Ambulances in Montreal - People, Drivers Please MOVE!!!!

    I'm fully aware of the fact that when I decided to move to Quebec to do my undergraduate degree at McGill that I'd be facing some major cultural changes as Montreal is not only different from the rest of Canada, but the rest of the world. Many of these differences I've fully embraced such as a rampant night life, poutine, European culture, and of course the abundance of French. One thing I have a lot of trouble accepting, in fact I am appalled by it, is that drivers on the busy downtown streets are reluctant and sometimes even refuse to pull over to the side of the road when an ambulance has its sirens on. I've come to accept the wild driving habits witnessed on the roads of downtown Montreal and adapted on my own by being extremely cautious as a pedestrian and even looking both ways when the oncoming traffic has a red light. Yet, I can't stand it when I see an ambulance trying to rush to an injured person or to the hospital with the patient already inside and there is a taxi driver that wants to make the light and refuses to pull over. With some of these injured patients, minutes or even seconds could be the difference between life and death and the fact that drivers are jeopardizing lives is truly awful. I've actually experienced this in another setting when I volunteered as an emergency first aid responder on Magen David Adom ambulances in Tel Aviv, Israel. Drivers were in fact worse on the street there as we couldn't even go through red lights because people literally wouldn't react to the sirens. We had to get up right up behind cars and honk while the sirens were on before they eventually moved. The Israeli drivers didn't see this to be as bad I did as this road conduct is almost acceptable in Israel, I assume because they've experienced so much catastrophe that an ambulance really isn't alarming. Now, I still don't agree with they way the drivers are over there and I hope that it doesn't reach the point in Montreal where this is acceptable. To be honest, I don't read Montreal newspapers, I stick to the Vancouver Sun and New York Times articles, so I wouldn't know, but this must be addressed in a public manner. Drivers should be publicly warned that this road conduct is no longer acceptable and be punished with tickets if they are seen doing it. This must happen before a significant tragedy occurs.