Québec solidaire is pressing Premier Fréchette to apply for her share of federal money for public transit to repair and renovate the metro.
Updates from April, 2026 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Restaurants along Duluth Street are being forced to close at 10 pm despite talk about sustaining nightlife in the city.
Chris
Just the terrasse, not the whole restaurant I believe.
Nightlife can proceed indoors surely.
Kate
In the summer, an outdoor terrasse makes all the difference.
DeWolf
From what I understand, there is a very vocal group of people around Duluth that have been complaining about noise since the beginning of the pandemic. They managed to cancel a number of festivals (eg the Brazilian fest) and musical performances along the streets during the summertime pedestrianization, and I can only assume they’re the reason the borough has imposed this 10pm curfew.
It’s a bit absurd because anywhere else on the Plateau, streetside terrasses are allowed to operate until 11pm on weekdays and until midnight on weekends. I can understand restricting music (which is already banned on streetside terrasses) but seriously, this isn’t a country village. Let people linger outdoors in the few warm months we have.
SMD
I can confirm that the Brazilian festival moved to Parc Lafontaine last year, in part due to repeated noise complaints and legal threats from a resident on a street close to Duluth. Just a few cranky people can spoil things for so many others.
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Kate
The SQ is to team up with the three major metropolitan police forces to fight extortion faced by businesses in the area. Protection rackets have been on the rise for years.
DeWolf
The article in La Presse on this topic had an interesting detail: the police say that until now, extortion was limited to businesses that had criminal connections, whereas now it’s all sorts of random businesses that are being targeted. And it’s usually teenagers recruited online who are being used as the muscle.
This reminds me of when I was in Palermo and I saw shops that had “Adiopizzo” stickers on their windows, meaning they were boycotting mafia protection. It seemed pretty significant considering the city’s airport is named after two anti-mafia prosecutors who were assassinated.
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Kate
In what feels like an advertorial (actually, I think it is – en collaboration avec la Ville de Montréal), the Journal gives us some images and stats about the city’s spring cleaning.
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Kate
Hydro-Quebec is hiding part of its logo to jinx the Lightning, in a gesture of hockey fervor after the Canadiens went 3‑2 Wednesday night on its series against that team.
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Kate
Montreal is the most expensive town in Quebec for families, according to a new IRIS study. There’s also a grille for households of other sizes, according to which I see I should move to Saguenay or Trois‑Rivières.
IRIS also has a grille showing what you need to earn to rise out of poverty in Quebec in 2026.
Nicholas
$42,000 after tax for a single person, and $89,000 after tax for a family of four? I know housing is up, but transport is still cheap if you don’t get a car, and other expenses aren’t that high.
Joey
Sort of dishonest for IRIS not to look at the median earnings by town… this is written as if lots of us are thisclose to pulling the trigger on that move to Sept-Iles.
jeather
Biggest city is the most expensive city to live in, news at 11. (Though Gatineau and Sept-Îles are pretty close.)
Jim
Montreal is expensive mainly because of housing. Sept-Îles can be as bad or worse because of transport/car dependency. Trois-Rivières is consistently the cheapest in the report. I think I stick to living in beautiful Montreal.
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Kate
Violent acts toward healthcare workers are increasingly common. La Presse also looked at the growing number of hospital patients with drug habits.
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Kate
CBC asks whether it’s city policies that keep some buildings vacant and prey to repeated fires.
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Kate
All four lines of the metro were stopped Thursday morning after a pepper gas incident at Mont‑Royal station and some kind of incident on a train. Service resumed around 8:30.
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Kate
Bike-sharing continues to rise in popularity in Quebec, as Bixi expands into additional towns. Quebec City also has its own system, àvélo.
In general, cycling has been on the rise, a Vélo‑Québec report showing that growing numbers of Quebec residents use a bike for serious commuting and travel, and not just for kicks.
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Kate
CBC looks into a group that matches people up, not for romance or sex, but for cohousing. Idealistically, they’re hoping to create arrangements cosier than simple rent‑sharing.
CC
Nice idea but I feel it would put too many expectations on me. At a romantic ‘speed dating’ event I’d just be committing to see the person again sometime. This is a whole other level.
Kate
I knew some people online who embarked on a conscious cohousing project in the early noughts. They mentioned endless meetings about principles and ideals and so forth, then they moved in. Eventually they divorced, and I don’t know whether the project continues or if either of them is still in it – but I’d doubt it.
Cohousing is very much subject to the tragedy of the commons. All it takes is one bad actor for the whole thing to collapse.
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Kate
Oh here we go. No sooner has Mark Carney announced a project to spend billions of dollars training Canadian youth in construction trades than our new premier states that it’s a provincial jurisdiction, meaning that it won’t happen here, the money will be siphoned into arcane Quebec priorities, or the project will be so encrusted with Quebec bureaucratic knobjobbery that the whole thing will fall down of its own weight.
Joey
What’s the issue (besides Ottawa once again announcing national programs in extremely well established areas of provincial jurisdiction)? Frechette seems to be pretty open to actually taking the money and spending it via existing Quebec programs. Would it be better for the feds to try and set up something in parallel?
bob
Frechette, like every other premier, is open to taking the money and spending it on whatever the hell she wants.
SMD
On the other hand, Canada just won the vote to host the new Defence Bank, so if we’re lucky we’ll get all those war profiteering jobs right here in Montreal! /sarcasm https://www.lapresse.ca/affaires/2026-04-29/future-banque-de-la-defense/le-canada-obtient-le-siege-social.php
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Kate
The Montreal General is reported to be planning to install an AI in its bathrooms which will remind workers to wash their hands.
MarcG
Won’t be long before it becomes a background noise that is just as easily ignored as any other reminder-without-consequence.
Joey
I was pretty cynical about this until I read that it seems to have worked really well in Ottawa:
L’outil s’est avéré efficace à l’Hôpital d’Ottawa. Dans une unité d’essai, les soignants ont été près de 19 % plus nombreux à se laver les mains adéquatement après son implantation en 2023, indique le centre hospitalier. En 15 mois, les éclosions ont diminué de plus de 90 %, précise-t-il.
MarcG
I spoke before reading the article – this is way more than an audio reminder in the bathrooms. Video here https://vimeo.com/1125186766.
Uatu
The IR scan makes it look like handwashing is being enforced by the Predator lol.
Also I wonder if it’ll evolve to tell you to wash up after touching your phone because according to our training session from infection control cell phones are apparently rife with fecal matter.bob
And this, friends, is why the AI “bubble” will not burst. First, you can replace an “employees must wash hands” sign with a scanning IR 3D laser used in autonomous mobile robotics mated to a neural network trained on the dynamics of hygeine, and second, you can get the goods on employees who need the reminding. This is not a reminder, it is enforcement, and the enforcement goes well beyond no-brainers like hand washing.
bob
It will evolve to tell you to report to a disciplinary meeting, where you will be fired and replaced with a Roomba.
dhomas
I’ve worked in IT for a while. IMO, the AI “bubble” will likely burst at some point. There’s just too much money being invested (gambled) and only so much possible revenue. Compare it to the dot com bubble. Some companies will eventually go bust; some will lose market cap; others will thrive. But AI will not go away, just like the internet did not.
This particular application of AI seems to be a good use for it. I like to see these kinds of projects. It’s much more pleasant than the “let’s turn the world into a giant surveillance state” type projects (I’m looking at you, Palantir).
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Kate
The city is beginning a study of its Canada geese to work out their local life cycle, beginning with a couple of islands in the Back River.
But, “À long terme, la Ville parie sur le réaménagement de ses parcs pour les rendre moins attrayants pour les volatiles qui apprécient les espaces gazonnés à proximité de cours d’eau.” What’s next, paving them over?
MarcG
They could let the lawns re-wild themselves – it’s amazing how quickly it happens.
Kate
Wild lawns near the riverside might be more attractive to cobra chickens, who presumably hang out in places like that because they’re full of things to eat. Whereas a manicured lawn is probably pretty sterile if not outright toxic.
MarcG
I think that they mostly eat grass so are drawn to big open patches of it.
Kate
You’re right. I thought they might nosh on bugs and worms, but they seem to be thoroughly vegetarian.
bob
I have occasionally seen geese on the canal. I keep a wide berth because despite a certain gracefulness they are terrifying monsters.
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Kate
The STM has extended its metro loitering ban for another year.
CE
I wish they would ban smoking on the platforms and pissing in the entrances.
Kate
Shoe dropped: On metro platforms they used to have one big city map on each side, and beside the map, the metro bylaws in fairly small print. I don’t know whether any stations still have these maps, but I remember reading some of it while waiting, quite a long list of things you’re not allowed to do, and I’m almost certain there has always been a rule against loitering. That can’t be new.
Anyway, authority and law enforcement love rules against loitering because it’s widely interpretable and lets you remove people that you find undesirable in any way.
CE, those things are almost certainly banned. The problem is the ban is not enforced.
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