Updates from January, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 23:13 on 2023-01-15 Permalink | Reply  

    Brief but dramatic story here about a young woman who fell in the river Sunday morning while trying to take a picture, and called 911 herself. Beyond a bit of hypothermia, she was all right.

     
    • MarcG 09:51 on 2023-01-16 Permalink

      I saw a guy walking out onto the ice to take a photo yesterday and told him “I wouldn’t do that” but he kept on anyway, even stomping on the ice as he went to test its strength. I had to walk away, couldn’t watch. (He had a friend on the shore). A few years ago on a freezing cold -20C day I walked out onto the ice myself in a place I knew to be shallow but it still wasn’t thick enough and it cracked and I fell in up to my waist. I ran home like a maniac while my jeans turned into solid ice. No harm but scary experience.

    • Janet 11:44 on 2023-01-16 Permalink

      Lucky you didn’t freeze your todger.

    • Kate 12:01 on 2023-01-16 Permalink

      Amazing, considering that MarcG is a prince among men.

  • Kate 23:07 on 2023-01-15 Permalink | Reply  

    Gino Odjick, once a fan favourite among the Canadiens, has died at 52 from a longstanding heart condition. Odjick was from Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg First Nation near Maniwaki.

     
    • Kate 09:53 on 2023-01-15 Permalink | Reply  

      It’s well outside town, but the explosion at the propane factory in Saint‑Roch‑de‑l’Achigan on Thursday has been the week’s biggest local story, with three people lost in the ensuing conflagration. La Presse notes a mass of commemoration Sunday. CBC talked to a man living close to the factory, who says he tried to rescue one of the victims but was unable to do so.

      Monday evening, there’s news that three bodies have been found in the burned‑out building.

       
      • Kate 09:47 on 2023-01-15 Permalink | Reply  

        There’s a riffle of excitement at the idea that a few NFL matches could be held at the Olympic stadium, as the American league takes its show on the road. Alexandre Pratt hopefully gives a brief account of Montreal’s football history.

         
        • Kate 09:41 on 2023-01-15 Permalink | Reply  

          Metro has lists of where you can cross‑country ski or sled down a hill.

           
          • MarcG 10:18 on 2023-01-15 Permalink

            The Sentier La Riveraine mentioned along the river in Verdun as far as I know, doesn’t actually exist in any real sense. They put up a few signs a couple of years ago, and I remember they used to groom a trail occasionally but I haven’t seen that in a while. “You are able to ski here, and lots of people do” – is that all it takes to be a cross-country ski trail with a fancy name?

          • MarcG 10:20 on 2023-01-15 Permalink

            Actually found a website that says it’s currently closed because they haven’t groomed it since December 19th. https://www.skigrandsudouest.com/

          • Tim S. 12:34 on 2023-01-15 Permalink

            I went last year, and it was not in great shape but was extant. Not worth a trip but I would have gone regularly if I lived nearby.

          • Tim S. 13:14 on 2023-01-15 Permalink

            BTW, this is the best site I’ve found for area cross-country ski sites, though some of the reviews are a bit dated by now: http://skiglisse.blogspot.com/

          • James 21:40 on 2023-01-15 Permalink

          • nau 22:11 on 2023-01-15 Permalink

            Skiing was good along the river today in Verdun, and lots of people out. There were groomed trails and others people have made themselves. Nothing was groomed up through the “west” side of the Douglas Hospital site but people have made their own trails both there and along the Canal de l’Aqueduc both “east” and “west” away from where the bridge crosses from Parc Angrignon to the middle of the Douglas site.

        • Kate 09:28 on 2023-01-15 Permalink | Reply  

          Someone caught video of a car being driven while totally covered in snow and the Journal picked it up, with a reminder that you can be ticketed for not removing snow from a moving vehicle.

           
          • jeather 10:18 on 2023-01-15 Permalink

            They clear off more snow than that to give you a parking ticket.

        • Kate 09:26 on 2023-01-15 Permalink | Reply  

          The only grocery store in Ste‑Anne‑de‑Bellevue is closing, putting 25 people out of work, and putting groceries out of reach for anyone without a car. (The Journal has a couple of pieces this weekend on towns without even a dépanneur, and one town where an enterprising citizen is opening one.)

          (I thought Ste-Anne was prosperous and middle class enough to support a grocery store, but I admit I don’t know much about the place.)

          CTV reports on a filmmaker doing short documentaries about aspects of the West Island otherwise likely to be lost in time.

           
          • MarcG 10:11 on 2023-01-15 Permalink

            I’ve seen grocery stores organized as Co-ops when travelling (PEI? Vermont?) – I wonder if they’re more resilient.

          • DeWolf 13:18 on 2023-01-15 Permalink

            Bankruptcy, last minute notice… sounds like the Marché Richelieu’s owners had problems beyond selling groceries. I’d be very surprised if there wasn’t enough demand for that kind of local supermarket in a densely populated town like Ste-Anne that, as the article notes, has a lot of residents and students who don’t have cars. Hopefully someone will come along soon to open something new.

          • Ian 14:33 on 2023-01-15 Permalink

            There are lots of grocery stores near Ste Anne – the only people going to Richelieu are people that can’t just drive 10 minutes to the Provigo at St Charles or 10 minutes to the IGA in Île-Perrot.

            TBH Sainte Anne could definitely use another dep considering the student population, but the Richelieu isn’t closing down because there is a lack of money in the community, lol. Next you’ll be telling me there’s no bars in Baie d’Urfé because they can’t afford to drink.

          • shawn 15:23 on 2023-01-15 Permalink

            If I was out there without a car the 211 bus east (to Saint Charles, per Ian) would be the way I’d go.

          • Kate 23:11 on 2023-01-15 Permalink

            MarcG, TVA’s version of the story says the store had been bought – doesn’t say when – by “une coopérative de la région de la Capitale-Nationale, Solidarité de Bellevue.” Which suggests it may already have been a co‑op, although a co‑op can be as badly mismanaged as any other kind of ownership, I suppose.

          • CE 01:25 on 2023-01-16 Permalink

            Kinda defeats the purpose of living in a dense neighbourhood if you cant even get groceries nearby.

          • Ephraim 09:01 on 2023-01-16 Permalink

            You have to be careful what you wish for… they could end up with a Pharmaprix with fruits and vegetables and completely unaffordable

          • DeWolf 12:54 on 2023-01-16 Permalink

            @Ian who said there’s lack of money in Ste-Anne?!

          • Kate 13:06 on 2023-01-16 Permalink

            I think Ian meant that the reason for the closure isn’t a lack of money.

          • PO 16:30 on 2023-01-17 Permalink

            This story is worth following, I hope someone digs deeper.

            That store was run by the Richard family for half a century I believe, and was doing well. A few years ago the family sold the store to some group that called itself a coop but it was never clear what or who they were. If I understand correctly, they underwent a multimillion dollar renovation in the last year. Then, out of nowhere, they shut down with 2 days notice.

            Comments from some employees of the store, on Facebook, seem to suggest that it was a top-down corporate decision. Something is fishy. To dump millions into something that was profitable for 50 years, then shut down in a heartbeat a few months later?

            It’s terrible for the Ste Anne community. The southern half of the city has so many elderly folks and students without cars. I can’t imagine having lived there for 5 years and not being able to walk to get my groceries.

            Terrible.

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