The PQ has picked up two high-profile journalists to run for them: Pierre Duchesne who used to be Radio-Canada’s National Assembly specialist, running in Borduas (currently held by Pierre Curzi, who won’t be running again) and Jean-François Lisée – who, as they say, needs no introduction – who’s is said to be planning to run in Rosemont.
Updates from July, 2012 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Despite his recent injury, Alexandre Despatie is going to the London Olympics.
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The Impact has signed Alessandro Nesta, described as one of the best defenders of his generation, having played for Lazio and Milan – but he is also 36 years old. Mind you, he’s upgraded the looks average of the team single-handed, so bring it on I say.
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The STM has bought 203 new hybrid biodiesel buses but they won’t hit the streets till 2014. Andy Riga has more details on the reasoning for the choice with videos.
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The city wants to change some rules to ban scooters from bike paths but allow powered wheelchairs.
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Matt
As a cyclist (and I guess as an insensitive bastard), I disagree with the city’s decision to allow power wheelchairs on bike paths. They’re too large, too heavy and move way too slowly for them to mesh smoothly with bicycle traffic. Will they start using the “bandes cyclables” along with vehicular traffic too? I don’t know, are the cracks in the sidewalk that annoying? Sorry.
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Stefan
I use my bicycle for about 95% of urban transportation. I do not think that there are so many powered wheelchairs in the city that this rare disturbance really makes an impact for cyclists.
Maybe put yourself for a day in the perspective of somebody who can not mount a single step, needs more space and is less flexible in manoeuvring than a pedestrian. As a matter of fact, where the bicycle is designed to go, the wheelchair follows easily.
I think they should be accommodated where possible, especially given that montreal is really not well accessible. the metro station conversion will take another 100 years at the current pace. sidewalks blocked (moving trucks, construction sites, …).
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David Tighe
I see no reason why powered wheelchairs should not be allowed. Many cyclists ride too fast anyway. They are particularly unnerving on the central city paths. I think there should be a limit of 20kph (enforced) although I hope the wheelchairs do not feel obliged to speed up
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Clément
I think the biggest annoyance on Montreal bike paths are actually vehicles that have zero business there in the first place. By that, I mean constructions crews that park their equipment in the bike path (to avoid blocking the all important cars), cars blocking the path at intersections, taxis waiting for customers, garbage cans, etc. Enforcement would be great, but even the cops have a habit of parking their cars on the bike path near Lionel-Groulx.
On the subject of speed limits, I don’t think putting an unrealistic speed limit of 20 kph and hoping it will be enforced will do much. I ride slow bikes (bixi) when I commute to work and I ride a fast bike in the evening or on the weekend. And in both cases, I’m just as likely to ride on de Maisonneuve bike path. When I’m slow, I stick to the right and I expect other cyclists to pass me. When I’m fast, I have to swerve through bikes because many cyclists treat bike paths as if they were parks. About 15-20 years ago, the city of Montreal finally realized that not all cyclists are kids and not all bikes are toys. Some bike paths are for utility (like de Maisonneuve street) and some are for pleasure (like Parc de Maisonneuve).
A speed limit that is too low (and strictly enforced) will just drive many cyclists out of the bike paths and back onto the streets, defeating the purpose of the bike paths in the first place.As far as the electric scooter (not the wheelchairs), I say good riddance. Way too big and too fast for bike paths.
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Stefan
Clement: you’re absolutely right on motorized vehicles (parked, or even driving through) being the biggest annoyance.
a speed limit on bicycle paths is pretty useless, given that it is quite hard to accelerate to 30km/h anyway, with all these stops and dangers from potholes, carelessly crossing pedestrians, cars ruthlessly cutting in intersections etc.
that is actually a good example of a traffic path which auto-regulates its speed by design. in vienna there are many narrow (mostly because of parking cars) streets where drivers stay well under the 30km/h limit, because it just feels too much of a hazard at that speed(!)
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Jack
Why did we spend millions making sidewalks wheelchair friendly? The motorized wheelchairs are brutal on the bike paths, especially when they don’t signal rolling into the dep for smokes.
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Alex
A wheelchair in your way on a bike path can be a drag and a groan but there really aren’t enough of them around for it to ever become a serious problem. I’d rather, as a biker, circle around a wheelchair than see a wheelchair rider constantly circle around pedestrians on the sidewalk. Must be infuriating haha
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Bill Binns
As a pedestrian, I’m pretty anti-bicyclist but I have to agree that wheelchairs don’t belong on the bike paths, powered or otherwise. They are called bike paths for a reason. As others have mentioned here, millions were spent making the sidewalks wheelchair friendly.
As for the people saying “there aren’t that many of them so whocares?”. They are coming. The population is getting older and these scooters are getting cheaper all the time. They are a menace in Florida where you have to be as cautious walking around the inside of a Walmart as you do walking on the street to avoid being rundown.
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Ian
Laws that aren’t enforced are meaningless. There have been a ton of cops on Park for months what with the roadwork – I haven’t seen a single sidewalk bicyclist even get yelled at by the cops, let alone ticketed, and I see sidewalk bicyclists almost every single day on the very busy sidewalk between Saint-Joseph and Saint-Viateur. For instance, this weekend, one bicyclist had the nerve to ring his bell at me and tell me to get out of his way – I was pushing a stroller FFS. Don’t even get me started on motorists that ignore crosswalks, block the intersection at light changes, and blow red lights – apparently with impunity. We already have lots of traffic safety laws in Montreal but unless the police actually start ticketing people it’s so many words, nothing more.
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Bill Binns
Forgot we can’t post photos in comments here.. Here is a link http://flic.kr/p/cp3Sid
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qatzelok
Cyclists like me have been using the wheelchair ramps on street corners for decades, so it’s only fair that wheelchairs get to use bike paths.
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Matt
Yeah, I guess you’re right, Stefan. Everyone is right in their own way. If no rules are actively enforced, what’s the point anyway? How many times have I seen irresponsible cycling around town? Maybe we should be thankful for having cycling lanes in the first place.
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Kate
As I understand it, the changes about the paths are meant to help cyclists maintain a reasonably consistent speed and move things off the paths that pose hazards. Getting those scooters off the paths is a smart move – they’re just not bicycles, they handle momentum and speed very differently and there’s no reason they should share bike paths.
I never like sharing a path with skateboarders or skaters because they’re kind of chaotic. A fast skater side-to-sides enough that they can use up both lanes on a bike path. I’ve even seen a couple skating side by side. On the other hand, skateboarders traditionally face a lot of urban resistance so I’m not 100% with being “get off my lawn” about them. But they’re banished too.
Anyone know whether crashes between cyclists are a factor? If you allow slow-moving wheelchairs on the paths, you create a situation where cyclists will be deking around them to keep up a reasonable speed, putting themselves into hazard either with other oncoming cyclists or with motorized traffic. In fact I don’t think wheelchairs belong on the paths at all, but I don’t think the city wants the PR hit it will get if they banish them.
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ant6n
@Bill
in your pic the scooters are empty, so that’s not really in the same category as a wheelchair, whose rider cannot leave it, no? -
Clément
@Kate: I attended the hearings that led to these decisions last winter. You’re right, the only reason wheelchairs are allowed in the bike paths is that nobody was foolish enough to even suggest banning them.
As for crashes between cyclists, they exists, I have witnessed them (and been in one), but I believe they are rare and the worse that can happen when two cyclist crash into one another is a bent wheel, a broken derailleur and some road rash.
Crashes between cars and cyclists are more common and yield much more serious damage like paint scratched on the car, dent on the hood from the helmet impact, coffee spilled unto trousers and a dropped blackberry. Oh yeah, the cyclist dies too. -
William
I’m always amazed by many cyclists’ belief that they are the only users of public space who should be entitled to unhindered movement.
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Kate
When a car “hinders” a cyclist, it’s the cyclist who gets hurt. That’s kind of a pressing reason, William.
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Chris
Disallowing scooters is not a *change*. They were disallowed before, some lobbied for them to be allowed, and they failed. Previously, only cyclists and rollerbladers were allowed, now wheelchairs are too.
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Kate
Chris, I’m not sure that’s true. A couple years ago I shouted at a pair of people whizzing along on the Clark Street path on electric scooters. I shouted at them and they stopped and informed me, in no uncertain terms, that because they were electric they were allowed. I think there was some discussion about this here on the blog at the time too.
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Frances
As a very experienced urban cyclist, my opinion: motorized wheelchairs (am tolerant); skateboards (don’t belong on bike paths); in-line skates (ditto); electric scooters (definitely ditto! — too fast and too large a vehicle).
By the way, in my experience on two-way bike paths, one of the biggest hazards to cyclists is other cyclists passing down the centre of the two lanes (i.e. passing on the orange line — whether broken or solid). A request to all cyclists: if you are unable or unwilling to move fully into the oncoming lane, you do not have enough space to pass safely. Choosing to pass too close to another cyclist (i.e. by riding in the centre) increases the chance of a collision between you and the cyclist you are passing and/or an oncoming cyclist. For example, if a cyclist unexpectedly diverges even slightly. I see this centre-riding frequently, and it’s very unnerving. Perhaps they are willing to take chances, but they ought to understand not everyone else appreciates those close manoeuvres. Collisions can result in broken bones and serious abrasions, not just a mild case of road rash and frazzled nerves.
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The Université de Montréal professors’ union has given notice that the Quebec government’s proposed return to classes in August – part of Bill 78 – is not cool with them.
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Ephraim
But they accepted being paid and not doing the work, so do they need to give back the salary because they didn’t do the work or do the work?
Honestly, I wish the government would scrap bill 78 and then just let the chips fall where they may. If you can’t get into CEGEP because it’s full, then you will have to figure something out. And if you failed your courses and you are expelled from school then you will have to figure something out. And the teachers will just have to figure out a way to honour their contract as well, or hand back their pay. But let the universities and CEGEPs deal with the mess themselves, not at a provincial level.
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Kevin
There’s something unethical about supporting a strike when it means you, as a side effect, will get paid not to work.
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ant6n
Maybe the teachers should go on a real strike…. nah, that won’t happen.
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Kate
Kevin, I think the two things are conceptually separate. I honestly don’t believe that most of the profs that support the strike are doing so because it gives them an excuse to goof off.
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Kevin
Opposing tuition fee hikes is one thing. Supporting students who choose not to attend class while *not* supporting students who want to attend is another.
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Wonderful photo set from Archives de Montréal shows 21 views of newsstands taken in 1966.
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Marc
Metropolitan News moved to Cypress st. at some point, though they kept their original sign saying 1248 Peel. They’re gone now but did make it into this century.
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Ephraim
I remember when we used to have these newsstands around town. When people used to pick up the Montreal Star to read on the way home.
As for Metropolitan News, they moved to Cypress after getting a high offer on their building on Peel. But I think what did them in, more than anything else, was the temperament of the old man, who even made regulars not want to come back.
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Kate
Yes, I remember him.
I wonder how many of the papers they carried (even 10 years ago) still exist.
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The Economist gives a great terse summary of where public opinion on the Harper government stands.
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A woman was found stabbed to death Thursday in Lasalle, in the 15th homicide of the year. The man found in the apartment was arrested.
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Louise Harel is talking about discriminatory hiring practices after studies showed what Montrealers mostly know instinctively: for a lot of jobs here, you’re far more likely to get an interview if you have a francophone-de-souche surname rather than an obviously ethnic one. (Anglo names aren’t even mentioned.) Her idea is to extend an existing law to cover any public job, or job the city pays for.
In the Journal, the wording’s a giveaway: “l’étude établit qu’une personne avec un patronyme québécois à 60 % plus de chance d’être embauchée.” A québécois name is therefore a French one: merely being born in Quebec doesn’t make you québécois.
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Kevin
Has anyone ever suggested that being born or raised in Quebec *does* make you Quebecois?
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Kate
We had a discussion about that on this blog a few weeks ago.
Oh, I see you were in it. Well, I don’t have a clear answer for you. I don’t feel like a “québécoise” but the question doesn’t usually come up. If Quebec were to separate and I were to be abroad on a Quebec passport, I presume in any other francophone place I would be defined as “québécoise” by default. But for now, internationally I’d be defined as Canadian, and locally I’m a Montrealer, and I’m satisfied with that for now.
But Alison says in that thread that she and I are “québécoises” because we were born here and have stayed, even if French is not our langue maternelle. But we’re both anglo-quebecers so the question’s a bit different for us. If I came from another country and had kids here, I think I’d feel pretty bad if I learned that they were not considered “québécois” (and from some perspectives never would be) so long as they carried my ethnic surname.
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Bill Binns
I have friends who were born and raised here, whose primary language is French and they seem to view the label “québécoise” as some sort of low level insult. There seems to be some aspect of the label that implies a lack of education and culture or at least some sort of “extreme blue collarness” if that makes any sense. It’s sort of the way we use the term “redneck” in the US. Some people see it as an insult and some embrace it proudly.
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Kate
How would they define or describe themselves, Bill Binns?
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Ian
Considering we haven’t had a mayor with an Anglo name since Ekers in 1906 we’d better start from the top, right? As far as “québécois” names, I think the spraypainted slogan in the last referendum “Anglo go home” pretty much sums up what “Québec aux Québécois” means.
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Bill Binns
@ Kate – I hear the term “French Canadiens” a lot.
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qatzelok
@ Kate: “A québécois name is therefore a French one”
False. Pierre-Marc Johnson and Pierre Bourque (Burke) both have Irish names which are recognized as Quebecois.
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Léo
The wording from Le Journal is indeed ambiguous. “Nom d’origine québécoise” would have probably been a better phrasing.
@ Bill. I’m curious as of where you are hanging out; Canadiens-Français is seldom used in Québec nowadays and I suspect is becoming more and more obsolete. Probably only used by 65+ of age francos.
As of Québécois, its perception is pretty far off from what you’re depicting. Saying “Québécois” is a low-level insult is akin to saying “Mexican” is a low-level insult to identify people from Mexico.
Over the last few years I’ve noticed the apparation of the term “Queb” among young montrealers. Queb has a more redneck feel to it; it could fit more accurately your description.
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Kevin
@qatzelok
Bourque is Irish? That’s some pretty deep assimilation. -
Kate
@qatzelok That opens an interesting question. Ryan, as in Claude Ryan, or current Plateau borough councillor Richard Ryan, is a Québécois name – but Ryan, as in my grandfather James Ryan, also born in Quebec, is not?
As for Burke, “Burke is an English variant of a surname that is common in England and Ireland which originates with the Cambro-Normans. In Old English, the name means “fortified hill”. Variants include Bourke, de Burgo, Burgh, and De Burgh. Many Irish and English emigrants to Quebec and other francophone regions of Canada chose to change the spelling of the name to Bourque.” So it could be a Norman name that became an Irish name and then reverted to a French form in Quebec.
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Ephraim
So under the PQ, what percentage of the public servants hired were Anglophone? Allophone? About 7% of the province’s population is anglophone, 9% are allophone. Anglophones represent about .7% of the public servants in Quebec (2002 data). What is she going to do to ensure that anglophones (bilingual) are equally represented in government?
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Kate
Ephraim, you know there’s no political value in being seen to defend anglos.
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Steve Quilliam
You people are all mixing me up now. I don’t know what i am anymore because of you people not able to define who’s quebecois and who’s not. Seems very complicated suddenly.
My grand mother (a french canadian), who partly raised me, used to say we we’re french canadians. My grand father (catholic irish) used to think we we’re irish. My friends consider me a quebecois pure laine. My surname turns out to be english protestant from the Isle of Man (beetwen Great-Britain and Ireland). My great grand father converted to catholicism 100 so years ago to mary a french canadian but his children, including my grand father, we’re raised by mohawks in Kanesatake because the mother died prematurely and her brother married a native woman. That’s on my father’s side.
Then on my mother’s side. My grand father, Wafer, was a pure irish catholic, my grand mother a french canadian, Blais, from the Loire valley. But my grand mother’s mother was apprently from half native (probably Mic Mac) from the Gaspésie area. My great grand father apparently arrived here from the US (from NY) where part of his family emigrated but then he joined other members of his family later on up in Gaspésie.
My immigrant friends think i am not a pure laine quebecois because my french sounds international and my english sounds american. My sister’s daughter (my niece), who’s apparently quebecoise pure laine, (but not sure anymore), was going out with an american from Vermont. Their child is born in Montreal, but lives in Vermont since they splitted.
So…so can anyone help me find out what the h*** will this 3 years old little boy be when he turns out 18 years old ? I’m sure he is going to ask me or her mom and we better come up with an easy logical answer, if there is such an answer !
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Kate
Steve Q., that’s a pure Canadian epic, whatever you are.
Nobody is pure anything, I think anyone who’s done even a little family history soon finds that out.
P.S. you’re allowed to write “hell” on this blog : )
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Steve Quilliam
And i forgot to mention the way they viewed their little world true politics, back then. My mother’s family, from Gaspésie, always supported the conservatives (Provincial and federal) therefor Duplessis, Daniel Johnson and especially Mulroney, which they thought was the perfect quebecois that would understand the value of rural Quebec. But Mulroney, according to many of you, isn’t quebecois because of his surname !!!
Don’t tell that to my now late grand-parents, they wouldn’t have liked you.
On my father’s side, all of them from Montreal, they’ve always supported the Liberals (Federal and provincial) therefor Lesage, Bourassa and especially Trudeau, which made them proud because he was from Quebec and from Montreal, was the best man for both Canada and Quebec. But Trudeau, according to many of you, can not be 100% quebecois because his mother was english canadian. Therefor not pure laine !!!
Don’t tell that to my now late grand-parents, they wouldn’t have liked you either !
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Stefan
i have always found this to be an interesting question, defining whether one is quebecois.
my father-in-law had published his autobiography with the (rhetorical) title ‘peut-on devenir quebecois?’ when he retired. so, after immigrating from haiti and living half of his life in quebec, he certainly feels very quebecois. but at the same time he lives his haitian culture, for him there is no conflict.for myself, i have always felt that being quebecois has mostly to do with sharing values of the society in quebec, which are definitely distinct from other cultures in north america, or francophone cultures (but is of course not entirely homogenous). francophone immigrants (or their children) may better adapt these values, while others (and their children) may never accept them.
but to what degree one is perceived as quebecois, seems to be quite subjective (language, skin color, surname, cultural cues, cultural adaptation). some of which one can change, others not. so why the need for a definition? is it rather to find a common cultural base, or to label you differently whether one of your long-time ancestors was an anglophone? i heard that most ‘quebecois’ have some of the first immigrants among their ancestors (not recorded in the birth register for the shame of it).
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Kevin
You only have to look at today’s murder on Giovanni Caboto St. (or is that John Cabot trail) to know that in the past assimilation, even to the point of altering names, was the norm.
And I’m used to meeting McIntoshes, Blackburns, Harrises etc. who cannot speak a word of English.I just figure the language zealots look at those somewhat non-francophone names and figure that’s what they’re doomed to.
Which might, might have been the case before modern technology like the, oh I don’t know, the telephone was invented. And with the internet, yeah, we’re all going to be assimilated :/
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ant6n
@Kate
Well if you’re from one of the old countries first generation, you can actually be fairly pure ;-)
The next generation is going to be more complicated, though. -
Poutine Pundit
Jacques Parizeau said it best: “Est québécois qui veut l’être.”
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Janet
But that’s not the comment he’s best known for…
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Michel
My family history is similar to Steve’s. I think most folks who have been here for the past several hundred years (1664 in my case) have the most bastardised blood around. My greatest sorrow is that my son has Scottish blood, which we had astutely avoided until now. :)
\CSB, about 20 years ago, I was visiting my father’s great uncle in Portneuf. Couldn’t really understand half of what he was saying, the accent was rather strong. However, at one point this québécois de souche says “nous, les canadiens.” I was taken aback, but my father explained that, before the 60s, French Canadians called themselves, well, canadienss, and everyone else was “les anglais.” Which is also why the Habs are Le Canadien (the English team being the Maroons).
It saddens me that we’ve lost that bit of history. -
Ephraim
@Kate – I realize that. But I also realize that Quebec can never really become an inclusive place until they start to fix things and make everyone feel part of the fabric. And it is by strict definition a violation of Quebec’s own anti-discrimination hiring laws. One day, someone will stand up and take them to court for discrimination on their hiring practices and it will cost all of us money.
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qatzelok
@ Janet: “But that’s not the comment he’s best known for…”
The reason he’s “known for” another comment is because Anglo media has been smearing francophone leaders for hundreds of years, non-stop. It’s their M.O..
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Kate
qatzelok, you know that’s inflammatory.When Parizeau blamed the loss of the referendum on “l’argent puis des votes ethniques” it wasn’t an invention of the anglo media. He put that foot in his mouth all by his own self.
Another part of that speech is worth recalling, apropos of this subject: “On va parler de nous : à 60 pour cent, on a voté pour.” By nous who do you suppose he means? Not money (which some people read as Jews, although I don’t think he meant it so specifically – there’s still a belief out there that all anglos are rich) or ethnics, that’s for sure. The wall remained up.
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qatzelok
His statement alone isn’t important at all. It’s only normal he’d be blunt after losing a referendum. But then Anglo Car-media give his statement the full angryphone treatment complete with non-stop coverage: “Tonight, Tony Accurso defends his no vote against the callous racism of Parizeau.”
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Bixi’s finances are being straightened out and they’re working on an incentive program to encourage users to do some of the bike distribution needed to even out bicycle availability throughout the day.
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qatzelok
The only real solution I can think of is to redistribute residential development downtown, and build more places of work “up the hill” in Villeray and other north-central hoods. In other words, undo one of the tragic results of the last century of auto-based zoning.
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Kate
Yes, but we can’t exactly demand that of Bixi.
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qatzelok
Why not? If the car companies could rip up our tramway tracks, why can’t our bicycle rental program rebuild mixed housing in the downtown core? What’s good for the Goose XTL Brougham Diesel…
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ant6n
@qatzelok
How about we start with the billion dollar transit projects being coupled with transit oriented development, before we ask that of the dinky bixi program ;-). -
cheese
I think qatzelok has the right idea, just the scale of this example makes it look unrealistic. Real city building occurs when development and transport are planned together. Like in the old days of Monteal when the tram company would also be a primary developer of the new neighborhood that the tram was linking to. Similar thing with TMR and the trainline under the mountain. Other cities are combing these aspects again but Montreal is lagging behind.
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The city is pondering implanting green urban walks as one of its projects for the 375th anniversary in 2017, but details are still scanty.
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Jonathan
Interesting we think about this now. I think the original plan from Olmsted included a green urban corridor linking LaFontaine Park to Mont Royal. It was either via Rachel or Duluth.
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Kate
You’re right, I read a long time ago it was to be Duluth, which is why the city chose it later to pave with those driveway bricks, but never got quite as far as making it into a pedestrian mall à la Prince Arthur.
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Jack 07:47 on 2012/07/06 Permalink
Does this piss anyone else off, especially the case of Duchesne .Here’s a guy whose responsibility is to inform me on the goings on in Quebec City, to give an account from multiple political perspectives, to shake the underbrush and go into the shadows and find some “truth”. When everybody in Quebec City knows he is in the bag for the PQ. I sadly was watching Dumont (V) ( zeitgeist research) and he described how he often questioned how nobody at Radio Can would think it odd having its National Assembly Press chief so obviously partisan.Three months ago ,when Duschene was still ” reporting” a former Bloc MP was quoted as saying that Bourduas was reserved for a Radio Can journalist, alarm bells anyone.This follows the mascarade of having Bernard Drainville ( the former National Assembly Bureau chief) ” interviewing” Andre Boisclair when he was in full negotiations for a safe riding to be parachuted in. This speaks directly to the credibility of R.C. as a news organization.God almighty we are so poorly served by TVA that we have to rely on RC for some level of credibility.I am hurt I even have a Radio Canada T shirt… By the way Christine St.Pierre gets no pass either.
Kate 08:09 on 2012/07/06 Permalink
Jack, you’re not the only one with ethical concerns about Duchesne’s objectivity. Lots of scuttle about it. He’s by a long way not the first journo to move into politics – but in his case, the overlap between his professional duties and his political move is a bit tight.
Anto 08:52 on 2012/07/06 Permalink
Jack, I don’t understand how you can criticize Duchesne for being partisan and yet have no problem listening to Dumont’s opinion…
Every journalist has political opinions, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have ethics and can’t do his job properly. I’ve been in situations where I worked at a company while negociating with a competitor for a new job, and that didn’t mean I was sabotaging my work to give an advantage to my new employers.
Michel 08:56 on 2012/07/06 Permalink
Peter Kent, Mike Duffy, etc. Reporters for Radio-Canada. A bunch of others. It happens. It sucks, but it happens.
Jack 09:13 on 2012/07/06 Permalink
Thanks Anto. Dumont is a failed politician with an opinion show, he is not a journalist and never claimed to be, he does a survey of the news nightly with notables like Gilles Proulx and Eric Duhaime, yesterday’s top story in the world, the whole wide world according to Dumont was FIFA’s decision to let woman play soccer wearing scarves. I watch Dumont because he tells me something about the society I live in. I relied on Duchesne to tell me what’s going on in Quebec City, not Pauline Marois.When a journalist is “reporting” he should not be negotiating a sinecure with the party he is covering.In your eyes isn’t this the most base conflict of interests, how can you stretch journalism’s ethics to interviewing a party leader when you are negotiating a safe riding a la Drainville. Has it come to this, is this the best political journalists can do, can they really turn this ethical mudslide into political and personal capital while we say thats just the way it is.
Jack 09:16 on 2012/07/06 Permalink
@ Anto if you were in my employ, negotiating a contract with a competitor while negotiating with my competitor for a job.I would fire you on the spot.
Anto 09:24 on 2012/07/06 Permalink
@Jack: Then I guess it’s a good thing I wasn’t, and Duchesne wasn’t either.
I agree with you about this. Duchesne claims it wasn’t the case, and that he didn’t start talking to the PQ until he had resigned from SRC.
Jack 09:44 on 2012/07/06 Permalink
@ Thanks Anto “Selon les informations obtenues par La Presse, la direction du PQ a prévenu il y a trois mois l’ex-députée bloquiste Carole Lavallée, pressentie dans Borduas, que la circonscription était réservée «à un candidat-vedette de Radio-Canada». Tout récemment encore, la direction du PQ a répété au président de l’association, François Gauthier, que cette circonscription de choix allait être «retenue pour un candidat d’envergure nationale».”
Duchesne quit on June 6th ,2012 for family reasons.
Anto 09:55 on 2012/07/06 Permalink
“L’ex-journaliste de Radio-Canada a rencontré la chef péquiste, Pauline Marois, hier en matinée, selon ce qu’ont confirmé des sources sûres. À la télévision plus tôt cette semaine, Mme Marois avait affirmé ne pas avoir parlé à M.Duchesne d’une éventuelle candidature. Il s’agissait donc hier d’un « premier contact », a-t-on certifié. Selon cette version des faits, les pourparlers entre M.Duchesne et le PQ auraient donc commencé « il y a une semaine et demie, deux semaines ». Bref, après le départ de ce dernier de Radio-Canada et non en janvier, comme d’autres sources l’ont indiqué mardi.”
I guess we’ll have to wait and see who’s right.
Kevin 10:58 on 2012/07/06 Permalink
Contrast with Anne Lagacé-Dowson who quit to run in federal politics and then could not get hired again by the CBC.
david m 14:43 on 2012/07/06 Permalink
i wonder if this will save rosement for the pq in the face of a feisty solidairiste.
in other news, i never thought it would happen that i could be this unenthusiastic about voting. like in every election, there’s at least some lesser of two evils. but aside from the fact of voting for amir (which is an obvious choice), the pq vs plq vs caq competition makes me feel really bored and depressed. i like amir, but i wish qs had a less flamboyantly radical leader so that the party could at least get into the debates.
Kate 15:51 on 2012/07/06 Permalink
There just isn’t a party that represents my concerns, i.e. social justice concerns, lefty, but not wasting time, effort and funds on the nationalist project. I think I’ll vote PQ to take a meaningful vote away from the Liberals and flout the idea that all anglos are slavish Liberal voters no matter what the party does.
(I never thought I would vote PQ. Thanks, M. Charest.)
Jack 21:03 on 2012/07/06 Permalink
@ Anto Pauline never spoke to him……………..