A man who masturbated on a bus in front of a teenage girl has been arrested, and it was found he’d been going around town doing similar things since April.
Updates from September, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Port dockworkers have declared a 72‑hour strike starting Monday.
jeather
And Tuesday starts a strike at all the east coast US ports.
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Kate
Stephan Probst, former head of nuclear medicine at the Jewish General, faces new accusations of sexual assault from women who’ve spoken up to La Presse. Probst has been provisionally barred from practising medicine in Quebec, following his recent conviction for sexual assault. (The Gazette cites someone as saying he was facing “disbarment” but I thought that term only applied to lawyers – still, it’s clear what it means.)
We had a bit of a dust‑up on the blog a month ago about terminology around this case.
jeather
For everyone’s info, the judgement is online.
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Kate
As climate changes, basement dwellings are becoming a thing of the past.
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Kate
The city has made some changes in the control of access to Île Bizard for the golf.
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Kate
A noisy demonstration was held Thursday evening outside La Tulipe against its sudden closure over noise.
In addition, a lot of cultural figures have signed an open letter to denounce the shutdown.
walkerp
This was very cool. We need another one in front of the developers house in the burbs as well.
JaneyB
Great to see such support. May La Tulipe prevail – and may the noise of relentless protest drive the owner from his condo next door.
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Kate
Operators of Trudeau airport fear the encroachment of new housing will crank up pressure to limit noise levels. They want developers to sign a pact acknowledging plane noise as a fact of life, although it is not the developers who will have to live with it, but the people who buy houses next to the runways.
Mirabel may have been a premature move, but it seems inevitable that as the city grows, so will the need to move airport activity further away from the areas of growing density. (And I write this as plane after plane goes over Villeray, as always this time of the evening.)
Phil
Move all he concert venues there…
faizimam
Mirabel might be a lost cause, but St-hubert is actively growing and hungry to expand further.
Currently they only have authorization for domestic flights, and ADM as it stands refuses to share international duties. But if ADM faces any serious restriction that could easily change.
Not that St-hubert will ever be a Mirabel, but having a decent smaller secondary airport that is actually a reasonable distance from the city is a huge benefit.
For the record, St-hubert is 15 mins shuttle from both REM and metro, and a closer drive than Trudeau for a substantial amount of the Montreal region.
carswell
While I don’t doubt that air travel will continue into the foreseeable future, I wonder whether it will be at the same scale as today once the world is forced to take serious, even drastic action on global warming.
Industry forecasts don’t see a switch away from kerosene-powered engines before mid-century at the earliest, and aircraft are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. If cutting emissions becomes a top societal priority, I’d expect restrictions (surtaxes, limiting of slots) to be placed on all flying or on non-essential flying. If they were, Montreal-Trudeau may be large enough to meet they area’s needs through the next few decades and possibly beyond.
It also seems to me that helping to avoid expanding or replacing Montreal-Trudeau is a strong argument in favour of a TGV, as opposed to a TGF, for the Quebec City-Windsor corridor, as it would drastically cut the number of flights between corridor cities, in particular YUL and YYZ (studies indicate a TGF wouldn’t). Indeed, that cost savings should be added to the plus side of the TGV ledger.
Orr
Montreal-based ICAO will greenwash the heck out of public perceptions of and airline plans for passenger air travel and their prediction that passenger air traffic volume will double by 2050 imo will come true.
Also probable: the Air Canada TGV will be built, maybe not by 2050, but by 2100 for sure.Kate
carswell, earlier this year I briefly became fascinated with looking to see what flights were overhead, using one of the tracker sites. Flights from exotic places were interesting (names of Latin American resort towns I’d never heard of, for example) but the surprise was how many flights to and from Toronto there are, also Ottawa and Quebec City – all of which should be reached by train, not by air!
But I don’t hold out the hope you do that anything will quash the urge for plane travel. People will be flying from one city devastated by environmental degradation to another as long as they want to and as long as an airline will take their money. Nobody thinks their little plane ticket is a problem.
dhomas
It’s crazy to me that we don’t have a fast train between Montreal and Toronto. I just checked and there are about 35 daily departures for this route, 1 way. It’s “faster” to go by plane. Except it’s really not. The flight is just over an hour. But you have to get to the airport at least an hour early (more, if you have checked luggage). Plus, you have to get TO the airport, which could add another hour, in Montreal. Then you have to get from Pearson to Toronto, which adds another hour at least, on a good day. All this adds up to at least 4 hours transit time.
I was in Spain this summer and took a train from Madrid to Barcelona (over 600km, compared to 550km MTL > T.O.). The AVE took us 2.5 hours. From city center to city centre. We got to the station 15 minutes before departure. About 30 minutes to get to the station in Madrid and 30 minutes to get from the station in Barcelona to our apartment. Total travel time was less than 4 hours. And it is sooooo much more comfortable and pleasant to travel by train. You’re not packed in like a sardine. You can walk around, go to the cafeteria cabin, grab some food and drink. It was such a nice experience. But it made me sad. Because I know that we won’t have this for a long time in Canada (though we should!).
If we are serious about climate change, we NEED to do this. imagine the decrease in emissions. Literally half the population of Canada lives in the Windsor corridor. But we have no fast transit. It boggles the mind.
JP
I don’t do it anymore but before Covid I’d fly to Toronto for work. Environmental issues notwithstanding, I preferred it to the train…it felt faster…The trips were relatively short so there were no checked bags for me, and if I were going downtown I’d fly to Billy Bishop.
dhomas
It is faster by plane today. I’m saying it would be faster by train (in addition to being better for the environment) if we built a fast train.
Joey
Assuming no delays, total travel time when flying from downtown Mtl to downtown TO is about three to 3.5 hours. The UP train runs regularly and makes the trip from Pearson to Union in about 25 minutes; though you’d probably fly to the Island and grab the free 10-minute shuttle to the same stretch of downtown. Definitely something that can be made redundant by high-frequency/high-speed rail. But until that day, business gonna business.
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Kate
More headlines about traffic congestion caused by the golf tournament: Île Bizard residents sacrificed for the event, and “car‑haters” somehow blamed for the jams, although I can’t see that making sense.
The last time the Presidents Cup was held on Île Bizard was in 2007. Maybe my memory is failing me, but I don’t remember traffic crises of this scale caused by the event. But I don’t know that part of town at all so I can’t guess what changed between then and now.
EmilyG
In 2007 during the tournament, my mom was trying to drive me from Pierrefonds to Pointe-Claire, and boulevard St-Jean was completely congested and extremely slow. It wasn’t even near the event. I can only imagine what it was like closer to Ile-Bizard.
Ian
One of the biggest changes is that the main bridge to Île-Bizard is under construction so there is a lot more congestion even at the best of times. I work with someone who lives there and she told me it was so bad last time that this time the mayor has tried to create all kinds of mitigation, but everyone knew it was going to be a total mess regardless – and voilà, it is.
Orr
River ferry to the rescue!
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Kate
Francis Fox, who was elected several times in federal ridings outside town and served in Pierre Trudeau’s governments, has died. Fox was by turns a cabinet minister and a senator although CBC illustrates the story with an unintentionally comic photo showing Fox ill at ease in a canoe in business attire alongside a nattily clad P. Trudeau.
Justin Trudeau acknowledges several achievements by Fox including the Access to Information Act and Telefilm Canada. What he doesn’t mention, and what I can’t find chapter and verse on, was the change in the lyrics to the English version of O Canada that was made on Fox’s watch as Secretary of State in 1980.
The eighth line now goes “God keep our land glorious and free!” which was a departure from the version I learned as a kid, which had a lot more standing on guard, but no God. The change turned the anthem into a religious hymn, which the English version hadn’t previously been. (The French version is totally, almost luridly, a Catholic hymn.)
People were more concerned about changing “True patriot love in all thy sons command” to a genderless “all of us” but God needs to be shown the door too. But then the French version would need a complete rewrite.
I’ve held forth on this before.
Secretary of State was a federal government position abolished in 1993.
Joey
It was a missed opportunity to make the anthem both gender-neutral and religiously-neutral at the same time. I think you could argue that there is some justification for keeping the vague concept of god in there (after all, we are all here at the pleasure of his majesty the King of England, who also happens to be the Supreme Governor of the Church of England), but we can do better than “sait porter la Croix” (unless we’re talking about flavoured carbonated water)…
Kevin
I had never heard of this guy before yesterday, but I managed to shock a few people by learning about the scandal that saw him temporarily resign from cabinet: while solicitor general, he forged the signature of the husband of the woman he was having sex with so that she could get an abortion.
(He was also married to someone else at the time…)Kate
The shocking aspect is that a woman needed her husband’s signature for a medical procedure in 1977.
Ian
I hear you but R. v Morgentaler was only in 1988.
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Kate
The golf tournament (which is getting some stellar weather) was predicted to cause traffic chaos to Île Bizard, so whaddya know, that’s what’s been happening.
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Kate
The city has temporarily patched the block of René‑Lévesque where the water main breached last month, but will have to open it again for real repairs when it gets the parts.
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Kate
A real estate agent expecting to show a condo to an interested buyer in Villeray earlier this month was attacked by the young man – beaten, sexually assaulted and robbed – but police nabbed a suspect almost immediately.
Two of these items make note of the risk faced when an agent is alone in an empty dwelling with a stranger.
JaneyB
Not just a stranger client – also other agents. I worked in the field briefly and finally quit after fleeing from the isolated office of another agent eg: literally bolting for the door as he lunged for me and racing down the stairs to my car. It’s a very dangerous profession. I would advise all women to think twice about going into it. Those ‘safety precautions’ won’t do much.
(Also it’s hard to make money at it due to the internet and all the outrageous monthly fees you have to pay).
JP
I’m sorry to hear this happened to you and glad you got away, JaneyB.
Kate
Yes, likewise.
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Kate
Dockworkers at the Port of Montreal have rejected the employer’s offer and approved a strike mandate.
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Kate
The Montreal fire department is now warning us against charging devices overnight because of the fire hazard of lithium batteries.
JaneyB
I didn’t know that overnight was a problem or that there have been so many fires. I guess I could put a timer on the plug.
dhomas
The problem is using cheap, uncertified chargers. But I also suspect cheap, uncertified devices like escooters. Most modern phones are pretty safe, if they are not physically damaged. And many recent phones have “adaptive charging”, to protect the battery from overheating which is not only a fire risk but also affects battery longevity. A tip for buying chargers (or anything else electronic) online: make sure it has certification, at least UL but preferably CSA. A lot of garbage sold on Amazon does not have these certifications. These devices are potentially dangerous and might even be cause for insurance claim refusal. I don’t understand how they are even allowed to be sold here.
Kate
It would help if the fire department could divide up these battery fires by type. I’m still going to be charging my iphone at night most of the time.
dhomas
I think the risk is pretty low. Consider the teenage and adult population of Montreal (people 15 and above) as 1.5 million (the census numbers put it at 1,492,525). Let’s say each of these people have a mobile phone (not all will, but some will have a smartphone and a tablet or laptop, for example, so I’ll count the full 1.5M). Let’s say not all these people charge their phones every day, but let’s say maybe 300 out of 365 days per year. That would mean about 450M charge cycles per year. And of those charge cycles, there were 40 fires, according to the SIM. That’s 0.09 fire events per million. The number is so small that is it almost negligible. And that’s not even considering that we don’t have a breakdown by type of device: smartphone, tablet, laptop, ebike, escooter, electric cars, etc. Lots of things use lithium batteries. I wouldn’t be too concerned, but we should still educate folks on proper care for their electronic devices. For example, if your phone has a bloated battery or if the outer casing has been damaged to the point of exposing the battery, don’t charge it. Some regulation on selling appropriately tested devices would also help. Like I mentioned above, Amazon and other sell a ton of questionable stuff that is not certified by any authority.
walkerp
One would think the fire department would be better at risk assessment.
Joey
Kate, if you are running iOS 16, which you probably are if you are using an iPhone 8 or newer and have done a software update in the last two years, your device will automatically stop charging if the phone is either too hot or too cold.
Blork
Yeah, my understanding (based on reading about this in multiple places for several years) is that the risk is very low for simply charging a phone or iPad, especially the newer ones that prevent overcharging (as dhomas mentioned). The greater risk comes with using the wrong charger or a cheap off-brand charger, or if you changed your battery for an off-brand battery.
Same applies to e-bike batteries. While they shouldn’t be left to charge overnight, the greatest risk comes from using the wrong charger (or a damaged charger) or if the battery itself has been damaged. Also risky is using home-made batteries or batteries that come from off-brand and/or unverified sources.
dhomas
Here’s an example of a no-name charger sold on Amazon catching fire:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/customer-reviews/R1LD5PCTF62IE7/You can see in a photo review that this charger has zero certification:
https://www.amazon.ca/gp/customer-reviews/R8YVRXI0WTO6Q/It should have one of these two markings on the device itself, to be certified “safe”:
https://www.testandmeasurementtips.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/csa-ul.jpgIan
@Joey Samsung phones shut off charging if too hot or cold, too.
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Kate
If you thought things couldn’t get worse for St‑Henri, it’s just been named one of the coolest neighbourhoods in the world by Time Out.
Ian
Well with the current rents it’s not like it can gentrify much further…
DeWolf
There’s a weird vibe in St-Henri which isn’t quite the same in other parts of Montreal. The gentrification happened very suddenly and very quickly, and it’s particularly consumerist and detached from the history of the neighbourhood. Compare that with many parts of the Plateau which gentrified more gradually. Duluth still feels the same as it did 20 years ago. Even Mile End has roughly the same feeling — and many of the same people — as it did in the past, despite all the changes. But St-Henri has changed completely and in a way that doesn’t feel great.
Josh
DeWolf: My sense is that Verdun gentrified similarly suddenly.
Joey
Not that what @DeWolf says is wrong, but we’ve been talking about St Henri gentrifying for at least 25 years…
Ian
I used to live at Ste Marguerite and Beaudoin in hte early 90s, I remember when the first condos started going in then suddenly all those mysterious warehous fires that allowed for more and more condos popping up like mushrooms in the ashes. I was down on Notre Dame a couple of years ago and noticed my favourite diner had turned into a fusion deli with $25 sandwiches. Last summer I was down by St Remi and Notre Dame needing a quick bite to eat and even Jamaican patties were selling for 5 bucks each. Even Bar Courcelle has been an anglo hipster bar for years. Fattall Lofts is barely hanging on & Traxide closed. The old hood ain’t what it used to be.
Ian
Pardon, on Ste Emilie between Ste Marge and Beaudoin 😉
Poutine Pundit
I lived in St Henri in the mid-90s, and it was a grim neighborhood of cracked sidewalks and run-down buildings. Notre Dame was nothing but tanning salons, pawn shops, empty storefronts, and third-rate casse croutes that sold wrinkly brown fries dripping with rancid cooking oil that hadn’t been changed in years. I can’t believe anyone would want to go back to that. Many of the changes have been positive and have taken place gradually over the last 25 years.
I have a friend who worked on these top 20 lists, and he said the science behind them was generally “first 20 things we can think of or that look interesting on google.” The fact that Plaza St-Hubert made the global Time Out cool list last year leads me to think there’s not much thinking behind this list either.
Ephraim 11:53 on 2024-09-27 Permalink
At this point, he should be given paperwork that forbids him from being in a public transit and likely also public parks. I mean, seriously, putting him in jail isn’t going to do much to get him to keep it in his pants.