For some years now, Jeanne Mance has been recorded as a co‑founder of Montreal alongside Paul de Chomedey, sieur de Maisonneuve. This year is the 350th anniversary of her death. A new documentary which traces Mance’s history back to France will be shown at the little museum next to Hôtel‑Dieu.
Updates from May, 2023 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Where can MBC be shopping? There’s service in French everywhere, but somehow when MBC goes out he only encounters English. Is he sure he didn’t touch down in Toronto?
Joey
You’ve got to be a special kind of asshole to blame some language-choice nonsense as an excuse not to tip your Uber Eats driver. What a loser.
Kate
I think it’s been obvious for a long time that MBC falls into that special category.
John B
Maybe it’s because a**holes recognize a**holes when they see them and antagonize them?
Also, I can’t remember last time I had a long enough conversation with a delivery driver to know if they were bilingual or not, if he’s learning the language habits of Uber Eats drivers maybe it’s because he’s intentionally having a longer conversation than needed to stir up trouble, (and make people who are trying to make a living feel like crap).
Kate
John B, that crossed my mind after I posted. Aside from saying “bonsoir” or “merci” to a delivery guy – and there isn’t always even the opportunity for that – I’ve never had a conversation with any of them. And all of them can say “bonsoir” or “bienvenue”.
Also, while I’ve never used UberEats, I’ve occasionally used Doordash or Skipthedishes, and in both of those cases, you set a percentage tip in advance, you don’t hand it over on delivery – and especially not after a language screening.
Joey
Uber Eats is basically the same (somewhat more elaborate back-end, I gather) – most of the drivers do multiple apps, anyhow. If you don’t tip enough when you order no driver will agree to pick up your food…
Anyway, if there were any truth to the ‘experiences’ that stirred this article, I imagine MBC would’ve been happy to out the businesses. This paint-by-numbers made-up BS.
jeather
I’ve occasionally had drivers contact me to tell me there is traffic, but I’m pretty sure we spoke in French. And my name is as anglo as it gets.
I believe all the apps allow you to edit your tip after delivery in either direction. But maybe they changed that.
qatzelok
It’s a clickbait piece with many thoughtful comments in the comments section.
Kate, you must admire MBC’s way of extracting good comments from his readers, no?
Kate
I’m just swooning with admiration, qatzelok.
jeather
I admit that of his three stories (“employees all only say hi, not bonjour or even bonjour-hi”, “they are aggressively choosing not to speak French though they are fluent”, “I am a jerk to my delivery drivers and remove the tips”) one of them does strike me as believable.
shawn
Interesting that he said he was back in town because I’m pretty sure I passed him on Saint Joseph near Parc Avenue like two days ago. Pretty miserable looking guy.
Kate
I think for some people “just back in town” could encompass two days.
He was probably trying to decide whether he’s more miserable about the use of English in Paris or in Montreal.
If I recognized him in the street i’d be so tempted to put on a bright smile and say “GOOD afternoon, Mister B-C!”
Uatu
Yeah I’d do the same, Kate just for laughs to see him fume with indignation and I’d probably be in his next column about the visible minority who dared say “hi” hahaha
shawn
It is my life’s mission not to end up in the Journal de Montréal and so I’m glad I didn’t. He seemed to be running something over miserably in his mind as I passed him on the sidewalk and I felt strangely empathetic with him, for the first time ever,
Kate
Well hi Mathieu, what’s on your mind?
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Kate
The city says it has filled 111,000 potholes this season.
Blork
Only 400,000 more to go.
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Kate
Long weekend lists: CityCrunch, Metro, CultMTL.
And the highways to avoid on the long weekend.
Sounds like a rainy couple of days coming.
Open and closed for the Monday holiday.
shawn
Pedestrianization of Mount Royal Avenue kicks off tomorrow, I see.
James
NDG porchfest saturday and sunday. Great way to meet your neighbours and listen to music !
http://www.porchfestndg.com/Nicholas
Shawn, the pedestrianization started this past Monday. Still some terrasses to construct, but otherwise good to go.
Kate
Pedestrianization was official as of Saturday but full pedestrianization takes a few days to set up.
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Kate
It isn’t only Montreal that finds itself short of the revenue it needs – Toronto and Vancouver are in the same boat. Maintaining infrastructure, dealing with the housing crisis and finding ways to help the homeless are all high on their needs lists. The Radio‑Canada writer finds plenty of people – including Doug Ford – prepared to say cities have to cut back, rather than helping them find ways to raise more funds.
Why do our provincial governments hate their big cities so much?
jeather
Because due to gerrymandering they don’t have as much voting power as they deserve?
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Kate
The Guardian, via its Toronto stringer, gives an account of the killing of Claudia Iacono.
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Kate
After a messy debacle last summer, the organization of Montreal Pride promises a parade will materialize on August 13.
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Kate
MuslinMuslim groups are suing the Quebec government over the ban on prayer rooms in schools. It’s a standoff between freedom of religion and laïcité. -
Kate
The city is creating a committee of experts to find other sources of revenue beyond property taxes.
Ephraim
How do I get nominated for this committee? Besides all these idea of new taxes, I want to make sure they look at the unintended consequences too
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Kate
A restaurant in St-Léonard was firebombed a second time in 24 hours, Thursday morning.
Tim S.
What occurs to me about all these firebombings is that these are fights over protection money, which means many businesses must be paying out, which means we’re all paying out.
shawn
Oh yes that’s totally factored in. And was for the public works projects like roads, too, with a certain % going to the mob. Although hopefully with the anticorruption unit and greater public scrutiny that has stopped.
Kate
The Gazette has some thoughts from crime specialist Maria Mourani, but with all respect to her academic chops, she doesn’t suggest any reasons beyond what most of us would surmise: either a protection racket, or else a plan to intimidate competing businesses or business owners who appear loyal to rival factions, in an effort to make them give up or move away.
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Kate
A new delay in the start date for the south shore REM is blamed on testing that’s taking longer than expected. No new start date has been floated.
Nicholas
It notes they have to tell their partners (STM, etc) 30 days before service starts, so they were running out of time to get that done to start before the end of spring. More concerning is their objective is over 95% reliability. That means 1 in 21 trains could be unreliable and they would meet their objective, which means a train per hour (two at rush hour) could have issues and they’d be ready to move forward.
Kate
I wonder what happens if you’re on the bridge or some other kind of no‑man’s‑land scenario and the train fails. In the metro, mostly you can, if necessary, get out and walk with others to the next station, and you’ll at least be in town somewhere.
Nicholas
At least for newer construction it’s pretty common (and probably required) to have walkways on the side, for evacuation if not maintenance. These photos look like they have some of that.
dhomas
@Nicholas your link to the photos seems broken.
James
@Kate I can assure you that this has been taken into account. Many aspects about evacuation have been considered. In the very unlikely scenario that the train fails and people need to disembark, you will be able to walk safely to a station or an access point along the track. For example, next time you go shopping at Costco, check out the nice staircase that has been built behind the building.
NFPA 130 “Standard for Fixed Guideway Transit and Passenger Rail Systems” is applicable to REM and all projects in Canada / United States.Kate
Thank you, James.
(I’ve never shopped at Costco and am not likely to do so.)
James
@Kate Getting to Costco without a car is definitely not the easiest thing to do. I’ll send you a picture if you want 🙂
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Kate
A look at how Habitat 67 was intended to be, the building we have being only a fraction of the original plan.
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Kate
Montreal was founded as a European-style settlement on May 17, 1642, making it 381 years old today.
However, it was established as a city in 1832, which is why we had our first mayor, Jacques Viger, only in 1833.
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Kate
Fire chief Richard Liebmann says fire inspections were not dropped between 2018 and 2022, but that the fire department knew they couldn’t turn to the courts for leverage if a building owner was negligent. The story gets even murkier when it comes to heritage buildings and the complexity of assessing the problem and demanding it be fixed.
Update: The mayor is feeling the heat, and says that the fire department mostly makes its own decisions without sending a memo to the mayor’s office. But she says she trusts the fire department.
Ephraim
You know, a website with a list of owners from delinquent is quite effective and costs just a few bucks a month
shawn
A new poll says 40% of Montrealers view Airbnb unfavourably. https://www.lapresse.ca/affaires/2023-05-18/pres-de-40-des-montrealais-defavorables-a-airbnb.php
Ephraim
Just 40%? I’m surprised it’s that low
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Kate
A man was found dead Wednesday morning in a parking lot in New Bordeaux, and it transpired he had been shot.
La Presse says the victim was known to police, who see in the two murders over 24 hours a sign that gang activity may be on the verge of heating up.
Orr 23:35 on 2023-05-22 Permalink
that little museum next to Hôtel‑Dieu also has the exhibition on Mont Royal (Notre montagne. Mémoires du mont Royal) which seems interesting.
It’s on my list of places to visit this summer.