A party overnight in Montreal North turned sour when police tried to bust it for breaking pandemic measures. The building owner says the pandemic is a hoax.
Updates from September, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A man was found shot dead in Rivière-des-Prairies Sunday midday. The location, 55th and 7th, is a corner in the industrial area.
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Kate
The river shuttles were very popular this summer, serving 40,000 passengers from July 3 to September 6. People are starting to think about expanding the service.
Uatu
That’s cool. Too bad the REM will force them outta bizness. Can’t have any competitors for the train, right? ;P
Blork
I really miss the Longueuil-Old Port navette that’s been shut for the past two years and might never return. It had capacity for 100 passengers — and this is key: 100 bicycles. Ok I’m not 100% sure of the bicycle count, but the boat was on two levels, and the lower level — the larger one — was basically a huge two-sided bike rack with just a bit of seating on the periphery. The great views were on the top level.
Longueuil Marina to Old Montreal in 15-20 minutes, and when you disembark you’ve got your bike so you can go anywhere quickly. Unfortunately it was very much operated as a recreational thing more than a commuting thing. First boat from Longueuil was 10:00AM I think, so not great for slaves-to-the-man. But I sure loved going home by that route at the end of a work day.
Kate
Yes, I’ve taken that navette, Blork, awhile ago. I think it was roughly 80 people and 40 bikes, but couldn’t swear to it. As you say, the lower level was basically a space with bike racks. You locked up and then went up some stairs and sat outside on the top.
Given that the Longueuil marina is in the middle of nowhere, I don’t know how people without bikes got away from there. People picking them up in cars, I suppose. It didn’t look like there was much you could get to within comfortable walking distance.
Blork
Kate, oh, I know. That was always a problem (that the Marina is no place to drop a pedestrian). OTOH it was fine for cyclists, because the bike path that goes along the river goes right past the marina. As a resident, I occasionally took that boat home as a pedestrian because I knew that I could walk about 600 metres (using the pedestrian overpass over the 132) and catch a bus home from there.
And to be precise, the marina isn’t really in the middle of nowhere. The main building is only about 300 metres from the “main street” of Longueuil (rue St-Charles), with all its shops and restaurants. The problem is highway 132, which separates the town from the shoreline. Like so many busy highways built along shorelines in the 1950s and 60s it creates a huge psychological barrier and somewhat of a physical one too, although there are three passerelles along that stretch of highway that get you onto Rue St-Charles in just a few steps.
But oh, what a barrier. The shoreline along that stretch of Longueuil is quite nice, with a few places that could be nice beaches with a bit of work, plus there are some nice big parks and all. But forget about going there on foot. Car or bike is pretty easy, but by foot or even public transit involves a lot of planning and walking. And this problem is permanent, as they will never remove that highway (nor bury it).
Kate
Isn’t there some sort of elaborate contraption for crossing the highway with a bike, around there somewhere?
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Kate
A massive mural featuring Jean-Paul Riopelle is being planned, to be created next year for the corner of Peel and Sherbrooke.
(I’m wondering whether the opportunity will not be seized to rename one of those streets for Riopelle at the same time.)
Nicole
“RioPeele”
DeWolf
Unless you reach a kind of University/Robert-Bourassa compromise, where the old name is able to survive on a portion of the street, I don’t think any of these historic street names can be changed without public uproar. Neither Sherbrooke nor Peel seem to have anything remarkably dodgy in their record. If anything, their legacies could be spun in a positive way: Sherbrooke is considered a hero for his defence of the Atlantic colonies in the War of 1812, and Peel was instrumental in the emancipation of Catholics in the UK.
Kate
Did Dorchester have any issues?
DeWolf
You mean the person? From what I understand, he was responsible for the Quebec Act, which enshrined the use of the French language and Catholic religion in Quebec, which was pretty revolutionary for a British colony at the time. That surely earns him points even among Quebec nationalists. I think it’s pretty noteworthy that after the boulevard was renamed for René-Lévesque, Dominion Square was renamed for Dorchester to keep the name around.
Kate
True. But I was mostly observing that it was an upset to change all those addresses on Dorchester back in the day, but it was seen as a necessary cultural gesture.
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Kate
So an announcement about the return of baseball is said to be imminent after the Tampa Bay team has agreed to hang up a sign about Montreal.
I suspect they may be waiting to see who’s elected mayor. If it’s Coderre, the Peel Basin will turn into a baseball area with other bread-and-circuses features to the greater glory of King Denis. If it’s Plante, it’s a lot less likely.
Kevin
This will fit right in with giving the Canadiens half a million to paint a mural to convince office workers to come back downtown.
Kate
Which mural, Kevin? (And thanks for indirectly reminding me to post about the Riopelle mural being planned downtown as well.)
Kevin
On Friday the provincial government and the chamber of Commerce announced a multimillion dollar plan to encourage workers to return to downtown Montreal.
This included a mural on the side of the bell centre , interactive full body video games run by moment factory at the Eaton centre, but thankfully no clownsMarcG
Kate
Oh yes, I would want to go downtown and sit in an office for eight hours a day because there’s a new mural.
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Kate
CBC profiles fifty years of Cheap Thrills, thriving on the resurgence of interest in vinyl records.
Blork
Bearing in mind that people have been saying that Cheap Thrills is “thriving on the resurgence of interest in vinyl records” for at least the last 20 years.
EmilyG
Thank you for posting this article. I love hearing about Montreal’s music scene.
I was watching the local CBC news report on this, but sadly it was cut off at the end because the newscast was coming to an end. Probably because it was preceded by a long dull item on some West Island mayor’s expensive housing plans.Kate
I knew how long it’s been around because I can remember mentioning it in passing to my mother as a store I’d gone to when I was downtown, and the name of the store disturbed her.
Mark Côté
The vinyl comeback has apparently been accelerating for about the last 15 years.
MarcG
Didn’t they used to have another location somewhere nearby? The article mentions one on Bishop closing in 1984 but that’s too early for me to remember.
JS
The Bishop street one was around into at least the early nineties. I still have stuff I got there.
MarcG
It seems to be a common mistake in articles about Cheap Thrills to say that the original location on Bishop closed in 1984 when they opened the Metcalfe location. I found a LaPresse article from the 40th anniversary that got it right, though: “En 1984, la petite boutique de la rue Bishop a même ouvert une succursale rue Metcalfe, les deux magasins fonctionnant en parallèle jusqu’à la fermeture du Cheap Thrills original, en 2000”.
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Kate
Lots of digging is foreseen as the STM undertakes the replacement of the waterproofing layer at Berri-UQÀM station. The original layer dates back to the origins of the metro system and is now full of holes.
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Kate
Another demonstration against sanitary measures trailed through our streets Saturday. I especially like the “Effets secondaires graves ou mortels” sign given that 90% of Quebec adults have had the vaccine, and we’re not collapsing en masse in the streets. The only people having deadly side effects are the ones catching Covid and ending up in the ICU.
MarcG
I remember during the 2012 protests there was a dude who would show up early to the marches in my neighbourhood and direct the marches along the routes set up by the police. After a while some of the regulars started to wonder who this guy was and why he was the one choosing where we were going – it turned out that he was working with the police. Someone should do the same thing with these marches except in this case lead them to a vaccination clinic. It’s not the tactics that are good or bad, but the outcomes.
ant6n
You want a protest March against vaccination going to a vaccination clinic?
Ephraim
Maybe it’s time to introduce a co-pay for those who aren’t vaccinated. You know, maybe $100 a day. So it costs you too? And they certainly shouldn’t be getting the federal help for those with COVID. Once we have the closest thing to a cure, and you decide not to take it, maybe it’s time that you took responsibility as well.
Blork
…whereas I would prefer such a pied piper lead them somewhere like this:
https://goo.gl/maps/UJztbiJGfpWXZ77QA
…and not be held back by that fence.dhomas
As much as I dislike the anti-vaxx gang, I don’t think co-pay for healthcare is the right path. The same logic could be applied to smokers, the obese, etc. It’s not a tenable solution, IMO.
Ephraim
@dhomas – We don’t have a vaccine for smokers, the obese, etc. This would only apply to those who are able to get vaccinated but refuse it. It’s a choice and a consequence. But one thing for sure, they should not be entitled to the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CRSB) if you aren’t vaccinated.
dhomas
Smokers can stop smoking and people who lead unhealthy lifestyles can also choose to eat better and exercise more. Everything’s a choice.
About the CRSB, I hadn’t really given it any thought until now. There is a limit of 2 weeks for this aid. A vaccinated person who gets COVID will isolate for 2 weeks and then be fine. An unvaccinated person may be unable to work for longer than 2 weeks. So, they wouldn’t get any more financial assistance than a vaccinated person would, even though they would be out longer. Regardless of your vaccination status, you still need to stay home without getting paid. So I dunno, but it seems pretty equitable to me.
If I were in charge, I’d just keep making it more and more difficult for the unvaccinated to live “normally” or at least be inconvenienced. Already, they can’t go to the restaurant/gym/concerts. Add all in-store shopping (outdoor pickup only), libraries and museums, weddings, etc. Most importantly, add places of worship to the list and some of these holdouts will make a giant fuss but then eventually get vaccinated. Not to sound too biased, but the majority of folk I’ve met that are anti-vaxx are also super religious.Chris
>Smokers can stop smoking and people who lead unhealthy lifestyles can also choose to eat better and exercise more. Everything’s a choice.
Exactly. The whole idea of a universal health care system as a human right is that you get treatment no matter what. Including idiots that refuse vaccines, idiots that smoke, idiots that eat crap, and idiots that don’t exercise. Who here isn’t guilty of one?
>Not to sound too biased, but the majority of folk I’ve met that are anti-vaxx are also super religious.
I wonder if there’s good research on that. Seems like there may be a root personality trait (or something) that makes people inclined towards fanciful tales.
Ephraim
Not denying them treatment at all. Everyone gets full treatment.But getting vaccinated is part of the healthcare system. Just like seeing your doctor. It’s a prevention system. And not just COVID, measles, mumps, rubella, HPV, Hepatitis, etc.
Here’s a question, anyone know what the actual costs to the medical system are for someone who has not vaccinated at all? Seen the stats? And I’m not talking about those who are unvaccinated from COVID. I’m talking about those who decide not to vaccinate at all? Those people who decide not to vaccinate, what do they cost the system? Are they double? Quadruple? Are they 100x more expensive to provide healthcare? Are they 1000x more expensive to provide healthcare?
dhomas
@Chris: to be clear, the majority of COVID anti-vaxxers I’ve met have been part of the ultra-religious. However, not all the very religious people I know are anti-vaxx. So I don’t think it’s only about being religious. Some of the religious people I know think that God has made a vaccine available, so they should take it (for now, I’ll just overlook the fact that they are not acknowledging the hard work done by the scientists who actually brought us the vaccine).
@Ephraim: I’d love to see those numbers, too. I’m sure it would be very interesting data.Jack
Perhaps anti Vaxers since they don’t believe in science or doctors, if the become infected with covid refrain from going to hospitals instead they can see their witch doctor, drink bleach, perhaps visit their local vet for horse dewormer.
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Kate
Valérie Plante is promising $110 million in new money for public security if she is re‑elected.
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Kate
La Presse has one piece with interviews with all four mayoral candidates, excellent profiles of Plante and Coderre plus looks at Balarama Holness and Marc-Antoine Desjardins, two men with very little chance at the job, but whose ideas may feed into the future of the city.
These latter two are both nettled at being excluded from debates.
Radio-Canada also has a preview of the new Daniel Sanger book, Sauver la ville (aka Saving the City), discussed here yesterday, which it depicts as largely a character assassination of Plante.
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Kate
Sidney Altman, whose work on RNA won him a Nobel Prize in 1989 and, 40 years later, was fundamental to the research that led to the creation of vaccines against Covid, is now teaching at the Université de Montréal. Altman was born in Montreal in 1939. TVA says it’s the first time a Nobel laureate has been recruited to teach in a Quebec university.
I had to look it up. Ernest Rutherford taught at McGill from 1898 to 1907, or thereabouts. He received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908 for atomic research he did at McGill, but only after he’d left to take up a new post in England.
Update: La Presse interviewed Altman for a piece published Monday. He’ll be coming to town to lecture a few weeks out of the year. He also contradicts the TVA assertion that his work on RNA eventually led to the creation of vaccines against Covid.
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Kate
Shots were heard early Saturday in Côte St‑Paul – within hours, as Radio‑Canada says, of the creation of the new police squad Centaure, meant to fight firearm trafficking. No victim was found, but around the same time a man turned up at a hospital with bullet wounds, from which he has died.
Radio-Canada’s account says it’s not known whether these two incidents are linked. The way TVA tells it, only a few minutes separated the sound of gunshots and the arrival of the victim at the unnamed hospital.
Update: CBC has a bit more about how the shooting victim got to hospital and that there were indications shots had been fired inside the car.
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Kate
Shots were heard in St-Léonard on Friday evening, but no victims turned up, just a few shell casings.
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Kate
Projet Montréal is promising to create more green space in the east end by enlarging existing parks and acquiring more land.
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Kate
City traffic cam image from Park and Pine at 2:30 p.m. Friday.
Update: Radio-Canada estimates 112,000 students left their classes for the climate march. TVA doesn’t give any estimate of the crowd except “quelques milliers”.
CharlesQ
That annoying TVA helicopter flew over Jeanne-Mance park, hovering for hours. Argh…
Ephraim 20:42 on 2021-09-26 Permalink
They should offer him out a choice of paying the fine or working a day in a COVID ward with no protective gear. See if he still thinks it’s a hoax.
steph 08:38 on 2021-09-27 Permalink
Is the landlord really the one responsible in this case? When he authorized the ‘party’ in the garage (instead of having it in the apartment and bothering neighbours), did he know how many people were attending? I’m not sure it’s so black and white.
I’m more interested in why it took so many cops to “break up a party”. In the video, people seem to just be walking away calmly (as opposed to the videos of hasids fleeing from temple we saw earlier this year)
Kate 10:32 on 2021-09-27 Permalink
La Presse has a bit more about the incident on Monday morning. Cops came for a noise complaint and then faced some resistance, seems to be the main story. The landlord may not have been the party organizer, but certainly provided the premises and upholds his view that the pandemic is a hoax.