The federal government is putting more millions into the blue line extension; TVA underlines the story La veille du déclenchement des élections. Quebec City’s planned tramway is also getting a boost.
Updates from March, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Monk Boulevard is not one of the city’s star business streets, but even so, landlords are hiking commercial rents while the province washes its hands of any responsibility.
On Facebook, Peter McQueen reports that McWhinnie’s bicycle shop in NDG has to close because its lease is ending and it can’t meet the new hiked rent. It’s been in existence since 1930.
Chris
That CBC article is full of feels and devoid of actual data. How much was their rent? By what percentage is it going up? Seems absolutely basic to the topic, and it’s not there.
Tee Owe
Bought my bike from McWhinnies, still riding it 25 years later
MarcG
I also bought my bike there around 25 years ago! Everyone used to say they were dickheads and ripoff artists but without any evidence. For me, it was a convenient location and a decent price.
jeather
I found they were overpriced and, indeed, jerks — there might have been a sexism issue — but there was never a quality issue.
Ian
Too spendy for me but still a shame. Bike bros are often dicks and that reputation McW had wasn’t undeserved… but still. A bike shop is a useful thing, and it probably won’t be replaced by a friendlier, cheaper one.
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Kate
More on Stephan Probst, the onetime highly placed physician convicted on sex charges and now accused of a string of other sexual assaults over years: he’s now out on bail waiting for his next trial.
Which makes me wonder about the circumstances. Would a judge allow most men – if both convicted of and accused in sexual assaults – to be free? Is this:
- totally routine, on the assumption Probst won’t try to evade justice by leaving the country, or
- based on class, i.e. Probst gets a break because he’s educated and wealthy, whereas most random men in the same situation would be locked up till trial?
Blork
I’m thinking it’s based on a risk assessment. If he had been assaulting people at random in the street or the Metro, or a family member, etc., then being out on bail would be a higher risk. But if his victims were all in the workplace under very specific conditions, or some other very specific environment that he is no longer part of (which is the case here AFAIK), then the risk is a lot lower.
I don’t know enough about the case to stake anything on that, but it seems like a reasonable assumption.
Chris
Just the other day they released Amir Arvahi Azar on bail, and he’s charged with advocating genocide (!), arson, harassment, threats and mischief, and gun charges.
So of course a mere assaulter is on bail. That’s how the system works.
Interesting that your mind conceived of option ‘b’ and not ‘c’: the system is too generous with bail. Conservative are always on about bail reform.
jeather
I don’t know about this case in specific but in general a wealthy white man who is a doctor can pay bail where other people couldn’t.
If I understand correctly Azar is on bail before the trial but Probst has already been convicted, so though I understand why he would be on bail for the new charges I don’t understand how he is free after a conviction. Unless he wasn’t jailed at all for it?
As a rule I am for bail reform for low level offense but in the other direction from conservatives.
dhomas
@Blork: this guy, with his accomplice, was not targeting coworkers (at least not exclusively). They were luring people they met online and could easily do so again now that he is on bail.
See some details here:
https://healthimaging.com/topics/healthcare-management/healthcare-policy/former-head-nuc-med-convicted-sexual-assaultThere are many other accounts as well, this is just the one that came up first.
Kevin
Probst and his girlfriend have yet to be sentenced for the previous conviction (they are appealing) and under his bail terms he has a curfew, and is not allowed guests.
The Crown is asking to revoke his bail given the second set of charges.
Kate
Thank you, Kevin.
Blork
Thanks dhomas. II was getting this mixed up with a different case.
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Kate
A boutique owner in Hochelaga is seeking a client who paid a lot more than she should have for some purchases. It seems odd that someone could have paid $425 for a total of $42.50 with neither customer nor cashier noticing at the time, but apparently it happened – and the owner wants to find her and give her a refund.
MarcG
I’ve noticed myself worrying about this occasionally since I started paying for everything with a credit card and setting up automatic payments on the card. I try to review my statements but you know how life can be.
Nicholas
Some machines transfer the total from the computer to the credit card machine, but some require the cashier to enter the numbers manually. Very easy to add a zero, then the person taps without looking. Some payment machines will then let the main computer know the amount actually paid and add that as a credit on the bill, which should zero out the total, and if the amount paid was different it’ll show that (think debit cards asking for cash back). This probably didn’t.
Meezly
I’m so used to tapping that it’s easy to overlook the amount you’re paying for. But the tap limit is $250. Maybe the lady always manually enters her PIN and was just going through the motions?
Joey
I’m surprised there’s no way of sorting this out with the payment processor, which should theoretically have her full card number. Nice to see an upstanding business owner.
Andrew
This happened to me with a mover I hired off Craigslist, $1800 instead of $180. But in 2011, I think it was still a carbon paper machine. I was totally sure I’d been scammed, but he came back and gave me $1620 in cash, still the most cash I’ve ever handled in my life.
CE
Maybe he did it on purpose to launder cash through you.
Ian
That’s one hell of a grift
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Kate
Residents of Île-Bizard who listed their homes as available to rent during the Presidents Cup last fall have received hefty fines from Revenu Québec, even when they didn’t ultimately succeed in finding takers.
Joey
A little Saturday morning schadenfreude, eh? Thanks, Kate!
GC
I’m all for Revenu Quebec finally cracking down, but is this where they should be focusing their energies? People who rent out their primary residence one time are not the main problem.
Nicholas
I offered to sell alcohol/marijuana/legal services/medical services/roof repair without a permit, but no one took me up on it, why am I getting in trouble?
Kate
GC, I agree with you. It seems a niche, one-time situation for a big crackdown.
Ramsay
I wonder if it’s easier for Revenu Quebec to prove that the listings are for the property in question because they are individual houses with distinctive characteristics. Rather than apartments that the owner could argue are for a neighbor.
GC
Good question, Ramsay. Or maybe the platform where it’s listed makes it simpler. I’d never heard of Rent Like A Champion before. I’d like to see them enforcing the law against the worst offenders, though–not just the low-hanging fruit. Go after the people who own 5+ listed properties and live in none of them.
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Kate
New statistics show that a quarter of the population of Laval are anglophones, a proportion that has risen a lot since 2001. Remediation is called for.
Nicholas
Time for some trouble in Chomedy.
bob
Take a cue from our southern neighbours and deport them!
Ian
Anglophones or bilingual allophones? I suspect it’s demographically similar across the years, with the variable being younger people casually speaking English more.
Then again the CAQ gets mad about people speaking English at home so there’s no pleasing them anyhow.
CE
Laval has a lot of 2nd and 3rd Italians and Greeks who are products of the French Catholic school system not allowing them to study at their schools. English has been passed down through the generations although most of them are likely fully bilingual but speak English amongst themselves and at home.
Ian
As of 2017 it seemed to be more Arabic & Swahili in Laval… Of course we know Arabs get CAQ all tied up in knots so that might be it right there.
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