A fire broke out this evening around 7 p.m. at Rachel and St. Denis, above, among other things, L’Barouf. Fifteen people had to flee their homes and will probably remain homeless for a while (which suggests local news outlets won’t use my headline above). Plenty of pictures on Flickr from users wjpbennett (including the one above) and jusmobile.
UPDATE: The owner of Le Continental, also destroyed in the fire, vows to rebuild. As do the owners of L’Barouf.
You would be forgiven for missing this story, curiously buried in the back pages of Saturday’s papers: a Vancouver talk radio station has been slapped on the wrist and forced to apologize by the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council for broadcasting the location of people inside Dawson College during the Sept. 13, 2006 shootings.
Here’s the story:
On the afternoon of Sept. 13, as media around the world began to clue in that a school shooting was in progress at Dawson, Vancouver’s CKNW News Talk 980 broke into its morning show (they’re three hours behind, remember) to pick up a live feed from Montreal’s 940 News. Both stations are owned by Corus.
Like every other media outlet in Montreal, 940 was desperately trying to get information on what was going on. The police didn’t know how many shooters there were or where they were or anything else. So the media filled their otherwise dead air with rampant speculation. There were four gunmen. They were shooting up Alexis Nihon. All sorts of stuff.
Fortunately in this age, everyone has a cellphone. And though the cell sites around Dawson were saturated, some calls got through. And among those were calls to the radio stations from students inside Dawson.
One of those was a girl named Sannah, who told 940 she was in a lab on the 7th floor with 30 other students. Then there was Dahlia, who 940 said was on the 3rd floor. After the interviews, host Michael Dean repeated their locations in a summary of what was going on.
There are a couple of ways of looking at this. On one hand, announcing (and repeating) the locations of people hiding from a gunman on the air can be seen as mind-numbingly stupid, allowing a loose gunman to find sitting ducks by listening to the radio. On the other hand (and this was the station’s argument) that same information would also be helpful to police to find them first.
Of course, a call to 911 would have had those advantages without the drawbacks. Whether they couldn’t get through to 911 or whether the police already knew of their locations isn’t clear.
And, we should also mention, all of this is sort of a moot point. By the time anyone was talking on the radio, Kimveer Gill was dead, and he wasn’t listening to the radio. So this is really just an academic argument.
Nevertheless, the British Columbia regional panel of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council concluded that the Vancouver station was in violation of a Radio Television News Directors Association Code of Ethics article which is surprisingly on point:
Reporting on criminal activities such as hostage-takings, prison uprisings or terrorist acts will be done in a fashion that does not knowingly endanger lives, offer comfort and support or provide vital information to the perpetrator(s). RTNDA members will contact neither victims nor perpetrators of a criminal activity during the course of the event for the purpose of conducting an interview that would interfere with a peaceful resolution.
Now, some logicians and common-sensers in the audience out there might be asking themselves: Why are we talking about a Vancouver radio station? Why isn’t this applying to 940 News?
Because nobody complained about 940 News.
Unfortunately for the CBSC, someone has to file a complaint against a station before they can act. Even if they find evidence of wrongdoing, they can’t take action. The ruling made mention of this:
[The panel] also observes that it would have been pertinent to apply its conclusions to CINW-AM [940 News], the Corus sister station in Montreal, as well as to any other Corus stations running the challenged portion of the live feed. The CBSC’s procedures do not, however, permit such a conclusion. In the circumstances, no complaint having been received from a Montreal listener, the Panel confines the requirements of its conclusions to the Corus Vancouver station, with respect to which it did receive the complaint with which this decision has dealt. Moreover, since all CBSC members are bound by the principles established in all CBSC decisions, the Panel recognizes that the reach of the conclusions will mandate the application of the principles established here in all Corus and other broadcaster newsrooms.
I’m at a loss to figure out what part of this story boggles the mind more.
Is the esteemed Mr. Gravenor mocking our much-hyped fashion sense?
I’ll have you know my mother thinks I’m very fashionable with my volunteer T-shirt, Wal-Mart shorts and white tube socks.
The ceremonial contingent of the Grenadier Guards are coming to Montreal today (Sunday) and are holding a public parade at Champ-de-Mars (next to City Hall) at 4:45 p.m. It’s your only chance to see them before they go back to Ottawa.
I’m drenched. Just came back from Angrignon Park, where “Montreal’s Largest Water Fight” took over an area next to a lake and about 100-150 people with their $20 Chinese Super-Soaker knockoffs targetted each other with no mercy.
I got there about 12:15, expecting a huge crowd (or at least a small crowd) at the Angrignon Park exit to the metro station. I had to look a bit before I found some people with bright-coloured water guns shooting at each other. I stayed and watched for a bit before I decided I’d just go out, buy one for myself and join in the fun.
I came back, loaded my gun and sauntered over to the grassy shooting field. It wasn’t long before someone noticed I wasn’t wet at all. Then another. And another. Suddenly I was being swarmed. The mob was growing and everyone was targetting me. I had to close my eyes by this point so all I remember is lots of water.
Looking for something to do this afternoon? Not afraid of a little water? Montreal’s “Largest Water Fight” is scheduled for today (Saturday) at noon at Angrignon Park.
It’s being organized via Facebook, but for those who don’t want to sign up here’s the details:
Want to make a weekend out of having fun? Here’s some other free stuff going on:
In a column Saturday, everyone’s favourite kinda-journalist Robert Fisk talks about why he thinks people are turning to blogs instead of newspapers. He doesn’t like blogs because they’re “irresponsible” (a valid criticism, though hypocritical, of some blogs out there), so … actually, there’s no reason for him to mention this, because he doesn’t explain it further.
To explain his case for blogs over newspapers, he uses two newspaper mea culpas: Mark Arax, an L.A. Times journalist who had a story about debate over the Armenian genocide cut because he expressed an opinion in the debate (albeit the majority-accepted one that the genocide did, in fact, happen); and Jan Wong, who wrote a column in the Globe and Mail about the Dawson College shooting, blaming it and the Fabrikant and Polytechnique shootings all on Quebec racism.
I’m unfamiliar with the Arax case (and it sounds kind of boring anyway), so I’ll deal with Wong’s.
First of all, I should point out that the Wong case has nothing to do with blogs, so I’m kind of curious why it’s mentioned in this column.
Second, Fisk doesn’t actually use any arguments to bolster Wong’s case. Instead, he goes on a tangent, bringing up a copyright dispute between his paper and hers, directly translating French terms and making fun of them, and pointing out that a newspaper’s editorial cartoon exaggerated her facial features (oh the horror!).
Since Fisk doesn’t argue the case, I’ll have to simply dismiss his opinion on the subject. Wong’s opinion can be easily discounted by the simple argument that none of the three shooters she talks about blamed racism or language bias against them. Polytechnique’s Marc Lepine blamed women, Concordia’s Valery Fabrikant blamed coworkers stealing his ideas, and Dawson’s Kimveer Gill’s motives are still unclear.
The Wikipedia article sums everything up quite well.
Robert, I know you’re a cranky old man, but if you’re going to rant like an idiot, maybe you shouldn’t waste newspaper space?
After pressure from truckers, the Quebec Transport Department has finally decided to release the list of 135 overpasses it considers “at-risk” (but not “unsafe”) and is prohibiting overloaded trucks from taking them. The complete list is in PDF form on their website.
It contains eight overpasses on the Island of Montreal:
I’ve plotted them on Google Maps. Click the image above to see in detail. They are:
UPDATE: I’ve added the rest of the 135 overpasses.
I desperately need something more productive to do with my time.
Speaking of Mayor Ed and his wacky ideas, he’s changing his tune on the development of de Salaberry Blvd., an undeveloped East-West route from Kirkland to Sources Blvd. and beyond.
For those unfamiliar with de Salaberry, most of it is a two or four-lane road, starting from Sommerset Street in the West (where it crosses into Kirkland) and ending just east of Sources Blvd.
What makes this road unusual is that right next to it, for almost its entire length in Dollard, is a wide grassy area with power lines on it. The plan was to eventually turn this small road into a major East-West thoroughfare, halfway between Pierrefonds Blvd. and Highway 40. That never happened, mostly because it would just shift traffic onto Sources and wouldn’t solve West Island traffic headaches.
Unclear on the fact that nothing will solve West Island traffic headaches so long as the airport, the rail yards and Highway 13 stay where they are, he’s been trying to push through a development plan that would extend the street through the Bois de Liesse park:
Needless to say, that plan didn’t win over too many people. So instead, he’s now proposing that it be a bus-only lane. Now you can’t accuse him of not being environmentally-friendly. He’s pro-transit!
There’s a few problems with the idea though:
Sorry Ed. The Chronicle may love your idea, but I don’t see it being necessary. We need more buses to the West Island, not more bus lanes.
Dollard-des-Ormeaux mayor Ed Janiszewski isn’t unusual. He’s like a lot of suburban mayors. But that doesn’t make his ideas less silly.
In a bid to stop those Evil Teenagers Up To No Good (TM), Dollard’s council passed a new by-law prohibiting loitering in public areas of the town.
“Loitering” has always been one of those terms I found odd. It sounds bad, like something a drug dealer or gang member would do. But what is it, exactly? Well, technically, “loitering” means “being somewhere just because you feel like it.”
Now, you might think a law forbidding people from standing in a public place without a grown-up reason would seem somewhat unconstitutional. In fact, such laws have been declared unlawful in the U.S. But still they persist. Businesses and other institutions have “no loitering” signs posted outside, and laws are drawn up with complicated definitions to try to outlaw something which feels illegal but is not actually a violation of any law.
The logic is best explained by this Janiszewski quote:
“Kids aren’t all bad. They need to hang out, to be with their peer group, but it shouldn’t be in public. They should be at their home or at somebody else’s home.”
Yes, folks. Dollard’s mayor doesn’t want kids hanging out in public.
Next time adults wonder why kids feel alienated or rebellious, maybe they might consider that adults are taking away kids’ rights to be kids.
The STM has begun installing new turnstiles in the metro, starting at the De la Savane, Monk, Plamondon and Villa-Maria stations. The new turnstiles are designed to be used with electronic smart cards, which will allow the transit authority more control over payment (including, for example, establishing a zone system where you pay for how far you go).
Sadly, when eventually put into service along with the new electronic fare systems installed in buses last year, this will spell the end of Montreal’s notorious but still fully functional punch-card transfers.
ABC premiered the American version of Just for Laughs Gags tonight (there it’s just called Just for Laughs).
I’d heard all sort of rumours about this show. It was going to be re-shot with Americans. It was going to have Bob Saget-like voice-over stupidity.
Fortunately, none of these things happened. In fact, other than the ABC logo in the corner of the screen, it’s indistinguishable from the CBC version. The same cheesy music, same familiar locations (Dorchester Square, St. Louis Square, among others), same fake cops. The TV version doesn’t make it explicit that this is filmed in Montreal, which is kinda sad because there’ll probably be quite a lot of people confused at the French signs, red mailboxes and other things that make us not look like them. The website mentions that it’s a Canadian-made series, though the name of our fair city can’t be found (why is a goldmine of free publicity for our city not being pounced upon?).
If anything, it’s how little effort they put into changing the show that concerns me. They did a short graphic (with the familiar JFL logo) for before and after commercials, and they have this guy Rick Miller (yeah, I’d never heard of him either, but apparently he’s a Montrealer) introduce the show and say goodbye at the end. That’s it. I mean, the CBC show was bare-bones as it is. I’m not sure ABC can get away with just repackaging such a show, even over the summer.
From that and their website, which is about as bare-bones as you can get, I get the feeling ABC doesn’t expect this show to last through fall.
We’ll see. Maybe this can pick up an audience that thinks Punk’d and all its ilk are too aggressive or have too much dialogue or something.
UPDATE: Response from the blogosphere so far is not encouraging. The few media who mentioned it in advance gave it “something called” treatment. Blogger response fit that pretty well. “Disappointed.” “Not impressed.” “Beyond absurd” (from someone convinced it was shot in Mexico or Sao Paulo). “Desperately unfunny.” “Bland.” “The lamest.” And my favourite: “Absolute bullshit crap.” On the other side, as far as I can see, just one offhand “great” and one (albeit enthusiastic) “funny.”
LOST 2 this is not. And it’s hard to disagree. I would have rather seen gala stand-ups on U.S. television than a low-budget hidden camera gag show that, as far as they’re concerned, is a bad copy of all the other ones they’ve seen over the past half-decade.
What’s sad is this might give networks pause about importing other (good) Canadian television programming in the future.
UPDATED AGAIN: Overnight ratings for the show weren’t as bad as I thought they might be. They actually went up between shows, which shows it wasn’t advertised properly and viewers came in and stayed more than they left. Overall, it lost to America’s Got Talent, came in about tied with CBS’s NCIS repeat, and beat FOX’s On The Lot.
Could be I’ve written its obituary too soon.
The Times Argus, the newspaper of record for the influential Barre-Montpelier area, has an article about the MSO’s Kent Nagano and what they’re up to this summer.
The article has an aside about some restaurants in town seemingly chosen at random. I don’t know how much I would trust someone from Vermont reviewing a couple of restaurants here. I mean, is Eggspectation really “cheap and plentiful”?
Aww, look at our pretty really-old sewers.
For those who haven’t seen it yet, more stuff like this can be found at the Urban Exploration Montreal website.
One of my worst nightmares: A balcony collapsed yesterday on Mackay St., causing minor injuries to a man who was on it.
I’ve always been nervous about balconies, especially those which showed any sort of movement when you walk on them or whose railings seemed inadequate to prevent an accidental fall. Montreal has plenty of these cheap wooden balconies whose floorboards are so old and rotten that they sag slightly when you step on them. Fortunately, there’s usually more structure underneath that actually supports your weight, so there’s very little chance of it collapsing.
Last month I moved into my first apartment with a balcony (in fact it has two: a private one in front and a shared one in back). The construction seems solid (at least on the front one – the back balconies are being replaced this summer), but there’s always that thought at the back of my mind. One of the screws that holds the railing to the balcony has come out in the centre. This can either be because the railing has bowed about an inch upwards, or because the balcony has sagged slightly down.
But at least it doesn’t shake.
The worst balcony collapse in recent history happened in Chicago in 2003, killing 13 people. The balcony was poorly constructed, much larger than it was supposed to be, and was overloaded.
Some signs of serious trouble on a balcony include:
If you’re unsure, have a professional structural engineer take a look.
And be sure not to get one from Transport Quebec.