Four cars have been torched in four days, in various parts of town (see new incident map).
Updates from January, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Someone at the Journal got a little frisson after writing a headline like Montréal, la ville poubelle.
MarcG
Fun to see their obsession laid out like this.
Kate
Yes!
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Kate
A report from Quebec’s French language commissioner suggests that too much university education in Quebec is still being done in English, and that one third of the courses given at McGill and Concordia should be taught in French.
Ian
They can’t stop people coming from the ROC, polluting Quebec with their filthy English, but they can make it unattractive. The CAQ in particular and Quebec nationalists in general dislike and distrust Montreal, it may look like cutting off thier nose to spite their face, but they are really convinced Montreal will keep being the economic engine of Quebec even if it ceases to attract newcomers that can’t be easily screened with immigration quotas. Of course they don’t think of Montreal as the cultural engine of Quebec, so let’s not even go there.
It doesn’t matter though – as long as it’s a political rallying point, the existential crisis of French Quebec will never cease, even if 100% of the population is Francophone. There will always be further purges to inflict – especially upon Montreal.
JaneyB
Hate to point this out but…Quebec needs to graduate more Francophone students from secondary school to warrant this. Graduation rates for men are a full 20% lower than for Anglophone men. It’s the worst in the country. Maybe some attention needs to be paid to the quality and method of education in the Franco secondary schools?
Ian
The EMSB has the highest graduation rate in the entire province FWIW
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Kate
As usual when a question is asked in a headline, this time suggesting un péage comme à New York for Montreal, the answer is no – as the deck to the story replies.
But do we really have insufficient density or public transit to pull it off? A zone demarcated by Papineau, Cremazie, Decarie and the river would certainly suffice, and it’s well provided with transit. We don’t have to conceive it in terms of covering the whole island of Montreal.
Later, CBC asked a similar headline question.
Joey
While it feels like some kind of per-km fee is inevitable (though I can imagine a prominent car manufacturer adopting a pay-as-you-go subscription model to replace conventional buying/leasing sooner than a government charging a per-km car tax) and a good thing, I’m not sure that the traffic patterns in Montreal warrant congestion pricing, with the possible exception of Old Montreal during the non-winter months. The worst traffic in the city is on our urban highways (the entire 40, Decarie, etc.), and so much of that traffic consists of trucks passing through the city or making deliveries. Outside of the absolute peaks of daily rush hour, traffic in and around downtown really isn’t that bad.
Nicholas
Decongestion pricing could certainly work, but we have to remember there are multiple purposes of it. It would certainly reduce some congestion, speeding up trips for drivers, but it would also help speed up buses, which are notoriously slow here (though we need better bus lanes and circulation patterns, though those bus lanes would be easier when there are fewer cars driving around). As well, it would generate revenue, which could be used for various measures. And of course there are pollution benefits.
Kate, while I would love a zone that big, that really is much larger than most proposals and implementations elsewhere. I think realistically we’re looking at something like the mountain to the river/canal, and Atwater (West Islanders would want St Marc) to Atataken, maybe exempting Pine/Dr. Penfield. But for a provincial government that has said tolls are non-starters, I agree nothing will happen, even if they’ve allowed increased taxes on motor vehicle registrations.
Kate
OK, I was taking a broad view of what “downtown” is.
If it were up to me, I’d institute bridge tolls instead, but it seems to be a given that those will never fly here.
steph
Just keep increasing the car registration fee contribution to public transport for anyone within the metropolitan area (they went from $59 to $150 this year).
steph
and double it for every 2nd vehicle of the same address… and triple it for every 3rd vehicle, etc…
Kate
I like that idea, steph!
Ian
That’s more or less how neighbourhood street parking stickers work already, priced by neighbourhood, loosely tied in to parking meter rates, vehcile weight, and per vehicle with a sliding scale for more than one – though I notice that the traditionally anglo side of the Plateau has way higher prices than the traditionally francophone part east of St Larry.
Kevin
Steph
That’s the kind of idea that comes directly from the evangelical right. It’ll never fly in a place where 75% of families have two working parents.Chris
>That’s the kind of idea that comes directly from the evangelical right.
Wait, what?! Progressive taxation of multiple vehicle ownership you consider a right wing idea? Sounds far left to me (and a great idea in this case).
Kevin
@Steph and @Chris
Yes, it’s an evangelical right idea, based on the notion that the only proper role for a woman is to be a subservient stay-at-home mother, therefore she has no need for a vehicle.Whenever I see people targeting car ownership based on address, I wonder: what the heck do you think a family looks like in the 21st? Because the default now is to have two working parents, and as I’ve mentioned many times, those two people may not work anywhere near each other.
If a person works regular hours in an area well-served by public transit, that’s fantastic, but the odds of that happening for every worker in a household is very low.
Jonathan
@kevin, I don’t agree with that analysis at all.
The idea is to create a bit of friction to the availability of road space to have it allocated more fairly, AND to better finance transit. The allocation of who uses one household vehicle in a house that has only one would be decided based on which is most required. The other household member can rideshare with the other, take transit, work from home, walk to work, etc etc. If they require two vehicles, then they simply pay a higher fee since they use more road space per housing unit than a one-vehicle or no-vehicle home.There is an income difference between women and men in the workplace, this we know. And this results in a different valuation of their respective time. But this doesn’t feel like a strong enough argument because there are many other factors that afffect how one would get to their place of employment (time spent in traffic and available alternatives are much stronger than income in this case)
steph
The unstated goal should be zero vehicles, and to serve all areas with acceptable public transit (despite the similarities to an evangelical right idea – you could have said it was a muslim idea whie you’re at it).
IIRC 26% of quebec households (with children under 18) are single female parent homes. Your 75% stat doesn`t make sense to me
nau
What millenium did Kevin wake up in today that he assumes the second car would obviously be the woman’s car? Perhaps he shouldn’t accuse others of holding evangelical right ideas based on his own male chauvinism. And really, is there any argument he won’t make no matter how absurd when trying to contradict suggestions that vehicle owners pay more?
Kevin
Steph: i was using Stats Can definition of two parents plus kids: 75% of people in that grouping are dual income.
Nicholas
Anecdotally, of the dozen or so heterosexual couples I know with one car in Montreal, the woman is the “main” driver in almost all cases (though they also use other modes a lot). Though these couples are mostly without kids, you would expect kids to exacerbate this difference: women still do more of the childwork and errands, which means driving kids to friends, sports, piano, etc, and also groceries and so on. Trip chaining is the technical term for doing many trips at once, such as picking up kids and getting groceries on the way home from work, and women still do more of it, and that is often easier and traditionally done with a car (though not always!).
More quantitatively, in Canada men are more likely to drive or bike, and women more transit or walk, but Montreal is different (these are numbers for women, just choose the men filter for the other). Women are a bit more likely to bike, and much more likely to use transit. While men are more likely to drive, it’s not by a ton, and the vast majority of people who drive to work, regardless of gender, drive alone. When they share a car, men are more likely to drive, but they’re more likely to share driving.
I’m not sure what conclusions you can draw here, but I reject the premise that using a car is freedom. My mom certainly has mostly thought so, as she’s had a car most of her life. My dad only did near the end, when he moved to the country; he found freedom in transit and walking, and when I was driven, 99% of the time it was my mom. In the Netherlands women bike more than men, because it’s more versatile: it’s easier to trip chain, it’s safe, it’s more social. Charging more to drive or have a car is meant to tax the negative externalities that driving creates, but also nudge people into other modes, which research shows they often like more once they start it and make it their normal. I hope everyone gets that increased health and happiness, regardless of gender.
CE
Some of the arguments being made on this blog lately are so ridiculous that I’m finding myself agreeing with Chris! You guys even have me defending Pierre Poilievre of all people. What is going on here??
Joey
I don’t disagree with Kevin that the contemporary conservative movement consistently situates the woman (really, the non-cishet male) in any dynamic as being the inferior person – this is one of the foundational ideas that transcends all the dipshit right-wing movements. That being said, the idea that the imposition of some kind of escalating per-car tax *in Montreal* would be perceived as a religious, right-wing plot is ludicrous. To argue that the concept of car taxes “comes directly from the evangelical right” – and not from the environmental left – because it can be twisted to be perceived as misogynistic is ludicrous. You don’t have to look far for evidence. Ian already explained that Projet Montreal has adopted this exact model to allocate parking vignettes. A lot of things have been said about Luc F and Alex Norris here, but nobody would say they are working in advancement of an evangelical Christian view of women’s rights.
Anyway, congestion pricing is great in lots of places, I don’t think it would be meaningful in Montreal (compared to other ideas to limit traffic or raise revenue), and the consensus that bridges and tunnels should be toll-free suggests that such a scheme would crash before taking off.
Chris
>I’m finding myself agreeing with Chris!
Heaven forbid! 🙂
Kevin, thanks for explaining your take. Interesting.
Ian
While I see the point that universally treating car ownership as a luxury tax suggests a very specific elitist weltanschauung that assumes that “healthy, university educated, urbanist, middle class, & conveniently located in a nice neighbourhood with good transit service” is the near-universal norm, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to assume that the large majority of people living in the downtown core probably don’t NEED a car. Even when I worked in schmata everyone took the bus.
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Kate
The cargo boat that’s been stuck in the river since Christmas Eve has been refloated and towed and will resume its trip after an inspection.
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Kate
Donald Trump is coming to get us.
Kevin
Cunning threats made by a bully so the weak-willed will be gracious that he takes less than he threatens.
Kate
He hasn’t ruled out using military force to seize Panama and Greenland.
Is it true that the U.S. spends billions keeping Canada safe (and from what?)
Ian
I suspect he’s banging on about NATO again.
My personal favourite miscomprehension of his is that the trade deficit between the US and Canada means that the US is subsidizing Canada. Like LOL, no.To be fair, Seward (the same guy who bought Alaska from Russia) also wanted to buy Greenland, Canada, and a bunch of other stuff. It was never on the table but that’s how the Yanquis are. They did already steal a third of Mexico.
Orr
The mistake people make is believing any of this is a misapprehension.
He is presenting and promoting PR talking points that are not brain farts.
This is a campaign of/by a particular American ideology’s agenda and it’s not going away anytime soon.
Also true: he has stated more than once that he would say a totally crazy thing every day to keep the news cycle focused on talking about him.
By 2027 or 2028 astute observers may begin to notice Canada bearing more than.a passing resemblance to Belarus.
Anyway, that’s how I’m placing my bets.Chris
>I suspect he’s banging on about NATO again.
Likely. And also part of the new cold war with China. When the ice melts, what seems like useless northern territory will be valuable shipping lanes and mining areas. He always demands more than he wants. Instead of taking those places over, he’ll settle for them being squarely in his sphere of influence. No Chinese mining in Greenland, no Chinese shipping through Panama canal, etc.
>say a totally crazy thing every day to keep the news cycle focused on talking about him.
And the MSM happily obliges, as it generates them clicks and ad revenue.
nau
While the non-mainstream media happily ignores Trump because it has no interest in clicks and revenue (ad or otherwise)?
H. John
Couldn’t help LOL
Kate
H. John: Ha!
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Kate
Is it a sign of our times that this brief piece on resisting a resurgence of flu makes no mention at all of vaccination?
MarcG
No mention of masks, either, of course. It’s pretty sad that we’re playing the helpless victim card in regard to viruses when there’s so much we could be doing.
yasymbologist
Brought up from the years that kids can only receive effective protection from only a handful of vaccines and have to go through those virulent ordeals, one could never imagine growning up to live in this era that recommending a flu shot, or any other proven vaccines, risks being offensive. The limitation of humankind’s linear thinking, isn’t it?
BTW, the 2024-2025 flu shot compositions target well against current most prevalent strains.
MarcG
The facts that Covid and RSV are at the same positivity levels as infuenza and can have the same symptoms, that there are vaccines for both of those and they can be airborne as well, are absent. We’re not in a good position to deal with the looming H5N1 pandemic.
Blork
But is it a piece on resisting the flu? I see it as just a piece about the presence of flu and how to differentiate it from a cold. And a reminder to not go to the ER unless you have an underlying condition.
jeather
I have all the flu symptoms but also a positive covid test — I held out almost 5 years. Wow, it sucks.
Kate
Blork, the headline “Health authorities advise caution as flu season intensifies” might misrepresent the contents, because caution in terms of flu would normally suggest getting vaccinated along with all other methods. But there isn’t any advice about what to do or not do.
jeather, sorry to hear you caught it. Prompt rétablissement!
CE
I’ve never seen a flu season where the vaccine was recommended for anyone other than the elderly or people with pre-existing conditions that would exasperate flu symptoms. Has that changed this year?
Kate
CE, this federal government page says “Adults and children 9 years of age and older should receive 1 dose of influenza vaccine each year.”
Joey
@CE that hasn’t been the case for flu for a while (though I think this was the first year I didn’t have to pay the $10 or whatever for my flu shot).
@Kate have you noticed that most of the local CTV News pieces are usually this mediocre – the headline doesn’t really summarize the text, the information is incomplete, etc. It might work better on TV but written up the CTV content always seems so thin. It wouldn’t have taken much effort to report on the current wait times at ERs, to summarize what vaccines exist, etc.
MarcG
Not sure why but the QC government is less enthusiastic than the feds when it comes to recommending vaccines.
H. John
@CE, 2009 was unusual, because of H1N1 (swine flu), leading to a universal vaccination campaign that saw 57% of Quebecers being vaccinated by the end of the year.
I found this HEC Research Report useful for info on flu vaccine history in Quebec and its the current status:
The quotes below are all from the report:
The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) issues influenza vaccination recommendations in all the Canadian provinces except Quebec. For everyone aged six months and older, and with no contraindications, flu vaccination is recommended and funded in all provinces save Quebec.
In Quebec, annual flu vaccination recommendations are provided by the Comité sur l’immunisation du Québec (CIQ).
The Quebec government introduced its flu vaccination program in 1971. Initially, the only people eligible for free flu shots were those aged 65 or over, those suffering from chronic illnesses or living in long-term care centres, and medical staff working with these patients.
In 2000, the program was extended, now offering free vaccination to people aged 60 and over as well as anyone living with people at higher risk of complications from influenza.
Until the autumn of 2022, the province’s flu vaccinations were only funded for specific groups at high risk of serious flu-related complications (e.g., people over 75) and individuals likely to be vectors of flu transmission (e.g., healthcare workers).
…, the Quebec government announced restricted coverage for the 2022-2023 season, and the INSPQ ceased to recommend influenza vaccination for children aged 6 to 23 months and healthy adults aged 60 to 74 years (Brousseau et al. 2020). Over the course of the vaccination campaign, however (November 25, 2022), the government decided to extend free coverage to everyone who requested it, as the fall of 2022 proved to be an exceptional time for the intensive spread of winter respiratory viruses.
CE
I had no idea about the change. The health authorities haven’t done a very good job of making that known. Unfortunately (and irrationally), my fear of needles is higher than my fear of getting the flu.
Kate
Joey, our media have different strengths. TVA and CTV are usually onto “incident” news faster than the others, so I keep an eye on them. I hadn’t even noticed that the headline of this CTV piece indicated content that didn’t exist till Blork pointed it out.
jeather
They were never particularly strict about who was eligible for a free flu shot and I got them free for a good decade before they became universally free.
CE, they will work with you if you are scared of needles, they ask that as part of the appointment.
Kate
jeather: same here, I’d just go to the CLSC and ask.
CE
Oh I know, they’re pretty good about dealing with people like me. The biggest problem is bringing myself to make the appointment in the first place.
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