The suspect in the domestic assault murder in Lasalle has been charged with murder in the second degree, after initially being charged with assault.
Updates from March, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Kate
-
Kate
Ali Ngarukye, the new suspect in the Park Ex attack on police officer Sanjay Vig, appeared in court Friday morning and was charged with attempted murder, disarming a police officer, stealing cars and other associated offences. He’ll remain locked up until trial. La Presse got a photo of the suspect’s family but not the man himself.
Do I think they have another fall guy? They claim to have DNA evidence. I have no way to tell.
GC
La Presse posting pics of only the suspect’s family is…an odd choice.
Clément
There’s no pics of him because he wasn’t in court in person.
Jack
My goodness the suspects family has been the most important part of this story on LCN and sadly Radio Can. Anyone want to guess why?
Елизавета
Thaddeus Ashford, cousin of Sylville Smith, reacts to the acquittal of ex-cop Dominique Heaggan-Brown in the fatal shooting of Smith that set off two days of violent unrest near Sherman Park. The verdict was just the latest of many acquittals in police shootings around the country, including one in Minnesota last week of the officer who fatally shot Philando Castile. Like that case, it involved suspects with guns, split-second decisions about self-defense and video evidence.
-
Kate
Montreal is mentioned only 25 times in the 500‑page Quebec budget tabled Thursday.
Mayor Plante is disappointed in the minimal amount for social housing, which the city badly needs. It undercuts her hope for many new units and I wonder whether the CAQ is manipulating the municipal election by starving Montreal of a key promise made by Plante.
Daniel D
Something which this blog and its commenters have shone a bright light on this year, is the lack of agency Montreal has over its own destiny, with Quebec making all the big decisions and calling the shots from afar.
What interests me, is how aware is the average Montrealer of this depressing political reality? I wonder If most of its citizens don’t realise how little control the Mayor has over these things.
With this hindsight, it was probably unwise of Projet to base their biggest election promise on the Pink Line, something which the City would have had no power to implement in the first place.
It’s frustrating, as what I’m seeing is the provincial government views Montreal as a magic money box to use to generate wealth (eg: big profitable projects no one asked for like the REM or the baseball stadium mentioned in a recent post), and beyond that it sees the city either as a problem to be solved or a political wedge to be used. Montreal is so much more than these things.
DeWolf
I think the average citizen has absolutely no idea how little power municipalities have in Quebec (and in Canada more generally) which is why they get mad at the mayor for things totally outside of her control.
Then again, maybe they do have a sense of things, because why else would turnout in municipal elections be so low?
Meezly
Yes, one good example is the lack of control the city has in commercial rents as it’s a provincial jurisdiction. The city seems powerless in doing anything effective in combatting abusive business practices I only learned this recently and I consider myself a little bit more informed than the average citizen.
-
Kate
Some driving notes for the weekend.
-
Kate
A resident of the Mile End laments its demise.
Bill Binns
“Proto-Hipster yells at cloud”.
Anyone longing for the dirty sidewalks and communist sentiment of old Mile End has plenty of present day Montreal neighborhoods to choose from. Maybe go join a grocery store robbery team in St Henri or help QS mobilize the proletariat in the Village. Pick up a knife and a few cans of spraypaint and help Hochelaga keep the scourge of gentrification at bay.
js
Sounds like someone is jealous because the dirty, crime-ridden neighborhood they bought property in didn’t experience the immediate wave of gentrification they expected would follow in their wake.
dwgs
If he moved to Mile End in 1999 he had already missed the best of that neighbourhood. We left in ’99 because it was getting too expensive and precious. So there.
Joey
Finally, an essay about gentrification in Mile-End!
Bill Binns
@JS My neighborhood is considerably less dirty and crime ridden than it was when I arrived. Thanks in no small part to me being there. My house has appreciated over 40% in 5 years and I will soon unload it on someone who will likely gut it and turn it into condos. I’m quite happy with how things have gone.
Blork
I’m not aware of Mile End ever being crime-ridden. I lived there for a couple of years (1991-93), before hipsters, and before anybody talked about it being anything more than a neighbourhood. But I liked it because it was full of creative people (confession: creative anglos; I was studying photography at Concordia at the time and a bunch of other people from the program also lived there). I liked the proximity to bagels and the handful of affordable restaurants along St-Viateur and Bernard that were not just casse-croutes. (Does anyone remember Gigi’s pizza?)
It was a chaotic time for me personally, for a number of reasons, and aside from those other photography people from Concordia I didn’t know anyone else in the hood. I was also pretty poor at the time, so I didn’t get out much and didn’t take full advantage of the place. But I liked the general vibe and the oddness, and the proximity to nice parks in Outremont.
I left in 1993 because of the above-mentioned personal chaos (and I had to find a cheaper place because I was stuck paying rent on a 5-1/2 by myself). I ended up in St-Henri for 10 months, and that was a nightmare. Crime-ridden, very bad vibe, no good restaurants (cheap or otherwise), no cafes, and even the one name-brand grocery store was a dump.
In the ensuing years, as my chaos decreased and my disposable income increased, I regretted leaving Mile End, especially after I got a job in the Peck building (1995-97 I think), which put me back in the ‘hood on a daily basis. But by 2000 or so I could see the sellout happening all around. At first it was nice that some new shops were appearing, and some old places cleaned up a bit. But that rapidly evolved into zero vacancy rate, high rents, and ridiculous businesses that catered to silly hipsters whose only concern was that their own life was better curated than the person next to them. The current situation is the natural extension of that.
Bill Binns, you’re full of crap sometimes. There’s more to a neighbourhood than crime rates and real estate values. People who miss the old Mile End won’t find it by moving to some beat up ungentrified neighbourhood.
CE
I remember thinking that Mile End as a cultural hub was dead in the mid 2000s. When something dies, eventually it starts rotting.
PO
I agree with the author’s sentiment, but I also found it pretty pretentious. It’s too easy to just pin these things on capitalism. It’s part of the problem, but there’s something really tacky about the pining through rose-tinted glasses for a time that won’t exist again, not because of generic capitalism but because things just change. Nostalgia is a dangerous indulgence.
I moved to St-Henri in 2010, when it was still not the nicest place (and I know in the decades before it was even worse). Gentrification hit that neighborhood fast and hard. Recently a friend passed through and described it as Toronto-esque and I almost vomited from the nausea.
Do I miss the old charm I knew? Yes, I suppose. But it was a different time. I was a student and was seeing it through different eyes. The whole business of “back in the day it wasn’t so polished and the community was tighter” will never stop. It’s just different because things change as fast as we do. In twenty years, the regulars at any of the 27 taco restaurants on Notre Dame will lament that their local taco joint (circa 2017) is being priced out by the newest iteration of hipsters and the augmented reality studio that set up shop in the hollowed out Home Depot.
Blork
I tend to agree that waxing nostalgic isn’t useful, but it’s inevitable. And it is useful to look at what forces are at work when a neighbourhood changes.
Funny enough, I sort of like the new St-Henri. The area around Courcelle is pretty interesting. Definitely hipstery, and very anglo, but it’s almost entirely small, locally owned independent businesses. And who doesn’t love tacos? I feel like if the same taco wave had hit St-Viateur it would have been mostly organic vegan tacos owned by chains from Toronto.
Tejano makes my favorite burrito in Montreal. Adamo makes a tasty slice (not so cheap, but definitely good and the slices are huge). Rustique pie’s are great, and the shop is charming AF. etc etc etc. If that area had been like that when I moved there in 1993 I might never have left. Instead, what I got was drunks, degenerates, loud thumping cars (even when parked in the alley!), a couple of stinky deps where Heinekin was the most exotic beer to be found, crippled kids*, middle-aged nudists**, a few nauseating casse-croutes, and only one bar*** that was so depressing you’d cross the street rather than walk past it. It was like living in a Gabrielle Roy novel but as written by William S. Burroughs.
Endnotes:
Crippled kids of a type that you felt were crippled by fetal alcohol syndrome or a diet of expired canned goods, or maybe being clipped by their drunk uncle’s old Chevy on his way to the depressing bar.
OK, only one pair of nudists that I know about. Not to body shame or anything, but these two were like chubbier versions of the folks from La Petite Vie only minus the clothes. Not attractive people, and they’d walk around their apartment (across the street from mine) drunk, starkers, and perpetually smoking, at night with the curtains open. In any other neighbourhood they’d just be the odd folks next door, but in the Hank of 1993 it was just another piece of the awful.
That bar was, and is, Bar Courcelle, which is largely unchanged now except for its cleanliness and clientelle. Still unpretentious and a bit divey, but it’s now like a real neighbourhood bar where you can meet friends, watch a game, and not fear getting hepatitis or mugged in the washroom.
MarcG
@Bill “Thanks in no small part to me being there” – I would love to hear about all of the do-gooding you’re responsible for, Superhero of the Village.
MarcG
@Kate: I know you like to surprise us with fun words but I’m pretty sure “eugoky” in the title of this one is a typo.
Bill Binns
@marco – The only thing keeping Hochelaga from looking like Westmount is having enough people willing to pick up the phone and call the cops or the city about quality of life issues. I will definitely take some credit for getting graffiti cleaned up quickly and reducing open drug dealing and prostitution in the parks. I certainly hope I contributed to the rooming house full of drug dealers finally going out of business.
MarcG
You paint a picture of a heavily militarized garden of eden that makes me shudder.
Kate
MarcG: my fault for writing headlines on my ipad while I’m still half asleep, before coffee.
I was trying to decide whether “elegy” or “eulogy” was the correct word, and my fingers got all mixed up.
Chris
>Anyone longing for the dirty sidewalks and communist sentiment of old Mile End…
You’ll be excited to know the sidewalks are still dirty. Especially right now, with the usual snow melt revealing months of litter.
Poutine Pundit
@Blork. I also lived in Saint-Henri mid-90s. It was truly grim. You forgot to mention the tanning salons–every fourth shop along Notre Dame was a tanning salon.
Сергей
A terrific mural depicting scenes from East End life has appeared on the wall of the premises of T V Edwards solicitors at 33 Mile End Road. A few snippets can be seen on this page, but a visit is a must The amazing story of an old boy of Jews Free School in Bell lane who became a Chinese General by his cousin Dr Cyril Sherer.
Kate
I just noticed this comment, in which the person mixes up Mile End in Montreal with the Mile End Road in London.
Jeff
To the readers that live in Mile End, how many local places do you actually patronize? How many places have you gone to, that you still go to?
I’ve lived in the Mile End for about 7 years. Lately, I would pass by a vacant storefront that once had a business I used to patronize, and feel a twinge of loss. Le Cagibi, Arts Cafe, Comptoir 21, etc. Then I would think about it a bit more, and realize I hadn’t been to any of those places in a long time, and it was because of bad service or product.
I recall the lady at the Spice Station interrogating me after I asked for dried onion and they didn’t have it. Why couldn’t I just use fresh onion? I remember the guy at the second-hand sports store asking with incredulity what I wanted with a workout mat, and on another occasion selling me a chin-up bar in a beaten, dusty old box and telling me gruffly that he would not take it back if it could not be installed in my apartment. I remember being shuffled around to different seats at Arts Cafe to make way for other patrons by unsympathetic staff. I was just there to read and eat some shakshuka. I’ve made it at home ever since, and now their windows are covered with paper. I used to go to Le Cagibi all the time. I was a vegan, and I was taken by its improvised charm, but I had to admit to myself that most of the food wasn’t very good, the entertainment wasn’t good, and maybe 50% of the staff didn’t like me for some reason. I stopped going long before they moved up to little Italy, and before the video they put out asking for help, where somebody from the cafe implied that we, the customers, owed them because some of us “had our first kiss there”.
I think we have to consider that sometimes businesses disappear because they just weren’t that good, or they were run by people who didn’t know what they were doing. Sure, we can blame landlords for raising rent (and I agree that we should impose upon landlords who would leave buildings vacant for years in search of deep-pocketed tenants), but let’s not forget that sometimes the people running these shops are complacent assholes. I remember going into H.G. Wells and asking the guy if I could take a book from the window, and without looking up, he said “you can do what you want”. Or being at Olympico, and waiting for the barista to finish chatting up a customer while I stood there waiting, or an altercation with the manager that arose from me having a Myriad cup in my hand. There are a few places I sorely miss, like Clarks, and we do need to do something to make the area more appealing to creatives and independent businesses, but I could go on and on about Mile End places I won’t set foot in again.
In the mean time, I’ll be enjoying my Lululemon running shorts and looking forward to my try-on appointment at Bon Look, both of which are Canadian companies, while petitioning my local representatives to penalize landlords for long-term vacancies.
Thomas
@Jeff
Agree: Lululemon make the best running shorts, hands down. From spins around the neighbourhood to mountain ultramarathons in Charlevoix, they’ve never let me down.
Disagree: I love(d) the Cagibi. Its improvised charm, as you put it, the vegan food, the cider, the great shows I saw there. I’m rarely in the neighbourhood these days, but I always feel a pang of sadness when I walk past that place. Maybe it’s just nostalgia for the early-to-mid 2000s when I arrived in Montreal and everything seemed amazing.
Kate
Jeff, I miss the Spice Station. They carried things nobody else does, and the guy who owned it had a positive genius for spice blends. I had some good conversations with various employees there – clearly everyone he employed had some interest in or knowledge of spices. Place always smelled wonderful, too.
-
Kate
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.
-
Kate
A young man was shot Thursday evening in Rosemont, non-fatally, and is not answering questions.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
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.
-
Kate
A Canadiens player has been diagnosed with a coronavirus variant, with more matches being delayed.
-
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.
-
Kate
There are warnings of heavy rains coming on Friday.
-
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.
Reply