A driver who killed a pedestrian while going twice the posted speed three years ago is asking the court to sentence him to community service while the Crown is looking for two years. I don’t understand what the chauffard‘s strict religious upbringing has to do with his penchant for speeding.
Updates from September, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
STM maintenance workers are considering strike action this month.
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Kate
La Presse has a two-parter Wednesday on how renovictions continue on the Plateau despite a moratorium. Tenants’ groups are swamped with cases of landlords simply defying the law.
DeWolf
La Presse certainly found a villainous landlord who looks the part.
Kate
Incredibly.
MarcG
Same dude who was famous for opening bougie businesses in St-Henri some years ago https://montreal.eater.com/2015/4/2/8334711/saint-henri-restaurants-vandalism-campanelli
CE
This guy is currently trying to evict a good friend of mine. He’s trying all kinds of sketchy tactics. My friend had to get a lawyer just to get him to leave him alone. He seems like an absolute scumbag.
Ian
I guess it was only a matter of time until villainously greed douchebros became trope. Nice grills, cheesedawg
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Kate
CTV talked to honchos in various religions about the proposed prayer ban and the responses were unsurprising. Neither the Catholic nor the Anglican bishop are keen. The rabbi sees it as “more pro-traffic than anti-prayer” and goes on to talk about pro‑Palestinian protests, and the Muslim honcho sees it as a cynically political move by the CAQ.
Kevin
A poli sci professor at U Waterloo says the CAQ’s plan may falter because it’s attempting to criminalize behaviour, and provinces don’t have that jurisdiction https://emmettmacfarlane.substack.com/p/not-even-the-notwithstanding-clause
Uatu
Anything to distract from lousy education/health care policy, saaq fiasco etc. and as usual my boss is making cuts because Sante QC and Genevieve Biron has to get paid somehow….
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Kate
CBC’s Benjamin Shingler has a state‑of‑play in the mayoral race which will only get hotter between now and November 2.
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Kate
At least 500 storefront businesses have not yet updated their signs to conform with the latest language law.
Maybe Quebec could fine them to the max, putting many out of business, but recouping some of the vast sums lost on Northvolt and SAAQclic.
Taking TVA’s photo as an example – what kind of addition to the sign does Urban Outfitters require? MAGASIN? BOUTIQUE? Why would this specification even be needed? Is it not obvious that it’s a store for selling random trendy oddments to people under 30?
azrhey
I’ve seen people wanting it to be “Pourvoyeur Urbain” but like… heurgh… and I say this as a francophone and as a French linguistics major and professional translator… HEURGH (technical term)…
Teach people the love of French in all its modern and interesting quirks and usages and bleeping leave the Second Canadian Tires & Cups of the world the bleeping alone….
I am a fan of long dead French dudes as much as the next gall, but if you want your kids to love French and live in French, make them read Guy Bergeron or Louise Gauthier in highscool… not Stendhal or Zola (and bonus points for littérature québecoise, that should make *those people* happy ! )
this morning needs more cofffee and less idiots….
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Kate
Artists are carving images into the felled trunks of a few massive old poplar trees that were taken down in Lafontaine Park.
Orr
In my ancestral part of Quebec there are many giant cottonwoods/poplars planted in the 1930s as make-work projects along highways and byways, and Transport Quebec likes to cut them down!
I have often wondered why not leave the first 20 ft or so standing use the giant stumps for artists to carve something interesting from them instead.
Happy to see I’m not the only person to have that idea, and that some of those people have the power to make it happen.CE
They need to come down because they don’t naturally grow that large. Since in parks (in captivity?) they grow so large so quickly, the wood isn’t super strong and rots from the inside out. In Parc La Fontaine, they left the stumps and portions of the trees they cut down and they were very obviously rotten and dying. People were writing graffiti and putting up posters against cutting them down but what did they want the city to do?? Those trees were so big that if they had have fallen over, they likely would have taken a dozen more trees with them!
PatrickC
Many years ago, Armand Vaillancourt turned a tall tree stump on Durocher into a sculpture that became famous. My grandparents lived nearby on Prince Arthur and I have a vague memory of seeing the work being done. The tree now in a Quebec City museum (shades of Joni Mitchell…). I wonder how the artist dealt with the rot issue.
Ian
The city cut a bunch of 20 year old trees down on Queen west in Toronto, leaving 4-5 foot tall stumps until somebody carved 3 of them into pretty anatomically detailed dicks.
Kate
Incidentally, Armand Vaillancourt is still with us. He’s 96.
Orr, Quebec had some rows of Lombardy poplars, the tall narrow ones, often planted around religious sites like convents and so forth, much like you’ll see in France or the Netherlands beside roads. A lot of those have vanished over the years because, like any poplar, they’ll hollow out and become hazardous when they get old, and sometimes fall down. Also, they’re not a native species.
But regular poplars – native cottonwoods – does anyone really have to plant those? You have a piece of land, you’ll get cottonwoods and Manitoba maples, without having to plant them.
MtlWeb 22:51 on 2025-09-03 Permalink
Our judicial system’s handling of vehicular assault is often pitiful. This young man needs to serve jail time and part of his sentence should include being assigned to one or both of the two trauma ICUs on the island where he can complete 16-hour shifts, sitting beside patients admitted secondary to a MVA and watch the care given by the team. He can do the same on the wards for those patients who are able to survive their time in the ICU and follow that up with being present for the intense neurological, physiological, and psychological rehab many of these patients face when they are discharged to continue their recovery in one of our rehab centres. His licence should also be suspended for 5….10 years followed by a reduced demerit licence after that period. These are criminal acts and must be punished accordingly.
Nicholas 23:58 on 2025-09-03 Permalink
I can see an argument for not going to jail. If, and only if, he gives up his licence for life. He stole a Mercedes and drove it 87 km/h on Hochelaga, passing on the right and killing someone. This is after two other serious traffic infractions. He may be a good person in the rest of his life, but for driving, throw away the key. Take bus like the rest of us.
bob 01:38 on 2025-09-04 Permalink
Life is cheap in Canada.
steph 08:07 on 2025-09-04 Permalink
If we assigned the appropriate dangers (and costs) to driving – our car industry would just fall to pieces.
Tim S. 08:09 on 2025-09-04 Permalink
I very much like MtlWeb’s proposal.
I also think we need to establish the principle – supported by one of those PSA campaigns Quebec is so good at – that if you’re able to get behind the wheel of a car, you’re also choosing to accept full responsibility for your actions.
CE 08:42 on 2025-09-04 Permalink
If you ever want to murder someone, make sure to do it with a car!
GC 10:07 on 2025-09-04 Permalink
Even ignoring all the speeding and the fact that he *killed* someone, he drove alone with a learner’s license. So, there is a big history of breaking the traffic laws here. It’s hard to believe that taking away his license alone will stop him from driving in the future. So: jail.
Did that article say the car was stolen? I missed that. Or are you getting that from another source, Nicholas?
Blork 10:27 on 2025-09-04 Permalink
Regarding the possible connection between the chauffard’s schooling and his penchant for speeding, I think the argument is that his strict religious schooling effectively stunted his maturity resulting in a lack of good judgement when it came to the speed limit. Because here’s the thing; almost all teenage boys have a “need for speed.” It’s just a thing with XY chromosomes and all that new and raging testosterone; it makes you want to go fast (skateboard, bike, car, whatever) and do crazy things (parkour, skydiving, street fighting, etc.). So the argument is that religious upbringing didn’t bring on the “need for speed” but it stunted his maturity in terms of how to regulate it.
This of course adds fuel to the arguments AGAINST religious schooling. It’s interesting that the driver and his family are OK with the defence pursuing this angle as it seems to work against their greater interests, but I suppose all bets are off when self-interest is involved.
I’m not buying it, especially for this situation. This wasn’t a case of one young person making one immature mistake. There’s a pattern here; the article says he was previously caught driving alone when he had a learner’s license (requiring him to be with a licensed driver when driving) and that he had been caught speeding (78 in a 50 zone) just three months before.
At the very least he should have a lifetime ban on driving, given the pattern.
Nicholas 11:01 on 2025-09-04 Permalink
Sorry GC, you’re right, that’s a misreading.
We also need to get serious with speed governors. We have had the technology for years, and can now do it street by street. Make it physically impossible to go over the speed limit.
GC 15:25 on 2025-09-04 Permalink
Thanks for clarifying, Nicholas. I was ready to blame my own poor French for it.
Joey 00:19 on 2025-09-05 Permalink
I don’t understand why it’s newsworthy that the accused is seeking a light sentence. I can only assume that TVA published this story as rage bait, hoping that through the magic of nobody on the internet checking anything, it would live on as lore about Quebec how society is soft on crime. When’s that election, again?