Updates from October, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 09:31 on 2019-10-20 Permalink | Reply  

    The Gazette gets a little edgy with its history stuff this week, reminding us not only of the War Measures Act and the funeral of Pierre Laporte but also the formation of the Equality Party.

    The Centre d’histoire takes us to the corner of Notre-Dame and McGill Street in 1905.

    Radio-Canada looks back at a 1969 incident in which nine Bordeaux Jail convicts escaped during a trip to court, leading to a mass police search of the area. Text and video.

    The site histoirecanada.ca recently had a piece about the origins of the Portuguese community in Montreal, which began rather suddenly with the arrival of a boatload of working men in 1953.

     
    • Michael Black 22:51 on 2019-10-20 Permalink

      I thought the War Measures Act had been invoked earlier, but I see this time the Gazette was a few days after the anniversary.

      I’ll never forget Halloween that year, one house, belonging to a Quebec cabinet minister, had a soldier or two guarding the front door. I don’t think we rang the bell.

      The news of Laporte’s death came from a kid a block away, early on the Sunday morning. I can’tremember how much I knew at the time. But the kid was even closer to the minister’s house, something I suddenly think of.

      But I also remember seeing soldiers on the way to school, so tgey must have been plentiful.

      James Cross’ kidnapping was in the Star on the Monday, no paper or much news on Sunday. At least half the front page was about the story. But a teaser to an nside story, something about a rock star dying. .I paid no attention that, but a few years later realized it was about Janis Joplin.

      Michael

  • Kate 08:54 on 2019-10-20 Permalink | Reply  

    Gazette columnist Allison Hanes writes about Montreal’s problems with the CAQ, but nothing here should be a surprise. We elected only two CAQ MNAs from the far eastern end of the island, one of whom is a nonentity. François Legault is well aware his party’s support doesn’t come from the city, and that’s not likely to change, so why should he?

    One thing Hanes does remind me about is Denis Coderre’s supposed big success in having Montreal declared a metropolis. This turned out to be a meaningless gesture, because it came with no additional revenue source, and the current administration sees no benefit in according the city the respect implied by that status. If anything, it buys CAQ approval in the regions if they can be seen to crack down on the pullulating mass of immigrants, anglos and other scruff that populate – nay, besmirch – Quebec’s biggest city.

    Historically, it will probably be seen as Valérie Plante’s biggest challenge that she had to pilot Montreal through a period when the provincial government was essentially hostile to its supposed metropolis.

     
    • Kate 08:38 on 2019-10-20 Permalink | Reply  

      Radio-Canada visits the building at Atwater and Ste-Catherine that was most recently an Asian fusion restaurant but will soon – “si tout va bien” – be open as a day shelter for frequenters of Cabot Square.

      Nakuset should be put up for an Order of Montreal. I’m not in a position to do it, but maybe I can put the idea out there.

       
      • Ghost of Ginger Baker 19:24 on 2019-10-21 Permalink

        Wasn’t that once the first McDonald’s in Canada/ Montreal, built in the run-up to the 76 Games?

      • Michael Black 19:48 on 2019-10-21 Permalink

        I don’t think it was first, but it was the first one I was ever in, so definitely first in downtown Montreal. Maybe first in the Montreal area.

        If I remember properly, the franchisee did later open the first McDonald’s in Russia, I think based on some connection here during the 1976 Olympics.

        As I recall, the building was built for the McDonald’s.

        Michael

      • Uatu 17:27 on 2019-10-22 Permalink

        It was the 4000th McDonald’s to open in Canada. There used to be a plaque on the side of the building to commemorate this. It’s also why the windows facing Cabot square kinda sorta looks like the number 4000 ; 3 round windows and one long one in the back. It used to be crazy busy on game nights and concerts, but it is better it’s across the street in Alexis Nihon because they get lots of$$ from the mall/metro/Dawson traffic

      • Blork 21:44 on 2019-10-22 Permalink

        Um, that 4000th McDo thing sound apocryphal, especially given the address is 4000 Ste-Catherine O. Seems like too much coincidence.

      • dhomas 06:11 on 2019-10-23 Permalink

        The first McDonald’s in Quebec was opened in June 1972 in Montreal, though I cannot find which location opened first after a quick search. There were “over 2000 restaurants” at the time, so the 4000 number seems wrong.
        See here for a job posting from 1972:
        http://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/details/52327/2720324?docsearchtext=Premier%20restaurant%20McDonald%27s%20Montr%C3%A9al

        As a side note, it’s shocking today to see the overt sexism in the ad (“des postes intéressants pour des HOMMES débrouillards”). Was that pretty much par for the course at the time?

      • sodapop 16:48 on 2024-07-24 Permalink

        The building at the corner of St. Cat and Atwater was built to house the 4000th McDo in the world. The very first McDo in Canada was in BC. The more you know………….

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