A young man accused of causing a fatal collision on the Turcot in June has been arrested. After the crash, Yasser Laroui is said to have fled the scene and left for Algeria, but returned to Canada not long ago.
Since 2022, Laroui has violated the Highway Code and municipal regulations 37 times, but he still had his licence.
CTV says in addition that Laroui was found with car theft tools on him, but the car he was driving wasn’t stolen and he has no criminal record.
Having promised Tuesday that he would wean the healthcare system off the private sector, Christian Dubé has quickly edited his words, saying he needs the private sector.
During the period question, he repeated “we want private, we want private.”
Poor translation but I find this image very amusing.
Probably felt the evil eye from Genevieve Biron lol
Both François Legault and Paul St‑Pierre Plamondon are warning of a possible influx of migrants following the U.S. election and Donald Trump’s promise to deport millions of people.
Batten the hatches! God forbid we’d have any sympathy for people in dire straits.
Hard to do when so many of we ourselves are in dire straits.
If there’s a bad take to be had Chris will find it.
What amazes me is that we’ve got a declining birthrate and we need workers, but Legault can’t see this as an opportunity, at least partly. Yes, it’s a challenge to provide housing and services, but Quebec is big! We’ve got room!
People would not be coming here expecting to loaf, they’d know they have to work. Some of them might even be able to construct housing.
My upstairs neighbour surprised me last night by saying that he was excited about the prospect of tons of immigrants coming here in response to Trump’s mass deportation threats. His thesis is that Canada has tons of room and that we could build 10 new major cities here, increase our manufacturing and consumer base and be less dependent on the US and world for exports. Many issues there obviously, but as you point out Kate, if you are a capitalist and into growth, this seems like a positive vision. We definitely have the space.
dwgs, how is it a bad take? It’s a comment on human psychology. When oneself is suffering, it’s harder to be sympathetic/empathetic/generous to others. There are of course levels of ‘dire straits’. But just because the average Canadian is not as bad off as, say, a North Korean, he’s worse off than he was years ago. To then tell him “there may be an influx of millions, have sympathy!” is not going to be well received by many.
I am reminded of David Frum’s quote “If liberals insist that only fascists will enforce borders, then voters will hire fascists to do the job liberals refuse to do.”.
But go on, keep your head in the sand. Even after Trump’s second win.
>Yes, it’s a challenge to provide housing and services, but Quebec is big! We’ve got room!
Agreed! But you have to put the cart *behind* the horse. Or at least beside it. Not in front of it.
Is he worse off, though?
When so-called lefties say we should help refugees and open up our borders, there’s always those who whine “but what about our homeless and our unemployed?”. We know these people don’t volunteer in soup kitchens or donate to charities. They’re the kind who more often than not are quick to blame others for their misfortune.
The thing with human psychology is that it has quite a wide-range. On a more positive note, I’m reminded of the story of how the Choctaw tribe collected money to help the Irish during the great famine. It’s important to note that the Choctaw were displaced, homeless, dirt poor and faring just as bad if not worse than the Irish, yet they managed to scrounge up money to help strangers during a time of crisis to a country far, far away. Ever since the. mid 1800s, the two nations have been helping other out and continue to have a long-standing relationship to this day.
“The Choctaw donating to Irish was not just philanthropic, it was also a critique of imperialism in the United States… These were nations that were victims of the Anglo-Protestant imperial project.”
Trump returning to office can be seen as a time of crisis and it’s gonna have global implications. During the next 4 years, it’s more important than ever to forge alliances. No matter where we stand personally, it’s important to remember that unity and diversity is our greatest strength.
@walkerp except that we are literally turning off international education because we have inadequate housing. Yes, Canada is big and empty, except for tour cities, which are full (and new housing is not exactly coming on like wildfire).
@chris and yet the fact that Biden made serious progress on the border (and all the other issues that ostensibly propelled trump to the presidency this time): https://jabberwocking.com/the-working-class-rears-its-electoral-head-yet-again/ The issue isn’t about policies or numbers or details, it’s about being perceived as xenophobic enough to mollify the right-wing rage machine, and the Democrats by definition will always come up short.
Part of the xenophobic propaganda we are seeing from right-wing populists like Orban, Trump and Pollievre is a deliberate obfuscation of the different types of migrants. Temporary foreign workers, permanent residents, asylum seekers, refugees — they all get thrown into the same bucket as far as public perception goes.
Migration to Canada has clearly become imbalanced and untenable in many ways. As Joey said, when the vast majority of Canadians live in a few big cities, it’s not sustainable to have so many international students and temporary foreign workers coming in. It’s bad for citizens as well as those newcomers themselves. But people seeking asylum can’t be treated as “illegal immigrants.” That’s a toxic way of looking at things because it basically denies the very existence of refugees as a category of migrants. It suggests that nobody is actually fleeing for their lives, they’re just liars and cheats who are making things up.
But we’re not seeing any sort of nuanced discussion of this because the anti-immigrant leaders don’t care. They’re just exploiting people’s basest, most xenophobic and most bigoted instincts to score political points. It’s not too much to expect politicians not to pander to the crudest sensibilities of their voters.
A new study titled Signes vitaux sur les iniquités territoriales du Grand Montréal examines the uneven quality of services meted out to poorer people in poorer neighbourhoods. Poorer areas are also more exposed to climate risks as the planet heats up. The entire study is available on the website of the Fondation du Grand Montréal.
Two Indigenous people died of overdoses in the street on Saturday. No names or ages are given in this brief piece, but their deaths are part of an ongoing crisis in the homeless Indigenous population here.
Josée Legault has an op-ed about how the growing number of homeless evokes the Great Depression, yet politicians don’t provide solutions. But who does?
A man in his thirties was killed Tuesday evening when knocked down by a truck in a parking lot in Longue‑Pointe.
Not surprisingly, gangs are recruiting poor kids online with cash offers for criminal acts.
Forbes has a 48 hours in Montreal that mostly involves a stay in a cushy downtown hotel but also mentions an interesting food tour.
No local news is on the radar tonight and probably won’t be tomorrow.
My condolences to any American readers.
It’s not over yet!
Disappointed is all I can say
In 2016, Anil Dash wrote this piece and it still applies, but mostly to Americans. They’re the ones who have to organize and get to work now. We just get to look on in dismay.
Condolences? Odd to offer sympathy to a group that got what they wanted, both by popular vote and electoral college. You didn’t get what you wanted, but they got what they wanted; it’s you (and me) that needs condolences, not them. I guess you mean to say to condolences to Democrat readers.
Alas, Trump’s win is hardly a surprise. The Dem establishment idiotically refused to have a primary contest. Instead, to their woke brains it was more important to anoint a checkbox candidate. Despite her mere 30-something-% approval rating, her inability to win a single delegate 4 years ago, her lying, flip-flopping, etc., etc. A literal loser.
She got less of the black vote than Biden, she got less of the latino vote than Biden. Maybe the DNC will at last give up on the identity checkbox game, and allow an actual contest, to choose a candidate that can win something small before trying to win something big. But I’m not holding my breath.
I think this can still serve as a wake-up call to Canadians to get involved in anti-fascist action. It’s not like we’re not part of the same idiotic zeitgeist.
Great point, MarcG. We have our own authoritarian driven by (and using) Russian propaganda to deal with.
Chris, you don’t understand. My condolences were just as much for the people who voted for him.
If there’s the Dems have proved over the past 8 years, it’s that calling Trump a fascist doesn’t stop him (or his voters). He may be one, but the effort needs to go into proposing an alternative, not just opposing.
The leaders of the Democratic party are so inept that I have often wondered if they are actually working for the Republican party or are they just Administrators from The Good Place.
Well it’s going to be interesting to watch Gilead IRL
Kate, ah, I see. I guess that makes sense from your pov, if not from theirs.
MarcG, if you mean “antifa” style, more of that crap will just get even more normies to vote right wing.
Kevin, yeah I used to think that. But now I think it’s less that they are inept and more that their real values are not actually what you want them to be, or what they purport them to be. They are still the lesser of two evils, but god damn they suck.
I was thinking more “talk to your neighbours” but if you want to punch a Nazi I won’t stop ya.
Chris
I lived in the US and the ineptitude of the leaders of the Democratic party is a frequent topic of discussion.
There is a vast gulf between what voters want and what the party does.
>I was thinking more “talk to your neighbours”
Ah, well that’s all well and good!
>if you want to punch a Nazi I won’t stop ya.
Here I’ll disagree. If you want to punch a Nazi, I’ll try to talk you out of it. And if you do it anyway, I’ll report you to the police and hopefully have you arrested. I don’t think self-appointed activists should be judge, jury, and executioner (“puncher” in this example). Violence should be a last resort and reserved to the police (imperfect as they are, and yes they should be better!).
Unfortunately some people cannot be reasoned with, and in that case all you can do treat them to the consequences of their decisions.
Anyone who declares themselves a Nazi following the events of WWII is identifying themselves as such a person.
We literally fought a world war about this. Nazis are scum, and if you call the cops to protect Nazis, you are a collaborator.
Major Annoyance 00:44 on 2024-11-07 Permalink
Can we not just kill off all of our white-bread police and fire departments already?
They tire me so much now, these racist piles of white puke. What the fuck is wrong with our society, that we continually fail to deal with the gigantic in-your-face racist white defectives that are our supposed public security departments? How long is it going to take to get us up to 2024 re normal public-service hiring practices?
Kate 09:12 on 2024-11-07 Permalink
I don’t see where racism comes into this specific story. If this young guy is guilty of road racing (in a rented vehicle), crashing and leaving his friend to die, as alleged, then he should have his licence taken away and he should do time for hit and run. His race or nationality doesn’t enter into it.
Blork 10:43 on 2024-11-07 Permalink
Not only the fatal road racing hit-and-run incident; he’s been nailed for road safety violations 37 times since 2022. 37 times! And he’s only 21! The guy is a menace and should never be allowed behind the wheel again.
jeather 11:24 on 2024-11-07 Permalink
What’s weird is that I know people who have lost their license for a lot less. (Deservedly! But less. Before the hit and run/street racing, that is.)
Kevin 12:15 on 2024-11-07 Permalink
People who rack up large numbers of road violations never stop driving because they count on never being caught.
And authorities are incredibly slow to act.
We need to alter laws to seize their vehicles, seize their bank accounts, give them ankle monitors or throw them in jail.
jeather 15:12 on 2024-11-07 Permalink
I might not go that far in the beginning, but we absolutely need more robust laws for losing a license more easily — and to be sure we follow through on taking away licenses.
I have wondered: let’s say I am the sole owner of a car, and I lose my license. My car is, of course, legal for other people to drive. I know police officers have a license plate scanner — but do they scan for plates owned by people who can’t legally drive? Are they allowed to stop my car to see who is driving it in the absence of a driving violation?
Nicholas 22:53 on 2024-11-07 Permalink
I’ve said this before, but if you kill someone with your car, you should never be allowed to operate a car again. Sadly many people, including judges, prosecutors and politicians, don’t agree with me. We can argue about prison based on intent, recklessness, negligence, etc. But the government should sanction deadly drivers by forbidding them from driving, not sanction them to continue to drive.