Sainte-Justine kids’ hospital is getting a half-billion-dollar upgrade involving two new pavilions including vast new research facilities.
Updates from April, 2012 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
-
The FEUQ unveiled plans for radio spots and further demonstrations in its quest to make the Charest government back down on tuition hikes. On the weekend, Line Beauchamp offered to talk to two of the student groups, excluding a third – CLASSE – but the students are holding out a united front so far and insisting that tuitions stay on the table.
The strike is entering its tenth week.
-
Guillaume Saint-Jean has a neat then-and-now showing the evolution of the old Palais de justice on Notre-Dame before it was superseded by the looming modern slab next door. He’s also got a view of how Craig Street looked before it was razed.
-
The Outremont Russian orthodox parish held its Easter procession after all Saturday night. This defiance of the borough’s ban is not trivial, though – it clarifies the fact that the borough’s issue is with the Hasidic community specifically, and not with religious expression in general.
This is straying into dubious territory indeed. Now I find myself wishing I could see the Hasidic procession April 28 that’s been squelched by the borough, although I imagine they’re also keen to avoid an open brawl between the Hasids and the minority of goyim who are bent out of shape about their presence in the area.
-
Ian
-
Kate
Could be, but bringing 800 to 1000 people onto Hutchison or Durocher (if Radio-Canada’s figures are correct) isn’t something you could sneak by with.
-
Chris
In our society, it’s the automobile that’s sacred. Allowing these processions would disrupt our God-given right to drive our metal boxes around!
-
Kate
Yes, I have suspected this fuss is more about driving and parking than any high-minded notions about public secularity.
-
steph
At this point they could take a page from the students.
-
jeather
There’s a shock. I hope the Hasids have a procession too, then sue the city for discrimination when they — and not the students or the Russian Orthodox — are blocked.
-
Kate
Ugh. Vandals put swastikas on cottages in Val Morin this weekend. Idiots can’t even draw the damn thing the right way round, but their intention is clear.
What is wrong with people? I almost wish we could get thousands into the street to support the Hasidic procession, to show that more people are cool with diversity than are not.
-
Rosco
I wonder, are the Hassidims “cool with diversity?”
-
Kate
Yes. They don’t try to convert us, do they?
-
-
Nice photo of the man from D&Q and a link to a Time magazine feature on literary matters in Montreal which I can’t see, not being a subscriber, but somebody might.
-
Ian
I’m not a subscriber and I could see it fine – Chrome, OSX
-
Kate
The photo, yes, but the Time feature is blocked for me with a notice about not being a subscriber.
-
Ian
Oh, I thought you meant the photos. Oops!
-
-
More detail on Saturday’s big demo, roughly estimated as involving tens of thousands. The education minister is quoted as saying she won’t give in to intimidation, which suggests she doesn’t really understand the scale or kind of thing she’s up against, plus is trying to tar the peaceful protesters with the same brush as a few more hot-headed agitators.
As someone I know on Facebook put it, “C’est plutôt l’expression d’un désaccord profond et assez senti pour être exprimé et elle détourne ce message en en faisant un jeu d’égo, et une bataille à gagner à tous prix.” Indeed.
-
The Journal has a feature about what it’s like to leave Hasidic life if you’ve been brought up in it – one interview with a young man now pursuing academic studies at Concordia and another with hopes to become a doctor eventually, also the place of the Internet in tempting young people from that way of life – plus some numbers and history. Would’ve been interesting if they’d found a girl or woman to speak to as well, but I’m sure it’s difficult enough to find men who’ll talk about it.
-
jeather
There was a book that was recently published by Deborah Feldman about much the same thing, called Unorthodox. She was from NYC, not Montreal, though.
-
Kate
Yes, I think I saw something about that.
The story about the guy wanting to be a doctor makes me wonder: since the Hasids don’t encourage their kids to become educated in the worldly sense, how do they manage for doctors, lawyers and so forth? There are plenty of Jewish professionals, of course, but not so much from their community, so I suppose they must count on that?
-
jeather
I wouldn’t think they have any issues using professionals where necessary. I’ve seen them in doctor’s offices, for instance. (They wouldn’t use lawyers for conflicts within themselves, of course, they’d use rabbis.)
-
Kate
Yes, now that you mention it, I recall my sister mentioning having occasional Hasidic families come in when she was working at the Children’s.
-
Rosco
I’ve seen many Hassidic mothers delivering in the RVH, not just Jewish General. If you keep your eye out around Mile End/Outremont, there is a special medical shuttle they use to get back and forth, an SUV with a caduceus on the side.
Overall they are very pleasant and calm patients. Very matter-of-fact as one might expect considering their birth rate.
Since Hassidic men are expected to study full or part-time, they are very limited in which professions they can work in. To their credit, the Hassidim don’t send their women out as breadwinners to work menial jobs, come home and then do all the housework. This does mean they necessarily become experts at receiving social assistance, and are a dependent group on other, working people.
-
Ephraim
@Rosco are you talking about using Quebec Social Assistance or are you talking about their own fund-raising, etc. Also some do work and run businesses. Deborah Feldman’s book is about her time in Satmar, which is a much more strict group (or if you prefer, cult). Remember that this does not represent the Jewish mainstream at all, this is an extreme group, just like Fundamentalist Mormons, Ásatrú Alliance, or even the Jehovah Witnesses. In fact, Satmar, like Neturei Karta are strong believers in the destruction of Israel as a modern state, something that most Jews would find abhorrent.
The Hasidic movement and philosophy, from my perspective is all about sticking your head in the sand like an ostrich and trying to ignore the world around you. Sure you are pious, but you are pious without the effort. Not really showing your convictions, because you have refused temptation, you just hid the rest of the world from your view.
It must also be remembered that this community shops local and merchants in these neighbourhoods are serving them. They don’t venture out to “big box” stores. Sure, they shop within their own community as well. But then I don’t see many non-Jewish stores going out of the way to stock a tablecloth for a table that will seat 12 people or stocking Cholov Israel (milk where the whole supply chain has been properly supervised.)
-
qatzelok
@ Rosco: “This does mean they necessarily become experts at receiving social assistance, and are a dependent group on other, working people.”
This is like being funded by the rest of society to read about astrology all day. How many astrologers can a society afford to involuntarily sponsor before the non-astrologers get fed up of working extra hard for… Jojo Savard’s family?
-
-
From Nunatsiaq Online, a glimpse of an aboriginal shelter just east of Chinatown, but which may have to close with nowhere else to go.
Maybe asking for permission was the Jewish congregation’s mistake.