Radio-Canada has a brief report and video about new high-tension electric lines being put in downtown. We’re hungry for megawatts, especially during cold snaps.
Updates from December, 2017 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
On Sunday, New Year’s Eve, there will be festivities in Old Montreal to mark the end of the city’s 375th year. The expected high on Sunday is –20°C though.
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Kate
Le Devoir tells how a community group in Point St Charles has acquired a disused industrial building to turn into a community centre after years of waiting.
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Kate
The cold temperatures make things more difficult for emergency services. Some anecdotes and advice from La Presse.
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Kate
Bringing forward this post on retrospectives for 2017.
Eater has a piece gathering up the best food critic lists so I don’t have to, and Jack Todd writes about the lacklustre year experienced by our professional sports teams. I’ll add any more I find to this item.
CBC Montreal offers its best photos of the year and Radio-Canada lists those who died in 2017, figures both local and international.
The Journal has a quiz on who said what in 2017 and the CBC has one on what you know about Montreal.
The Gazette looks back on the highs and lows of weather in 2017.
Quebec political soundbites of the year. (Couillard really said “en tabarnouche”?)
Radio-Canada lists 17 memorable incidents throughout the year.
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Kate
The Gazette has some notes on the shopping bag ban coming in the new year.
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Kate
There have been some power failures on the island, but sounds like nothing major so far. You might want to keep an eye on where your candles and matches are, all the same.
An outage in Verdun was caused by a fire sparked when a man tried to thaw his frozen pipes with a blowtorch. The city has a page about stopping pipes from freezing.
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Kate
I’m seeing numerous tributes to Abby Lippman, epidemiologist, emeritus professor at McGill and advocate for women’s health, who died on Tuesday.
The Gazette has an item about Lippman Friday.
My condolences to regular blog commenter Zeke: Ms Lippman was his mother.
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Kate
The current Planetarium show is about the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe.
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Kate
Wednesday is the coldest December 27 we’ve seen in 24 years as a polar vortex sweeps across the province.
Thursday will be just as cold if not colder.
Homeless shelters are preparing for the long cold snap that looks likely to carry us well into the new year. Thursday, La Presse looks at those who actively seek people still stubbornly trying to sleep outdoors to bring them inside; similarly in Le Devoir. Shelter operators are asking the public to take note of anyone seeming to be disoriented or in bad shape and call it in. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this kind of notice before.
Radio and other media are also emphasizing that the temperature is making it difficult to start vehicles, so the CAA is staying busy.
Also Thursday, CBC quotes an Environment Canada meteorologist saying Wednesday did not beat the 1993 record of –24°C.
Also… this weekend is likely going to be even colder. CTV has brief notes on pets and the cold.
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Kate
Philippe Schnobb, who’ll be staying on as head of the STM during Valérie Plante’s first term, talks to Le Devoir about improvements he’d like to make in services.
I was never keen on Schnobb as a replacement for Michel Labrecque in that post. Schnobb got the job as a consolation prize for not winning a council seat in 2013 – mind you, Labrecque had got the job in 2009 after losing the mayoralty of the Plateau, so this kind of patronage appointment was nearly traditional – and on Schnobb’s watch the STM saw budget compressions that reduced services. Maybe he has a chance of doing better under a Projet administration. We’ll see.
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Kate
Police are looking for a man who apparently talks his way into older women’s homes and then gives them some kind of knockout drop before pillaging their belongings.
Thursday evening, a little more detail from CTV and similar with video from TVA.
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Kate
Daniel Renaud at La Presse breaks down the murders of the year. Renaud has 24 on his list, whereas the blog has seen 22 homicides as noted on Kevin’s map.
And while 24 killings is not a lot in a city this size, Renaud says police have solved only 60% of them so far, and none of the six homicides he attributes to organized crime has yet been solved.
La Presse also has a story about how New York authorities wouldn’t allow Montreal police to question a captive whom they suspect in a 2013 murder in Rivière-des-Prairies.
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Kate
It was never a Montreal story, but the mass shooting at the Quebec City mosque last January shook the whole province. Now there’s a drive to collect funds to help Aymen Derbali, a member of the congregation paralyzed after being hit by several bullets in an attempt to stop the attack. The campaign has so far collected $147,000 toward the $400,000 goal with the intention to provide an accessible living space for the disabled man and his family. This is the campaign site.
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Kate
TVA offers a quick interview with Valérie Plante.
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