Updates from November, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 23:43 on 2024-11-26 Permalink | Reply  

    There have been more than 13 million Bixi trips in 2024.

     
    • Kate 22:28 on 2024-11-26 Permalink | Reply  

      Mount Royal Cemetery is turning to the courts to force the city to continue to allow motor traffic along the Camillien‑Houde and thus preserve vehicle access to one of its main gates.

       
      • Nicholas 23:14 on 2024-11-26 Permalink

        To be clear, it wouldn’t block all access to that gate, but just access from the east. All entrances to the cemetery would continue to have car access. As well, as the story notes, there will still be access from Mont-Royal Boulevard in Outremont (via Foret Road), and the cemetery worries that that means cars could use the cemetery as a cut through (though they could block off through traffic if they wanted). So they want car access, just not too much car access.

        It’s an interesting fact-based argument: that the creation of the tramway, and eventually the road, from cemetery land in 1928, included a clause that the cemetery would have access from both sides. But they admit, and it’s pretty clear, the city could expropriate that right, as they can with any land for public use, so if they win the best they could do if the city really wants to do this is get financial compensation.

      • Kate 09:46 on 2024-11-27 Permalink

        Thanks for the clarifications, Nicholas.

    • Kate 22:25 on 2024-11-26 Permalink | Reply  

      May 2023, a man was punched in the parking lot of the Orange Julep, and died. One of his alleged assailants fled the country, and has now been extradited here from France to face charges.

       
      • Kate 21:06 on 2024-11-26 Permalink | Reply  

        The container of teddy bears has been rescued from the river.

         
        • Kate 15:16 on 2024-11-26 Permalink | Reply  

          Le Devoir looked through the results of the 2021 census, and found that there are fewer mother tongue anglophones than ever in Montreal and its vicinity. But this drop is still a threat to French: French will always be under threat.

          They also found that most municipalities recognized as bilingual in Quebec no longer have the 50% of English speakers as their mother tongue initially required by Bill 101 to obtain this status, and they will soon be forbidden to use English. Will that stop the threat to French?

           
          • Ian 20:54 on 2024-11-26 Permalink

            I do wonder how much of that is as a result of the rules defining who exaclty is a mother tongue anglo.
            The distinction between ayant droit and mother tongue is unclear, and intentionally so, for political reasons. This is not entirely unlike the inverse where people that speak French at work and in public but another language at home are seen as not francophone.

            As to your question, I’ll give you 20:1 odds that it doesn’t. Wanna bet?

          • Joey 21:58 on 2024-11-26 Permalink

            The last time I worked on something adjacent to this, ‘mother tongue’ was being phased out and ‘the first language you spoke at home’ was being phased in. I think a lot of Montrealers have a complex answer to that question, because it’s politically charged, as Ian explains.

          • Kate 22:14 on 2024-11-26 Permalink

            Joey, that’s the usual phrasing now, but since the article used “langue maternelle” I went with it.

          • DeWolf 22:17 on 2024-11-26 Permalink

            As the article notes, bilingual municipalities with anglophone minorities still have the option to preserve their bilingual status so long as they pass a resolution to that effect. As far as I know, all of them have done so.

            This little nugget at the end of the article feeds into the nationalist insecurity that Le Devoir in particular likes to promote. It makes me think of J-F Lisée’s fearmongering articles about Montreal teenagers who hate “keb” language and culture, even though they’re essentially francophone. It’s not just about language, it’s about culture. For right-wing nationalists, isn’t enough to speak French or even be francophone, it’s about being the *right kind* of francophone.

            // Dans le contexte actuel au Québec, et particulièrement à Montréal, croit-il, le français devient une langue un peu « folklorique ». « Oui, tout le monde le parle. Mais c’est une langue folklorique, dit-il. Les allophones, c’est vrai, ils l’apprennent à l’école. Ils vont parler français. Mais c’est un peu comme les Suédois : la langue à laquelle ils vont accorder beaucoup d’importance, ce sera l’anglais. » //

          • thomas 23:35 on 2024-11-26 Permalink

            What I found interesting in the article is the concept (new to me) that French usage must be growing to be considered not in danger and at current usage of 2% of the population of North America I suspect we will have this argument for a very long time.

          • jeather 12:49 on 2024-11-27 Permalink

            Like share prices!

        • Kate 14:49 on 2024-11-26 Permalink | Reply  

          The mayors of towns in the Rive Nord want to leave the control of the ARTM and create their own transit network.

           
          • Kate 14:23 on 2024-11-26 Permalink | Reply  

            The Olympic stadium roof removal is nearly complete but the interior will now be exposed to winter weather.

             
            • dwgs 15:07 on 2024-11-26 Permalink

              That’s some good planning work there Lou.

            • Ian 20:54 on 2024-11-26 Permalink

              One might almost think that was part of the plan, to create more work.

            • Joey 21:59 on 2024-11-26 Permalink

              Wasn’t the Big O roofless for multiple years in the past? I definitely remember there being a season of baseball in, I think, the early 2000s where there was no roof. Is this indeed the first roofless winter?

            • Kate 23:10 on 2024-11-26 Permalink

              Was it no roof, or no retractable roof?

            • faiz imam 23:32 on 2024-11-26 Permalink

              the entire inside is trash anyways. Once the outside is done the seats,halls ground level all need to be redone at great expense to bring it up to modern standards.

              In theory a modern 50k indoor facility is a huge value for montreal. consider the O2 in london. But what will the bill be at the end of it all?

            • Joey 09:51 on 2024-11-27 Permalink

              See this great photo from what must be the early 80s: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GDwX8sWXYAAfam8.jpg

            • Joey 09:52 on 2024-11-27 Permalink

              faiz, the O2’s capacity is about 20K (according to its website), more like the Bell Centre than the Big O (the equivalent in London would be Wembley Stadium, I guess).

            • Josh 11:15 on 2024-11-27 Permalink

              Joey: The Big O’s roof and tower were not fully completed until 1987. I can remember Expos games as a child when there was no roof.

            • Joey 16:31 on 2024-11-27 Permalink

              @Josh there was definitely a season around 2001 or 2002 where there was no roof. It was interesting, but the fact that that the there are concrete beams that make up part of what you would consider the roof took away from the atmosphere.

          • Kate 13:00 on 2024-11-26 Permalink | Reply  

            Groupe Guzzo has closed its Galeries des Sources cinema in Dollard, with the expectation that the others will be following shortly.

             
            • John Robinson 13:48 on 2024-11-26 Permalink

              No loss the theaters are subpar compared to cineplex their snacks like popcorn are usually cold and greasy and the rooms aren’t sufficiently lit before movie starts to find a seat you have to feel around a lot of times touching strangers in the process

            • rob 14:34 on 2024-11-26 Permalink

              For the remaining days of Guzzo, you`ll be able to bring your blanket to stay warm! It’s not a bug, it’s a feature!

            • MarcG 14:34 on 2024-11-26 Permalink

              That’s not a bug it’s a feature

            • MarcG 14:37 on 2024-11-26 Permalink

              Wow, what are the odds of 2 people making the same joke at the same time (from what seems like a different angle – I was referring to touching strangers)?

          • Kate 11:41 on 2024-11-26 Permalink | Reply  

            After a long season of labour discontent, a tentative agreement has been reached at the SAQ. Of course it still must be approved by vote.

             
            • Kate 10:37 on 2024-11-26 Permalink | Reply  

              The city’s blue collar union, local 301, is fractured by factionalism if the report of the union vice‑president, who says she was excluded and shunned at the union HQ on Papineau, is true. With a sidebar on the differing outlooks at the heart of the problem.

               
              • Kate 10:19 on 2024-11-26 Permalink | Reply  

                The TAL is just as jammed these days as an ER, with long waits and very short times actually spent with the tribunal.

                 
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