Despite the removal of a brief occupation of a McGill building by protesters, the pro‑Palestinian encampment is to remain in place for now on the campus lawn.
At the university’s graduation ceremony, one student, wearing a keffiyeh, pretended to spit at the university’s president and other honchos and unfurled a sign saying “DIVEST FROM DEATH” to great applause.
The Amtrak link to New York City will be down all summer so work can be done on the tracks.
I wonder if this is how it felt when the Roman Empire was in decline – stuff wearing out and not being replaced, services failing, education crumbling, a few wealthy people able to live in a state of comfortable denial until some major crisis like a plague or a Hun invasion swept them up too.
In Germany, the infrastructure is not in a great state of repair, still residual effects of neglecting maintenance while trying to maximize profit ahead of planned privatisation 20 years ago (that didnt pan out). So now theres a big backlog of infra works. What makes it less noticeable to users is that double tracking of lines allows work to be done on one track while service is running on the other. And since the network is managed by one national entity, detours are set up on the network on other lines, sometimes hundreds km away. Lastly, many services are running hourly or at least twice an hour, so setting up detours makes sense, not so much for a daily service. Lastly, consider the Adirondack is essentially a „regional“ line subsidised by the state of new york.
Service could theoretically be rerouted via CP tracks and Burlington (or the new york – Vermont train could be extended for the duration of the works), but its not very easy, not very practical, not really worth the effort, commercially difficult (different track owner), financially difficult.
City hall is reopening after a long period of renovation. There’s an open house on Saturday with various attractions including, you guessed it – circus activities. It wouldn’t feel like home without clowns.
Some photos and details of the restoration from Radio‑Canada.
CBC also has a brief video report but it’s mostly talk‑talk about how the building is more accessible now. I’d like to have seen more details about the restoration, and about what they found out about the reconstruction in the 1920s after the devastating fire in 1922.
Radio-Canada’s radio segment delves a little into the history.
I was just in Old Montreal and the line went through Place Vauquelin and wrapped around city hall on Notre-Dame nearly to Bonsecours Street. I’d like to see inside City Hall at some point, hopefully they do some more open houses in the future.
They used to always have one on Christmas Eve, unless I misremember. But that may have only been the big hall.
The SPVM is considering merging two stations in eastern downtown – station 22, near the Maison Radio‑Canada, and station 21, in the Îlot Voyageur. These stations cover the part of town with the most homeless people and most open drug use. This idea has been floated despite a city moratorium on closing police stations.
It’s not spelled out here whether the SPVM is trying to save money, or whether they have some provisional plan suggesting that there might be benefits to centralizing policing in the area.
Work on the Louis‑Hippolyte‑La Fontaine tunnel is running a year late.
Mould? In a sixty-year-old underwater tunnel? Who’d a thunk it.
La Presse reports on the terrible state of some public housing in Rivière‑des‑Prairies. It’s so bad that city inspectors are fining the SHDM and OMHM – the city fining itself for neglect.
To mark the D-Day anniversary Thursday, CBC made a video piece about Montreal soldier Léo Major and how he’s still revered as a hero in Zwolle in the Netherlands for singlehandedly liberating the town during World War II.
Major died in 2008 and is buried in the National Field of Honour in Pointe Claire. CTV has a piece this week about how the cemetery is running a deficit. Although declared a historic site, it isn’t directly administered by the federal government.
There’s a “park” in Longueuil named after him. I use quotes because it’s more like a long and wide median than an actual park. https://maps.app.goo.gl/akFDK8YKSeksbkAq7
They’d be unimpressed by that in Zwolle.
It’s Grand Prix weekend, but there are also other things going on. La Presse lists some alternatives, including the Mural fest and the street closure in Little Italy. CityCrunch, CultMTL and Sarah’s Weekend List also have suggestions.
Traffic notes are scanty because roadwork tends to be held off on GP weekend. Even the Journal goes so far, at least in its headline, to suggest leaving the car at home.
Police have dispersed the occupation of the James administrative building at McGill with pepper spray and made 15 arrests. Le Devoir got some photos as did TVA.
Kate, I suspect you’ve accidentally disabled comments on Grand Prix instead of this one.
It is mighty hard to resist commenting, but I know you don’t want it. 🙂
Thanks Chris. Fixing it now.
It’s unclear from the story how much of the work is to be done on each side of the border. I had thought the problem was mostly on the Canadian end, but the note about the train stopping at Saratoga Springs suggest the US part has degraded also.
One problem with trains in North America is that they’re so heavy and use those pounding diesel locomotives. When you’ve been in a European electric train that accelerates quickly out of the station, you feel the difference.