A first heat wave death has been recorded.
Public Health warns that risks to health continue even after the end of a heat wave.
Updates from August, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Tuesday is Buy a Quebec Book Day when I’m always brought up short against how few locally produced titles I tend to read.
But two relatively recent titles I can recommend: Rue Duplessis, by Jean‑Philippe Pleau, a personal memoir about crossing the class divide in Quebec, and Hanter Villeray, by Gabrielle Caron, which could have been set in my own apartment, so felt spookily intimate. Both were published last year and I haven’t read any Quebec book from 2025 yet.
Any suggestions?
Updating to add a new study showing that younger people in Quebec are largely uninterested in Quebec cultural products – TV, movies, books, music – and far prefer material made in English elsewhere.
PatrickC
They are from 2024, and I don’t know if you’re a poetry fan, but I enjoyed Rhea Tregebov’s
“Talking to Strangers” and Derek Webster’s “National Animal,” both published by Véhicule. In terms of novels, I’ve just caught up with Saleema Nawaz’s “Bone and Bread” from a decade ago (Anansi). If you’ve ever known anyone with an eating disorder, some stuff will be painfully familiar. On the lighter side, if you haven’t read Peter Kirby’s Montreal detective novels (Linda Leith publishing), you are in for a treat.Hervé
I just recently read “Ordures!” by Simon Paré-Poupart. It’s a short collection of essays written by a long-time Montreal vidangeur. I found it eye-opening in a number of ways.
MarcG
I just finished the English translation of a People’s History of Quebec and I can’t say that I found it very dazzling or insightful, but was a well-ordered summary of events that helps with perspective.
DeWolf
Yannick Marcoux is a novelist who worked for many years as a server at Dieu du Ciel’s brewpub on Laurier. He channelled those experiences into a book called ‘Je travaille dans le bruit’ that came out last year. Worth a read. (He’s also a very nice guy.)
JP
Don’t know if this counts but I’ve enjoyed reading some of Guy Delisle’s graphic novels, particularly the travel ones.
Blork
I just bought Guy Delisle’s most recent book (“Muybridge”) last week. Is that close enough to yesterday to count?
Kate
Delisle’s book on working in Pyongyang was great. I was less interested in his stuff about parenthood.
Orr
The “Dictionnaire historique du Plateau Mont-Royal” is full of many interesting historical facts about the Plateau and its citizens. I love it.
Orr
If you like riding/exploring on bicycle, Velo-Québec publishes very good bicycle-ride guidebooks for Montreal region/Quebec province.
We are fortunate to live in such a beautiful region of the world. There’s no better way to explore it than on two wheels.Kate
Orr: have a look at the segment on St Michael’s Church in the Dictionnaire.
H. John
@PatrickC Thank You for mentioning Peter Kirby’s detective novels. I finished his first, and started his second, this evening.
Nick
I just recently finished John Kalbfleisch’s “No Place More Suitable”: https://nelligandecouverte.ville.montreal.qc.ca/iii/encore/record/C__Rb2687959__Sno%20place%20more%20suitable__Orightresult__U__X6?lang=eng&suite=cobalt
It’s not recent, and it was a library loan (which reminds me, I need to return it tomorrow), but it was a breezy summer read about faits-divers around the city.
JP
Montreal Weblog book club anyone?
JP
or rather Montreal City Weblog
Ian
I just bought a couple of D&Q books but they aren’t by Quebec authors, does that still count?
Orr
I read the entry on St Michael’s Church in the Dictionnaire.
A steeple without a bell!
the author of the entry should make a blog or something. (/wink)
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Kate
Montreal has seen fewer American tourists this season, but it’s just a drop of 7% from last year, and we’re getting more visitors from the rest of Canada.
Tourisme Montréal calls this the end of the first half of the summer season, which seems odd. I’d put that point just before the start of the construction holiday, but Tourisme has its own reckoning.
CE
I don’t have the data to back it up but based on what I’ve been seeing while working with tourists, there is a certain type of American tourist who isn’t coming anymore, while there’s been an increase of another type. You can probably imagine what the “types” of Americans are. A lot of American tourists have been telling me that they came to Montreal just to get a break from the insanity back home. A few are actively scouting out places to move to in Canada.
We are indeed in the middle of the tourism season. After Labour Day, there’s going to be a big shift as the young families with kids and the students stop coming. They’ll be replaced by slightly budget-conscious retirees. Many (but not all) come on the cruise ships or are here for a few days before their ship departs down the Saint Lawrence. These tourists will be coming in droves until around the end of October and start tapering off in November. The beginning of the tourist season gets started in April with an influx of French tourists who all seem to take a week or two off. It really kicks into high gear first with Victoria Day with Canadians, then Memorial Day with Americans. Right now there’s a slight lull in the city, mostly, I assume, because the major festivals have behind us.
Kate
Interesting, CE, thank you.
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Kate
The man charged in the assault of a Jewish father has been named: Sergio Yanes Preciado, 23.
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Kate
Quebec has added two men to Quebec’s most wanted list. Gianpietro Tiberio has been on the run since a killing in 2012. La Presse credits the testimony of Frédérick Silva for information on these two, as the onetime hitman continues to sing like a canary.
Meantime, a Gazette piece says that a minor mobster is being released from prison for a second time, his first attempt having been cut short when he was found in a bar with other gangsters, both situations having been forbidden to him.
bob
So, the parole board wrote of the second guy, “From the outset, your criminality is characterized as polymorphous and persistent, with no real respite. Moreover, it is not disputed that your criminal record is marked by violence and is extensive. When you began serving your current sentence, at the age of 34, you were already linked to the deaths of two victims.” So they’re letting him out, again, though after he was let out before and immediately went back to hanging out with fellow criminals.
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Kate
As the heat wave continues, Pierrefonds and several West Island towns are asked to limit their use of water. The area supplied by the Pierrefonds treatment plant uses water from the Back River, currently at a low ebb. Lawn watering is banned for the moment.
Monday’s high was a record.
Mozai 01:04 on 2025-08-13 Permalink
Weird side effect: my sense of smell is in overdrive during this heat-wave, and I don’t just mean everyone’s body odour on the metro or the ongoing smog problem.
MarcG 08:54 on 2025-08-13 Permalink
The ERs are pretty jammed, though I haven’t been following the stats closely so I’m not sure if they’re unusually high or if we’re perpetually in a state of burden.