Twenty of the STM’s Azur trains have been withdrawn from service because their bogies have worn out prematurely, a problem being blamed on stray electric currents passing through them.
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Kate
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Kate
The city has hired a new commissioner for relations with indigenous communities. Lauréanne Fontaine replaces Marie-Ève Bordeleau, who had held the role since 2019. Previous to Bordeleau, the city had an advisor whose claim to be Mi’kmaq was not well supported.
Interestingly, it seems the new commissioner, Lauréanne Fontaine, described as Innu, is a redhead.
Blork
I suppose the never-to-be-asked question is “how Innu do you need to be?” If one of your grandparents is Innu, is that Innu enough to call yourself Innu?
EmilyG
It says she’s from an Innu community, and I’ve heard that a lot of Indigenous people don’t impose blood-quantum rules on everyone, so for now I don’t have a reason to doubt her indigeneity.
Kate
I’m not sure what to think. A lot of North Americans hold onto a vague family tradition of having Indigenous ancestry which can’t be tested by genealogical methods. We’ve seen numerous cases of people occupying positions that implicitly or even explicitly required a person of Indigenous background, then being dismissed once the claim is shown to be unsubstantiated.
I’m not convinced all these people were consciously lying. Some may have been carrying forward a family myth they had no reason to doubt – but how do you tell? DNA testing seems crass, but it comes closer to establishing the facts than a vaguely remembered famiiy tree does. The problem is that nobody wants to say “Only those with minimum 50% Indigenous ancestry need apply.”
jeather
It’s surely up to the community itself to decide who they claim and who they don’t. Especially with residential schools, which broke a lot of “brought up as part of the community” chains.
This article, about Indigenous vs Pretendian professors at universities, also includes some suggestions.
EmilyG
Yes, a community claiming someone is important.
Yes, I’m familiar with the phenomenon of “pretendians.” I don’t know if this is the case here or not. It does say she’s from an Innu community.
I’m not an expert on the subject, but I’ve learned a bit about Indigenous history. I think that some of the confusion over who is Indigenous might stem from the way the Indian Act and Indian status used to be. Like how non-Indigenous people could sometimes gain status, or Indigenous people could lose status, based on who they married. And I think at one point the Indian Act called anyone of mixed Native and non-Native parents “Metis” (even though this is actually the name of a specific Indigenous group.)
So these things might lead to someone thinking they’re considered Indigenous, when it’ s not the case.Also, DNA tests, when used to try to to tell what ethnicity someone is, are notoriously unreliable. I’ve heard of the same person getting different results at different times, identical twins getting really different results from each other, and someone sending in a sample from their dog where the testers didn’t realize it wasn’t a human.
Chris
>It’s surely up to the community itself
That’s circular. Who’s a member of the community? Who decides who’s a member of the community?
>Yes, I’m familiar with the phenomenon of “pretendians.”
I can’t help but think a Martian observer would find it odd that we heap scorn on transracialism but heap praise on transgenerism.
EmilyG
Chris, your snark and bigoted sarcasm adds nothing to the discussion.
Kate
Emily, I don’t think Chris is actually out of bounds here, but he should know that the second question has been declared an untenable one in current civilized discourse.
qatzelok
Chris has added another angle to the discussion and a new perspective.
If that “adds nothing” to a discussion, what is everyone supposed to do, agree all the time on everything? Is that what ‘discussing’ means? Read and regurgitate?
jeather
I have no idea what Fontaine’s background is and did not mean to suggest anything about her, I was responding to “how do you know”.
The community decides who is a member. Yes, it’s circular. How do friend groups decide who are friends, how do families define families, etc. Not all groups are defined this way, there are multiple ways to define a group. But this is not inherently worse (or better) than the other ways.
I’m sure you’re capable of googling the differences between being transgender and transracialism.
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Kate
We’re back in the Far West with illegal taxis at the airport.
Ephraim
They approached us, last time we were there. I wondered how ghost taxis collect when you want to pay with CC. Not like they can call the cops for help…
Joey
In January we flew in around 9 PM or so. A bunch of people were trying to get Ubers but none of the drivers (who were all parked at the pickup line) were accepting the rides because they wanted to wait for demand to really spike for surge pricing to kick in. A legit cabbie pulled up and offered to take us – he had a meter, took credit cards, etc., but it was a little bit more grey area than I’ve ever seen at Dorval. The airport could easily sort this out – lots of US airports (I think Baltimore comes to mind) have staffed ticket booths at the front of the taxi line where travellers can pay upfront for their ride if they’re heading to a fixed-fee zone, usually downtown.
Ephraim
The fixed price zone charge has changed. $48.40 from 5AM to 11PM and $55.65 from 11PM to 5AM. We tried Uber, pricing changes each time you look it up. If the drivers won’t take it when it’s not rush, we just take the taxi. They play the same game in town… so taxi it is. It’s gone up so much that it’s making airport parking almost worth it
shawn
I haven’t flown in years but they used to have a staff person at the end of the legit taxi line who issued a little ticket to the (legit) cabbie and it was all organized. Is that not happening anymore.
John B
There was a staff person at the legit taxi line when I flew into Trudeau in December, things worked like what we were used to.
Reading the article, it says that the Bureau de Taxi de Montreal was dissolved in December, I think as a side effect of a provincial law passed in 2019, and that means there’s effectively no surveillance or enforcement of taxi rules, (maybe there aren’t even taxi rules anymore), so it’s not longer clear that it is illegal for taxi drivers to pick up fares at the airport without an airport permit – and everyone’s trying to do it.
EmilyG
I was in Vancouver recently, and I think there were either signs in the airport, or info on their website, about how to make sure the taxi you’re getting is legit.
Kevin
And now members of the CAQ government are once again “very concerned” that their own legislation and decrees have broken something that used to work.
https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/grand-montreal/2023-03-23/taxis-illegaux-a-montreal-trudeau/une-pratique-devenue-beaucoup-trop-facile.phpBlork
For a moment there I had a twang of nostalgia for the “Disruption era” of a decade ago, when it was all the rage to “disrupt” systems that were tired and had failed to adapt. (You know; Airbnb, Uber, WeWork, etc.) I was, and to some extent still am, in favour of disrupting things that need disrupting.
…and it sounds like the taxi situation at the airport needs disrupting.
Ironically, it’s Uber — the great disruptor — that needs disrupting the most. The idea of Uber drivers sitting around waiting for surge rates to kick in before they pick up passengers makes Uber worse than the decrepit taxi system ever was.
So burn airport Ubers to the ground, as far as I’m concerned. If some unlicensed yokel is willing to drive me away from the airport when I want them to, at a price we agree on, then I’m all for it until the airport re-invents a usable system.
(“Until such time…” because all disruptions are by definition temporary, and once they become the norm then they are often in need of being disrupted themselves. Illegal airport taxis should hit that milestone very quickly, but until Uber and the legit taxis get their shit together… )
Kevin
Blork
Those are three great examples of things that were only disruptive because they had billions of funding with the same business model: use deep pockets to flood the market with a cheaper alternative, drive out established players who didn’t have venture capitalist backing, and then once you have near monopoly status increase the price and provide a shittier service.Growth is all that matters and tech bros despise people who work for a living
https://ez.substack.com/p/the-rot-economywalkerp
I’ve taken the taxi back from the airport multiple times in the last 6 months and there is still the legitimate taxi stand with an actual person directing traffic and sending you to your taxi.
The last time there were some gypsy drivers soliciting rides but they were inside.
Just go the taxi line. There is no need for any disruption. And fuck uber.EmilyG
Yes, I used the taxi lines in Vancouver and Montreal on my recent trip. The lines were pretty long, but the service was pretty well-organized.
Blork
@Kevin: not doubting that at all. But when a system is tired and broken and not serving the people it’s supposed to serve, then the users of the system will jump at anything that works for them, regardless of the motivation behind it.
Blork
(Unsolicited follow-up to the “disruption” subthread.)
Potential life cycles of disruptive technologies/services, from most desired to least desired:
BEST
The existing system adapts to changing times and realities, resulting in no disruption.
OK
The existing system fails to adapt and is disrupted by a startup with a better usage model. The existing system quickly accepts the slap in the face and adapts, replacing the startup disrupter with an improved system that has both familiarity and good usability. Tech bros cry into their yachts.
NOT GOOD
The existing system fails to adapt and is disrupted by a startup with a better usage model. The existing system complains and makes a lot of noise and pisses everyone off — including their core users — but does not change, and eventually shrivels and dies. The disrupter gains dominance and then fucks everyone over with higher prices and service pivots that nobody wants. Tech bros buy more yachts.
Kevin
Blork
Valid up to a point. For many people something being cheaper is all that counts — and so we’ve ended up with services that are now demonstrably worse that what we had before disruption.I know I said it before but I’ll say it again: safety regulations are written in blood, and eliminating regulations without understanding why they were created is foolish.
Ephraim
The chasing of the “cheap” is how we now have all our ground meat contaminated by e.coli…. Processing in Canada was slower because of the unions… sign a free trade deal and they ship all our beef to the US for processing, where they won’t slow the line and it all comes back with e.coli.
And now, ghost taxis, deadly apartments, contaminated romaine lettuce…
Kevin
@Ephraim
The contaminated lettuce is because of water runoff, not the processing of beef.
There is a cheap and easy way to eliminate e. coli O157:H7 from our food supply: vaccinate the cows against that particular strain of the bacteria. It was developed by researchers at UBC and put on the market 15 years ago.Ephraim
@Kevin – The runoff is caused by lack of food and farm inspection. The e. coli is because they run the lines so fast and don’t have sharp knives and the (looking for a nice word… ) fecal matter hits the floor and bounces back on to the carcasses. The problem doesn’t exist where you have inspections to ensure that the line is running at a speed that allows them to do this carefully with sharp knives. Food and farm inspection in the US is very lax. So are their quality standards. Food dyes that are illegal in Canada, Europe, etc… still legal in the US. Microbeads. PCBs caused by triclosan. It’s all a race to the bottom at the cost of humanity
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Kate
If anything could have made me dislike the CAQ government more, it’s this report of the minister for social solidarity (what a joke) Chantal Rouleau mocking Mayor Plante because Montreal needs more money from Quebec for social housing.
DeWolf
That was infuriating. Note that Catherine Fournier and Bruno Marchand have said exactly the same thing as Plante, but they haven’t (yet) been turned in villains by the Québecor machine, so the CAQ can’t score as many political points by mocking them.
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Kate
The 24 heures paper, which has been in existence for more than 20 years – created by Quebecor to compete with Metro – is now going online only.
There used to be occasional reports about how the STM had to cope with newspapers getting blown into metro tunnels and blocking up drains. There will always be some trash, but newspapers have mostly stopped being a problem.
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Kate
The people camped out under the Ville‑Marie have won a small victory as a court agreement says the Quebec government has to find them housing and assistance.
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Kate
TVA looks at how the Le Boulevard mall at Jean‑Talon and Pie‑IX has to be be partly demolished and the rest reorganized as construction for the blue line begins.
James
The parking lot at the NW corner will soon be replaced with a giant hole in the ground. The tunnel boring machine will start from this point and travel eastwards. Traditional tunneling will also start from here and travel westwards to St. Michel station. The overall footprint of the workspace at ground level will be much larger than what you can see at the REM Marie-Curie station. This is why part of the mall will be demolished. Since STM is now the owner of the mall, they can make their tenants move out.
shawn
James when you say “traditional tunneling” westward that’ll also be the boring machine?
James
Traditional tunnelling: drill and blast or roadheaders. I suppose the technique used will be decided by the contractor selected by the STM.
Since the distance to travel westwards to the St-Michel tail tracks is only about 500m it doesn’t make sense to use a TBM. If you wanted a TBM for the entire distance of the blue line extension you would have to make a giant hole in a residential neighborhood (intersection of Jean-Talon & 17th av.) and then start going eastwards.Joey
“Revitalize” LOL
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Kate
A mechanical breakdown at the Lachine recycling plant means that tons of glass that could and should be recycled is being sent to landfill.
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Kate
The Gazette’s Linda Gyulai looked into another property belonging to the man who owns the Place Youville firetrap, and finds a real gem.
The first identified victim from Place Youville is photographer Camille Maheux, 76.
EmilyG
A new Ricochet article on the subject: https://ricochet.media/en/3942/fatal-montreal-fire-landlord-and-building-owner-confirmed-to-be-working-together-in-airbnb-scheme
shawn
And JdM journo Francis Pilon and a colleague went to some other properties owned by the same person. Just saw him on LCN. With some always enjoyable footage of a gaggle of journalists chasing someone – I missed the top of it – down a courthouse corridor and into an elevator that then doesn’t close. Maybe the guy’s lawyer? Not the guy, for sure.
With Québecor leaning into it I’d say his goose is more cooked than ever. Anyway, here’s the original print piece from this morning https://www.journaldemontreal.com/2023/03/24/risque-dincendie-dautres-airbnb-dangereux-et-non-conformes-chez-le-meme-proprio
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Kate
The OQLF is flexing against McGill, demanding all communications with its many workers be also issued in French. As an employer, I suppose the university can’t plead the law about being an anglo cultural institution.
Kevin
This is the pettiest of flexes.
The next stage is requiring The Gazette to send internal emails in French.Ian
It’s really not that big a deal. McGill uses Office 365.
shawn
My org uses Office 365 too although we don’t rely on machine translation. I’m as anglo as they come but McGill SHOULD correspond with its staff in both languages. Voyons.
Paul
How does the law define it now?
Does every single email need to be in French or just company wide emails from senior execs?? The first scenario would make no sense, so where is the cut-off for what needs to be in French vs not??shawn
I assume it’s referring to official communications, not emails between individuals.
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Kate
Another budget thread:
Mayor Plante is not happy with the budget’s scanty consideration for social housing.
Here’s a comprehensive dissection from a researcher at IRIS, who thinks the CAQ government is piloting us in the wrong direction.
And François Legault adjusts his view of reality again, saying that Quebec’s school buildings are not in such bad shape as reports have claimed.
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Kate
Some Montreal churches are still offering sexual orientation conversion therapy despite a Canadian law passed last year outlawing this bogus practice. Metro sent a couple of people into the church pretending to be gay folks wanting to change, one undergoing something very like an exorcism.
Metro also found some non‑religious organizations here offering therapies that promise to change a person’s sexual orientation.
Ephraim
They should lose their tax exempt status as they are not functioning as a church but instead a psychologist, which isn’t tax exempt.
Tee Owe
Ephraim – maybe being a bit picky here, but IMO a psychologist doesn’t work to change a person, rather gets them to work with or accept who they are – so whatever they are, tax-exempt or not, these organizations are not psychologists
EmilyG
That’s awful.
And it’s awful that autism conversion therapy (called ABA, IBI, or ICI, and invented by the same guy as gay conversion therapy) is not only still legal, but widely used to harm autistic children.
Ephraim
Tee Owe – I realize, but basically they are outside of the realm of what a church should do… they should lose their tax advantage for it
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Kate
Patrick Brasseur, one of the three remaining long-term tenants in the Place Youville building, has left hospital – albeit with nowhere to live – and tells his story of rescue by firefighters.
MarcG
How refreshing is it to see a regular person on TV?
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Kate
La Presse’s Maxime Bergeron lays out how Quebec and Montreal have, between them, failed to rein in the proliferation of technically illegal short‑term rentals, a trend that’s not only at the heart of the housing crisis, but has now been shown to be extremely dangerous.
But is he correct that it’s incredibly difficult to prove where the Airbnbs are located? When I was curious about an Airbnb existing close to my place, it took me about two minutes to find it on the map, look at the pictures, and see how much it would cost to rent it for a night. The whole point of the site is to advertise, not to conceal.
Another thing the inspectors need to look for is combination key lock boxes on front porches. Dead giveaway.
Maybe I should apply for a job as an inspector. They’re going to need them.
Jonathan
A lot of property owners (who lease to long term tenants, not Airbnb) also have lock boxes on the front of their buildings in case of lost keys or in case someone else like a broker or building manager need to access who don’t have a master key. This is not a fair assumption to state that properties with lock boxes in front all have Airbnb. Far from the truth.
Also regarding fire, the room without windows has nothing to do with Airbnb. This was against code. Even if a long term tenant who lives there, it’s highly illegal to rent an apartment or more specifically a room, period, without without windows.
Ephraim
It is NOT in the jurisdiction of Montreal at all.. this is all provincial jurisdiction. And Revenu Quebec in particular.
Don’t need inspectors if you require AirBnB to share the data, or AirBnB to report annual income. You can just let it run it’s course and send them a fine at the end of the year with their declaration. Let’s see, 100 reservations without a licence at $2500 per occurrence.. that’s $250,000 plus the tax on your income.
Let’s see if AirBnB will allow anyone to post a listing without a licence knowing that they will have to be the people disclosing to the government. Or you could just fine AirBnB per occurrence of listing without a licence. Or better yet, charge AirBnB as a criminal enterprise for helping people avoid paying their taxes and participating in an underground economy.
As for those combo lock boxes… easiest way to make them disappear… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2LvDHobpNc
Ephraim
Incidentally, I’m willing to bed that the insurance of that building won’t pay up for the fire or the liability because the landlord knew that they were doing AirBnB illegally. You would think they would have known better because of their profession.
MarcG
@Ephraim: This might be a good time for you to get your voice out on a larger forum. Newspapers are probably looking for opinions on the subject right now.
Blork
Given how short-term rentals are sort of a big issue everywhere, I’m surprised this story isn’t being covered more widely.
Blork
…I mean the story about the fire, specifically. Apparently AirBnb stock jumped up 15% a few days ago, which makes me think this story has NOT been widely circulated.
EmilyG
Inside AirBNB is a website that shows you where AirBNBs are, and what type they are (entire home, private room, etc.)
http://insideairbnb.com/montreal/saintjacques
Out of curiosity, is there any means to check a CITQ license number that is displayed on a particular Airbnb listing to ensure it is legit? In a, shall we say, permissive enforcement environment, what prevents someone from using a made-up number in their Airbnb listing?
Ephraim
@saintjacques – As far as I know, there isn’t a way to check the CITQ licence. My guess is that you can call the CITQ to check. Or Revenu Quebec.
@EmilyG – That’s from scraping and assumptions. It’s a good guideline. It assumes that properties are ONLY listed on AirBnB (the “idiots” who built their entire business on AirBnB and who lose everything the day that AirBnB bans them.)
@MarcG – Do I want to be on the bad side of the lawyer, AirBnB, Legault, or worse… Revenu Quebec? Let the AHQ do it. RQ is particularly bad, they can target people. In fact, when they took over the dossier, they sent inspectors to ALL the legally registered businesses. Asked why they would bother going to those who are legal, rather than looking for the illegals… they couldn’t answer.
shawn
Here’s a nice little history of the building from Montreal’s beloved Richard Burnett
https://www.facebook.com/richard.burnett.737/posts/pfbid02eHNUwEMaKk4iLtKs6sAbKkkN67oThn8MYCnbtBTDt1YnUekcfz5dPHF2pVYKpCXMl
BTW to the person who suggested earlier that these windowless and apparently illegal rooms might have been old and ‘grandfathered’ – these floors would have been big open spaces when built. Any modifications to create these little cell-like rooms would have been recent.Ephraim
BTW, want to see how BAD RQ is at doing this? And AirBnB itself? Look at this listing… https://www.airbnb.ca/users/show/318040 there are over 9000 reviews. See the words “Old Montreal”. Well, AirBnB isn’t allowed in Old Montreal as far as I know. None of the listings have a licence number. And “Seb” himself? FAKE. That’s a stock image. And there is even a What’s App phone number listed. You would think that RQ could pick up a phone and call and ask about the lack of licence… but nope.
DavidH
I have a lock box in front of my house and I’ve owned the place for over 10 years. Never had short term tenants. The previous owners installed it because they both wore uniforms to work that made carrying keys cumbersome. They also had a cleaning lady that came by once in a while. I run a lot and I really appreciate not having to carry keys around. I’m definitely installing one on my next house as well, either that or a pin pad lock. They really are not synonymous with airbnb. If there had not been one in place already, I would have put one up when we did renos for all the people coming to work.
Joey
It’s amazing that Richard Ryan didn’t solve the airbnb problem when he very publicly removed some lockboxes from lampposts. Anyway, nothing a few new green alleys can’t fix!
Ephraim
DavidH – install an electronic lock. It’s safer anyway. Look at the Youtube video I posted, it’s easy to figure out the code with a tool in 15 seconds. Without the tool, it’s a minute or two. Those locks with tumblers… they “click” when you have the right number.
shawn
another victim identified: 76-year-old Camille Mailheux, a longtime resident and presumably someone who had nothing to do with the Airbnb https://twitter.com/Steverukavina/status/1638632242908889095
Em
The exact addresses of Airbnbs aren’t listed on the ads, so it’s up to inspectors to prove that a particular unit is a short term rental. I read somewhere that inspectors pretty much have to book a night in the airbnb in order to shut them down.
Ephraim
@Em – With the fine being $2500 to $5000 (per day), I’m sure they can afford to make a reservation or two.
CE
I feel like Airbnb might possibly have the technology to allow inspectors to see the address of a listing without having to book a night if they just asked them to make it happen (or, failing that, have the government mandate it). For some reason this province treats airbnb like it’s some sort of omnipotent entity that is impossible to regulate in any way possible.
MarcG
That’s what’s weird: If they’re not profiting from taxes why do they turn a blind eye? I guess it’s the tourism dollars?
Mozai
“combination key lock boxes on front porches” The depanneur in my neighbourhood (Plateau) has a set of drawers unlocked with a keycode, and each drawer is about the size of a pack of smokes. It’s pretty obvious what they’re for, and they’re less likely to get cracked open with a dremel.
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Kate
The provincial budget was presented Tuesday. People are mostly talking about a very slight reduction in income taxes for some, but what concerns this blog is funding for cities – specifically, transit and housing in this fraught era.
And it’s generally felt to have been a disappointment. The CAQ is not interested in you if you don’t own your own house and car. Even QMI says that the party is more concerned with roads and highways than public transit.
Metro, which continues to grow in its seriousness and reliability about local news, has a good dissection of the budget’s points affecting Montreal, including how Quebec’s only financing a small fraction of the social housing we need. There are more points in the Metro piece, which I won’t expand on. If you want to know how the budget affects the city it’s a must‑read.
In short, we don’t vote for the CAQ, so how can we expect them to do anything for us?
Uatu
I’m just waiting for the austerity measures to appear in a couple of years when hospital unionized workers will change from heroes of the pandemic into a parasitic overpaid expense
H. John
“Implementing free access to vaccination against shingles”
I heard this mentioned on Paul Arcand this morning, and based on previous discussions I thought it might be of interest.
There were no details of when, of for whom, the vaccine would be free.
From the budget document:
…. Budget 2023-2024, the government is setting aside $124.6 million over five years to implement free access to vaccination against shingles.
The amounts invested will be used to vaccinate 800 000 individuals over this period.
Kate
Excellent news, H. John. My GP told me that the medical profession had been putting pressure on for shingles shots to be free. They cost more than $150 each now, and you need two.
jeather
There are two vaccines; one is better than the other for most people (there is a group for whom this isn’t true, but I forget what that group has in common). I’m trying to figure out the likelihood of them only paying for the less good one in order to incentivise people to pay for the better ones privately. I guess we’ll see how long it takes for them to get this actually through.,
H. John
@jeather. I’m assuming they will follow the recommendation of the INSPQ which found that Shingrix (the newer, more expensive vaccine requiring two doses) is more cost effective since it protects much better (90% vs. 50%), and the protection lasts much longer.
Their whole report from 2017 is 50 pages. Here’s the one page update:
jeather
I’m just being a pessimist. And I don’t trust this government.
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