The Institut d’histoire de l’Amérique française has changed the name of its annual book prize from Le Prix Lionel-Groulx to a simple Grand Prix, because of Groulx’s “racisme, son sexisme, son antisémitisme”. Can the metro station be far behind?
Updates from October, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
The STM has big dreams of a residential-commercial development on Pie‑IX around the first blue line extension station.
The item says the STM only wanted part of the Le Boulevard shopping centre for its new station, but was forced to buy the whole thing. Should the STM be this involved in real estate development? The woman who runs this department claims that it’s a separate thing from the STM and not even required to obey the law on access to public information. The journalist seems to be telegraphing a power move here at the very least.
DeWolf
Yes, absolutely the STM should be involved in property development, albeit with a partner that actually knows how to get things built. One of the reasons Hong Kong has the highest public transit modal share on earth is because its public transit agency, the MTR, has a property development arm that works with various developers to build residential and commercial properties on top of its stations. The revenue from the development helps fund transit service both directly and indirectly.
As a public agency, the STM is also in a unique position to mandate social housing and community facilities in exchange for any development rights.
Ephraim
If the REM can do it, the STM can do it. Should they be the developer and the manager? That’s a different story. But I’m sure that we could manage to hire an architect, a developer and engage a management company to run it, so that the STM profits from it without having to do it. As I pointed out there are a lot of REITs who manage to run apartment buildings, so I’m sure someone can step in on a long term contract to do the management.
Next to the shopping centre there is already a 10 story building on Jean-Talon, so you can certainly plan and develop that high in the area, some green space, some shopping. Build it like a village/hub that you need to walk through from the Metro station. Mix in some affordable housing, especially good because it’s next to the metro and they don’t need cars.
Nicholas
Agreed with DeWolf and Ephraim. That’s how some transit agencies in East Asia make a profit: direct profits from the buildings, and induced ridership. And we already have big buildings on top of Metro stations: look at Jarry, for example.
As for this site, the shopping centre owner was being ridiculous, and the law is bad. The STM just wanted a bit of land near the corner, which was parking lot, but the shopping centre said you have to expropriate the entire property, at a high price. That’s a decent part of the cost overruns. Maybe the STM can make some of it back, and increase ridership forever, but building more density on the lot.
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Kate
I have a couple of observations about Jarry Park. Questions I should be able to resolve, I hope.
One is this: Looking at the map and satellite screen shots, you can see baseball diamonds, one (unlabelled) near the corner of Jarry and St‑Laurent, and two more down near the train tracks. The one near St‑Laurent used to have fences around it, although I never saw anyone using it. If you walk through there now you’ll hardly see any evidence of a baseball diamond. That area was redesigned a couple of years ago.
The diamonds near the tracks have high fences and were, I believe, created during Denis Coderre’s attempt to foster popular enthusiasm for baseball. The thing is, nobody uses them. Friday afternoon, the basketball courts and soccer fields were full of kids from (at a guess) eight to 18, playing in various groups, not in one single match, but everyone moving around and playing within their groups. It didn’t seem that adults were directing them – they were just out having fun.
But the diamonds were locked up and empty, as usual.
Is this a situation that should be allowed to continue, year in year out, when people want green space either just for its own sake – you’ll notice that Jarry Park is mostly cut up into areas for specific sports, leaving little room for unstructured meandering – or for some other sportsball activity?
This is the other question. What’s always struck me about this park is how well cyclists and pedestrians share the paths. I don’t even know how collisions are avoided, but they are. But Friday afternoon, two men on powered scooters – the standup kind – whizzed past me on one of the main paths. They were big men, going fast, and if they had hit a pedestrian, it would have sent them flying. What perturbs me here is that if anyone does get hurt by these cowboys, the authorities may crack down hard on all wheeled vehicles in the park, which would be a loss to all the cyclists in the area. I’m thinking of writing an email to either the borough council or the parks department asking them to bar powered vehicles from the park, but it might go on the pile of demands from people wanting all wheeled vehicles to be banned, which I don’t.
The park is a stellar example of cohabitation in several senses. Walking through there recently, the place felt like a socialist realism painting of an earthly paradise. People of all ages and visibly different cultures were enjoying the day. We need more of that.
Joey
They are in use all summer by the Jarry baseball association that coordinates kids league play from age 4 to 18. There are games probably every weeknight and most weekends in summer. The baseball league season ends around Labour Day, which is why the fields are unused now. I doubt you could even get a permit for end of October.
FYI baseball registration continues to grow every year.
vasi
I’ve seen people using the baseball fields, mostly kids. I wouldn’t mind if the park made the baseball fields more transient, though. Like how folks can play cricket on the large grassy central area, but it’s not a fenced -off “cricket field” that’s hard to use for other purposes. Do we do that anywhere else for baseball? I guess you’d just need bases, some lines, and a backstop to be present, but not the fences and maybe not most of the dirt infield.
FWIW, the Parc Jarry website at the city claims there are _four_ fields, but I have no idea what the fourth is supposed to be.
MarcG
This seems to be a small baseball diamond.
JP
Kate, I appreciate your observations of Jarry Park but don’t have any useful insights for your questions. Haven’t been there in a while but glad to hear it’s being used and enjoyed. Wondering if you ever notice anything awry or sketchy?
Kate
JP: no, I haven’t personally seen anything sketchy, but I did see reports on reddit from several people describing groups of sleazy‑looking men hanging around the swimming pool area this summer. I don’t use the pool and don’t often pass that way, so I can’t report on it myself.
MarcG: there are two baseball diamonds beside the tracks, and although one is indicated close to St‑Laurent, if you go to the park you won’t find it. As vasi says, the city says there are four, but where the fourth one is, who knows.
I should probably be more concerned about the periodic push for more room for tennis, if anything.
MarcG
The note on the city website is funny: “Parc Jarry features four ball fields, which have been renovated. Two are located alongside the railroad near Rue Jarry Ouest, and one is at the corner of Rue Jarry and Boulevard Saint-Laurent, near the picnic area.”
Kate
I think they intended to go for four diamonds during the Coderre years but never quite got there. Then the corner of the park that faces Jarry and St‑Laurent was altered, effectively erasing the baseball diamond that used to be there. So there are two diamonds now, not even three.
MarcG
I count 3 diamonds by the train tracks in your first image, 2 big ones and a smaller one.
Kate
So there are. Is it even practical to have baseball diamonds tucked into each other like the two smaller ones?
Major Annoyance
I suspect the smaller one’s exclusively for softball. You can’t hit those fat balls far.
Joey
There’s one along St Laurent, two along the west side tracks (outfield to outfield) and one a little further southeast of that one. There are also smaller baseball fields without elaborate fencing, etc, which are great for informal games and formal practices/games for the youngest age groups.
Kate
Joey, there is one shown at the corner on the aerial and map – but it’s not there now. New paths, landscaping and benches were put in a couple of years ago, and also concrete ping‑pong tables. I walk through there quite often. When I first lived in the area there was a diamond at this corner, although it was run down and disused, but it’s gone now.
Joey
Kate, I’m not sure I follow – which corner? The northeast corner (St-L and Jarry) has one field (called Jarry #4), not quite adjacent to St.-L, but that field is still there. I think there used to be a second one that was replaced when they did the upgrades to add the table tennis, etc. Is that what you’re referring to? The two western ones are still there (Jarry #1 and #2 2; only one has an outfield fence), as is the one that’s SSE of there (Jarry #3). The three sandy spots in the middle circle of the park are also used for informal games and for little kids.
This summer at one of my kid’s games, I heard from someone fairly plugged in that the city was looking to make additional changes to Jarry Park – lots of worrying about the city potentially removing the parking lot. Not sure if there’s any formal process underway, but I imagine that lot is on its last legs (even though it’s full on evenings and weekends when the weather’s nice). In a perfect world, park outside of business hours could use the HQ parking lot across Jarry, but I doubt that’ll ever happen.
Kate
Joey, I went and had a look just now. You are right. The old diamond right at the corner is gone, but there’s another one along the Jarry edge, further west. I never even noticed it because it’s well disguised by trees and other landscaping as you enter the park from the corner.
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Kate
An incident of a man allegedly filming a young woman without her permission in the metro is being investigated by police when it was caught on video by a bystander. The Journal has the video although with the accused’s face hidden. The Journal also specifies “parties intimes” which is not specified in the CTV version – possibly an upskirt video.
JaneyB
I confess I think it’s good when citizens take matters into their own hands – at least to this extent. We know the woman will probably never see justice from the system so the outcry of other witnesses will be her only support. That’s much better and less damaging than an indifferent justice system and a silent crowd of onlookers.
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Kate
French classes are closing all over Quebec as funding dries up (despite Quebec’s denial). Meantime, funding for religious schools continues.
jeather
I actually don’t think public funding for secular private schools should be distinguished from funding for religious private schools.
Kate
I tend to agree. It’s just the hypocrisy of the CAQ government using religion as a stick to beat certain people with, while enabling religious education on the sly.
Ephraim
Private schools get the same money per child for the same courses. Parents still have to pay for the difference in class size, classes that aren’t in SPEC, etc. But the other side of it is that Quebec Education ministry also can hold them to TAPS to ensure that everyone in Quebec gets the same education. So everyone is doing the same English class, French class, Math class, Quebec history class, even if your private school also gives you a religious course or a history of Greece course… that the parents are paying for. So the religion course isn’t supposed to be paid for by the ministry, because it’s not a required course. That’s out of the parent’s pocket. And if there are just 20 students when the standard is 25, the parents have to make up for the shortfall.
jeather
Even unsubsidized schools and homeschoolers have to cover at least the public program, though they can add more.
Kate
How do the authorities check that families are capable of delivering the required subjects, and are actually doing it?
jeather
You need to go in with an educational plan and there are follow up appointments to see what has been done. You also need to take the ministry exams. A fun detail: you can homeschool in any language you want, but as of a few years ago you suddenly had to get the exams and other government provided things (I forget which they are — exams, some workbooks, libraries, gyms) from the local French school if you are not English eligible. This goes approximately as poorly as you might imagine.
I’ve been told that it is difficult to get a DES and a lot of people just finish with an Ontario or Manitoba degree once their child is 16 and they can legally do it, but I have nothing backing that up.
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Kate
A woman who undertook an intense campaign of harassment against her ex‑boyfriend – even getting gunmen to shoot at his house – was sentenced to nine years this week.
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Kate
The ARTM says public transit ridership is coming close to 90% of pre‑Covid numbers.
Ephraim 12:35 on 2024-10-27 Permalink
We’ve known this for years and left the metro station. There was a movement once to rename the park in front after Mordecai Richler. Frankly, I would be happier if they named it after Ezekiel Hart, as we have nothing named after him and we should. And yes, he was born and died in Trois-Rivieres, but he was also one of the main founders of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue here in Montreal and as the whole Jewish cemetery was moved from Trois-Rivieres to Montreal, he is buried here. He is the reason that Jews in Quebec were emancipated by Lower Canada in 1832 (a year after Jamaica, which led the Commonwealth). They renamed the park already, but the street… still can be renamed. Frankly, if we don’t have enough guts to name it after him, we could also rename it Rue de l’Emancipation, since we have at least 2 emancipation acts in Quebec, but 3 actual emancipations. Firstly the end of French Empire, which didn’t allow anyone BUT Catholics to immigrate and hold office. The emancipation of the Catholics by the British in 1778, and moreso 1782 and again 1791 and 1793 and then finally fully in 1823.
We even have a Heritage Minute about it… but not a single street! https://youtu.be/BfaZdzkThTg
Blork 16:09 on 2024-10-27 Permalink
Interesting, given that the IHAF was founded by Lionel Groulx.
bob 09:05 on 2024-10-28 Permalink
I’m of two minds on these things. On the one hand, when you remove the names you are not righting some historical wrong. It is not about the people who things are named after, but about your own expiation. By changing a name you are making a moral claim about yourself as much as, if not more than, the detestable notables of the past. Leaving them there, and talking about some detestable notable and why he (almost always a he) was detestable, is a kind of teachable moment, or can be – should be. On the other hand, there are detestables who were so bad that we can remind ourselves of them in other ways. Naming things after people has become something of a mine field, and the recent trend seems to be to skip the naming altogether – Club de Foot Montréal, Toronto Metropolitan University. We could name the metro station “Station de transfert vert-orange”, or maybe just number all the stations, because any station named after anyone who died before about 1970 was probably a racist, sexist, anti-semite too – at least two out of three.
The real point here is not the named things, it is that the mentality he inspired and continues to inspire is still around. Elizabeth Hachey (in the editorial linked in the article) quotes Daniel Jutras as saying: “C’était dans l’air ambiant et Groulx était un intellectuel de son époque.” Well, Dan, that époque has not ended, and that air has never cleared – the ideologies are still strongly in force, with a bit of Febreeze (in UQAM’s case some art) to cover the stink.
Hachey concludes that UQAM split the difference by not renaming the pavillion. “Sans effacer l’histoire ni désavouer un penseur dont l’œuvre a influencé la conscience historique de tout un peuple. Sans nier ses zones d’ombre, non plus.”
Sans nier indeed – that darkness is government policy to this day.