A kind of ideological tutelage is being imposed on Bedford School in Côte‑des‑Neiges following a 90‑page government report of mentions of religion on the premises. French to be exclusively spoken in the school grounds will also be enforced.
Adding a link to Toula Drimonis’ Gazette column this week on identity politics, tangentially related to the topic.
Hockey fans booed the Star‑Spangled Banner Thursday night when the Finland and U.S. teams met at the Bell Centre in the Four Nations Face‑Off.
Saturday, the U.S. team faces Canada here, after which the games move to Boston. It’s a short tournament of only seven matches.
If the tickets were not so expensive I’d consider going just to boo.
Clanging a bell, sternly declaiming SHAME every few seconds. Maybe we could do a whip-round 😀
We can all boo from the comfort of our livingrooms.
St Joseph’s Oratory has opened a new visitors’ pavilion, but the interesting thing here is the promise of eventual public access to the top of the dome, which was promised years ago yet has never been delivered.
As promised in 2018 for 2020 and I’m sure it was mentioned previously to 2018 as well.
I thought it was weird that they didn’t mention it two weeks ago when they were complaining about trespassers going up there.
True, but it is a part of the next phase: “The next phase of the wider redevelopment project is expected to begin in the next two years, and Grou said that will take visitors into the dome itself.
“’When they get up there, it will be the only place in Montreal where you can see, at the same time, the three summits of Mount Royal,” Grou said. “It’s a unique experience, and I’m sure it will be breathtaking.’”
You say trespasser, I say “I’m just a confused tourist, officer”.
The city’s going to do a “special” snow clearing operation starting Friday night, prioritizing streets with hospitals and fire stations, in the knowledge that we’ll be getting a lot more snow Sunday.
Teachers from Dawson and Vanier are condemning what they consider government inteference, specifically by the higher education minister, Pascale Déry. And this isn’t about teaching French, but about the minister’s actions during an investigation into how the Gaza situation was being taught in those schools.
Another angle on the story later from CTV.
For those unfamiliar with the relations between various union affiliations, FNEEQ is only one syndical step below CSN, this is no small matter, especially with the Front Commun still fresh in everyone’s memory.
The old “Jews run the world” thing – “Les liens récents de la ministre avec une organisation de lobbying juive causent également un malaise. writes LP”, and “it raises questions at least,” said Yves de Repentigny – wink wink, nod nod.
It should be no small matter that antisemitism in colleges and universities has gone from subtext to zeitgeist, but, of course it isn’t. What used to be wacko right-wing conspiracy theories have eclipsed all other issues on the far left. It’s like a whole movement has gone through the shift that Lyndon Larouche made from die hard communist to right-wing lunatic in the 60’s.
Weekend notes from CultMTL, CityCrunch, La Presse.
Also, there’s a demo planned Saturday at 1 pm starting at Mont‑Royal metro against Amazon’s strike‑breaking actions.
We could get another 30 cm of snow Sunday night.
So no “full snow removal operation” on residential streets until Wednesday at the earliest, at a guess? That’s going to be a lot of accumulation!
I’m currently having a massive ice dam removed from the roof after water starting dripping inside last weekend. If the temperature doesn’t stay far away from zero I guess I’ll be throwing more money into the pit next week to have that snow shoveled off.
Ian, that’s what Radio‑Canada is saying.
Also, I had the opportunity to push 3 cars out of snowbanks this morning; such a simple thing but makes me feel like a superhero to the poor stuck drivers. (NB cars suck)
Hey man New Brunswick is OK, chill out
😛
Thx Kate, more or less what I expected but it’s good to see it verified.
In the American war against DEI – currently defined as anything not intended for straight white male Americans – Google has removed Black History Month as well as Pride Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Hispanic Heritage, Women’s History months and others not listed here. And that’s from calendars outside the United States too.
The city is planning to replace 54 American outfits with which it does business, with locals or with partners in other countries.
If anyone in the U.S. thinks the Canadian boycotts amount to just a handful of people buying Canadian ketchup instead of Heinz, they should look at things like this. This movement we’re seeing is not just a short-term hissy fit until the tariff threats die down. Trump has thoroughly tarnished the U.S.’s reputation as a reliable and trustworthy business partner. That stain will stick for years, if not decades; well beyond Trump’s term as President. This isn’t just a few people getting mad and soon getting over it; Trump is ruining the U.S. for business the same way he ruined his own businesses.
I worry that that’s the point, Blork. I’m increasingly convinced that what we’re seeing is the wholesale destruction of the current post-industrial capitalism – or whatever the current set up is – so it can be replaced by Silicon-valley techno-capitalism – defined as whatever the tech bros want. The scary part is, I strongly suspect they think they don’t need us, as workers and possibly even as consumers, just as generators of data, much of which has already been harvested. Hence the complete contempt with which literally everyone is being treated. The current social contract may be flawed, but at least ordinary people had a place in it.
Surely they still need people to buy stuff? And if you expect people to buy stuff, you have to make them work to earn the money to buy stuff. Even if the work is often bullshit jobs that aren’t needed, and you could pay everyone a living wage for nothing – you have to grind them down, otherwise people will have the time and energy to organize and rise up.
Speaking of rising up, there’s a demo planned Saturday at 1 pm starting at Mont‑Royal metro against Amazon’s strike‑breaking actions.
There are too many dropouts among the techbros to realize that they need well-paid customers to act as justification for the money they get from government grants and Venture Capitalist donors.
But Kate, the thing is Silicon Valley doesn’t make stuff. Crypto is not a physical thing! AI is not thing we can buy off a shelf or that needs an industrial workforce to produce. I’m not a deep theorist on this stuff, but if your vision of the future is some combination of crypto wealth, AI workforce, and Mars as your survival bunker, there’s no need to keep the rest of us even somewhat onside.
Haven’t watched all of this video but I think it tries to explain the world they’re creating. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RpPTRcz1no
They may not make stuff, but they certainly sell stuff. Musk sells cars, solar panels and I don’t know what else. Bezos sells vast amounts of Amazon stuff. Zuckerberg doesn’t sell physical objects but he’s sitting on one of the biggest advertising systems in the world. This also applies to Musk as owner of X. Facebook and X both exist because businesses want to sell stuff.
I admit I may be way off base. I am not an economist.
I think a lot of you are overestimating Trump and the level to which he thinks things through.
The tariff situation is just an extrapolation of how he ran things as a real estate developer in New York. He makes a deal with a partner or a contractor, they do the work, and then he tells them he’ll only pay half. When they complain or try to negotiate, he doesn’t pay at all.
That is on record as the SOP for Trump real estate development.
That’s how he runs business, like a bull(ly) in a China shop. The little guy loses, he wins, nobody learns, and the cycle repeats. Now he’s just doing the same on an international level, with no regard for anything other than him winning.
BTW, the tech bro stuff might also have some validity, but that’s not Trump; that’s Silicon Valley riding the wave of the Trump chaos.
We’re all trying to figure this out in real time, but I think the important point is that individual abilities or intentions don’t really matter right now – not even POTUS. What matters is the cumulative effect of all these moves, and the way some people are exploiting the chaos created by others. I don’t think these guys are all sitting in a cigar-filled room figuring things out step-by-step, but I’m sure they’re all being advised by relatively anonymous people who truly believe some far-out stuff. Anyways, the way I see it today is that Trump is providing a patriotic, chest-thumping distraction while the tech bros dismantle the US Government and with it, the capitalist economy that it created and supports. Trump and Vance will pretend to be acting in the interests of the US economy – the version that actually has workers and makes (some) stuff – until it’s too late. Don’t forget Vance is Peter Thiel’s guy.
Kate, the valuations of all those companies are much, much higher than can be justified by selling advertising alone.
Where does their wealth come from?
(Maybe put on your tin hats for this one ) They want closed off North American Technicracy, closed off from the rest of the world. The tech bros think their silicone software/AI will hand them the wealth and absolute control.
To take that a step further, If capital represents value generated by workers in excess of their wages & the means of production, then profitable AI would essentially be pure capital. No wonder it’s the tech broligarch wet dream.
Kate, I really dunno where their wealth comes from, hopefully somebody else has an informed answer. My guess is that they use the data collected to establish AIs which are super-highly valued. I suspect it’s a bubble, but if you can reshape the whole economic structure around a bubble, is it still a bubble? Ditto crypto.
Ian: yup. At which point workers are unnecessary.
They also took out St-Jean-Baptiste and
Journée Nationale des Patriotes…
OK, nothing that isn’t for straight white American males counts for shit any more.
Also the map says “Gulf of Mexico (Gulf of America)” now. How long till the old name is dropped, do you think?
It’s already dropped if you’re viewing Google Maps from within the U.S. Confirmed from multiple sources.
The Associated Press has been banned from the presidential press pool because of their refusal to accept this change. Trump is such a snowflake lol
They might want you to believe that AP got the boot because they insisted on Gulf of Mexico but it was just a convenient way of dumping one more credible source of information to be replaced by another of their friends (Newsmax etc)
good one, dwgs
Ian 18:17 on 2025-02-14 Permalink
It’s almost as if the Ministry doesn’t know that nothing makes something cooler to pre-teens than it not being allowed.
jeather 18:40 on 2025-02-14 Permalink
Pretty sure a lot of this would require new laws so they will talk around it for a while and ignore all the schools where the Christian parents block sex ed.
Steph 18:55 on 2025-02-14 Permalink
Maybe they could start an OQLF youth brigade for policing the school yard?!
Uatu 08:36 on 2025-02-15 Permalink
I’m waiting for some smart ass kids to troll this policy by loudly speaking English or Arabic or whatever one step off school grounds lol
Kate 09:36 on 2025-02-15 Permalink
I’ve been surprised to hear groups of kids speaking English after they exit the big francophone high school around the corner. I also hear some speaking Kreyol, Arabic and languages from India that I can’t identify, but English is definitely second after French.
jeather 10:30 on 2025-02-15 Permalink
My memory is that the CSSDM schools already require French to be used by students even at recess or lunch. That said I do not know if this is heavily enforced.
Ian 11:38 on 2025-02-15 Permalink
It’s not, especially in schools with a lot of cultural mixing. In classrooms and halls yes, but not lunch or recess. It also depends on the enseignant(e)s of course, some get mad if kids talk among themselves in a language the adult doesn’t understand. By union rules they also can’t be required to speak any language other than French to say, parents – but that makes sense.
Robert H 14:02 on 2025-02-15 Permalink
“It’s almost as if the Ministry doesn’t know that nothing makes something cooler to pre-teens than it not being allowed.”
EXACTLY. And they’ll wonder why English is so popular among youngsters, why it becomes, more than the convenient default, essentially the preferred medium of expression. English equals freedom, fun, and the mystique of rebellion. French is drab Duty and the answer is always Non, vous ne le pouvez pas.
«Le ministère devrait aussi évaluer la possibilité d’intégrer dans la loi l’obligation de parler français dans tous les espaces de l’école susceptibles d’être fréquentés par les élèves…»
Meanwhile, as Toula Drimonis so eloquently explains, the CAQ, afflicted with épaisisme, continues to double down on its culture war initiatives while more relevant matters go ignored. Plus ça change…
jeather 14:33 on 2025-02-15 Permalink
Makes sense that teachers can’t be compelled to speak a language the parents speak but, again, this just makes integration harder for the parents.