McGill University is cutting ties with its own student union over pro‑Palestinian protests.
Updates from April, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
The trial of Pierre Ny St‑Amand began Monday with a plea of not guilty, and a viewing of the video from the viewpoint of his bus as it plunges into the Laval daycare. Both Crown and defence have agreed that Ny St‑Amand should be found not criminally responsible because he was in a state of psychosis at the time.
CTV’s piece mentions that some in the courtroom later said they wanted Ny St‑Amand jailed. But if the experts are correct, the man needs Pinel, not prison. If nothing else, you can’t ask regular prisoners to share space with a man in psychosis. Ask André Lapierre – or don’t, because he’s dead.
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Kate
The Sommet de l’Est de Montréal has reawoken calls for Maisonneuve-Rosemont hospital to be refurbished, as two successive Quebec governments have promised.
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Kate
A demonstration was held at FACE Monday morning against Quebec’s abandonment of the plan to renovate the building.
Ian
Intreresting that Alex Norris took this opportunity to “show support” since he has no actual political skin in the game. What a wonderful opportunity for glad-handing when no actual effort is required other than grinning at cameras. Of course I know that the City has no control over the CSSDM let alone the provincial government, but that also means that there is no relevance in Projet sending in a rep to make hollow gestures of solidarity.
Joey
Hardly an apologist for Norris, but the school *is* located in his district… If I were a resident/parent/student, I would be pleased that a prominent municipal politician was expressing support even if they had no control over the file. Perhaps we can come back to this exchange the next time you’re talking about union solidarity.
Anyway, if he’s the local champion on this issue it’s beyond a lost cause, I’m afraid.
Ian
Not sure what this has to do with union solidarity, but fair enough. I suppose FACE is enough of an entity to be a cause célèbre, especially as a bridge between the French and English educational systems, and the only one of its kind.
patatrio
Something seems fishy with the numbers.
In 2019 the estimate cost for repairs and relocation was $153 million
The cost of refurbing the temporary locations is $200 million
The ballooned cost in 2025 for the whole project is $375 million
So the plan is cutting an utterly unique institution in half, selling off a purpose built facility and significant heritage building because either a) the cost of the whole project rose by $22 million over covid or b) they initially failed to account for the cost of renovating relocation facilities (which seem to be in a worse initial state than FACE ever was anyway).
This has CAQ fingerprints all over it, not least because of the current deficit problems and inadequate handling and financial planning for health and education province-wide
DavidH
@patatrio, and a lot of that 375$ million seem to be sunken costs that have already been engaged or will be while the high school students remain there (until at least 2032, a date that keeps changing). The decision to halt the renovation of the historic building does not get us back these 375$ millions, only a part of it. Unrenovated, the building is most likely unsellable. It will not bring in a lot either.
Ian
Considering it’s full of asbestos and lead (no I’m not exaggerating) it’s hard to imagine any use of the bulding that didn’t involve gutting it to the studs at the very least.
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Kate
An event called Sommet de l’Est starts Monday, in which a thousand people are to meet at the Olympic stadium to discuss redevelopment of decontaminated land in the east end of the city.
But La Presse notes that any redevelopment is likely to be slowed or held back by the uncertainties caused by Trump’s shock tactics on the international economy.
11 am, the city has already posted two news releases, one soliciting bids for projects and another about upgrades to the Botanical Garden including completely replacing the greenhouses.
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Kate
CBC has a piece Monday morning about a plan to turn Mirabel into a tourist hub – basically a huge water park.
This is not the first time a project like this has been proposed, though. I found a piece from 2021 which promised such a project, meant to be completed by 2023, but I remember earlier ones as well, although I can’t find any links.
Joey
The fact that the piece doesn’t explain where the $175-200 million is coming from suggests that it’s less a news piece and more a pitch to investors. Still sounds like it could be fun. We could use a kick-ass waterpark.
roberto
We could use a kick-ass waterpark for 3 months of the year.
roberto
I posted too quickly, sorry. This is intended to be an indoor park.
How will it be different from the Oceania in Beloeil, that has been delaying its opening since 2021. (Their last annoncement of an opening march 31st 2025 seems to have zero updates on their facebook page)
Nicholas
Super Aqua Club, Saint Sauveur F.U.N., Atlantide, Calypso, and now another one?
Blork
Mirabel as a tourist hub based on a water park, convention center, and proximity to Mont-Tremblant (not so proximate; still an hour’s drive on a good day). I am not convinced.
The CBC piece mentions Orlando, Florida, and Disney a few times. The guy is thinking big I suppose, but it seems irrational. Orlando has resorts for Disney World, Universal Studios, even goddamn Legoland. All that stuff draws a huge crowd (which makes me cry a bit inside). But a water park, not far from a bunch of other water parks?
And that convention center. Who wants to come to Montreal for a convention only to find yourself very far from Montreal? (Sadly, probably many people.) This also makes me think of Orlando. When people ask me if I’ve ever been to Florida I always say “no” because I have no memory or knowledge of Florida. Then I think for a minute and remember that about 20 years ago I spent three days at a convention in Orlando. But I came away with no sense of having visited Florida. It’s like I need to get a tattoo on my arm that says “Yes, Blork, you have been to Florida” because that convention in Orlando could have been at any hot and humid place. I need a reminder that I have, sort of, been to Florida.
Is that how we want to welcome convention-goers to “Montreal?”
Joey
Blork, I had a very similar experience in Orlando. I got so many weird looks trying to walk from my hotel to the conference hotel (about five minutes down the sidewalk-less road).
Kevin
Nobody walks anywhere in Florida, nobody opens their windows, they just waddle from AC home to AC car to AC work.
jeather
You can’t walk places if they were built for people to drive everywhere, there are no sidewalks, there’s minimal public transit.
Kate
This reminds me of a friend’s story: she had to go to Los Angeles for a brief work conference at a hotel, but had a free day at the end, and wanted to go look at the ocean. She asked at the hotel desk if it was far to the oceanfront, and they said it wasn’t – so she set out to walk.
And walk. And walk.
Through all kinds of neighbourhoods, in some of which she would have been obviously not a local. And definitely through a lot of areas where walking was clearly not expected as a mode of transport.
She finally did get to the sea, but by that point it was getting dark. But she didn’t have any American money (she had assumed a walk of a few blocks and back) and she didn’t know where she was, relative to the hotel.
Luckily, in her case, she boarded a bus, and the driver (a Black woman) was so charmed by her offer of a few loonies that she got directions back to the hotel without mishap.
But there are places you really can’t safely walk.
Ian
I walked from Koreatown to Westwood in LA and yeah, it’s a weird place.
GC
My family never vacationed in Florida, even though it is obviously a popular destination for those from Ontario and Quebec. So, I never went there until a business trip a few years ago. To Orlando and, wow, it felt like a soulless husk of a place. I wondered how anyone lived there but, of course, no one DOES live in the parts of it I saw. It was just airport, hotel, conference centre, and restaurants between those. Lots of people working, of course, but driving from wherever they lived–which could be perfectly nice suburbs, for all I know.
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Kate
Six people were arrested in Sunday’s protest march in St‑Michel over the police killing of Abisay Cruz. A bit more about the circumstances are described by CityNews.
A second march was held downtown over the death of an unnamed man on St‑Hubert over the weekend.
I still see confusion over whether there were two police killings or three, on the weekend. If three, facts about the third are not emerging.
Adding later: Urbania on anger in St‑Michel.
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