The Mohawk mothers were back in court Friday, still attempting to halt work on the old Royal Victoria site and continue efforts to locate human burial sites.
Updates from June, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A driver who knocked down a cyclist and hit some other cars was stopped by police, then tried to flee the situation by stealing the cop car, Friday afternoon in the Plateau. He’s been rounded up.
Nicholas
I’m sure the driver will get a 3-month licence suspension (with exceptions for going to work), and be back on the roads soon enough! (If he serves any jail time I’m sure the suspension will run concurrently.)
DavidH
The initial driver is not the one who stole the car. Police car was taken by a random passerby. Articles have been updated.
Kate
That’s an even weirder sequence of events. Thanks, DavidH.
bob
GTA online.
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Kate
A downtown mosque has been vandalized, but CTV sees fit to censor not only the story but the photographs. News is for grownups and I don’t think anyone’s going to faint if they read a report saying someone painted “Fuck Gaza” on a wall. In fact, the bowdlerization overemphasizes the power of the word.
Ian
That’s some pretty weak can control.
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Kate
The city ended 2024 with a budget surplus which the Gazette derides as “thin”, but any surplus in this economy deserves applause, even if it’s just a golf clap.
Managing our refuse is constantly getting more expensive though.
Ian
After last winter’s back to back mega snow dump, I’m impressed for sure.
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Kate
A Montreal student pharmacist is accused of having sold hundreds of fake vaccination proofs for cash, via social media, during the height of the pandemic. This item says nothing about formal charges – and he’s still allowed to practice.
Joey
The story points out that the Order of Pharmacists cannot sanction a pharmacist member for actions undertaken while they were a student. I suppose this is probably for the best – I don’t think we would want professional orders to have jurisdiction over activities that did not occur while individual was a member of that order. The Order has, appropriately, sanctioned the pharmacist who enabled the fraud (committed by the student and anotherr – unnamed – individual), and will presumably sanction the fraudster once he’s convicted criminally, since they have the ability to sanction members who have committed criminal activity (the criminal inquiry is still ongoing).
Nicholas
Joey, it’s pretty common to have a good character requirement to join a professional order. Would we let a law student who committed legal fraud become a lawyer, or an engineer who committed engineering fraud become an engineer? This is not like the student was unaware of the specific ethical rules they hadn’t learned yet or taken an oath to: it’s like a non-engineer approving structural plans they have no right to approve, for cash. It could have killed someone. The least we can do is ensure that people who don’t sell away our safety for personal profit don’t get work in that field that requires ethics and public trust, and holds people’s lives in their hands. Would you want to be served by this pharmacist?
Joey
No, obviously not, but it sounds like when he became a member of the order he had not yet been flagged as a fraudster. The Order can’t (and, IMO, shouldn’t) investigate activity conducted by non-members (or by individuals prior to their membership) . The positive ‘loophole’ is that they can act on the basis of his eventual criminal conviction. Basically, once he’s proven to have committed fraud, he will fail the good character requirement. I guess my point is that the negative spin is really about the protocol of sanctioning a pharmacist, and not about the Order turning a blind eye or justice not being done.
Kate
He is accused of using the facilities of an existing pharmacy as a means for his fraud, and the article says he was in his fourth year of studies, so he may have been serving an internship. The terms of his internship would probably define the limits of his responsibility. (The Order might want to check out how carefully that pharmacy oversees their interns, too.)
Nicholas
I understand if the rules need changing, but if I were to go practise medicine or law tomorrow I would probably get in trouble with the Crown, but I would also expect that, even absent that, the Orders would, at a minimum, if, subsequent to my unethical behaviour, I joined the order and was able to legally practise medicine or law, investigate and sanction me as part of my subsequent membership in the Order. I don’t want someone who the Order has found practised medicine without a licence and committed fraud while doing it to be treating me unless that person has served their punishment and the Order’s sanctions committee has determined is able to practise again.
H. John
@Joey suggests that “the Order of Pharmacists cannot sanction a pharmacist member for actions undertaken while they were a student.” @Nicholas points out that ”it’s pretty common to have a good character requirement to join a professional order. Would we let a law student who committed legal fraud become a lawyer.”
On this one, I think Joey is wrong, and Nicholas is completely on point.
When applying to become a lawyer, like everyone else I had to complete a form which asked questions about my prior behaviour including did I have a criminal record, had I ever been sued, etc..
I checked a few of the boxes which meant I had to appear before a committee to explain why, amongst other things, I had had a complaint against me at the Quebec Human Right Commission for discrimination.
I had been an administrator responsible for a university’s legal information service (Dean of Students office). A student asked the office to provide a lawyer for them to deal with a minor incident in court. I explained that that was not a service the office provided – it only provided information.
The student went to the Rights Commission and complained that they had been discriminated against based on race.
I met with the Commission’s investigator, with the lawyer paid for by my employer at my side. After explaining that the student was complaining that we didn’t provide them with a service that we didn’t provide to anyone, she quickly said there was obviously no discrimination. She then went on to say she hoped I would understand that it would take a month or two before she issued a finding because she thought if she was too quick, the complainant would go after her.
It may seem frivolous, but at least the Bar took the time to look at who they were admitting. I would expect any professional order to do the same.
Joey
I’m just reporting what’s in the article:
L’OPQ indique de son côté que Mohammed-El Mahdi Zakaryaa demeure pharmacien. L’Ordre affirme qu’il ne peut pas sévir contre le vingtenaire parce qu’il n’était qu’un étudiant au moment des faits allégués.
«Par contre, si un pharmacien (donc un membre de l’Ordre) était reconnu coupable d’une infraction criminelle, nous pourrions décider de le radier, suspendre ou limiter son droit de pratique», précise Mme Villeneuve.
H. John
@Joey Sorry but you weren’t just reacting what the article wrote, you personally wrote “I don’t think we would want professional orders to have jurisdiction over activities that did not occur while individual was a member of that order.”
I think that’s what you got wrong.
The Journal de Montreal let the Order get away with saying that it wasn’t its responsibility. I think it was. Did the Order ask the appropriate questions concerning honesty before admitting him?
Professional orders like the Ordre des pharmaciens du Québec (OPQ) have a legal responsibility to protect the public. This obligation is laid out in the Professional Code, the law governing all professional orders in Quebec.
Their responsibility includes assessing the good character and suitability of applicants.
Before admitting a candidate, the order must:
Ensure the person is of good moral character, especially for professions involving public trust (like pharmacists);
Conduct background checks where necessary (criminal, disciplinary history in other jurisdictions);
Inquire into any past acts that could affect the candidate’s fitness to practise the profession (e.g., dishonesty, professional misconduct, incapacity).OPQ application forms include declarations about honesty, criminal convictions, and past professional conduct.
If the complaint to UPAC is founded, then the Order will be required to decide if the applicant was completely truthful in completing his application.
But, in my opinion, they don’t have to wait for a finding of criminality. They should carry out their own investigation, and if he didn’t answer honestly when applying, they should act now.
“The board of directors may refuse to issue a permit to a person if the person has been guilty of an act derogatory to the dignity of the profession.”
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Kate
The mayor has absented herself from half the executive committee sessions since announcing she would not run again this November.
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Kate
The STM’s auditor general has made various reports on the efficiency of its repair garages but the STM keeps them under tight wraps. La Presse made an access‑to‑information request, but two thirds of the pages of the document it received were completely blacked out.
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Kate
It’s not just the Grand Prix this weekend, but also the Francos and other events. Weekend notes from CityCrunch, La Presse, the Gazette, Le Devoir, CultMTL.
Even the driving advice this week is about the Grand Prix, but in general I’d advise watching out for the drivers who think they’re Gilles Villeneuve.
More driving advice from CityNews.
Ian
I’ve been hearing revving engines in the distance for a couple of days now. Definitely a few performance cars out there bottoming out on the uneven Montreal streets haha
JP
One of the entrances to Royalmount which I work next to is pretty much a permanent F1 track, with revving engines driving into and out of the parking lot every day as of its opening days to just a minute ago. I’m starting to wonder if we should have laws implemented regarding these sounds. I’m really sensitive to loud sounds and find it aggressive, and I can’t be the only one.
CE
I saw a Ferrari being driven by two young guys blast through a stop sign this morning in Old Montreal.
Ian
I saw a half dozen lycra warriors blast through all the stop signs on Chemin Remeberance this morning. I’m sure they had the same rationale – it’s faster, and “nobody” was there anyway.
Kevin
JP
Quebec’s highway code allows up to 100 db for a vehicle in motion, which is pretty damn loud.CE
I would put the MAMLs in the same category of annoyance as the sports car drivers. The benefit of the MAMLs is that they’re not as loud as the sports car but the MAMLs tend to yell more at people who get in their way which feels more like a personal attack. If I had to choose, I’d take the lycra warriors over the bad drivers but it’s close.
dhomas
A bike can do some damage, but a car can do a whole lot more. The weight of a car and the speed it can travel at give it a much more destructive capacity.
Ian
Yes, I’m sure that’s what the Lycra Warriors tell themselves, too. There’s no shortage of self-indulgent justifications from bicyclists, drivers or pedestrians.
Tim S.
It is possible to agree that both can hurt more vulnerable road users, and that everyone should take a little more responsability?
Ian
Oh absolutely. I’m actually looking forward to the mountain being closed off to traffic so I can walk around & explore, especially the road cuts and rock faces. I am super not looking forward to being screamed at by sport cyclists for being “in their way”.
Even in the zones pietonnees I have to keep an eye out for dopes on bikes. I almost got run down by a MAMIL in Promenade Jean-Brillant just two days ago, who of course cursed me out for not noticing him bicycling up behind me. Of course it would have hurt me less than getting run down by a car but cars generally don’t think it’s ok to drive around on sidewalks or in pedestrian zones then gripe at pedestrians for it. I’ve also never seen anyone drive a communauto the wrong way down a street while texting on their phone with both hands – but Bixis, yeah, pretty often actually.
Sport cyclists ar ethe worst though, they seem to think not following any kind of traffic rules is a badge of honour – or maybe it never crosses their minds that they should try to follow traffic rules as they don’t consider themeselves traffic.
This is just one of the many reasons I prefer to go for walks in the cemeteries instead of Parc Mont-Royal.
Sporty drivers like sport bicyclists are also generally douches on the road. I sometimes wonder if it’s the aggro competitive aspect of road sports that gets them into that headspace. It’s a good thing there’s no competitive pedestrianing or we’d be in real trouble.
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