Many Concordia students are planning to strike for the rest of this week, as a statement against the government’s tuition hike for out‑of‑province students.
Updates from January, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A commuter train bound for St‑Jérôme caught fire Tuesday afternoon at Montreal West station halted service on three routes. Service resumed around 18:30.
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Kate
A couple of weeks ago a few of us were discussing Classic Books and I maintained the store was not called Classic’s.
I spotted this 1979 photo by Lida Moser that someone posted to Facebook. It shows the pickets outside the store during the labour difficulties there then – and shows the name as “Classic’s” on a small sign along the Crescent Street side.
(Click to enlarge.)
carswell
Thanks, Kate. Good to know I wasn’t imagining things.
CE
It looks like whether you remember it being Classic or Classic’s depends on which corner you looked at more often.
MarcG
Why are apostrophes are so difficult for humans?
Mozai
Was this a chain of bookshops? I remember multiple “Classic’s Bookshop” stores in Ontario a long time ago. I still have bookmarks.
carswell
Definitely a chain, Mozai.
Surprised it doesn’t have a Wikipedia entry but I did find this blog post from 14 years ago that includes a backstory and pics of a couple of those bookmarks.
https://chumleyandpepys.blogspot.com/2010/01/montreal-bookshops-no-1-classic-book.html
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Kate
If Quebec is to pour millions into private seniors’ homes, why not nationalize them? Why is it necessary to maintain the profit‑making side?
Nicholas
“Financial help will be given directly to the RPA based on the needs of each resident, but each resident must consent and give their authorization for the RPA to receive the funding.” Why would a resident say no? And it varies greatly among residents and residences, but many residents are no longer mentally capable of giving consent to anything. Some are under curatorship, but most aren’t; is someone, independent from the RPA, going to be appointed to make the decision for them, and will it ever be anything but yes?
Uatu
Maybe because they don’t have to have unionized employees?
Ephraim
If it’s nationalized, the employees will need to be unionized.
Just saying the words “Curateur Generale” gives me PTSD. Please people, make a living will, or functionaries will make decisions for you and sell of your jewelry and possessions for a $1.Uatu
Also have a pre arranged funeral. It’s so much better for your family. And once again the tax payers have to bail out the private system.
Kate
And if you have no family, Uatu?
Ian
I know it’s not for everyone, but I have registered to donate my body for teaching and research purposes.
SMD
@Ian, where and how did you do that? I am very interested.
Ian
SMD
Thank you!
Kate
I thought they didn’t do that any more – that it was all done with computer simulations.
Ian
Gross anatomy still uses cadavers to get the kids used to anatomical variations. I’ll probably end up in a bucket of knuckles, but that’s fine by me.
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Kate
UQÀM will be offering a fast track teaching credential starting in September, to help fill the shortage of grade school teachers. But the idea isn’t without its critics.
Kevin
Quebec used to have one-year teaching degrees, and when we stopped, people went to Ottawa for a year and then came back to a job.
Kate
That would be a one-year addition for somebody who already had a degree, correct?
I know that back in the day, you could take a year of specialized education after high school and promptly go into teaching grade school, because my mother’s older brother did that for a bit. Hasn’t been possible for a long long time.
Kevin
I believe so. A friend of mine went the Ottawa route about 10-15 years ago, just after the option disappeared here.
Nicholas
I love how they call a two-year PT (equivalent to one-year FT) teaching degree, done in partnership with school boards while the teacher is teaching, unique. This may actually be the most common way teachers become certified in other places! (It may not, but I know lots of people who’ve done this kind of thing in various provinces and states.)
Ephraim
And then the game to get the credentials finished by having someone in their classroom. The boards avoid this to avoid tenure.
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Kate
La Presse has a saga about a north end apartment building, its hell on the tenants, and a big payout now due to the people misled into a “copropriété indivise” situation – and also how this differs from buying a condo (copropriété divise).
walkerp
Wow, what an absolute shitbird. And what a hero that lawyer is.
Kevin
There’s a second piece that focuses on the pro bono lawyer who fought for this https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/chroniques/2024-01-30/un-calin-de-themis-pour-l-avocat-vincent-ranger.php
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Kate
In addition to creating a 24‑hour nightlife world – not necessarily in the Quartier latin – the city plans to create nocturnal zones in other locations as well. Here’s the noovo.info piece the CTV article is largely paraphrasing, and similar notes from Le Devoir.
Curious solution, making individual venues and spots officially 24‑hour locations. Could this be a way of invalidating noise complaints at addresses as different as Turbo Haüs and La Tulipe?
rob
This probably has nothing to do with noise complaint issues. Turbo Haüs was ending their shows at 11pm; but that didn`t prove to be a solution. I think the only way to solve the noise complaint issue is by making some grandfather laws for the venues that would prevent future neighbours (from new developments) from complaining about a pre-established noise status-quo.
JaneyB
This is great news! Good for night life and let’s hope it will make life easier for bands just trying to practise. Maybe a Night Mayor is in our future.
DeWolf
@rob From Le Devoir:
“La Ville souhaite également modifier le règlement sur le bruit, actuellement très défavorable aux tenanciers de bars dès lors qu’une seule plainte les concerne.”
MB
Reading the CTV article makes me wonder how many references to “consultations,” “all the cultural players in the party scene need to have their say,” etc are code for “we’ll see what combination of businesses offer us the best bribes” in one format or another (whether directly, or indirectly through things like donations to various gov players, etc). Alternatively, whether its code for: we’re waiting for the plan to be handed down to us from the representatives of the largest venues / employers / players in the nightlife scene. Sad to say, MTL’s consultation processes have left much to be desired in the last years.
On another level, this strikes me as an understandable but politically self-defeating priority for the city.
With so many day-to-day issues people are facing, sentences like “the city says it is prepared to spend up to $100,000 per establishment to soundproof them” will, I think, sound absurd to many ordinary people.
DeWolf
Wow, that’s a really cynical, almost conspiratorial take, MB. To date the 24-hour pilot projects have either involved entire streets like St-Denis and St-Laurent, or specific non-profit venues like the SAT and the Darling Foundry. As far as I can tell, it’s not corporate players like evenko leading the charge on this.
Also, it’s the smaller guys who are hurt most by noise complaints. Turbo Haus, La Tulipe, the SAT… not exactly big business.
There are a lot of ordinary people working in arts, culture and entertainment who would benefit from this. Not to mention ordinary people who enjoy going to concerts and are frustrated when their favourite venues are forced to close due to noise complaints. Based on the article in Le Devoir, changing the noise laws is part and parcel with the 24-hour push.
Joey
Even in these inflationary times, $100K should buy you a lot of soundproofing. Let’s assume that there’s a 1200 sq ft apartment that is adjacent to a club and needs some soundproofing. At, say, $30 per sq ft, we’re talking $36K – double it and you’re still well shy of the $100K max. You could drop $36K in legal fees pretty quickly without any kind of harmonious resolution – so it may seem obscene or absurd that the city would spend public funds on soundproofing someone’s apartment, if it means avoiding legal costs and actually getting some resolution it seems worth it to me.
DeWolf
The article says the soundproofing is for music venues, not apartments next to venues.
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Kate
CBC has launched a podcast series about minor Montreal mysteries with the topic How did Portuguese chicken get so popular here?
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