Kahnawake residents protested Bill 96 Saturday, walking up onto the Mercier bridge and closing it for a brief time. They are concerned about the effects on their own language.
Updates from May, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Suzanne Lareau, who used to head Vélo Québec, writes for Le Devoir about what we’ve learned from the REV St‑Denis. Another piece on Le Devoir considers planning cycling in Montreal for the next ten years.
qatzelok
Meanwhile, an unholy bike lane perturbs some Laval catholics:
https://pushtheenvelope.medium.com/the-renegade-reverend-the-unholy-bike-lane-487041e06a4d
Kate
That’s nothing new. The priest of St‑Édouard church, on St‑Denis at Beaubien, was also perturbed by the REV going past his front door, saying it would be inconvenient for weddings and funerals. We discussed it briefly here.
qatzelok
Could this be because the priests are afraid that Jewish, Muslim, and atheist cyclists will end up converting the car-addicted faithful? Is this a Crusade against ecumenical transportation?
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Kate
Est Media has a nice piece on the history of Plaza St‑Hubert by Justin Bur. I’ve always loved that photo showing all the neon signs back in the day.
Daniel
Wow, that is a really cool photo!
Kate
I’ve tried to find it on the BAnQ but failed. I’d almost consider paying to get a print of it, and put it up somewhere.
dhomas
The photo seems to be a cleaned up, sharpened version of this one:
https://montrealinpictures.com/blog/tag/saint-hubert-plaza/
It exists elsewhere on the internet, going back as far as 2007 on spacing.ca (http://spacing.ca/montreal/2007/12/10/plaza-saint-hubert-before-the-green-awning/), but that first link is the only one that seems to give a source: bilan.usherbrooke.ca.
Their site lists Antoine Desilets as the photographer:
https://bilan.usherbrooke.ca/bilan/pages/photos/6101.html
Here is a link I don’t know what to do with from the BAnQ:
https://advitam.banq.qc.ca/notice/611377?navFonds=true
I would keep digging, but I’ve run out of time. Got some other stuff to take care of today. 🙂Kate
Thanks for looking, dhomas. I had seen the photo in other places but only realized with this Est Media article that it was an Antoine Desilets photo and should be found at the BAnQ. But then I couldn’t find it there.
I’d love to see it freshly printed from the negative, if they have it.
dhomas
Here’s the link on BAnQ:
https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine/archives/52327/3127685?docref=i34UYVpa11tYmju0nznN6AI think you can order a print from there.
MarcG
I just found it as well! The guy took great photos. It’s $38 for a hi-res version. And here’s the form you need to fill out.
MarcG
Here’s a link to the “Montreal” photo album it appears in. Click on “Fichiers” on the right side to browse through the thumbnails.
Kate
Thank you both. I’m not sure why I find some aspects of the BAnQ so difficult to navigate.
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Kate
Animals are being trapped on Île Notre‑Dame in advance of the Grand Prix. Raccoons, marmots and foxes all have their lives disrupted for the big race.
MarcG
Thanks for giving me a new reason to hate it.
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Kate
The Casino’s croupiers have begun an unlimited general strike.
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Kate
A lot of monkeypox stories are up this morning. Changes in the virus might explain why a disease normally endemic only in Africa is cropping up in different spots around the globe. There are now three confirmed cases in Quebec; Canada may provide some smallpox vaccine, known to be effective against it. And since most of the victims have been gay men, there’s a fear of a backlash. The Journal has an infographic with the headline “une maladie rare et peu contagieuse” – unless it has mutated?
Update: Five confirmed cases in Quebec.
Chris
Is there any evidence it has mutated? Would you rather a headline that baselessly speculates instead of one that is factually correct according to current knowledge?
Kate
It’s merely a surmise. CBC’s piece suggests “a major shift in the behaviour of the virus and its ability to spread from person to person unnoticed” – what else could it be?
Blork
The monkeypox virus already exists in a few variations, and case counts have been steadily rising over the past 20 years.
Generally speaking, you need a big viral dose to become infected, which is why it is somewhat linked to sexual activity in the current local cases. As in, you won’t get it from just being near an infected person, you pretty much have to make out with them (or touch a lesion, etc.)
That said, prolonged exposure to someone “speaking moistly” could also spread it, but apparently it really needs to be prolonged.
Probably the biggest concern is if the virus spreads to a local animal reservoir. Squirrels apparently are very susceptible, and it would be a disaster if they became a vector for the disease because squirrels are everywhere and people get up close with them a lot. (A scratch or small bite from an infected animal can spread the virus; you don’t have to make out with a squirrel to get it from them.) Apparently once it’s established in an animal reservoir it’s very hard to un-do that. Currently the only known animal reservoirs are in Africa (AFAIK).
H. John
On twitter, I follow Dr. Angela Rasmussen (@angie_rasmussen), U Sask. She’s a virologist who recently moved to Canada to head a lab.
On monkeypox, she highly recommended this article:
Kate
Thank you, Blork and H. John.
I’m not freaking, just looking at links. I doubt this will be the last contagious disease to have the media on the qui vive in the wake of Covid.
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Kate
A man probably drowned off the Old Port on Friday afternoon: people saw a swimmer in difficulty, but no body has turned up yet.
A man died in a house fire in St‑Michel probably caused by a cigarette. Cops don’t think it was criminal.
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Kate
The first part of a Linda Gyulai trilogy on the future of the Met surveys the history of the road that’s “the busiest in the province, and the backbone of the Quebec economy.” She also reviews what needs to be done vs. what’s politically practicable, as another round of patches begins.
Simon
I’d love to see it become a long elevated forest down the entire city, with a marsh underneath to cool the summers down. Then let it crumble and neighbourhoods make their own tracks through it wherever they need.
It won’t happen because of the car’s stranglehold on our society, but it’s my weird dream.
Kate
I’d like to see the scar separating the neighbourhoods be healed up, but all that traffic has to go somewhere, and nobody’s likely to want to pay for a tunnel.
Blork
Remember that raging inferno that happened on the 40 a few years ago when a fuel truck caught fire? Imagine if that had been in a tunnel!
I’ve always thought it was insane that the freaking Trans-Canada highway runs right through the island of Montreal.
Highways 30 and 50 were supposed to take a lot of pressure off the 40, but I don’t think that’s really happened. Not sure why, aside from the obvious fact that it means going way out of your way if you’re passing through on the Trans-Canada. I wonder if there’s some way to incentivize that? As in, you’re just passing through there’s some big advantage to going out of your way to take the 30 or 50, aside from the ethereal risk of getting stuck in traffic?
Kate
The 50 grinds to a halt, though, its eastward progress simply stopping east of Mirabel. I don’t think it was ever conceived as a beltway. The 30 looks more promising, but does anyone know how much of the traffic on the Met, say at St‑Laurent, is passing through the island, vs. how much is moving around on the island, or is picking up or delivering things on the island, so can’t be shunted onto the 30?
dhomas
The 50 links up to the 640 via the 15 and the 640 connects back to the 40 around Repentigny, so just off island. This route is not very direct, but it could be used to bypass Montreal, I suppose, depending on where you’re coming from.
The 30 is interesting, too, but it just kinda ends in Sorel. For it to be used to bypass the island, it would need to divert from the 40 at some point in the eastern end, which it does not. Also, any trucks transporting goods between Trois-Rivières and Repentigny will pretty much need to get on the island to continue westward. Even if they want to get to the South Shore, they’d need to take the 25 tunnel to do it (there was a news article about this recently posted here). The 30 would need to connect up to the 40 via an off-island bridge somewhere between Sorel and Repentigny if we would want truckers to bypass Montreal.
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Kate
The airport REM link won’t be ready in 2024 as promised.
MarcG
Blork, can you please provide another template?
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