Christian Lépine, the city’s Roman Catholic archibishop, offered an apology Friday for his church’s part in the residential schools, but also said the blame was shared with the political decision to try to assimilate Canada’s native people.
In response, Nakuset tweeted that the bish should’ve gone to Kahnawake or Kanesatake to issue the apology, not mentioned it in a cathedral in town.
Asian groups want more action on hate crimes, which became more prevalent in the pandemic. They also want May to be designated Asian heritage month.
With all the talk about proms, Urbania visited the fancy gown stores on St‑Hubert to find out what’s happening in that world.
The ferry that links east-end Promenade Bellerive with the Îles-de-Boucherville is back in service after a lost season in 2020 due to the pandemic. Schedule and details here.
Strangely, Longueuil has decided to suspend its ferry service to the islands, and it has also decided to close the public beach that opened to great fanfare a couple of years ago.
DeWolf, do you have a definitive link on that decision about the ferry? I see mixed messages; SEPAQ says the service is suspended for the 2021 season (https://www.sepaq.com/pq/bou/information.dot) but Navark, who run the shuttles, says the dates for 2021 are “to be confirmed” (https://www.navark.ca/en/longueuil-ile-charron-shuttle/).
There’s also the navette fluviale (shuttle), which runs from the old port to Ile Ste-Helene and then to the Longueuil marina. It was suspended last year, and this year it might be facing permanent extinction. The word on the street is that “Longueuil cancelled the shuttle” but in fact Longueuil just cancelled its (minority) share of the funding, which I think is around $260,000 a year. (AFAIK Montreal pays about double that, but I’m not sure.) The end result is still sort of up in the air, but I would not be surprised if it’s either scrapped altogether or is reduced to just running between the island and the old port.
And that’s a crying shame, because that boat is one of the best things going around here in summer, especially for cyclists. Tickets between the old port and Longueuil are around $7.50, and for that you get a rather excellent 20-minute river cruise. It’s big drawback is that it drops you at the Longueuil marina, which is basically the middle of nowhere if you’re on foot, so it’s only really good if you’re on a bike.
It’s also a great way to go to Ile Ste-Helene, for which the ticket is only about $3.50 I think, and you can come back by Metro.
But I love that boat, and would typically use it 8-10 times every summer, often as a nice commute home after work on days when I’d ride my bike to work. I really hope they bring that back.
Blork, this seems to be the site for your boat, and there’s a popup that says they haven’t reopened yet but hope to.
Some journalists were invited for a jaunt on the REM in Brossard this week. Photos from QMI.
Yeah that’s great if you live near a train station. I’m going to pay 180$ a month for another bus ride to the train station. A longer commute and higher price for something I didn’t want. Thanks QC.
That sounds incredibly frustrating. I’d be interested to see if there’s analysis to compare journey times at various points in Greater Montreal to downtown, both before and after the REM.
Uatu, my parents spent decades waiting on the 32 bus to take them directly downtown, and I’ve used the 90 bus for years.
The extra time it will take to transfer at panama is a flash compared to the time you already waste once the bus gets downtown. The traffic is so bad it takes longer to get from nazereth to Bonaventure than it takes to get from Brossard to nazereth.
And most peoples final destination isn’t near Bonaventure. I spent many years getting to Bonaventure then walking 20 mins to Concordia. In the future the same trip would mean taking a rem to McGill, which cuts the walk down quite a bit.
The vast majority of South shore residents gain from the change.
That could be, Faiz, but don’t discount the major pain of having to change modes. One of the advantages of the direct rush-hour buses (which the 90 isn’t) is that once you’re on, you’re on, and had uninterrupted time to read, nap, whatever. I caught up on a lot of homework/sleep on those buses. That’s gone now. Glancing at the design of the REM, I’m also pretty sure that a much smaller proportion of passengers will get to sit.
We’ll see how it goes, but if the REM was so clearly superior they probably wouldn’t have needed to do something so blatantly undemocratic as banning existing public organizations from competing.
I’m venting because I bought a condo in a tod to get rid of the last mile only to get it back and get charged $$ for it. Instead of downtown the traffic jams will be around the 2 train stations in Brossard because of the non compete clause. Every bus between candiac and longeuil and south from st. Jean to the river will head to Panama or dix30 as well as cars parking or doing drop offs. What’s frustrating is that well designed transit is supposed to give commuters options instead of funneling them into 1. Like I said I’m a loser in this proposition. The winners r the REM adjacent condo developments and those that live nearby the stations. Hopefully it won’t be bad, but I’m seriously considering driving since it’ll cost me more for transit than gas+parking. A good transit system shouldn’t drive a lifelong commuter to abandon it, IMHO.
The “carrot” that is the REM needs to be complimented with a “stick” like much higher gas prices, restrictions on car use, and more and more “car-free” streets and districts.
Make driving more expensive and less convenient, and transit (and air quality) will improve.
Q, I would have thought that someone as pessimistic as you would realize that we can make both driving and public transit worse at the same time.
I don’t know what this Jets fan thought would happen when he wore a jersey celebrating his team here on Monday night, but allegedly there’s video showing some guys roughing him up and stealing his top. But Geoff Molson is offering to send him some goods described here as “a new Jets jersey and a Canadiens cap” – I’m sure he’ll treasure that hat forever, not.
He probably thought people would be civil, which should be a reasonable thought
You have to expect, during playoff games, that there will be a few hotheads. And you don’t do something to openly taunt them. Common sense.
Yeah, I saw that guy interviewed on TV and he came across as a total nitwit, like a person who has lived in a cave his entire life reading Archie comics and suddenly found himself out in the real world for the first time ever.
Here are the weekend driving notes from TVA.
There’s news of shortages of all kinds of construction materials these days. Now a paint shortage means roads won’t get new markings as they usually do in summer.
Police seized a drone that was spotted flying over Bordeaux Jail overnight. Two men controlling it from the Back River were arrested, but there’s no news about what the drone was carrying.
Two teenagers were shot in possibly related incidents in St-Michel on Thursday afternoon. Their lives are not in danger, but who’s going around taking shots at minors now?
Other minors. I hear stories from my teenagers about some of the stuff that goes on and it’s scary as hell.
Yes, after I posted that, I thought the same. Other minors.
But where are they getting guns?
My understanding is that a lot of different things come through Akwesasne. I don’t hear that from my kids but from people I know who would know.
I mean, if your morals are so low that’d you shoot someone, is ageism any barrier?
Even gangsters usually hold off on shooting kids.
Still refusing to admit there’s a housing crisis, Quebec is putting $60 million into subsidizing housing for people left stranded this Moving Day.
I’ve recently become aware, through some work I’m doing, of the startling number of flats left empty around my neighbourhood in Villeray. I don’t mean Airbnb type rentals, although I see those too, but places where the whole flat, sometimes the entire plex, is standing empty and clearly has been uninhabited for some time.
I understand that if a landlord leaves a place fallow for a year they can charge a much higher rent, but these places don’t look fixed up – if anything, they look abandoned, often partly stripped of doors or paint, like someone failed to get funding for a renovation. But I can’t explain it. You can get a grand a month now for even a minimally functional living space in a nice neighbourhood, so why are these landlords leaving these spaces empty?
While the Shiller-Lavys and the slumlords of the world are in it for every red cent, many landlords are just looking for some way to offset their mortgage with the least amount of hassle.
I have neighbours who own a duplex that is long since paid off- they live in half, rent out the other half. Their tenants own a chalet in the Laurentians.
When the lockdown the tenants decamped for the chalet and several months ago officially joined the masses who have left Montreal for good — the permanence of telework means there is no need to return.
The landlords are not in a rush to fill that space because they’d rather have a good (ie quiet) tenant than someone who will annoy them. They’ve rejected at least 4 people already.
True, my old neighbour Nick, who died at age 99 not long ago, told me that his duplex (one of the nicer ones on the street) was paid up long ago, and he didn’t need the hassle of looking after a tenant.
I occasionally thought wistfully of what that upstairs flat must be like. The house was sold by his relatives virtually minutes after Nick’s death, so I guess someone will find out.
But I’m telling you, a lot of living space is in limbo around here. I wish I could think of a means of persuading these owners to let people live in them again, because in a few spots it’s actually hollowing out the vibe of the neighbourhoods. Who wants to live in a row next door to three or four totally empty duplexes, whether as owner or tenant?
What if the city had a bureau that would administer these disused flats on behalf of the landlords? It could pay them a percentage of the rent it collected, and look after the tenants’ affairs for them. Maybe? Is this done anywhere?
>Who wants to live in a row next door to three or four totally empty duplexes, whether as owner or tenant?
Or put another way, who wants to live above or below noisy tenants? As you alluded to, some landlords don’t want to put up with the hassle of finding good tenants or dealing with problematic ones. Evicting tenants is extremely difficult so it’s understandable that some landlords would think twice about renting out if they don’t have to.
I think the other aspect is that a lot more people than we’ve realized own or rent multiple properties, and so the change in work has let a lot of them live where they want to, instead of where they have to.
Most people don’t want to return to commuting to an office 5 days a week, but how quickly will they change jobs instead of appeasing a pissant manager who insists they have to work at the office in order to be properly “supervised?” I’ve lost track of the number of people I know who have started new jobs and are never expected to actually be anywhere except online. And I know a lot of companies that rent office space are abandoning it because it’s hella cheaper to have employees work at home.
We could very well see more household properties for sale next spring than ever before.
You’d be astounded how much real estate is just used to park money. I lived in a building with about 100 units and less than half were actually occupied. The administration had a serious problem with leaking water tanks. Since no one was taking care of the apartments, tanks would rupture over time and no one would notice until it actually flooded an occupied unit. The loft next to mine was empty for nearly 2 decades.
I saw a time lapse video of Vancouver taken from one of the condo towers downtown pointing at a bunch of other towers. It was taken over the course of about a week. It showed blinds opening and closing. Lights being turned on and off. Barely a third were occupied.
@Kevin “They’ve rejected at least 4 people already.”
If they have advertised the apartment as being available to rent (add, sign, viewings) all those 4 people can start a case with the Regie (now named something else long), and have a good chance to win. In Quebec the landlord is *obligated* to rent to the first person(s) who says “yes, I want it”. The only reason to refuse after that is if their credit isn’t good or have verifiable bad references…
This law exists to prevent discrimination, but applies to everyone.
I have no idea what the penalties are when the apartment has been rented by the time the tribunal gives its verdict.
mare, the only times I’ve heard of that rule being pursued effectively were either on race or on the presence of kids. In a few cases, it was a setup: potential tenants who were Black went in and were told it was already rented, followed by equivalent white people who were then offered the apartment. A gotcha, made a point, but I don’t know if it really helped anyone in the real world.
The other incidents were when a landlord told a potential tenant he didn’t want someone with little kids, and it was stated explicitly enough to be pinned down.
I feel there’s a difference between the situation of a company renting out apartments en masse in large buildings, and someone renting out the single upstairs flat they have in their own duplex. I can totally see a landlord who lives in a duplex, for example, not wanting little kids stamping around overhead. Yes, not fun for people with kids, but the owner has the right to peaceful enjoyment as well.
I suppose this does help explain in some cases why perfectly fine apartments are being left empty.
Derek wrote in response to me:
>>Who wants to live in a row next door to three or four totally empty duplexes?
>Or put another way, who wants to live above or below noisy tenants?
There’s a happy medium. I’m glad my own block is fairly densely occupied. Kids play up and down the alley, people have conversations on front and back porches. This may be noise in one sense, but it’s life going on, you know?
A four-alarm fire overnight in the Plateau unhoused 11 households. Nobody got hurt, and the cause is not yet known.
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