Pro-Palestinian protesters marched downtown Thursday evening, a protest that was quashed by police. TVA shows images of cops with teargas and pepper spray.
Updates from July, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
A big black slick has been spotted in the St Lawrence off Pointe‑aux‑Trembles. Samples have been taken for analysis but there’s no clear explanation yet.
Later analysis finds motor oil and a cleanup is underway.
Later again, it’s going to take several weeks to clean up that part of the river. Since this piece says an investigation is continuing, apparently the culprit has not yet been identified.
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Kate
The city’s new sponge parks handily soaked up Wednesday’s tropical storm and kept nearby streets from flooding. More of them are planned.
MarcG
I was wondering what that big project in Verdun was. Water used to flood the bike path at that corner for days after a rain and the corner has a huge amount of wasted space that I hope will be greened as part of this.
DeWolf
I passed by the Place des Fleurs-de-Macadam today, thinking there would be lots of water after 24 hours of intense rain. But it was completely dry, aside from the mist that was falling this afternoon. Pretty impressive.
Ian
Oh neat, I had no idea that Dickie-Moore was a sponge park – I just thought it was a nice little neighbourhood park with tons of wildflowers in what used to be a crummy brownfield lot. Great project! They should do it with the whole centre lane on Parc, Mont-Royal to Van Horne. I wonder if existing boulevards like Clark or St-Joseph have a similar effect or could be converted to this use?
CE
The wide medians separating car traffic from the bike lanes on streets like Clark and Rachel seem to have been built just a bit before the sponge park idea started being implemented in Montreal. I wouldn’t be surprised if future projects like those incorporate it into those types of medians. I’m surprised it took Montreal so long to start making these, I saw them in Portland OR about 15 years ago.
steph
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Kate
The Parc de La Presse, a small square of trees and greenery next to the newspaper building, which was bought for the city by Power Corporation in 2017, has been formally closed for four months – officially to reorganize it, but in fact, as Vincent Larin telegraphs here, to dislodge a homeless camp set up there.
DeWolf
Each camp is a little community which means they each have their own culture. The one next to the CPR tracks near the Home Depot always seemed well-organized and peaceful. This one, on the other hand, seemed pretty rough. Almost every time I passed by there were people arguing or even outright fighting.
Maybe people who choose to camp in less central locations are simply looking for peace and quiet? It seems like a common theme among encampments around Chinatown that they’re always very problematic.
Kate
Both the Chinatown camp and this camp in the little park are close to the Old Brewery mission. Maybe that has something to do with it? Guys who are very hardened to street living, vs. people who just want to get by somehow?
Ian
There’s an Old Brewery satellite residence just north of the Van Horne line on St. Urbain. There’s also the Mile End Mission on St. Urabin and Bernard. All that to say we do have some campers in the area though usually not full encampments. One local homeless guy was set up with a tent in the bottom corner of Parc Lhasa-de-Sala under some trees for several years.
I suspect the downtown violence has more to do with the more ready availability of drugs.
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Kate
Work has begun on the dismantling of the stadium roof. Once this material is removed, the structure will have no covering till 2027.
CBC has video.
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Kate
As much as 100 mm of rain have fallen in some parts of Montreal as part of Tropical Storm Beryl.
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Kate
Radio-Canada on the end of the McGill pro‑Palestinian encampment. Similar reports from CBC has different photos, and there are photos of the encampment from CTV.
Some protesters say McGill went about ending the camp the wrong way. The university says it hasn’t ruled out expelling students who were involved.
H. John
Hard not to notice how competently the U of T went about dealing with their camp vs McGill’s approach.
As the Toronto Star reported yesterday (July 10):
“The University of Toronto quietly granted amnesty to the pro-Palestinian protesters who set up camp for over two months on campus in exchange for a peaceful end to the occupation, the Star has learned.
A two-page agreement, signed by Sandy Welsh, vice-provost of students, and Kelly Hannah-Moffat, vice-president of people strategy, equity and culture, as well as four representatives of the protesters, promises that no one will face legal or academic sanctions for the protest. The agreement is dated 2:30 p.m. on July 3, hours before the court-imposed deadline to evacuate the camp.
Asked about the deal, protest organizers confirmed that they approached the university asking for a guarantee of amnesty before they agreed to leave.”
Chris
McGill had offered amnesty at one point too, but the squatters didn’t take the deal.
Ian
Not squatters, Chris. Squats are entirely different animal, whose intent is to permanently transfer ownership of unused or abandoned property, based on the (mostly unrecognized in N. America) principle of appurtenant commons rights. H. John could probably speak to more length at the exact applicability of the term “squatters” per se under Canadian law. This was a protest encampment, basically the same concept as a sit-in but more entrenched. In this sense it falls under the laws around protest, not land rights.
McGill’s mistake was threatening to repeal amnesty instead of offering to provide amnesty. In negotiations it’s important to hold your bargaining chips so you can maximize the carrot/stick effect. Then again, McGill did show themselves to be not exactly master negotiators, insofar as they were willing to negotiate at all.
Chris
Merriam webster: squatter: “one that settles on property without right or title or payment of rent”. Perhaps the legal system has its own definition, but I’m using the everyday meaning, and my usage is correct. But call them whatever you want.
Ian
You misunderstand the meaning of “settle”. Think “settler”.
In other universities ending encampments news, University of Windsor (via CJMPE):
The University of Windsor ceded to the breakthrough demands of its student protestors, agreeing to disclosure of investments, divestment, and an academic boycott!
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Kate
A tourist from Colombia fell off a pleasure boat near the Jacques‑Cartier bridge. His body was found in the river on Tuesday. No indication in this brief piece of any suspicion of crime.
Ian
Was it one of those ferry party boats, a tour boat, or a private yacht? The article is unclear in that regard and I think it makes a difference to the context of the accident.
MarcG
JdM has a photo of the boat.
Kate
An excursion craft called L’Océanne capable of carrying 20 people. The word “yacht” is used, but the suggestion is that it was chartered for a party.
CE
Looks like it’s a rental yacht for partying. Not a big one but yachts come in many sizes.
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Kate
Rain continues to fall Thursday, causing ongoing problems on the roads. More photos of roads and cars. The rainfall warning continues.
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