Nadia Chaudhri, a Montreal neuroscientist whose blog tracing her experiences as a cancer patient won her many readers, has died at 43, leaving a husband and son.
Updates from October, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Denis Coderre maintained Thursday that the election is not a referendum on his personality although to some extent of course it is. He was mayor for four years and his personality informed every decision he made. Voters have to decide whether they want that back.
A demonstration Thursday pressed all candidates to act on rent increases and housing issues.
Update: An Ensemble candidate in Outremont has been caught expressing doubts about climate change and racism but will be not be asked to step down.
Jebediah Pallendrome
Denis ‘Le Menace’ Coderre literally described his loss in 2017 as a referendum on his personality.
This is Coderre’s true colours: Plante/Projet didn’t win because they had better ideas, a proven track record, seemed less corrupt – it’s because he let Montreal down.
Unrelated but, is it me or was all Montreal media *exceedingly* delicate about his kid’s legal troubles?
Keep in mind, his kid was an adult when he committed fraud. He spent thousands of dollars on online chat services. Anyone else it would have been public information.
qatzelok
A climate-change denier might be a good thing for the Coderre brand.
When voters hear “climate change denial,” they know there will be parking spots for them and fewer bike path projects.
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Kate
Time Out has put Villeray on their list of cool neighbourhoods worldwide. What a laugh. Obviously it’s outclassed by the Mont-Royal section of the Plateau, Mile End, Vieux‑Rosemont/Masson Street, Petite-Patrie, Verdun/Wellington Street and obviously Old Montreal. Even sections of NDG and Hochelaga-Maisonneuve are cooler than Villeray. Goofy.
villeray mayor
too cool for it’s own good
Blork
There goes the neighbourhood. (Remembering the Utne Reader thing from 1997.)
walkerp
Nice try, Kate, but it’s too late. Villeray is the new hotness!
Mr.Chinaski
Villeray c’est le nouveau repaire des bobo babacool francos-familles. 100$ le pi2 moins cher que Rosemont, et avec des stations de métro! Bonus : Étudiants facile a exploiter leur loyer 4 1/2 des duplex/triplex
Kate
Metro debunks the Time Out piece beautifully here: two of the things they mention as being so cool in Villeray are Plaza St‑Hubert and Jean‑Talon market – both in Rosemont borough. And Jarry Park, mentioned in the article, is technically in Park Ex, not in Villeray, the city having placed the border on Casgrain, not on St‑Laurent or the tracks as seems more natural.
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Kate
Top radio news at noon was that Carey Price has entered the NHL player assistance program although nothing specific is known. The program “helps players and their families with mental health, substance abuse and other matters.”
I was listening to the other news items when an Amber Alert came shrieking over both the radio app on my computer, and my phone. I always jump, thinking this is finally it, the aliens have arrived. But this alert has already been cancelled.
Tim S.
C’mon Kate, if the aliens land do you really think our government has it together to issue an alert? Maybe a Friday afternoon press release that the level of concern is low but the situation is being monitored.
Kate
Governments do have contingency plans for alien arrival. I’ve no idea whether an all‑points media and phone alert is part of the picture.
GC
I didn’t get that alert, but I’m also out of province. Is the system actually smart enough to detect that my cell activity is not local?
Chris
GC, that doesn’t require smarts, it’s fundamental to how the cellular network works. Your phone communicates with the nearest tower(s). Where those towers are is known to their operators. What those towers communicate is decided by the operators. They just tell all towers in region x to transmit message y.
GC
Good point, Chris. So, I suppose if there were an Amber Alert where I currently am, I’d get it even though my number is not local. Which, of course, is as it should be.
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Kate
A brief item on Facebook tells me that the final beer was produced at the Molson brewery on Notre-Dame on September 30, ending 235 years of brewing in that location. Seems newsworthy, but I can’t see any actual news items about it.
Blork
Ever since they became “Molson Coors” I find it hard to give AF about whatever goes on with Molson and its shitty mass-produced beers. Especially since Quebec is awash with outstanding craft beers these days, available almost everywhere. The craft beer section of my local Provigo is bigger than some depanneurs I’ve been in.
As I write, I’m enjoying a terrific Czech style Pilsner from Vrooden brewery in Granby.
Chris
Yeah, their beer has sucked for my entire lifetime anyway, but 235 years is quite an achievement nonetheless.
Kate
OK OK the beer sucks, but they’ve been a force in this town for two centuries.
One of my friends who moved to the U.S. came back here briefly with a stepson who had just enrolled at McGill. The kid was enchanted. “Even my residence is named after beer!”
Kevin
Major breweries make a lot of tasty beers that are not necessarily marketed as mainstream beers.
I don’t care that Blue Moon is made by Molson instead of an actual microbrewery, or that Unibroue is now owned by Sapporo, or that Labatt makes Leffe? No, I just glad that I can get those anywhere in Quebec.
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Kate
Amazon is planning to build a warehouse in Anjou on a lot south of the 40.
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Kate
Recently, residents of Berlin voted to exclude big landlords and expropriate their properties into public hands. Benjamin Shingler asks here whether Montreal should do the same. But this is just headline fodder. If you read closer, you’ll see that the Berlin vote was not binding, and it’s a sure thing that this city doesn’t have the power to do anything like that. Our laws are structured to give preponderant power to private ownership and it would take a massive revolution to change that.
thomas
Not sure what the Berlin initiative would accomplish other than locking in rents for the lucky 200,000 currently in possession of effected apartments. I would think a better use of public funds would be to build new housing and increase the supply.
thomas
BTW the cost of expropriation set forth in the Berlin referendum would be around $50 billion USD.
Kate
See, that’s where you need to institute a decree and simply seize the properties.
SMD
The referendum led directly to the city of Berlin buying 14,750 apartments from two large corporate landlords for 2.46 billion euros ($3.56 billion CAD) this fall. Power concedes nothing without a counter power.
ant6n
I was able to participate in that vote, and view it more like a signal to politics rather than an actual referendum on collectivization. People are not happy with the housing situation. BTW, most of that housing used to be public and was flogged in the 90ies cuz capitalism won.
A couple years back there was a referendum to keep Tegel airport (inside city West) open instead of closing it when the new airport opens a bit south east of berlin. Eventually the Senate came back saying “not possible” and that was that.
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Kate
The city cancelled late fines in its libraries during lockdown and is now making it a permanent policy. But CTV lays out how there are still potential penalties, like having your library card suspended if you hang onto a book or other item too long.
CTV writes as if this is unconscionably harsh, but the city is operating libraries, not free giveaways. And there’s one certain way to avoid any fees or penalties, which is to bring the items back within the time allotted.
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Kate
Radio-Canada has an analysis of Denis Coderre saying the natural, unschooled man is back and it’s doing him no favours. Even longtime lieutenant Anie Samson is quoted to his detriment here.
R-C also notes that Projet has no indigenous candidates, despite attempts to recruit some. Basically, you can’t make people run for office if they don’t want to.
DeWolf
Yikes. That is not a flattering piece.
How many times has Coderre had to backtrack over the past few months? Banning booze in parks, bringing back Sir John A, renaming Place du Canada. Even the REV went from being “We’re getting rid of it!” to “We’re keeping St-Denis and tinkering slightly with Bellechasse.” And even then, nobody at Ensemble Montréal seems to have an idea of exactly what they’re going to do with it, since some are saying it will be reduced in width while others are saying it will be turned into a bidirectional path.
I’ll admit to having a very big anti-Coderre bias, bigger than any pro-PM bias. I really don’t like the guy. But this just doesn’t seem like a winning campaign. If anything, Coderre is flailing. He’s trying to be everything to everyone and it isn’t coming off well. But we still have a month to go, so who knows what will happen.
walkerp
One really gets the feeling that he is running purely for himself and not out of any actual ideals or values. I think this perception goes beyond people who are against him, so that even those who think he may support their agenda lack some confidence in him.
Kate
Indeed. Even his PR people are backing away from him.
dhomas
Could he at least redirect his old website to the Ensemble Montreal site? It’s quite annoying that when I search for his election platform, this is what comes up:
https://www.equipedeniscoderre.com/
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