People living in Chinatown are weary of the presence of drug‑dealing and homelessness in the neighbourhood.
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Kate
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Kate
What do we think of Time Out’s list of Montreal slang words?
jeather
I don’t think these are slang words necessarily, they’re just varying levels of local terminolgy (“loonie” is not a Montreal word, for instance).
Nicole
I think a lot of them are regionalisms, but not exactly slang in the sense that there’s a more formal term (e.g. poutine). I don’t think I’ve heard “enwaye” (#20), which I assume comes from “envoye”—although maybe I misunderstood it as “ah, ouais” or something. I note that #7 (guichet) refers in franglais to “Montrealers and Québécois alike,” implying that Montrealais aren’t really Quebecers
Blork
I love how it’s presented as slang that “every Montrealer should know” and then proceeds to list things from a 100% anglo perspective. Such as “all dressed” being “poached” as a direct translation from “toute garnie.”
And since when is “autoroute” a slang word, unless you’re talking about angos?
Ditto “dep.” I don’t know how many francophones I’ve said “dep” to, who had no idea what I meant (hint: many). “Dep” is straight-up an anglo thing. (Francos use the full word.)
And an aside: I wish we would kill once and for all the apartment lingo of “x-and-a-half.” I cannot imagine a more vague and ambiguous way to describe an apartment. In the rest of the world the FIRST THING people want to know about an apartment is “how many bedrooms?” The “x-and-a-half” slang doesn’t tell you that.
For example, I once looked at a 3-1/2 on Parc that had two closed bedrooms. I lived for four years in a 5-1/2 that had one closed bedroom. CAN WE PLEASE STOP?
Kate
My place is listed as a 4½ on the lease, but there’s only the one bedroom, and no way two people not in a close relationship could share this place. There’d be no privacy with a nonromantic housemate.
But a lot of places here with the long double room get counted that way, I think, even though an arch is not the same thing as a wall.
jeather
I never actually heard anyone use dep until I got to McGill and met non-locals, and it isn’t like I grew up in a francophone milieu.
Blork
I just realized that I also lived in another 5-1/2 that had only one bedroom.
@jeather, I think it might actually be a McGill thing, as that’s where I first heard it too. As in, it started with anglos “from away” (McGill students) and then just sort of trickled over into the anglos not from away.
Kevin
I was 16 before I learned that dep was not an English word.
Blork
Although it kind of is, because Francophones don’t use it. At least “Montreal English.”
MarcG
It’s not “all dressed” it’s “all dress”.
DeWolf
These aren’t slang words, they’re just local vocabulary, but if you get past the misnomer this is a useful list for someone moving here from abroad.
Blork
“All dress” for Francophones, “all dressed” for Anglophones and most allophones. For Eastern Canadians it’s “combination” when referring to pizza with pepperoni, mushrooms, and green peppers and “the works” or simply “with everything” when referring to anything else.
GC
Everyone I knew, while growing up in Ontario, would say “all-dressed” for the pizza. (This was before the chip flavour, which I feel was introduced at some point in my lifetime…)
My brother and I always used “dep” growing up, but we didn’t expect most people to understand what we meant.
“Loonie” and “tuque” are also not even remotely specific to Montreal or even Quebec. I can’t say for sure that they are used *everywhere* in Canada, but definitely very common in Ontario, at least. “Poutine” was largely unknown outside Quebec in the early eighties, but then it became more common on restaurant menus all over the country. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who spent much time in a city in Canada who didn’t know about it, at this point.
Mozai
The title “29 slang words” is contradicted by the actual list since some of the numbered “words” are categories like “Shop Talk” and “Neighbourhood Nicknames.” “Timmie’s” isn’t slang it’s a nickname. “NDG” isn’t slang it’s an acronym.
“and-a-half” I learned when I moved here that the ½ means an ensuite bathroom — I don’t have to share a bathroom with my neighbours. I’ve wondered if I”ll see an apartment for lease someday that doesn’t have a bathroom labelled a “2-room”, but I suspect even landlords have forgotten what the ½ means.
Ian
Coming here from Ontario there are a lot of regionalisms, not necessarily slang, but very particular to Quebec anglos. Tons of loanwords of course like “guichet” or “garderie” – but many words in “English” are just direct translations from French that people outside Quebec might not even recognize –
Dep instead of corner store
Close the lights instead of turn out the lights
Autoroute instead of highway
Derogation instead of waiver (ironically both are of French origin)
Subvention instead of grant
Me, I instead of myself, I
Manifestation instead of protest (in most other English-speaking places a manifestation means you are having trouble with ghosts)
… and of course many, many more.I think we need to start to separate French-inflected English and English-inflected French – maybe “franglais” and “frenglish”? Mon truck et tout rustée, peu plus, c’est tout fuckée, là. Me, I need the derogation or my kid is stuck in garderie for another year.
Another one I’ve noticed is a lot of maritimers here say “going for a dep run” meaning they’re headed out for smokes and beer so if you want in, give them some money.
The “and a half” thing is funny for sure, especially since so many landlords pretend the window in a bedroom rule isn’t a real thing so a front room with an arch counts as two rooms.”5 1/2, 2 closed bedrooms” is much more useful. I had one apartment that was technically a 2 bed 5 and a half on two floors, with both a wc and a separate bathroom which was also the laundry room, a double room on the first floor, and a kitchen.
The landlady listed it as an 8 room apartment.Blork
Well, technically that front room with an extra area beyond the arch is two rooms (if each section has its own door). It’s just not a BED room. In my one-bedroom 5-1/2s that room was my home office. The problem is that x-number of rooms doesn’t correspond to the IMPORTANT information of “x-number of bedrooms.”
I occasionally see ads written badly in English like “800 sq feet, 2 rooms.” That sounds like a large studio or maybe a one bedroom, but upon investigation it always turns out to be “two bedrooms” (plus kitchen, living room, etc.). This is half way to correcting the problem but also turns left towards another problem, which is you need to specify BED rooms! As if a living room or kitchen isn’t a “room” FFS!
Kate
The “2 rooms” is probably a poor translation of “2 chambres” which any francophone would understand as bedrooms, but the meaning doesn’t carry over into the English.
DavidM
I’ve lived in one 4 1/2 in the plateau, and a 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 in the Shaughnessy Village. All rentals.
I really enjoyed this list, but they missed one good one:
T’say (sic) la la. 🙂
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Kate
QMI is getting bent out of shape because some prankster has put up small posters saying “English Strong” around NDG.
I notice from the initial tweet reporting this that the posters are in different typefaces, which suggests an original and a copycat. Comments to that tweet suggest some people are taking this as a serious attack on their culture.
steph
” le #paysqc ne s’opposent pas aux droits des anglophones”. Why do francophones believe in this delusion?
dhomas
What’s funnier to me is the mention of Wolfred Nelson. My wife is a 5th grade French teacher. She teaches history, including the Rébellion des Patriotes. It is presented in all government materials as a rebellion to preserve French language and culture, which is a total retcon. Wolfred Nelson (and his brother Robert), one of the leaders of the Patriotes, doesn’t get a single mention in the 5th grade curriculum (his name is likely too anglo to fit the narrative). Now, when it’s convenient, he gets brought up. 😀
Kate
Is he the only person ever called Wolfred? Lots of Wilfreds, but Wolfred seems to be a one‑off. I think if I opened a café I’d call it Wolfred.
Ian
If I had a boy I wanted to name him Wolfred but thankfully I only had daughters as my wife totally did not agree.
Wolfred Nelson was arguably more militant than many in the rebellion, Papineau fled to the US to avoid arrest but Nelson stuck around until his arrest & (temporary) exile.
It’s interesting that the Lower Canada Rebellion inspired the the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837 led by William Lyon Mackenzie but we never, ever hear about that in Quebec.
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Kate
A man was stabbed downtown very early Sunday, but is out of danger. Radio‑Canada’s piece also notes a brawl at Alexis Nihon over drugs.
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Kate
I recalled we had discussed a previous story about the tailor Tony Cecchini, but here’s a recent one (I’m catching up with Émilie Côté’s city stories).
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Kate
Nice La Presse piece on the Westmount Library, marking 125 years this year, with photos of the building and the adjoining greenhouse.
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Kate
A Nigerian family that came here via Roxham Road in 2017 is about to be deported even though the parents have been working as orderlies and two of their kids were born here. Community groups have been protesting the deportation order.
On April 2, it was announced that the family has been given a six‑month reprieve so they can organize a request to stay on humanitarian grounds.
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Kate
Vermont police are warning visitors to Montreal about GPS tracking devices put on their cars here. But why?
Blork
I’m thinking it’s basically this: thief spots a desirable car in a place that’s not convenient for stealing. Tags the car and watches where it goes to be parked overnight (which is more convenient for stealing). Steals car when convenient.
Kate
I would’ve thought it a waste of a good Airtag if you stick it onto a vehicle that’s likely about to leave town, but maybe they don’t care.
Blork
The cost of doing business. (Plus maybe they steal those too.)
H. John
After reading the article, I wondered how widespread this use of AirTags is.
They were introduced to the market in the spring of 2021, and Fox news San Francisco reported in Dec 2021 about the car theft use. Ontario news outlets reported multiple times in 2022 about the same thing.Blork
Airtags are pretty widely used, by my understanding. Mostly for legitimate uses, but there is definitely abuse, such as people using them to track the whereabouts of spouses or girlfriends, etc. And this car theft thing. Apple tries to make it difficult to do those things (if you have an iPhone you’ll be warned if an Airtag that isn’t your own is closeby over time or distance), but that only works if (a) you have an iPhone, and (b) you understand what the warning means (as opposed to just dismissing it the way we spend half our lives dismissing irrelevant and unknowable notifications).
Even the cover for my Apple TV remote control has a slot for an Airtag! (It’s aftermarket, not an Apple product.)
maggie rose
Been making the rounds on Vermont news. https://www.wcax.com/2024/03/28/montreal-criminals-targeting-local-travelers-with-airtags/
Ian
You can get fully integrated airtag knockoffs for under 5 bucks a pop on aliexpress.
Chris
>I would’ve thought it a waste of a good Airtag if you stick it onto a vehicle that’s likely about to leave town
They could easily have accomplices back in Vermont.
Blork
Probably not, because that would require someone to drive a stolen car back across the border to Montreal. (On the assumption that this is part of a ring of thieves stealing locally and shipping them out from here, which is the most likely scenario.)
Losing a few AirTags here and there is nothing for these thieves. If the vehicle is here, and gets tagged here, there’s more of a chance that it’s someone staying here at a hotel (or Airbnb) than someone who just happens to be at the end of their trip and is heading home that day. A few might be heading home on the day they’re tagged, but odds are most aren’t.
dhomas
As Ian mentioned, there are other brands of trackers that are compatible and supported by Apple’s “Find My” app (I’ve bought some for my parents that were Eufy-branded). They are much cheaper than Apple-branded versions.
If you have an iPhone, you will get an alert if an unknown tracker is near you for an extended period of time. I don’t know if this would work in the context of a car because the tracker doesn’t move with you all the time the same way it would if it’s in your purse, for example.
Also, Android phones since version 6.0 (2015) will now send you alerts for unknown trackers, including AirTags (and compatible models). If you see such an alert on your phone, do not ignore/dismiss it. Someone is likely tracking you.
It will show up something like this: unknown tracker alert
Chris
>because that would require someone to drive a stolen car back across the border to Montreal
No, I mean: the team in Montreal looks for Vermont plates and plants a tracker, the team in Vermont steals the car when it’s back in Vermont.
Blork
Chris, I know that’s what you meant. What I mean is they’re being stolen with the intent of shipping them internationally via the Port of Montreal. So if that’s their shipping point (where they have all their corrupt connections already established) then stealing a car in Vermont isn’t going to help them.
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Kate
TVA notes a plan to convert an older Chinatown building to 66 Airbnb units although the owner has no permits or permission. But isn’t ignoring the rules part of the philosophy of disrupting things commercially?
GC
No surprise to see who one of the current owners is!
Uatu
How many air bnbs do we need?
Kate
At that scale it’s like opening a hotel, but cheaper for the owners.
Ian
Funny how most “disruptive” businesses are a regulations and/or tax dodge.
Chris
>How many air bnbs do we need?
Who is ‘we’?
If you own a building, and want to make some money, you maybe only need the one building of airbnbs. Those owners have no control over how many others do the same.
How many cars do ‘we’ need? If ‘we’ is you and me, we maybe need only one each. We have no control over how many others do the same.
So like many things, it’s great for each individual separately, but when everyone does it, it becomes bad for everyone collectively.
Ian
That said outside the city there is absolutely no reason to have an AirBnB anywhere at all but there is no public transportation so everyone actually does need to drive.
It’s also worth noting that even Plante siad that she thinks it is completely reasonable for some kid that lives in Pointes-Aux-Trembles that goes to CEGEP downtown to drive as public transportation is insufficient.
I wonder, Chris, do you live centrally and have most things like work and groceries and schools conveniently located to where you reside? I’ve noticed most anti-car activists live conveniently within biking distance of all their every day needs.
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Kate
La Presse’s Maxime Bergeron joined a pair of special STM constables on a visit to the metro stations where homelessness and drug use are most visible. He also explains a change in how neighbourhood police now respond to metro issues on their patch.
Alongside these pieces is another item by Henri Ouellette‑Vézina about the need for more psychosocial resources to help those with mental troubles or drug dependence or both.
But the problem also comes down to keeping the metro system clean and safe for users, or ridership will continue to fall.
(On thinking about the neighbourhood police angle, I’d be curious to know how much downtown policing is now devoted to issues in the metro, since seven of the eight most troubled stations are in Ville‑Marie.)
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Kate
The two young men who died in the car crash in Rosemont on Thursday, and who are thought to have shot at two other vehicles in the Plateau and in Rosemont that night, were 14 and 16 years old and already known to police. Their motive isn’t clear, although this item says the two drivers they shot at were middle‑aged men with no criminal history who seem to have been chosen randomly as targets.
Updating with further La Presse investigation: the two kids may have been responding to a dare as part of a gang initiation.
Ian
Gang initiation was my first thought. Attacking innocent randos is a classic.
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Kate
Work will begin on Monday at the Lucien L’Allier Exo train depot and continue for one year. There’s a sketch of how the platforms are meant to look when it’s completed; meantime, passengers will connect to trains at Parc or Vendôme metro stations, or the Montreal West train stop.
GC
I haven’t ridden that often, but a little bit of shelter seems like a good idea.
bob
A year. It took a year to build the Empire State Building.
Kate
Two things: as far as I know, the ESB was a new project, it wasn’t a retrofit, with all the constraints involved. And also, standards for worker safety were nothing like they are now, which is a factor it’s easy to forget when considering how quickly certain older projects were able to materialize.
Blork
Presumably they’re going to scrape it down to the bare bones and rebuild everything, including the tracks and track beds. At least I hope so, if they’re scheduling a year for the work! And yes, putting in shelters is a very good idea.
P
I can appreciate that there is probably more to the project, structurally/infrastructurally, than we can imagine. But a full year just does not sit right with me. Constructing the Empire State Building is probably not a great way of comparing it, but reserving an entire year for even a total rebuild of that space is just so… indulgent.
Kate
Maybe there are stages they have to do at certain points? They may not be working flat out the whole time. You have to let concrete dry.
qatzelok
I’m disappointed that this project wasn’t delayed until AFTER the new West Island REM is completed in a year or so, thus allowing commuters to make other arrangements to go directly downtown.
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Kate
Weekend notes from CityCrunch, La Presse, CultMTL, Sarah’s Weekend List, Montreal Secret.
The Papineau-Leblanc bridge will be closed all weekend and there are likely to be other road closures.
What’s open and closed for the weekend.
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Kate
A man is in critical condition after a stabbing in Lachine overnight.
And now he’s a homicide statistic, eighth of the year.
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Kate
Pierre Ny St-Amand will stand trial for the bus attack on the Laval daycare last year.
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