Dany Laferrière has won the Prix Médicis for his recent book L’énigme du retour. It rather outshines his recent Blue Metropolis award…
Updates from November, 2009 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Yves Boisvert writes feelingly in defence of journalists’ right to investigate and criticize politicians without being accused of holding witch hunts. Rima Elkouri has some thoughts on evidence of bad judgement and how it influences political outcomes.
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A new report on homelessness in Quebec (¾ of them are in Montreal) has been presented to the National Assembly. I can predict precisely what will change as a result: nothing.
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Montreal is speeding up flu vaccinations as a woman in her forties merely afflicted with mild asthma died Tuesday in the Montérégie. The health minister has also confessed to a mistake made when prisoners in Valleyfield got their shots before presumably more deserving people (although keeping the virus from spreading under prison conditions sounds like a good idea to me).
I received a card in my mailbox today telling me where to get vaccinated, although as I’m in the least endangered category I have to wait till next month and the card notes that the rules may well have changed by then.
(It occurred to me while typing this: yes, H1N1 flu can be dangerous, but this whole clusterfuck begins to feel like a practice drill so the government will have worked out a better system in case something like SARS or worse crops up again and the masses really do have to be immunized stat.)
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Jean Drapeau’s longtime sidekick Lawrence Hanigan has died at 84.
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City Hall’s expensive new telephone system is unstable and could crash any time. Telus replaced Bell as its provider last year and has not, going by this article, exactly excelled in replacing the 17,000 phones the city needs. Notably, the IP phones are not compatible with 911…
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The Sûreté du Québec has been rounding people up in its investigation into criminal activity in the construction industry, specifically in this case the Hells Angels; the Quebec Liberals continue to maintain that a full inquiry into the collusion of the Mafia with the industry is not needed.
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With the election settled, now the police are returning to the unsettled labour issues they have with the city. Mayor Tremblay had promised no layoffs, but 130 temporary police are coming to the end of their contracts and the city has to decide whether to let them go or hire them permanently.
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Louise Harel is keeping a low profile but she does intend to stick around and act as head of the opposition at City Hall. She’s also blaming her defeat on the low voter turnout, although it’s an empty claim that the folks who didn’t vote would’ve voted for you.
In other news of folks who lost, mayoral brother Marcel Tremblay plans to stay busy with something to do with recent immigrants and cultural communities.
Metro looks at possible choices for the executive committee, pointing out some old and new faces, and Spacing looks specifically at the fate of the public transit portfolio now that Michel Labrecque and André Lavallée are out.
Mayor Tremblay has nixed the idea of any kind of coalition on the executive committee, even though Union Montreal only took a single seat in the area formed by the four central boroughs of Ville Marie, Mercier-Hochelaga Maisonneuve, Plateau Mont Royal and Rosemont-La Petite Patrie. Does he really welcome new ideas at city hall?