Oh joy. We’re going to have a third independence referendum soon.
Updates from February, 2026 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Headliners have been announced for Osheaga, taking place from July
4131 to August 2 this year.EmilyG
I think it’s July 31.
Kate
Quite possibly.
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Kate
August 2021, three men were shot dead and two were injured in RDP. (First link is from that day.) Tuesday, Dardy Lavaud, who was under age when he fired his shots, was handed an adult sentence of 14 years. Lavaud was already doing time for shootings in 2022 (link from the time).
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Kate
Radio-Canada has an audio report about how the new Ensemble administration of Côte‑des‑Neiges‑NDG has big plans for the Empress Theatre.
Filed under “I’ll believe it when I see it.”
DeWolf
This seems to be exactly the same plan launched by the previous PM administration in 2024.
maggie rose
Sorry, as a very long-term resident of NDG, all I can say is lol. With rainbows & unicorns thrown in for good measure.
Mark Côté
Frustration and disappointment at that building sitting there and slowly rotting is probably the single biggest shared sentiment amongst all NDGers.
Kevin
Mark
I’ve lived in NDG for most of my adult life, and I don’t know anyone under the age of 55 who remembers being inside the Empress.
I’d say most people I know who live in this neighbourhood haven’t even heard the name and just think of it as the empty building across from a park, if they think of it at all.jeather
That was the movie theatre I first went to without an adult dropping me off. If I am not mistaken, I saw Green Card, and we snuck in chocolate milk. I am under 55!
Taylor C. Noakes
Another demonstration of the city’s supreme inability to be imaginative when it comes to historic preservation
They could have applied to the HSMBC 30 years ago and got federal money to fix the roof and plug any holes. They did nothing because a former mayor who worked in the real estate business convinced everyone the building was a write off and would fall apart on its own
Ian
Well yes, exactly. It was supposed to be earmarked as a development opportunity even as recently as when Sue Montgomery stuck her nose in where it apparently ‘didn’t belong’.
bob
I used to go to the Empress fairly often when it was Cinema V (no one I know had ever heard of “the Empress”). They used to do Rocky Horror regularly. It was there and the Seville, the latter which actually was allowed to decay until its roof collapsed.
Mark Côté
@Kevin I guess I’m just judging from Facebook groups, where many other topics (say, bike lanes/parking) are incredibly divisive. Mentions of plans for the Empress just result in a collective sigh.
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Kate
My trawl though news links Tuesday found a press release about how Eaton Centre is to
open anotherrebrand their food court as Les Terrasses as “a tribute to the iconic shopping complex” by that name, which occupied roughly the same space as Eaton Centre does now (from 1976 to 1987, according to the Wikipedia piece on the existing complex) – essentially obliterating the extension of little Victoria Street from de Maisonneuve down to Ste‑Catherine.Les Terrasses was a confusing labyrinth of levels and misdirections of which it was said that if you got into it, it was hard to find your way out. I guess that makes it iconic.
DeWolf
People seem to have fond memories of Les Terrasses. I never experienced it myself but even if it was confusing, at least it was memorable, which is more that can be said about many places these days.
Also this isn’t “another” food court per se — it’s the existing one in the basement that is being renovated and rebranded. The vendors will be roughly the same as before (more conventional fast food) rather than upmarket like Time Out.
Kate
For me Les Terrasses was mostly memorable because a friend worked in the pet store, back when pet stores used to sell animals as well as supplies, so I used to stop by now and then to say hi and look at the critters.
Even though I’d been there often, I couldn’t reliably always find the store on first try, or find my way straight out. Apparently there was a theory of mall architecture at the time that it was good to confuse people by making them pass by every storefront before they found their way, so that they might buy more stuff. The confusing aspect certainly worked effectively at Les Terrasses.
But yes, it was sort of memorable for that reason. I remember feeling it was slightly sleazy to delete it, and give us the blander wannabe‑Toronto‑ness of an Eaton Centre.
Nicholas
Speaking of old restaurants and Victoria Street, everyone should go see the restaurant exhibit at the McCord, on through October. Lots of old menus and various tableware, and some themed sections on Expo restaurants, restaurants with shows/costumes, some other things. Lots of nostalgia even though most were before my time, and my mom just loved it. Very well done.
Blork
I remember Les Terrasses, and yeah, it was a nightmare to navigate. I hated going there.
Except for the kiosk in the food court (bottom level) called “Dutchburger” that I liked. They made “burgers” that were tubular, like hot dogs. I was so poor at the time that I could only indulge in maybe one Dutchburger a month (they probably sold for less than two bucks each) but I managed to go through six or seven of them before the whole place closed down. I never saw another Dutchburger joint anywhere else, before nor since.
mare
It’s rare to hear something positive with Dutch in it. I’m sorry I missed it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a burger that matches that description in the Netherlands.
I must confess I get lost in the current Eaton centre too. Because there are two structures, side by side and they’re not connected on all levels. I’ve been searching for stores there recently. And for the non-gendered bathroom I wanted to show to an enby friend. Couldn’t find it so we ended up in the *very nice* bathroom on the 9th floor. It was deserted so they snuck with me into the ladies room. (It turned out the non-gendered bathroom was closed because of a renovation, but it was unclear if it was the actual bathroom that was reconstructed, or just the adjacent space.)Kate
Sounds like a kafta kebab, except they’re not Dutch.
bob
I loved the design of Les Terasses. It was triangular, with each side of the triangle offset by a third of a floor (whence the name), so that once you went around the triangle you were one storey above or below where you started. It always made sense to me. There were elevators, and escalators, but mostly lots of stairs connecting the levels – I can’t imagine it would be up to code today. There are photos of the interior, but you can’t get a sense of what it was like from them. Very early 70’s vibe, almost sci-fi, like someone’s idea of a mall in the not to distant future. I think the levels were more an artifact of a certain kind of brutalist influence than an intentional attempt to keep people lost (that kind of complexity is seen, e.g., in Habitat 67 or UQAM), but that intention is certainly on display in its replacement and other malls.
As to the new foot court, thank god someone is filling the need for more Thai Express and Subway, so that I don’t need to walk more than 50 meters to acquire enough sodium to make Lake Erie into an inland sea.
Kate
bob, you’re right about the triangular form. I dislike architecture that uses 60° angles – I always feel uneasy taking the stairs at de Castelnau metro, because they’re angled like that, and the stairs at one of the entrances to St‑Henri metro are similar. Bad feng shui?
Blork
This is not a reliable memory, but I recall Les Terrasses as being very cavernous and dark, with no natural light (no windows) as if the entire thing were underground. Was it really like that, or is my memory distorting over time?
Joey
Sounds a bit like the random half-levels and staircases to nowhere in the Cours Mont-Royal…
Blork
BTW, mare, the only genderless washroom I’m aware of in the Eaton Centre is the one by the Time Out market over on the (former) Les Ailes side. You go up the escalator to Time Out and then go ahead and to the right (1:00 if you think of straight ahead as 12:00).
Speaking of gender, washrooms, and Dutch, a number of years ago I went to the men’s room at Schiphol airport and was quietly standing at one of a line of urinals doing my business when a woman with a mop and bucket on wheels came around the corner. She proceeded to mop the floor, including around and between my feet while I was still whizzing. It was a bit intrusive, but I thought “they’re Dutch, this is normal.” 🙂
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Kate
Le Devoir has a fascinating interview with a French academic teaching in Quebec about the destruction of Corridart 50 years ago. Mathilde Barraband sees it as a late gesture of Catholic authoritarianism via the person of Jean Drapeau, who had the entire 6 km of artworks installed along Sherbrooke Street torn down and carted away, two days before the Olympic Games opened.
Tom
I look forward to looking at pictures of it in the upcoming exhibit at the McCord Museum…
H. John
“Montreal After Dark (Nighttime Regulation and the Pursuit of a Global City)” the book by Matthieu Caron mentioned here dedicates one of its chapters to Corridart: Censorship, Repression, and the 1976 Summer Olympic Games.
Fascinating book about policing under Drapeau in Montreal pointing out that “between the mid-1950s and 1970, Montréal’s police budget grew from $9.6 million to $49.7 million — an increase of more than 400 per cent and far outpacing overall municipal spending.”
Kate
H. John, do you think one of the reasons for the budget inflation may have been the 1969 police strike?
H. John
@Kate By 1969 and the police and firefighters strikes the increase had already started.
A mid 1950’s crime enquiry, the Caron commission, started Drapeau on his clean up the police crusade.
https://ville.montreal.qc.ca/memoiresdesmontrealais/lenquete-caron
In 1960 he headed to Europe to hire two consultants, one from the London Met, and one from the Paris police force to reorganize Montreal’s police.
Caron writes “Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the city invested heavily in police professionalization. European consultants from London and Paris reorganized the department, streamlined command structures and introduced new standards of training and discipline — reforms similar to those underway in Chicago and Los Angeles. Hundreds of new officers were hired and night patrols increased.”
In reference to the ’69 strike, The Canadian Encyclopaedia says:
“In the late 1960s, Montreal was an increasingly violent city where protests were common. The police were contending with Canada’s highest homicide rate. A spate of violent, armed bank robberies and violence between organized crime gangs rocked the city. A terrorist bombing campaign orchestrated by the Front de libération du Quebec (FLQ) was also ongoing between 1963 and 1971. The FLQ conducted about 200 bombings, including one against mayor Jean Drapeau’s house. In addition, civil unrest was rampant. In early 1969, Montreal experienced two major protests: the Sir George Williams Affair in February and the Mouvement McGill-Français demonstrations in March. (See also Quiet Revolution.) Tensions were also high in the city at the time because of the ongoing St. Leonard School Crisis on the status of bilingual schools (see Gendron Commission). Then prime minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau later commented that the Montreal police had been “pretty badly battered around” and that they had the toughest police job in Canada at the time.”
https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/murray-hill-riot
Caron suggests “Moments of unrest were not daily occurrences, but they created a climate in which constant budget increases appeared necessary.”
Kevin
As an aside — does anyone have a recommendation for a good historical book about how various growing cities/societies have successfully battled corruption?
H. John
@Kevin
The Quest for Good Governance: How Societies Develop Control of Corruption – Alina Mungiu-Pippidi
Anti-corruption in History: From Antiquity to the Modern Era – Edited by Ronald Kroeze, André Vitória, and Guy Geltner
Kate
H. John – I don’t know how I forgot about the FLQ bombings. Thanks for the retrospect.
DeWolf 16:12 on 2026-02-24 Permalink
Funny you should see it like that since all the news is about PSPP backpedaling on their referendum promises. It wasn’t long ago that he was saying they’d hold a referendum within the first year of being elected, now he’s saying within the first mandate… if things settle down with Trump… and after a big public consultation about when to have a referendum.
Support for independence is as low as ever and in the current context, I can see a lot of voters getting cold feet over the PQ. The Conservatives might actually eat up a lot of the support from soft nationalists.
Still, anything can happen over the next eight months…
Kate 16:16 on 2026-02-24 Permalink
He does say he means to do it within his first mandate – he’s assuming the PQ will win, because everyone else thinks so too.
Kevin 16:26 on 2026-02-24 Permalink
Angus Reid last week: Separation is a hard no from 50% of Quebecers.
https://angusreid.org/quebec-separatism-parti-quebecois-referendum-separation/
Survey size 939 people, Feb. 2-6.
We’re going back to “If you vote PQ, you’re voting for a referendum” as the main message from three parties this summer.
Joey 18:00 on 2026-02-24 Permalink
I think I saw a poll today that showed Carney’s approval rating in Quebec is 65%. With Trump’s ongoing descent into new kinds of insanity it’s absurd to think a majority of Quebecers would choose to separate but PSSP has painted himself into a corner…
Ian 19:48 on 2026-02-24 Permalink
Especially with the open overtures the MAGA assimilationsists are making towards Alberta. That might fly in Calgary but I’m fairly certain the idea of achieving independence only to be officially re-colonized by the US would give even the fiercest sovereigntist pause for thought.
Kate 19:57 on 2026-02-24 Permalink
Some may actually believe that they would get a fairer deal from the US than from evil Ottawa, which has been colonizing and patronizing them since 1867.
Taylor C. Noakes 20:49 on 2026-02-24 Permalink
I’d take that with a pound of salt
He’ll campaign on it to secure the sovereginist vote, then in year 1 it’ll be “let’s get settled in first”, year 2 there’ll be ‘unforseen challenges but we’re still committed etc”, year 3 will be filled with distractions both positive and negative (“see how good we’re doing about X, be mindful about Y”), and then in year 4 “it’ll be irresponsible for us to do that now without the winning conditions, I care too much to put Quebec through that etc.”
I interviewed Francine Pelletier recently… her feeling was that losing a third referendum would be exceptionally painful, potentially lead to the collapse of the PQ as a viable party. I don’t think PSPP will risk it
mare 20:57 on 2026-02-24 Permalink
They will hold a sondage about “if they should hold a referendum” and then say that, in light of the current situation the majority of Quebec people think it’s not a good idea to hold one. The same tactic as several parties did with abolishing the FPTP voting system, both on the federal and provincial level.
Running on it and then backtracking, it works because people have a very short memory.
bob 03:22 on 2026-02-25 Permalink
I think @Taylor and @mare have got it, and should start a political consultancy.
Uatu 11:44 on 2026-02-25 Permalink
Can I just get a GP please?
Kate 13:36 on 2026-02-26 Permalink
When Quebec separates we’ll all have GPs, because so many Quebec doctors will return to live in our independent paradise.