The headline here says a judge has denied McGill’s request to limit pro‑Palestinian protests on campus, but the lede says it sought “an interlocutory injunction preventing excessive noise and obstruction of its buildings.” Seems a little sneaky to me, trying to shut down one cause with a complaint about noise.
Updates from October, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Work is beginning on the expansion of the Port of Montreal in Contrecœur. It sounds like government has decided that the demands of capitalism mean we can live without the western chorus frog (Pseudacris triseriata) and the copper redhorse (Moxostoma hubbsi).
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Kate
I was pleased to hear on CBC radio that the Journal Métro is back, in website format, in time to cover the final month of the election campaign.
EmilyG
I was very disappointed to hear on the radio that Journal Métro will be using AI to write some of their articles.
AI-written text, though they claim it’ll be fact-checked by a real person, is notorious for getting things wrong. Not to mention both the environmental costs, and the fact it takes jobs away from real people. And to do this in a newspaper with a pretty wide distribution – someone actually thought that was a good idea.
I wish the Métro could come back, without the AI-written stuff.
Nicholas
Nous avons le plaisir d’annoncer que nous sommes – à notre connaissance – la première salle de presse d’une grande ville canadienne à utiliser l’intelligence artificielle pour générer directement une partie du contenu, qui sera toujours vérifié avant, pendant et après par des journalistes. Bien plus qu’une aide à la rédaction, notre nouvel outil, baptisé « Moteur IA », est désormais utilisé par Métro pour générer automatiquement des textes simples à partir de communiqués de presse ou d’informations tirées de sites web externes.
(From their press release.)
How much time does it take to copy/paste a press release, shouldn’t journalists be experts at that by now? More seriously, while it does take some time to write those up, it also takes time to read the original and compare to the AI output to check for errors, so I can’t imagine it saves that much time. How many stories are just going to be press releases anyway?
DeWolf
I’ve been experimenting with AI as a research tool — very good, especially now that Google search is terrible. It saves an enormous amount of time in sifting through sometimes hard-to-navigate online sources to find specific information that it then compiles into a useful summary with specific links and citations.
But I’ve also experimented with having it write entirely new content, just to see what happens. And while the output can be surprisingly compelling on a stylistic level, it has the same relationship to the truth as a delinquent undergraduate, so it can’t really be trusted to get things right, and the amount of editing and fact-checking it takes makes it not worthwhile.
Kate
I agree. I used AI to find info for footnotes to a book I was helping produce. Simple facts, easily checkable and was reliable. But I was not writing the body of the book and I would hesitate to do that with anything factual.
Considering experimenting with it to write a romantasy novel, though…
MarcG
I also assumed that AI could be trusted to research simple things but when I was looking to upgrade some musical recording gear recently it more than once recommended products that didn’t have the features I specifically asked for. It was very confusing and probably ended up wasting time since I had to verify everything it said with the manufacturers’ websites.
maggie rose
I don’t like the sound of using AI to “write” articles this way. It’s lazy and really a misuse of AI. I’ve been using Brave browser for a few months, which has an onboard AI ‘assistant’ that I use for search, but have ended up gathering info for daily life that would have taken me much longer otherwise. When I’m not happy with an answer, I say – no, that’s not what I meant…I mean such and such. “Leo” (Brave’s AI thingy) quickly gets what I mean and 95% of the time I’ve had best solutions. Translation of entire web-pages & docs has been a help at times. I’m still looking into more stuff it can do, but have serious eco concerns about data centers. Many of us say this and are still using AI. https://brave.com/leo/
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Kate
One man is dead and two injured in a shooting outside a Starbucks in a strip mall in Laval. The victim was known as Bobby the Greek, otherwise Charalambos Theologou.
Later radio news said it was inside the Starbucks.
Later, TVA posted video from inside the Starbucks although it’s very fisheyed and they must have smudged out the actual shooting. TVA also spoke to someone who claimed to know Bobby the Greek and said that he knew he was in danger (but of course, kept hanging around places where he might be seen and recognized, rather than discreetly leaving town).
Quebec’s public security minister thinks the shooting could be linked to organized crime. You think maybe?
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Kate
A suspect has been arrested in the arson of a house belonging to Pornhub cofounder Feras Antoon. The Ahuntsic mansion was under construction when it went up in flames in April 2021.
At the time, Ephraim had a relevant comment on the oddity of someone having a $19‑million mansion custom built, yet putting it up for sale even before completion.
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Kate
Projet Montréal has unveiled its election platform, and – not surprisingly – it speaks mostly of homelessness and housing. Link to the PDF.
Ian
Haha wow, trying real hard to undercut Sauvé.
I guess thye’re hoping we judge their ability by their promises (again).
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Kate
Reading current news is apt to make anyone feel they’ve beamed down to that evil Star Trek mirror universe. I’ve come to expect that with world and U.S. news, but when I read that radical Islamism is considered a dire threat by the CAQ government – enough to take up valuable time writing more and more legislation labelled “laïcité” but actually meant to quash the visible manifestation of any form of Islam in Quebec – I feel like reality has taken some very bad drugs.
I remember jokes when I was growing up about the bad old days in 1950s America when communism had people fearing the red under the bed. This feels like the CAQ suspects there’s an imam hiding in every sock drawer. There are risks to our culture and our way of life – of course, and there always will be – but Quebec has taken less damage from Islam than it has inflicted and I worry that this idea is warping Quebec culture and legislation in a stupid, bigoted way. It feels like the government is fighting an imaginary opponent in an attempt to draw our attention away from things it knows it can’t fight and win. Maybe in the future they will be talking about the deuxième noirceur.Joey
Tough to imagine how the survivors of the 2017 Quebec City mosque shooting must feel these days.
DeWolf
The damage from eight years of CAQ rule will take decades to undo. That is, if anyone is even willing to undo it.
EmilyG
And the CAQ keeps insisting there’s no systemic racism in Quebec. It’s infuriating.
Annette
Aside: a sock drawer on the bottom IS the devil’s work.
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Kate
Quebec is asking for a temporary truce from striking Canada Post workers so that voter cards can be sent out for next month’s election.
Ian
Not surprised to see this kind of union busting from our glorious leaders.
jeather
Canada Post continues to deliver certain important mail, such as government benefit cheques (on an ongoing basis) and live animals that were already in the mail (but no new ones).
Ian
Wait, you can mail live animals?
Kate
Stop putting stamps on your cat, Ian.
Ian
When she’s being bad I sometimes threaten to mail her to Kazakhstan to live with the snow leopards but I swear I was just kidding
jeather
I know you can mail bees, chicks, and I think some snakes and lizards?
Your cat’s named Nermal, I guess?
Ian
I have seen some places that will ship live fish & similar aquarium creatures…
I had forgotten about the running Abu Dhabi gag 😀
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Kate
Wednesday is a strike day at the STM.
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