Quebec, Quebec. Every time it improves something, it goes downhill – even leading to long wait times at Consignation bottle recycling sites.
Updates from July, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Convicted murderer Lory Bill Germa escaped from prison early this month, and went on to (allegedly) perpetrate two very small heists at the same bank branch on Guy before being rounded up again.
Germa is 69 and has been locked up since 1992, and clearly doesn’t realize that bank branches don’t work the same way now as they did before he was imprisoned.
No details in any article explain how cops found him, but clearly he isn’t a criminal mastermind.
Nicholas
The media keep being vague about details (though maybe it was the police). I assume it’s the TD in that old, pretty building (though its address and entrance is on St Catherine), but why not tell us? I guess the fact he got away with it is not great for the bank, but he got caught eventually and no one got hurt.
Kate
I wondered that too, but the TD’s front door is on Ste‑Catherine, not Guy. The only bank with a branch on Guy is the RBC on the east side, up towards Sherbrooke.
Nicholas
Oh, you’re right, originally it showed up as an ATM only, and I didn’t streetview. So if there’s only one bank that fits their description then who are they fooling?
Kate
I think by now it’s a journalistic reflex to make incident locations generic.
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Kate
An American musician called Sean Feucht – a Christian MAGA supporter – was scheduled to play in several Canadian towns including Quebec City. But Feucht’s politics, somewhere to the right of Attila the Hun, have seen him deplatformed in Halifax, Charlottetown, Moncton, Quebec City and Gatineau.
Feucht is scheduled to play in a church in the Plateau on Friday evening. The city says it hasn’t given a permit; Feucht says he will perform anyway. The poster for the event, giving the specific location, is on X.
Nicholas
Interesting, that’s one of the Spanish churches, I’m sure the guy will have good things to say about his host. Also I think this church was considered for the Hydro Quebec substation, it’s just inside the 500 m range.
CE
That probably explains the police cruisers I saw at Roy and Berri earlier today.
Kate
At this point (past 9 pm) I’m looking out for any reports on whether the performance went ahead and/or any demonstrations or whatever, but nothing in the media, they’re all still announcing the news I linked at 4.
Nick D.
Why not call it “the old St-Louis church at Berri and Roy” ? It’s no longer in use as a church though, is it? More like a soup kitchen type place.
Nicholas
Nick D, there does appear to be a service Sundays at 9:30, and they say they have 700 congregants. They stream their services on YouTube, 1,500 videos (not all services it seems). More active than many churches these days.
CE
I happened to bike by today at around 8:30pm and there was a protest of about 50 people in front of the church. The police had the block of Roy closed off. The band’s tour bus was parked around the corner. The bus had a big graphic saying “LET US PRAY” which I had seen on a someone’s shirt earlier in the day near the church.
Annette
So the Montreal concert went ahead? In a residential district? No noise complaint?
All those cancelled towns are win-win: dude gets to cruise the highways, cosplaying the persecuted, true beliver on the run – and Canadians don’t have to hear his shit.
Chris
Canadians never had to ‘hear his shit’. No one was forcing anyone to attend his events.
If the media wasn’t doing it’s usual ragebaiting here, no one would have heard about this loser, and he’d be performing to tiny audiences in obscurity.
CE
I agree with Chris. Had he not been covered breathlessly by the media, only his fans would have heard him play, he might have increased his fan base by a dozen or so. Now lots more people know his name and music, they gave him everything he wanted.
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Kate
Quebec has just made a volte‑face on the children of parents with open work permits and declared they can attend subsidized daycares.
bob
“Earlier this week, a group of parents from France and Ukraine threatened to sue the ministry…”
“Oh wait – this will affect white people? Let’s rethink it a bit.”
Kate
bob… I don’t like it, but you may have it.
steph
Why didn’t they pull their “notwithstanding clause” card?
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Kate
Weekend notes from La Presse, CTV, CityCrunch, CultMTL, Silo57.Interesting that we now have a Punjabi‑language theatre troupe. They’re performing on Saturday.
More hot weather in the forecast.
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Kate
The city was meant to act to keep live music venues open, but proposed new rules in Ville‑Marie and the Plateau increase fines drastically and give police a lot of leeway to decide what is or is not loud.
The city is soliciting direct commentary until the end of Friday.
One of the institutions threatened by noise issues is the Union Française.
DeWolf
The Union Française started doing lots of cultural events, plus broadcasting soccer matches, to attract a younger crowd that could sustain the institution into the future. It seems to have worked really well… and now this.
The 24h story actually has a quote from one of the people making complaints and he frankly sounds clueless. “We don’t want them to close” — well, maybe stop making incessant noise complaints?
Interesting the UF director says they’ve gotten noise complaints on days when they aren’t even hosting any events.
DeWolf
In any case it’s upsetting to see that after all the talk about reforming noise bylaws to protect cultural venues, we have a proposed law that does nothing but make things worse.
Thanks for the link to the public comment form. I’ve sent them a comment.
walkerp
Comment sent. It is insanity. I don’t get it. I thought we had all this rhetoric about wanting to preserve Montreal’s nightlife.
Kate
While I was writing up my comment I found myself wondering: is there a city policy, implicit or explicit, that all live entertainment must take place in the Quartier des Spectacles?
Ian
Yes, thank you for the link. Finally my postal code carries clout haha
“Je suis très déçu des mesures de réduction du bruit actuellement mises en place par la ville. Si l’objectif réel était de détruire la vie nocturne, la musique indépendante et la culture non -corporatif de Montréal, on ne pouvait pas trouver un meilleur plan.
Je vis dans le Plateau Mont-Royal depuis 1990, et c’est en partie la scène culturelle très active qui m’a attiré ici. Au fil des ans, j’ai vu des endroits ouvrir et fermer, ce qui est une évolution naturelle, mais ces dernières années, beaucoup d’endroits ont fermé à cause de plaintes pour nuisance sonore.Si vous ne voulez pas vivre en ville, déménagez en banlieue, point final.”
Kevin
A sensible city would tell the Jeannot-complain-latelies that living in a city comes with noise.
Tim S.
If closures for excessive noise are the thing now, can anyone tell me who I can complain to to get the Decarie expressway shut down? Only between 23:00-7:00, I’m not unreasonable.
Joey
Looking forward to the lecture from the Projet brain trust about how actually no this is wrong and critics of this ridiculous new policy should buzz off.
Ian
I don’t think Alex Norris allowed to flip out on social media anymore.
Kate
Sergio da Silva tweeted “it’s not about the noise. It’s about real estate developers, landlords, cops, and politicians having the power to shut down businesses and events they see as a nuisance.”
(I still skim X for a few sources, but no longer contribute any content to it.)
Joey
How did this only emerge now, months after the policy was tabled and just as the consultation period wrapped up?
Kate
I didn’t blog the city’s commentary thing previously, Joey, but it doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. I missed it till almost too late to post.
Joey
I wasn’t referring to you, Kate, but to the impression that only now are implicated folks speaking up about what seems like a huge misstep. I haven’t been following this issue closely – were these specific complaints circulating earlier?
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Kate
A young man with skills in forging official documents used to have a space on Ste‑Catherine where he produced all kinds of ID cards and other false documents. Gabriel Théberge Chartrée was sentenced to 14 months this week.
I like the detail that he defended himself by saying he created the business because it was hard to find work during Covid.
walkerp
I don’t know, seems like an enterprising young gentleman to me.
Nicholas
If he’s that enterprising he’ll find lots of future clients where he’s going.
Kate
I know a guy who worked for a time downtown at a legitimate business doing various kinds of repro work, and they were asked all the time for help in faking various kinds of ID and other documents.
walkerp
One of the few remaining jobs for good print designers, perhaps.
Kate
I wonder where Chartrée was renting space downtown…
Le Devoir talks about how graphic design is one of the trades most under risk from AI.
Nicholas 14:42 on 2025-07-26 Permalink
“Lefort said customers should make sure there are no liquids inside the bottles and cans, as this can cause the machines to break down.”
If I were designing a machine to process containers that all have held liquid, I would do my best to ensure it wouldn’t break if it got liquid in it.