A crowd of hundreds demonstrated Saturday in support of the people of Gaza and in condemnation of the actions of Israel.
Another march was held Saturday, along with others elsewhere in Canada, to honour missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.
And a march was held on Nuns Island in support of social housing.
The REV is being called a victim of its own success with too many cyclists riding wheel to wheel at rush hour. The STM strike has also encouraged more cycling over the last two weeks.
The “perfect weather” also encouraged more cycling over the last two weeks.
So great to see families/parents with little kids on their little bikes using it.
Got a month bixi pass because of the strike and it was the best 23$ spent in a while. Early morning biking while chilly was fun and invigorating!
Uatu, I encourage you to keep trying it. Winter cycling is not for everyone, but the Bixis are well equipped and you don’t have to worry about ruining your own bike. You have to dress for winter anyway, so it just takes some time to figure out what will keep you warm but not cause you to sweat, and mostly you just need to be more gentle on your turns and braking, as if doing a driving test. And if any day doesn’t feel right, just bail and take transit, no pressure. Way less bike traffic too!
I was on St-Denis around 5:30pm earlier this week and it was genuinely stressful, there were so many other people on bikes. Not a bad problem to have, but you really begin to notice that the REV on the Plateau is a bit too narrow. When the construction on de la Roche is finally done it will ease some of the pressure as people can use that bike path, which connects with the (so far not crowded) new path on Christophe-Colomb.
The Christophe Colomb path is really well done, with great visibility. I do find it weird that where there are lights the bike green is the same as the car green cresting a possible hazard from right turning cars, though.
Adding new info up top: the incident is now being called a murder‑suicide and we are told it had no connection to organized crime.
Two men were shot dead in a bar on Mont‑Royal (Street) at Laval (Street) on Friday night. Both Radio‑Canada and TVA are headlining this incident “morts suspectes” and TVA says they were “possiblement atteints par balle” – what are the other possibilities?
I notice that on Saturday morning none of the anglo media have this story – not CBC, CTV, Global, CityNews or the Gazette. Why do we have reporters who sleep in on Saturday morning?
Also, neither of the linked reports names the bar, as usual. God, but journalism can be so dull when every reporter feels a cautious lawyer looking over their shoulder. But there is only one bar at that corner, as Google Maps will show you.
(Also, before people start freaking, the last homicide in Montreal before this was on August 16 – a month and a half ago. We’re not descending into mass violence.)
Does Bobby the Greek not count as a homicide?
I immediately guessed which place it was. Fun fact: they have a tattoo parlour at the back.
Ah right, Laval ain’t Montreal… confusing me by covering off-island affairs!
Also TVA does name it now in the text, also with a big photo of the name of the bar. R-C has a photo where you can barely make it out.
One interesting bit is both articles say people fled into the street when the police arrive, saying the bodies inside. So were they…hanging out with the bodies for a few minutes? Paying their tab? Actually worried about the cops, because they’re all bikers who don’t want to be checked?
I too thought it happened in Laval at first glance, but it’s the bar at the corner of Ave du Mont-Royal and Laval, in the Plateau. My family and I had walked by that very bar last night, only a few hours before.
Sorry, I have now specified it’s the streets. I tend to write a little too offhand at times.
The reporters aren’t sleeping in: they no longer exist. There are fewer journalists working, and fewer with permanent jobs.
There have to be people doing the primary reporting. I like doing this blog but am nervously watching other news outlets also become secondary passers‑on of news. But there won’t be any news unless somebody goes out and actively collects it.
Google Maps description of the bar is “quirky, cash only, with biker merchandise and a tattoo parlour”
Kate
I wholeheartedly agree, but the readers have to pay for that.
There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.
CBC is often pulling news from RC, and I assume the translator didn’t come in until the morning. Not just them, but when you only have a handful of reporters left, it doesn’t usually make sense to have one on the night shift.
Even on Friday and Saturday nights, which are often “mouvementé”?
Kate, I had a friend whose family member was the CBC Montreal newsreader on weekends, and she worked Saturday until midday (1 I think was the last local read). She was the only journalist in the building for the English radio all weekend (just tech people to run the equipment), other than the three-hour-a-day morning show host and guests. Sometimes journalists would be doing pieces that had to be done over the weekend (covering some event), but it was usually a call-in if it was a breaking story, or a French journalist. But since there was no local news to air anything on, no talk show, nothing, why have anyone in? If it didn’t happen while the newsreader was in or the morning show, there was no way to hear about it, as all the shows were recorded and the news at the top of the hour was from Toronto. This was in the late aughts, and I’m sure it’s worse now. No reason the web person has to be in Montreal to rewrite R-C stories, so it’s really just TV, with an evening newscast at 6 on Saturday and 11. They are definitely out getting stories, but how many are just subbed national stories, sports, weather, etc? At the time it was not great.
How soon till we have drones watching events and AI reporters describing them?
Oh by the way, responding to an earlier comment by MarcG: I do mostly stick to incidents on the island of Montreal, but sometimes things happen which are big local stories, like the shooting of Nooran Rezayi in Longueuil, the bus that drove into the Laval daycare – and the killing of Bobby the Greek, which is part of local gang activity.
I also recall posting two stories from Quebec City – the mosque shooting, and that nutbar who stabbed people with a sword on Halloween a couple of years ago. But things like the ins and outs of local politics in other cities, nope.
Meezly 12:24 on 2025-10-05 Permalink
There was also a sizeable contingent of cyclists yesterday supporting Palestine that seemed to go north along Ave du Parc and turned east onto Villeneuve. Guessing they went back south along St-Urbain?
MarcG 13:41 on 2025-10-05 Permalink
I had to click on that Nuns’ Island link because it’s so discordant to my prejudices – the well-heeled showing solidarity with the vulnerable!? Maybe they want more social housing on the island to prevent low-end projects being developed near them? Maybe it was the residents of the less-wealthy neighbourhood at the southern end? Nope, Legault recently bought a condo there so the fine folks from FRAPRU and CACV organized a protest just for him.
Ian 18:55 on 2025-10-05 Permalink
Gee and here I thought with his Mom in a home Legault might move back in to her place in Ste Anne de Bellevue
/s
Kate 19:10 on 2025-10-05 Permalink
Legault’s ancestry goes back generations in Ste‑Anne and environs. He’s a real West Island boy.