Divers are in the Lachine Canal on Tuesday evening after a car plunged in on the Lachine end of the waterway. Is this the same story as the one on TVA and CTV about a car at the bottom of Lac St-Louis off Lachine?
…I guess it is. I swear when I first looked at the CBC link it said “Lachine Canal” but now it’s in line with the other two.
The lot containing the decrepit St Columba church in NDG was a hot potato for years as residents resisted new construction on that block of NDG Avenue. But they’ve come to an agreement finally.
Montreal’s boroughs will face tough decisions what to cut to make ends meet in 2021. Unlike the central city, some may choose to increase their tax rates, which account for only 12.5% of the property tax bill.
It’s ridiculous that government entities are required to “make ends meet”. Cities should be able to operate at a deficit just like other levels of government are.
They always go for the tax rolls, they never try anything like innovation or figuring out how to lower other bills or costs. Or increasing fees,
… or cutting waste and corruption.
Data concerning the Covid testing of 37,000 individuals has been leaked from the north-end CIUSSS.
Didn’t realize fax machines could be hacked
/s
Embattled borough mayor Sue Montgomery is starting a new political party, Équipe Sue Montgomery, to take her into next year’s municipal election.
I voted for Sue for mayor last election but theres just too many drama going on to consider her as a good candidate for a second term.
She still has my vote, she’s the only person who seems direct and straightforward, even when it’s not in her best interest. I don’t like naming the party after herself though…
Can’t wait to hear what walkerp has to say.
No way Sue will get my vote. Made the borough the laughing stock of the city.
Can’t wait for her slogan : “Vote for me for another four years of disfunction”
Wasn`t it already a laughing stock with Applebaum`s conviction?
I still don’t understand why she and Plante would not want a détente. Two strong supposedly progressive women.
But sheesh calling the party after your own name does suggest a serious lack of self-awareness and judgement.
@walkerp isn’t that very common in municipal politics, where parties are more akin to slates associated with a name at the top (Equipe Denis Coderre) and not entities that outlast their leaders (Projet Montreal)?
Adding that there is value in this, insofar as someone who’s supporting, say, Denis Coderre, may want to vote for his slate of candidates up and down the ballot. Being able to identify the Coderre-affiliated candidates for city and borough council is a feature, not a bug.
@walkerp True about Applebaum but there was a 4 year interval of Copeman (2013-2017) that wasn’t too bad…
Yes @Joey, solid points. I hadn’t thought about it like that. I guess because I assume that you only do that when you are actually at the level where you have multiple candidates. I guess Montgomery will have a team of councillors that will run as well. Could be interesting!
@James, yes true. And this last period has certainly been pretty dysfunctional at least media-wise.
For a long time there was Drapeau, I can’t remember if he had a party, but there was no real opposition. Then the MCM came along, a few seats for a while, and then success in the eighties. But that faces to an upstart party. We’ve seen parties face after one term. So naming after a person really means nothing, a more generic name faces too.
How many parties has Marvin Rotrand been in since he was first elected in 1982? That shows how little”party” means in Montreal politics.
I’m going to predict that Montgomery will actually get some good, well-meaning people to run with her, who, if actually elected, will end up quitting and running as independents.
The metro’s green line is down till 2 pm between Angrignon and Berri-UQÀM. A gas line was broken at a construction site near Atwater and has to be fixed.
…Seems like the line is back in service now.
Funny that both articles fail to mention that the construction site in question was part of the metro itself. They’re redoing the waterproof membrane of the Atwater station:
http://www.stm.info/en/info/service-updates/stm-works/atwater
Of course I had to pick this afternoon to run an errand at Westmount Square 🙁
I amused myself by looking into the ancestry of François Legault last night. His family is deeply rooted on the western end of the island of Montreal – he was born in Lachine himself, but several previous generations lived in and around Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. A real West Island boy.
I don’t have time right now to plow further, but I can tell you: he’s French with one line of German ancestry, but no hints of indigenous ancestry that I could find. That isn’t to say he does not, but I couldn’t see any.
I know he’s got an anglo cousin who is roughly the same age who lived very close to him in Ste. Anne’s.
Darryl Leroux was a bit slow, but he now tweets Legault is talking ten generations back.
I have one set of great-grandparents from a distinctly different place than my other relatives so I can see pretty definitively that I share 17.3% of my genes with them. So considerably less than the 25% one might imagine.
That said, you potentially share
50% with parents
25% with grandparents
12.5% with great grandparents
6.25% with great-great grandparents
3.125% with great-great-great grandparents
…
.097% (at most!) 10 generations back
According to my genetic tests I have 0.2% Native ancestry so that would be approximately my 12th generation, but given variability, maybe my 11th or even 10th. I only know the names of my great-great grandparents from their paper trail, of course they were dead long before I was born. With that, can you imagine how preposterous it would be for me to go around saying I have Native heritage so I speak from a position of privilege about it? Yeah me neither.
This is a personal story and it happened to me 45 years ago. My Grandfather is from Wendake and was a member of that Nation. I went to High School with a bunch of kids from Kanawake and played sports and went to class with these kids. We were walking to the bus one afternoon and I casually mentioned that my Grandfather was Indian…. 5 seconds of silence….” Jack your as Indian as my dog”…much laughter and I never trafficked in it after . So I was lucky to get schooled young.
Honest question, if that was your paternal grandfather, wouldn’t that give you status?
No it was my Mom’s father. It’s been a bone contention in my family because some of my cousins and have claimed Metis status, who are living in other parts of Canada and it’s been granted. I lived in two First Nations communities when I started teaching and that really reinforced for me the fact that I wouldn’t claim my Grand Fathers identity, other than being really proud of him and his people. I dont speak his language and I did not have his lived experience. Frankly growing up in NDG 60 years ago it was a lot easier to be Irish. I also find it interesting now how many people are reclaiming that identity to advance an argument or a career, I don’t.
This is my Grandfather
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/descendants-of-huron-wendat-ww-i-soldier-donate-war-memorabilia-to-wendake-1.5354682
Jack, unlike many white North Americans, you’re absolutely certain of your indigenous background – who they were and where they came from. It’s not just a vague folkloric belief. You’d certainly be considered Métis elsewhere, but I don’t think we’ve ever had that status in Quebec.
Admirable ancestor to have, too.
Thanks Kate
Is it that your mother married out, and thus lost status? Not only has that law been repealed, but I’m sure I’ve seen articles about people regaining status because their mother married out. But I can’t remember details.
Or did your grandfather lose status by joining up? I can’t remember if that was one of the things, like voting, which caused status to be lost.
A grandfather is not distant. Aren’t there other close relatives to claim you? Having status is a legal thing, imposed by the federal government, but that doesn’t negate you. Lots of people don’t speak their language, don’t know their culture, though it’s an ongoing story that many learn the value as they get older, and learn.
Nakuset was raised Jewish, that doesn’t make her less native.
It’s all complicated, and complicated more by people more distant who think some of it applies to them. That city councillor was vague, which seemed an indicator of no real substance.
But Metis is well defined, it’s not a catchall for people with native ancestors. I’d say some of it is resistance, if Cuthbert Grant and then Louis Riel, and later generations, hadn’t put up resistance there’d not be a Metis nation. You generally have to show a connection to Red River. I’ve seen scans of the scrips for my great, great grandmother and my great grandfather. My family is claimed as Metis in various ways. Oddly my Manitoba Metis Federation card is held up because I can’t prove a connection between my father and grandfather, the one thing I have known all my life. The records are only open for births before a hundred years ago. I have to find out how to get a copy of his birth certificate.
And while Metis is recognised to some extent by the federal government, it’s not the same thing as having status.
There can be Metis people living in the East, but there are no “Eastern Metis”.
The progression of the pandemic here was shaped by how it started in late winter and moved through spring and summer. Now the city’s facing a winter at least partly locked down and has to make plans to get people outside a little and moving around.
Tuesday’s update: Quebec broke 80,000 cumulative cases with 1,364 new cases over the last 24 hours. Seventeen new deaths were added to the tally, although they didn’t all occur within that 24‑hour period.
I remember when Plante was running for the Project leadership one of her proposals was an urban network of cross-country ski trails. In normal situations I can’t see how that would be practical, but maybe this is the year. I’ve often wondered what the de Maisonneuve path would look like if we just left it unplowed for the skiers. And cross-country gear is cheaper than a bike…
I like the idea of leaving some corners here and there unplowed to make mini-sledding hills and play areas.
I worry, though, about the idea of warming stations and hot chocolate kiosks, given how much of a role ski resorts played in spreading the virus. Though we definitely should have more of those scattered around the city in a normal winter.
A better plan would probably just have lots of space available for people to be able to get out, and spread out, during the less cold days.
They should close off some streets and make them ice rinks. People can skate to work. No one will complain because bikes aren’t involved.
@ Tim, where did you hear about ski resorts role in spreading? I enjoy skiing at the local hills, but Im not a big fan of the chalet or cafeterias at the mountains. I thought that would be one of the things I could count on this winter. (Already bought my season pass!)
I love the idea of cross country trails all over the city, but I don’t see how it could work – every time you cross a street, you’d have to take your skis off, or else chew the bottoms of them all to bits on the bare pavement.
Dominic: Nothing in Quebec that I know of, but Igschl in Austria is being blamed for superspreading the virus throughout Europe in February/March, some citizen’s group there is suing the government for acting too slowly, and I read somewhere (the New Yorker?) about people at a resort in Idaho that spread it throughout the US West Coast. How much of the spread happened on the slopes and how much at the aprés ski scene, I don’t know, but I’d be very careful sharing a lift…
Jaddle, yeah, I know. It would have to be somewhere with few crossings – de Maisonneuve west of Atwater, maybe. St Urbain? Cote Ste Catherine?
Not so sure about the rest of the city but a x-country trail network would be workable in the southwestern part of Montreal. Verdun, Lasalle and Lachine already make a trail along the riverfront. Trails could also be made along the Lachine Canal (hello Parks Canada?) and alongside Boul. Champlain/Canal de l’aqueduc (only a few street crossings, locals already ski this making their own trails). The riverfront and Canal de l’aqueduc/Angrignon Park could be connected through the Douglas Hospital grounds. Reaching a bit more, Angrignon Park could be connected to the Lachine Canal using the bike path along Rue Senkus and the Lachine Canal linked to Canal de l’aqueduc along the La Verendrye bike path (of course they might want to plow these for the winter cyclists). Similarly, it might be possible to have a trail over to (and then around) Nuns’ Island using a portion of the bike/pedestrian path on the bridge. It has to be said though that often our winters here aren’t consistently cold (or rain-free) enough to have great trails.
@nau there is also an unofficial track traced by whoever gets up first after a big snowstorm along the CP train track that separates the Plateau and Rosemont
Cool. I imagine that holds in various other parts of the city as well. The rail right-of ways would definitely be useful in constructing a larger network, but unfortunately we know they’ll never voluntarily get on board.
Just realized I made it out to be along the track, whereas it is actually along the ‘reseau vert’ on the de carrieres bike path which runs alongside the train track. Some space to have one along side the rail would be great though, there is a lot space where they uninstalled the 3rd track that could be used
From what I understood about the CP’s attitude in that area, that makes more sense. In an alternate reality, where the railways were accessible, one could imagine a network taking that rail line down to rue Notre-Dame, then along that to the east to what looks like an under-used rail-yard that would take one up to within walking distance of Viau and Assomption metro stations and Maisonneuve park, where one could go north-east through the golf course and on through Bois-des-Peres and Francesca-Cabrini parks. Going back to that rail-yard, looks like one could also then go east along Boul. Souligny and even possibly access Radisson and Felix-Leclerc parks to the northwest and Bellerive park to the northeast. Also looks like there’s a bike path that sneaks through the interchange with Autoroute 25 to keep heading out along Souligny. Some of that is undoubtedly already skied informally.
TimeOut’s tireless JP Karwacki has a list of 15 restaurants where you can get a takeout Thanksgiving dinner.
More than 100 STM bus drivers have been diagnosed with Covid since the start of the pandemic, although – according to this – no outbreak can be traced back to the transit commission.
Matthew H 22:12 on 2020-10-06 Permalink
You weren’t imagining things! You can see by the CBC article’s URL that it was originally published with a title referencing the Lachine Canal.
Kate 08:31 on 2020-10-07 Permalink
Thank you!