Posted on 03/12/2008 11:13:56 AM PDT by Clint N. Suhks
QUEBEC CITY, Quebec (Reuters) - Although Canada is one of the snowiest countries in the world, a series of violent "snow rage" incidents reveal that even the locals have their limits.
Police in the French-speaking province of Quebec said on Wednesday that people were fighting over snow clearing and even parking spaces.
Recent Canadian winters have been mild but this one looks set to break all-time records for snow. One storm last weekend dumped 23 inches on the capital Ottawa and 19 inches on Quebec City, which has already received 210 inches this year.
Quebec City police said they had been called to a dozen violent disputes about snow from one property ending up on someone else's. The drifts outside some houses are 12 feet and higher.
Last Sunday, a man in an upscale Quebec City neighborhood became so upset a woman from a snow removal service was putting snow on his yard that he shouted at her and then took a shovel and hit the window of the vehicle she was driving.
"The woman apologized and returned to work ... a bit later the man opened his garage door and emerged with a shotgun, pointed it at the ground and looked at her in a threatening way," said police spokeswoman Catherine Viel.
Police arrested the man, who will be charged with negligent use of a firearm, and seized a total of 13 weapons from his home. Viel said snow-related fights were unusually common.
"It's happened particularly often this year ... you have to be used to snow if you live in Quebec but it's been a bit extreme this year. People are fed up," she said.
In Montreal, police said a man had produced a toy gun during a heated dispute Sunday between two drivers over a rare parking space. He may face weapons charges.
There may be more trouble to come, since Environment Canada says there is no sign winter is about to end. Snow fell again on Quebec City and Ottawa Wednesday.
Montreal is also having problems disposing of the snow. One massive mound is around 80-feet high and officials told reporters that unless steps were taken to dismantle the pile, much of it would still be there when next winter started.
Were you there for the blizzard of '77?
I never complain about snow after that one. But I did move away.
I can't imagine what Canada and the northern US will look like if this global cooling trend continues. It was covered with glaciers not too long ago - in geologic time.
Has the lake only one edge?
All road treatment products are mined from seawater; even Torricelli figured that out after he had already built his first thermometer.
If it melts into the soil where it’s piled, plants won’t grow so well but eventually it will be washed to the lowest level which remains the sea.
Mark my words, the first unusually warm day across a majority of the country this spring will drive the globull warming loons into a frenzy. All it takes is one warm beautiful spring day.
People in Atlanta don’t know what a chair in a parking space means.
The don’t understand you have TWO cars, a summer car and a winter car with rusted out quarter panels, snow tires, a hot battery and a really good heater.
Ah the old Chicago days, well it’s 65 degrees and sunny here
my daffodils are blooming along with the Bradford Pears, probably the next frost will nail them but it will most likely be the last.
My neighbor wanted to know, can people really get tired of shoveling snow?
Hehehehe.
NOWHERE, in 27 years of “global warming” hysteria since the mid-70’s, has there been a specific violent action blamed on “global warming” ... Of course, temperature “only” went up by 1/2 of one degree in the past 50 years, but let ONW winter of the next Ice Age pass ....
... and our northern barbarians are getting violent (again) and assaulting their fellow man during winter weather.
Just like they did in the Dark Ages as the barbarians invaded Rome, Gaul, and the warmer south ..... when temp's dropped after the end of the Roman Warm Period.
(Now remember, Gore received his Nobel “Peace” Prize because global warming was supposed to lead to massive invasions and wars (if unchecked) as temperatures CLIMBED over the next few centuries._
I lived in Brooklyn for the blizzard of ‘96. I was 11 so I had to crawl over snow banks for fear of falling in. Whenever the plow or a car came by my house, I had to jump on top of snow to avoid getting run over.
Town of Breckenridge is using 5 end dump trucks (25 ton loads) and 2 950 class CATs to move snow around the clock. Our building project in Grand County is also snowed under.
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