Massive cuts to federal employees may affect the Biosphere, which is staffed by Environment Canada people.
Updates from June, 2012 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
-
Mayor Tremblay is demanding an apology from Jacques Duchesneau. Duchesneau recounted earlier this week that he’d warned the mayor off some folks in his inner circle, a story Tremblay denied. Duchesneau then told the Gazette he wouldn’t buy a used bicycle from Tremblay and that he could go to hell – which were obviously fightin’ words.
-
walkerp
It’s amazing, but I guess that’s what gets you into politics in the first place, the ability to not only lie but actually get emotionally angry about people pointing out the wrong you are doing. I hope Duchesnau gets some real dirt on Tremblay in one of those many emails he has been flooded with.
-
-
Montreal metro map Super Mario style.
-
Marc
Epic win!
-
Doobious
Too cute. Thanks for that.
-
-
Wednesday afternoon was the Euro 2012 playoff between Spain and Portugal, an Iberian derby that led to fisticuffs on the Main (the Journal writes “hier” presumably for the Thursday paper, but the game was definitely on Wednesday afternoon). Police broke things up and there were no arrests. (Spain won in penalty kicks.)
-
Two patients were murdered in the psych ward at Notre-Dame hospital according to police, who just announced the incidents, which took place earlier this month. A man was caught attacking a patient last week and his actions have led police to suspect him in connection with the earlier incidents.
These would be homicides #13 and #14 of 2012.
CTV, you get today’s derp prize for illustrating this story with a crop of a snowy police car photo, captioned “montreal police generic”.
UPDATE (photo of hospital): that’s better !:)
-
Steamboat Willie
Police never said that the guy who tried to kill the old lady is a suspect in the other killings.
-
Kate
He may not be a formal suspect yet but the link is implied. This is the lede to the CBC version of the story: “Montreal police say the suffocation of two patients earlier this month at Notre-Dame Hospital might be linked to an attack on another patient last Friday. They said they have arrested a 31-year-old patient from the hospital’s psychiatric ward.”
-
Steamboat Willie
Until someone is arrested and charged with a crime then it`s logical to say that the guy may be linked because logically anybody could be linked to it. That CBC report`s presumptuousness erases the subtlety of noting that cops hesitated to lay charges against the guy.
-
Michel
What is it about CTV and their inappropriate and misplaced photos of police cars?
I guess we should be thankful that at least they didn’t post a shot of burning car.
Let me guess, there were only two people in the office, and working is hard. -
Kevin
@Kate
Kristian will get so angry for you calling him a derp.
-
-
Archives de Montréal has put up a Flickr set of Ste-Catherine Street and the 15 bus in 1964. I enjoy the rather mundane subject – peripheral details like the neon signs in the background make them interesting – but wonder why someone made a point of taking these photos. Glad they did, though.
-
Bill Binns
These are great! A glimpse of the Seville Theater, the Forum before it was Pepsi-fied and even a Steinberg’s bag. I bet Guillaume St-Jean will make good use out of some of these.
-
Marc
It’s nice to see these old pictures in color, rather than b & w.
-
Robert J
The Atwater terminal stop looks great. I don’t know why Montreal doesn’t invest in more serious bus shelters. Some of the Ottawa transitway stops are fully interior and heated. They also had emergency telephones and taxi lines in them. We could at least put those at major downtown stops, terminals, and outside metro stations for night service.
-
Jack
I love those photos especially the look up Atwater, without Alexis Nihon. I don’t know if you have heard of the doc “The Memory of Angels” by Luc Bourdan and the NFB, these photos remind me of it.
-
Kate
Yes, I loved La mémoire des anges. It’s a wonderful film, both the visuals and the sound edit.
-
Bill_the_Bear
It’s interesting to note, in the first few photos, that Ste-Catherine was still two-way in 1964. I’d thought I’d read somewhere that it had switched to one-way East after the tramway was taken off in ca. 1956. It was certainly one-way East when I moved here in 1971.
-
Kate
My impression is they changed it around the time the metro opened (1966) but I could be wrong.
-
Matt
According to ‘La Rue Sainte-Catherine’ by Paul-André Linteau, Ste-Catherine street became one-way eastbound on September 15th, 1966.
-
Kate
Thanks, Matt!
-
-
Foglia has a must-read column about literacy and general knowledge as a basis for participating fully in one’s own culture.
-
Anto
…et présentement il y a toujours des gens comme Foglia (ou plutôt, il y a toujours Foglia) pour dénoncer ce lent abrutissement. Est-ce qu’on se questionnera toujours sur la situation lorsqu’il aura pris sa retraite, ou, faute de dissidence, lorsque les enfants de la réforme deviendront parents à leur tour, on l’acceptera comme inévitable?
-
-
La Presse has got hold of a new report on the Pinel Institute that says the facility for the criminally insane is not nearly as secure as it needs to be.
-
This has been reported fairly widely in the French-language media but not much on the English side: a group of comics calling themselves the Coalition des humoristes indignés (CHI) did a benefit comedy show for striking student groups June 18, organized by Gilbert Rozon’s twin sisters.
CLASSE criticized the show for homophobic and sexist content, and now the $12,000 the show had raised as their share will go to Juripop instead.
CLASSE says it doesn’t regret its principled stand, and that its membership gave them the mandate to turn down the cash. Anyway, another benefit show may be in the offing.
-
Metro says “à peine une dizaine” people demonstrated Tuesday at Quebecor’s headquarters, agitating for the return of the Mirror.
-
cheese
I went by there around 16:30 and saw about five people, one placard, and some media presence. Rather underwhelming. I really liked many things about the Mirror but I think the people behind it would be better off to go back to the independent route. Even online only. I hope this end is also the beginning of something new.
-
Tux
Yeah I’m sad the Mirror got shuttered but if Quebecor brought it back it’d probably be a shell of its former self anyway. This opens a niche for young media punks to start a new thing. The unfortunate part is any new Mirror-like project would probably be primarily an electronic resource. That’s okay, way of the world, but I will miss dirtying my fingers. Hey, does anybody know if that guy who did the movie reviews in the form of comics is still doing that? I loved those things.
-
Kate
Rick Trembles. According to his Facebook he’s having a bad year. He was evicted from his place in Saint-Henri because of a fire next door, then the Mirror folds, and according to his FB he also just lost his day job. I saw something about how he’s looking for another outlet for the review comics, but if he finds any they may well not be local.
-
walkerp
That’s also a bummer to hear about Rick Trembles. He’s a true artist.
Maybe give him a hand by buying some of his stuff (excuse the shill, but it seems worthy and relevant). His collections are great. We’ve got one of the Motion Picture Purgatory collections chez nous and it is awesome bathroom reading.
-
-
Work has begun on the sewer under Ste-Catherine at McGill College where the road gave way June 19.
CBC also has video about a sinkhole on St-Mathieu (a brief CBC video report with two commercials up front – yes, I know, we should watch them avidly, we should be endlessly grateful, shut up).
I’m frankly losing track of the sinkhole stories – when I see a report I’m not sure if it’s a new story, or just another take on an existing one.
-
Ephraim
Should we start a sinkhold-du-jour website?
-
Ian
a Tumblr, surely?
-
-
A minor shortage of vacant apartments has been noted as Moving Day approaches. Ikea is giving away free moving boxes – you have to check this page to find out where they’ll be.
-
Ephraim
Great! And as long as you have an allen key and know how to disassemble your furniture to flat pack it, you will be fine!
-
Ian
You joke but I have disassembled an re-flat packed much of my Ikea furniture many times over. It’s easier to move and puts less stress on the furniture – it’s the reason I have had some of my Billy shelves well over 10 years and they are still in good condition..
-
Poutine Pundit 07:01 on 2012/06/28 Permalink
Yes, but those cuts are going to fund important things:
-A bronze statue of a military dog
http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/canada/353345/50-000-pour-une-statue-de-chien-militaire
-$50,000 worth of anti-stress balls for the military
http://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/quebec-canada/politique-canadienne/201206/21/01-4537384-la-defense-a-depense-50-000-pour-des-balles-antistress.php
Michel 08:40 on 2012/06/28 Permalink
Not to mention all the 1812 celebrations.
Kate 08:58 on 2012/06/28 Permalink
Radio-Canada says the Biosphere will no longer be a museum of the environment after 2013. Le Devoir is not so categorical but mentions further job cuts, including the gutting of a scientific institute that studies the ecosystem of the Gulf of St. Lawrence – probably an important move now that Anticosti Island is being turned into an oil field. Better that we know less about the damage to be caused.
Bill Binns 08:58 on 2012/06/28 Permalink
I have visited this place once when I thought I was going to the Biodome (nobody thought it was a bad idea to have a bio-sphere and a bio-dome in the same town?). There is not much to it and what is there seemed pretty dated. An ok place for grade 3 kids to go on a school trip maybe. The Gazette says the place has at least 25 employees. There has got to be some fat there. The star of the show is really the sphere itself and that doesn’t require any employees.
Kate 09:14 on 2012/06/28 Permalink
Bill Binns, I do not know the story of all the people working at the Biosphere, but they’re Environment Canada people and some of them may well have offices there while doing other work as well. But environmental information is in the crosshairs of the Harper government, so people who can bring that kind of information to the public have to go.
Also, if you think an installation like the Biosphere can actually stay fallow safely without anyone working on it, maybe there’s a job for you at the Quebec ministry of transport.
Adam 09:37 on 2012/06/28 Permalink
Does it matter that even after these allegedly “massive” the federal civil service will *still* be significantly larger than when the Conservatives took office in 2006?
http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/Coyne+Attention+fiscal+conservatives+been+budget/6381204/story.html
Kate 09:41 on 2012/06/28 Permalink
The political implications of the areas in which they choose to cut do matter, yes, Adam.
Adam 09:47 on 2012/06/28 Permalink
Where they cut and the overall size of the cuts are two different things. These cuts are only massive if you ignore the much larger increase in the size of the civil service over the past few years. It’s like gaining 50 pounds and then losing 30 and then patting yourself on the back for being thinner.
Kate 11:04 on 2012/06/28 Permalink
Also, Adam, not everyone believes in the credo that government jobs should be cut.
Adam 11:36 on 2012/06/28 Permalink
Yes, but again that’s another story. My point is simply that describing these cuts as massive is inaccurate.
Marc 14:30 on 2012/06/28 Permalink
Harper 2012: 19,200 cuts over 3 years. Chrétien 1995: 64,751 cuts over 9 months. It seems most people have forgotten about that.