The mayor has rejected the claim made this week in the Journal that the city is facing financial catastrophe.
Updates from November, 2019 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Grim reading Saturday morning on the violence-against-women theme: a man who was helped to immigrate here by a woman partner tried very hard to kill her once his foot was in the door. He was charged with a long list of offences at the Palais de justice this week and may eventually be extradited.
A man who attacked, threatened and very nearly choked to death a 15-year-old Montreal high school student was sentenced to two years plus various forms of restriction and inclusion on the sexual delinquents list for 20 years. He’s said to have diminished intellectual capacity.
A man who killed a transsexual sex worker with a katana in 2017 was sentenced to seven years this week.
Spi
That first story is an extreme case of a not uncommon tactic, seduce and marry (usually older single) Canadian women and to gain entry to the country and shortly after divorce or just disappear.
“En raison du statut de la femme au Canada, l’accusé n’a pas eu de difficulté à obtenir ses papiers d’immigration afin de s’installer au Québec.” based on what is the author making that assertion? From what I’ve read immigration officials have been scrutinizing cases like these before they gain entry to the country)
Then again I don’t expect much more in terms of reporting from the journal.
Kate
Spi, you’re right – that’s a very odd claim for them to make.
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Kate
Montreal’s public health agency wants the demerged towns to be more transparent about the presence of lead pipes in their infrastructure. This is clearly a problem that’s going to linger for decades, since not every owner or town can afford to dig them up.
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Kate
Despite hearings and formal complaints and a unanimous (but not binding) resolution by city council, SPVM police have no plans to end street checks on random people from visible minorities the police just know have criminal tendencies. (This contradicts a recent Christopher Curtis piece in the Gazette saying the police acknowledge a problem.)
If the force doesn’t accept they have a deep-rooted attitudinal problem, as one participant says here, they certainly can’t be trusted to create and enforce new policies. But waiting for the Quebec government to act on this problem may also reveal a disinclination to accept how fundamental a racist attitude is among our enforcers of the law. It’s an actual problem, unlike the question of wearing a religious signifier at work.
Dominic
Sidebar: Christopher Curtis is consistently one of the best reporters in the city.
Kate
Yes, he is.
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Kate
The Journal has a map showing who owns major downtown buildings or developments, by fairly broad categories. Also a brief quiz about major buildings and a look at a few fortunes invested in office buildings.
Max
Here’s a map showing how heavily the CDP invests in downtown Montreal:
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Kate
The dig on Ste-Catherine east of McGill College will be suspended for a couple of months over the holiday season, while some are displeased that Saturday’s Santa Claus parade is going along René-Lévesque instead. CTV notes that a few of the vehicles in this year’s parade will be electric ones.
Minor question from curiosity: after Santa Claus arrives, where does he go? I seem to remember that, when I was a kid, Santa Claus would arrive via the parade and then be enthroned at Eaton’s in a shameless commercial orgy to stimulate Christmas shopping. I have no idea whether there’s “a” Santa like that any more.
Update: A few days after I posted this, the Gazette did a “through our eyes” about Santa and Eaton’s in 1950.
Uatu
That old parade was sponsored by Eatons so it’s no surprise that he’d lead the crowd like the Pied Piper to Eatons to revel in the holiday spirit of consumerist gluttony. I even remember TV commercials with Don McGowan hyping up the parade weeks before. I’m not sure but I think this parade is run by the downtown merchants association so who knows where Santa ends up ?
Kate
Right. I also remember that other stores had a Santa, so clearly Eaton’s didn’t have a monopoly. I think Simpson’s had one, but I’d have to go digging in the La Presse archive to find out whether Dupuis Frères did. I think some malls may have had a collective one – surely Fairview did?
Does anybody still do this, or are parents too leery about letting children sit on the laps of heavily disguised strangers?
Michael Black
Remember, the Eaton’s parade is fifty years in the past. The current parade pretends that there is continuity, but there was a gap of at least a decade, and a different group running it.
Complexe Desjardins definitely had a Santa Claus for some time, don’t know about now. But they also had various activities for kids and a “train” to ride around the central area.
We’ve lost most of the department stores, so that is likely the primary reason that the Santa Clauses disappeared. For some years the toy department disappeared from the downtown The Bay, but it returned I think last year. They still have a tiny Christmas section on the same floor as the restaurant, but it’s not like the old days. Eaton’s and The Bay would be selling Christmas decorations, but had lots set up so it was something to see without buying anything. We’d always go down to Eaton’s one evening, have something at the automat on the fifth floor, see Santa Claus, and then visit the toy department.
For a while, some of the department stores had Breakfast with Santa, certainly thirty years ago. So pancakes before going off to buy or see what you wanted for Christmas.
I think the malls still have Santa Claus visits, the mall organizing it rather than a specific sfore. Certainly Angrignon has had it in recent years.
One can always go to Ikea in the coming weeks, a way to get in the mood for a Scandinavian Christmas, but then we spent six months in Denmark when I was five, probably the first Christmas I really remember.
Michael
Uatu
There are still mall Santas in the burbs. In Champlain mall there’s a Santa village and it’s loaded with parents and kids. Parents still just love getting a picture of santa with the kids
denpanosekai
Yes I brought my daughter to the Angrignon Santa last week and it was fun. They gave her a book. Go there on like a Wednesday night to avoid the incredible lineups.
The parade this morning was fun, but as usual loaded with technical hiccups. Sometimes it would be frozen for (what felt) up to 10 minutes. The tapdancing cart had major loudspeaker problems. And just overall very disjointed groups. But it was still cool and Rene Leveski wasn’t a bad pick this year.
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