Paul St-Pierre Plamondon says he’s convinced that he and his party are being spied on by the federal government.
Recent Updates Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Kate
-
Kate
McGill University’s student clinic is denying hormone treatments to trans U.S. students under 18, based on an American law.
There can’t be many American university students under 18 here, surely?
jeather
Under age 19. But there are some — I remember someone a bit ahead of me complaining when he started undergrad in Montreal he was underage (I assume 17) and couldn’t (legally) drink, and then when they invited him to visit grad schools in the US he was 20 and couldn’t legally drink.
CE
How many people does this actually affect? It only affects 1st year students which I imagine are about 1/4 of the undergrad population, only Americans, and only students transitioning. Statistically, there’s very much a possibility that zero people are actually affected.
Kevin
I know an 18-year-old McGill student from the USA who is trans, although I don’t know if they are the student referred to in this article.
John B
I’ve actually been going to McGill as a 1st-year undergrad this year, and there are a lot of Americans, and more than a few people visibly transitioning, even in first-year classes.
According to the article “Gimbert said the doctors at the meeting said they had already refused HRT to two U.S. students under the age of 19.” It may not be many people, but the whole point of accessibility and non-discrimination is to not discriminate against small groups.
Kate
Is it not possible that the McGill medics won’t give someone these treatments, knowing they will not be able to continue them when they return home? Rather than that they’re obeying U.S. law, I mean.
I can’t imagine it’s good for anyone to have these hormones turning on and off like a tap.
jeather
I don’t think that doctors should be not treating someone because maybe they will eventually have trouble accessing the treatment in the future. Or because a different country isn’t in support of it.
John B
My understanding is that they’re not giving the treatment because they don’t want to end up on an American list, with the implication being that they could face prosecution if they go to the US in the future.
jeather
I think it’s wrong. They cannot possibly be extradited for this, so worrying about effects on future travel is really putting the patient’s needs last. I am barely sympathetic to the doctors who don’t give legal pregnancy treatments because then they will need to fight their anti-abortion states, this is many layers of more protection.
R T
I’ve worked in student services and was trying to figure out if there was a jurisdictional hook (eg, McGill participates in some US Federal Student Aid (Title IV) programs so certain US student rights can attach to US students at McGill), but the more I read about it, the more I think this is individual healthcare providers freelancing out of concern for their own personal safety and not university policy. That concern seems pretty tenuous—the only criminal law cited in the executive order is the US’s anti-FGM law, that law applies only to those under 18, not 19, and extraterritorial application to the provider would be extremely difficult—though I understand why providers of trans healthcare would feel unsafe right now.
But if a student doesn’t tell the provider that they’re from the US, it’s not clear to me how the provider would know. I assume that they see the patient is being billed to Blue Cross, hear the accent and ask.
(It’s also extremely weird that the executive order is about those aged under 19, not 18. I’m not a lawyer, and especially not a US lawyer, but I can’t think of any other instance in the US where 18 vs 19 is an important distinction as opposed to 17/18 or, much more rarely (smoking, drinking, credit card borrowing), 20/21. Of course, the EO is most likely just typical Trump administration vibes-based BS and not actual legal interpretation.)
Nicholas
Kate, your argument about the doctors being worried that the students might lose treatment when they went home could make sense if all US students were banned. But here it’s the ones with the most time before going home being banned: students about to graduate and leave don’t have an issue, apparently.
I also wonder if this would apply to dual citizens who have lived here their entire lives. Or permanent residents? Or is it just people on student visas directly from the US? What about dual US/DE citizens who grew up in Germany and are here on a student visa and have never been to the US?
Kate
Then I wonder whether the McGill clinic is denying abortions to American students.
Chris
Hmmm, not old enough to modify one’s body with a tattoo, but somehow old enough to modify one’s body with hormone treatment…
-
Kate
A couple of tattoo artists are doing free Canadiens ink on fans outside the Bell Centre during home games.
-
Kate
A suspect has been named, and is being sought, in the Laval Starbucks shootout last October in which Bobby the Greek was killed.
Not only do the police want to arrest Denis Beaupré, they also know he’s bound to be at risk himself – at least he is now that police have painted a target on his back.
dwgs
The Radcan piece makes it sound like there’s a very good chance he’s already dead.
Kate
It does.
-
Kate
The worst roads in Quebec, and a separate list of the worst roads in Montreal, have been listed by CAA‑Quebec.
I was in a friend’s car recently, on Jean‑Talon. The section alongside the tracks, the southern edge of TMR, was phenomenally bad and bumpy. Ironically, just west of there, Jean‑Talon between Decarie and Côte‑des‑Neiges is the location of several luxury car dealerships. It must be amusing to take delivery of your Ferrari then have the suspension devastated before you reach l’Acadie.
That section of street doesn’t even make the CAA list.
La Presse also has some stats from CAA about flat tires and towing.
Joey
LOL that one of the streets on the Montreal list is “Sherbrooke Street Est,” which is like 10 miles long or something. Also kudos to the 1,700 residents of Saint-Hubert-de-Rivière-du-Loup on getting one of their streets on to the provincial top 10 LOL
CE
They interviewed someone from CAA on the radio this morning and he said the mayor of Rivière-du-Loup asked people to vote en masse for that street to help get the province to pay for repairs.
Joey
Voters: this is a stunt.
CAA: this is a stunt.
Politicians: this is a stunt.
Journalist: this is a stunt.
Headline writer: here are some facts.Blork
That video in the La Presse article doesn’t even show a road with bad potholes. A few times it shows a road that’s a bit rough, but those are not the kind of potholes that are causing problems.
I don’t drive much, but in recent weeks I’ve seen streets where there will be a stretch of a few car lengths where there are four or five holes so deep that if a tire went in the car would bottom out. Cars are zig-zagging like crazy to avoid them, which is dangerous.
There’s also serious potholes on the highways, such as a stretch of the 132 just east of the Champlain Bridge where there’s a line of holes that are each at least 20cm (8 inches) deep. Hit one of those on a motorcycle going 100kph and you’re as good as dead.
-
Kate
The 11 teachers involved in the Bedford School scandal have had their teaching permits revoked. They were accused of creating an atmosphere of intimidation at the school, both of the students and of each other.
-
Kate
I don’t usually issue trigger warnings, but this description of a woman being subjected to a forced abortion by a fake doctor is horrifying. Just reading the headline and deck is more than enough. The fake doctor is on trial for trying to cause the abortion to a woman with no immigration status here. How she is doing, and whether she went on to have the baby, are not reported. Her partner has already been tried and sentenced.
-
Kate
A fire on the 24th floor of the Maestria condo tower downtown on Monday forced the evacuation of the whole thing while firefighters contained the flames to the single unit.
-
Kate
The city has adopted a new homeless camp policy which still sounds pretty vague in this piece. Where will they be tolerated? Who will oversee the boroughs to make sure they’re all acting fairly?
TVA reports that a homeless person opened fire with a pellet gun on Sunday near a kids’ playground connected to the Botanical Garden.
-
Kate
There are various plans to put up residential towers over metro stations – both ones under construction and ones that have long been part of the urban landscape.
Ian
I have a colleague that lives on Rene Levesque and Metcalfe on the 3rd floor of a high-rise. He can hear the Lucien L’Allier metro. I guess it’s like the Blues Brothers line, “you get used to it”.
Kate
Shouldn’t it be possible to build sound insulation into a tower like that?
MarcG
When I’m talking to the pharmacist at my local pharmacy I can feel the vibrations from the metro under my feet every few minutes. You would think a new build would try to buffer it but there would be a price tag.
Kate
It may be the local geological conditions. I quite often walk along Berri near Jarry. I’ve seen photos of the tunnel excavation along there, early in the first construction of the metro, and there’s a fenced spot between two houses with a large ventilation shaft where you can hear the trains passing below, and even the occasional platform announcement. But underfoot you don’t feel any vibrations.
But I’ve never lived along there, admittedly.
Ian
Clay/sandy soil would certainly dampen sound more then rock. There are pockets of both in town, for sure.
-
Kate
It was all so easy when Ensemble was sniping from the sidelines; now SMF wants a year to repair the potholes.
steph
Does she know that in a year it’ll be a whole new pothole season right?
Ian
If they’re actually repaired correctly it might work, but I’m not holding my breath.
I forget, are we in agreement that repairing potholes in insurmountable so nobody should be held accountable, or is it that potholes should be rapidly and correctly repaired so SMF is inheriting the legacy of ongoing bad roadwork over many mayoral dynasties?
CE
I think both are true.
-
Kate
A popular café on Wellington in Verdun is closing after a 60% rent increase, reviving calls for commercial rent controls. The Gazette piece includes a coda in which the café’s landlord denies asking for a 60% hike.
Jim
Sad to see them go. However, the update matters. If the landlord disputes the 60% figure, we should be careful treating one side of lease negotiations as the full story. It is still a shame, but commercial leases are business, and sometimes both sides walk away unhappy.
I understand the call for commercial rent controls, but I’m not convinced regulation is the easy fix. We see already how well-intended rules can create paperwork and compliance costs that bigger companies absorb more easily than small independents. More bureaucracy may hurt the very cafés and shops it tries to protect.
Better lease support, better advice for small tenants, and ways to help local business owners stay rooted would make more sense to me.
MarcG
The irony is that the café was part of the first wave of gentrification on Wellington and now they’re not bougie enough. Curious to see what type of business has the cash to pay the hiked rent – I’m thinking big chain coffee/resto.
Joey
Here’s hoping the reporter, Jesse Feith, gets to the bottom of this. The tenant says they were presented with a 60% increase. The landlord says “We never demanded a 60 per cent rent increase… Various market scenarios were discussed in the normal course of commercial negotiations, but a 60 per cent increase was never requested.” Someone is lying, and the truth-teller should be able to document it…
DavidH
Some commercial leases in retail include a % of sales. So it’s quite possible that what the building owner asks for does amounts to a 60% increase in the cafe owner’s mind but that they don’t know it. If the current lease doesn’t include a % for exemple and they now want to implement it, they can only guess what the % they are asking for amounts to in dollars.
When I was in CEGEP a million years ago one thing that was hammered in all the entrepreneurial classes is that you should always sign long-term leases for commercial space. People starting out don’t want to commit long term. They don’t know what will happen so they think that they want flexibility. Sort-term leases are usually much cheaper too. It feels like the better choice.
However, if you sign a short term lease, your only option is failure. If you succeed, either the owner grabs your margin by raising the rent or he can grab your business and the achalandage you built for him when you refuse and vacate the space. You build an original pizza place through sweat and tears and then it’s the landlord’s nephew running a pizza chain concession at the same address once you leave. It happened all over Promenade Masson in the 90s. Same thing happened more recently with Sabor Latino in Petite Patrie. They built a grocery and cantina business on Bélanger. Once things got good, the landlord wanted an insane rent increase otherwise they would grab the store. Sabor Latino moved to the Plaza rather then renew. The landlord now operates the exact same business Sabor Latino built and grew at the original location but under the name Andes grocery.
When you sign a long-term lease, if your venture succeeds, you win. You might have troubles at renewal but, in theory, you brand is established by then so moving is not necessarily a death sentence. If it fails, you don’t actually need to worry about the lease. It is cynical but, you or the corporation you created will most likely go bankrupt anyways. The lease will be dealt with by the bankruptcy like all the other financial obligations. It’s scary and unnatural but long-term is usually the better option.
Ian
That said, there is the flip side.
For example, Comptoir 21 was a very successful Fich & Chips pesto on Saint Viateur. It was doing great. A good combination of Local employees and local residents, good food at a decent price, license but kid-friendly, and a very decently balanced menu in terms of overhead and variety.
One day, at the height of Saint Viateur’s gentrification, the landlords decided to kick them out because they felt that they could get an even better, more expensive restaurant in that clearly successful spot at an even higher rent.
That location has stood empty ever since, because who TF wants to rent from a greedy landlord that might kick them out on a whim?
Ian
OK I meant Fish & Chips resto but “Fich & Chips pesto” might just be the concept restaurant we have all been waiting for. (damn you autocorrect)
-
Kate
Quebec is putting millions into what CTV calls health care prevention. Some would say that Quebec governments have been busily preventing health care for a long time.
Uatu
you know what would be great? Having a family dr. Just saying.
-
Kate
Le Devoir marks the 20th anniversary of the Grande Bibliothèque with a dossier of items. In particular, they look at how a social worker at the library manages the presence of homeless people who need a peaceful place to hang out.
David S
FYI « intervenant psychosocial » does not necessarily mean « social worker », a reserved professional title. It is a general term, similar to « therapist » or « life coach » etc.
A social worker can call themselves an intervenant psychosocial, but an IP can’t call themselves a SW unless they are members of the Ordre (OTSTCFQ)
And in this case, the person is not a social worker, I checked.
MarcG
It’s only therapy if it comes from the Ordre, otherwise it’s just sparkling chit-chat.
Kate
Info and insight from David S, and a good laugh from MarcG!
-
Kate
Fans of the Canadiens are ramping up the festivities. The Bell Centre has added a third big screen so more fans can watch the away matches there.
La Presse talked to men at the Old Brewery Mission. One says that the playoffs remind him he’s still alive. It’s all very Victor Hugo-Charles Dickens, this piece. Sometimes the news reminds me we’re slipping back through the Robber Barons era into the depths of the Victorian age.
Ian
Free viewings t the Rialto for those willing to travel to Mile End.
jeather 16:58 on 2026-05-12 Permalink
I was a bit side-eyeing him but “we have proof that the federal government has, in the past, spied on separatists, and I don’t see any reason to assume that has changed” is a fair enough argument. I think it’s a bit fear-mongering but whatever.
Kevin 17:21 on 2026-05-12 Permalink
When the proof is something that happened in the 1970s because of an informant, the accusation is a little long in the tooth.
Ian 21:22 on 2026-05-12 Permalink
Creating a conspiracy of which you are the target is a classic. You not only get everyone’s attention, but you are also deflecting the conversation away from your failings … what could go wrong.
Donald Trump does it all the time.