Blotter items from the long weekend
Two guys were stabbed on Saturday morning but although reported together the two incidents were apparently not connected.
A man from Serbia who lived in Montreal for several years and seemingly had a family here pleaded guilty in the U.S. to shooting his two kids. One of the kids died, the other has recovered.
There was a brawl on the Main early Monday morning involving 30 people, but no arrests. Also Monday morning, a man died in a car on the Met after driving on it in the wrong direction.
Three people have now escaped from minimum-security prisons near Montreal within nine days. The Journal casts it as a second prisoner escaping from Montée St-François prison in Laval; similar from CBC.
Justin Bresaw, suspected of an arson that killed three in Amos, was arrested in Florida (TVA link, plays video) on Sunday. Bresaw also faces charges in the U.S.
Hamburger is off the menu in many households after so many reports of E. coli contamination. The XL foods meat recall is getting ever larger too. (I didn’t do a post months ago when the Harper government announced a reduction in meat inspections – a topic normally outside the remit of this blog – but at the time it occurred to me this was a big clue that it was time to be vegetarian or something close to it. I’m not, but I don’t eat burger meat anyway.) Here’s the full official recall list.
Marc 18:27 on 2012/10/08 Permalink
I’ve never been a big red meat eater; you don’t need it to live. And the occasional time I crave some, it’s from a little shop I’ve been going to for ages. All his beef comes from the Townships or Montéregie.
Kate 21:57 on 2012/10/08 Permalink
Which shop?
Marc 22:33 on 2012/10/08 Permalink
Viandes Claude in Lachine. Same family running it for 40+ years. They also make all their own tourtières, chicken pot pies, lots of single-serving dishes and desserts. I know it’s far for you but I lived in Lachine for many years and have family there, so I’m there often enough.
Tim 07:52 on 2012/10/09 Permalink
With problems with spinach and other salad vegetables doesn’t leave me too optimistic in the safety in vegetarianism; at least, in that one regard.
Kate 11:22 on 2012/10/09 Permalink
True, it’s a concern. But one can always cook vegetables and make them safe to eat. There can be toxins in tainted meat that survive cooking.
Marc: thanks for the tip. You’re right, it’d be a bit far for me.
Blork 20:21 on 2012/10/09 Permalink
For perspective, the XL plant slaughters 4000 heads of cattle a day (which itself is an eye-popping statistic). On average, each yields about 600 pounds of retail beef, which means it’s cranking out almost 2.5 million pounds of beef — or about 5 million meals — a day. With all of that, 11 people got sick.
I’m not defending them (from what I hear, the place was very dirty). But people should realize that the recalls are not because all of that beef is tainted; it’s because there’s a small chance that a bit of that meat is tainted.