A pro-Palestinian demonstration was held downtown Saturday.
Updates from October, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Kate
-
Kate
A restaurant on Wellington Street in the Point was firebombed on two nights in a row.
Ian
‘To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.’
-
Kate
I’ve been reading back through a couple of years of comments as I put together the 2025 weblog calendar. While doing this, I also found links to several relevant stories about that landlord, following the March 2023 fire:
Linda Gyulai in the Gazette, March 22, 2023: Old Montreal fire: Building owner in trouble in Westmount
Ricochet, March 23, 2023: Fatal fire: Landlord knew about illegal rentals, ignored safety issues
Katelyn Thomas in the Gazette, March 23, 2023: Old Montreal fire: Traveller urged Airbnb to investigate a year ago
The Journal, March 24, 2023: Pas de gicleurs, fausses fenêtres: d’autres Airbnb dangereux chez le même proprio
Kevin
Someone should make a tabletop traveller’s smoke detector.
Not ideal given smoke rises, but given the number of places that have no smoke alarms — whatever the law or country requires — you’d think there would be a market.Ephraim
Or the city of Montreal can buy 10 year Lithium battery smoke detectors and provide them for free, every 10 years and make their installation mandatory. They could then arrange with a charitable organization offer to install them for like $25, for those who can’t do it themselves.
And since you need to replace them every 10 years, they only have to do this every 10 years. But since most people don’t replace their smoke detectors every 10 years, this would increase fire safety even more.
Andrew
If we’re looking back, what have the fire department inspectors been up to recently? oh yeah, getting publicly excoriated for trying to enforce the rules during F1 while everyone cried about the poor business owners just trying to make money.
JP
The F1 debacle and this fire are 2 different things. The one thing they likely do have in common is corruption though.
Joey
These fires are caused by arson as part of gang/mob wars, no? Not to diminish the slumlord aspect of things in any way, but there’s a bigger story going on, right?
Andrew
If there’s a rule that says a temporary structure like those terraces has to be 3 meters from a building, it’s in the same rulebook as the smoke detectors and proper fire exits. And a big crowd is what turns a fire into a disaster. They gave a warning and came back when the risk was highest to see that it was ignored. Everything after that was PR and politics.
Blork
@Kevin, portable carbon monoxide and smoke detectors already exist. You can buy them for $50-60. But just because something exists doesn’t mean many people will think to buy them and use them.
-
Kate
Urban exploration has been given new life by Instagram and Tiktok, so that some teenagers are taking serious risks to get enviable footage or pictures.
There’s no denying the thrill, though.
yasymbologist
risks are real and high. one time I tried to pretend to be young and explore the Église Saint-Eusèbe-de-Verceil through the ‘charted’ path, but I stopped midway afterrealizing at least a hard hat and a pair of work boots were needed, in light of the crumbling stone veneer, nails, and glass shards. however, what’s obvious is that teenagers generally don’t bother with such protections during their exploration, just like what I did over 20 years ago.
I heartly with I will never read from news that any young people gets injured at their natural disposition for such petit urban adventures.yasymbologist
Sorry for the typos. I am constantly at odds with the samsung keyboard.
Tux
I’m probably just middle aged but this new crop of thrill-seeking urbexers doesn’t sit well with me. Also what ever happened to the expedition writeup with photos, these tiktoks with awful music… not for me!
Meezly
Is it new, or hasn’t there been a general uptick of accidents/deaths (aka death by selfies) like falling off cliffs/waterfalls since the rise of Instagram? Maybe it petered off for a bit until TikTok came on the scene? Teens are susceptible for sure, but adults haven’t been immune to the obsession of getting that perfect shot to share on social media.
Dominic
Saw one of those videos where four kids were sitting on the CH symbol on the Tour Des Canadiens #1. Crazy!
Kate
That’s putting a lot of confidence in construction standards.
anonymous
I’m one of these kids to be honest. I don’t live in Montreal anymore but I’ve moved to another country and do quite a bit of urbexing here. Instagram is definitely a huge inspiration and motivation to get out there. Yes it’s a dangerous hobby, but if you’re careful (don’t do it after a night out when you’re drunk or something) it’s so worth it for the thrill.
Joey
-
Kate
The New York Times on where to drink wine in Montreal.
Ruin
I posit Junes
-
Kate
The CHUM hospital loses hundreds of wheelchairs every year, people wheeling away on them or putting them in their car trunks to take home, sometimes abandoning them in public places. The hospital sends people out to get them, but sometimes they’ve been locked like bicycles, or are too badly damaged to repair.
Nicholas
They should be able to hide a tracking device inside the wheelchair to at least recover them. That they haven’t (just using one that can track it on-site) means it’s probably not worth the cost.
Also, at least a decade ago, it was not illegal to walk around with bolt cutters. I had a bike key break in a lock, and the police said as long as it’s my bike I had no problem walking around with them or breaking a lock, and no need to alert them before I do it.
Ephraim
A large attached pole, so you can’t easily put them in car and then electronic tags
Reply