Some architecture links: another piece about Eaton’s ninth floor has a few nice photos; Dezeen looks at a new residential building in the Technopôle Angus (which it describes as “outside Montreal” and “northeast of Montreal proper”); that building received one of the Prix d’excellence en architecture awards that were given out this month for projects in Quebec, several others of which are in Montreal, including the project at Rosemont metro and a wee shoebox house refit.
Updates from April, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
McGill has requested police assistance over the pro‑Palestinian camp.
A reader has pointed out to me that the Mohawk council has given the students permission to occupy that piece of land.
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Kate
La Presse lays out the details of the public transit fare hikes coming in July. Similar from CTV.
The Journal emphasizes how Longueuil and Laval passengers will pay more for the metro.
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Kate
Montreal is looking at trimming down the east‑end deer herd to fewer than 20 from more than 100 animals.
CTV specifies that the city will be hiring marksmen to do the job this fall.
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Kate
A city commission is recommending the creation of a night authority to look after matters to do with nocturnal noise and unhappy residents.
Ephraim
Can we just ship them some of these https://www.amazon.ca/Quality-Foam-Earplugs-200-Pair/dp/B08273T5XC and just be done with it?
Kate
I’m thinking more about the people who moved in upstairs of Divan Orange then had it shut down, the landlord who somehow got the building next to La Tulipe zoned as residential and has been fighting with it over noise, and the noise warnings issued to Turbo Haüs in the Quartier Latin. If we want music and show venues to flourish, there has to be some negotiation about noise, and a night mayor’s bureau might be the ones to do it.
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Kate
Christian Dubé has handed the management of health care in Quebec to a champion of private medicine.
Uatu
She says that she’s going to meet with the teams at the hospitals and consult with them. I say she should head straight to the ER as a patient and experience it first hand.
carswell
Businessperson who narcissisticly wants to run the health care system more like a business appoints narcissistic businessperson to take over his failing efforts to do so.
In a CBC interview, Ms. Biron said she wants to bring new ideas to the table, which is businessperson code for more privatization. And there’s absolutely no way her family’s business, a provider of private medical services, would benefit from that.
When my family doctor went private last September, she sent out a fee schedule ($300 per consultation, $100 per phone call/email, $75 per prescription refill, etc.). What she didn’t bother mentioning is that any services she orders must also be private: the patient also pays for blood tests, MRIs, surgery, post-surgery physiotherapy and so on) while the government pays nothing. No surprise rugged-individualist neoliberal politicians keen to curb government spending love it.
With Biron, Dubé and Legault in charge, we can expect nothing to be done to slow the shift to a two-tier health care system and, especially if the provincial rights Cons win the next federal election, it’s a pretty safe bet the shift is going to accelerate.
steph
I’ve been hearing all the chatter about the new federal capital gains tax being focused on health professionals (doctors) – it actually applies to ALL small businesses despite the field. I predict that our healthcare failings will be blamed wholly on the federal government, despite the fact that it’s been our provincial government who’s been paving the way to privatization for profits by gouging at the public system. I’m calling it, and as usual it’s gross.
jeather
But she pinky swears that the family company, which is currently run by her sister, will have no effect on her thinking, and they won’t talk about it.
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Kate
A five-alarm fire broke out Monday morning at a shelter for homeless women in Petite‑Patrie, putting 37 people who were staying there back out on the street. Neither piece says exactly where the building is, but the fire department Twitter feed makes it de Lanaudière and Bellechasse, across from Père‑Marquette park. The cause of the fire has not been mentioned.
CBC says a firefighter had an arm injury, but TVA makes it an ankle. Tsk tsk, the two solitudes.
Spi
SIDM’s twitter account places the fire at de Lanaudière and bellechase.
Kate
I just spotted that before you posted, but thanks!
mare
It’s at a stone’s throw near me. It was on Lanaudiere and the ruelle near Bellechasse. That building had extensive roof work done for the past weeks, I don’t know if the work was finished and if the fire was related.
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Kate
Frank Zampino will finally face trial in 2025 on charges related to corruption during his time as chairman of Montreal’s executive committee during the Tremblay era.
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Kate
The tone of reports Monday on the growing pro‑Palestinian protest camp on the McGill campus suggests that the university’s next move will be the police, as it has been on campuses in the United States.
17:30 CBC radio news mentioned police. Won’t be long now. Radio‑Canada mentions an injunction.
CBC looks into where McGill’s money is invested.
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Kate
A staffing company that did business with several CIUSSSes around town was hiring out immigrant “volunteers” without work permits who worked for $10 an hour cleaning hospitals and feeding patients. Le Devoir also reports on the woman that ran the agency and her history. The serious question here is: didn’t anyone at the CIUSSSes know who they were doing business with?
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Kate
The average age of the last Sisters of Notre-Dame is 90, and they’re preparing to sell the vast piece of land that lies between Westmount and NDG, that their order has owned since 1854.
walkerp
It sounds like the money for the sale will go to care for the remaining nuns and the rest to a good non-profit, so that’s positive.
Meezly
Rather sad that my first thought about the remaining nuns was whether they had abused any children under their charge.
Kate
It wasn’t an orphanage, at least not in our times, but a rather posh private girls’ school. I knew someone who went there, and while it was prey to the usual snobbery found in schools like that, I never got the sense anyone was abused by the nuns. Not girls with relatively wealthy parents.
Meezly
I probably confused them with the Grey Nuns
https://www.catholicregister.org/item/34990-quebec-religious-orders-face-off-over-abuse-liabilityKate
The overall abuse problem was that nobody wanted to query the church, and that included priests, nuns and brothers doing all kinds of jobs. The Grey Nuns were basically hospital nurses of a time before modern medicine. The CND – the Congregation of Notre Dame – provided school teachers for girls, while the Christian Brothers taught boys. The Clercs of Saint Viateur that used to own the big building on St‑Laurent near de Castelnau provided services to the deaf – and abused them too. And there were other bad situations with orphans and other powerless people.
There were probably abuses in all corners of society where these orders functioned, but an aura of authority and secrecy hung over them and made it difficult to impossible for anyone to report abuses. Only after the Quiet Revolution replaced the church with secular institutions to manage education, health care and social services were questions asked, and – too late for most victims – some restitution given.
(One reason I get irked at seeing anglos blamed for oppression in Quebec is that so much of the oppression was dealt out by the Catholic church and willingly accepted, even welcomed, by most people.)
jeather
Now the abuse problem is that the church can and does still just shuffle abusers around and play games about how a specific diocese has zero money so sorry. The government no longer helps them out so much, at least.
Ian
It’s kind of intersting that both Marianapolis and Villa-Maria were renting from the nuns. Sounds like VM is still working on funding but Marianapolis already bought their property.
https://globalnews.ca/news/10457689/villa-maria-high-school-wont-move/
Joey
So 500 nuns who are on average just shy of 90 years old need are about to sell land worth hundreds of millions of dollars? Let’s generously assume each nun would need $250K to cover her costs for the rest of her life, we’re still talking only $125M… are they really going to spend hundreds of millions on scholarships? What’s missing here?
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Kate
A transit fare hike of an average 3% is coming on July 1.
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Kate
Jean-François Roberge has announced a $603M budget to slow the decline of French, including helping more francophones to immigrate. Maintaining the higher tuition fees for Canadians from other provinces is praised as “strong action.”
Not everyone is agreed that French is in decline here, but it will play well in the regions.
CTV mentions how Quebec hopes to make major streaming companies carry more French‑language content.
azrhey
…”helping more francophones [of the right skin complexion and/or religion] to immigrate”….
There fixed it for them….
Uatu
Yeah sure. Just distract everyone from the recent announcement about how much more the big owe upgrade will cost and from the recent “let them eat cake” announcement from Genevieve Guilbeaut regarding public transit.
jeather
Well half of that appears to go to French language courses which, whether or not there is a decline, is a good place to put money.
qatzelok
Here’s a really interesting documentary from 1969 which depicts the decline of French in Acadia. Listen to how limited the vocabulary and syntax are at that point among “francophone” New Brunswickers.
jeather
And “Another $64.9 million will be dedicated to improving students’ mastery of French through programs including those that promote reading, Education Minister Bernard Drainville said” which, given the state of literacy in this province, is also a good place to put money. So we’re at almost 400 million on various kinds of language courses, and another 190 on cultural events which is fine. I’m not convinced that 13 million on “French-language scientific publications and communications campaigns” or 18 on a dashboard about language stats is necessary, but the vast majority of this money seems perfectly reasonably spent (in theory, obviously we don’t know how things will work out in practice), even if you don’t accept the argument that French is in decline.
Blork
I tend to agree with jeather. Spending money on language and literacy is good news. What remains to be seen is the tone of the programs that are developed and/or enhanced. Will it be French lessons with kindness, enthusiasm, and encouragement, or French lessons under the hell of a boot?
Possibly related true anecdote: when I first arrived here I took French lessons in night classes at the FACE school on University. The first round was lead by a Tunisian man with odd orange hair. He was kind, friendly, encouraging, and didn’t dwell on people’s mistakes. Everyone flourished. The next level was taught by a woman right out of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall.” She had her hair in a tight bun and was strict and dictatorial and sometimes downright mean. She treated us like children (we were all adults) and only stopped short of rapping our knuckles with a ruler. I quit half way through and never went back.
Now that was two separate teachers within the same program. So yes, it can be difficult to set an across-the-board tone from the higher bureaucratic levels. Or is it? Surely there can be some kind of mission statement or whatever that specifies the type of pedagogy to be used, and careful wording of the mission and goals as they roll out the program.
But I think that’s wishful thinking when it comes to this government, who will most likely just polish their boot heels and try to pound that French into us unwelcome immigrants and anglos.
Kate
The French teachers we had in high school were a mixed bag, but the overall tone was that our not knowing French perfectly was a moral failure on our part. We should already know it, so we were clearly wicked children who had wilfully avoided becoming francisé.
Ian
In the Continuing Education programs at the CEGEP I work at we have been informed that any program funded by the government (like retraining programs through EI) now require a French proficiency component, too. So even a 60 hour course now also requires French lessons. That 603 million is going to go fast.
@Blork FACE regular school isn’t much better, then main primary school French teacher on the English side not only wasn’t a native French speaker, but used to confuse avoir and être. This is the same school where children were punished for not speaking French at recess.
Kate
One of my high school French teachers was a man from Hungary. He was one of the nicest teachers in the school but he knew French as he might know Latin – an academic subject, not a language being spoken all around us outside.
jeather
They’re giving a whole 7.8 million for help with housing, which does show a lot about priorities.
Ian
We need to start a whisper campaign that a lack of affordable housing is really what’s causing the decline of French in Quebec.
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Kate
Independent councillor Craig Sauvé from the Sud‑Ouest borough will be running for the NDP
in the next general federal election. LaSalle‑Émard‑Verdun is the riding left vacant by David Lametti in January.In fact – see comments below – CTV got it wrong in the lede. Sauvé’s running in the byelection sparked by Lametti’s resignation, and which must be held before the end of July.
AMF
Craig Sauvé is terrific! It would be a loss for city politics, but a real gain for the NDP.
Kate
Whether his popularity in Sud-Ouest can overcome the general lack of enthusiasm for the NDP is uncertain. Does anyone know what the rules say? Can someone run for federal office while remaining a councillor, but hang onto their councillor role if they don’t win the federal seat?
bob
Kind a moot question, as the NDP will come in third.
Ian
I’m glad I don’t live in the Sud-Ouest because I always vote NDP… but this would be a real crisis of conscience.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/craig-sauve-projet-montreal-plante-election-allegation-1.6237080jeather
He’s a very effective and present councillor and I would not be surprised if people voted for the NDP because he is well liked at the municipal level. And let’s be real, is there sufficient interest in the Liberals now? The ridings that turned into that voted heavily NDP in 2011, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Liberal votes transferred to NDP, the question is how good a showing the BQ can make.
Tim S.
It’s funny, the NDP is the most ideologically driven of the major parties, but also the one which is most reliant on strong personalities to break through. I think he has as good a shot as anyone.
(Full-disclosure: I was at the nomination meeting, I think he’ll run a fun, upbeat campaign).
H. John
@Kate, he may well be a candidate in the next general election, but the article is about him being the NDP candidate for the expected by-election.
https://www.elections.ca/content.aspx?section=med&dir=pre&document=feb0224&lang=e
That’s usually very important because of the difference in turnout. IIRC, when Anna Gainey ran in NDG-Westmount in a 2023 by-election the turnout was just under 30%.
Kate
H. John, that’s what I would’ve expected, but this is the lede in the CTV item: “City councillor Craig Sauvé will run for the New Democratic Party (NDP) in Montreal’s LaSalle-Émard-Verdun riding in the next general election.”
H. John
It’s a Canadian Press article, CTV got the headline wrong, La Presse got it right on the same article:
Tim S.
CTV is wrong. He’s nominated for the by-election that must be held by September.
Assuming the budget passes, etc etc.
Kate
Thank you both for clearing that up.
Em
As for the councillor question, a city councillor (Sophie Thiébault) ran for the NDP in my riding last federal election, and as far as I know she returned to that role after losing. I think a leave of absence is tolerated.
That being said, Craig Sauvé is still answering all the citizens’ questions on Facebook, so I don’t know that he’s actually stepped back. There’s no byelection date yet, and no other candidates, so he’s out early.
He also announced he was running weeks ago, so not sure why this made the news this weekend.
Kate
Maybe this announcement is about Sauvé planning to run in the next federal general election, whereas the announcement a few weeks ago was about the byelection?
H. John
@ Kate, he announced March 28th in a video on his X feed that he was running for the NDP nomination in the by-election:
https://x.com/CraigSauve/status/1773415710384963673
That was followed by a month of postings of support.
And finally his investiture as NDP candidate this past weekend:
Kate
Thank you, H. John.
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Kate
Jean-Pierre Ferland has died at 89. Radio‑Canada has a biographical note and Le Devoir lists the accolades from political figures. Wikipedia.
(Typically, I’m not finding anything about this story in anglo media…)
Ah here we go.
Update: François Legault is offering the family a national funeral and they have accepted.
DeWolf 15:11 on 2024-04-30 Permalink
The comments on Dezeen are always entertaining. If you ever want to know the many ways in which someone can hate a building, check it out.
Also, this comment from someone purporting to live in Montreal is a real head-scratcher: “Very hard [in Montreal] to find a restaurant or a cafe where you can sit outside even if the weather is good.”
I can’t think of many restaurants or cafés that *don’t* have outdoor seating.
Kevin 16:29 on 2024-04-30 Permalink
There are already summer terrasses out in some neighbourhoods…
Kate 16:37 on 2024-04-30 Permalink
Yep. Nobody’s sitting outside today, but several places near me in Villeray have their terrasses out.
JaneyB 09:11 on 2024-05-01 Permalink
@DeWolf – those Dezeen comments are hilarious!! That magazine is going into my regular reads now. Thanks.