manage to go ahead every summer.
Ian
Let it suffice to say this would never happen to Fête St-Jean, it would be a “national crisis” we would hear about for decades.
Kate
Oh man, I can just imagine the handwringing from QMI’s commentariat.
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Kate
Human rights lawyers say that police should keep their hands off the pro‑Palestinian encampment at McGill. There have been no criminal actions even if its existence irritates people for a variety of reasons.
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Kate
Quebec’s education ministry has sent out high school provincial exams full of errors. It’s nothing new. I’ve seen reports of similar screwups before, and years ago when I was finishing high school some of the exams were messed up too – multiple choice questions with more than one correct answer or none, questions poorly translated from French so they were incomprehensible. We were told airily that the results would be “put on a curve” which even then we understood meant the exams were a meaningless ritual.
Can’t the ministry even hire a few proofreaders?
At any rate, schools have been having to hire exterminators because many school buildings are full of rats, mice and cockroaches.
jeather
Way back when I was in high school, they had copies of the French versions around in case we didn’t understand the bad translations into English. This was necessary in, eg, history, though not so much in math, even in the word problems.
Ian 11:46 on 2024-06-22 Permalink
Unsurprisingly, since this is is one of the pillars of Dagher’s approach to policing – but also an excellent example of a function that would be better served by community social workers rather than the police, if only there were funding to be had. The image of the 2 cops in readiness pose, clear disdain on their faces, obviously harassing sleeping homeless people says it all.
Kate 15:37 on 2024-06-22 Permalink
From time to time there are reports of social workers accompanying police, as I linked here and here. I don’t know whether these reports are made after police do a PR exercise for journalists, but it sometimes feels like that’s all it is, since such reports turn up periodically yet nothing much changes.