Part of the copper roof of St Jax church at Ste‑Catherine and Bishop was stolen earlier this month. Church roofs are an attractive target because the price of copper has doubled since 2021.
Updates from January, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Vi Trung Ngo, whose collision with another vehicle provoked a ricochet that killed a pedestrian and injured two others, pleaded guilty Wednesday to intoxicated driving causing death.Ngo has a long history of bad driving, and was at the wheel of someone else’s car at the time. The La Presse account says he has had no driving permit since the fatal crash in May 2023.
At left is a photo of the memorial to Fabienne Houde‑Bastien placed at the corner of St‑Laurent and Jean‑Talon.
Nicholas
What an awful history. He had over 40 tickets, including multiple for running red lights and driving without a licence. He was going 80 on Jean Talon with a BAC 3x over the legal limit 2 hours after the incident (that’s probably 10+ drinks) and ran a light that was red for 37 seconds. Yet he called this today, in retrospect, an accident, a torturing of the English language. And the car he used was not his, but one he took from the auto garage he owns (which appears to still be open!) to drive around drunk. Who’s bringing their cars to this guy now, after the conviction? How is this business still open? Shouldn’t bringing your car to someone convicted of this make you liable, at least morally, for anything that happens? How is this guy still free? So many failures of the system.
Kevin
40 road violations.
It is time to end the policy of allowing people to regain their demerit points after a few years. Assign a fixed number, and if you blow it you lose your license for life.
Yes, it may mean that some people will no longer be able to work or will have to move. Too bad.Nicholas
Problem is he didn’t have a licence. Unless you make people scan one every time they start a car, ala ignition interlock, how do you prevent people from driving without a licence?
Chris
>how do you prevent people from driving without a licence?
By jailing them after their first offence.
Joey
Imagine how many years you would do if you were busted for jumping the Metro turnstiles 40 times.
Kevin
Driving without a licence should be a prison sentence.
Although this is the one area where I think our society could have a debate about corporal punishment, perhaps after multiple offences, for people who are so stupid that they can’t be let loose on society.
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Kate
La Presse profiles a couple with intellectual disabilities who are living in the metro and the street, and asking whose is the responsibility to help them.
Update: Lionel Carmant has been stirred to ask Santé Québec to intervene.
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Kate
City parking agents will be trying out artificial intelligence to help spot illegally parked vehicles.
Mozai
Is the parking signage so bad in Montreal that trained professionals still need machine assistance?
Chris
Hilarious, because last time I tried to report an illegally parked car, I was on hold for 15 minutes, and no agent showed up within 1.5 hours (after time which I had to leave).
Putting “AI” in any proposal is a surefire way to get a budget for something though, which is probably what’s happening here.
Joey
@Chris what does one have to do with the other? The project involves equipping green onions’ cars with cameras that can, apparently, quickly and comprehensively determine if any cars on a block are parked illegally.
@Mozai It’s not that the signage is confusing and you need an AI to make sense of it, it’s that the agents can patrol more quickly and effectively if they only have to drive and issue tickets. The “AI” will scan both sides of the street quickly to identify illegally parked vehicles, which is ostensibly harder for a single human to do (how do you safely drive down a street while looking at cars parked on both sides?). I would also assume that this new system will mean that some tickets that an agent may have previously missed will be flagged, and I would venture that agents will not be able to ignore the “AI” alerts without some kind of annoying process. I am sure that there are some agents who have been doing this for so long that they’d be quicker than the machine at first, but this feels like the kind of “AI” application that we’ll be seeing lots more of imminently.
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Kate
Amazon, not pleased with unionization efforts here, is ceasing operations in Quebec, laying off 1700 workers.
In other local economic news, the SAQ, facing falling sales, is making changes in opening hours, and closing some stores.
Later in the day, Amazon denied that unionization was a factor.
steph
I like how it was made easy this week to identify which Americans oligarchs deserve to be blacklisted. Despite the conviniance of Amazon, it`s clearly time to take my buisness somewhere else.
jeather
All of them?
I thought a business wasn’t allowed to close a location just because it unionized. Is this why they’re leaving entirely, so they can’t be caught by that law?
DeWolf
I notice one of the three SAQ stores that will be closing is the only one in downtown Chicoutimi. When the SAQ tried to close its downtown Victoriaville store, the mayor and city council lobbied hard to keep it open because it was such an important anchor for the downtown area. I know this is a moot point with the CAQ in charge, but as a government monopoly, the SAQ really ought to have more of a social mission to support urban neighbourhoods instead of encouraging suburban sprawl.
dhomas
“Elle ne fait pas un lien de cause à effet entre la syndicalisation d’un entrepôt d’Amazon au Québec et l’annonce de licenciements C’est une décision de réorganisation”
Can we all just laugh at this?
I hope Intelcom unionizes, too. (According to RadCan, Intelcom will be the scabs that pick up the work left by the now-unemployed unionized Amazon workers: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2134596/amazon-entrepots-quebec-arret-activites-syndicat). What will they do then?
jeather
CBC has a timeline of Amazon in Quebec. I suppose the most you could argue is that a unionized warehouse that follows health and safety laws costs more than a non-unionized warehouse that doesn’t, so closing it will save money — but it’s obviously because of the union.
H. John
I apologize if anything I write sounds in any way like a defence of Amazon.
@dhomas wrote “Intelcom will be the scabs that pick up the work left by the now-unemployed unionized Amazon workers”.
From my own experience Intelcom has always delivered for Amazon. The “Amazon” trucks are relatively new. I put “Amazon” in quotation marks because I was under the impression that they are owned by a DSP (delivery service partner) not by Amazon itself:
Referring to the Intelcom drivers as “scabs” is unfair.
Regardless of who employs the drivers, none are unionized.
I believe only one Amazon warehouse in Quebec is unionized (Laval) – and that excludes anyone working in administration or maintenance. I’m not sure if the unionization process which had begun for the Lachine warehouse had been certified yet.
But the two warehouses together would cover less than 600 unionized employees – again, none of whom are delivery drivers.
jeather
Amazon delivery trucks are a few years old; it was Intelcom before that. What I have been told is that if you buy from Amazon specifically, it will go via their delivery, but if you buy from another company/fulfilled by Amazon they can choose the company (and locally it’s always Intelcom, which is terrible at delivery — I am sure this is insufficient staffing and poor pay, not that the delivery drivers are bad at their jobs).
Kate
Before the pandemic, I was doing some work in one of those big blocky buildings in the shmatte district. I bought a small item off Amazon and had it sent to that office because someone could take delivery in the daytime.
Intelcom chucked the parcel inside the front door of the building, which had at least eight storeys and dozens of small businesses with offices inside, and I only got the item because someone I worked with happened to pick it up and recognize my name on it.
dhomas
Apologies if I was a little hasty in labeling Intelcom as scabs. I’ve had some bad experiences with them, as many others here seem to have had as well. Still, that doesn’t make them scabs. The RadCan article kinda made it sound like they were taking over the work of those unionized workers (“Intelcom prendrait le relais”).
H. John
With the pandemic, and the dropping of a signature required for most deliveries, I’ve had the same experience from Intelcom, UPS, and “Amazon”.
The last misadventure with “Amazon”, I received the photo of my package sitting snuggly with a number of others in what looked to be a very nice lobby – just not my lobby.
I rushed outside the moment I received the delivery email. The truck and driver were still sitting there. A new driver who had just started that day. He could tell me with certainty that he hadn’t entered my building, but he couldn’t remember where he had left the packages. He tried to contact his employer but his phone was dead.
That was when I switched to asking for delivery to a Post Office; but they seem have done away with that option.
Blork
I seem to recall Intelcom taking a lot of heat a few years ago for the cavalier attitude of their drivers, with a few notable cases where they literally walked into people’s houses and dropped the package on the kitchen table (or something like that).
I might do like H. John and start opting for delivery to a drop point.
Ideally I’d stop shopping at Amazon altogether, but the convenience (combined with the ability to comparison shop among many options, and see reviews — although those are iffy — all without leaving the house) is hard to beat. I rarely buy books from Amazon, but for various gadgets, cables, and whatnot, it’s almost always the best option, with the best price, and free shipping. I hate that it is so, but it is so, so I will live with it.
(I should also mention that it’s not unusual for me to do my comparison shopping on Amazon, and once decided, go to an actual store to buy. But that only works if the item is something I know I will find at a particular store, and that store is not a million miles away.)
jeather
Intelcom now just regularly delivers a day or two late but leaves it at the front door as expected.
Chris
>All of them?
Amen to that. This idea that many have, including steph it seems, that these billionaires are suddenly bad guys now that they are sucking up to Trump (“the other team”) is crazy. They sucked up to the Democrats before that, they suck up the the Republicans now. They don’t care about your teams, they care about power. They have it, and you don’t; they aren’t on your side now, and weren’t before either.
(It to to my eternal dismay that almost all of the Left has given on on class issues, and only care about pronouns, land acknowledgements, and crap like that. But I digress…)
>but it’s obviously because of the union
Yes, but it’s also because of the populace, who prioritizes only lowest price and thus will shop at Amazon no matter what. They encourage Amazon to behave this way, doing everything to reduce price maximally.
Tim S.
“almost all of the Left has given on on class issues, and only care about pronouns, land acknowledgements, and crap like that”
The very fact that this story is ultimately about a successful unionization drive disproves that point, no? Some people care about identity issues, others class. Fight the fight you care about and don’t worry about the others.
Chris
Tim, if I had said “all” it might disprove the point, but I said “almost all”.
One “successful” union drive (how successful was it really? They are all unemployed now.) would likewise not disprove the statement that “almost all Amazon workers are non-unionized”. Now if you could show unionization happening all around, you’d have a case. But union rates have been going down for decades, identity issues have been going up for decades. I think my observation is correct.
>Fight the fight you care about and don’t worry about the others.
Yeah, I get that sentiment, and often agree, but when the two are at odds, it applies far less. People pushing memes like ‘white cis men are trash’ are sorely misguided, many of those men are in fact poor and should be allies. But instead they have been driven to backlash. Leftist that push such things are more like enemies than they are friends with different priorities.
The billionaires love it that the masses are busy infighting about culture war issues, instead of ganging up on them. In fact they even run systems (fb, X) designed to keep us at it. Genius really.
jeather
I don’t find Amazon is necessarily cheaper for the stuff I buy (non-prescription pharmacy stuff, usually) — what they are is fast and clear about whether something is or isn’t in stock. My local pharmacy is regularly out of various items (I always check when I am picking up my prescriptions).
MárçG
@jeather: I used Jean Coutu’s online ordering system for the first time last week and it was a good experience. Pickup at the cosmetics counter, I found items that they don’t even seem to carry on the shelves, and cheaper than Amazon. Maybe your pharmacy has a similar service.
Kate
jeather, have you checked prices on well.ca? I’ve bought a few things from them in the past. They’re based in Ontario but I haven’t investigated who the corporate owners are.
Joey
@Kate well.ca was acquired by McKesson (global pharmaceutical distributor) a few years ago, and last year was sold, along with McKesson’s Rexall pharmacy chain, to a private equity firm.
We used Amazon for lots and lots of things, including a lot of basic staples – if you subscribe to regular deliveries (you set the cadence and can always skip or change your order before a deadline), you get 5% or 15% off the list price. Extremely useful for things that are typically expensive in pharmacies/groceries and are a pain to schlep home – paper towels, toilet paper, pet food, etc. If you have Prime, which comes with lots of digital media perks, you can get next-day or two-day delivery on pretty much everything, so it’s very easy to get in the habit of just ordering stuff on Amazon.
What’s interesting to me is that Amazon is sort of left-of-centre/urban-knowledge-worker coded, while Costco is right-of-centre/suburban coded. And yet Amazon’s owned by a mega billionaire who is (a) all in for a fascist American president, (b) hellbent on making the Washington Post a Trump megaphone, and, most relevant to the discussion, (c) notorious for class warfare – from the unionization freakout in Quebec to the miserable exploitation of its workers pretty much everywhere. Meanwhile, Costco pays decent wages, tolerates unions, doesn’t bend to political whims (it is currently defending its DEI practices). But because Amazon does last-mile delivery and Costco focuses on you getting your stuff from the warehouse and bringing it home (yes, they do offer delivery, but not like Amazon), it would feel weird to switch because of the mismatch between perception and reality.
MárçG
I order bulky stuff from Costco and the delivery is usually next day via UPS, and it’s free if you order over a certain amount. You need to factor in the yearly membership to compare costs, though.
jeather
As far as I can tell, it does not (Brunet, the nearby Jean-Coutu doesn’t offer it, I try to avoid Pharmaprix). I do have to buy a number of things in pharmacy, so I always look for my other regular purchases.
jeather
I used to use well a lot, but found it got less good — worse items, worse prices, slower shipping. I guess that probably overlaps with the sale. Costco is fine for some items, but I don’t have the space to purchase at their volumes. I do get some things delivered, and a few others a friend will pick up when they go there, but it’s just not a good setup for a single person in a small condo — and this is why it’s suburban coded.
Tim S.
Chris: A quick glance at the QS homepage reveals items about: school lunches; Quebec sovereignty; opposition to austerity; using hydro exports to oppose Trump; CPE union negotiations, and school field trip costs. Over at NDP.ca/commitments, we have affordability; economic equality; environmental protection; public health care; Indigenous reconciliation; infrastructure; and at the bottom, opposing discrimination.
I actually share your belief that identity issues have taken too much priority over class issues. On my bookshelf is Toward Freedom: A case against race reductionism, by Tour F. Reed (from Argo, not Amazon!), which is supposed to argue precisely that: I’ll let you know when I get around to it. I’ll just repeat: the solution is to notice the people working hard on the issues you care about, not give more oxygen to the others. Because isn’t that just feeding the culture wars issues you decry?
Tim S.
Bluesky thread here that is almost exactly this conversation
(Amazon vs Costco, not the Left stuff):
https://bsky.app/profile/mrianjohnson.bsky.social/post/3lggw5zyunc2b
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Kate
Denise Filiatrault, artistic director of Théâtre du Rideau Vert for 21 years, is retiring. She’s 93.
Filiatrault notably survived a scandal ten years ago when blackface was used in the Rideau Vert’s end‑of‑year revue.
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