A soldier from the Canadian army, one of the men assisting at a Montreal vaccination site, was arrested at the site Tuesday and charged Thursday with sexually assaulting a 13‑year‑old girl.
Updates from January, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
The plan to stage half the Tampa Bay Rays baseball games in Montreal was declared dead Thursday by the team’s owner, after Major League Baseball turned the idea down.
The Tampa Bay Times has a headline In Montreal, frustration and concern for the Rays’ future. Yes, we’re all losing sleep up here over the fate of a baseball team in Florida. Meanwhile, a Journal sports writer hangs on desperately to the hope of what he still calls the return of the Expos.
Update: Friday, Stephen Bronfman is quoted saying it’s a slap in the face and that he feels terrible for the Rays and their owner. I would suggest to Mr Bronfman that he look around the world. There may be people even worse off than the owner of a major league baseball team for him to focus his compassion and his largesse on.
Joey
Of all the ways this project could have died (who knows, maybe it’s death is grealty exagerrated and it’s all part of some ridiculous Kabuki exercise), I would have put “Major League Baseball isn’t on board” at the very bottom. The idea that the only viable plan was a “sister city” scenario, that Bronfman et al have been working for years with no Plan B – what happened to the previous Plan A, when the notion of a shared club was just a dirty look in Stu Steinberg’s eye? – and that they don’t have the resources to pursue an expansion team is totally nuts. How old is Stephen Brofnman? What else will his money do for him except earn interest to be squandered by his descendants?
Joey
Just to add… it seems insane to me that MLB didn’t push this forward. They could have extorted TWO new stadiums built on the public dime without increasing the number of teams (thereby reducing each owner’s future revenue by a fraction). Seemed like they had an evil-genius winner idea on their hands…
Dre
One underreported but very important factor was that the MLB players’ union would have had to vote in favour of the proposal to split a team between two cities. Can you imagine a bunch of millionaires deciding to inconvenience themselves (and their families) to such an extent? Plus, they’d have to pay tax in two countries! (This is where, for a split-second, we almost feel empathy for the players.)
Presumably, the league did not want to bother them by asking.
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Kate
While we can’t get enough social housing built in town, thousands of HLM units are standing empty in the regions because of overly strict rules for access and, in some cases, dwindling populations.
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Kate
Outremont is planning measures to make it difficult if not impossible for the SQDC to open a store inside its borders. This piece reminds us that the borough also has no bars and no SAQ, a well-stocked branch of which, on Laurier, is just outside its eastern boundary.
The proposed bylaw mandating a minimum distance between the SQDC and schools is kind of pointless, given that you can’t buy legal cannabis here till you’re 21 anyway, but it must play well to Ensemble voters.
The article goes on to outline how Anjou, Lachine, Verdun and St‑Léonard have all put up roadblocks to the arrival of SQDC outlets.
walkerp
They only consume the finest yellow Peruvian flake flown in via private jet in Outremont.
Joey
Clearly the high school kids at Stan will have no access to drugs whatsoever.
Ephraim
There are a number of towns on the Island that have very strict rules. There are no commercial properties in Hampstead, Very few in Montreal West, TMR and CSL. In fact, TMR was known for being so strict that you would have a number of official visits before you could open even a warehouse.
Kate
Verdun used to be well known for having no bars, but that was relaxed in recent years to help Wellington Street thrive. When I was small, my dad had to cross a bridge into Côte St‑Paul if he wanted a beer in a tavern.
Ephraim, is that also true of the industrial part of TMR? (Where a building was shot at overnight but no victims turned up…)
MarcG
@Kate: That explains the *three* bars located right over the aquaduc from Verdun in CSP – I never thought about why before – thanks! The one on the right closed a few years ago, the other 2 seem to still be open. https://goo.gl/maps/GrdaPWh7UrhexwjMA
MarcG
There’s also this brasserie just over the border in Pointe-Saint-Charles that I always thought was a strange location. https://goo.gl/maps/KMASbcNDVZe6b4SH8
qatzelok
This year’s 4-20 could be held in the rose garden in front of the new Mont-Royal REM station.
GC
It’s never occurred to me that Outremont doesn’t have an SAQ. They still have grocery stores–and, I guess, deps–that sell alcohol, though? Is there really a big difference?
Spi
Given the size of Outremont and the SAQ’s in mile end at and the wilderton mall, it’s barely an inconvenience.
Kate
GC, it depends what you drink. The SAQ has many more kinds of wine (and the wines they sell at lower prices are far better than grocery/dep wine, in my experience, so that buying dep wine is a false economy) and has all the hard liquor. But for beer drinkers, better to go somewhere like Veux-tu une bière or Supermarché Rahman (the latter of which is also not far outside Outremont).
MarcG, good catch on that corner replete with bars and a brasserie. That brasserie was probably an old-school tavern back in the day, no women allowed, Verdun guys crossing the Aqueduct for a beer. The other one in the Point looks more like a working men’s bar from the more industrial days of that area.
GC
Yeah, I’ve often said you can get wine at the dep, but *good* wine only at the SAQ :). I meant more if it’s some misguided moral stance to keep alcohol out of the borough…it kind of failed.
GC
Good point, Spi. In a bigger borough, like CDN-NDG, there are probably people who live farther from the nearest SAQ.
MarcG
Kate: I recall the one on the right that closed in CSP had “Bienvenue aux dames” on the sign. 🙂
Ephraim
@Kate – Yes, the fire department, city works, all visit. They are very strict. But you have to watch the borders of TMR. The Baron de Hirsch cemetery, the area near the Walmart, around Decarie and the far end of the industrial area aren’t part of TMR. For example, Orange Julep isn’t in TMR, but Excel Honda is. And while Dalton is in the border, part of Royalmount isn’t. And oddly, part of Bates, Ekers and De Vimy are.
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