You can tell a story is dominating the news when media outlets are climbing over each other to get any details they can label as “exclusive.” So far The Gazette (proudly) and the Journal/TVA/LCN (multiple times over) have joined in the game, getting their hands on details of the Fredy Villanueva case. La Presse, where are you?
Monthly Archives: August 2008
Take a bike tour of Rosemont
The Société de développement environmentale de Rosemont (yeah, I didn’t know they existed either) is sponsoring a guided bicycle tour of the borough’s environmental-friendliness. Perhaps more interesting is that at least one bike shop (Bicycle Beaubien) will be on hand to help you out with any bike needs and there will be some free food, all on the city’s dime.
Route for SODER's bicycle tour of Rosemont
The tour starts at Bellechasse and 16th Ave. at 1:30pm on Saturday (Aug. 16). For more information, consult the press release (PDF).
Killer cops
Thank you, No One is Illegal Montreal, for setting the record straight on the shooting of Fredy Villanueva. It wasn’t an accident, nor the actions of a frightened police officer with inadequate training. It was obviously the expression of the “killer cop’s” blood lust for murdering brown people in cold blood.
Oh, and the riot was justified and rioters aren’t criminals.
“No justice, no peace” indeed. (Doesn’t that just mean “wage war until you get what you think you deserve?”)
Têtes à claques en anglais
The Quebec-based online video sensation Têtes à claques has soft-launched a new website and and anglo version with passable anglo accents.
The videos are the same as the franco versions, but they seem to lose some of the humour in translation. I’m not quite sure what it is, exactly. Maybe I’m just more easily amused by francophone humour. Maybe the québécois accent does something to make stuff sound more funny.
Meanwhile, Le Devoir today has a letter about francophone singers releasing anglo albums. Of course, it’s filled with the usual anti-English xenophobia you’d expect out of Le Devoir, but the gist of the letter is that artists shouldn’t be selling themselves short recording in another language just for the money, even if the English market is insanely lucrative:
La chanson est un art qui mérite le respect.
The writer is talking about Garou and Gregory Charles.
Yeah.
CTV Montreal’s $23,600 “clarification”
CTV Montreal issued a rare on-air apology today to Pointe Claire Mayor Bill McMurchie for saying he spent $23,600 on meals at taxpayer’s expense (about $65 a day):
Last July 15, we reported on several occasions that Bill McMurchie, mayor of the city of Pointe-Claire, had spent $23,600 on meals at taxpayers’ expense.
We wish to clarify that the mayor actually spent less than $1,500 on meals during 2007 as shown in a statement prepared by Lyne Goulet, Pointe-Claire city treasurer and posted on the city’s web site.
CTV apologizes to Mayor McMurchie and the elected council of Pointe-Claire for any embarrassment or prejudice that may have been caused.
I can’t find the original story, since CTV Montreal doesn’t archive its news, so I have to go on what’s being written here.
But “clarify”? You inflated a figure more than ten-fold, accusing a man of corruption and left the record unfixed for almost a month, and you’re clarifying?
Unless I’ve missed something, this is a correction. And a major one.
CTV Montreal gets kudos for diversity
Mutsumi Takahashi is really happy about CTV Montreal's employment equity award
CTV’s Herb Luft drew the short straw today and got to report on his workplace being honoured by the federal government for employment equity. According to his report (video), the station scored straight As in all four categories: women, aboriginals, visible minorities and people with disabilities.
Though there are definitely women and visible minorities (Mutsumi Takahashi fills two of those slots simultaneously, as do Maya Johnson (below), Danielle Hamamdjian and others who aren’t listed on the station’s almost-all-white host bios page), I haven’t seen any aboriginal people in visible positions, nor any people with disabilities (unless you count Stéphane Giroux’s accent).
CTV Montreal reporter Maya Johnson: Brown and loving it
All that said, kudos to CTV Montreal.
Yves Bolduc’s spending spree
One question for the Journal de Montréal
Public security minister Jacques Dupuis has been seen on the television quite a bit, but for some reason the Journal de Montréal hasn’t been able to secure an interview. Rather than accepting that newspapers simply aren’t as cool as television, the Journal is whining about it, and has published a list of questions for the minister about Sunday’s riot and the relationship between police and citizens.
The questions are pretty standard reporter questions, but as a fellow journalist pointed out to me, and as I now ask the Journal:
Doesn’t publishing a list of questions in advance of an interview go against most newspapers’ journalistic policy?
NDG wants to change the face of St. Jacques Street
St. Jacques Street, looking east from Madison
St. Jacques Street in NDG has a reputation, and not a good one. It’s lined mostly with used car dealerships, auto repair shops, seedy motels and deteriorating parking lots. The neighbourhood around it is known more for being on the “wrong side of the tracks” than anything else.
The borough, as part of its master plan, is trying to change all that. It’s proposing a by-law (PDF) that would disallow the creation of new gas stations, auto parts shops and car dealerships on St. Jacques between Madison and the Decarie expressway. Instead, it wants to see more other kinds of commerce (restaurants, grocery stores and the like) on the south side and more residential development on the north side.
Midas shop on St. Jacques
While some major franchises are located in this area (such as this Midas shop and an Ultramar gas station), the vast majority are Mom & Pop shops with fading signs and improvised setups.
The draft by-law, which will see public consultation next month, would not force these businesses to close. But it would prohibit new ones from forming in their places if they do.
Why do taxis get special treatment?
Traffic sign gives taxis special privileges at Peel and René Lévesque
So what is it about taxis, anyway, that gives them all this special treatment on our roads? Above, left turns are prohibited on René Lévesque Blvd. in order to keep traffic flowing smoothly. But taxis, for some reason, are exempt from this rule. So if a taxi wants to turn left, it can just sit there in the middle of the intersection waiting for an opportunity to do so.
But what’s more frustrating is that taxis get to use Montreal’s reserved bus lanes, whether or not they are carrying any passengers. Why is that? Are taxis considered small buses? Does a taxi carrying one person pollute less than a personal car carrying one person? Are taxis so vital to the economy that they should be exempt from downtown traffic?
My attempts to find an explanation have so far been fruitless. As far as I can tell, the reasoning behind it is the same as that which gives newspapers an exemption from Canada’s Do Not Call List regulations: Taxis have a very powerful lobby.
Journal de Québec employees back at work
Employees of the Journal de Québec returned to work on Tuesday, 15 months after being locked out and days after the last issue of their self-produced strike paper, MédiaMatinQuébec (whose website has since been shut down).
The paper (and its website) hasn’t undergone a significant transformation yet, but expect work on that to begin in haste over the next little while.
Hampstead still hates the environment
The city of Hampstead has apparently decided that outdoor clotheslines are still too ghetto to be allowed back into their perfect little white-ass town.
But don’t worry. The mayor is advising environmentally-conscious citizens to (wink, wink) break the by-law which specifically bans their use.
That makes perfect sense.
Invisible arms!
Superhuman athletes
Apparently Concordia has two alumni at the Beijing Olympics in wrestling. Not only do they both glow, but David Zilberman has arms that fade into invisibility. That sounds like it would be an awesome advantage in wrestling.
Coiffeur, do your thing
Look out, ladies. Patrick Lagacé is prettying himself up to be on the teevee.
By-election politicians on Facebook
As a follow-up to my overview of the candidates in the Sept. 8 by-election in Westmount Ville-Marie, here’s a quick rundown of the campaigns’ Facebook strategies (sorted by number of supporters):
(UPDATE Aug. 19: Mr. Larivée has joined the club, so I’ve updated the list as of today)
Anne Lagacé-Dowson (NDP)
- Fan page: YES
- Supporters: 511
- Personal page: NO
Marc Garneau (Liberal)
- Fan page: YES
- Supporters: 370
- Personal page: YES
- Embarrassing personal information on personal page: NO
Claude William Genest (Green)
- Fan page: YES
- Supporters: 178
- Personal page: YES (Though his profile pic is of a chimp hugging a bird)
- Embarrassing personal information on personal page: Open wall, “flirt” box on his profile page, and photos of him dressed as a pimp. Does that count?
Charles Larivée (Bloc Québécois)
- Fan page: YES (though it’s actually a group, not a fan page)
- Supporters: 120
- Personal page: YES
- Embarrassing personal information on personal page: Nope, it’s wiped clean
Judith Vienneau (Rhino)
- Fan page: YES (but no photo)
- Supporters: 8 (ouch)
- Personal page: YES
- Embarrassing personal information on personal page: Plenty of TMI boxes on the profile page. Also, apparently wanted to be leader of the Libertarian Party. Maybe Rhino was her second choice?
Guy Dufort (Conservative)
- Fan page: NO
- Personal page: YES (private)
Many politicians have fake “personal” profiles setup, which I think is largely irrelevant since Facebook invented the fan page. So I won’t take any marks away from Lagacé Dowson for that. But Dufort and Larivée not having any Facebook exposure at all? That’s just not right.