The Université de Montréal’s peregrine falcons have produced the first egg of the season – suitably, in good time for Easter and Passover – and are expected to lay a few more soon. Last year there were four eggs, of which three of the falconets lived to fly the nest.
Updates from April, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Media are in a bit of a tizzy over the arrival of Ivan Demidov to join the ranks of the Canadiens and, ideally, boost them into the playoffs. Campaign‑like posters have gone up around town – is that even legal? – and his debut Monday evening is feverishly anticipated.
Even the mayor suited up.
Update: As anyone who cares would know, Demidov scored his first goal for the team, but didn’t succeed in getting them into the playoffs. There’s still a statistical possibility, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.
Nicholas
Those signs are legal in that they are not supporting or opposing a candidate or party, nor even commenting on politics, so the electoral law doesn’t apply. Posting up anything on a public piece of infrastructure is, of course, subject to municipal regulations, and in a lot of places that is banned outside of specific speaker’s corner places for postings, and probably needs identification of who posted it. So probably not legal in the same way the Pro des DVDs signs aren’t legal, but my guess is rules will continue to slide for anything Habs.
H. John
Nicholas wrote:
“Those signs are legal …So probably not legal”
I don’t think the question was that difficult: “Is that even legal?”.
The question didn’t ask did it break a specific law, it asked “is it legal.”
The answer is no.
It’s clearly a breach of municipal posting/advertising laws.
During an election either federal or provincial law (for provincial and municipal elections) override municipal by-laws on posting.
In this case, it’s is an advertising company purposely choosing to ignore the law.
This is another AirBnb or Uber.
I think the question we should be asking is how much damage does this do to the candidates who have paid to have their posters displayed.
Any campaign manager will tell you how difficult it is to identify or differentiate a candidate in a federal election. A campaign manager’s job breaks down to: put up the posters, send out pamphlets, point voters (i.e., find out who will support your party, and be prepared to call them on election day).
Under our system, unlike one rented by Musk, funds are limited by law for each candidate.
Cheap stunts like this should come at a cost – then again AirBNB and Uber seems to be doing well.
Tim S.
Thanks H. John. If only any of our political parties were even mildly concerned about how AirBnB and Uber have completely undermined state sovereignty.
Nicholas
H. John, well done removing most of the words I wrote and then saying that parts of what I wrote, without even keeping whole sentences together and certainly without context, is not correct.
It is true that in general municipalities don’t allow posting signs on municipal property, and during elections federal or provincial law overrides that for candidates. It is also true that even if a sign is illegal, it may stay up a while. Lots of people and businesses put up signs that stay up for months, as I mentioned above. If I can do a thing and no one stops me or penalizes me, is it legal? By the letter of the law, maybe not. But in reality, what is the difference between that and it being legal? I was trying to show such nuance, but obviously if you remove 90% of what I wrote and quote it out of context you’d miss that. Feel free to read up on legal realism.
Politicians also don’t get to be the only ones making messages during an election. Our free speech rights aren’t suspended, and certainly not when the message doesn’t advocate for or against a candidate. Should we suspend all other advertising so that everyone’s attention can be properly focused on election ads? If a campaign manager can’t easily differentiate their candidate from a hockey player in a joke advertisement, maybe they should find other work. How’s that for legal realism?
Joey
Wait, is there a plausible argument that these hockey glove ads (which are hardly the first ads to use a fake campaign poster style) are going to confuse voters to the extent that they cause damage to candidates? Obviously the ads are illegal – they are effectively guerrilla marketing done by a hockey equipment manufacturer – but it’s hard to imagine they would disrupt the electoral process in a meaningful way. Anyway, Demidov had two points in the first few minutes of his first game, maybe he should run…
Tim S.
I enjoy the satirical election signs – I haven’t checked if the cat is running again here in NDG – but I have much greater tolerance for a neighbourhood joker than corporate marketing.
But this sentence:
“If I can do a thing and no one stops me or penalizes me, is it legal?”Is fucking chilling.
jeather
I’m positive it isn’t legal, but I didn’t realise there was a logo for a brand there until I noticed someone here called it corporate — I thought it was a joke by a fan.
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Kate
The city may be feeling remorse for approving the Ray‑Mont Logistics project in the east end, because it’s preparing to spend millions to create a green screen around the facility.
Nicholas
I figured “millions” meant like a few. But 88 million? I thought it was missing a decimal point! Isn’t this the project almost completely surrounded by industrial land (paintball place I went to years ago, warehouse, AV supplier, the port, rail lines and a single co-op of 5 three-storey apartment buildings? I see there’s a bus and bike lane going in and surely some other stuff, but 88 million is like 3x the money of the affordable housing fund they keep not using to build affordable housing.
Ian
How much would it cost to plant a hedge, I wonder
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Kate
Aging hospital buildings are coping with mice, rats and roaches, and renovations can make the situation worse.
Ian 19:56 on 2025-04-14 Permalink
But what if they’re faucons laïques? That’s a pretty awesome survival rate, good for them. The falcon comeback is a real success story.
H. John 01:41 on 2025-04-15 Permalink
@Ian I’m sure Yves and M appreciate your good wishes. I’m not sure if I should be embarrassed to admit I know the name of the parents.
The more important note is that thanks to bird flu, we’re really not sure yet of the success story.
Hugo, mentioned in this article, in one of last year’s three new arrivals:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/mar/13/decades-after-peregrines-came-back-from-the-brink-a-new-threat-emerges-aoe