A demonstration was held Saturday against racial profiling, and to mark the third anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by Minneapolis police, which touched off a wave of riots and protests all over the U.S. that summer.
Updates from May, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A bakery in Ahuntsic was firebombed early Sunday morning.
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Kate
TVA laid out some numbers it claims represent the decline in bus services over the last four years, going back a year before we ever heard the word “covid”.
Red
But, Legault needs to give his deputies a $30,000 pay increase
Ian
Hey now paying 19 year old cops a hundred grand each adds up too, you know.
What do you want, an ineffective, overpaid cop from the suburbs that hates Montreal on every corner, or reliable bus service? /s
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Kate
There is now a phone number where you can call in vehicles that block bike paths – in French it sounds harsher, you can denounce them!
Blork
Added to my contacts.
mare
On speed dial.
I wish I could text and send a photo, I would make a shortcut for that on my Home Screen. And of course reporting should get you a bounty, a percentage of the fines. I could live with 20%. (They had planned that in NYC, but don’t know if that has really materialized yet.)
Ephraim
@mare – Revenu Quebec can’t manage to do that properly, you expect that the police could?
Ian
Considering there’s been an SPVM rat line for all parking violations for several years now it seems like greenwashing to pretend this is a bike-friendly intiative … especially as the cops still won’t ticket delivery vehicles or contractors, or themselves for that matter. It also won’t stop people from the (perfectly legal) maneuver of double parking in the bike lanes with their hazard lights on, which I see WAY more often than simply parking in a bike lane.
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Kate
Université de Montréal has a falcon nestbox on the tower, and you can see it on camera. Here’s the direct link thanks to reader carswell.
Update Sunday: the babies are hatching.
dhomas
I bet it speaks a mix of English and French. Shameful.
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Kate
Four young men in a car were injured Friday afternoon when their vehicle hit a tree and destroyed a bus shelter. Luckily, no one was waiting for the bus at that moment; no news how the tree is doing.
Freddy G
The driver may die. At 21. Maybe wait 48h before worrying about the tree. Also, hire over 13 to write your socials.
Kate
Yes sir.
shawn
Wait, Kate isn’t over 13?
Kate
She’s too busy writing socials to reply.
bumper carz
“The driver may die.”
Historically, it is mostly wars that casually threaten young people’s lives. Is the banalised use of the car itself a kind of “war” against our communities and your youth?
Kate
No. If anything, especially in the U.S. but also here, giving very young people cars is considered a benefit, as they will now have more “freedom” to do what they like.
As a society it’s obvious we’re quite happy to lose thousands of people to car deaths every year, besides those who survive crashes with permanent disabilities. Cars are a kind of man‑made pandemic.
Ian
While I feel bad for the friends and family of said 21 year old, it’s not exactly a tragedy to die as a result of your own (incredibly) reckless driving…
There’s a big difference between innocent death by misadventure and death from doing something well known to be dangerous to yourself and others that is incidentally super illegal that would result in an automatic license suspension and vehicle seizure in any case. In some places they take photos of these kinds of accident scenes and put them up on billboards as a warning to others.
It’s like if somebody accidentally blows themselves and some buddies up while making a bomb for fun; sure it’s sad that people lost their lives but at least it was just them.
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Kate
A business on St-Denis near Crémazie was firebombed early Saturday.
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Kate
The fire out, inspectors will be working in Bon-Pasteur on Saturday to assess the damage caused in Friday morning’s fire. CBC talked to groups which have used spaces in the building and they’re devastated; likewise people who lived in parts of the building.
Ephraim
First question… did the have fire insurance on the building? Second question… was it insured at a high enough amount to be able to afford to rebuild, considering that it’s a historic building and it will have to be rebuilt. OR do you think this will sit empty for years because there is no money to rebuild because it would be cheaper to tear down?
shawn
I’m going go out on a limb here and say that there will definitely be money to rebuild because the provincial government is so focussed on preserving Quebec Catholic patrimonial structures.
John B
Sometimes it’s impossible to buy insurance for heritage buildings, because the replacement cost would be more or less infinity dollars, so there may not actually be insurance on the building.
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Kate
STM ridership and complaints are both up.
shawn
Speaking of which, here’s a gifted link to a G&M story by Marcus Gee about what he encounters on the 505 Dundas streetcar in Toronto. It ain’t pretty: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/1dda01131f4a49b8b69490d42f979fedcc57bcbd0a1e3f8f16462de69a0c1127/SZNO4PGQAFGGBDU4MDKBCIQYVU/
Blork
Gift link has expired.
Shawn Goldwater
Ah ok. I also shared the link on Mastodon too and I am not sure how G&M gift links work. My sense is that they are not as generous as NYT?
Kate
shawn
Thanks. I guess I’ll use that approach until I figure out how G&M “gifting” works.
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Kate
Nathalie Collard is concerned about the fate of the Musée d’art contemporain, which she finds doesn’t seem to concern many people.
It may take a provincial government more engaged with the arts to get this project moving again.
shawn
Yes, I work across the street now at Place des festivals and it’s such a crummy building to begin with, imo. The flank facing the square is dismal – of course there wasn’t a square when it was designed.
I did go to the MAC a number of times and it would be such a no-brainer to have a really great contemporary art museum in the heart of the Q d s.
Kate
I know. The side facing the square is basically garage entrances. Now, a museum needs a big garage entrance somewhere, for moving large artworks in and out, but that side is overkill.
DeWolf
It is a pretty shocking situation. This is Canada’s leading contemporary art museum (which isn’t saying much, but still) and yet the whole mess is being treated without any sense of urgency by the government or the public.
At this point, the museum should move back into its existing building and use the budget it has for expansion to build a new satellite pavilion somewhere else.
shawn
True. Other museums might have bigger collections but they’re not dedicated contemporary art museums. Amazing and sad.
Beyond the garage entrance, the whole building is designed to turn it back on the street. I personally find that kind of stucco-like blank white surface with the cheap decorative columns so banal. I seem to recall criticism and disappointment from critics when it was completed, too.
And yes, simply vacating it, radical as that might be, would allow the square to flow into the Place des Arts esplanade so nicely. I hope that becomes a discussed option.
Kate
In some ways, the CAQ is liike the PQ, only philistine. From having friends in various film and arts jobs, I know that grant money for artistic endeavours has always flowed most freely when the PQ was in power. It was basically the only benefit that came from having an explicitly separatist government, but it was a good one. As a graphic designer I’ve had good work from spinoffs of such projects.
Now we have a nationalist government that just gets on with it, but is focused only on business profit and isn’t interested in the soft power of cultural assets.
shawn
For sure, contemporary art doesn’t play to the CAQ base. And once more, watch worse, it’s in Montreal. If this was for a similar museum project in the regions of Quebec, it might be different.
shawn
Ok I have to wake up before I type any more replies here. Happy Sunday everyone!
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Kate
A possible new train route running east from Montreal to Sherbrooke, then going down through Maine and New Hampshire to reach Boston, has been discussed before, but it’s difficult to guess how likely it is to materialize.
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Kate
It’s expected to be a warm weekend rising next week into real summer temperatures.
Weekend activities from CityCrunch, Metro, CultMTL, Sarah’s Weekend List.
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Kate
Metro’s Jason Paré tried out the Adirondack train to New York and makes some useful observations for potential travellers about the food, drink, wi‑fi, the long halt at the border and so forth.
shawn
I took that train about 30 years ago and it’s funny how a little seems to have changed. I think that I remember liking most of all is simply the hypnotic soothing of the motion and sound of the train. That at the great scenery.
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Kate
A bagless version of the Publisac by the unedifying name Raddar is now being distributed to 725,000 households. Item says you can opt out of receiving Raddar on the Canada Post site but I see no sign of where you can do this.
Jonathan
JS
I clicked all the way to the Do Not Call list only to find out that, despite the numerous spam calls I regularly receive, my phone number is already registered.
Kate
Thank you, Jonathan.
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Kate
A five-alarm fire broke out around 4:30 pm Thursday on the roof of the monastère du Bon‑Pasteur at the corner of Sherbrooke and St‑Dominique. Nobody was hurt. The building houses a seniors’ residence, a housing co-op, a daycare and condominiums, and also hosts art exhibits and classical musical performances.
EmilyG
I’ve been to a lot of great concerts there. It’s sad to hear this news.
carswell
The CTV article reports that it is the chapelle wing of the building, which now houses the concert hall (with Heritage Montreal offices located directly underneath), that appears to be the most severely damaged. If so, this is doubly sad news for music lovers and musicians. The city already has a dearth of venues for small ensembles, especially affordable venues and double especially ones with good acoustics, and has now lost, at least temporarily, one of the best. And who knows what’s happened to the magnificent instruments, most notably the grand piano and an 18th-century harpsichord, regularly used in performances? Hoping the damage is not extensive and the hall is restored and even improved.
shawn
The fire is STILL burning as of this morning. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bon-pasteur-monastere-montreal-fire-1.6855139
Kate
So much so that the air quality is down Friday morning.
MarcG
I smelled it all the way in Verdun around 6pm last night.
shawn
Wow, Verdun. From Sherbrooke East… incredible.
carswell
Heartbreaking drone footage from earlier this morning. This makes it look like the fire is mostly confined to the roof/upper storeys.
https://twitter.com/ClothildeNdri/status/1662050108295245824
shawn
La Presse reporting at 2:10 pm Friday that the fire is still not extinguished.
Ephraim
With a concert hall with the public… why was this not retrofitted with a sprinkler system?
Please, can we not think of retro-fitting certain buildings with fire suppression systems? Especially when you have a concert hall, where hundreds can perish in one go!
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