A man convicted of killing his neighbour in 2021 with what’s described here as a “lance artisanale” was sentenced to 15 years Wednesday.
Updates from November, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Was pleased Wednesday to see signs going up to alert drivers about the series of speed bumps that have finally been added to my block.Drivers sometimes come whizzing down here from the Met so it will be good to remind them to slow down, they’re on a residential street.
Ian
Congrats!
Not going to lie, I chuckle every single time I hear a car bottom out on the speed bump in front of my house.David
I was also happy to get speed bumps on my street when I lived on the plateau, until I realized that I’d be constantly hearing car motors accelerating between the speed bumps. Although, I also chuckled when the cars bottomed out.
Kevin
I am always amused at seeing giant cars going over speed bumps as if they’re carrying unpackaged eggs.
JP
I also appreciate the speed bumps that were installed near my home but I wish they had been painted and signs installed right away. I was driving home and didn’t know there were speed bumps there the first time….I wish I could say I chuckled but instead I was pissed off.
Sam
Speed bumps are fine and dandy, but in my neighborhood, they are on the street that the fire trucks use to get to the main thoroughfare and in front of an elementary school..
Every morning and afternoon I pray that there is not a fire when the children are getting on or off their busses.
Damned if you do, damned if you don’t
DeWolf
A pickup truck can roll over speed bumps without slowing down, why would you worry about fire trucks?
dhomas
I asked for speedbumps in my neighbourhood, because there are a lot of people that go waaaaay too fast in the 30 zone next to the park and bike lane (think 70km/h, sometimes faster), where my kids and others play. The city said something about it not being feasible because a city bus route passes along this street. I wonder if I was just getting the runaround.
JP
@dhomas. I’m sure there are many examples but there are speed bumps on Dudemaine in Cartierville (close to O’Brien) and the STM’s 164 route runs on that street, so I do not think that is a valid reason not to put speed bumps . . .
Orr
It is my understanding that the fire department has an often-used superpower to veto new speed bumps and other traffic-calming measures.
Nicholas
There are devices called speed cushions (years ago sometimes called speed tables, though that term is now more used for another thing) that are basically speed bumps that are narrow enough that a firetruck or bus with large axles will not touch but wide enough that cars will. You can also just make them of asphalt, cutting a “hole” in the right place. Also nice for bicycles. They’ve been around for well over 15 years, as I remember talking about them in 2009 and there was lots of information about them online.
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Kate
The pedestrianization of Plaza St‑Hubert this summer was considered a success by the city, which plans to continue with it every summer for at least three years.
However, a survey by an accountancy firm found that 61% of the merchants along the stretch would rather not see pedestrianization return.
Maxime Bergeron sees this as a test case in whether consultation of residents or stakeholders in various situations ever has an influence on the decisions made about big changes in this city. His tone suggests he thinks not.
That said, 61% is not a massive majority. Bergeron suggests that restaurants and cafés with terrasses are keener on pedestrianization than specialized boutiques and services, which makes sense.
Incidentally, we had some discussion on this, specifically the difficulty of assessing the benefits and disadvantages of pedestrianization, back in September.
jeather
They don’t say how many merchants responded just “a high rate” did, and that 83% of 1700 residents like it — surely not only stores/restaurants get a say here? As always, I would like more provable numbers about how income changed as opposed to a bunch of store owners claiming something.
Joey
Bergeron’s bias (as usual) is showing through his data cloak…
DeWolf
If the number of people visiting St-Hubert increased by 85% but merchants report their sales were down 7.3%, there’s a serious problem with their business model.
I’m also mystified by the example of the tailor shop: “Son charmant atelier attire une clientèle de partout au Québec et même du nord-est des États-Unis, qui vient y faire tailler ou retoucher des habits.” So why would pedestrianization affect business? If somebody is willing to drive hours to get to this one very special shop, are they really going to be put off at having to park in the multi-storey garage one block away, as opposed to on St-Hubert itself? It’s not like it’s easy to find a parking spot right on St-Hubert.
St-Hubert has a lot of destination businesses, but unlike most commercial streets in Montreal, it also has heaps of parking nearby. There are three large surface parking lots, a four-storey parking garage and hundreds of spots on nearby streets like St-André, Bélanger and St-Zotique. Most are paid spots but if you walk more than two blocks it’s easy to find free parking, too.
I would really hate to see a pedestrianization project go ahead without the consent of merchants, but something needs to be done to get them on board because the situation is kind of ridiculous.
DeWolf
Also, I really don’t envy François Limoges. There’s some realpolitik here that is tough to figure out. 83% of residents support pedestrianization, so the logical thing for him would be to push pedestrianization through, because it enjoys enormous support from the people who actually have the right to vote in RPP. But 2025 is an election year, and what may be good for the local borough administration might be very bad for the city administration, because imagine the media campaign that will be orchestrated if Projet Montréal is seen to be pushing through pedestrianization against the wishes of merchants.
As usual, the people clamouring for consultation are really just asking for a veto over projects they personally dislike, because here’s a case where the population was thoroughly consulted and it resulted in a complete deadlock between two different interest groups. Now it comes down to deciding whose interests should take priority, which is why we elect leaders to represent us instead of having referendums on every little thing.
Kevin
Montreal needs more signs pointing towards parking structures.
The people who put up signs need to spend more time driving to understand just how invisible some signs are.(If they don’t want to drive, I’ll put them on the back seat of my motorcycle and they’ll see how poorly placed some signs are.)
DeWolf
Wayfinding in Montreal is generally atrocious.
MtlWeb
My wife and I spent three nice afternoons on St. Hubert this year, primarily because of the street pedestrianization. Coming from Ville St. Laurent, we went twice by metro, once by car where we found residential parking near Everett. While we weren’t there to shop for wedding attire at this age, we did take the opportunity to try the various latino food that is readily available throughout St-Hubert and sat at the benches/tables that are provided’ also bought some gift items that we would have purchased elsewhere. There seemed to be a decent amount of pedestrian traffic amidst a welcome ambience each time. Considering that in the past 10 years previous to this summer, we had passed by once, perhaps twice, and only to pick up a smoked meat order thus no walking around, this no-car zone is what attracted us to visit.
Kate
I wonder whether the SDC looked at the numbers from the street fairs that used to be held for a few days, a couple of times a summer, and assumed that these numbers would be sustained over a longer pedestrianization. Whereas I suspect if everyone nearby got used to the pedestrianization, it would just be the new normal and there wouldn’t be anything novel going on from time to time.
Joey
I’m curious about the 7.3% figure. All we know about it is that it comes from a ‘document shown to merchants’ that was shared with Bergeron. We don’t know what period it was looking at, what it was compared to, etc. But, most importantly, on what basis are we supposed other accept this figure as if it’s comprehensive and accurate? Do we really think that each business shared accurate sales figures with their merchants’ association, which then weighted and analyzed them? If so, we’ll need some evidence…
DeWolf
Based on similar articles about Mont-Royal and Wellington, I get the distinct impression that many merchants are not comparing their figures year on year, but rather comparing them to other seasons in the same year. And yeah, not many people are getting tailored suits or wedding dresses in July.
Even year on year comparisons are iffy given we’re not so far out of high inflation and pandemic restrictions before that.
Ian
While it’s true that parking on St Huey is a sucker’s game as there’s lots of parking just off the main strip, it’s also true that PM are autocratic and do what they want. Sometimes we get useful street closures, sonetimes we get Alex Norris belittling people over popular trails, softball diamonds, bagels, whether ambulances can pass through Clarke, etc.
Nicholas
Kate, I don’t know how the Plaza analyzed the data, but the merchant’s association has automatic pedestrian counters (once you know what to look for, you’ll see them all around town). Here’s a case study page on the Plaza on the company’s website from years ago, so they have lots of data from over the years, before and after this change. The data is owned by the Plaza, but they could release it, but I would assume they have a representative cross sample.
DeWolf, business and property owners actually do have the right to vote in municipal elections. You have to have occupied or owned the property for at least 12 months, and only one person per business/property can vote. You get entered on the electoral list as a (physical, not legal) person, and because you can only be on each municipality’s list once (even in different boroughs), people who live in Montreal cannot take advantage of this, but people who live in one city and own a business or property in another can vote twice (or hundreds of times, if they have enough businesses or property). See article 47 of the municipal electoral law. Every single person I have told this to, whether in Quebec or not, thinks this is wild, and many have said it’s like a caricature of feudalistic capitalism or something, but it’s the law.
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Kate
The bill for the REM is now $9.4 billion.
And it isn’t going to be running this weekend – maintenance downtime.
Sam
remind me again is it our direct tax dollars that are paying for it or only those tax dollars that are invested in the Quebec Pension Plan.
rob
@Sam, both. https://rem.info/en/partners
The contracts guarantee them profits (since when is public services supposed to be profitable?)
anton
capital funds are quarter Quebec, quarter federal, rest CDPQ funds. But there’s a bunch of taxes going to the REM, and there’s ongoing fees the ARTM has to pay to CDPQInfra (the REM gets several times the subsidies per passenger km compared to the metro/stm).
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Kate
The Queen Elizabeth Hotel locked out its unionized workers Wednesday morning. Some hotel labour issues have been settled, but not this one yet.
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Kate
Mayor Plante and survivors of the Polytechnique massacre are appealing to the federal government for stricter gun control.
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Kate
Next year’s taxes for property owners are to rise by an average 2.2%.
La Presse has more details on Wednesday’s municipal budget, which totals out at $7.3 billion.
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Kate
The OQLF has a new raison-d’être study out, saying that use of French is declining in retail but that young people don’t care. Jean‑François Roberge says we must demand to be served in French, and to complain to the OQLF when we’re not.
Another study, this one by the Conference Board of Canada, says that 35% of the francophone immigrants who come to Quebec and Ontario don’t stick around, and that language is not the reason they leave. Some immigrants, regardless of language, change their minds for all kinds of reasons. Maybe they were expecting a home hockey team that wins?
Yet another study, this one by language commissioner Benoît Dubreuil, says the presence of English at Quebec’s colleges and universities must be limited so that 85% of students here study only in French.
Blork
It should be noted that “don’t stick around” means they leave Canada, not just Quebec and Ontario.
Side note: Government policies based on making people care about something they don’t care about… how well does that usually work out?
DeWolf
I’d be curious to see how 35% compares to the historical average of immigrants leaving Canada, because from what I remember in my various history classes, a fairly large minority of immigrants have always left, either to go back home or move to another country.
rob
Canada isn’t the green pastures of yesterday. Rent, groceries & the job market are obviousl factors that are making people change their mind.
Joey
A not insignificant number of French-speaking immigrants to Quebec are women from North Africa who might choose to be, oh I don’t know, teachers, and whose choice of clothing might violate some new laws in this province.
Joey
I thought that Devoir op-ed would at least pretend to explain why 85% is the right figure, but it doesn’t – it only says that, in addition, the government must act urgently to… change the cultural consumption habits of kids. If that’s your best idea, maybe your ideas aren’t ready for debate in the public square…
Ephraim
Two words… Zipf’s law
Basically the fact that some English words are used in French simply isn’t a giant factor… it’s the Chicken Little nonsense! Basically the most often used words in French are… French. And that English words aren’t really that frequent. So basically we have to worry when people stop using Je, le, tu, de and … à.
English is about 30% French and yet, we don’t seem to worry about it.
Daisy
Why 85% is the right figure, according to the report (pp. 45-46), is because it is in between the current figure (22.4%) which is apparently too high, and the figure for elementary & secondary school (8.8 %). The report is available here: https://www.commissairelanguefrancaise.quebec/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/CLF_Rapport_langue_commune_2024-11-20.pdf
Robert H
We don’t worry about it, because we are not a puny linguistic, cultural minority vastly outnumbered on a continent that mostly speaks the world’s hegemonic tongue. Sneer as much as we like at the idea of an “existential threat” and the paranoid maneuvers of the OQLF, but that’s not the same as proving there’s nothing to the demographics behind their chronic anxiety.
Joey
My ‘from-France’ colleagues use way more English in everyday French speech than my Quebecois colleagues. Not even close.
Joey
Thanks Daisy, I didn’t have the stomach to go through the report. That’s an explanation, I suppose, but hardly a justification (the actual midpoint would be 15.6, but we’re obviously interested in cleaner targets). Why 15% and not 10%? Why not 0? Alas.
Tim S.
@Joey, doesn’t your (16:17) anecdote prove that Quebec’s approach is generally working?
(I will always remember talking to a Swiss francophone who openly laughed at me for fin-de-semaine. But man, I would love us to adopt septante and nonante)
Joey
@Tim S., only if the current thinking is that France is unlikely to stay French for much longer…
Ian
@Tim S Acadien uses septante & nonante.
Tim S.
I didn’t know that, very cool.
dhomas
I vote for using not only septante and nonante, but also “huitante” or “octante”, as they do in some places in Switzerland (or possibly even by Acadians?). No more of this “four twenties” nonsense!
@Tim S. I work for a French company. It took me a while to figure out that fin-de-semaine does actually mean something to them, which was causing some misunderstanding. I finally got it when I said something like “je vais à la montagne cette fin-de-semaine” and got a response like “ah, tu prends congé vendredi?”. “Fin de semaine” to my French colleagues is end-of-(work)-week, sort of like how we might use End of Day (EOD). As opposed to “weekend” (with a distinct French accent) which means, well, week-end.
CE
Only in one region of Nova Scotia (Pubnico) do Acadians use septante and nonante, everywhere else it’s soixante-dix and quatre-vingt-dix.
Orr 19:31 on 2024-11-22 Permalink
i saw a “lance artisanale” (or javelin) at the LaPrairie Archaeology Museum last weekend.
An A+ place to visit, it completely exceeded my expectations.
We had never been to Vieux LaPrairie before. It’s been around for a very long time.
CE 22:11 on 2024-11-22 Permalink
I second the this museum. Very well done. Vieux Laprarie is very nice except for the constant roar of the nearby highway.