The library of the Centre Sanaaq, in one of the buildings constructed on the old Children’s Hospital site, was inaugurated Friday, the mayor saying it helps make up for a paucity of city infrastructure in that part of town.
Radio-Canada asks how well a library will coexist with the many homeless in that corner of town, suggesting it might not be so cosy.
Projet head Luc Rabouin has spoken up against the plan to put a Hydro substation on the Grande Bibliothèque block.
Rabouin leaves himself an out, as reported by La Presse, saying that if that location is determined to be the only possible one, efforts will be made to limit its negative impact on the area.
Rabouin has to know that the options are limited. The new substation must be close to the existing installation on Berri below Sherbrooke, in a tightly built up perimeter with not so much as a decrepit church that could be sacrificed.
What’s more important in a secular, humanist society: a decrepit church in a city of a thousand or a (potential) park? I think we all know what the answer will be.
Except there isn’t a decrepit church available within the perimeter, which is something like 500m. I would put the Notre Dame de Lourdes church on the chopping block but I don’t think, even now, that it would be countenanced.
It’s been suggested here before that the CÉGEP du Vieux-Montréal which – despite the name – I don’t believe was ever located in Old Montreal, could be moved, and its building – one of the most hideous in the city – torn down. Isn’t likely to happen either.
Or we could sacrifice Émilie-Gamelin park, Carré Saint-Louis, or the currently uninhabited Bibliothèque Saint‑Sulpice, or Institut des Sourdes-Muettes.
A promising building would’ve been the St Louis de France church on Roy, but it was taken over by an evangelical group some time ago and is probably in more vigorous use than most Catholic churches here now.
I really dislike this type of game, where people approach an issue as if it has never been looked at before and so we must all go back to first principles.
No. Stop acting like a child and do the research to present an informed opinion.
Sorry, Kevin. Just thinking aloud. I’m almost certain the talk is just talk, and that the substation will be built right there on the disused piece of land at Berri and Ontario, but politicians have to show us they don’t like it.
I’m out of the loop on this thing, but big is this substation going to be? The current one isn’t *that* big, is it? Is there not room for both a park and substation?
Is the old gare d’autocars still empty? Is that not a spot they could use.
I keep seeing this whole debate mentioned once in a while, and it rubs me as a “mountain out of a molehill” type thing. Parks are nice. But we need the substation. Sometimes you gotta make those sacrifices. I hate it and I wouldn’t he happy about it if I lived there, but is this a battle worth fighting? Honest question.
how big*
The city wants the space on the east side of Berri for social housing, so the substation can’t go there.
The photo accompanying the La Presse story shows very clearly how the library landscaping ends at a well‑defined border, leaving a large square of unoccupied space down to Ontario.
@Kate, that border is the driveway to the underground BANQ parking garage (an unnecessary parking that should have never been built to begin with). To this day, I still don’t understand why the city allows that paved path to exist rather than make all parking users go down Savoie street. When a rare car user turns from Berri to use it, it halts all traffic and people on the bike path and sidewalks never expect them. It only happens once or twice a day but is totally dangerous and unnecessary. It seems the only point of that paved path is to bypass the streetlight at Ontario.
The northern part of that lot is never used as anything but a pathway. It’s green but it’s not really a park. If Hydro could limit themselves to that space, I think everyone would be happy.
Kate
Ah, I wasn’t clear. I was referring to Rabouin, and others who do this on multiple issues (eg. vaccination) not you.
My wife, who uses a walker or a cane, depending on the day, greatly appreciates the BANQ’s underground parking and doesn’t believe it to be unnecessary.
Good point.
Weekend notes from CityCrunch, CultMTL, La Presse.
Road closures and a tunnel closure add to the fun.
Laurence Lavigne Lalonde, mayor of VSMPE borough since 2021, has announced she will sit out her term, then quit politics.
I wonder if she’ll move to provincial politics – clearly she was never going to win the Projet leadership. The again, it feels like there wouldn’t be much difference between being a PM backbencher and a QS one, other than the commute.
The La Presse account, which I linked later, simply says “On ignore encore si elle tentera sa chance ailleurs sur la scène politique.”
A wave of bar extortion attempts has been noticed in various spots around the city.
Although nobody wanted to name the bar that was shot at on Mont‑Royal recently, and over which there have been arrests, the photo in this article makes it clear.
A Tec-9?! Holy shit and we are worried about Fentanyl.
Great job SPVM in making sure those anarchists don’t break any windows while allowing this shit to run wild.
What’s with the media tiptoeing around the name so much? A story on the first day said corner Pontiac at 2:45 am Thursday night, there was only one match. The shooters know the bar, the victims do, the owners do, anyone who walked east from the metro saw the caution tape. What’s the point?
Nicholas, I’ve commented on this before. The media don’t often tell you which business has been shot at or made the target of a firebomb. They’re usually vague about it, mentioning a street name and including a nearby intersection if you’re lucky. I’ve noticed this a lot while updating the incident map. Sometimes all I can do is pin an intersection.
In newspapers from the early to mid 20th century you’ll see that places and people were always identified, giving names and personal addresses in many cases, but that policy has changed completely in our time, probably in response to advice from lawyers.
I’ve noticed that QMI sometimes gets around this by posting photos that include a sign or otherwise make it clear which business (and in some cases which residential building) has received negative attention, but the other media here tend to be cautious.
The difference between newspapers in the 20th century and news sites on the internet is that when someone or a place was named, you would read it and either store it in your memory or not, depending on how much you cared. The paper would go in the garbage and be forgotten. You could bring up the story again by going to the library and looking through the archives but for the most part, the story was gone after the day it was reported.
On the internet, everything is immediately put in a super searchable archive that is easily available to anyone. Beyond that, all keywords in a story now pop up in any search engine search that uses those words. So, if Bar ABC has been the backdrop of a major crime, any time someone searches “Bar ABC” to get its address or reviews or anything else, that story about the major crime will appear too. If I were someone who was involved in a salacious news story (either as a participant or bystander) I would rather not be named because otherwise, any time my name is searched, I would be associated with the incident.
A cromulent riposte, CE.
I believe this is due to budget cuts. Last century there would have been reporters going to these overnight events with the goal of writing stories.
Now a news organization is lucky to have a camera person there, if not they may pay a freelancer for an image. But getting the information including address is beyond their paygrade and/or skillset.
My impression has been that the info comes from a police bulletin, because quite often the different media that report incidents – mostly TVA and CTV, sometimes Radio‑Canada/CBC – will describe the location in exactly the same words, even if the emphasis of the reports are a little different. Sometimes the photo illustrating the story is a banal generic photo of a police car because the web template requires a picture, but that’s all they have.
Warning sirens are having their annual tests Friday morning in neighbourhoods adjacent to industrial installations.
Nicholas 06:59 on 2025-05-10 Permalink
I know they serve different purposes, and it’s paid, but the Atwater Library is literally diagonally across the street from the old Children’s, and is the oldest subscription library in Canada.
Margaret 07:16 on 2025-05-10 Permalink
The Atwater Library is a gem in the city – celebrating 200 years of service to the community. The new library at the Sanaaq Centre will take some breaking in to feel warm and comfortable in a way that the Atwater Library achieves the minute you walk in the door. From the mezzanine where works by Aislin and other Montreal artists feature in regularly renewed exhibitions, to the book shop in the basement where many affordable, used-book treasures can be found, the library is a real hub of activity and services. The fees to join are minimal (they are mostly self-financed and need support from members and donors) and their holdings very much up to date. It is not in competition with the new VdeM library, but a rare centre of community engagement in its own right. I suggest checking the weekly events listed to see the range of speakers and workshops on offer.
walkerp 09:15 on 2025-05-10 Permalink
I did not know about this library and specifically that they had a used book store in the basement. Much appreciated @Margaret!
Ian 11:39 on 2025-05-10 Permalink
Also worth noting, the Atwater Library was originally a private lending library founded by the Mechanic’s institute, whose central goal was to create a more educated working class as “modern” industry required this. The reason Montreal didn’t have public libraries (and famously refused a Carnegie Library) is that the Catholic Church didn’t want people to have access to books that might be “inappropriate”.