As DeWolf reports in a comment below, the city is quickly changing its noise rules for concert venues although whether this can save La Tulipe is not yet clear.
Updates from September, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Jean-Talon will be blocked at Pie-IX as of Wednesday as work on the blue line extension gets serious. Blockages at Viau and Langelier are coming soon too.
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Kate
Manon Massé is speaking up vigorously against the plan to construct a new Hydro‑Quebec transformer on the Grande Bibliothèque block.
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Kate
Nine million dollars of taxpayer money have gone into supporting the Presidents Cup golf tournament taking place on Île Bizard. Quebec chipped in $6.5M of the sum by decree, justifying the expense with promises of economic spinoffs and tourism publicity.
La Presse’s sidebar on those spinoffs suggests they’re not exactly a known quantity and may be kept secret by the government.
The amounts chipped into this tournament in other years by Australia have also been kept secret – and American states don’t chip in at all. This is hilariously bad but somehow governments get away with massively junketing our money like this.
And the city’s been roped in for $1 million in traffic and security control – traffic woes being the sole spinoff most of us will see.
jeather
I know you mock people complaining about traffic in general, but in most cases there’s a benefit for Montrealers that offsets the short (or medium) term inconvenience — bike lane users are Montrealers, Montrealers will, eventually, be happy that the roads are repaired, etc. This doesn’t seem to be a positive for the city in any respect.
Meezly
Golf is so gross. Not only does it take up huge swathes of land, it’s probably one of the most, if not the most, resource-draining sport/recreational activity.
Joey
Not directly related to this but my growing assumption is that all major events – sporting or otherwise – can basically shop around for a host city/state until someone coughs up huge dollars, with the middle eastern petro-dictatorships establishing the minimum required subsidy. So if Quebec doesn’t cough up for the Presidents Cup and Montreal doesn’t cough up for F1, some other jurisdiction will come through and we’ll just disappear from the global whatever circuit. I’m not saying this is a good practice or a bad one, only that it seems to be de rigueur – large sports and culture promoters have figured out that they can make huge bank from governments before even selling a single ticket or ad slot.
Kate
jeather, I don’t mock people complaining about traffic, but rather, terminology like “headache” and “nightmare” applied to traffic by the media.
Meezly, also it’s been exempt from laws against pesticides and herbicides because the men prepared to spend thousands of dollars a year to belong to fancy golf clubs want the course to be manicured to the max, and are willing to use their clout to get politicians to intervene to allow toxic chemicals to continue to be used to that end.
Joey: I agree completely.
Joey
@meezly and @Kate you can be sure that the last drop of water to nourish the entire SW of the United States will irrigate some post-apocalyptic golf course
Tim S.
I never really got golf until I went to Scotland where the entire landscape is basically a golf course, and people just go outside to a patch of vacant land on an evening and whack a few balls around. Since then I’m amused/despairing about how much effort people put into diligently recreating what is basically waste land over there.
SMD
I’m with George Carlin on this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4w7H48tBS8.
Kate
SMD, that’s great, but it also reminded me of his role in Dogma as a Catholic archibishop who golfs.
Orr
@Tim S. “waste land”… or natural habitat?
Joey
Golf is a good walk spoiled.
(The origin of the quip remains a mystery, but all you need to know is that it was so bang-on it is typically misattributed to Mark Twain.)
Uatu
Interesting because golf courses on the south shore are closing down or reducing their size. St. Lambert has condos and a rehab hospital on their course. I don’t know if it’s nine hole now. La Prairie is closed and will soon be turned into a new subdivision. That one was surprising because it was a very popular golf course among the locals. Even the cheap driving range across the way closed down and that was there for probably 50yrs.
Kate
When I was a kid, my cousins lived in a house close to the edge of a small golf course in St‑Lambert. When we visited, while the adults drank tea or beer and watched TV, we sometimes wandered over there, on the other side of the railway line. I see on Google Maps that the golf course is still there, or most of it is.
I don’t think we understood that we could get a golf ball in the head if somebody was playing, but we never did.
Tim S.
Orr, true. What’s listed as “waste land” has always carried value for humans as well, whether for grazing or foraging or small game hunting or whatever. And apparently golf. But generally unmaintained, in an otherwise intensively manicured country.
Uatu: are you thinking of the municipal course in St Lambert? if I’m not mistaken, the land to the east of it, towards St Georges, was actually school board land and never had golf on it. Anyways, both St Lambert golf courses are open for cross-country skiing in winter, so I hope they stick around for that reason.
Uatu
I’m referring to the one that borders Brixton park. According to the website it’s nine hole (with the ability to play 18, but I dunno how they do that ). The part towards Tiffin is now condos and a rehab hospital and I remember that used to be part of the course because I used to see golfers strolling around.
Kate
Uatu, that’s the one I was thinking of. My cousins lived on Merton back then.
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Kate
Police commander Patrice Vilnéus, a Black man of Haitian origin, has resigned from the SPVM after 30 years with an open letter denouncing its chronic ingrained racism.
Update: The SPVM claims it’s making efforts to address racism. This kind of promise has been made periodically the whole time I’ve done this blog (nearly 23 years now) and I suspect it will continue to be made from time to time, with little effect.
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Kate
As noted in comments on this blog, danger from the lithium battery fire Monday at the port was not well conveyed to nearby residents. The city posted on Facebook and X that people should stay inside and close windows, but power was out in the area so many people couldn’t be reached that way.
Every now and then we see brief news items warning of siren testing in industrial areas. Does the port have similar hazard sirens? What about phone alarms? Someone in the La Presse story echoes Chris’s remark here: “on reçoit des messages pour des enfants perdus dans la Ville de Québec, mais quand il y a une urgence juste à côté, on ne reçoit aucune information.”
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Kate
The New York Times previews a major exhibition of Inuit art opening this November at the Museum of Fine Arts.
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Kate
La Tulipe has issued a press release saying it’s ceasing activities “for the moment” following this week’s court ruling, bringing an end to more than a century of live performances.
Radio‑Canada summarizes the “mistake” made in 2016 when the city rezoned the adjoining building as residential – something that was actually against its own rules about not allowing residential space to adjoin venues and bars.
dhomas
I wonder what this guy’s endgame is. I sincerely doubt he actually live there, as the article mentions. Maybe SOMEONE lives there, but I don’t know if it’s the guy making the complaint. He lives in Orford, according to his tax documents. Also, there were people living there before he bought the place in 2016. If you check Google Maps, you can see tables and chairs on the balconies. So, what rezoning took place, in actuality?
Again, I wonder what his motives are. Does he want to buy the building La Tulipe occupies, possibly on the cheap as it is no longer a viable business? Is he just trying to be a killjoy? What does he want?
DeWolf
Luc Rabouin announced this afternoon that a special borough council meeting will be held on Thursday “afin de modifier notre réglementation pour préserver les salles de spectacles.”
Since the judge’s ruling was based on a narrow interpretation of Article 9 of the Plateau’s noise bylaw, what happens if the Plateau changes the bylaw?
Kate
Even if they change the bylaw, can they force the owner to change how he uses his property based on a retroactive application of the bylaw?
steph
They could change the rules for a new construction/renovation.
I really hope they modify the noise by-laws to grandfather current places. I’m worried that the new condos being built in the old Molson brewery will shut down the practice spaces in the uhaul building next door.DeWolf
@Kate The city is already suing Beaudoin for illegal occupation of a property. I’m not sure about the details of that case but that’s not what will be addressed in the council meeting. This has to do with the noise bylaw. If the noise law changes, Beaudoin would no longer have grounds for a complaint… right? I’d love to hear from someone with more legal knowledge.
DeWolf
Okay, so based on today’s press conference, it seems the Plateau will exempt restaurants, bars, music venues and theatres from Article 9 of the noise bylaw. Article 8, which regulates decibel levels, will still stand.
The sense I’m getting is that Article 9 is meant to prevent individuals from blasting their speakers in a way that causes a nuisance to their neighbours. But it must have been vaguely written because the Court of Appeals judge interpreted it in such a literal way that it effectively banned any business from broadcasting amplified sound.
Kate
Thank you for the reporting, DeWolf.
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Kate
The PGA website has an intense little five things to know about the Royal Montreal Golf Club, including that it was Queen Victoria who made it royal.
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Kate
A fire broke out Monday in a container of lithium batteries in the Port of Montreal. Toxic smoke seeped out into the adjoining streets and people have been told to stay indoors – dhomas, are you and your household OK?
dhomas
All ok over here. I wandered the streets looking for the source of the terrible smell. It was so pungent, I was sure it must have been one of my neighbours houses. Eventually, I called 311, who referred me to the fire prevention department, but they were closed when I called at 18h. So I finally called 911 and they told me to close my windows and that fire department would contact me if we needed to evacuate. No evacuation order and the stench is starting to dissipate. I’m a little over 4km away and the air was really bad.
walkerp
Maybe batteries are just not Quebec’s thing.
Chris
Wow. So if a kidnapping happens 1000s of km away, my phone blares “red alert” at 0400 in the morning, but if a toxic fire is burning 10s of km away in the middle of the day, zilch! Genius system.
yasymbologist
better relocate for now if you can still smell it indoors. I’ve read an article saying some of the pollutants from burning lithium batteries are potent carcinogens.
su
Good point Chris. Considering ; https://theloadstar.com/toxic-smoke-from-battery-fires-a-hidden-but-major-risk-says-tt-club/
dhomas
Ya, i’m pretty close to where it was happening and I needed to call 911 to get the details. We have a system to give people information about such things (Québec En Alerte: https://www.alerte.gouv.qc.ca/fr/apropos.html). Seems like this would have been an appropriate time to use it.
Also, can we stop harping on the Amber Alerts? Sure they can be annoying, but I think it can be a good thing to make people aware of such situations. So long as it doesn’t become “noise” where we just ignore it like we do spam. I just wish they would ALSO use the alerting system for toxic air pollutants.I polluted my lungs for a good 15 minutes walking around my neighbourhood, looking for the source of the stench thinking one of my neighbours might have been in trouble. It really smelled like burning plastic, so I thought it could be a poorly installed EV charger or some other electrical fire. I wouldn’t have bothered looking had a got an alert.
Joey
I am mostly OK with the Amber Alert system. I do wonder, though, what the idea is supposed to be when the alert comes in during the middle of the night. Like, if the thing wakes me I’m not going to get out of bed and start hunting around for a kidnapped child. To the extent that I might see or suspect something (which is extremely unlikely but that’s OK given the size of the population), it won’t kick in until the morning. In other words, perhaps Amber Alerts sent between, say, 11pm and 6am, shouldn’t override your phone’s do-not-disturb settings.
Tim S.
My guess is the thinking behind the Amber Alerts is, for 99.9% of us, it’s useless. But they’re probably very useful for tracking a person through their extended network, especially given how many of them are for abductions within families. So an Amber Alert might get me to think, yeah, I did see my neighbour’s ex’s car parked outside last night, or something. Which I would guess is how most of these things get solved, rather than a stranger driving down the highway at 2AM and noticing a given make of car. So given that, I’m OK with the 2AM warnings (in theory, maybe not on any given night!)
Chris
>Also, can we stop harping on the Amber Alerts?
No. 🙂
The concept is fine, it just needs to be more finely tuned.
How many truckers fall asleep at the wheel because they couldn’t get back to sleep? How many nurses administer the wrong dose because they are even more sleep deprived than usual? How many people are climbing ladders and get frightened and fall off? Amber alerts are not an unmitigated win, they have real downsides too.
Progressive warning would help. Start with only a vibrate, increase to gentle noise, and only eventually progress to ‘red alert’ (unless a meteor is actually incoming). They also need to better take into account the distance away of the event. And honour do-not-disturb in the dead of night except for real emergencies. Some of us (not me) actually have life-or-death jobs that require us to be rested.
CE
“So long as it doesn’t become “noise” where we just ignore it like we do spam.”
I would say this has already happened. When I hear the noise coming from my phone in another room, I don’t run to check it because I assume it’s just another Amber Alert. If it were telling me to duck and cover because the bomb had just been dropped or to close my windows because a bunch of batteries are on fire, I’d likely miss it because there’s no way to distinguish between a child getting kidnapped in Gatineau and an emergency that requires immediate attention.
walkerp
Count me among the skeptical/suspicious of the amber alert. Now I am ignorant of its efficacy and I would be interested in hearing from somebody who actually works in the field if it has been effective. But it feels very much like a program that is driven by the “What about the children?!” reflex rather than an actual social need. It’s always an estranged family member, not some sex trafficker in a van. Is the risk to the child so great that we dedicate a society wide alarm to it (with the associated Never Cry Wolf phenomenon that CE describes)?
walkerp
The wikipedia page on Amber alerts is quite interesting and informative. Scroll down to Controversies in particular.
su
So anyway – no doubt there will be a federal investigation into the nature of this massive 15,000‑kilo! shipment of lithium batteries.
When importing lithium batteries, you must comply with the TDG Regulations. The TDG Regulations specify requirements for classification, documentation, labelling, packaging and training. You must declare them to postal carriers, couriers or transport companies.Make sure that the lithium batteries in your shipment are not counterfeit before importing them into Canada
Transport Canada regulates the safe handling, offering for transport, transporting and importing of lithium batteries by specifying classification, documentation, labelling, packaging and training requirements.All designs and types of lithium batteries must meet the requirements of the UN Manual of Tests and Criteria to be shipped safely.
Shippers and importers must meet the requirements set out in the TDG Regulations for the handling, offering for transport, transporting and importing of lithium batteries in Canada. The requirements vary by mode of transport.
Lithium batteries are subject to rigorous testing according to the UN Manual of Tests
dhomas
@su The article said it was a reefer (refrigerated container): “conteneur réfrigéré contenant plus de 15 000 kg de batteries au lithium”. At first, I thought it might be a new type of refrigeration unit in the container, but then I realized that 15000kg is a hell of a lot of batteries, more than any single device battery pack would need. So, maybe they were shipping the batteries themselves. But I can’t think of any reason to keep litium batteries in a reefer. There will need to be some investigation done, for sure.
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Kate
Quebec has edited its health language decree, ordaining that people don’t have to show up for health care with documents supporting their linguistic status.
jeather
Honestly surprised they walked it back that actively.
Uatu
Yeah everyone keep thinking about this and not about how we screwed up hydro and need to jack up your bill lol
Joey
I suspect when the lawyers in the Ministry of Justice got to this file they screamed bloody murder.
Orr
So if I am keeping track how many tiers of QuebecCanadian citizenry with different levels of human rights are we at now?
JaneyB
I doubt it was ever even really going to happen. Doctors need insurance to practise and the risk of language issues interfering with the practise of medicine would be a red alert to insurers. I suspect that liability is probably the main incentive to back down – more than rights anyway.
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Kate
Appeal court has upheld the ruling that the La Tulipe show venue must stop making any noise that could be heard by the residential building next door.
It’s a brief report, but this is a major screwup by the borough, ending La Tulipe’s long history as a live venue.
Here are blog entries on this situation from 2021, and some discussion.
DeWolf
Lots of unanswered questions. Does this mean La Tulipe must cease operations immediately? (I have tickets to a concert there next Friday!) And what are the implications for other venues? The judge’s ruling is excessively strict and it could mean that all Plateau music venues could face similar repercussions.
Of course the simple thing to do would be for the Plateau to change its noise regulations. Given the full-throated support the borough administration gave to La Tulipe after the 2023 ruling, I would be astonished if they didn’t find a workaround. Especially since the Plante administration has already indicated they will reform noise regulations this fall.
Kate
If I were you, I’d get in touch with them and ask whether your show is going ahead.
dwgs
The owner of Turbo Haus put it well, https://x.com/TurboHaus/status/1838375347609571446
Meezly
If you asked me a decade ago, I’d say no way would Montreal ever go the way of Vancouver aka “no fun city.” Nowadays, well…
Even now, there’s really no nice venue downtown for mid-popular music acts. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds will be playing at the beautiful Orpheum Theatre in downtown Vancouver, but here, they’ll be playing at the a sports stadium in… Laval. I guess Place des Arts is busy enough without being a venue for live rock shows?
I’m glad Place Bell has been a place for arena-sized music shows, but it’s another blow to Montreal’s downtown scene.
Kate
dwgs, also a terse and relevant tweet from the same guy, Sergio da Silva of Turbo Haus.
Glenn Castanheira also tweeted “Avec cette logique, ce n’est qu’une question de temps avant qu’on déménage toutes les salles de spectacles au Royalmount.”
Kate
Meezly, Place des Arts has always held itself above rock and pop, although now that the Maison Symphonique exists for orchestral works, a lot of what PdA stages is so beige and bland and tasteful that you never hear about it.
DeWolf
@Meezly The Orpheum has a capacity of 2,700, which is similar to the Metropolis/M Telus (2,300) and Olympia (2,400). There are even more one step down in terms of capacity, including Club Soda (1,000), Corona/Beanfield (Le National (750) and Studio TD (700).
Place Bell has a capacity of 10,000 so either Nick Cave has a lot more fans here than in Vancouver or the downtown venues were simply too busy to accommodate his tour.
GC
Is Place des Arts really that exclusive? I saw Lauryn Hill there in 2016. She’s probably not what Gen Z are listening to, but she’s very firmly in the hip-hop/reggae sphere and not classical or adult contemporary that one might stereotype as being at Place des Arts. (I’ve also seen Loreena McKennitt there and she is probably closer to who one might assume they’d showcase…)
Kate
Before posting that comment, I looked at their upcoming schedule and it was honestly a big yawn. Did anyone find a way to dance to Lauryn Hill at PdA?
Meezly
@DeWolf. A lot of big name acts that don’t necessarily draw stadium-sized crowds have played at Place Bell the past few years. I suppose what makes Place Bell a desirable venue is its flexibility in accommodating small to big acts: https://placebell.ca/en/rental/rent-place-bell
GC
HA, Kate. Maybe some chair dancing! I had previously seen her at L’Olympia, which is definitely much more a get-up-and-dance venue, but I actually thought the acoustics that night were pretty awful. At least, when I see a show at Place des Arts, I’m confident it’s going to SOUND good.
dhomas
I went to go see The War on Drugs and The National at Place Bell last week. It wasn’t full, but I’m pretty sure there were more than 2400 people there. The acoustics were not great and the seating was kinda meh. The location was ok, since you can get there pretty easily via the orange line metro. But I still much prefer a downtown venue (orange AND green line, plus yellow or REM from the south shore), or something in the city.
The food options around Place Bell were mostly pretty cookie cutter, food court fare (Amir, Subway, etc), or faux upscale where I couldn’t tell if the food would be good, but I could tell it would be expensive. (I ended up eating a burrito at Ke Paso since we were late and ended up missing the first opening act, Lucius).
I suppose there is still the Corona Theatre that is similarly sized to La Tulipe, but it’s in a completely different part of town. I really hope they are able to come to some kind of agreement to let La Tulipe continue to operate. The TurbaHaus guys is completely right in his indignation.
Joey
Yeah Place Bell is a good option for bands playing to 12-20K fans in other cities who don’t appeal to Francophone audiences. PDA’s biggest venues (Salle Wilfrid Pelletier and Maison Symphonique) top out around 3,000 seats; MTelus is in that ballpark as well. So we have a solid venues for bands playing large intimate shows, with both fussy and unfussy options.
Place Bell is a good size for bands who can sell, say, 6,000 tickets – though the location isn’t ideal and the acoustics aren’t amazing. Definitely feels like Bell Centre Lite. I assume it’s a cheaper venue for bands and is a good option to work around the Bell Centre calendar – more than 10% of the year is booked off for the Canadiens.
Nick Cave is an unusual case because he’s got a strong Montreal following and typically plays here on every tour, if not more often. I don’t know that he could sell out the Bell Centre, but he’s played PDA and MTelus recently, plus Place Bell next spring.
JP
I think Sting has played Place des Arts (and maybe even Prince, though I’m less sure on that one)
Joey
@JP yeah the big established older artists all pass through PDA because their target demo is well off slightly older people, so they need a venue that seats 2K-3K with actual seats. Depending on the tour they may be able to stretch up a bit and play a larger venue (before Place Bell the Bell Centre would often be converted into a “theatre” with 2/3 of the sections and the entire upper bowl blocked off), but I’m guessing they make more money by selling expensive tickets at a poshish venue (PDA) than more cheaper tickets at a hockey arena.
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Kate
Sunday’s marathon had a record 27,000 runners. The women’s side was won by Winnipeg’s Mélanie Desautels and the men’s by Kenyan Philemon Kiptanui.
The race was also a charity fund‑raising event, a fact that isn’t often mentioned.
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Kate
The idea of repurposing church presbyteries as social housing is out there, but there isn’t even a definitive list. These are often quite grand houses, seemingly too big even for a time when a parish could easily sustain three priests and a housekeeper.
I’ve occasionally eyed the house beside the big church on Jarry in my neighbourhood and wondered how many people could be living there.
rob
We should be able to tax religious properties without exceptions. Giving them funding for social work is a different bag (even if it works out even-Steven). I think it`s obvious that since the Quiet Revolution, that religious centers aren`t the center of our communities.
DeWolf
Somewhat related but Quebec still has no plan for the Institut des Sourdes-Muettes, which has been sitting empty for nearly 10 years. The city considered acquiring it but decided not to, so for the past four years the province has been sitting on it, doing nothing. It could easily accommodate hundreds of units of social housing, with new market-rate residential or commercial development on the large parking lots that could help pay the bills.
Kate
I know! An entire city block, and bound to deteriorate over time if it’s not inhabited and looked after. Of course it would cost a pretty penny to bring up to modern standards, so I can see why the city was unwilling to get involved.
We should be able to tax religious properties without exceptions. That would go nowhere. Church properties are not owned by a huge wealthy Vatican combine. They each belong to a parish, and Montreal’s parish churches are already in disrepair because there are so few people left who contribute to their upkeep.
Orr
Speaking of the Institut des Sourdes-Muettes, my personal dream (as its neighbour) is that the hideous prison-like chain link fence surrounding the parking lots at either end could be one day removed.
GC
Is that the building on St-Denis, near ITHQ? Such a central location, too.
Kate
That’s the one, GC. It was originally a big residential school for the hard of hearing, and then – for how long I’m not sure – a headquarters for part of the health and social services administration, which left about ten years ago. Alexis Hamel says it was built between 1898 and 1900.
Meezly
The CAQ are obvs too busy with much more important things than figuring out what to do with a historic complex in a prime location in Montreal.
GC
I lived close to there from 2010 to 2014, when I suppose it was still occupied. I was a bit curious to see inside, every time I walked by.
jeather
It’s a great scam, the Catholic church runs: all the money flows right into the Vatican, who have no financial liabilities to any of their parishes or parishoners, so sorry your church is falling apart, but what can we do? so sorry you have huge legal liability from the abusive priests we sent to you, not our fault.
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Kate
A fire broke out in the city’s biggest homeless camp, where Notre‑Dame and Ste‑Catherine converge. Nobody was hurt but a wooden cabin was destroyed.
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