A development project has been proposed for what’s called the Bridge‑Bonaventure sector here – basically Mill Street between Silo No. 5 and Five Roses Flour. The developers and the city aren’t in agreement over how many units ought to be constructed.
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Kate
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Kate
It’s a Laval story but I’ve got to make one post about the infanticides in Ste‑Dorothée. Kamaljit Arora has been accused of first‑degree murder in the deaths of his 13‑year‑old daughter and 11‑year‑old son on Monday evening. Arora is hospitalized following an apparent suicide attempt and was unable to appear in court.
TVA says Arora had been seen for his mental health at Cité‑de‑la‑Santé in Laval. So was Abdulla Shaikh, accused of gunning down three random people in Montreal and Laval in August. Can our overwhelmed medical system properly assess and follow dangerously troubled people?
Update: Some grim details about the killings, as well as an argument against calling a double killing a drame familial.
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Kate
There’s going to be a new park in Lasalle, the Parc de Taishan, named after a town in China where some of Lasalle’s residents were born, and three new streets, one of which is the renaming of what’s essentially an alley in the Quartier latin. All three are all to be named after women.
DeWolf
That particular section of LaSalle (the cluster of new high-rise apartment buildings near Angrignon metro) is one of Montreal’s fastest-growing Chinese enclaves. In the document outlining its rationale for naming the park, the borough notes that more than half the neighbourhood’s residents are of Chinese origin:
Kate
DeWolf, is there a new Chinatown coalescing in the area?
DeWolf
Kinda! Last time I passed by there were some small Chinese businesses in those new condo towers. But most of the Chinese commercial activity in LaSalle is spread out around the borough. There’s a big supermarket called Ocean Plus near the canal, and some restaurants on the main streets like Newman and Dollard, but nothing very concentrated.
The other emerging Chinese neighbourhood is in VSL/Cartierville – there is already a cluster of Chinese supermarkets and other businesses near Bois-Franc and the Lachapelle Bridge, and the largest T&T Supermarket in Canada is about to open in VSL.
Then of course there’s Brossard. I recently learned that the main reason it attracted Chinese immigrants in the first place is because of a single real estate agent, Henry Ho, who had settled in the area and sold other immigrants on it. Things just kind of snowballed from there. (Incidentally, his daughter is Denise Ho, a well-known pop star and pro-democracy/LGBTQ activist in Hong Kong.)
CE
A few months ago, I had heard that Uyghur food is excellent so went looking to places I could try it. I ended up at a strip mall in Lasalle (where there are two). I couldn’t find a single one in central Montreal (to validate DeWolf’s comment, the other ones are in VSL and Brossard). It was a great meal!
carswell
CE There used to be one in NDG or thereabouts, an excellent one on CDN north of Van Horne and another short-lived one downtown (Chinatown?). All gone. Unfortunately because, as you note, the food can be delicious.
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Kate
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon is stil childishly refusing the oath as other MNAs are sworn in this week.
Which makes me want to ask: why an oath at all?
This is one of those things, like singing national anthems before sports matches, that we just go on doing, although if we stop and ask why, they make no sense at all. When the Canadiens play the Bruins it isn’t a national standoff, so why the anthem? Anthems maybe have their purpose in international events like the Olympics, where national teams compete, but what on earth is the point of singing O Canada when the Habs meet the Leafs?
Likewise, politicians know what they’re elected to do – at least we hope so – and a form of words, promising loyalty and honesty, won’t make a damn bit of difference in how they go about their work.
Update: We’ve discussed some of the topics broached here before.
Kevin
We’re asking them to swear an oath to do right by the citizenry of our nation, as represented by the symbolism of the Throne of Canada.
Maybe our schools and newspapers should spend some time educating the public about that, although we’d have to start by educating the fine columnists at Quebecor.
Ephraim
I really want to make this oath into a double-edged sword, now that he wants to open it up to discussion. Put some consequences that are clear for violating the trust the public and make it clear that they serve their constituents. Too many vote for their personal self interests. Remember Marois and the land, for example.
Thomas
I concur with Kevin, we do live in constitutional monarchy after all. You can question the monarchy if you like, but as long as it continues to be the case the oath makes as much sense as anything else does. Like the Governor General, Lieutenant Governors, Royal Ascent, Court of King’s Bench (provincial courts in other provinces), the King’s Privy Council for Canada, His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, etc.
Where the anthems are concerned, professional sports (including the NHL) are controlled by Americans and Americans love singing their anthem, so we do as we’re told and follow along.
Josh
The anthem debate pops up periodically on sports Twitter. The consensus seems to be, regardless of where one falls on the issue, that as long as the military (both in the US and to a lesser extent in Canada) uses pro sports as a kind of blackboard for advertising (through fly-overs and military appreciation nights) and consequently pours money into pro sports, the anthems will remain.
The NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, owned by billionaire Shark Tank cast member Mark Cuban, tried to dispense with pregame anthems before the start of last season. They were slapped down by both the league and the Texas legislature.
Kate
I didn’t think of the military link at all. That helps explain why it’s done. Thanks, Josh.
MarcG
Relevant Propagandhi tune https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xva-cdBi8E
Ian
In the ROC people still sing O Canada at the beginning of every school day. I was rather surprised to learn my children never sang it in school here even once, even in an EMSB school. Most people I know who grew up here only know the anthem from watching hockey. I always figured it was one of those things like how Canada Day isn’t really celebrated here but is a full-on fireworks & hoopla thing everywhere else.
dhomas
My kids’ EMSB school used to sing the national anthem at the beginning of the school day every day up until last year. A new principal put an end to the practice.
Kate
I don’t think I ever sang O Canada in school. I was a Brownie for a short time and that’s where I probably sang it most often, also the usual recital of the Brownie Promise, which mentioned the Queen – the only time I’ve taken an oath to the sovereign.
I read somewhere that the anthem‑singing really got going during World War II when people would sing an anthem even before the start of a movie, although I can’t recall whether that was in Canada or in England, where it would’ve been God Save the King.
A long time ago some friends dragged me to a Gilbert & Sullivan performance, somewhere in NDG. Much to my surprise, everyone got up to sing God Save the Queen before the start. I don’t think that would happen now, and I don’t even know whether anyone performs those old shows any more, even at McGill.
EmilyG
They still do perform the Gilbert and Sullivan shows at McGill, but it’s a different group, the Lakeshore Light Opera, who does Gilbert and Sullivan with O Canada at the start. I don’t know why.
They played O Canada every morning on the intercom when I was in high school. One year, we had an extreme Canadian patroit teacher who forced us to sing along with it every morning.
Daisy
I don’t know where you’re getting that information from, Ian. I attended elementary and secondary school in the 1980s and 1990s in two different provinces in the ROC (at opposite ends of the country) and most certainly did not sing O Canada at the beginning of every school day. Maybe it is done at some schools but that is not common practice across the board.
Ian
Caveat, I am over 50 years old, things might have changed – but I went to school at 2 school boards in BC, 3 in Ontario, and one in PEI. O Canada, every morning. In junior high (Ontario) we even had to learn to play it in band so we could start off assemblies with it.
DeWolf
For what it’s worth, I went to school in Alberta and we only sang O Canada at school assemblies in elementary school (the bilingual version because it was a bilingual school). I don’t recall ever singing it in high school.
CE
I went to school in an Anglo part of New Brunswick. We had to sing O Canada every morning in elementary school. The only time we’d ever hear God Save the Queen was before Remembrance Day ceremonies. None of us knew the words and we were generally confused as to why is was being sung.
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Kate
Why can’t the anglo media here just tell us what the weather will be, and stop infantilizing their public? From the Gazette, Tuesday morning.
Compare TVA:
Meezly
And stoking consumerism.
Kate
Indeed!
Thomas
Storytelling is deeply rooted in our anglophone culture, right down to the fact that we call our news articles “stories”. Everything seems to always have to have a “narrative”. As I have immersed myself in French and German culture over the years, this has become even more apparent.
So in the grand anglophone tradition, rather than simply telling me the weather, the Gazette is telling me a story.
Kate
It’s not a story, though – it’s telling me what to do. Just as when CBC radio officiously orders us to “take an umbrella.”
Your audience are adults. Tell us what the weather will be like. We know what to do about it.
Thomas
@Kate What annoys me is when the media tells me how to feel about the weather. Like on Radio-Canada in the morning they tend to paint hot weather in a positive light, even when I’m sweltering with my lack of air conditioning, and anything cool or cold in a negative light even though it’s my favourite time of year.
Just give me the weather and I’ll decide for myself how I feel about it lol
Kate
The other day it was raining, and Sabrina Marandola on CBC radio said something about how it was a good day to stay in with a cup of tea and a book, and then she went off into some text someone sent about cosying up with a blanket and so on, it was so awful out. And it was 18°! Eighteen degrees out, it was nearly balmy! And here were these people going on as if it was cold out.
Kevin
When it was 18 C in Vancouver, I went to the beach.
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Kate
The city is girding itself for the effects of the partial shutdown of the L‑H‑Lafontaine tunnel after Halloween. Various adaptations for traffic management are suggested here but there’s obviously no magic solution.
Item has some details of closures leading up to the long shutdown as barriers and hazard lights are added to the tunnel before work begins.
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Kate
The CBC’s Chloe Rinaldi has put together a nice visual feature on ways that disused churches have been repurposed.
SMD
Nice feature, but quoting Graham Singh on reusing church space? When he took over St. Jax his first step was to kick out the homeless soup kitchen in the basement. Not a great example.
Chris
You mean *Pastor* Graham Singh. So much for the altruism of the church I guess.
carswell
Momentarily setting aside my personal preferences (raze these monuments to delusion, oppression and corruption and put up genuinely useful buildings), there’s the question of cost. Not just to repair, transform and maintain them but also to heat and light them. They are some of the least energy efficient structures around and there’s no easy way to fix that.
Also, turning them into community spaces only works for part of the population. As as atheist, albeit one brought up in a very religious household (e.g. after my father died, my mother became an Anglican nun), churches creep me out to the point that I haven’t felt comfortable setting foot in one, even deconsecrated ones, for years. Can easily imagine other non-believers and adherents of other religions — let alone the countless victims of sexual and other abuse at the Church’s hands — feeling the same way, especially as renovations tend to leave many Christian elements intact (arched windows, cross-shaped floor plan, stained glass, sculptures, iconography, etc.).
Of course, this is “secular” Quebec where, as our illustrious premier told the governor of California, “all French Canadians are Catholic.” I guess that makes Catholic churches secular too.
carswell 09:36 on 2022-10-20 Permalink
What are the chances of this becoming a neighbourhood more like the Plateau and less like Griffintown? Next to nil, I’d guess, especially with the developers calling the shots.