Thursday’s windy storm has knocked out power to 60,000 (or 70,000) households in the urban area.
Updates from September, 2025 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Work is beginning on the ten‑year project to bring the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital up to modern standards. First piece is a parking structure for its workers.
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Kate
CTV says that a video claiming that “Islamists” have burned down Montreal’s Notre‑Dame has been circulating on social media. Footage shown of a burning church is actually of a disused building in Trois‑Rivières that had a fire last year.
There was a fire at our Notre-Dame, not mentioned in the article – but it happened in 1978 in the Sacré‑Cœur chapel behind the main altar. I’ve been looking up the details on that, but although it was determined to be arson, no suspect’s name is turning up.
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Kate
There are bound to be lots of stories of politicians changing roles or leaving the life as the city elections draw near and as François Legault delays the start of the fall session as he prepares to shuffle his cabinet.
Thursday, it’s the news that Sud‑Ouest borough mayor, and one of Valérie Plante’s most valued lieutenants, Benoit Dorais, will quit politics at the end of his term, and not run again.
It’s not directly politics, but public health director Luc Boileau has been replaced in the role by Dr. Caroline Quach-Thanh – giving him more time to harangue errant scooter riders, presumably. Gaétan Barrette, who was health minister in the Couillard government, maintains that Boileau’s reasons for leaving the post had nothing to do with getting caught on video ranting on Ste‑Catherine Street.
Dominic
The media often reports that cabinet shuffles can change the electorate. Does anyone really care enough to modify their support (positive or negative) because a cabinet minister changes portfolios?
Ian
I would pay cash money to see Dery and Drainville tarred and feathered, bit I’m not convinced Frankie has anyone better tucked up his short, nasty sleeves.
Nicholas
People definitely do change their positions for very weird issues. That may seem foreign to people who generally line up with a political party on most issues, but there are lots of swing voters and they will change their opinions for very mercurial reasons. “Oh, he got rid of the bad ministers who wasted money, that shows he’s a strong leader who puts the people ahead of personal friendships.” “I can’t support him now because he keeps the corrupt/extreme people around him, but he is a nice man, so maybe if things change.” I’ve heard variations on these and other ideas. I think the key is that a cabinet shuffle can help hit a reset if people are frustrated with your government; it doesn’t help much if people are frustrated with you. We saw that federally recently: many cabinet shuffles, but what actually changed minds was the leader being shuffled out. We’ll see which one it is in Quebec next year.
MarcG
Quach-Thanh was pushing for kids to go back to school to get infected with Covid in April 2020. I wonder if her perspective on the precautionary principle has changed at all, or if a new novel virus appear today that didn’t kill children immediately she would prioritize social normalcy over their long-term health.
walkerp
What she said was, in the article you cited:
« Pour le moment, les enfants qui sont infectés développent des symptômes très légers. Notre hôpital est vide », souligne Caroline Quach, pédiatre, microbiologiste-infectiologue et épidémiologiste, responsable de l’unité de prévention et contrôle des infections au CHU Sainte-Justine.
Chez les jeunes de 0 à 10 ans, il n’y a aucun mort dans le monde, note-t-elle.
« Il faudra rouvrir les écoles éventuellement, on ne peut pas les laisser fermées deux ans, le temps de trouver un vaccin. Et ce n’est pas complètement farfelu de penser les rouvrir maintenant plutôt qu’en septembre », dit la Dre Quach.
Which was true at the time and very welcome for us parents.
MarcG
What was welcome to parents, false reassurances that your kids were safe?
Here’s her joking about hoping for a 2nd wave in June 2020 so that she can complete her research on reinfections.
Tim S.
Every decision involving children during the pandemic was incredibly fraught, with no right answers. I have no clue what taking potshots at people who were doing their best, 5 years later, is supposed to accomplish.
Joey
Especially since we DID reopen schools in September without any meaningful change in the relative risk.
MarcG
Here is a meta-analysis of pediatric Long Covid studies from June 2022: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35739136/
And here is Quach-Thanh minimizing the risk of Covid to children on Aug 24, 2022: https://x.com/hugh_mankind/status/1562583710914183170
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Kate
The STM’s lack of funds has saved the Rosemont house of the Ly family, which was menaced with expropriation and demolition last year (blog discussion). Now the STM has decided it can manage without that ventilation shaft.
jeather
I was just wondering about that story, thank you for reading my mind.
Kate
It was La Presse who read your mind, jeather.
David S
They changed their minds now that the market value of that house probably plummeted given the risk of this coming back in the future. Who would buy this house now?
Ian
Maybe the family plans to keep living in their family home instead of selling it? If the valuation goes down they might even see a reduction in taxes.
Kate
It sounded from reports at the time that the family wanted nothing more than to stay in the house, but that if forced out, they wanted enough money to buy a similar building in the area – and the STM was not offering a realistic amount to make it possible. I didn’t get any sense they were trying to cash in.
GC
Yeah, I don’t remember any reporting that they wanted to sell. That’s why it was an expropriation in the first place.
But, David does raise a good point. The parents are in their seventies. If they pass away in the next few years and the kids then decide to sell, who is going to want to buy that house? So, the STM has still kind of screwed them over, with the press over the whole thing.
DavidH
To add to how stupid this all was, the almost identical plex on the western side of the same alley is being gutted and flipped by a promoter right now. It was just as good for the STM project and sitting empty.
David S
I am not suggesting that they intended to “cash in.” However, owning a house is inherently a temporary arrangement. Individuals’ circumstances evolve over time; they may relocate to a retirement home, or they may pass away and leave the property to their heirs who may not wish to reside there. Consequently, individuals with knowledge of this situation would not consider purchasing the property at this juncture.
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Kate
Le Devoir is going all out to mark the death of sociologist Guy Rocher at age 101. His influence on the development of public education in Quebec is lauded, as well as his role in dragging Quebec society into the 20th century. And of course he was an indépendantiste. Wikipedia.
Rocher will be given a national funeral.
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Kate
In its turn, La Presse covers the first anniversary of Royalmount, damning with faint praise.
Myles
The goal of 14-17 million visits in a year, never mind 25, is absolutely wild to me. Mathematically possible, I guess, since Montreal had about 11 million visitors last year and residents might go there several times, but it just seems incredibly unrealistic.
Mark
Yeah those numbers are a bit wild. That’s about 40,000 people a day, not far from Trudeau airport levels. Maybe once the whole project is done, including residential units (if that ever gets built) and those residents end up using that mall for 90% of their shopping.
The busiest malls in Canada (Eaton in Toronto, West Edmonton Mall, Rideau in Ottawa etc.) attract those numbers, but they are either massive, have hotels and rides, and most often are situated at the heart of transit hubs, so they just attract clientele who are commuting. None of which apply to Royalmount.
jeather
I work quite nearby and I still haven’t managed to make it there.
Kate
I was in a friend’s car on the Met recently, at night, and Royalmount was just THERE all of a sudden, huge and floodlit. I think I said some words.
Chris
I visit often since the 4h free parking, but not for the stores. Only for the restaurants and the cinema.
Kate
Chris… you drive a car?
MarcG
Haha I had the same reaction. ‘Man driving Mercedes to Royalmount to eat sushi and watch the latest blockbuster’ is not the image I had in my mind at all.
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