The PQ is spending half a million dollars to figure out how much it costs to have federal services that duplicate ones already offered by the province or that “encroach on provincial jurisdiction.’
Not saying it wouldn’t make sense to eliminate duplication, but this exercise sounds like it’s more political than practical. Dishing out blame before you begin is a bad place to start.
I went for a stroll in Hochelaga the other day and passed by École Baril on rue Adam, a pretty, leafy street in that area. The school’s a handsome hundred-year-old pile taking up the entire end of the block, and it’s now boarded up with a temporary fence around it. Two copies of the sign shown at right are affixed to the front of the building with unintentional irony now.
This Radio-Canada piece has a photo of how the building looks now; Images Montréal has a few views of how it looked before the boarding-up. I liked the old motif above the double front door, which is shown at left. The Radio-Canada piece repeats recent news that air in many school buildings is full of mould but the CSDM has no budget to deal with this, and in some cases it’s bad enough that buildings like this one have been condemned. However, a recent report said they do have plans to rebuild the school from scratch, which makes me wonder who expects to profit from the construction project. Also, rue Adam has a peaceful old-worldy vibe that won’t be improved by a construction site and a garish new building, but nobody’s talking about that.
The displaced students from École Baril have been moved to another school whose air is not much healthier, according to the Radio-Canada report.
The Gazette’s real estate writer does a reasonable job of analyzing the problems with one of the projects touched by the charges against Michael Applebaum.
Option Québec National leader Jean-Martin Aussant has thrown in the towel on political life and so has Bob Rae. They’re not running away together, though.
Aussant leaving is bad news for federalists. There goes a bunch of votes back to the PQ. Hopefully QS can steal some of those. Too bad.
Je crois que tu voulais dire “Option national” – national pour nationalisme, pas Québec pour Québec :)
You are correct.
ON are exactly the same “money and the ethnic vote” type of sovereigntists as the PQ. I wish QS would get more of the sovereigntist vote, so the movement could at least appear to be progressive instead of isolationist along ethnic lines.
The Journal seems quite keen to see Harout Chitilian become the next interim mayor. The youngest ever speaker on city council, he was elected in Bordeaux-Cartierville for Union Montreal, although he quit the party in December. He’d be 32 now. Not sure whether that would make him youngest mayor ever, but it would be close.
Michèle Ouimet ponders the leading options for interim mayor, a lineup laid out here with photos. Ouimet is particularly unimpressed by Fotopulos.
The list of councillors in the running for this not entirely desirable temp job will be made known after 4:30 pm Friday.
Quebec has shaken a finger at Montreal, warning us not to choose another mayor with skeletons in the closet. Speaking of which, Michael Applebaum may be bitten in the ass by rules he himself put in place to punish wrongdoers at city hall, if indeed he’s found guilty of any of the charges laid this week.
Update: We’re to know the identity of our new insect overlord new mayor next Tuesday.
“Ouimet is particularly unimpressed by Fotopulos.”
Yet she doesn’t point out that Fotopulos was a member of “team Applebaum” on the CDN/NDG council. At the first borough council meeting I attended, the start of the public question period was postponed by ten minutes so the Union Montreal councillors, led by Fotopulos, could kiss Applebaum’s feet and sing his praises for building the NDG sports centre on parkland despite the objections of (not their words but definitely their meaning) tree-huggers, Luddites, haters of children and the elderly and opponents of democracy, progress and all things good and wholesome, all while looking pointedly at Projet councillor Peter McQueen. For the rest of that meeting and at the others I attended, she was uninvolved and uninterested, spent most of her time staring at the screen of her laptop and voted party line on every issue.
Ouimet rightly states that no one with Union Montreal roots should be voted into a position of power. Fotopulos not only has deep and, as Ouimet shows, possibly dirty roots but also long and close ties to Applebaum. Electing her interim mayor would be sending a clear signal that it’s business as usual, that’s it’s just another shuffling of the deck chairs while the city sinks. In a howlingly awful interview on Home Run yesterday (Sue Smith really should be booted to the QVC network), Coderre claimed that Fotopulos’s municipal government experience made her the ideal candidate for the job. That he doesn’t see it as automatically disqualify her from any and every position, including that of candidate running for his party, tells us everything we need to know about him.
Well put, carswell. In my limited encounters with Fotopolous, I came to the basic conclusion that she sucks.
alan desousa is nuts if he thinks he can take the purple, as if councilors would even consider risking a third mayoral resignation before november. i’d love to see croteau in there, bringing the hammer down on the bad guys and setting up a prelude to a bergeron electoral victory.
I wonder. I’d kind of like to see the city have a mayor for awhile who isn’t white. But I find it hard to believe that anyone who was in Union Montreal doesn’t have something to hide, even if it’s just that they knew about skulduggery and never spoke up.
Fotopolous is now the executive committee member responsible for heritage but she was all for renaming avenue du Parc at the time, in open defiance of the massive backlash from her own borough. She’s a worthless party hack even if she doesn’t turn out to have been on the take.
Followups to two viral videos: a video of guys riding on electric scooters on highway 20 with no helmets, one of them with a kid aboard, and posted to Youtube last week, won them some nice fines once they were identified.
The man shown being beaten on by an STM driver after spitting on her is suing the transit commission for $110,000, saying he’s still suffering from the incident. I still think the unasked question here is how the security footage got away from the STM and onto the net.
Jack: you commented on my earlier post on this video: Fontaine has a long history of this kind of behaviour, I find it tough to blame the bus driver. How do you know about this guy?
The video was shown in court, so it’s public evidence. Journalists should be able to get it from the courts if the STM doesn’t provide it directly.
I don’t know if that’s how they got it, but that’s my theory.
The spitter will like get counter sued for assault and it will likely disappear. In Canada we give only actual damaged and being that he’s at fault that part will disappear.
@ Kate I read this in La Presse ,” M. Fontaine, qui avait de lointains antécédents, a eu une probation d’un an.” I shouldn’t have used the word long, my bad. One key reason I understood the bus drivers reaction is simple, the same thing happened to me in a professional context, teaching, and I lost my mind. Their is something about being spat on that is the basest form of intimidation and disrespect. Hence I find it tough to blame the bus driver.
I wonder if he has a history of trying to sue people for injuries he claims to have had, like those guys in Russian dashboard cam videos that try to make it look like you’ve hit them or run them over, as a shakedown.
@Jack – Most teachers don’t know this, but you register the complaint for assault with the police and then call CSST (don’t bother with the union until AFTER you have called the CSST, they will often try to dissuade you from calling CSST). At that point, the student MUST legally be removed from the school and there is no way to allow them back into the school without your permission. The CSST will back you up (you have a right to work in a safe workplace.) The school will try to pressure you, but nothing can force you and that student must be moved to a different school. The same is true if a parent verbally intimidates you.
The thing is, when fault is found, it would at best be 50/50, so at that point the awards are half. But the insurance companies set in and essentially you have to pay 50% of the costs, because you are 50% at fault. Then you have to prove real costs and that you didn’t do it on purpose. This man, even if he does win, will likely never see the kind of sums he is suing for, he might see $5K but be countersued for a much higher amount for the assault. He’s barking up the wrong tree. This kind of things works in the US but not in Canada.
While the bus driver seems to have over-reacted, it should be clear to anyone with a functioning noggin — particularly one that’s been functioning for 70 years — that spitting in someone’s face is almost guaranteed to provoke such a reaction. The best way to resolve that situation is to give the bus driver a slap on the wrist as a reprimand, and for the STM to pay for the old guy’s cane. That’s it, that’s all.
I never thought I would see the day when I would come out on the side of an STM employee in any dispute but I would make a donation to the driver’s defense fund if he asked. If any adult spit in my face I would probably need to be dragged off of them and put in a straight jacket for a few hours.
Various luminaries give their opinion on what Montreal is missing.
Lots of great ideas there, but few that haven’t been wishlisted for decades. I’d love to see high-speed rail in the Montreal/NYC/Toronto Triangle, for instance, but nobody’s willing to fund it because a spur line to the less-trafficked Ottawa/Quebec City corridor is apparently a dealbreaker. A funicular on the mountain used to exist, but it was closed in the 20s because we couldn’t afford to maintain it… and the 11 is a decent route for visitors anyhow. Et cetera.
last time the high speed rail was looked at in detail, the price came out to $20,000 per foot of rail. (total cost/distance). This sticker shock scared everyone away from this dream project. Frankly, I want mtl-quebec in 1 hour by train, but don’t want to pay anywhere near the real cost for it. A bit like car drivers, who have gotten the best deal ever with the nearly free-government subsidized road network that they pay only a tiny portion of via gas taxes. Because the political will was there to build it, and rebuild it, and expand it, and rebuild it, and expand it… and on and on. (Yes I own a car but think gas should be a lot more costly and our one-person/one car lifestyle should be severely limited, especially during rush hour).
Police intend to lighten up on cyclists a little, while still focusing on punishing those who burn through red lights.
I was seconds behind another cyclist this morning & narrowly avoided being ticketed for, of all things (I think), crossing lanes to ride on the opposite side of the street…which is a necessity along Devonshire where it meets the 40! There’s no real North-South traverse for bike commuters, so I’m not sure what police expect cyclists to do in situations like that. Sure, don’t ride on the sidewalk, don’t ride against traffic on that stretch, which leaves the option of hesitantly waiting for a car or truck to allow a crossing at the Stop sign just under the overpass, which is treated more like a “Stop if you feel like it”.
At 8/8.30am do they really think that’s the best use of resources??
Weird item on the Global Morning News this morning said that the Police would be running a “public safety operation” at Christophe-Colomb and Jarry where they would be “handing out helmets and tickets”.
they beat people with helmets now?
I saw something yesterday about cops giving out free helmets in some spots, but it was probably in some comment on Facebook that I can no longer find.
Christophe-Colomb and Jarry is a hazardous corner – it’s a block from the Met so drivers are revved up going to and from highway speeds, and the bike path along C-C runs beside a gas station – I saw an older cyclist on the path knocked right over by an SUV exiting the station on that corner and blogged about it two summers ago. It’s not too surprising the cops would set up a bicycle operation there. It’s one of those oddly disorienting corners, a break between two urban layouts that doesn’t come together well.
I heard an interview with a cop on the radio this morning who tried to dispel the utter uselessness of whatever it is exactly they’re doing by pointing out that they’d issued only 40 tickets for not having the right reflectors out of I forget how many in total. Meanwhile, the pothole situation in my neighborhood is at maximum third-worldishnessly dangerous. These aren’t nids-de-poule, they’re nids-de-criss-de-dinosaure.
A man who was an art dealer in Montreal for many years has been indicted as a war criminal in Hungary for helping deport Jews to death camps during World War II. He was stripped of Canadian citizenship in 1997 and went back to Hungary, where he was arrested. Laszlo Csatary is 98.
It’s amazing that we are still convicting war crimanals 73 years after the end of the war. Every time I hear one of these stories I think “that will be the last one”.
Here’s one list of known WWII war criminals remaining.
Radio-Canada wants to have a new building by 2017. A whole new swath of housing and shops is to be built on the spacious parking lots of Maison Radio-Canada, although it’s confusing to read that they intend to keep the dark tower with its logo, yet also build new digs for the broadcaster. There’s also some concern about the reputation of developers being asked to bid.
The tower is a valuable asset, especially when we consider the huge underground complex. Which makes me wonder how they plan to build condos and offices over those studios and warehouses…
A bit of clarification from Les Affaires says Radio-Canada plans to sell the building and lot to developers and then become a tenant in the redeveloped project. In theory, this should be done so that it doesn’t cost the public purse any additional funds.
Michael Applebaum has stepped down, claiming innocence of all charges. Quebec is happy about it.
Now council has to pick yet another interim mayor. Radio-Canada names five possible people and tells us which clique supports them.
Quebec has offered to supply an observer at city hall without implying this has to be accepted.
Radio-Canada hosted a discussion on whether having your mayor arrested for fraud might have bad economic fallout.
Applebaum has chosen Marcel Danis to represent him. Danis used to be an MP.
Some thoughts on the Tories losing their best hope for a Montreal MP.
Applebaum sounds like the weeny asthmatic you gets picked off early in high school dodge ball
He sounds like he has an accent in both languages
Yes, it was quite an interesting and semi-ironic little error he made when he talked about the “deception” Montrealers were feeling. What he meant was “disappointment”. Déception is a faux ami in both languages.
Someone spritzed pepper spray at Snowdon and stopped two lines till it could be aired out.
Back at 13h23.
Man, agent 728 is *really* pissed about that judgement, isn’t she?
Off-duty cops feeling nostalgic for last summer?
They put that $*@^& on EVERYTHING!
Blork 13:56 on 2013/06/19 Permalink
The elephant in the room is that “how much it costs to have federal services that duplicate ones already offered by the province” can just as easily be said as “how much it costs to have provincial services that duplicate ones already offered by the feds.” (Quebec being the only province that does most of this duplication…)
Kate 13:56 on 2013/06/19 Permalink
Indeed. It depends on your default, doesn’t it.
jeather 14:21 on 2013/06/19 Permalink
Yeah, it’s extremely unsubtle wording.
Noah 14:33 on 2013/06/19 Permalink
Their public platform is to pick fights with the feds – this is a transparent case of that.
Kate 15:01 on 2013/06/19 Permalink
You know, because I linked a CJAD story up there, I thought maybe I’d picked on a translation that was unnecessarily pugnacious, so I went to look for other versions. Here’s the official announcement.
That’s a very angry document.
Marc 15:16 on 2013/06/19 Permalink
It’s part of their “Gouvernance Souverainiste” agenda. 100% political.
Poutine Pundit 16:31 on 2013/06/19 Permalink
@Blork – In many cases, the services ARE duplicated by the Federal government since they were earmarked for the provinces in the 1867 British North America Act. Quebec is not the only province where duplication takes place.
Take the field of heritage for instance: the ability to enact laws to protect and preserve built heritage was delegated to provinces in 1867. Nevertheless, the federal government created the Department of Canadian Heritage, The HSMBC, and Parks Canada. Having worked on several heritage projects, I can testify to the fact that these duplicate structures create lots of unnecessary red tape, wasted time, and wasted money. I suspect this is not the only case.
I agree the study will have a heavily-skewed outlook, and that it definitely shouldn’t cost $500,000 to produce this study, but federal government incursions into provincial competencies are a major problem that needs to be addressed.
JaneyB 17:28 on 2013/06/19 Permalink
Maybe so with heritage – though I think much of QC’s film budget comes from the federal ministry and I doubt if anyone is unhappy with duplication there….but the double tax system…ughhh. Worse, they don’t even communicate with each other. Double the fun.
Jack 17:56 on 2013/06/19 Permalink
Its an angry document because they have to shore up their base. Their numbers are Charest like with one exception, no blokes or immigrants.
William 19:13 on 2013/06/19 Permalink
I wonder what the Ministry of International Relations makes of all this.
Kevin 19:21 on 2013/06/19 Permalink
There are three ridiculous things about this.
1) The mere notion that anyone would be surprised that Quebec and the federal government have some duplicate departments. Off the top of my head: finance, Parks, heritage, language, international diplomacy, indian affairs, immigration. I’m sure there are others.
2) Of course the PQ will see any duplication as la faute du federale. Duh. It’s their raison d’etre and they’ve been saying it for decades.
3) We get to experience a summer and fall of PQ politicians stirring up the shit for no purpose except to make voters angry.
Ian 20:25 on 2013/06/19 Permalink
I’d love to know how much our provincial immigration dept. costs annually – it’s a great example of duplication that exists only chez nous. All provinces get to decide how many immigrants they will take and where to put them, but only Quebec makes them go through a separate application process on top of the federal process.
William 21:17 on 2013/06/19 Permalink
I’m glad I got to go through Immigration Quebec. Citizenship and Immigration Canada is a national embarrassment.