The reason for the water main break in NDG last week remains a mystery, although the water pipe appears to date from 1930.
It’s a fair guess that the pipe was never intended to carry the quantity of water needed for an installation like the MUHC hospital.
François Legault blithely stated that Quebec politicians have never been the target of violence as Donald Trump was on the weekend, provoking the PQ’s Paul St‑Pierre Plamondon to remind him tartly about the attempted attack on Pauline Marois in 2012 and the 1984 attack at the National Assembly. Legault has quickly corrected himself.
CBC enumerates the incidents of political attacks in Canada.
Why, it’s almost as if he thinks his political empire is outside history. Le Sigh.
The craziest thing about this is that Plamondon and I actually agree on something.
It’s pretty easy to agree on obvious facts in the face of mononcle blowhardism.
A heat warning is in effect, with humidex values of 40 expected.
Although the city should be constrained by the reformed French language charter to only communicate in English with those who have a historic right to receive services in that language, practical application of this rule has proven difficult. People are on their honour not to look at the English‑language side of the website unless their grandparents were already here and speaking English in 1890.* The city’s commissioner of the French language says she’s committed to a humane application of the law – but “Il faut être ferme. La diversité et l’inclusion ne peuvent pas servir de prétextes pour ne pas apprendre le français.”
A footnote here says the mayor recently became a chevalière de l’Ordre de la Pléiade, an honour accorded to prominent people who promote French in their work.
*exaggerated for effect
Someone better check out if that lady held at knifepoint by the naked dude in her kitchen addressed him in French.
Getting services — or reading a website — in English is orthogonal to learning or being able to speak French.
Uatu, believe it or not, that crossed my mind. She was described as a PhD student from Victoria, and she wasn’t sure what he was asking her for. But he was also described as confused so his diction may not have been the best.
The now require you to call l’Agence de mobilité durable de Montréal if you need to do anything related to traffic/parking. They have a 3 to 4 minute message that you have to go through if you want to speak to someone in English attesting to the fact that you have a right to service in English. Seriously, who has the time to listen to this message EVERY TIME you need to report someone parked in a handicapped spot, blocking a driveway, blocking an alleyway….. EVERY TIME.
It’s downright Orwellian. Not so much in the “1984” way, but in the satirical comedic way of some of Orwell’s other writings. He’d have a field day with this stuff about publishing things in English but people aren’t allowed to read it.
It brings to mind things like the following excerpt from his 1950 novel “Coming up for Air,” which satirized the “inner-outer suburbs” such as the fictional “Ellesmere Road.” In the excerpt, a resident of Ellesmere Road ponders the coming assault just prior to the Blitz:
“Funny how we keep on thinking about bombs. Of course there’s no question that it’s coming soon. You can tell how close it is by the cheer-up stuff they’re talking about in the newspapers. I was reading a piece in the News Chronicle the other day where it said that bombing planes can’t do any damage nowadays. The anti-aircraft guns have got so good that the bomber has to stay at twenty thousand feet. The chap thinks, you notice, that if an aeroplane’s high enough the bombs don’t reach the ground. Or more likely what he really meant was that they’ll miss Woolwich Arsenal and only hit places like Ellesmere Road.”
Coming up for Air was published in 1939. I wouldn’t normally fuss about a correction like this, but it makes a difference that Orwell wrote it before WWII, not after. He was writing at the time, not in retrospect.
Oh right. I don’t know why I thought it was 1950. Regardless, the satire of (likely government-sponsored) press talking about bombers not being a threat because they fly so high is still reminiscent of the idea of publishing content that half your population is not allowed to read and therefore will not read. As in, both are similarly detached from reality.
It’s like the government saying “don’t worry, we’ve saved French because most anglos aren’t allowed to read our English web pages.”
Even more to the point, newcomers aren’t allowed to read English. Allophones can’t be allowed to drift to the anglo side.
Uatu, thanks for making me laugh once again. 🙂
Maybe beside the point, but I just finished reading Coming Up For Air last night. Quite a coincidence to see mention of it here.
A woman came home to her apartment in Chinatown on Thursday and found a naked man holding a knife who had broken in. Police arrived and arrested him, but both these items go on to elaborate on the hazards of homelessness in the area.
A dozen vehicles were torched in St‑Laurent early Monday morning. I believe the same firm was hit back in April.
Reply