Fagstein analyzes the Mirror’s Best of Montreal media category results in which this blog fell into “honourable mention” category.
I’ll be over here, drowning my sorrows in the corner.
Updates from May, 2012 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Montreal has rejoined the Union des municipalités du Québec after stomping out in 2004 over gasoline tax revenues. The group now represents 80% of the population of Quebec.
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The city is pedestrianizing a few more pieces of street for the summer months: Ste-Catherine in the Quartier des spectacles (which it seems to me has been closed during major festivals for some years anyway), the avenue du Musée and the Place d’Youville.
Did anything ever happen with the promise to make some of rue Masson pedestrian? It’s not mentioned in this brief article.
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Matt
There’s a link in the “à ce sujet” section of the article about that project having been abandoned last June.
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Kate
You’re right. I don’t think those links were there when I noticed the article, but it could be time for new specs for la blogueuse. Thanks.
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paul
If I’m not mistaken, the merchants association voted the proposal down. I guess they didn’t read about how pedestrianization has significantly increased business in recent years!
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Kate
Yes, you’re right, they did. I didn’t totally take in that news because I neither live nor work near enough to Masson for it to be of much practical use to me.
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Police have been searching some digs in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve where some or all of the suspects in Thursday’s smoke-bombing in the metro may live. There’s an increased security presence in the metro. Global News asks what a smoke bomb is but doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t know.
A recent tweet from the police says the four suspects have turned themselves in.
The U.S. consulate in Montreal has issued a warning to travellers about the student demos. Official page; CTV tries to inflate a simple memo into a scare story.
There’s a lot of loose talk from critics today. A National post commenter claims that Jean Charest has not been tough enough: “To date, Mr. Charest has been more than patient in his dealings with the students.” Victoriaville, anyone? And CTV’s Barry Wilson takes up the old refrain about student leadership not denouncing violence.
I haven’t seen any students depriving anyone of an eye.
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paul
…if you play with fire…
It sucks that some people have been injured seriously, but what do they expect? If the protesters break through the security barriers and begin to launch projectiles at police, do they not expect the police to use crowd dispersal equipment?? If you get involved in a violent protest, you have to assume that any incidental injuries are par for the course. If you don’t want to risk injury, protest from the sidelines.
I wasn’t there and can’t speak for what happenned, but unless the injuries resulted of targetted attacks, I don’t feel there is much to complain about aside from their own naivety.
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mdblog
I completely agree with you Paul. Ghandi had the shit kicked out of him on more than one occasion and considered it as something that went with the territory. These students want all of the glory of playing Ghandi and sticking it to the man without paying the price of such protest
What’s particularly sad is that the elites (I’m looking at you news media) in our society indulge them and make them feel that they are a legitimate political force when in fact they would have no idea what to do even if you handed them a blank cheque and unlimited political power.
@Kate Do you think Charest was playing Napoleon standing behind the police lines and sending them out to attack the barbarian hordes? No, he was inside trying to hold a political meeting. He did not order that the police make an example of the Victoriaville protesters nor did he have anything to do with their heavy handed response.
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ant6n
@mdblog
So who’s your colonial oppressor (i.e. the Brits) in your analogy? Are you saying Quebec is essentially colonial India, and students shouldn’t actually expect to live in a democracy that should protect the right to protest?The news media doesn’t indulge the student at all; just look at the CBC coverage.
The students are also not asking for unlimited power, where do you get these ideas?
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A new arrangement with the U.S. means the one train from Montreal to New York every day will not have to be searched in Saint-Lambert, this being done in Montreal before departure.
But what about the long wait at the border? A thing that really drags that trip out, and makes it 11 instead of the 6 or 7 it could be, is the train stopping at the border while everyone’s interviewed (and, from my observation, everyone who isn’t white is brought to a separate car for extra searching and intensive questioning). That’s the thing they need to fix.
Later note: mucho clarification in the comments.
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Matt
Seriously, that delay at the border is the only reason my friends and I still drive to New York.
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MB
It looks like the agreement means the train won’t stop at all between Montreal and Plattsburgh and both US (departures) and Canadian (arrivals) customs inspections will be done at Central Station.
http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/safety/customs-relief-in-sight-for-amtraks-adirondack.html?channel= -
ant6n
The border check is at Rouses Point, not St Lambert. However, if they do border pre-clearance in Montreal (like they do for the Vancouver-US train), then the train cannot stop in St Lambert.
The border stop used to be scheduled for about an hour. Plus, it seems the schedule had a lot of padding on it – even if the border stop took an hour and half, the train could still arrive on time. The pre-clearance is good news, they could potentially shave 90-120 minutes of the 11:05/11:10 journey. I think they may have some track improvements coming up as well, which might reduce times a bit further. And let’s hope they won’t increase prices too much.
Btw, they didn’t take any non-white person somewhere else. What they did is move everybody who is not a Canadian or US citizen into the cafe car, where they do they actual immigration/customs clearance. This also includes white people (like meself).
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MB
The Cascades train to/from Vancouver still stops at the border, whereas this agreement wouldn’t make that necessary for the Adirondack.
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Kate
I wonder why the Radio-Canada piece mentions St-Lambert, then. I recall them stopping there to pick a few people up, but not for a lengthy wait.
anton, you’re probably right, but the effect on trains I’ve been on has been to see a trail of non-white people dragging their goods down the train to a separate car.
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ant6n
Well, there may be a tendency that the non-white people get a more rigoruous check than the whites – but I believe that’s cuz the whites tend to be Europeans on the Visa Waiver program, whereas the non-whites tend to be people from the middle East, Africa or Haiti, with a slightly more complicated border process.
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ant6n
I am just saying that your statement seemed to imply the possibility of some sort of racial profiling, which may not actually be what’s going on.
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Kate
You may be right. I don’t know how we’d prove this either way, but over the years my impression has also been that nonwhite friends (with Canadian passports) routinely get a tougher grilling at that border.
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walkerp
I’m confused, but I think this is good news. So to sum up, this specific southbound train will not stop at the border?
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Kate
walkerp, going by MB’s link, I think so. The initial report I blogged was not so clear.
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ant6n
more info: http://www.timesunion.com/business/article/Soon-a-shorter-trek-by-track-to-Montreal-3550150.php
tentative agreement
pre-clearance in Mtl, Quebec will pay for the facility
may be operational in December
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Marc
We’ve had border preclearance at airports for decades, surely it can be done for trains?
That agreement is reciprocal, so Canada can set up preclearance facilities in the US if it wanted to.
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Spock
11 hours to go to NYC from here! Argh, just drive and save yourselves the pain… Or fly but that’s a little expensive depending on the time of the year.
As for separating all non-white people. I doubt that’s true… To harsh. But then from the Americans, who knows what to expect.
FWIW, our own border agents are not exactly angels either…
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Kate
Driving to NYC means having to do something with your vehicle when you get there. Manhattan isn’t a great place to have to cope with a car – it’s also so walkable and has such good transit that you don’t remotely need a car while you’re there. So that’s not a great solution either.
I know our border agents are not angels. Obviously the job requires a certain frame of mind, no matter who you’re working for. I was merely describing a pattern I’d seen on the train multiple times over some years of casual travelling.
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jeather
The bus isn’t even 11 hours. The problem with the NYC train is not just that it’s half a day, it’s that it essentially takes 2 days of travel for a round trip (a bus can be overnight, a plane is much faster), so if your time is even slightly valuable, you’re not going to use it — even paying for parking in Manhattan, or parking in Queens and taking the subway in — is faster.
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ant6n
If they bring travel times down to 9/10 hours consistently, they could use the two trainsets they are using now to offer two departures per day instead of one – one travelling during the day, and another travelling throughout the night.
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Jack
OMG I did this once two years after 9-11 and it was hilarious.Machine gun toting security agents interviewing CEGEP teachers heading to see Broadway musicals. My favourite bit of repartee was when someone asked a security guard if he was aware that their were 11 million undocumented aliens in his country.Two and half hours we were off and I have taken the bus ever since.
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Spock
Driving in Manhattan is awesome… I love to keep up and one up those yellow cabs when I am there…
I usually get FULL insurance with 0 deductible when I do that though :)
But seriously, with all the crap one goes to in order to visit the States, I ask myself, is it worth it… Canada has so much more stuff to see and do; unless of course you want something like California or Florida. But in that case you can do better in any Mediterranean country or in Costa Rica (respectively).
My 2 euro-cents. :P
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Robert J
It’s still a better deal to drive. Just park in White Plains, NY and take a Metro North train. No need to drive all the way into the city. The train costs more and takes longer. What they really need is an express that stops only in Albany.
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Mayor Tremblay was upset about the metro smoke bombs on Thursday and one of the consequences is the rushing into law of a ban he’s wanted for awhile on face coverings during protests – even though the images allegedly of people plotting the smoke-bombing don’t show anyone in masks. La Presse shows the photo and names names, saying they were denounced by their friends and describing their activities in detail. I wonder who took the photo and why – I’ve taken metro photos too, but rarely of mundane scenes like ordinary people looking at something in a newspaper.
Last night saw the 17th evening demo in a row, which several media outlets mention was less well attended than some.
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Chris
Yes, I wondered about the photographers too.
As for rushing this law, like they say, never let a crisis go to waste.
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paul
I’m guessing that the photographers saw them throw something on the track. It can’t be that easy to throw stuff under the train during rush hour – especially with people on-watch for it. Sensing the amount of tension that a number of commuters have with the situation, I am somewhat surprised that the accused weren’t confronted aggressively.
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Michel
Were the photos taken before or after the event?
Perhaps I’m just grasping at straws and would prefer that the folks involved weren’t students. -
Antonio
Whatever the photographer’s timing, I’m glad they got the shot. And if these antisocial lefto-nutjob twerps are found guilty, then throw the book at them.
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Tux
So, is it more important that violent protestors be identifiable, or is it more important that we have the right to protest anonymously? I’m gonna say that the right to be anonymous is more important, some people due to family/work/social/religious situations cannot be public about their political views. Masks are necessary and the cops should learn to deal with it. Personally ever since I learned about the agents provocateurs at the G20, I’ve pretty much thought that anything that works to take away some of the cops’ power is overall a good thing. They’ve grown too big for their britches.
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paul
@Michel
The article states that they are UQAM students who were heavily involved in the protest, there isn’t much detail as to why they were identified or what evidence there is. -
Michel
@Paul
No, I understood that. What I meant was that, before hearing that they were students, I had hoped that they not be. Because now, even though at least one of them was a member of a radical offshoot union, yesterday’s action completely tarnishes all student unions. -
Fred
Aren’t we prohibited from taking photos on the metro? (Correct me if I am wrong, I am too lazy to look this up). If so, should the police turn around and arrest the person(s) who provided the photos? Or is it that only cameras are prohibited and lo-res cell phone photos are ok?
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Kate
You can’t take flash photos in the metro and you can’t deploy equipment like tripods or lighting booms, but other than that you’re allowed to take photos in the metro. There may also be a rule about not photographing STM staff working but I’m not sure how that would specifically be enforced.
Tux, I recall a big environmental protest a few years ago. I was taking pictures, but some Chinese people with a banner were turning their backs, I can’t remember what the specific issue was but I got the strong impression they didn’t want their faces in any protest photos and I backed off because I could see why.
Antonio will be happy, though. The Tories are considering up to ten years in prison for people who protest with faces covered.
Time for a mass conversion to Islam?
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Chris
Apparently the photos were taken after they threw a smoke device (I prefer using the term bomb for something that goes “bang”) by opening the train doors in the tunnel. It was all over twitter yesterday. Seems like the doors can be opened for about 10 centimeters while in motion.
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qatzelok
Makeup and wigs will still be legal at protests though, right?
Or should the actor who plays Ronald McDonald on TV be arrested for hiding his identity from morbidly obese children with cholesterol issues?
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steph
Tremblay says the law will only target criminal offenders, but wearing a mask to commit a crime is already a crime with additional punishment. Is he just lying through his teeth? Can’t they enforce laws that are already in place? How about they start enforcing the law that prohibits police from hiding their badge numbers!!
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Antonio
Ah Kate! I’ve become accustomed to your deliberate lapses in rigour when it comes to exposing the full story in order to favour your leftist slant. I think it’s endearing. But the truth is that the sentence does not apply to people who wish to “protest” anonymously, but rather to people who wish to partake of riots and unlawful assemblies anonymously. There is a distinction between protesting in a free and democratic society governed by the rule of law and partaking of riots or unlawful assemblies. This is a distinction that you and the rest of your acolytes here fail to make.
And yes, oh yes, even in a “free and democratic society” there are limits to the right to publicly assemble such that some assemblies may be deemed unlawful. These limits are imposed to strike a balance among citizens’ rights such that the exercise by some of their “rights” (e.g. demonstrating in front of a public official’s private residence) don’t impede the rights of others (the public official’s privacy as well as that of his neighbours).
If the class-boycotting students and other leftists-of-convenience quit gazing at their navels (under the guise of promoting their supposed moral high ground), then perhaps they’d realize that the distinction exists and they’d be readily able to make it. One can only hope, faint though that hope may be.
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walkerp
I am not an Acolyte, I am an Adept!
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Kate
Antonio, please keep a lid on your condescension or the banhammer will fall.
When there’s a fine line between a vigorous demonstration and a riot – when police can declare any demonstration illegal at will – then if these laws against face coverings pass, it would be a very dangerous matter to demonstrate in disguise given the risk of suddenly finding oneself defined as a criminal.
Any demonstration can be declared a riot or illegal gathering if the authorities say so.
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Spock
Kate, Islam doesn’t accept or condone face coverings. That is a cultural issue and NOT Islamic AT ALL.
Please do not say such false things on an open site on an Internet filled with perverse uttering on this faith of 1.5 billion.
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Kate
Sorry, Spock. I didn’t say it to mock Islam, but to suggest a semi-comic legitimate excuse for people to cover their face in public.
(Are you sure about Islam not condoning face coverings, though? What’s going on with niqabs and burqas, then?)
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Spock
Its cultural. The Qur’an doesn’t mandate fact coverings.
Hence when women do the pilgrimage to Mecca they have to show their face and only cover their hair
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Antonio
Kate, the police don’t declare assemblies unlawful at will. They’re declared unlawful when the route or time of the assembly hasn’t been provided to the authorities in advance and/or participants are engaging in violence.
And your rebuke brings to mind a classic song by Queen. RIP Freddie Mercury.
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Kate
Montreal police already possess wide powers to declare demonstrations “illegal.” Section 63 of the Criminal Code states that groups of at least three people who meet for a common purpose and conduct themselves in such a way to create fear, on “reasonable grounds,” that they may “disturb the peace tumultuously,” constitute an “unlawful assembly.”
From this OpenFile article.
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Sometimes at the end of a day I leave some tabs open, bookmarking things I found interesting, and the next day I see if they’re bloggable. These two are.
This is a very good piece on the wider implications of the student strike and Jean Charest’s penchant for handing public money to private interests while expecting the shortfall to be made up by a passive electorate.
Chantal Hébert talks about why so many people find voting irrelevant: “It should surprise no one that governments who treat the rule of law as a pesky inconvenience will eventually breed the same attitude in those that they purport to legislate for.”
Marc 20:47 on 2012/05/11 Permalink
Kate your blog has been in my bookmarks since 2003; it ain’t goin’ anywhere… :)
ant6n 21:54 on 2012/05/11 Permalink
It’s wierd that Fagstein’s increasingly narrow focus on Montreal-based English TV and Radio (so 20th century!) didn’t seem to affect his position.
William 07:47 on 2012/05/12 Permalink
I think the rankings are wrong. They favour past winners because people just copy and paste from last year’s list of winners. An obligatory minimum of 25 answers? It’s too difficult – what are they trying to do, replace the long form census? Maybe I’m just bitter because my “suggested answers” list got me disqualified :)
William 08:01 on 2012/05/12 Permalink
And hear hear Marc – MTL Weblog is (at least) a daily read for me.
Kate 09:19 on 2012/05/12 Permalink
Thanks William and Marc!
William, I think the minimum answers rule is understandable, because it makes self-promotion a lot more challenging.
Clément 09:35 on 2012/05/12 Permalink
I would just add that it’s ultimately a popularity contest. What criteria did the voters use? Which is more “cool”? Which is more “hip”? Which is more relevant to foodies, etc, etc.
Here is my take: Recently, I was away travelling for 3 weeks in a foreign country, with extremely limited internet access. Whenever I could get online, I would: 1. Check my email 2. Read Kate’s blog to keep me up to date 3. If time permitted, I would visit radio-canada.ca and lapresse.ca 4. Facebook and other useless stuff 5. Other blogs.
You win my vote for usefulness and straight to the point.
Kate 09:50 on 2012/05/12 Permalink
Aw Clément, thank you.
Charles 12:00 on 2012/05/12 Permalink
I don’t really think it’s about the “Best of Montreal” (Kate’s blog excluded), it’s more like a survey of “What’s the first thing you think of when you hear…” or “Name a …” because no one would actually say that McDonald’s has some of Montreal’s best cheap eats!
Jack 12:48 on 2012/05/12 Permalink
Kate its the Mirror.You have a super blog,keep it up!
Hamza 12:59 on 2012/05/12 Permalink
Those indecent xposure guys rigged the poll with a whole campaign as usual. This blog is the single best source of mtl news period (In English).
Spock 17:51 on 2012/05/12 Permalink
I don’t usually dig blogs. But this one is… different…
The Mirror must be on a bad trip or something…
Michel 11:17 on 2012/05/14 Permalink
Confession time: I compiled the Best of Montreal for three years. Mid to late 90s, so there wasn’t a blog (or even internet) category yet.
Back then, you could submit only one answer. This led to hundreds of entries for places like Mutt & Jeff (hairdressers), Carlos & Pepes (best Mexican), etc. It quickly became obvious that we were just being spammed. Either owners for these places would grab every copy of the Mirror that they could, rip out the ballot and write down the name of their establishment, or they were gettting their customers to do it (different handwriting).
I counted these votes because someone went through the effort, but it would leave a sour taste in my mouth.
I guess, after I moved on, that TPTB at the Mirror figured that getting folks to enter at least 25 categories would cut down on the spam.