Updates from November, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 23:40 on 2024-11-18 Permalink | Reply  

    CTV has a cultural mea culpa about why most anglos weren’t fans of Les Cowboys Fringants and weren’t shook up by the death of Karl Tremblay a year ago.

    CBC has a cultural mea culpa on why most anglos haven’t seen the film Les chambres rouges, which came out last year.

    Does anyone in Quebec recall that “two solitudes” doesn’t only come from Hugh MacLennan, but from its epigraph by Rilke: “Love consists of this: two solitudes that meet, protect and greet each other.” So it’s not actually meant to be about isolation at all.

     

    • yasymbologist 00:03 on 2024-11-19 Permalink

      wow. I love reading this item. because 1) I am a fan of Les Cowboys Frigants. 2) I went to some length to buy a Bluray copy of Les chambres rouges after seeing the movie at Cinéma Cineplex Odeon and getting stunned by its qualia, even though I understand only 20% of its dialogues. 3) I am also a big fan of Hugh MacLennan. I read his ‘Confessions of a wood-chopping man’ every autumn.
      Thanks, Kate. this is a small personal miracle.

    • Kate 00:05 on 2024-11-19 Permalink

      What no Rilke?

    • EmilyG 01:02 on 2024-11-19 Permalink

      I love Les Cowboys Fringants. I’ve seen them twice. I was so sad when Karl Tremblay died.

    • thomas 01:21 on 2024-11-19 Permalink

      Is there a solitude for Canadians uninterested in both Les Cowboys Frigants and Tragically Hip but fans of Rilke?

    • Philippe 08:57 on 2024-11-19 Permalink

      It’s really interesting because I read about Les chambres rouges on two American blogs in the last two weeks:

      https://defector.com/red-rooms-is-too-fucked-up-to-end

      9th item in the list at https://www.subtraction.com/2024/11/17/movies-watched-october-2024/

    • CE 09:03 on 2024-11-19 Permalink

      I’m anglophone and am a huge fan of Les Cowboys Fringants (although sadly didn’t get a chance to see them live) and was very unhappy to have missed out on seeing Les chambres rouges in the theatre due to being out of the country until I tracked down the final regular showing which also had a Q&A with the director and actors. Fantastic film, definitely recommend seeing.

    • Tim S. 09:15 on 2024-11-19 Permalink

      I owe a lot of my knowledge of Francophone pop culture to the fact that growing up on the south shore in the 90s, MusiquePlus was included in the cable package but not MuchMusic. Then I moved out, life happened and I stopped keeping up (with music and movies from both cultures). So though I kept some of the early Cowboys CDs in the car as road trip music (highly recommended) I didn’t realize they were doing new stuff until he died and it turned out my daughter knew their hits through her French teachers playing it.

    • Joey 15:33 on 2024-11-19 Permalink

      I bet a lot of Montreal anglos could recognized a bunch of Cowboys Fringants songs without ‘knowing’ any of them…

    • Uatu 09:57 on 2024-11-20 Permalink

      I wonder how many Franco teens these days know about them. The ones I’ve met all seem to be obsessed with BTS or Black Pink or whatever

  • Kate 21:32 on 2024-11-18 Permalink | Reply  

    We’ve discussed the issue of church buildings here à maintes reprises so this La Presse op‑ed is relevant, although not adding anything radical to our discussions. The author wants to see church buildings preserved for community activities, although he’s reasonably concerned with finding ways to maintain the huge impractical structures in usable condition – which means government money, now that nobody tithes any more.

     

    • JaneyB 09:14 on 2024-11-19 Permalink

      I think the key issue is the invention of some kind of false transparent ceiling. The heating costs for those soaring vaults is prohibitive. I know we don’t have good ‘retractable roof karma’ in this town but this is a central problem for repurposing those beautiful neighbourhood icons.

    • Kate 10:18 on 2024-11-19 Permalink

      We need transparent aluminum!

  • Kate 21:23 on 2024-11-18 Permalink | Reply  

    Thefts of the cables of car charging terminals are on the rise as thieves purloin them for the copper. Tricks like Airtagging them are becoming common but it doesn’t help a lot to find the cable once it has been severed from your terminal.

    According to the article, copper fetches $5 a pound.

     

    • Kate 18:11 on 2024-11-18 Permalink | Reply  

      Last time we had the holiday train in town I didn’t post about it, and a reader missed it. It will be in locations in and around town this weekend.

      I was about to begin a rant about what “holiday” is stretched to mean, but I checked back and saw that I’ve already done this one.

      Forgive me. I went out for a coffee at one of the local spots, and they had a Christmas music mix on and wished me a merry Christmas as I left. Like, WTF.

       

      • Tim S. 18:17 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

        I’m with you, Kate.

      • JP 19:08 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

        I personally like it but I understand that it can be annoying for others. I echo DeWolf’s sentiment from the 2022 thread that it’s the darkest season and you need a month or two of partying and indulgence to get you through it. Curious to know what coffee shop you went to.

      • Kate 19:21 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

        I like lights this time of year, I like seeing them on houses and hanging off street light poles and things, definitely.

        I draw the line at the Little Drummer Boy in November.

        JP, it’s a little side street spot in Villeray.

      • EmilyG 19:22 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

        I went to Dollarama last week and they were playing the French version of “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” That song sucks in any language.

      • Ian 21:28 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

        Beach Boys “Merry Christmas Baby” at the Home Depot today. Brutal.

      • Kate 23:45 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

        You two suffered more than I did.

        But I was in Park Ex on Sunday evening and a lot of businesses had lights up. I couldn’t tell whether they were left up from Diwali or put up for Christmas – or both.

      • CE 09:05 on 2024-11-19 Permalink

        Thanks Kate!

      • Joey 15:35 on 2024-11-19 Permalink

        The music I can understand, but wishing a random customer (no shade!) a Merry Xmas before, like, December 20th, is nuts – unless they are clearly buying stuff in the spirit of the season.

      • Kate 17:08 on 2024-11-19 Permalink

        I think it was more or less a joke but no, I wasn’t buying a panettone or anything like that.

    • Kate 14:52 on 2024-11-18 Permalink | Reply  

      Ottawa and Quebec have come to an ageement on the $92 million for housing construction, but we’re told in the second ‘graph here that it will be cut if Pierre Poilievre wins the next election.

      Also an interesting reminder: In Quebec, Ottawa can’t enter into agreements directly with municipalities.

       

      • Kate 14:49 on 2024-11-18 Permalink | Reply  

        The homeless camps along Notre‑Dame East are set to be evicted on Thursday by order of the transport ministry. The borough claims that fewer than ten tents are involved. I have not been past the area recently – does it sound like that number holds up?

         

        • dhomas 15:35 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

          I was at Parc Morgan a little over a month ago (on October 5th). There was definitely more than 10 tents then, only at this park. There were other encampments along Notre-Dame where I couldn’t tell exactly how many tents there were. That said, what will this eviction accomplish? Where will these people go? “Go be homeless somewhere else” is basically what they’re being told.

        • bob 15:51 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

          The little shantytown in the wooded area behind St. Henri Metro was removed, and the wooded area clear cut about a week ago.

        • MarcG 16:33 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

          Not sure if it’s the illogicality or absolute cruelty that bothers me more.

        • thomas 19:07 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

          The 3 or 4 tents installed at Place Riopelle were also removed.

        • Kate 19:22 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

          I wonder how much of this is about tidying things up for the shopping season.

      • Kate 11:59 on 2024-11-18 Permalink | Reply  

        Some citizens hope to sue the city of Montreal over bike paths “imposed” without consultation, although what they mean by consultation seems to be the option for residents to have a veto.

        Although the accompanying photo is from the Terrebonne bike path in NDG, the story is mostly about Villeray‑St‑Michel‑Park‑Ex borough.

        In an unrelated story of bike paths and the courts, the city is suing Bombardier over a complicated matter to do with land rights and an uncompleted bike path in St‑Laurent.

         

        • DeWolf 12:38 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

          The lawsuit is bonkers, they have absolutely no chance and I feel bad for anyone who donated to their cause — although with only $32k in donations over an entire year, clearly there isn’t an enormous font of support. For comparison, the Grande Guginolée raises around $750k in a few weeks.

          The city has no legal obligation to provide parking on public roads, and there is no enshrined right to park your car on public roads. It’s like suing the city because the pool isn’t open on Tuesdays.

        • James 14:00 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

          This guy will almost certainly run for mayor next year.
          If you want to donate money to his cause, you could save time by just flushing it down the toilet instead.

        • Dominic 17:49 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

          Seems like the election gave the mayor the mandate to “impose” her platform on the city. What a waste of time and money…

      • Kate 10:19 on 2024-11-18 Permalink | Reply  

        Global has some notes on the Canada Post strike, even explaining about letters to Santa.

        You can feel its bias in that the second item on the list is “How does back‑to‑work legislation work?”

         

        • Kate 10:07 on 2024-11-18 Permalink | Reply  

          Formula One has revised its calendar, putting the Canadian Grand Prix on the third or fourth weekend of May starting in 2026. Next year’s dates are June 13 to 15.

           

          • Mark 11:41 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

            It’s an “environmental” gesture (heavy quotation marks). The actual cars racing around the track only make up 1% of the 225,000 tons of CO2 that are produced annually by the F1. Moving all that gear around is the main concern.

            They are trying to reorganize the calendar to reduce the amount of travel by consolidating the races by region. A lot of sports teams and leagues are looking at their calendars to reduce emissions as well. So a couple races on this side of the pond, then Europe all in one go, etc. So this move replaces a “Europe to Montreal” trip with a “Miami to Montreal” trip. I think there are other optimizations planned (In 2022, the F1 travelled over 116,000 km to all the races).

            Not wanting to reopen the debate about the merits of the GP, but the I’m amazed that the person in the article can call this “responsible” with a straight face.They are still travelling to every corner of the world with millions of pounds of gear, just more efficiently, as a 3 hour flight is slightly better than a 6 hour flight.
            It’s a start (and they are aiming to be net-zero by 2030), but still lots to be done.

          • Bert 12:14 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

            There may be more to this than just green-washing. There are also global motorsports scheduling considerations, particularly around Monaco, the Indy 500 and Le Mans.

            See https://www.autoweek.com/racing/formula-1/a62905671/f1-monaco-grand-prix-avoid-indy-500-2026/

        • Kate 10:02 on 2024-11-18 Permalink | Reply  

          TVA notes that New York City is imposing a bridge toll for drivers entering Manhattan, the funds going to support their public transit, and asks whether Montreal could do likewise. Article eventually concludes it would be difficult here, but doesn’t raise the issue I thought of immediately: the bridges are federal while the highways are provincial, and try getting agreement on anything like that. Quebec does not like anything that impedes the flow of motor traffic.

          Later add: a Journal op-ed championing a congestion charge.

           

          • Uatu 10:10 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

            We had tolls years ago and everyone was happy when they were dismantled. Now they want them back? And the money would probably be directed towards the general fund anyway which basically means directly into whatever Olympic stadium roof scheme we’d be paying for at that particular moment lol

          • Kate 10:26 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

            Even if the beneficiaries of the revenue were not so clear, tolls could be defended as a congestion charge – but then you’d have people up in arms because by disincentivizing drivers from coming into town, you’d be encouraging them to spend their money in off‑island businesses.

            It’s a rat’s nest and just an article for discussion. Nobody thinks this is really going to happen.

          • Ephraim 10:27 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

            Tolls can now be collected without toll booths. Cheaper to bill by transponder anyway. And with agreement, I can’t see why that couldn’t go into the public transit fund, directly, rather than the general fund. Minus expenses, of course. Honestly, we could collect it coming over all the bridges into Montreal and only coming in from 7AM to 9AM, to discourage people who commute into town. Avoid it by using the 30 to bypass Montreal. And charge it to trucks coming in at all times as a way to convince more to bypass the city using the 30.

          • Chris 11:50 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

            Why target the bridges specifically though? Car pollution (combustion, brake dust, tire dust) is a function of distance travelled. Someone driving in from say St Anne de Bellevue is polluting more than someone from just across the bridge. Increasing the gas tax seems more efficient as gas is a function of distance too. Until EVs become popular though. Alas, we’re freakin subsidizing them, not penalizing them for their pollution.

          • Joey 12:00 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

            Trudeau ruled out adding tolls to the new Champlain bridge when it was in construction. There is a less-than-zero chance that a Conservative government would implement tolls. Hell, bridge tolls are so unpopular that I don’t think even the NDP would actually introduce new ones. I could see congestion pricing for city centres becoming more and more common in Canada in the next couple of decades (assuming our getting-around habits don’t evolve), but not bridge tolls.

          • PatrickC 13:01 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

            @Kate, a “rat’s nest” or a “mare’s nest”? The latter expression randomly came to mind when I read your post. Does anyone still use it, or has it gone the way of the horse and buggy?

          • Kate 13:08 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

            PatrickC, Wiktionary says for rat’s nest:

            (idiomatic) Something that is excessively complicated, entangled, or disorderly (either physically or metaphorically).
            Synonym: mare’s nest

          • Blork 13:10 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

            The Manhattan bridge tolls are focused on congestion (even if the money is for public transit), not so much on the broader issue of pollution.

            Aside from the Fed/Prov problem that Kate mentions, there are other issues, such as the sheer number of bridges (what is it, like 25?). Do you put tolls on ALL of them? Probably not, as some are quite small, and arguably the small bridges crossing the back river into Laval are probably used mostly for local traffic. But if a large bridge is tolled and there are smaller un-tolled bridges nearby, many drivers will go out of their way to avoid the tolls by going for the small bridges. That can mess up the neighbourhoods and cause a lot of annoyance.

            There are workarounds for all of these problems, of course. I wish I had confidence that the workarounds could be considered and implemented intelligently and not in the typical “imposition by bureaucrat” way that we so often see.

            Regarding toll booths, even with transponders you need toll booths because not everyone will have the transponder. (Visitors, seldom-users, etc.). The system used on the Pont Olivier-Charbonneau going into Laval from PAT is a boothless system using transponders and cameras for cars without transponders, but that system is plagued with problems and provokes a lot of annoyance and backlash, so the idea of imposing that system on all the major bridges coming in to Montreal from the south is a bureaucratic and political nightmare. No thanks.

            My inclination would be to use a transponder system that assumes most drivers have the transponder (meaning most lanes just zip right through but if you need to stop and pay you divert to the side). That would work for the Champlain and Jacques-Cartier bridges. Maybe use the camera system for the Victoria because there isn’t even room there for toll booths AFAIK. I’m not familiar enough with the northern bridges to offer comment.

            And the main thing is that the toll be reasonable, and that getting set up with a transponder should be dead simple and extremely reliable.

          • Joey 15:09 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

            @Blork NY State has adopted a new system that worked in my case (n=1). Instead of having to pay at a toll plaza, they’ve implemented a camera system, presumably in addition to the EZ Pass transponder system, that captures your license plate and sends a bill in the mail. I imagine we’ll learn that NY State bought a proven solution whereas Quebec opted for something homemade and Frankenstein-ish…

          • Ephraim 17:38 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

            Blork – Most toll systems today no longer have booths at all, including NY state which will post your charge on their website to pay and if you don’t pay it there, they send it by mail, with a hefty charge for it. The Toronto ETR has no live booths at all. Toll booths are like dinosaurs.

            Of course, Quebec could have simply figured out a way to implement EZPass, so we all use the same system, but NOPE. You need a transponder for the two bridges that are transponder in Quebec and then an EZPass for the US and another for Toronto. It’s like a see how many transponders we can put on your windshield contest.

          • Blork 19:51 on 2024-11-18 Permalink

            Ephraim, that makes sense on paper, but I’m not sure how well it works in a high volume situation like an urban bridge full of commuters, trucks, and out-of-province/out-of-state drivers. Can the Pont-Jacques-Cartier corporation legitimately send a bill to someone in New York or Nova Scotia or Florida? Can they even obtain their addresses?

            Maybe. But I’ll believe it when I see it. Based on my experience with that stupid Pont Olivier-Charbonneau I’m not convinced. (Also, given that Quebec always insists on home-baked solutions instead of tried-and-true ones.)

            Last month I was driving around in Portugal and encountered a number of tolls. Some, like the one for the Ponte de 25 de Abril had booths, but in a hybrid system. There were a few lanes for people with transponders (who could just sail on through), and separate lanes for people paying with card or cash. Along the highways it was a mix of similar booths, but once you’re on the toll highway there were a number of points where it was just transponder (which would beep as you drive under it). What’s not clear to me is what happens if I had paid cash to get on that highway? Would those extra beeps (tolls) have arrived by mail?

          • Ephraim 05:56 on 2024-11-19 Permalink

            Considering that EZ Pass covers most of the US east coast and over to Illinois, all with no toll booths, I would have to say that they know how to bill. But being billed is NOT cheap. From Albany to NYC is $5.23 with transponder and $9.15 without. Not paid within 30 days is $5 extra. Second bill is $50. They have access to your name and address via DMV records. We have a reciprocity agreement with NY for tickets, so I assume that will not work in your favour to not pay it… but I could be wrong.

            And Toronto’s ETR has absolutely no toll booths.

          • CE 09:08 on 2024-11-19 Permalink

            Doesn’t the A25 bridge between Montreal and Laval collect tolls from licence plate numbers?

          • mare 22:27 on 2024-11-19 Permalink

            [off topic] I had never heard of mare’s nest, even thought it’s my legal first name since last Friday.
            Unfortunately the official document I need to change my RAMQ card, driver’s license, passport etc, is stuck in the mail strike, so in a mare’s nest?

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