The bell tower of St-Esprit church on Masson started looking wobbly while work was being done on the façade, and now the work’s on hold and a perimeter has gone up around the building. The situation means that a plan to pedestrianize Masson this summer may also be spiked.
Updates from March, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A young man was shot Thursday evening in Rosemont, non-fatally, and is not answering questions.
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Kate
A survey done by L’actualité shows that Denis Coderre is already well ahead of Valérie Plante in the mayoralty race – even though he hasn’t formally declared his candidacy.
But did they ask respondents if they actually get out to vote in the municipal election?
Coderre has also put out a promotional video for his book, ably summarized by Philippe Teisceira-Lessard.
GC
No kidding. What is the average turnout for a municipal election? Maybe 40%?
Do people really want the Coderre years back?
DeWolf
Somebody on Reddit dug into the fine print of the survey methodology and found that it drastically under-represents younger people. The result is that it shows overwhelming support for Coderre among 18-35 year olds (ha!) and it also shows Coderre winning the Plateau in a landslide – which is pretty amusing considering the enormous margins Projet enjoys in the borough.
In other words, I’m not sure any of these very early polls with limited sample sizes are worth anything. For whatever reason, local media really love Coderre and they seem to be doing their best to drum up support for him.
Kevin
The poll’s authors point out that the results for young voters were surprising.
“Si l’on ne considère que les électeurs de 35 ans et plus, les deux candidats sont au coude-à-coude : Coderre a la faveur de 42 % des répondants et Plante, 40 %. De plus, nous pourrions ajouter que l’échantillon de répondants de 18 à 34 ans est plus modeste que celui des autres tranches d’âge, donc ce sous-échantillon possède une plus grande marge d’erreur. Est-ce une donnée statistiquement aberrante ? C’est une hypothèse plausible.”
A poll of more than 2,300 people is not a small sample. The breakdowns by group are small – they always are — but they can be revealing. In this case, I think what’s important is what citizens consider important — and we’re looking at relaunching the city, housing cost increases, managing roadwork, and then transit.
Three of those are issues where the city has limited effect, and where I think the majority of residents are unaware of the split in powers between municipal/provincial/federal.
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Kate
One of the biggest container ships in the world is stuck in the Suez Canal, as everyone who even keeps half an eye on Twitter knows, and is blocking shipping in both directions. When that waterway finally reopens, there’s going to be an almighty rush on ports worldwide.
What I’m wondering is whether our longshoremen’s union is planning any labour action to coincide with what’s bound to be a massive demand for overtime at the port. They rejected the most recent contract offer over the weekend, and while they didn’t threaten an immediate strike, they’ve got to be aware they’ll be faced with a unique opportunity whenever that ship gets unstuck.
Ephraim
The canal is 164km long. It was expanded in 2015 (I went through in 2017) to add a second lane in some areas. about 35km from the Great Bitter Lake until before the bridge. (There is a bridge on one side and a tunnel on the other, otherwise they use launches to get across, sometimes running between the ships. Convoys go twice a day, in each direction, timed with the lanes to allow ships to pass and to maximize traffic. (Location is supposedly 30.01755 N,32.58022 E, which is between Suez and the tunnel.)
The Suez canal was closed from 1967 to 1975. I’m sure the world will survive the fact that it’s closed for a few days. But there is also a railway that runs parallel, so they can always unload cargo, send it by train and reload it on ships on the other side.
James
You can clearly see the ship stuck in the canal and the massive traffic jam created on this site:
https://www.vesselfinder.com/?imo=9811000Kate
they can always unload cargo, send it by train and reload it on ships on the other side
But you need cranes to unload ships.
Ephraim
Kate – A railway on the west bank runs parallel to the canal for its entire length. It’s specifically there to unload ships, transport goods and reload them at the other end.
Kate
Interesting. I wonder if there’s any chance they can offload some of the stuck boat’s cargo.
Ephraim
No, that’s likely impossible. There is a port with cranes at the either end, but nothing in the middle. Those stuck in the canal are stuck there. And likely no one who is in Great Bitter Lake wants to move, because getting another time slot will be impossible. But ships that are scheduled to go through might be able to switch and let another ship pick up at the other end.
Ephraim
If you have never heard of it, you may want to read about the Yellow Fleet. It’s an interesting story. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Fleet
Kate
I didn’t know that bit of history, Ephraim. Thanks.
Ant6n
I’m not sure the capacity of a Single railway line or whatever harbours they have at the ends of the Suez Canal compares favorably to the cabal itself.
A 20k TEU ship, when it’s capacity is transferred to rail, would make a train that’s 136km long. Even assuming 1000m trains and 10 trains per hour, that would mean it takes 13.6 hours to bypass the canal for a single large container ship, likely at huge expense.
Apparently around 50 ships usually pass the suez per day, so the capacity of the railway is off by an order of magnitude.mare
It’s apparently VERY busy around Cape Horn, because ships that aren’t in the canal yet changed course for the longer, but now faster route.
https://mltshp-cdn.com/r/1L6Y1
So the quiet in the port of Montreal, to go back on topic, probably won’t be quiet for very long.
Ephraim
I don’t know about the capacity at all. I do know that it is specifically for that purpose. Israel even signed an agreement with China to build a railway from Eilat to Ashdod to bypass the need for the Suez or create alternative routes. Plan was frozen in 2019. Of course, today, there is another route that is open for a few months in the summer… but not year round…. the northern route.
ant6n
I understand the railway exists to take on some of the cargo of very large ships to allow them to pass the canal by lowering the draft.
JaneyB
@James, @Ephraim and @mare – Fascinating links! Thanks
Orr
With the shipping industry in the news, I just read John McPhee’s nonfiction book on the merchant marine “Looking for a Ship” and it is very insightful about life on the sea, Extensive cost cutting, staff reductions, and upsizing of the ships has not made the experience any better for the sailors though.
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Kate
An arrest has been made in the assault on police officer Sanjay Vig in January that led to the notorious wrongful arrest, initially, of an innocent man. Ali Ngarukiye was picked up in Toronto and will appear in court here Friday.
walkerp
A fall guy. This time they found one that has a record so it will make it look believable. Still no real info on the alleged attack.
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Kate
“Places of worship” are to be allowed to admit 250 people as of Friday, even in red zones.
The CBC is so sweet, the radio report just said “la-di-da, we have no idea why Quebec has suddenly changed this by decree.” It couldn’t be that it’s because next week is Holy Week for Roman Catholics, next Friday is Good Friday, and Easter is on April 4, now could it?
Meezly
Jesus H. Christ.
NDG07
A more charitable view might be that this was done in time to avoid issues with Passover which begins this Saturday. If we tighten things up again in time for the end of Ramadan in May that would make it really clear who is the in group and who is not.
mare
It’s also Pesach starting tomorrow, and Ramadan starts 12 April, so at least they can claim to be inclusive of other religions.
Kate
indeed!
Chris
> If we tighten things up again in time for the end of Ramadan in May that would make it really clear who is the in group and who is not.
Not necessarily. Changing the rules based on number of cases, spread, number of vaccinations, etc. etc. is entirely correct. Your theory would only hold if the situation is unchanged by Ramadan.
>so at least they can claim to be inclusive of other religions
They don’t need to “claim” it at all. It’s true. The rule applies to all religions equally.
Max
I surprised that there’s (seemingly) no sidebar restrictions on attendance as a percentage of a building’s capacity. For your smaller halls of worship, 250 people could present some risk, even with masks, no?
Kevin
@meezly
Everyone is supposed to be 2 m apart Which I guess de facto imposes a limitKevin
And I feel I should point out the Lower St Lawrence set a record Thursday for most daily new cases in that region since the pandemic began.
Legault’s goal is not eradicating this disease or keeping you healthy.
j2
I’m trying to understand the logic here: is it a mental heath thing like opening the gyms? Is it political pandering? Business and weddings?
It kinda seems to me the older population are more likely to go to church – well at least Catholic Church – is it the assumption they’re vaccinated? If not, they’re the most vulnerable.
MarcG
Logic? Ha.
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Kate
A Canadiens player has been diagnosed with a coronavirus variant, with more matches being delayed.
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Kate
STM’s notorious security goons are to become special constables as of July, with the right to put people under arrest, among other things.
Ephraim
Power corrupt. Absolute power, corrupts absolutely.
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Kate
There are warnings of heavy rains coming on Friday.
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Kate
The statue of Queen Victoria at McGill was vandalized with red paint last week, not for the first time. The perpetrators apologized for not having been able to bring the statue down as they did with the Macdonald statue in Place du Canada.
We have so few statues of prominent women that I will be sorry to see the 21st-century zeitgeist cause the removal of the Victoria statues, but I realize they will have to go. The only others I know of are mythological beings like the Virgin Mary and the rather splendid Athena statue in Park Ex. Am I forgetting any?
Clément
There are these ones in Quebec City.
Clément
I continued browsing the site and found this other one.
But overall, a meager harvest.
Kate
There are two I forgot: the Marguerite Bourgeoys statue down near the Palais de Justice, and a small Jeanne-d’Arc in front of the Union Française building, but you could make a case that Jeanne is at least semi-mythical.
Clément
Speaking of mythical or fictitious heroes, there’s also a statue honouring Maria Chapdelaine (famous 1913 novel by Louis Hémon) in Péribonka, Lac Saint-Jean.
It’s called “Femme et Terre”. Probably NSFWKate
Jeez, Clément.
Martin
In the Parc Laurier, there’s a statue of Queen Isabella of Castile (on Laurier and Christophe-Colomb, natch).
Matthew H
There’s also the Émilie Gamelin statue at Berri-UQAM.
Kate
Here’s Martin’s Queen Isabella. There’s also a small stone monument to Isabella in Macdonald Park, facing Isabella Avenue, in Snowdon, but no representation of her.
Matthew H, yes, there is, thank you. Since the statue’s inside the metro edicule I’d put it out of my mind.
Now that I think of it, isn’t it time we banished Columbus, Isabella and their colonization project from the public sight? Their time will come.
CE
There’s the Jeanne Mance statue at Hôtel Dieu and she’s also on the Maisonneuve statue in Place d’Armes.
Kate
OK, we’re not doing so badly for representations of women around town. Thanks all!
I notice Jeanne Mance is not listed under that name on the city’s own public art website. Odd.
CE
I wonder if we have more statues and monuments dedicated to women because of how many nuns we would have had over the years doing community work.
Kate
CE, that’s a good point.
Ephraim
The thing is, it’s hard to find someone that is without sin. Bourgeoys helped to found the Congregation of Notre Dame that was directly associated with the Society of Notre-Dame of Montréal for the Conversion of the Savages of New France. In fact, anyone who was a member of the church in France came for the purpose of conversion.
mblack
Not a statue per se but I love seeing this sculpture on Sherbrooke St. when I pass by…https://www.ledevoir.com/culture/89415/en-photo-emily-carr-est-de-retour
GC
I didn’t know about that Athena statue, but it looks cool. Will check it out soon.
Orr
The large but temporary outdoor sculpture MBAM exhibition along Sherbrooke street a few summers ago had a magnificent 5 metre tall Nana sculpture (“Nana Danseuse”) by Niki de Saint Phalle.
While it was not a specific woman of historical importance, it definitely recognizes the importance of women in a big and glorious way.
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Kate
A professor who studies tax evasion finds the suggestion of Quebec giving money to Stephen Bronfman to build a baseball stadium downright indecent. With sketches of the vastly wealthy men behind the project, all known to shelter their money in tax havens.
Kevin
The sheer volume of anti-baseball commentary I’ve seen in the past week is amazing. I cannot recall any project being dismissed this swiftly, and by such a wide swathe of the population, as this one.
It warms my heart, it truly does.
Joey
It doesn’t help that after what, seven years (?) Bronfman and his partners don’t have anything concrete to propose beyond “major real estate project (details TBD)” and “half of a baseball team.” The fact that they registered a lobbying mandate suggests they have a plan, but the fact that they didn’t anticipate someone noticing they registered and don’t have much of anything to say suggests that their plan is still half-baked or is unlikely to be well received. I recall Jack Todd breathlessly parroting the same BS about player salaries generating enough tax revenue to cover the cost of a ballpark a quarter-century ago.
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Kate
An industrial warehouse was torched early Thursday in an area TVA calls Montreal East but Radio-Canada says is Pointe-aux-Trembles. It may still be burning. (My map says the corner of Marien and de Montigny just inside Montreal East.) Neither brief item says anything about what might be inside that building.
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Kate
A fourth new Covid variant, one first identified in Nigeria, has been detected in town.
dmdiem
Everybody’s getting a variant except us. It’s not fair.
Montreal variant symptoms include cough, loss of smell and uncontrolled utterance of “bonjour hi”.
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Kate
CBC’s Verity Stevenson looks into the change this year at 140-year-old Accueil Bonneau after the shelter fired intervention workers and hired security guards, but she doesn’t manage to get a spokesman to explain why they made this decision.
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Kate
Two young men were stabbed in St-Léonard Wednesday evening, and there were also two incidents of shots being fired in that neighbourhood and in Park Ex, with no victims found.
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