Ottawa is chipping in $3.6 million in funding to help Resilience Montreal open its day centre somewhere near Cabot Square.
Updates from March, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A onetime assistant to Phoebe Greenberg, the arts patron who created the Phi Centre, has been ordered to repay $12 million to her ex-boss, after having siphoned off nearly $15 million over a year and a half. That someone could make off with such a sum unnoticed for months is amazing; whether she will even be able to pay it back isn’t mentioned in the item.
TVA expands on the story, detailing lavish purchases made by the assistant, and reminding us she was not the only person working for Greenberg who robbed her of multiple millions.
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Kate
CF Montreal have a new head coach, Wilfried Nancy. Like Thierry Henry, he’s originally from France but has been with the team in various roles for years. The team is playing out of Fort Lauderdale for the time being because of pandemic travel restrictions.
In other sports news, Rhéal Cormier, one of the few homegrown players on the Expos, has died.
Newb Runzwick
Cormier was not from Quebec.
Kate
True, but he was from New Brunswick and a francophone, so he was as near homegrown as makes no never mind.
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Kate
S.W. Welch has just posted to Facebook: “My landlord has had a change of heart and we have negotiated the lease for two more years at which point I will retire. I went up a little and he went down a lot.The outpouring of love and concern by so many people to our plight has been amazing and in the end effective achieving this result, thank you!! I will endeavour to stock the store with unexpected titles, great reads and unusual finds and to this end I am actively buying.”
So public pressure does work, even on hearts as hard as Shiller-Lavy’s.
Now I’ve got to sort out some books to sell.
Anyone know if the read-in is still on? Update: Yes, it is, at least this is what I’m seeing on social media.
Jack
Nice
MarcG
Not to shit on a victory but this doesn’t do anything to shift power over neighbourhoods from real estate companies to the people who live there. I’m sure the same thing is happening all over to other businesses (and similarly to residents getting pushed out of rental units) – what’s to be done about those instances of this problem?
Kate
I’m hoping there will still be pressure for some control over commercial rents. Even if it’s pitched as a measure to help recovery from the pandemic at first, that should get people accustomed to the idea, and the people who were in it for huge profits can go invest in bitcoin or something instead.
walkerp
That is great news!
MarcG your concerns are valid. A positive approach is to look at this as an initial step that clearly demonstrates strong citizen unity on this issue. The next step is to make it a larger campaign to push government to change the laws. Continued social pressure on development companies will help as well. Lachez pas!Meezly
My cynical heart thinks S-L didn’t like all the negative press and public opinion of them, so it’s really a matter of vanity and ego as a warming of their shrivelled hearts.
But it’s truly wonderful news. I’m quite overjoyed. It’s too bad that Welch plans to retire in 2 years, but at least he’s retiring more on his own terms. I will def frequent his store more often from now on while it’s there!
Blork
Don’t worry about being cynical, Meezly. There was almost certainly no warming of hearts here, just a matter of how much bad press S-L were willing to tolerate.
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Kate
I think everyone here will agree with Michel C. Auger when he says transit in Montreal should be overseen by a single authority responding to needs and not to political impulses, and that the REM is not the answer to everything. The only thing that’s wrong here is that he mentions a debate on public transit but we don’t have a debate, we have a transit system handed down as a government edict.
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Kate
It was recently announced that Louise Penny would be coauthoring a novel with Hillary Clinton. Now Penny is joining the chorus of outrage about S.W. Welch’s bookstore.
This Saturday, March 13, there will be a “read-in” titled “Does anyone buy books today?” at the bookstore from 2 to 5 p.m.
Paul
This just in: Welch has renegotiated a two year lease in the same location (after which he plans to retire).
Kate
You scooped me by 1 minute!
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