Fire (!) at the metro
A small electrical fire at Guy-Concordia metro caused the Société de transport de Montréal to temporarily shut down the Green and Orange metro lines in the middle of rush hour last Wednesday evening. Commuters were asked through the STM’s intercom to leave the metro station around 6 p.m., closing the downtown-serving Green line from Frontenac to Angrignon and the Orange line between Berri and Snowdon. Smoke was seen blowing into Guy metro, which remained closed until 7 p.m., according to The Gazette. Many frustrated metro users took to Twitter, some complaining that the STM’s Twitter account @stminfo took too long to report the disruption, others worrying that the delay would make them miss the Habs v. Washington hockey game at the Bell Centre.
CUTV vs. SOPA
CUTV took down their website on Wednesday in solidarity with other online groups protesting the U.S. government’s anti-piracy bills SOPA and PIPA. In an interview with OpenFile Montreal, CUTV’S web and distribution coordinator Fahim Moussi explained that the station decided to protest the legislation because CUTV relies on the Internet as their main way of sharing content and videos with the public. The two bills, which the US House of Representatives and Senate voted to shelve indefinitely last Friday, proposed heavy fines and jail sentences for anyone uploading copyrighted material to the Internet. Big-name websites who took part in the one-day blackout included Wikipedia, Reddit, Twitpic and the much-loved I Can Has Cheezburger blog.
Pencil, notebooks and mould
Students and staff at Vanier College went back to school with some hesitation last week after a routine inspection in November discovered mould in the college’s air ducts The mould was found growing inside the ventilation system of the N building, which houses several departments including Vanier’s animal health program. A letter sent out on Dec.13 alerted students and staff to the problem, giving people suffering from respiratory problems the option to change classrooms or offices, CTV Montreal reported. Vanier’s administration said the mould is currently isolated to just the N building and within acceptable limits. They plan on tearing out and replacing the building’s 25-year-old ventilation ducts this summer.
Faulty lamppost kills dog
Damaged electrical wiring is being blamed after a dog was electrocuted to death by a lamppost in Outremont. Kelly Downs was walking her dog Lily along the sidewalk on Côte-Ste-Catherine last Tuesday, the usual route they take on their walks, when Lily suddenly fell over and began to seize, reported CBC Montreal. Downs’ neighbour claimed that his dog had received a similar but non-fatal shock while passing the same lamppost on the street earlier that evening. The borough of Outremont responded to the incident, saying that the lamppost’s wiring has since been fixed.
