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The Port of Montreal is refusing to cede a few islands to the Parc des îles de Boucherville which would allow the area protected as parkland to be enlarged by 25%.
The activities of the port are important to Montreal, but the coming and going of large, fast ships has interfered with the whales – the speed limit imposed on ships last year was rescinded last month – and is also being blamed for erosion of the river banks. A better balance has to be arrived at.
The Gazette has an item on the Cagibi moving northwards, but this T’cha Dunlevy piece is really a pillorying of Shiller Lavy, the real estate behemoth that controls several commercial streets in this city. The firm has a record of pushing out local independent businesses to bring in more profitable tenants, almost always chain outlets, a preference that flattens out neighbourhood character and tends to make Montreal duller and more samey throughout. Shiller Lavy owns Masson Street, among others, and in 2016 the Journal reported on their investment in mansions for the wealthy.
Lots of self-back-patting this week after the English wording of O Canada was changed to make it gender neutral. But it’s still a religious hymn, which I think is more of a problem.
I wrote about the anthem in 2011. My thoughts on it have not changed:
I’m old enough to have originally been taught this version, with even more standing on guard than the current one:
So the official statement quotes some earlier versions and the current version, but skips past the Weir version – quoted above – that was used for much of the 20th century, and moves right to:
Now “all thy sons” has been replaced by “all of us” – except the unbelievers, of course.
Club Sandwich, once a mainstay of the Village, is being demolished to put up a nine-storey multi-use building on the spot.
The city has evicted two dozen Point St Charles residents from their flats on Centre and Chateauguay Streets, giving them a couple of weeks to find new places to live. The city says the buildings are unsafe; tenants, who should now be free to kvetch about the conditions, say they’re fine. Many news stories have given the impression there are far worse apartments being rented all over town.
Valérie Plante presented her commissioner of indigenous affairs Friday with hopes that the role will be beneficial for its native residents. We’re the only city in Canada that has created such a position.
Snow removal is already over budget in two boroughs and others are likely to follow. But don’t worry! We won’t get any snow on Sunday – it’s freezing rain instead.
The city’s also making use of 16 snow chutes that pour snow directly into the sewer system – a method slower than merely dumping it somewhere, but useful as the snow dumps fill up.
Sivaloganathan Thanabalasingam won’t be brought back to Quebec for a new trial for the murder of his wife Anuja Baskaran in 2012.
Valérie Plante’s support for the Evenko amphitheatre project was disappointing; some are also let down by her championing of the REM project, an apparent flip-flop since her election; now she also says she hasn’t ruled out the Coderre dream of a new baseball stadium around the Peel basin. Obviously city hall needs those renovations, because there’s got to be something in the water down there.
A proposed addition to the Maisonneuve library isn’t to everyone’s taste, with some complaining that the proposed modern wing messes with the elegant architecture. The alternative proposition of putting any enlargement underground is frankly ridiculous: that building, while classy from outside, is cramped and outdated inside. The library will be far more useful and popular with a spacious new addition offering plenty of natural light.
Some guys maintain an ice bridge off the western edge of the island, allowing motorists to take a shortcut between Oka and Hudson, not possible every winter but working fine this year. No complaints in the article about the $8 toll.
The St Patrick’s parade will have to go along de Maisonneuve this year because Ste-Catherine is all dug up.
Thank goodness we don’t have to concern ourselves about a Stanley Cup parade.
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