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Updates from November, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Work on Ste-Catherine Street is to pause for the shopping season, and the city spokesman says the heavy work is complete so next year only the finishing touches will remain to be done.
DeWolf
The work is about six months ahead of schedule, based on the initial timeline released by the city.
Kate
That’s good. I see people complaining about it all the time – where do I point them for credibility on the “ahead of schedule” thing?
dwgs
I walked by Ste Catherine and Peel earlier this week and I was surprised at how close it looked to finished.
DeWolf
@Kate You can direct them to Agora MTL which is the best resource for frequent updates and information on any development project. Here’s the thread for Ste-Catherine Phase 2:
https://forum.agoramtl.com/t/projet-la-sainte-catherine-phase-2/2602/
And of course there’s all the official documentation here:
https://montreal.ca/articles/projet-sainte-catherine-ouest-travaux-en-cours-et-actualites-12543
Unfortunately I don’t think a lot of the people complaining online are even interested in knowing any details about the project. They’re just getting their social media dopamine fix by raging about construction. Even people who aren’t necessary outraged just can’t be bothered to inform themselves. There are information panels all over the construction site and you can find every little detail of the project from its timeline to design plans if you do a two-second Google search, and yet most people seem to think these road reconstructions are giant mysteries that are kept secret from everyone.
It doesn’t help that even the media are constantly relaying false information. The Gazette has a YouTube video where Jason Magder says this section of Ste-Catherine has been under construction for two years, but it has actually been just over a year – work started in summer 2023. There was no construction on Ste-Catherine at all in 2022.
Kate
Sadly, you’re right about the impossibility of using facts to change some people’s ideas. Thanks, DeWolf.
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Kate
CIBC bank is pushing les Cinémas Guzzo into bankruptcy, saying the company owes $38 million.
dwgs
Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
Steph
The IMAX screen at that Greenfield Park Guzzo has had a hole in it for years. Every time I tell myself “they’ll have it fixed soon I guess, it’s been long enough”. I’ll abandon my expectations.
dhomas
I brought my kids to a Guzzo theatre last year, and vowed it would be the last time. The floors were dirty and sticky, not just in the theatre, but everywhere. The bathroom only had one functional light. The concessions were missing many items and the staff forced us to buy multiple small popcorns (more expensive) instead of a large and would not let us buy “bundles” (again, more expensive). All the arcades as well as the bumper cars were broken or not powered on. It was truly a depressing experience.
It’s a shame because when they first came on the scene, Guzzo was a refreshing alternative to Cineplex theatres. Though since then, I’ve grown to dislike not only the brand but also the folks running the company.Blork
Maybe The Onion will buy it. https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/infowars-acquisition-onion-1.7383080
jeather
I haven’t been to a Guzzo theatre in a while — the approximately 1 a year I see I usually see in Cineplex because I can walk there — but that’s a real shame, because they used to be a lot nicer. Since I intend to see a movie in December, it’s good to know.
JP
Years ago, my friend saw (or felt) a mouse running on the floor during the movie. . . that was when I decided I was done with that place/brand. I enjoy going to the movies but if you have a pest issue that bad I’m not visiting your establishment.
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Kate
This year, counting till the end of October, there have been 400 criminally set fires in town.
GC
My first thought was “that sounds like a lot…but is it?” And, colour me surprised, but the article actually covers that. I still think it IS a crazy number in an absolute sense, and I wouldn’t have guessed it was so high. But, relative to other years it’s not that crazy.
Anton
So like, 15 criminal fires for every murder?
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Kate
Weekend notes from CityCrunch, La Presse, CultMTL.
Notes on weekend road warnings.
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Kate
Canada Post workers are on strike. They haven’t had a new contract for a year.
jeather
I saw some banners on Snowdon overlooking Decarie.
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Kate
The Longueuil derailment emergency is over. Trains are running again and Longueuil residents can come out of their houses.
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Kate
Sometimes you get home and open a few tabs and a theme jumps out at you.
Seventeen schools in Quebec will be subjected to audits for possible secularism breaches. “We cannot allow people who behave in an unacceptable manner or are motivated by ideology or personal beliefs to interfere in our schools” according to Bernard Drainville. His list includes École des Saints‑Anges, École Saint‑Pascal‑Baylon, École Notre‑Dame‑de‑l’Assomption and several others named after Catholic saints.
Anti-abortion activists are challenging a law that keeps them at a distance from abortion clinics.
Are young people becoming more religious?
jeather
One day I want a journalist to comment on the secular schools named for Jesus and the saints.
I had no idea there was a court case about abortion here.
su
That Antiabortion group is basically a religious organization of Human Hoarders.
Kate
It’s theoretically about the right of anti-abortion activists to harass people at clinics. They’ve cast themselves as victims.
And they can be a pain in the ass. I used to do some work for a studio at St‑Laurent and St‑Joseph. There was a Morgentaler clinic in the high‑rise next door, and there were often groups of anti‑abortion activists in the park opposite, singing and praying and holding up grim photos of fetuses. They were no ornament to the neighbourhood.
MarcG
Pretty safe to assume the irony of requesting bodily autonomy is lost on them.
jeather
I remember that group, Kate. It doesn’t seem like they even have to stay very far away, even.
Kate
They’re fighting the law that keeps them 50 metres away. Not far at all.
Chris
>One day I want a journalist to comment on the secular schools named for Jesus and the saints.
What comment would you expect? The names are old, predating the secularism movement, and grandfathered. What else is there to say? A discussion of arguments for/against renaming them? Renaming is fraught, and would accomplish little. The secularism activists don’t care about names, they care about substance. The anti-secularism activists don’t care about names, they care about substance.
Joey
@chris you know what else is fraught? Firing teachers for wearing scarves, but here we are. Why is the name of something not part of its “substance”? Why is it not substantive to have an issue with the posture that “everything has to be secular, except the names of all our schools, which happen to be Catholic.” I understand that renaming things named after *people* can be fraught – but who exactly is going to weep if, say, Ecole St-Enfant-Jesus were to become Ecole Mile-End?
Note that the thrust of the complaints about Bedford were not really about religion – there were elements of religious doctrine/exclusion that were a part of the issue, but hardly the focal point. And yet the lessons learned are all focused on ‘laicite.’ If we’re going to be forced to have a discussion on these terms, the religious names of the goddamned schools are fair game.
jeather
So if you “look religious”, that’s substance; but if the name of the school, which can actually be changed just fine, is an explicitly religious name, that’s just names and completely secular and fine. If people want schools to be fully secular, that’s great — but they don’t, they want them to be low-key culturally Christian pretending that Christianity is neutral. I will bet that none of the schools with a lot of, eg, old school Italian Catholic families that block sex ed are on that list, even though they exist also. Because this isn’t really about sex ed, or secularism.
Uatu
Not enough money for health care, but plenty for secular Inquisitors. This province knows what’s really important. /S
Meezly
According to the report Bedford Elementary School , “the teachers formed a dominant clan, allegedly refusing to recognize that autism exists and refusing to teach sexual education or science. They reportedly imposed strict, autocratic rule over students and intimidated and ostracized anyone who opposed them… soccer was banned for girls and certain subjects, including ethics and religious culture and sex education, were not taught or were barely taught.”
If this is true, then that’s pretty serious. If children are attending public school, they should be educated in a safe, neutral and secular environment, and if a school fails in this regard, then they should be investigated.
But I wonder, if these teachers were Christian (instead of Muslim), would the government still have launched these audits or even bothered to make a big deal bypublicly denouncing these “religious infiltrations”?
CC
They may be bothered to make a big deal, based on the locations. The article says three mandates will be carried out in Quebec City, one in the Laurentians, one in Gatineau and two in Saguenay. Of course, I don’t know the details or the teacher identities, but there seems a decent chance a few of these infractions were Christian in nature. I guess we’ll know better when more details come out.
Kevin
I will point out the teachers who opposed the Bedford clic were also Muslim.
As for names and the law, Christianity has special status, and all other religions are seen through its lens.
Kate
Every so often the hypocrisy hits me. It’s not even laïcité, it’s anti‑Muslim policy.
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