A record amount of real estate changed hands in July.
Updates from August, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Luc Rabouin has been selected by Projet to run to replace Luc Ferrandez this October. Metro item has a brief resumé of Rabouin’s career, and some general promises about environmental concerns and helping small business.
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Kate
This is how it happens: now the Young Liberals (PLQ) want an end to multiculturalism in Quebec as they edge rightward to try to capture back some votes from the CAQ (and even the PQ).
On the weekend, someone tweeted: “Every once in a while you just have to remind yourself that Anders Breivik’s political ideology is now, with various degrees of veiling, the platform of pretty much every mainstream conservative party in the Western world.”
Ian
Wow, that is utterly awful. Pandering to the racist vote.
Jack
Pandering isn’t quite right, I think caving to the idea that this place is owned by the french origin community and that the rest of us are historic accidents. I think that is more in keeping with this new impulse of supremacy. Reading this guys Linkedin, because like everyone I didn’t know who he was, is very instructive.
First he worked in NDG for the sitting member Ms.Weil as an executive assistant. Where i assume he might have met the odd non member of the majority community.
He also is graduate of McGill University which might have given him insight into the various folks who make up Quebec.
But the real kicker is his language qualifications:
Français,
Native or bilingual proficiency,
Espanyol
Native or bilingual proficiency,
English
Professional working proficiency,
To be a vanguard in his world, after working in an english speaking community, attending an english speaking institution, he can’t admit to being bilingual…..it looks bad and he has places to go, like Herouxville.Kevin
The three most poisonous words in this province are “la culture québécois”.
Anyone uttering these words has instantly identified themselves as a person filled with fear and self-doubt.
Don’t waste breath debating them: they are too uptight to understand the world.
Meanwhile the successful cultures (of ehich there are many in this province) will continue to seduce their children and would-be spouses.
Kevin
Oh yeah: the adult Liberals will kill this motion, like they do all the other silliness that has been proposed by the young Libs through the ages.
Jean Naimard
Of course, you know that Québec is merely continuing to do France’s work with regard to Britain, which is attempting to annihilate it, which it has been doing more or less constantly for the last thousand years. Nowhere in History such hatred over the major civilizating power in the World has been continuously deployed. Those people don’t know that without Britain, they would still be a bunch of naked savages.
Kate
Hi there, Jean Naimard. Long time no rant.
Kevin
Rage all you want Jean, there have been multiple francophone cultures in this province for ages and there always will be.
Chris
We liberals should do some introspection. There are real societal problems that ‘establishment’ politicians can’t/won’t/don’t tackle. Inequality, stagnant wages, 2009 bailouts, market fundamentalism, surveillance capitalism, climate change, political correctness, identity politics, disenfranchisement, democratic reform, etc. Legitimate grievances are not being addressed. So the people are trying something else.
Mr.Chinaski
Wow, A wild “Jean Naimard” appears…
qatzelok
@Kevin: “Meanwhile the successful cultures (of ehich there are many in this province) will continue to seduce their children”
Who are “the successful cultures” you refer to, and why are you celebrating their seduction of children?
Kevin
@qatzelok
Deliberately truncating a quote and misinterpreting it? How very MBC and Martineau of you.
The full quote is “Meanwhile the successful cultures (of which there are many in this province) will continue to seduce their children and would-be spouses.”
Seduction, as in the Quebec movie La Grande Séduction.
Children, as in the famous maxim “Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man” attributed to a host of scholarly figures.
Would-be spouses, because jerks find themselves unsuccessful in making romantic attachments.
Successful cultures know that the way to grow is by being attractive and open and welcoming, as opposed to beating people until morale improves.
If you want to know which cultures are successful, just look at every group that the scaredy-cats at Quebecor are railing against.
EmilyG
I think I learned the word “intercultural” when I worked at a cultural centre here in Montreal. The centre insisted on the interculturalism of Montreal, and of welcoming people of all cultures. In a document, it said that Canada is multicultural, but Quebec is intercultural, and there was some difference between the two, I forget what (maybe about other cultures integrating more into Quebec culture in Quebec? I don’t know.)
It seemed to me that the people born in Quebec/of Québécois heritage were more likely to say that Montreal is “intercultural,” and people from other countries or children of immigrants were more likely to say Montreal is “multicultural.” Being an anglophone born in Quebec and a member of neither of these two groups, I wasn’t really sure of the exact definition of these words, or which one was correct.
Interestingly, a QS MNA has said firmly in a Facebook post (responding to a Journal de Montréal article) that Québec solidaire is intercultural and definitely not multicultural, and does define the terms as he sees them.
Facebook post here, should be visible if not logged in: https://www.facebook.com/AFontecillaQS/posts/2319270351481549/Michael Black
I would point out that whioe many talk of “indigenous people”, this continent was multicultural before Europeans came over. Adjacent peoples may not be too different, but people from the n0rthwest are different from the plains people and Mohawks are even much different.
And yet there was also interaction,trading and intermarriage, and bits of culture passed around. But nobody wants to be generic Indian, they want their identity.
Even Louis Riel didn’t see Metis as only those with French ancestry. He included those of Scottish ancestry, and I have found three relatives who were part of the provisional government. Two weren’t even Metis, just pure Scot.
Who would want a world where everyone was the same?
Michael
Raymond Lutz
Louis Riel? Eh! We went to the same high school! Le Collège de Montréal (aka Le Petit Séminaire).
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Kate
Metro’s Sylvain Ménard makes a case that the best thing to do with the Expo 67 site is to let nature reclaim the site.
Tim F
For the past few days since reading this I’ve been thinking about that episode of “Battlestar Gallactica” from the 80s when they used Expo as the ruins of a war-ravaged world. http://www.worldsfairphotos.com/expo67/battlestar-galactica.htm
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Kate
Hampstead council voted Monday to demolish two buildings on Côte St‑Luc where many tenants have lived for years. They will be getting a measly couple of grand as compensation.
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Kate
Car-sharing outfits Communauto and car2go will see city fees reduced and more access to downtown, changes that should make the services more appealing to users.
Daniel
This sounds like good news. I’ll be interested to see how this shakes out. These car-share companies have become an important part of my mobility. (I have a disability and still do use transit quite a bit, but it’s not always practical and I’m privileged to be able to spare the money for car-share occasionally, something I don’t take for granted.)
Ephraim
Daniel… why don’t you use transport adapté? My mother loves the service. A bit more difficult in how you have to plan, but she loves the drivers and the service.
Daniel
That’s good to hear and I’m glad that service exists, but sometimes there is no substitute for being able to step outside and get in a car that’s already parked a short distance from our place. I certainly get this isn’t an option for everybody, but I’m glad it’s part of the mix.
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Kate
Monday morning there was a car theft, a crash and then an attempted second theft. The Gazette talks to one of the men who stopped the suspect in his tracks.
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Kate
Two candidates are vying for the Projet Montréal borough mayoral candidacy in the Plateau, and one will be picked on Tuesday night. The byelection is on October 6.
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Kate
Even though there’s no evidence that SPVM police use facial recognition software, Marvin Rotrand wants to make them promise not to.
But you know, they’re going to. All cops and all authorities are going to use this technology. It’s an inevitability.
Raymond Lutz
“RCMP used cellphone tracking technology unlawfully 6 times, says privacy watchdog” – CBC sep 2017
Kate
Only six?
Ian
They were caught using it unlawfully 6 times. No mention of how many times is was used lawfully and we will never know how many times they simply got away with it.
Raymond Lutz
From the 2017 CBC article: “Between 2011 and 2016 the RCMP used IMSI catchers in 125 criminal investigations, 29 of which were in support of other Canadian law enforcement agencies, the report from Daniel Therrien’s office found. In the majority of cases, the RCMP obtained a warrant to use their IMSI catchers. In 13 cases, no warrant was obtained. Seven of those were what the RCMP call “exigent circumstances” — cases requiring the police to act quickly in order to “prevent the loss of life or grievous bodily harm.” Someone is spying on cellphones in the nation’s capital RCMP, CSIS launch investigations into phone spying on Parliament Hill after CBC story The remaining six cases took place during a time when the RCMP was operating under the notion that no warrant was required — between March and June 2015.
My point is, regarding facial recognition tech (and massive storage of video surveillance): LEAs WILL use it, lawfully or not. Probably they’re already testing prototypes, donnu… like megapixel camera mounted on drones filming manifestations against pipelines?
Faiz Imam
Big ups on Rotrand for pushing this. Its a major issue and very few cities are in front of it.
The use of this tech is still early. Some are using it more, some less. But its only going to be more serious and more universal.
It’s no surprise Oakland and SF were first. They know first hand( and have experts on hand to know) how serious this is, and they took the initiative.
The cops can say (or not say) what they want. But we need the regulatory framework now, before things get out of hand.
Unfortunately the federal government, and the liberals no better than the CPC, show little desire to limit the power of law enforcement in any way. For example both CSIS and CSEC have been given enormous new powers and funding by the liberals, with next to zero transparency and oversight. I don’t see how municipal police will be any different.
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Kate
Radio-Canada raises an eyebrow at the sale of a Plateau duplex for $737,500 given that it had been condemned by the city.
dwgs
In the last year or two there have been 3 places that sold on my cozy but not fancy in any way block in NDG (between de Maisonneuve and Sherbrooke). They selling prices ranged from mid 600k to mid 700k and they were all gutted and rebuilt, meaning the buyers were sinking close to a million dollars into the purchase and Plateau real estate is worth way more than squaresville NDG.
walkerp
Here is another one where the price threw me.
No interior pictures, barely any info. I think there are some descendants who want to make a quick buck after their parents have moved out of a place they have been in decades and don’t fully understand the market.
Joey
@walkerp seems like it to me – I think the full listing says it’s sold with no legal guarantee
Both of these properties make the case that a real estate transaction really should be thought of as consisting of two parts. On the one hand, the real asset your getting is the land – location location location, right? God knows they aren’t making any more land in the Plateau, and heaven help anyone who would like to see the neighbourhood become denser. On the other han, you’re buying a depreciating asset. Seven hundred grand for that condo doesn’t seem excessive, even if you have to spend another 300K demolishing and rebuilding. A two-storey single family home in that neighbourhood should fetch in excess of a million bucks, since such things are very rare. Rebuilding and dividing into two (or three?) condos at $500K each would be about market rate. Yes, it’s “insalubre” but the appeal is the land/location, not the shitty house. Such is the market these days.
Blork
Location, location, location. I recently looked at a listing for an historical duplex in Varennes (from 1790; it even has a plaque out front). Almost 1800 square feet, huge deck directly overlooking the water. Tastefully renovated where it matters but retaining all the historical touches. Three bedrooms, three bathrooms, family room, a loft over the master bedroom big enough for a home office… $449,000.
Just up the street is another historical house from 1896. Six bedrooms, two-and-a-half bathrooms, close to the river (but without direct access). 3400 square feet of living space. Somewhat renovated kitchen and bathroom; everything else old and woody but seems to be in great shape. High ceilings and abundant windows. $525,000. Basically the price of a one bedroom in Griffintown.
Unfortunately those places are in Varennes, which means a long commute if you work on the island, but more importantly it’s the most boring town in the Monterégie from what I can tell. Pretty as can be, but utterly dead. (Nice if you like quiet.) Apparently the largest demographic is the 65+ age group. When my sweetie and I bike there on weekends (we go for the journey, not the destination), we have to bring a lunch because there are literally no restaurants aside from a few greasy shitholes out by the highway (well off the bike path).
Ephraim
Walkerp… Use the city tool. The evaluation of the property is $881,700 and the owner lives in Ontario. Also says it was built around 1900.
CE
Re: Varennes. I’ve driven through the suburban areas but never the old village centre. It’s super pretty and well preserved but wow, you weren’t wrong about there being literally nothing. There seems to be a dep and a notary and not much else!
Kevin
I once rode through Varennes on garage sale day. Kilometre after kilometre of junk that you know isn’t ever going to leave town
Blork
I don’t think that’s unique to Varennes.
walkerp
@ephraim what’s the city tool?
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