Magnotta jury duty is the job no one wants

The accused psycho sat by as 1,600 Montrealers tried to get exempted from their civic duty PLUS Grimes, Koivu, Charbonneau, peeping toms & more in our news round-up.

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Luka Magnotta

Psycho killer, qu’est-ce que c’est? Jury selection for the trial of accused murderer Luka Magnotta is going into its second round after 1,600 potential jurors were seen this week. Almost all of them want to get out of what will be a gruesome process, but many were exempted legitimately for being unilingual. The trial (due to start Sept. 22) will happen in English — the murder of Concordia student Jun Lin took place in Montreal but Magnotta is an anglo from Ontario — but some evidence will be presented in French, so bilingualism is key. Magnotta sat in on the process for the first hour or so each day for four days, and while photography was forbidden, an inside source tells us that the accused is unrecognizable after a couple of years in the slammer — verging on obsese, with dark hair and a small moustache — but still creepy as shit.

Charbonneau out: Okay, there’s still plenty of Charbonneau Commission to go — from government and group testimonies to public consultations — but the last witness of the public hearings took to the stand earlier this week. What a run it was: we laughed, we cried, we mostly shook our heads. The final report drops next year.

Raising yo rents: Projet Montréal is concerned about rent increases for business in its hoods. When a neighbourhood or artery gets hot, rents can double or even triple. Projet wants the city to do more to keep small business from being priced out.

O captain, my captain: Former Habs captain Saku Koivu called it a career this week. Saddled with leading the team during its darkest years, the lion-hearted centre bore the brunt of fan and French media frustration, yet still gave it his all on and off the ice. Thanks to him the Montreal General got a PET scanner, and who could forget that time he beat cancer and came back to beat the Bruins in the playoffs IN THE SAME SEASON? They probably won’t retire his number, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t one of the best to wear le bleu, blanc et rouge.

(Sex) Scenes from a mall: A 17-year-old boy alleges a peeping tom snapped a pic of him while he was in a bathroom stall at suburban mall Fairview Pointe-Claire. Global News suggests the mall washroom is a hotspot for public hookups. The writing, in this case, is on the bathroom walls.

Long-term Visions: Awaiting Grimes’s follow-up to her 2012 hit Visions with bated breath? Turns out the wait will last longer than expected. Erstwhile local Claire Boucher told The New York Times she’s scrapping the album she’s been working on to start anew, citing the middling reaction to her latest single “Go” and her own displeasure with her current work. ■