Man falls off balcony with Christmas tree

A man trying to chuck his Christmas tree off a second‑floor balcony (some reports say third‑floor) in the Plateau on Sunday morning tipped over and went down with it, impaling himself on an iron fence below.

Update: The man has died. He’s been identified as Mario Allard, a jazz saxophonist.

No criminal investigation is involved, the incident being pure misadventure.

Radio-Canada recounts Mario Allard’s career; similarly in Le Devoir.

…Walking around Villeray just now, I noticed how many residential buildings here have the same combination of second- and sometimes third-floor balconies over a patch of front garden with an iron fence made of tines that function effectively as spikes if anyone were to fall on them.