A regular reader recommended this piece on The Conversation by the author of Montreal After Dark, about evolutions in the city’s nightlife.
Although the title and the book page discuss Montreal, The Conversation article doggedly writes “Montréal” which gets on my nerves. Maybe they have a policy. If they do, it is wrong.
A dollar store on Mont‑Royal East is closing, posting a sign blaming the city’s business tax. But then the owner also blames the summer pedestrianization of the street, and a coda brings in Peter Sergakis, although the item doesn’t say he’s the landlord.
I actually bought some wrapping paper from there a couple days ago and was sad to see it was closing. It was a bit more like a general store than a dollar store. The sign says it was taxes that did them in but it was probably more likely that it was the two big Dollaramas on either side of the store.
Montreal businesses need to get with the times and start thinking local. No one is coming from outside your neighbourhood to come shopping at your store – especially not a dollar store.
What CE said. As usual, failing businesses love to blame anyone but themselves. Blaming taxes or pedestrianized streets can seem sympathetic to some; blaming similar businesses that outcompeted you less so.
The city’s biggest sponge park is in limbo as Quebec delays its approval.
A 92-year-old pedestrian has died after being hit by a pickup truck going 5 km/h Thursday in Verdun.
Sad. That’s a tricky corner that the city did a lot of work on recently to improve safety. There are several retirement homes and a CHSLD nearby. Given that it was the middle of the day, it seems like the likely culprit is poor visibility from big trucks.
I lived in Verdun when I was a kid, but I never knew that bit of town at all. On Streetview it’s an odd corner, the north side being old‑school Wellington Street with a couple of small brick Protestant churches and a jumble of triplexes and small apartment buildings, the south, a completely suburban vista of a giant gas station and a massive Canadian Tire and Maxi store.
I’m not surprised that the suburban side could prove fatal to an elderly person from the other side of the street.
Weekend notes from La Presse, Le Devoir, CityCrunch, Montréal Secret, CultMTL.
DNA analysis has solved a longtime missing persons case: James Daniel Khan went missing in 2010 at age 19 without the psych drugs that kept him stable. Some remains found in 2012 beside the Back River proved to be his in an analysis done this year. Part of TVA’s ongoing series on how DNA is being used to solve cold cases.
The high-speed rail link between Montreal and Toronto could see dozens of departures daily, according to an internal study just made public.
That would be great, I am a great fan of high speed rail all over Europe. But as with the extension east of the blue. I will believe it when I am ON it and not a minute before.
I won’t even believe it until I’m in Toronto 3 hours later. 😀
Sadly I will almost certainly be retired by the time the line to Toronto is complete, even at the current best (read: highly improbable) estimates.
It’s like a cathedral of old. Those working on it today won’t be alive to experience it finished.
La Banquise is setting up to offer poutine delivery around the clock.
Poutine should always be eaten on-site for maximum french fry crispness and cheese squeakiness.
I suppose it doesn’t make much difference with the overrated Banquise, as their fries are limp and their cheese sub-par,
This almost feels like licensing the Banquise name. The new service will not operate from La Banquise restaurant but from a ghost kitchen elsewhere in town dedicated only to uber orders.
@Poutine Pundit
Where’s your favourite in Montreal?
Ian, my favourite used to be montreal pool room, but they don’t use good cheese anymore.
It now goes to Decarie Hot Dog…their sauce is unique, buttery and has a hint of rosemary I find. Their fries are also great.
Whenever I get poutine from anywhere, I ask them to double fry the fries. And always double the curds.
I know you didn’t ask me, but I love talking poutine.
I seldom have poutine, but Patate Rouge is the best I’ve had. But their fries are so good on their own that I’d probably eat them as is.
Unfortunately, P.R. is on a depressing stretch of Crémazie over near Papineau, not one of the city’s pleasanter walking streets.
Quebec news: family doctors vote overwhelmingly in favour of a tentative agreement with Quebec; Marc Tanguay is interim leader of the PLQ – again; Sonia Bélanger replaces Christian Dubé as health minister.
Waiting for Belanger and the next neoliberal solution that will solve all our healthcare problems because that approach always works…
A young man going twice the speed limit in Hochelaga in 2022 killed a pedestrian. He was sentenced Thursday to 17 months of house arrest. The prosecution wanted two years behind bars. He can still go to school and work; nothing’s said here about whether he’ll be allowed to drive.
La Presse also has the story, mentioning that Salman Rahman won’t be allowed to drive for two years – but he’ll be at home for 17 of those 24 months. Nothing’s said in this version of the story about work or school, but that he’ll be allowed to go to the mosque on Friday afternoons and “circulate freely on Christmas.” A nice cultural dissonance to round off the story.
That’s wild!
Just to be devil’s advocate. The point of prison is to reform a person, to keep them from recidivism. The thing is, would putting in him in prison have any real effect, other than making those who were wronged feel better? I’m not saying that he shouldn’t be punished, I’m saying that prison versus house arrest isn’t going to change a thing, if you ask me. Now, having to contribute to the family from his income, might. Losing his licence forever, might. If allowed to drive, having to have a speed regulator installed that is GPS enabled (at his own cost) might. But let’s be serious about it, the end result is that we want him to not do this again… so what is any of this doing to accomplish this?
We already know statistically that there is almost no statistical correlation between crime and punishment, it’s between crime and apprehension. So unless we are going to make sure that the cops catch 95% of people exceeding the speed limit, it’s not going to work.
“The point of prison is to reform a person, to keep them from recidivism”
One of the problems of our justice system is that people disagree on its objectives, which is reflected in the conflicting opinions of how prisoners should be treated. Reform is one goal. Others include removing felons from society and straight-up punishment.
” the end result is that we want him to not do this again”
Actually, the end result is we don’t want anyone doing this again. I don’t know what the right approach to punishment is – I do believe he is remorseful, what halfway normal person wouldn’t be? – but the overall effect of judges, time after time after time giving light punishments, is to create the impression that society just really doesn’t value the lives of pedestrians and that some mistakes are more forgiveable than others.
As I said, we know that punishment doesn’t work.as a deterrent unless you apprehend. Imagine a parking meter. The lower the chance of you getting a ticket, the less chance you will pay the meter, so when you park for short periods, most people take a “chance” and don’t pay. But if there was a camera that sees your licence plate and if you haven’t paid, it automatically sends you the parking ticket, well… you pay 100% of the time.
Even in Singapore, it isn’t the SGD$300 (and up to SGD$10,000 for repeat offences), it’s really the fact that almost everyone gets caught. The cameras are everywhere and everyone is aware of it. You may not get caught immediately, but a day later, you might get the ticket delivered. They issue 17K littering tickets a year. How many do you think the SPVM issue a year? I’m tending towards absolute 0.
I’m not necessarily opposed to no prison time for killing a person, but it depends. But they should be way stricter on driving penalties. Going at least 87 km/h an hour on a local street means you have reckless disregard for the rules of the road and the safety of others. That is a speed you could get ticketed for on the Ville Marie (speed limit is 70 km/h); it’s wholly inappropriate on a local street. A car is a weapon, and if you are that irresponsible with it you should never be able to use it again.
I would also love a lifetime ban for driving while impaired. But if that’s too politically difficult, then escalating driving bans, which should be used for other serious violations. You made a mistake, we won’t send you to jail, but you’ve lost your moral right to drive. And if someone drives while their licence is suspended, then jail is fully appropriate, as you’re unwilling to submit to the penalties given voluntarily so we’ll make it involuntary. Car forfeitures, interlocks, speed governors, all these should be part of the mix too. All this is way better than a few months in jail.
This serves as deterrence (drivers nearly all say losing their driving privileges would be devastating), punishment and rehabilitation (except for the most serious crimes), without carceral confinement. And the more this can be automated, the more we can punish low-level offences with smaller, more frequent penalties, rather than low-probability, severe penalties.
> I’m saying that prison versus house arrest isn’t going to change a thing
Prison means he’s 99.999% not going to be on the roads killing again, house arrest does not.
Christian Dubé has quit as health minister and left the CAQ to sit as an independent.
Typical. Dumps the blame onto Biron and sante QC and continues on the Mna gravy train. Good work there buddy…/s
I was a little surprised to find in the Guardian a review of a new exhibit at the CCA about modern architecture in China.
At the same time, UQÀM’s Centre de design has an exhibit on architecture in Japan.
Big wind and rain are expected in Quebec, and in Montreal specifically, on Friday.
Warming stations – construction trailers – will be placed near the camps on the linear parks beside Notre‑Dame East. They’ll be open 24/7 and offer hot soup and coffee and a chair to sit in. The aim is to save people from freezing to death or setting themselves on fire.
More details in La Presse about these warming stations with chairs and about some residents not welcoming them in Hochelaga‑Maisonneuve.
Later Thursday, news that federal money to aid the homeless will not be renewed after this winter.
“and a chair to sit in”
PS – don’t forget, we could have done nothing at all.
They have to make it clear that they’re not offering anything too cushy to nonproductive members of society.
Also, note some weaselly words in the piece: “La première roulotte ouvrira entre la mi- et la fin janvier, d’abord la nuit” so it may be open by the end of January, and not 24/7, but only at night, and the second one… sometime later. Maybe.
More weaselling as I reread the text: “Lorsque l’emplacement précis des roulottes sera déterminé, l’organisme rencontrera les citoyens directement concernés, mais on assure que ces haltes-chaleur seront installées le plus proche possible de la rue Notre-Dame pour [tenir compte du] voisinage.”
So they want to keep the trailers as far as possible from the “citizens” and as close as possible to traffic.
This bit of PR is likely not to be carried out, or not on the “generous” terms mentioned.
Meanwhile there’s an empty hospital on Pine and St-Urbain that they have to continue heating right?
Nothing makes me hate the political class more than how they choose to handle the homelessness crisis.
Well, we don’t want to be warehousing people. That would be an insult to their dignity. Autonomy and independence, even if accompanied by a little hypothermia, is much more dignified.
> PS – don’t forget, we could have done nothing at all.
PS don’t forget, YOU personally could be doing more. What percentage of your income do you give to homeless charities? Why not more? Whatever your reason for not giving even more, well, that’s also why all other taxpayers don’t want more money extracted from them. It’s the cold hard truth I’m afraid. City money doesn’t grow on trees, it’s all “donations” from us.
I’ve often thought that conservatives are simply ignorant or heartless, but now I see that they can be both.
On Monday, a group of people dressed as Santa Claus and elves stole $3000 worth of food from the Metro store on Laurier East and redistributed it on Place Valois the next day, according to Urbania. Le Devoir says they placed food in community fridges.
Monday was not a good day for that grocery store. There was a fire across the street so the blocks around it were closed for most of the day and it wasn’t possible to enter any of the shops nearby. Then they get robbed by Santa!
Y’know what? Good on them! We need a little Robin Hood style action during the holiday season.
That Metro is in a popular bougie area and a corporate franchise. That store will be ok.
Yeah, having masked people start plundering grocery stores isn’t a good thing, ever. It affects employees and many other things. That’s not good intentions, that’s just intimidation.
Having been in a bank while it was being robbed, having walked into a supermarket just after it was robbed with a sawed-off shotgun, and having arrived 5 minutes after a very failed terror attack, I can tell you that it’s NOT great. I actually collapsed on the floor soon after the robbery and had to drive back to the office. The employees involved often need a lot of support after a robbery, likely involving CNESST. And it’s hard for a business or bank to recover after that, because they often lose employees, who no longer feel safe working there.
I’m not sure those situations are comparable. I would be interested in hearing the voices of the people who were working at the time.
@MarcG from the Urbania piece: De son côté, Émile Tessier, directeur de la succursale dévalisée, raconte être revenu à l’épicerie après le vol pour y trouver des caissières sous le choc, en pleurs. « C’était pas le fun pour personne. »
Thanks. Not exactly a first-person account but hey.
Based on the image of the Santas at the checkout and the video clip of the elves entering and leaving the store, it seems like the way they did this was for the two Santas to go in first and collect a ton of food then bring it to the checkout as if they were going to pay for it. One of the cashiers can be seen filming or photographing them, presumably because at that point she thought it was good clean fun. Then once everything was bagged up near the exit, the larger group came in and took it away.
Meezly, what do you mean by corporate franchise? I don’t believe it is owned by Metro Inc, but is an independent franchise (which I’m sure is incorporated, so “corporate”, but likely owned by the Beaulieu family (or was) or by a few people). Metro Beaulieu has two stores, in the Plateau, and they’re building a third at the old Aubainerie on Mount Royal.
$3,000 is not going to break the bank, but they are currently hiring employees for the new store, and this won’t help filling that. I was paying at an SAQ in the Plateau recently and someone walked out with a bottle, then came back a minute later to steal a second, while the cashier said, in English, “You know you’re on camera.” But I guess it’s ok to do some crimes in a bougie, gentrified area. Make sure everyone feels equally unsafe.
Nicholas, I remember a La Presse columnist describing being at an SAQ and seeing someone walk brazenly out with a bottle of liquor, and the cashier telling him it happens all the time and there was nothing they could do. Can’t find a link though.
There’s a response on TVA about the Santa event – an interview with the head of a retailing group. The headline is a bit of ragebait about organized crime, and the spokesman whose rhetoric is transcribed gets gradually more disjointed. “Ils rentrent, ils forcent, ils détruisent, ils font peur, ils sont armés, ils sont masqués…”
But nobody said the Santa group was armed. They used social distraction. And nobody imagines they’re connected with organized crime.
I don’t say that what they did was right, although I can understand the motivation. Ephraim is right that such actions are hardest on the employees of the store.
I’m going to guess that the cashier was filming them so that it could be presented to police as evidence and that she did not think it was “good clean fun”.
@Tim: If you look at the photo I’m referring to you’ll see one of their co-workers is scanning the items and another appears to be helping Santa#2 bag them up. It seems pretty clear to me that at that point they were under the impression that these were paying customers.
@Kate: Here you go https://mtlcityweblog.com/2024/07/24/rise-in-crime-becomes-daily-fact/
Thank you, MarcG!
Team Santa all the way.
Santas and elves rob Montreal grocery store to ‘give food to the needy’
@kate – re your comment about Montreal news in the Guardian , I tried to paste a link to another instance – not sure it works, maybe someone can help
Thanks MarcG
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