Author Archives: Richard Shearmur

EDI (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) is all the rage in academia and the professions. Grants, professional bodies, the hiring process – all now place EDI front and centre. I am glad that – finally – issues of EDI are being raised in the academy and professions. It is long overdue. However, I am worried thatContinue reading “EDI: in search of an acronym’s meaning”

In my previous blogs I rapidly analyzed the 2020-21 intra-Québec migration data, using straightfoward techniques. In this blog I look at the same numbers, using GEPHI network analysis software. In doing so I provide a series of pictures that illustrate these migration patterns: I hope you find them as fascinating as I do! As aContinue reading “(Illustrated) changes in Québec’s migration patterns”

Montreal’s transport agency (Autorité régionale de transport) has just submitted a report to the Québec government which is critical of the light rail system planned for the east of the island. It’s critique mirrors that which has been levelled by many commentators – the light rail system is poorly planned, it will cannibalise ridership fromContinue reading “Montreal’s light rail : don’t listen to science or research!”

La Ville de Montréal vient de sortir son rapport sur la sécurité routière en 2020, que je remercie Blaise Rémillard d’avoir porté à mon/notre attention. En réponse à son partage, voici une réaction! On lit, sur le site web, la chose suivante: “Équipe post-collision mortelle: Lorsqu’une collision mortelle survient, des responsables de la Ville seContinue reading “Chronique d’une mort annoncée: la sécurité (?) des cyclistes à Montréal”

This is my third short piece discussing intra-provincial migration numbers published by the ISQ (Institut de la Statistique du Québec) on 13th January 2022. They are worth discussing because they reveal the impact of COVID and allow for some speculation about what the future may hold for Montreal. In the first I suggested (in FrenchContinue reading “Remote(ish) work: a new lease of life for sprawl?”

Voici quelques jours j’ai pondu un texte décrivant pourquoi les données récentes de l’ISQ (Institut de la Statistique du Québec) n’étaient pas catastrophiques pour Montréal. Le chiffre vedette, la perte nette de -48 300 personnes en 2020-2021, recèle des éléments relativement encourageants si on le décortique un peu et si on le compare à l’annéeContinue reading “Montréal, migration (et immobilier): toutes les nouvelles ne sont pas bonnes”

Le chiffre qui inquiète un peu Le 13 janvier 2022, l’ISQ (Institut de la Statistique du Québec) a publié les chiffres de migration interrégionale, décrivant les migrations entre les régions du Québec de juillet 2020 à juin 2021 (retenez ces dates). Ces chiffres sont présentés dans des tableaux qui remontent jusqu’en 2001, et permettent doncContinue reading “Montréal et la migration COVID: les nouvelles ne sont pas si mauvaises!”

A New Year, a New Lockdown Yesterday, 30th Dec 2021, the prime minister of Québec announced yet another round of confinement, curfew and other restrictive measures, all in service of closing the barn door after the horse bolted. With confirmed COVID cases now running at 14 to 16 000 a day in Québec, our expertContinue reading “The need for planning (or the limits of knee-jerk COVID policy)”

As we settle into a prolonged pandemic, there is recurrent talk of work-from- home becoming the norm: and until the pandemic subsides (or until good treatment is found for COVID 19), there is little doubt that work-from-home will remain popular and necessary. But what of the longer term? Work-from-home will never be the norm First,Continue reading “Work-from-home : a longer term view”

Magritte would probably say that this (Figure 1) is not a bike. And he would be correct – but only thanks to technicalities. This (i.e. Figure 1) is indeed not a bike: it is a set of pixels on a screen that evokes bicycleness. And ‘This’ is not a bike either: it is the wordContinue reading “Bikes and surrealism: when is a bike not a bike?”