Predictably, with such a fast exit by winter, a season’s worth of garbage is revealed on the streets, yet to be cleaned up.
Updates from March, 2012 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Police used tear gas against students on Monday as they held a demo outside the Montreal office of Google where Jean Charest was speaking.
Mayor Tremblay held a presser on Monday to say he doesn’t want protesters wearing masks, a point that’s come up and been waved off before after the anti-police-brutality demo two years ago.
Concordia students are planning to demonstrate Tuesday to protest their university having given its rector an interest-free loan to buy a $1.4-million condo, taken as an example of the university’s habitual poor management of its money.
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ant6n
In Germany, Austria and parts of Switzerland there is a law forbidding covering your face during demonstrations, or carrying things like masks that could be used to cover your face. While that entails some issues related to the wish to protest anonymously, it might be a tool to differentiate peaceful protesters from people who use demonstrations as a vehicle for criminal behavior.
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Jack
Concordia is closing Thursday because of “safety” issues. The board and admin. of this university have become a laughingstock. It really hurts for people like me who have a lot of admiration for the profs. and other personal that make up this community. Concordia ( Sir George) is the kind of school who took in a 23 year old bartender and with support provided an education and a profession, so to see the Board and their acolytes treating this place like a private resort and club hurts.
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The NDP has hung onto Jack Layton’s old riding of Toronto-Danforth with a 60% majority. The Liberal candidate nabbed 30% of the votes, and the Tories 5%.
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Chris
5! ha! ha!
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ant6n
detailed results on wikipedia. Conservatives got 5.4%, Greens got 4.7% – tories almost made 4th place :P
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The Telegraph UK names Montreal the new Brooklyn in an indie music sense, based on artists seen at SXSW in Austin this month. Better or worse than being called the new Seattle as we were a few years ago?
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Robert J
Yeah I’ll take Brooklyn’s pretentious hipsters over Seattle’s coffee yuppies any day.
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Ian
Hey now, the boys from Vice Magazine are from Montreal and essentially invented what is now the hipster look. I say Brooklyn is a pale shadow of us …and we have excellent coffee.
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La Presse’s Yves Boisvert wrote last week about the “commercial agony” on the Plateau and the endless difficulties faced now by its shopkeepers. He changed his tune Tuesday, saying he exaggerated and that the Plateau was instead the site of a clash between two philosophies of urban life.
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Mabe
Gives a little hope to see that people can change their minds when faced with common sense (and here I’m not talking about the outdated american “no parking, no business”)
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Jack
Thats the sign of a good journalist and a classy guy.I understand having to come up with copy that pulls a reader needs a good “hook’, but commercial agony is not what I see in the Plateau. It was also about time that Fernandez started fighting fire with fire. He pointed out on his own blog that the one man communication blitz of one store owner( eight different news stories personally generated) was based in his own traffic angst ,seeing as he commutes to his store from outside of St.Jean sur Richelieu six days a week and believe it or not it now takes longer.
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Aveos, which Air Canada spun off a few years ago as a separate airplane maintenance company, closed up shop on Sunday, probably meaning the end of 1800 jobs. Several hundred of its workers are blocking access to Air Canada offices on Monday, presumably because the airline is now outsourcing the work.
Not a great day to read that economic recovery is lagging in Montreal and that the only positive suggestion is hey, we should all join the circus!
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Ian
…and now the riot cops were called in to disperse the pickets. Looks like the goon squad’s not just for students any more.
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Raoul 06:11 on 2012/03/20 Permalink
You’d think with cameras and the biometrics they have, someone would have pitched the idea of mailing fines for litter like they do w/ photoradar.
Kate 07:30 on 2012/03/20 Permalink
I don’t think they’re quite up to using face recognition for such a purpose, but I don’t doubt it’s coming.
With the mayor’s thing about masks, I should imagine that we might see mass “conversions to Islam” before protests soon….
Chris 08:49 on 2012/03/20 Permalink
Face recognition will change our word in the coming decades, here’s a taste:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/08/01/how-face-recognition-can-be-used-to-get-your-social-security-number/
paul 08:52 on 2012/03/20 Permalink
I know the Plateau has ‘garbage inspectors’ who can impose fines on litterbugs…I had visions of them scavenging through garbage to find receipts with names and addresses, etc.
Apparently, the only way they can give fines is if they have evidence of the act (e.g. a photo).
I would like to see their numbers and authority increased. I’m not sure if it is a cultural or a budgetary issue, but I still think Montreal is the dirtiest city in North America.
Chris 09:18 on 2012/03/20 Permalink
Of course evidence is needed, would you really prefer it otherwise? My friend got a ticket for putting his garbage out days early and they found bills in there with his name & address. He lost at court, as he should have. I gave him shit for not recycling. :)
William 10:32 on 2012/03/20 Permalink
One Projet Montreal councillor told me I should spy on my neighbours and take photos of them dumping their garbage. I think the idea of using identifying details in the garbage is far more appropriate!
walkerp 10:41 on 2012/03/20 Permalink
They should just fine people by the state of the sidewalk in front of their property.
I know it’s not always the property-owner’s fault, but that would make them responsible for it. They would also police their property and you’d have a lot less casual littering in front of people’s homes.
paul 11:58 on 2012/03/20 Permalink
I would agree with that walkerp; at least in my area garbage is consistently in front of the same addresses.