Another headline blink here isn’t really about douches, but about a shower of public money supporting the Conférence de Montréal, a mid-June globalization love-in planned for the Hôtel Bonaventure and beckoning “le gratin financier planétaire.” Actually, maybe it is about douches after all.
Updates from May, 2012 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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When I saw the headline Montréal prêt pour un été chaud I expected it to be metaphorical, but in fact it’s about the health and social services agency making plans in case of lengthy heat waves.
The Gazette, on the other hand, says this summer will be stormy and not super hot, trotting out the journalistic chestnut that summer doesn’t “officially” begin till next month (the equinoxes aren’t, and never have been, “official” starts to the seasons).
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jeather
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Kevin
No official start to any season. My continual pet peeve whenever it’s repeated.
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Kate
jeather, OK OK, neither equinoxes NOR solstices are official starts to anything. (I would’ve called them quarter days but figured that’s a bit pagan.) Cecil Adams says “meteorologists define summer simply as June, July, and August” which makes as much sense.
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jeather
Oh, June/July/Aug makes much more sense for summer here than June 21-Sept 21. I always thought the dates were a bit odd, but never bothered to wonder about them.
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William
For me the Summer begins when they close Ste-Catherine Street for Aires Libres! :D
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Jacques Bergeron’s recent report criticizes the city on various issues including the city’s handling of unsanitary housing. The city has even accepted the report although with reservations.
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CBC has a detailed piece on subway security generally which mostly adds up to asking passengers to be alert, whereas the normal state of a metro passenger is spaced out on their ipod.
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MB
…or at the edge of the platform impatiently staring into the tunnel, using psychic will to make the train arrive faster…
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Tux
Fact is, most ‘security’ is laughable, there are always holes in it if you give it a little poke. I should know, I spent a few years regularly sneaking in and out of places I shouldn’t have had access to all over town. There is very little anyone could do to prevent another attack of this type short of searching everyone or filling the metro up with cops which is, as the article rightly points out, unrealistic. Really what we need to address is the social/political/economic environment we find ourselves in, and why it makes young people feel the need to commit public mischief like this in order to be heard.
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erika
@Tux: Thumbs up to that!
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Kevin
@Tux
It’s not that they don’t have a voice. It’s that they believe that anyone with a differing opinion is, not just wrong, but not even worthy of being listened to.And I’m not talking just about the ongoing student protests (athough it was what, two weeks ago Concordia could not even introduce the new rector because a bunch of people used a megaphone indoors?)
Last fall, how many Occupiers repeatedly said that all media was illegitimate?
When someone controversial comes to town to speak, how many times are the events cancelled or moved because of threats — or the event begins, only to have people stand up and hurl abuse until the event ends. Netanyahu. Coulter. That racist French ‘comedian’ whose shows were cancelled this week. The muslim group last fall that moved its meeting to Toronto.
We are a huge city, in a province of 8 million people. There’s no fricken way we’re all going to think the same thing, have the same ideas.
As a reporter it’s my job to talk to everyone and report what they say — to look at all sides of the issue.
And I get shit on from all sides. People who say I’m left wing for talking to a person who thinks protesters have the right to wear masks, and people who think I’m right wing because I moderate comments from people who want the army to stop protesters.
But since I returned to Montreal in 2006 it seems like the default for many people has increasingly become “I am right, and anyone who disagrees with me is the spawn of Satan.”
What happened to mutual respect?
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Montreal has finally given its support to a project for an ecological park encompassing a wide area of southern Quebec – going beyond the Hochelaga Archipelago – and intended to preserve what little remains of undrained wetlands and un-”developed” greenery.
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Some thoughts about the profound changes that will come to Crescent Street when the massive Ogilvy’s hotel condo is constructed. 250 people in the bar business expect to lose their jobs and the Hôtel de la Montagne will be demolished. The Apple store is on that block of Ste-Catherine but nothing’s said here about its future.
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Joey
Surely those jobs will reappear – it’s not as if some condo project is going to diminish demand for the douchey bar scene…
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Kate
It will partly depend how the new development interacts with the street. There’s also the simple fact that someone who’s already been a barkeep on Crescent for 15 years may not be the first choice for a new establishment.
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Spock
Where else can we go to hook up with MILFs?
LOL
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Robert H
Je ne vais pas manquer l’Hôtel de la Montagne (sauf le foyer haute camp), une dalle moche de béton. Pourtant, ce qui m’inquiet est la possibilite que la ville perdra une autre point de repère unique…bye bye Ogilvy? Ce serait comme New York sans Bergdorf-Goodman.*
*Meme si je n’avais jamais les moyens pour y magasiner.
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Robert H
Kate, Spock, écoutez Joey, il a raison…le tronçon de la Montagne (et de la rue Crescent ) entre Sainte Catherine et René Levesque est longtemps sous-developpé. Les pubs devraient y déménager. Il y aura toujours un endroit pour un douchey bar scene ou un gars peut hook up with MILFs. Maintenant je vais lire les articles.
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Spock
You realize I was just joking about the MILFs…
Eww…
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Robert H
Rien qu’une blague!
Aww…
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David Tighe
One should be careful about bunging down massive condo/hotel developments on top of what seems to be a lively and distinctive urban scene.We add more people and at the same time take away the places they could have gone to. The centre of Montréal will become less and less convivial. By the way what is an MILF?
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Kate
I always consult urbandictionary.com when confronted with a pop-culture type expression I don’t know. MILF.
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Vic Toews’ Bill C-30 to institute easier internet surveillance has quietly died. See, sometimes I bring you good news.
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Spock
Thank God.
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Anto
He probably thought of something even more evil he could do.
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Spock
Become governor general?
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Anto
Nah my bet would be on Bev Oda for that one.
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walkerp
Kind of amazing that they didn’t try to ram this one through like they have done with so much of their other bad legislation that most Canadians don’t want. I think they know that you can mess with almost everything that is important to Canadians except their internet.
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Chris
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Kate
Argue with the Globe’s John Ibbitson who says it’s dead dead dead.
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Monday night saw the 21st consecutive evening demo which involved two arrests but was generally peaceful.
Tuesday morning there was a scuffle between protesters and police at Collège Lionel-Groulx in Sainte-Thérèse, the tear gas being brought out, while some protesters were arrested at Jacques-Cartier bridge after briefly blocking traffic.
City council will ponder the new mask law Friday. The city is planning more draconian new laws against protest and dissent generally. There’s supposed to be brief – very brief – public consultation on Wednesday afternoon.
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Ephraim
I don’t know about the other elements of the law, but certainly putting on a mask signals an intent that your aim isn’t simply a peaceful demonstration but to violate laws. I have no problem with protesting peacefully. But when you damage public (ie all of us, equally) or private property (no, insurance doesn’t usually pay for broken glass at businesses and even if it does, it increases the costs for all of us, since that cost has to be passed on, somehow) then we have to ask the question of, is this really a demonstration or is this rioting hiding as a demonstration.
March all you want. Yell slogans, hold up posters all you want. But when you block an bridge and people end up paying $50 fines at daycare. When you damage a car and I have to spend days to get it fixed. When you cost millions of dollars of loss to people because you think it’s acceptable to put smoke bombs and scare people on the metro, you have crossed a line.
It’s a question of personal responsibility. The insurance companies shouldn’t be paying for the broken windows, the demonstrators should. Adults take responsibility for their actions and don’t need masks to hide because they don’t want to.
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Adam
“I don’t know about the other elements of the law, but certainly putting on a mask signals an intent that your aim isn’t simply a peaceful demonstration but to violate laws.”
Totally disagree. It could just mean that you want to demonstrate anonymously, because of work/family/social considerations. Or because you just feel like it. The right to free speech isn’t one that should be infringed on lightly. Of course, if someone’s wearing a mask *and* carrying a backpack full of bricks or rocks that’s a strong indication that they’re up to no good.
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Ephraim
Sorry, I don’t remember the constitution guaranteeing you a right to riot, damage property or in fact to demonstrate anonymously. Demonstrations are there so you can show support… anonymity isn’t showing support at all. It’s exactly the opposite. Or shall we all sign petitions now “anonymous” and ask to show up the election polls and ask for our right to not show ID so we can vote anonymously? There is no constitution right to anonymity in this way.
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Adam
“Sorry, I don’t remember the constitution guaranteeing you a right to riot, damage property or in fact to demonstrate anonymously.”
Well, Ephraim (if that is your real name – a little anonymity is nice, eh?), let me refresh your memory:
“26. The guarantee in this Charter of certain rights and freedoms shall not be construed as denying the existence of any other rights or freedoms that exist in Canada.”
I have a right to privacy, and I don’t surrender that right when I express an opinion. Neither do the students. They surrender it when and only when they break the law.
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Kate
Ephraim, I think the right to protest anonymously is important here, at least partly because of the need for people from other countries to feel free to express their protest here without risking their families at home.
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Adam
I’d also like to point out that no one is arguing that people have a right to riot or to damage property. That’s a straw man argument.
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Ephraim
Kate, that’s a question for the courts to decide. Straight up, are the masks being used by students intended to keep their anonymity or are they simply there to mask their illegal activities…. Nothing illegal with protesting. They are free to protest, peacefully. So, if they are wearing a mask there must be another reason. How about if the penalties are automatically quadrupled if you are wearing a mask and arrested for illegal activity, would that be acceptable?
Sorry, but I’m still not convinced. I haven’t seen a real need for the students to mask themselves.
BTW… clause 26 applies, my right to feel safe and secure. I’m sorry, it doesn’t give anyone the right to hide their criminality.
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Adam
Ephraim, the whole point of living in a free society is that you don’t need to justify your actions to anyone. No one needs to convince you of the “need” for anything. They just do it, as long as they’re not infringing on your rights. What’s your “need” to remain anonymous while posting on this blog? Should you be forced to reveal your full name?
The Charter only applies to the state, so it has nothing to do with anything that private actors might do to you.
And for the umpteenth time, no one is defending people who commit criminal acts (masked or not). What I am saying is that people can mask themselves for any reason they like. Until they commit a criminal act, or violate the law in some way, no one has the right to interfere. There’s nothing wrong with protesting while masked (or simply walking around in broad daylight masked, for that matter).
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Ephraim
Adam, walk into the local bank with a mask and tell me that wearing a mask doesn’t hide intent.
I understand when you wear a mask to protest a certain religious group that is known for prosecuting and persecuting those who protest. That’s one thing. Protesting the regime in Syria when you have a family in Syria.
As I said, are you willing to allow that if you do violate the law while wearing a mask that penalties are automatically quadrupled?
Would these people commit the criminal acts if they weren’t wearing the masks? That’s the question.
To me this is a question of personal responsibility. If people are being personally responsible for their actions, they have no reason to hide who they are. If they aren’t, they seek to hide. (And BTW, Ephraim is my real name, I haven’t masked my IP address. And in fact Kate and I have emailed a few times. I’m NOT anonymous at all. I never expected that I was. There aren’t that many Ephraims in the province of Quebec. Its a name on the list of the most unusual names in Quebec every year!
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C_Erb
It’s interesting that you bring up voting which, when practiced to choose government representatives, is always done anonymously (giving your name and ID is only to ensure that you don’t try to vote more than once and isn’t connected to your actual ballot in any way). Taking away one’s right to protest anonymously is not much different than taking away the right to vote anonymously (for many of the same reasons).
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walkerp
Here is your tautology, Ephraim: “They are free to protest, peacefully. So, if they are wearing a mask there must be another reason.”
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Spock
Ephraim is more common in Israel. :)
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Ephraim
@C_Erb Not the same thing. Your vote is anonymous, the fact that you voted, isn’t. And that’s the point of voting. Your can’t sign a petition anonymously because your name demonstrates your support…”
I have been in protests before (we once had tear gas thrown at us because we stepped on the grass!) and I’m sorry, but the amount of criminality at many of these demos is exactly the point.
@Spock, yes, but we aren’t in Israel. It’s a very uncommon name around here. (And I’m not Israeli.)
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Spock
Want uncommon? Try the name Engelbert Humperdinck… :)
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Adam
Ephraim, people walk into banks wearing masks all the time. They look like this:
Or like this:
No, I see no reason why the penalties should increase because you’re masked. The crime doesn’t suddenly become more grave because you covered your face. I have no problem with the observation that masking one’s face adds an element of probably cause for police to stop someone, just like being Muslim or being a young male or buying a one-way ticket might make it more likely that you’ll be subject to scrutiny in an airport. But profiling people just because they’re masked is as stupid as profiling them just because they’re Muslim.
Incidentally, with all the gas being fired at the protesters, I can certainly understand why some of them would want a bandana or similar covering their nose and mouth.
And yet again, I will point out that you are effectively posting here anonymously. Sure, there are ways to find out who you are, just like there are ways to find out who masked protesters are. But if you were being fully open and transparent, as you insist the protesters should be, you would use your full name. You are confusing having an identity that is discoverable with acting under cover of anonymity.
The mask issue is a red herring. The real problem is thugs who think that might makes right, that they are entitled to disregard injunctions, that others who disagree with them are to be intimidated and harassed, and generally that they are entitled to everything they want and also to do anything they like to get it. Infringing on people’s right to privacy is not going to solve anything.
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Ephraim
Are you talking about Arnold George Dorsey or about the German composer?
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Spock
Arnold changed his name to that… I find it funny. Arnold is a “normal name” (if normal can be defined) and Engelbert… well… not so “normal”.
LOL :)
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the equinoxes aren’t, and never have been, “official” starts to the seasons
Perhaps because there are only two of them, but four seasons?
(Actually, I had no idea that Mar/Jun/Sept/Dec 21ish were not the official starts. I think they are essentially there now, from common use if from nothing else.)