A man of 72 was seriously injured Tuesday in a fight on the platform of Pie‑IX metro. His assailant fled and has not been arrested.
Updates from August, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
The family of Fabienne Houde‑Bastien appeared in court Tuesday to talk about the loss of their daughter, killed by a vehicle ricochet as she was walking on a sidewalk in May 2023. The driver, Vi Trung Ngo, who has an epically bad driving record (article from 2023), pleaded guilty earlier this year to drunk driving. He’ll be sentenced Wednesday and one item points out that if he does time, he may lose his business – a repair garage in Rosemont.
Nicholas
Lots of people still leaving Google reviews on his business. I guess admitting to drunk driving a customer’s car at high speed and killing someone isn’t enough to stop people from lending you their cars.
Nicholas
As I said at the time, the family should sue him and take over the business and he should lose his licence for life. Instead he may not even serve any time and people keep patronizing his business! Enablers! And while he was on bail he was out driving, against the conditions of his bail. He should never be behind the wheel again.
walkerp
He should be hanged, but we don’t do that here, so life in prison seems fair.
Kate
I can’t concur about capital punishment, but he should lose his licence for life whatever else happens.
GC
Taking away his driver’s license sounds like a no-brainer. The only problem is that won’t stop someone like that from still driving. So, locking him up seems like the only solution.
As for bit about his business, the second La Presse article says he was driving a client’s vehicle the night he killed Houde-Bastien. Sound like he DESERVES to lose his business. That is terrible for his dependents, of course, but he’s not any less guilty because he has some.
Kevin
Walker
I’d be okay with a flogging, with mandatory attendance for everyone who has more than six demerits or a learner’s permit.
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Kate
The CSSDM is once again threatening to evict three centres d’éducation populaire from premises they’ve used for free for 50 years. These organizations educate adults, offering important basics like literacy, French and computer courses as well as arts and crafts.
I’ve been linking to news stories about this problem for years. The alliance of CEPs has been begging for support from Quebec for a long time, but the provincial government doesn’t see any profit in helping them.
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Kate
The section of Docteur-Penfield downtown between McTavish and Pine Avenue is to be closed for repairs for eight years. But this isn’t just road resurfacing. It involves redoing elements of the McTavish reservoir, which serves drinking water to more than a million people.
Blork
EIGHT YEARS! They’d do it over a weekend in China.
Joey
Eight MORE years…
Ian
As I recall that strip was closed twice over the last 8 years, the first time for about 2.5 years and the second for bit more than a year. Since that strip is obviously problematic, I’m kind of surprised it isn’t simply decommissioned as a through road.
Blork
Among other problems, it throws off the route of the 144 bus, which many people use to get from Atwater area to the Plateau (it’s normally quick and very direct as it bypasses Sherbrooke). But in the recent blockages of Penfield the 144 would divert down to crowded Sherbrooke, which basically ruined it and caused even more clogging up of Sherbrooke. Hopefully, if they know that Penfield will be closed FOR LONGER THAN IT TAKES TO GET A B.A., M.A., AND A PhD they’ll come up with a better plan, like sending it up Peel and turning that bit of Pine between Peel and Penfield into two-way traffic.
Blork
Duh. I just saw the video on the CityNews piece, and that’s exactly what they’re going to do (turn that bit of Pine into two-way to let cars and presumably buses divert around the top of the reservoir instead of going down to Sherbrooke).
Nicholas
At least one of the previous closures was to prepare for this work, which is to prepare for the actual work. I get this is a mission critical facility that can’t be fully shut down ever. I don’t think anyone here has any idea what is reasonable for a project that will end up taking nearly a quarter century, but that is a long, long time.
It would be neat to turn that part of Doctor Penfield into an extension of the park and open up the campus from that side. It’s clear that drivers have survived during all the previous work. Maybe it’ll happen. But there will be complaints, just like with Camilien Houde.
Ian
I suspect far less so, as CH is access to the mountain and this is just access to a curve around the reservoir that we mostly haven’t had traffic on on and off over the last 10 years already and doesn’t actually provide any advantage over just going up Peel.
That aside, I am on the same page as you in that I htink this would be an easy opportunity to open up the area to pedestrian traffic like the rest of the campus.
Andrew
I was more curious about the water infrastructure, here’s the overview of why from the city. There’s some pictures of the pipes from 1928 which are riveted construction, I didn’t realize we only started welding pipes in the 30s.
https://ville.montreal.qc.ca/documents/Adi_Public/CE/CE_DA_ORDI_2020-06-10_08h30_Station_de_Pompage_McTavish.pdfThis is one of the earlier phases Ian mentioned, it has a really good picture of the wall of the reservoir underground
https://cwa-mecaniquedeprocede.com/en/projet/mctavish-pump-station-upgrade/Mostly the landscaping plan, but I like the section view of the reservoir
https://provencherroy.ca/en/projects/brouillon-mctavish-reservoir/Kate
Great links, Andrew – thanks!
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Kate
As the CAQ government prepares a cabinet shuffle, Mayor Plante is asking for a “top gun” to act as homelessness minister.
The city is also putting $22.5 million into projects meant to support the homeless.
What’s the correct French for “top gun”?
PatrickC
The French title of the movie series is … “Top Gun.” But there was a similar movie about French fighter pilots called “Les Chevaliers du ciel.” Doesn’t have the same ring, does it?
Janet
How about “tsar”.
In checking my online dictionary, I find “Monsieur sans-abri”. No idea where that comes from.
MarcG
This is one of those funny expressions that French Quebecers use when they speak English that aren’t really used that way by English speakers, and then we turn ourselves inside out trying to find the French equivalent.
Kate
Like Far West – I know. Used in French generally, not only here.
Ian
That’s it, that’s all is my favourite – though increasingly I am actually hearing Quebec anglos use it unironically along with saying “me, I” instead of “I” and “collaborate” instead of “cooperate”.
Kate
And “close the light”…
Ian
Or really obscure, archaic English that is still technically correct like “derogation” instead of the more typical but less precise “waiver”. “Manifestation” (of unrest) is also way more poetic than “protest” or the unpleasantly vague “rally”
CE
I’ve always liked “what time are we?”
Ian
YOu remind me of the scene in Casablanca
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Kate
The Rachel Street bike path dates from the 1980s and was built to an older standard – two‑way, yet only three meters wide. But it’s not going to be upgraded anytime soon.
DeWolf
At the very least, more needs to be done to make the intersections safer. St-Denis/Rachel is chaotic. The city was testing different light configurations (eg priority left turn for cars from Rachel onto St-Denis), but now it’s gone back to how it was before.
Ian
Light configurations are the Achilles heel of on-island intermediate safety, imo.
Ian
Intermodal not intermediate, damn autocorrect
CE
That bike path is almost an historic relic by now. It;s kind of locked in now with the landscaped median that was built years ago. The intersection of Rachel and St-Denis really show how far we’ve come with cycling infrastructure. I remember when the Brébeuf/Boyer bike path was one of the busiest in North America and one of the only ways to go north-south in the Plateau away from traffic. Now it’s not even a second-tier bike path (de la Roche and Christophe-Colombe are much better ways to go north-south if you’re not taking the REV).
I hope someday the de Maisonneuve is reconfigured to be more like the REV St-Denis or, even better, it’s kept as a secondary path and Sherbrooke gets the REV treatment.
Blork
Do the cops still use it as a parking lot? https://flic.kr/p/RsYxNb
Nicholas
Induced demand happens to bikes too. There are now many north-south routes through the Plateau and western Rosemont, and they’re all busier than the previous single option back in the day. Downtown east-west really could use better on de Maisonneuve, or add a lane on Sherbrooke too, but it is nice that Viger/St Antoine/St Jacques is mostly done, with just some work left in St Henri, and once Old Montreal is pedestrianized we’ll be able to deal with the few blocks of conflict next to the Old Port. North-south downtown is better too, though a few more options would help.
But Rachel really is a pinch point: biking east-west is great within each of the Plateau and south-eastern Rosemont, Laurier is great and Gilford works well east of Mentana and Marie-Anne was just upgraded east of St Denis, but between the two boroughs there are the tracks, and not many options: Sherbrooke is dangerous, St Joseph is narrow and has a conflict with pedestrians, and Masson is fine but far for many. There’s also recently-improved de Rouen, but that’s down the hill. There’s just too much demand on Rachel, and they either need to twin it on Rachel or put in the Sherbrooke REV, or build another bridge or tunnel.
As for St Denis and Rachel and the like, I wonder if continuous green/all directions green/tegelijk groen would work: you have one phase for cars on St Denis, one for cars on Rachel, and then one phase for bikes and pedestrians in all directions, where you can go diagonally and follow your desire line. (You also allow bikes to go right at any time, as you aren’t crossing car lanes, so it works great for turning right and left.) It sounds absolutely chaotic, and it is, but it actually works well even with huge numbers of people: you go slowly and navigate between people and because of the spread out space it works. It’s one of those things you are absolutely convinced can’t possibly work until you see it work and see the stats that show throughput up and crashes down. It’s most associated with Groningen in the Netherlands, where it’s been used safely for nearly four decades, and is being introduced in Belgium next year.
Ian
To be real, the Rachel path really was made simply because so many bicyclists kept getting hurt on Rachel.
Back in the before times, any street with a bike path on it meant that street was crazy dangerous and you should probably avoid bicycling it. It was a different time.
CE
The bike path on des Pins has probably taken some pressure off Rachel. Many times a week, I bike along Parc La Fontaine to Roy then over to des Pins to get to the western Plateau and beyond. In the past, I would have used Rachel or Sherbrooke. I might have biked on des Pins a few dozen times in my life before the new bike lanes were installed.
Nicholas
CE, I think you’re right for the western sections, but east of Brébeuf it’s still very crowded. The light timings especially at des Erables and Frontenac are also not great, so you get huge bunching; often not all bikes will make it through in a single light cycle. That’s not a crisis, but it shows how a wider lane would really help.
CE
Even though I think the new paths have taken some pressure off Rachel, it’s more crowded than ever on all sections. I use it many times a week but try to avoid it during rush hours because it’s so packed!
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Kate
Notes from reader Heliomass on the REM as it reopens.
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Kate
Air Canada and its flight attendants have reached a tentative deal to end the strike, so flights should gradually resume.
walkerp
Man this was a bad look for Hajdu and the Liberals. Nice work by CUPE.
jeather
This is a real own goal on everyone but the flight attendants and the union, I hope they got everything they wanted. I hope this leads to companies being more willing to negotiate in good faith (as Air Canada clearly didn’t).
Meezly
It was gross seeing how other airlines drastically hiked their prices during the strike. I know demand drives up prices, but wouldn’t government regulation have some control measures for this? And re: labour standards, Porter and Westjet don’t seem to treat their employees much better than AC. Hopefully this will be a bit of a wake up call for the airline industry and for the Liberals.
Nicholas
Meezly, it could just be the algorithms running as they do. Prices for last minute flights always go up, and they also go up as seats fill up. If a plane was 90% full a day before departure it’ll be expensive regardless of any strike elsewhere; if people start buying tickets and it’s 99% full, it’ll be even more expensive.
The bosses should realize this is a huge wake up call. They expected everyone to fold, as they always do, and misread the situation. They had no plan, they had no contingencies. AC is just one case, but is this how Carney plans for things? I was already pessimistic about getting any deal with Trump, but if this is the guy on our side?
jeather
Air Canada, correctly, planned that after not really negotiating in good faith, the government would immediately end the strike. The surprise was that the union said “ok, then fine us, it’s our right to strike”.
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