A massive mural dedicated to Jean‑Paul Riopelle was unveiled Tuesday in the McGill ghetto.
Interestingly, when the mural was announced a year ago, it was intended for the corner of Peel and Sherbrooke.
Friday, Le Devoir talks about the centenary of Riopelle and various activities connected with it. Riopelle was born in October 1923, so his actual centenary won’t occur for another year.
An independent inquiry says the Pride parade should not have been cancelled, but disorganization and crossed wires ended up with the August 7 event being shut down before it started.
Superior Court ruled Tuesday that Longueuil can proceed with the deer hunt in Michel‑Chartrand park, but Anne‑France Goldwater may appeal the ruling.
Update: The SPCA and Sauvetage Animal Rescue both announced they will appeal the ruling.
I hate both sides of this story. On a side note, typically it’s rare to see a male deer in the park. Tons of does and maybe one buck who you almost never see. But this year there are many bucks. (OK probably six out of 100 deer, but that’s way more than usual.) Yesterday I saw two of them walking around together like old buddies, which is weird because I thought they’d be competitive and aggressive towards each other.
Today I was standing on a hill admiring the fall colors when I noticed one of the junior bucks standing there looking up at me: https://flic.kr/p/2nR7m9K
Nice photo, Blork. What causes that horizontal shadow line across the trees?
Reminds me of the expression in Hebrew… פרה פרה. Which means cow cow. It stems from an old joke…
The origin of the expression is in a joke: an old and a young bull see a herd of cattle, the young one wants to jump on the whole herd at once, and the old bull answers him in response: Cow, cow!
Someone told me that it’s also an expression in Japanese, meaning everything separately
It never ceases to amaze me how city folk, living close together with so many of their kind that they have to import their food from elsewhere, are blind to the fact that animals don’t have that luxury. Culling them is the humane thing to do, leaving them or re-homing them will just delay their death and make it more cruel.
(BTW This comment thread is full of Gary Larson cartoons.)
The SPCA’s animal shelter and sterilization work is admirable. In other ways, however, they increasingly come across as PETA “animals are human” types, as shown by their advocacy for allowing dogs on the metro (they want them on the buses too) and opposition to a sensible, cost-effective, ecologically sound solution to this issue.
Kate, I was standing on the top of a hill, with the sun behind me. The hill is much steeper than the photo implies; it’s about an 8-10 metre drop down to the road. The shadow is the shadow of the hill I’m standing on.
(BTW This comment thread is full of Gary Larson cartoons.)
“Bummer of a birthmark, Hal.”
Kate, I walked by there again today, but down on the road. Took this shot for perspective regarding the hill: https://www.blork.org/pix/pmc-hill.png
Ah. It looked like a roof line shadow to me, which is why I asked.
Evidently expecting that fans will have forgotten the scandal when the team selected him in the 2021 NHL draft, the Canadiens have signed Logan Mailloux to an entry-level contract. Mailloux was fined in Sweden for taking and circulating photos of a woman performing a sex act, without her consent.
Mayor Plante is trying to put a good face on the city’s rejection of the CAQ. We had two CAQ MNAs before the election, and we have two CAQ MNAs now. Not much will change in the CAQ’s view of Montreal.
Plante is a practical woman and knows there’s no benefit to the city in flaunting an adverse position to the CAQ, even when her personal and her party philosophy run counter to François Legault’s on most points. So she’s doing her best to make peace.
La Presse’s Philippe Mercure makes a plea to Legault not to forget Montreal, giving him a short list of issues needing attention.
Legault ran an anti-Montreal campaign.
There are multiple columns in the Journal today pointing out that Montrealers are the enemies of the true people of Quebec.
So yes, things will change. They’ll get a lot worse.
Since a lot of issues in Montreal (and not only funding) are under control of the provincial government, a mayor who isn’t pragmatic would be a terrible thing. I hope she’ll also sometimes fights the fight though.
Things *will* change, and probably not in a positive direction. It will also get worse in the rest of Quebec, for example the effects of climate change will actually be more profound there, but at least they can blame Montreal for those. And immigrants.
at least we’ll drown, burn and freeze in french…
I know it’s not Montreal, but I guess the 3e lien is happening then? It looks like it’ll cost as much as the entire REM.
Imagine all the bike lanes, or community gardens, or trains, or Pink Lines, or social housing that we could get for that money.
Well Val can talk a good game, but she’s from Rouyn-Noranda. Legault knows the deal. Of course Legault hates Montreal, especially Montreal Anglos. He is from Ste Anne. His Mom still lives there, there is even a Rue Legault, but no CAQ candidate will be elected in Ste Anne, ever. And he knows, and resents it deeply.
“Despite his business background, there has always been a harsh nationalist streak to Legault’s politics. At his very first political speech, when he was nominated as a star PQ candidate in 1998, he told his riding association members that he had been raised in Montreal’s West Island among the English, “and I hate them as much as you do.” ”
Graham Fraser, “The Quebec Election Primer”, Policy Magazine, Aug. 15, 2018
Workable link (I hope): “The Quebec Election Primer”, Policy Magazine
Maurice Duplessis was first elected as Premier in 1936. As Wikipedia says, “The 1936 election broke the dominance of the Quebec Liberal Party it held uninterruptedly for almost 40 years.” Duplessis was premier from 1936 to 1939, then from 1944 till his death in 1959. Most of Quebec was in slavish agreement with Duplessis and his Union Nationale party for those 15 long years, over four elections, till suddenly – they weren’t any more.
But it took that long for his spell to wear off.
I noticed while looking this up that a guy we seldom hear about, Adélard Godbout, was premier for most of World War II, elected in November 1939 and serving till August 1944. Notably, women were finally given the vote during his term, despite resistance from Duplessis and the Catholic Church, and Godbout made the first steps toward the creation of Hydro-Quebec with the nationalization of Montreal Light, Heat and Power.
And get this: “In the 1944 provincial election, Godbout’s Liberals and Duplessis’ Union Nationale received similar shares of the popular vote, the Liberals getting slightly more votes but the UN enjoying a level of support in the province’s rural areas that was strong enough to win a majority of seats to the legislature and thus form the government. During the 1944 election, Duplessis claimed in a very anti-Semitic speech that Godbout had together with the Dominion government agreed to take in 100,000 Jewish refugees and settle them in Quebec after the war in exchange for which the “International Zionist Brotherhood” was funding his reelection campaign. Duplessis claimed that he would never take money from the Jews, and if were elected Premier again, he would stop this alleged plan to settle 100,000 Jewish refugees in Quebec. Through this story was entirely false, it was widely believed, sparking such a surge of antisemitism to allow the Union Nationale to win.”
Thank you, carswell. That is indeed the link I intended.
@Kate this among other things is why we don’t have anything named after Duplessis nor anyone advocating for it. At least Legault still feels the need to dogwhistle or sometime “mis-speak”.
@Ian’s quoted article: “Despite his business background…hates anglos.”
The implication here is that people with MBAs and Finance degrees love anglos. Is this true? Are these really related?
I guess it depends whether you believe in “money and the ethnic vote”. I’m pretty sure since that Overton window got opened nobody courting the ethnonationalist vote ever intends to shut it again.
I read that with implication that nationalists care more about control than about anything else.
I think the implication is that if you put business first, you have to accept that English is a fact of life in business circles. Whereas, if you put nationalism and the future of French first, you have to accept that in some cases that means you, your business, and in some cases the people of Quebec, will need to accept some economic limitations and privations.
@Ian: I take this road every weekday:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/fjXELxRpc4S9h8q66
I stand corrected. Ewww.
carswell 20:40 on 2022-10-05 Permalink
I suppose we should consider ourselves fortunate it’s not a portrait…
JaneyB 00:27 on 2022-10-06 Permalink
Fabulous. I love his work. The installation outside the Palais des congrès is pure magic.
Kate 07:40 on 2022-10-06 Permalink
JaneyB, you probably know this, but the fountain is the only work of sculpture Riopelle did. So it’s entirely atypical of his work.
PatrickC 09:14 on 2022-10-06 Permalink
According to the CTV story (actually Canadian Press), the location of the mural, Milton at Lorne, is in the “heart” of the Plateau. More like the edge, no?
Ian 09:20 on 2022-10-06 Permalink
Considering the Plateau stops at University, you are correct. Regardless, I really don’t see the connection between this mural and his work.
carswell 09:37 on 2022-10-06 Permalink
@Ian Agreed. Not much abstract expressionist about it. In fact, it looks much more like a Marc Séguin work than a classic Riopelle, some of which would make interesting murals. My first reaction after seeing the photo or this mural was a “meh” but I’ll reserve judgement till I’ve seen it in person a few times.
Blork 10:47 on 2022-10-06 Permalink
@PatrickC and @Ian, the article says the mural “is right in the heart of Riopelle’s native Plateau-Mont-Royal neighbourhood.” That can be interpreted as:
The mural is in Milton-Parc, which is at the heart of the Plateau-Mont-Royal .
Or…
The mural is at the heart of Milton-Parc, which is Riopelle’s neighbourhood in the Plateau-Mont-Royal .
The second interpretation is correct, bearing in mind that Plateau-Mont-Royal is a borough composed of many neighbourhoods, one of which is Milton-Parc.
Ian 16:03 on 2022-10-06 Permalink
By definition it’s right at the edge of Milton-Parc, too – it is not even a full block west of the boundary.
Nitpicking aside, did Riopelle really live in Milton-Parc? I thought he spent most of his time as a working artist in Esterel, not even in Montreal.
Ian 18:34 on 2022-10-07 Permalink
addendum
@carswell I didn’t mean to be snide, I really don’t see the connection between this mural and Riopelle’s work. Also, his work looks like Ab Ex but to be precise is associated with “Lyrical Abstraction”, more of a European movement.