Radio-Canada has a report on the Transport department’s 86 most dangerous highway segments in Quebec. Of the ones on the island of Montreal (see the full list in an HTML table here), all but one are either in/near the Turcot interchange or near the Dorval airport. The other is Notre Dame East between Pie-IX and Dickson, a road they’re trying their best to make even more dangerous.
Category Archives: In the news
Finally some common sense at 911
The few times I’ve called 911, usually from my cellphone, I’ve been met with the usual 20 questions:
- What’s the nature of the emergency?
- What’s your telephone number?
- Where are you?
After explaining that someone’s getting the ass kicked out of him, the 911 operator transfers me to police dispatch. There, the person asks me a few questions, like:
- What’s the nature of the emergency?
- What’s your telephone number?
- Where are you?
Every time I do this, I’m shocked that the most important communications system we have, where time can literally mean life or death, is so inefficiently run that it requires me to spend vital seconds repeating all the information twice. I wonder why that information isn’t automatically shared, or if it’s not, why doesn’t the 911 operator transfer me quickly and skip the questions altogether?
Today comes word that the police department is upgrading its systems so 911 and police share information automatically. The move will shave 50 seconds on average from every 911 call requiring police intervention.
50 seconds.
The fire department will be upgraded next year. Urgences Santé already works on the new system.
ALD for NDP
The NDP has apparently chosen its candidate for its next most likely by-election pickup in Quebec: the downtown riding of Westmount-Ville-Marie. No, it’s not the guy in the above video (though he sounds like he’d be awesome), it’s CBC Radio Noon host Anne Lagacé Dowson:
(Note: May not be exactly as pictured)
I worked with Anne during my very brief stint at CBC Radio. Considering how incompetent I was, she seemed like a pretty nice person. The fact that she’s running for office under the NDP banner is hardly surprising (though I doubt she and Jack Layton agree on every issue)
Now the NDP seems to think that after their stunning win in Outremont, getting a broadcast journalist on board is the magic ticket to a second win in Quebec.
Unfortunately, it’s no guarantee. Just look at Peter Kent, former Global National anchor who lost for the Conservatives in Toronto (he’s trying his luck again in a much more affluent York riding). And he was at least on TV. (Get Mutsumi Takahashi or Nancy Wood to run and we’ll talk)
Even worse, her opponent is another star candidate (albeit another failed one), former astronaut Marc Garneau.
The riding, which mainly covers Westmount and western downtown (plus a bit of eastern NDG) could be hard to predict, with a mix of rich anglo Westmounters and poor hippie Concordia students. But the federal riding covering Westmount has been Liberal since 1962, and that’s a lot of history to overcome for a party that hasn’t done better than third with 15% of the vote.
Due to a conflict of interest, Lagacé Dowson has taken a leave of absence from CBC Radio, and the latter immediately scrubbed all mention of her from its website.
UPDATE (July 7): It’s “confirmed” apparently (as if there was doubt). Lagacé Dowson is, as usual, humble:
“I am not falling on my sword in Westmount,” she told a handful of supporters. “This liberal tradition isn’t serving us very well, and we don’t like what the Conservatives are doing to us. I am not running to make a good showing; I am running to win. If Barack Obama against all odds can capture the leadership of the Democratic party in the United States, who says a woman can’t capture the hearts and minds of Westmount for the NDP?”
I’m not quite sure how this relates to Barack Obama, nor being a woman (especially since the riding’s former MP, Lucienne Robillard, has two X chromosomes last time I checked), but don’t let that interfere with the historicness.
Meanwhile, the other parties have filled out their candidates. Just to show how confident the Bloc Québécois is at winning a seat in Westmount, they’ve nominated Charles Larivée, who according to Google is the president of the McGill Political Science Students Association.
Aborted fetus, mom and Morgentaler
I know this may shock and amaze you, but not everyone agrees that Henry Morgentaler, the father of abortion rights in Canada, should receive the Order of Canada. Many Tories and conservative Liberals are against it.
Of course, they’re not stupid enough to say it’s because they disagree with the guy on abortion rights, something the majority of Canadians support. Instead, they bring up some silliness about how the OOC recipients should be people who “unite” Canadians instead of “dividing” them.
Which would make Pierre Trudeau immediately ineligible.
One of the comments on the Star article suggests that Paul Bernardo should be next in line for the order the way it’s going. I guess he means that Morgentaler is a murderer and that advocating abortion rights is one step from serial killing. The Holocaust can’t be far off.
But then, Bernardo is probably a good bet by the Tories’ definition. After all, we’re all united in our feelings about him.
O CanadOMG
Speaking of ridiculous things to be outraged about, the Globe and Mail apparently found it necessary to assign a reporter to write a story about how there was no Canada Day Google Doodle this year.
Is poutine offensive?
The Canadian embassy in Washington is apologizing to Impératif français, among others, after it used a photoshopped picture of Samuel de Champlain holding a poutine on invites (now scrubbed of the poutine offensiveness) to Canada Day celebrations. IF reacted to the image with their usual measured response.
Perhaps I missed something in Political Correctness 101, but what’s so offensive about this again? Is it some stereotype that we eat poutine? Is it because the image of Champlain was sullied in some way?
Frankly, I think the fact that Canadian Press had to explain what poutine was is offensive to me.
Tonight’s forecast: dark
Jim Prentice doesn’t understand his own copyright bill
I’ve been following the brouhaha over the Conservative government’s new copyright bill, C-61, and specifically how the government has been responding to geeks who are finding holes in it and driving public opinion against the bill.
The more I follow it, the more I come to a rather stunning conclusion: Industry Minister Jim Prentice doesn’t understand his own copyright bill.
The big controversy, as the Globe’s Ivor Tossell explains, is over a provision about so-called digital locks (those software hacks they call Digital Rights Management, or DRM, that try to control how you access digital media). It says that users cannot bypass these locks, no matter how flimsy they are, even if what they’re trying to do with it is entirely legal.
The consequence of this is that companies just put digital locks on everything, and through a loophole in the law can claim rights they shouldn’t have in the first place.
In the above video, Prentice and Heritage Minister Josée Verner are asked about this, and you can see them struggle to regurgitate the talking points they’ve been handed about the bill. (In Verner’s case, you might argue that language difficulties combined with an inability to hear the question might be an excuse.)
It’s also apparent in Prentice’s 10-minute interview with CBC’s Search Engine (its most popular podcast, which incidentally has been cancelled). Prentice calls common-sense hypotheticals about the law “arcane,” seems unclear about what would happen in certain cases, and hangs up on the interviewer to escape his questions.
But to me this isn’t just about a minister and a bill. It’s something that’s always bothered me about parliamentary politics: the idea that being an MP is all the expertise needed to run a federal department. You don’t need to be a doctor to manage doctors. You don’t need to have a PhD to manage universities. You don’t need to have a driver’s license to manage the transportation department. And you don’t need to understand computers to be in charge of a new copyright bill.
Of course, in many cases ministers are put in areas they would be more comfortable with. Ken Dryden being minister for sport makes sense. But cabinet shuffles being as routine as they are makes it seem as if running the military isn’t so different from foreign affairs or finance.
Maybe it’s true. Maybe being a minister is more about managing, appointing directors, making budgets, drafting legislation and shaking hands at ceremonial functions than it is about getting into the nitty-gritty.
But Prentice and the copyright bill show a clear problem with that premise.
Far from black and white
Richard Martineau goes on one of his usual rants, this time about what he considers racism.
The first part of his rant is against a lame This Hour Has 22 Minutes sketch that makes fun of Quebecers. Since Martin Patriquin already has a response to that one, I won’t bother here.
The second part attacks my newspaper for the most curious of reasons:
On faisait un appel à tous pour savoir si une famille du West Island pouvait accueillir une petite fille de 13 ans un week-end par mois, histoire de laisser sa mère souffler un peu.
«La jeune fille est très active, elle garde sa chambre propre et respecte les règlements de la maison, pouvait-on lire. Idéalement, la famille d’accueil serait noire…»
Imaginez comment The Gazette réagirait si le Journal se mettait à la recherche d’une famille d’accueil BLANCHE pour une jeune fille. On crierait au racisme !
The Gazette has regular columns in its arts and life section which profile kids looking for foster homes and organizations in need of volunteers. It’s about a step and a half below actually rescuing orphans from a burning building.
But Martineau takes issue with the fact that it’s suggested a black kid would ideally (but necessarily) best be placed with a black family.
To answer his straw-man hypothetical, if the Journal was trying more to place troubled children with foster parents, I would certainly welcome it. And if an ad requested white parents, I’d probably be more confused than offended. Statistically there are always more black kids in these situations and fewer black parents in a position to adopt.
But even if I grant that this is racism at its core, is this really the biggest injustice he could find?
The Gazette can be criticized for a lot of things (ask me, I’ll write you up a list), but in 1,000 years this would not have stricken me as one of them.
Yellow-cheese journalism
Editorial staff at the West Island Chronicle, apparently running out of grandmothers, high school sports teams and stop sign campaigns to talk about, has moved on to eating pizza.
I have a hot tip, officer
You’ll be pleased to know that bleeding penises are valid excuses for speeding. Even if they’re not yours.
(There Jeff, I posted one of your stories. Happy now?)
UPDATE: Farked.
Urgences-Santé on strike
Urgences-Santé’s emergency call-centre operators are on strike today. So don’t get sick.
(Essential services will be provided, it’s just that the number of man-hours is being reduced.)
That’s one small DUNT for a woman…
In addition to being mocked on the Colbert Report, the Hockey Night in Canada theme situation has also made the New York Times.
As a side note, I’ve noticed that mainstream media websites, when talking about the Hockey Night theme, have been linking to a version of it on YouTube which was clearly infringing on copyright. Later, when some of these same media websites talked about the Colbert Report talking about the Hockey Night in Canada theme, they linked to another YouTube video, which was also infringing on copyright. (Both those videos have since been taken down.) Is it appropriate for media websites to be promoting content they know to be infringing on other people’s copyright?
UPDATE: Scott Moore, the executive director of CBC TV sports, has a post up about the HNIC theme and the responses he’s gotten about it.
Racism is OK when you’re white
A story came out on Wednesday about how the Defence Department union wants more women on emergency response units, because “a group of female workers were stripped naked and scrubbed down by an all-male team responding to an anthrax scare.”
I looked for it, but I couldn’t find any commentary from the blogosphere, the PQ or others calling sexism here and saying that emergency response workers should not be discriminated against because of their gender.
This is odd, because a lot of people make a fuss about the idea that only male police officers should address Hassidic Jews, or that only female doctors should see Muslim women as patients.
What’s the difference in these reasonable accommodations?
Tim Russert dead
American political journalism just died today. On the job.