A large part of the West Island is under a boil-water advisory after an anomalous result at a testing station.
Update: As you will see if you go to that link, the advisory has been lifted as of midday Sunday.
Updates from November, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A demo was held Saturday in support of the Wet’suwet’en nation and against the proposed pipeline on their land. The demo was held in Westmount, where RCMP headquarters is.
Raymond Lutz
Give while you can, before they are declared a terrorist organisation and their funding blocked.
jeather
Oh, that’s why there were dozens and dozens of cops in riot gear in my area yesterday. Honestly looked like it was something actually violent, I should have known better.
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Kate
Argo bookshop, which has been in a tiny space on Ste‑Catherine West since time out of mind, has moved into a larger space.
Max
Way to tell us the new address, CTV.
It’s 1841A. In that weird split-level building left of the old British Blueprint place.
Kate
Good point about the lack of data, Max. Thanks for the new address.
Is Capitaine Québec still in business?
dhomas
Capitaine Québec’s (is the accent aigu appropriate here? ;p) Facebook page is still active announcing a Black Friday sale:
https://fr-ca.facebook.com/Capitainequebecmtl/Max
It happens way too often with CTV and the Gazoo that a supposedly professionally written piece of news leaves you hanging with an obvious question. Like this piece about the black dude winning his racial profiling case against a Laval cop.
Ok, he won. Great. Wonderful, actually. What sanctions are going to applied to the cop? If they haven’t been determined yet, when can we expect to get details? CTV’s answer: crickets chirping. It’s like they’re letting the interns run amok with nary an editor in sight.
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Kate
After ten of its 31 residents died in the first wave of Covid, the Fulford Residence on Guy Street closed, and now the board has to decide who to sell it to and why. Some nice photos of the interior of the house, which is something of a time capsule.
Max
Nice pics indeed. It saddens me to learn that the old ladies of Fulford will be crawling the pubs no more. An altogether shit way to wind up a fine Montreal tradition.
https://rnwilkins.wordpress.com/2017/01/05/fulford-house-guy-street/
Meezly
Thanks for sharing that, Kate.
Ian
Wow I had no idea it was so elegant inside! What a lovely space.
DeWolf
It says a lot about the horrible state of heritage conservation in Quebec that this building doesn’t have any sort of heritage designation whatsoever. I’m happy to hear the owners are looking to sell it to someone who will keep it for non-profit use.
Kate
DeWolf, at the risk of sounding angry, it’s always been an anglo establishment, so it isn’t seen as important.
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Kate
Shots were fired early Saturday at the front window of a business on Ste‑Catherine Street, police say, but not at a person. Typically, the article coyly does not say which business, and the photo shows three small storefronts in a taped-off area.
Blork
FWIW, that shawarma place is just around the corner from St-André.
dhomas
915 St Catherine St E
https://maps.app.goo.gl/bSYBpefYMfgXq7ou8Kate
dhomas, that building is a really nice piece of Art Deco, as you’ll see if you tilt upwards at your link. The Montreal Pharmacy was in that building at one time, although I don’t know when it opened or closed and I only know of it from photos:
dhomas
It is indeed a handsome building. It’s kind of a shame that the buildings next door are now encroaching on it.
Looks like the Montreal Pharmacy existed in that building until 1985:
https://histoirepharmacie.wordpress.com/2019/01/15/pharmacie-montreal/
https://grandquebec.com/montreal-histoire/pharmacie-montreal/
https://www.pharmacieduquette.com/histoire-de-pharmacie/pharmacie-montreal-histoire/It was established in either 1923 or 1932, depending on the source, by Charles Duquette, a former Montreal mayor: (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Duquette).
There is quite a bit of history in those links.
Kate
Thank you, dhomas!
Max
Quality links, dhomas. Thanks. I had no idea about the Jean Coutu connection.
dhomas
I’m more impressed that they had a 24-hour pharmacy back in the 30s. I’ve needed one in the past and they are few and far between. Nothing East of Park Avenue, I think.
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Kate
Kahnawake has declared a red alert as its Covid cases have risen suddenly within a week – and it’s mostly little kids of four and five.
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Kate
A Fodor’s writer claims Montreal bagels are best (but, once again, I have to express my disdain for writers who try to make this town seem more exotic by writing it as “Montréal” in an English text).
Robert H
C’pas grave. Ça ne m’ennuie pas, c’est juste un geste amical envers l’identité française de Montréal. I realize some people consider such practice pretentious, but I do notice the infrequent use of diacritical marks in english text, and I think the writer seeks to add a note of authenticity. In this particular case, I don’t see an attempt to deny Muntreal’s coëxisting english identity.
Oh, yeah Montreal bagels are the best, il n’y a rien de pareil!
Kate
I don’t know anyone who’s determined enough to pronounce the city’s name as a French word in the middle of a spoken sentence in English, but this is how it reads to me when it crops up in a written one.
carswell
@Robert H Personally, I find it irritating in the extreme. It makes English harder to read (at least for me), a little like people who, when speaking, switch between French and English several times in a sentence can be hard to follow. Also, when anglos say Montreal in English, we don’t pronounce it à la française but when we read it we’re supposed to?
Admittedly, the writer is an anglo United Statesian writing for a travel magazine, who probably thinks she’s being cool, probably isn’t aware that she’s doing her bit to erase the English fact in Quebec or doesn’t care if she is. Whatever.
I am curious as to how “Montréal” is more authentic than “Montreal,” however. The word has existed in English for pretty much as long as it has in French (in reference to the city rising in the shadow of Mount Royal, of course). Of course, I don’t accept the nationalist myth that Montreal is a unilingual francophone city.
Exceptions abound — computers have made typing foreign language characters much easier — but the fact is English, especially North American English, doesn’t have accents. Period. Look in Webster’s. Look in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary. You won’t find Montreal or Quebec written with an accent, not even as an alternative spelling. Also: saute (and sauteed!), puree, chateau, etc.
The OQLF is currently conducting a purge of English spellings in proper names whenever they can. They’re making a crown corporation, which has had to apply for a francization certificate, not only slap accents everywhere but do stoopid stuff like write all Quebec addresses in French, including French punctuation and capitalization (666, rue Unetelle), as well as government departments, programs and job titles. What’s more, they’re generally opposed to English explanations of what the department, program or employee does. Almost the entire readership of the documents the corporation publishes in English (annual report, suppliers’ guide, information bulletins, news releases) is people who live outside the province and don’t speak French, but helping them understand is not among the government’s concerns.
At least the earlier government attempt to ban “Quebec government” in favour of “gouvernement du Québec” appears to have bit the dust.
The government is also reportedly cracking down on “non-bilingual” municipalities and boroughs that still occasionally communicate with residents in English as well as French, forcing them to adopt much the same language conventions in the fewer and fewer English-language documents they’re allowed to publish.
What I’d really like to know is this: how in the world does anglos writing Montreal and Quebec with accents protect French or even reduce the imagined threat to it? And where the fuck do a bunch of francos get off dictating English orthography to anglos? If the feds suddenly proclaimed that henceforward the one and only way to refer to the easternmost maritime province was “Nova Scotia” (not even English, mind you), the same OQLF types would be outraged, livid, demonstrating in the streets, passing unanimous declarations in the National Assembly. But hey, no prob if they’re doing it to anglos. Deux poids, deux mesures ?
The thing is, Quebec’s attempt to impose its will on English will fail. Oh, sure, the feds, anxious not to have another crise on their hands, will kind of go along. But Bank of Montreal’s not going to change its name anytime soon (except to the First Canadian Bank when they officially move head office to Toronto — if you’re sceptical, turn the corporate logo clockwise 90 degrees). Nor is the Montreal Gazette. Big name newspapers and magazines won’t adopt the spelling either: not the Globe and Mail, the New York Times, Macleans or the New Yorker. The question then is why is Quebec so insistent? So far, the only answer that rings true to me is they want anglos to have a daily reminder of who’s the boss and who doesn’t matter.
Kevin
Carswell
I have to disagree with you: the place I most frequently see stuff like Montréal, Ave des Pins, and the like is in articles in the Montreal Gazette written by those under 40.
I don’t get it personally. I ask people who do this if they insist on pronouncing it Paree or Belgrud.
carswell
@Kevin (and hey, everybody, my handle is carswell with a lowercase c, partly to clue people in that it’s not my real name), I defer to you about copy since just about the only thing I read in the Gazoo these days — especially now that Macpherson has retired (did Kate ever officially note his departure?) — is Bill Zacharkiw’s wine column. But I was actually referring to the publication’s official name, Montreal Gazette. I’ve never seen that spelled with an accent and don’t expect to.
carswell
Also, I can appreciate the practicality of referring to streets by the only name you’ll see on street signs and most maps these days. (On the other hand, most anglos I know still refer conversationally to St. Catherine Street and Pine and Park avenues.) And that’s especially true when you’re referring to a street in Rimouski or Saguenay, where there is no question of an established English variant. But when writing such addresses in English-language texts, “666 Boulevard René-Lévesque, Montreal, Quebec” is preferable — more readily understandable, more natural — to “666, boulevard René-Lévesque, Monrtréal (Québec)”, which is now the one and only acceptable form to the gouvernement du Québec.
Robert H
@carswell: What’s the expression? I believe I have been thoroughly schooled, thank you. I can empathize more with Kate who finds the arbitrary appearance of french pronunciation and writing in otherwise english expression to be a jarring, silly affectation. You, on the other hand, seem to see something far more sinister in these ostensibly trivial instances: the relatively benign edge of a comprehensive, malicious campaign to erase the english fact from Quebec in general and Montreal in particular; an officially sanctioned bigotry that employs a spiteful policy of petty harrassment and regulatory meddling to advance the ultimate goal of eradicating the Anglo Stain from the Le pur visage du Québec. Your concerns are legitimate, but a travel writer using a french designation while writing in english is to me simply highlighting Montreal’s linguistic anomaly in North America as a francophone metropolis. Perhaps, instead of authenticity, I should have used the word recognition. The writer is simply recognizing a major factor that distinguishes this city and province. I don’t read it as an attempt to flaunt an ersatz sophistication or deny anglophone grievance. I don’t mind saying or reading Avenue des Pins or Boulevard Saint Laurent relative to Pine Avenue or Saint Lawrence Boulevard. As for your more substantial complaints, I am not as worried because I agree with you that Quebec’s attempt to eliminate english discourse will fail. It will fail because it is beyond the power of the Quebec government to accomplish, and francophone Quebeckers themselves will not allow it. The price would be too high. The law of unintended consequences reigns here: too many restrictions have the ultimate effect of making english even more compelling and attractive than it already is. No amount of legalisms can change the fact that English is the language of money, opportunity and learning, the lingo of American pop culture beloved in Quebec, and all that is modern, hip and attractive, especially to the young. French risks becoming the language of No You May Not and That is Forbidden. I’m more concerned for the endurance of french, as the province could do a better job of supporting it instead of alienating those who would otherwise be sympathetic to it. No, I don’t think Quebec is about to turn into North Korea, il y a trop de bon sens pour que cela se produise.
carswell
@Robert H A thoughtful and interesting reply, very well expressed. Thanks. For the time being — I’m heading to bed — I’ll simply note that my first reply in this thread was mostly a tangential rant that took Kate’s original post and your authenticity comment as a springboard. Also, I don’t think of Quebec as a wannabe North Korea either. But I have begun to view François Legault as Soft Orbán and PKP as a Soft Berlusconi (though sometimes I wonder if he isn’t Soft Murdoch). 😉
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Kate
Le Devoir looks at the Écomusée du fier monde‘s exhibit on the evolution of bakeries through Montreal’s history.
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Kate
Petite-Patrie restaurant owner David Ferguson makes a plea for respect from patrons. No‑shows have always been a problem for restaurants, but during a pandemic they’re a more serious blow, especially against small independent businesses.
carswell
The law should be changed to allow restos to require a deposit when a reservation is made. The deposit could be refunded if the reservation is cancelled in advance but not for no-shows.
Kate
Last weekend a few restaurants were reported as doing things differently – I posted about that.
carswell
Read that, Kate. And I’m glad Alma has found a loophole. But what works for a tiny (18 seat), trendy restaurant with a reputation for excellence in a wealthy neighbourhood isn’t feasible for most. The law needs to change. If the CAQistes were actually serious about helping the industry, it already would have been.
Kate
There’s a precedent. If I use my phone to call a taxi, a hold is placed on some arbitrary amount of credit – $20 or $25, I don’t remember – until the actual payment goes through. Surely something similar could be done for restaurant reservations.
Blork
Let’s not confuse LAW with ACCEPTED PRACTICE. That credit card hold when you book a taxi isn’t there because someone stood up in Parliament and demanded it; it’s there because the taxi companies started doing it, and they pretty much ALL did it, so it becomes accepted practice.
I’m not sure making a law about this is a good idea because (among other things) you’re taking something simple and making it complicated — and because it’s a law, everyone has to do it the same way. Something like that is easy enough for a large restaurant with a back office to manage, but how is a small mom & pop place going to set up the pre-payment, plus balancing the pre-payment with the final bill — especially when four different cards come out for payment, etc. Not impossible, but not something I’d want to see imposed on all restaurants as a legal requirement.
carswell
Though I don’t know the specifics, my understanding from talking to restaurateurs and hearing them in interviews is that the Quebec government prevents them from asking for a deposit when a reservation is made. In other words, the law (or some sort of regulation or decree) already exists. Will try to cite chapter and verse but won’t have much time for researching until the middle of next week.
Blork
OK, if what Carswell says is true, they should remove that law and let restaurants ask for a deposit IF THEY WANT TO. And restaurant owners need to get together and decide to start doing that as a practice.
carswell
Cette dernière initiative semble la plus dissuasive, mais aussi la plus fragile légalement selon un avis de l’Office de la protection du consommateur (OPC) obtenu en 2013 par l’ARQ. S’appuyant sur l’article 13 de la Loi sur la protection du consommateur, l’OPC affirmait « qu’il était interdit spécifiquement au commerçant d’imposer au consommateur le paiement de frais de pénalité ou de dommages dont le montant était fixé à l’avance dans le cas de l’inexécution de son obligation ».
https://restauration.org/nouvelle_20191211_noshow_contrat_reservation_legal_3n
DeWolf
I’m surprised to hear that, Carswell, because when I made an online reservation at Sardines (a tiny restaurant in Quebec City) last summer, they charged me a $40 deposit that was refunded after we showed up. I had no idea they were flouting the law.
(Excellent restaurant, btw. Best meal we had in Quebec and there’s some very good food in that town.)
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Kate
On the Journal site, Bertrand Schepper of Iris summarizes five reasons Royalmount is a bad idea, but I think that horse already got away.
carswell
Not having success tracking down the source (kudos to anyone who can), but a while back I read or heard — maybe on Finnerty Daybreak? — a claim that a significant percentage (like one-third) of emergency vehicle traffic to and from VSL and points west passes through the Décarie interchange. Several studies forecast that Royalmount will increase travel time through the interchange by 20 to 30 minutes during much of the day. If so, how many stroke or heart attack victims will suffer or die because their ambulance took 40 minutes to get to the Glen or Jewish? How many fires will rage because firetrucks are caught in traffic? Shouldn’t this be something that is openly examined in the media and by authorities? And if it’s true, shouldn’t it be enough to shut down the project until a solution is found? Or is the message that developers’ rights matter more than human lives?
Kate
The problem is that politicians have become accustomed to cleaning up after capitalist ventures, because they have grown up in a world that believes they have no right to impose limits beforehand.
Robert H
Exactement. Trop tard. Et maintenant, nous ne pouvons que regarder le cheval galope vers le gâchis. Mais Bertrand Schepper a raison. VMR améliorera son budget tandis que Montréal aura la partie pourrie de l’accord. Il y a quelque chose qui ne va pas dans l’administration de l’île quand une seule municipalité peut prendre une telle décision qui affecte les endroits qui l’entourent. Les retombées ne seront pas entièrement celles que l’on attend: un centre commercial étincelant et inutile qui cannibalisera les commerces avoisinants (bye bye, Rockland), les embouteillages massifs s’ajoutant au nuage toxique de CO2, et une bulle temporaire d’emplois.
«Soyons clair, un promoteur peut bien décider de réaliser des investissements risqués. De fait, ce type de projet représente un réel risque, alors qu’on sait que près de 25% des centres commerciaux américains devraient fermer d’ici 5 ans, et que même les tentatives de renouveler le modèle s’avèrent peu concluantes.»
En tout cas, c’est l’argent du promoteur qui paiera la construction, mais ce sont les contribuables qui paieront les résultats.
JS
Anyone who cruises the streets in the area and environs try to get there and back from almost any direction will realize that Royalmount will attract as little traffic as Decarie Square once its inaccessibility is recognized. Even walking there from de la Savane metro will keep away all but the most determined.
carswell
@Kate Except many local, non-TMR politicians are strongly opposed to the project. Traffic delays costing lives seems like a surefire objection to rally around. And what about the media? Again, if this claim is true, it could be headline worthy. Are the media in Carbonleo’s pocket too?
@Robert H Totalement d’acc !
Raymond Lutz
Je me corrige dans cette enfilade et tempère mon commentaire alarmiste: il est trop tôt pour évaluer le Ro du variant omicron. Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/COVID19/comments/r2t5xf/classification_of_omicron_b11529_sarscov2_variant/
Raymond Lutz
oups wrong thread…
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Kate
The final recounts in the municipal election have caused a last-minute adjustment in the executive committee. Caroline Bourgeois, confirmed as mayor of Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles, has been given the large parks and sports job, as well as a general responsibility for the far east of the city. Projet’s previous chairman of city council, Suzie Miron, lost the Tétreaultville district by 55 votes.
None of the results initially announced were overturned by recount.
It’s been noted that Plante’s public security guy is a social worker.
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