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• Kate 08:54 on 2026-05-31 Permalink | Reply  

  Steven Guilbeault abandoning the federal Liberals was a theme this week, Côté making him into a sort of St Francis of Assisi figure, Chapleau calling back to Guilbeault’s famous 2001 scaling of the CN tower to hang a banner, Godin with a symbolic drawing and Ygreck using an oil pipeline gag. Chapleau also dips into oil in another Guilbeault cartoon.

  Christine Fréchette’s cut to a few sales taxes is mocked by Godin and Ygreck – and her source of spare cash by Godin. Fréchette’s growing burden on Éric Girard amuses Côté; on the other hand, Ygreck sees her weighed down by the legacy of Legault.

  Trump only stepped in for a couple of mild gags this week.

  Côté asks are you followed by a family doctor? He also does a masterful drawing of job responsibilities in institutional settings.

  Kate and MarcG are discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • MarcG 10:06 on 2026-05-31 Permalink

    A small bit of unintentional local content in Côté’s Trump comic: the January 6th defendant has a Proud Boys logo on their shirt, a group founded by Gavin McInnes who’s best known in Montreal as the guy who wrote the Do’s and Don’ts column in Vice magazine back in the day but is now a tiresome edgelord.

  • Kate 11:32 on 2026-05-31 Permalink

    It might well have been intentional. Côté’s pretty sharp.

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• Kate 08:43 on 2026-05-31 Permalink | Reply  

  The Tour de l’Île route this Sunday encircles Mount Royal and encloses several pieces of the central city. Le Devoir asks how to get around. The forecast speaks of a possible thunderstorm this afternoon.

  Kate and ottawaowl are discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • ottawaowl 08:55 on 2026-05-31 Permalink

    Should be fun even with a bit of rain. Highlight of 2021 for me was cycling through the Big Owe and the Tour la Nuit was AWESOME https://youtu.be/Lvln41beEis

  • Kate 09:55 on 2026-05-31 Permalink

    I have good memories of Tours la Nuit – riding through the Botanical Garden in silence and almost total darkness (no clowns or acrobats), also riding up the Olmsted Trail, with nervous volunteers positioned along the cliff edge calling out to keep us from getting too close. I don’t know whether they’ve taken the ride up there since, once they realized how difficult it is to perceive the edge of the trail in the dark.

• Kate 08:39 on 2026-05-31 Permalink | Reply  

  La Presse continues its exploration of Australian cities with a dossier on Sydney, focusing on how it uses technology.

   

• Kate 17:29 on 2026-05-30 Permalink | Reply  

  A crowd of thousands hailed the Victoire Saturday afternoon downtown. Radio‑Canada calls it a consecration of women’s sports.

   

• Kate 10:35 on 2026-05-30 Permalink | Reply  

  Mohammed Abdullah Warsame, who threatened to bomb public transit in Montreal, pleaded guilty this week, but his lawyer says he’s homeless and mentally ill.

  Whether Warsame ever joined al‑Qaida or met Osama bin Laden, or has the capacity to cause the carnage he has threatened, is moot. A dangerous nutbar can still be very dangerous.

   

• Kate 10:29 on 2026-05-30 Permalink | Reply  

  The office of the French language commissioner says there’s too much English on Quebec’s official websites, and that people should have to prove they’re eligible (ayant droit) before they can access it. But French language minister Jean‑François Roberge says the English that’s there can stay.

  As it is, I have to attest on my honour that I’m entitled before I can even buy a lottery ticket online in English, let alone pay my Hydro bill.

  Uatu and RE are discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • RE 10:53 on 2026-05-30 Permalink

    Or use the library…

    (I saw the signs at BANQ at one point but not sure how much they’re enforcing).

  • Uatu 12:29 on 2026-05-30 Permalink

    Google translate automatically translates my email so the subject is kinda moot

• Kate 10:14 on 2026-05-30 Permalink | Reply  

  The Consignaction system may have simplified the return of empty cans for some – and there are grocery stores and deps which no longer have to process bags of sticky half‑empty beer cans – but it’s making things more difficult for some of the folks who scavenge for empties because they need the cash.

  Jim and Nicholas are discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • Nicholas 10:43 on 2026-05-30 Permalink

    I had high hopes for this, but who did it simplify things for? The island has 25 Consignaction locations, which is like one per borough/city. Previously every grocery store was a return location. You used to be able to go to the store, return your bottles and cans, and then buy more. Now you have to make two trips in one. I went to a Cosignaction the other day and there were seven people in line, mostly scavengers, and there were two machines, the same number as a single grocery stores had, except they’re also not open evenings. If they were the fancy machines where you empty your bag into a drum and then it counts everything in seconds that would have been great, but no, those machines are only available at Consignaction+ locations, of which there are just four on the island, mostly in car-oriented locations scavengers will never go to. Maybe it’s a jobs program, as there were three clerks just standing around chatting with the scavengers like they knew them, there to take some but not all bottles and fix the machines if they break.

    So now we have a new system with fewer locations, slower service, more employees and costlier rents. If this is what passes for success, what does failure look like?

  • Jim 12:15 on 2026-05-30 Permalink

    The new Consignaction system is in my opinion an improvement over the old system, but it still has a long way to go.

    I’m lucky to have a Consignaction+ fairly close and I can use a car. With the app, drop-off works great: barcode on the bag, direct deposit, usually same day. I’m actually surprised I hardly see anyone using the express system with the app, although it does not really help if you have glass bottles.

    But many locations are still not practical without a car, and lineups can be long if you don’t use the app. So I still see it as an improvement, but not yet a real success. More reachable locations and more capacity are needed.

• Kate 09:48 on 2026-05-30 Permalink | Reply  

  La Presse went to Australia to study how Melbourne is using technology to make that city more livable.

   

• Kate 09:44 on 2026-05-30 Permalink | Reply  

  Friday evening’s thunderstorm and the understandable defection of many of the volunteers who would normally be manning the route and ensuring its safety caused the last‑minute cancellation of the Tour la Nuit.

  Nicholas and Chris are discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • Chris 10:19 on 2026-05-30 Permalink

    Seems Friday’s bibs will be honoured for Sunday’s ride.

  • Nicholas 10:46 on 2026-05-30 Permalink

    Chris I wondered if that would be the case, but it’s always tough squeezing as many people as they do into the course. Adding thousands more will be a challenge. But the weather looks similarly dreary tomorrow, so maybe it’ll balance out.

• Kate 09:33 on 2026-05-30 Permalink | Reply  

  The Union des municipalités du Québec is asking the province to provide more funding for public transit, and stable, predictable, and sustainable funding instead of the unreliable games played in recent years.

   

• Kate 22:56 on 2026-05-29 Permalink | Reply  

  So much for dreams of the Cup.

  But the Victoire will have a hockey celebration Saturday.

  Kate, Chris, and Nicholas are discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • Nicholas 10:49 on 2026-05-30 Permalink

    Does anyone think a Cup celebration for the Habs would be three measly blocks long on an already pedestrianized street?

  • Kate 11:48 on 2026-05-30 Permalink

    It would obviously be much bigger but possibly also cause more damage.

  • Chris 13:37 on 2026-05-30 Permalink

    Of course a Habs parade would be bigger, why wouldn’t it be? They have more fans, more history, and are better players. Remember the NHL is not a men-only league, there just aren’t any women good enough. If the Victoire players were, they should surely prefer the salary boost being with the NHL.

  • Kate 14:39 on 2026-05-30 Permalink

    Chris, you’re usually better at trolling than this.

    The reason we separate many sports into men’s and women’s formats is because men are, on the whole, larger, they benefit from the effects of testosterone on their musculature, and their mature structure differs in that – again, on the whole, this is speaking of generalities – women’s pelvises are shaped for childbirth, not so much for strength and speed. See Wikipedia on sex differences in human physiology for more on all of this.

    We don’t pit men and women against each other in most sports because it’s apples and oranges. The best apple will never be an orange. This is also why there’s still debate about allowing trans women to compete as women in sports. Anyone with a Y chromosome who has matured as a male is going to have – on the average, again – a natural advantage over a similarly average XX person born as a woman.

  • Chris 14:58 on 2026-05-30 Permalink

    Trolling!? I’m of course well aware of everything you said, and agree with it, and it doesn’t contradict anything I said.

  • Kate 16:19 on 2026-05-30 Permalink

    They are “better players”? Women are not “good enough”?

    The Habs collapsed, and the Victoire did not.

• Kate 20:07 on 2026-05-29 Permalink | Reply  

  City hall is putting aside $3.4 million to help people left homeless on Moving Day. But then you read that it’s $1.1 million per year for 3 years, and that will get thinned out by incidental expenses.

   

• Kate 19:49 on 2026-05-29 Permalink | Reply  

  Man, is it raining hard over here, with incidental thunder, just as the Tour la nuit gets started nearby at Jarry Park.

  I’ve even put out a bucket to catch rainwater for some of my plants that aren’t directly rained on, so I can water them later without turning on a tap.

   

• Kate 15:17 on 2026-05-29 Permalink | Reply  

  Bike path counters, which were turned off in March, are back on again now. With a link to the city page showing the locations and the numbers since 2022.

  Kate and Joey are discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • Joey 16:42 on 2026-05-29 Permalink

    No idea why Karim Benessaieh didn’t explore this more:

    On note cependant de grandes différences entre les données fournies par la nouvelle plateforme depuis 2022 et celles d’Éco-Compteurs. Le nombre de compteurs et de passages enregistrés diffère chaque année, avec un écart pouvant aller jusqu’à 3 millions de passages en 2022 et de plus de 1 million en 2025.

  • Kate 18:58 on 2026-05-29 Permalink

    Yes, I thought the change being made was for other reasons besides the claimed ease and cheapness. Something is up.

• Kate 11:33 on 2026-05-29 Permalink | Reply  

  The city is asking us to reduce water consumption this summer while it repairs a water main under Atwater which is at risk of breakage at the same time two other major mains in town are also down for repairs.

  La Presse includes a map – basically, more than the entire eastern half of the island is concerned.

  The city will be closing some park fountains and limiting road washing and plant watering. We can only hope we don’t get any heat waves this summer.

  Kate, thomas, Chris, and 3 others are discussing. Toggle Comments

   

  • Hamza 18:04 on 2026-05-29 Permalink

    i find it the height of montreal irony for plante and projet to be the first administration in decades (maybe a century) to decide to bit the bullet and finally fix the damn leaking/exploding water mains and spiff up the streets/sidewalks at the same time – and then get electorally punished for doing the hard but right thing.

  • Kate 18:57 on 2026-05-29 Permalink

    That right there is why most administrations don’t put money and effort into maintenance and repairs, even when the need is urgent. They’d rather keep kicking that can down the road till somebody else has to take the electoral hit.

  • nick 19:42 on 2026-05-29 Permalink

    “En moyenne, chaque Montréalais consomme 306 litres d’eau par jour, ce qui dépasse la moyenne canadienne de 220 litres par jour.”

    I don’t think that’s true.

  • R T 20:02 on 2026-05-29 Permalink

    Well, in some sense, it’s impossible to know for certain if it’s true because Montreal doesn’t have water meters; we only know for sure how much water is going out. However, it is known that people in cities without water meters consume much more water than those in cities that do.

    (Many years ago, I took a class that spent a week on Montreal’s water and sewer systems. It’s unclear to me if this is still true, but another reason it was almost impossible to know how much more water Montrealers consumed than their peers was that it was very roughly estimated that the city was losing half of its water to leaks.)

  • Chris 21:06 on 2026-05-29 Permalink

    “A complete ban on watering could even be considered eventually”. Strange that they suggest this before suggesting, I dunno, a ban on washing cars, or spray-cleaning driveways, etc. Living things must die before we inconvenience car culture!

  • Kate 21:34 on 2026-05-29 Permalink

    The CTV piece does say:

    The city is also urging residents to comply with its bylaw on the use of drinking water by:

    • reducing watering;
    • avoiding using water for outdoor cleaning, such as for a car or the exterior of a home;
    • taking other daily steps to conserve water, including turning off the tap when brushing teeth.

    R T : Apparently the leaky water mains are good for the city’s trees.

  • Chris 22:03 on 2026-05-29 Permalink

    Indeed I didn’t read all 4 links, but now I’ve read the CTV one too. Seems the bylaws are explained a bit here: https://montreal.ca/en/articles/regulations-concerning-water-use-what-you-need-to-know-16578 Spray cleaning a driveway seems already disallowed.

    But even the CTV article ends with “Depending on how the situation evolves, officials note that additional measures may need to be implemented, including a watering ban.” So here too they threaten plants before banning car washing.

  • thomas 02:17 on 2026-05-30 Permalink

    The water main in question was installed in 1984. The fact that it already requires emergency repairs should be scandalous. Water mains are generally expected to last at least 60 to 70 years. For perspective, the current work on rue de la Cathédrale, mentioned in the article, is replacing a water main that dates back to 1911.

  • Kate 11:51 on 2026-05-30 Permalink

    The massive main that burst in August 2024 at the corner of de Lorimier and René‑Lévesque was installed in 1985. Possibly some bad engineering decisions about materials or methods were being made around that time, but it was reported earlier this month that it still isn’t clear what went wrong there – or maybe somebody knows but isn’t saying.