Montreal is currently at risk of becoming “la sale” as commentators as varied as Taylor C. Noakes and the Journal’s Samuel Roberge are exasperated by its current state of filth.
Updates from April, 2026 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Weekend notes from Le Devoir, La Presse, CityCrunch, Journal de Montréal, CultMTL.Will people be permitted to pray openly at the Chemin de Croix procession on Friday? A law has just been passed making public prayer illegal. Stay tuned.
CityCrunch has chocolatier suggestions.
TVA gives us one note on driving concerns while La Presse seems to think weekend driving will be a difficult time.
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Kate
The CAQ has succeeded in passing an evil law making union dues voluntary.
(What are those yellow lapel flowers on everyone in that photo?)
And another evil law banning street prayers and prayer rooms in CEGEPs and universities has just been passed on the day before the Good Friday procession.
Hospitals and airports always have chapels. Will these also be forbidden?
H. John
The lapel pins are for the Canadian Cancer Society.
Their website says”wear a daffodil pin to show your support for Canadians living with cancer and let them know that no one has to face cancer alone”
Kate
Thank you, H. John. First I’ve heard about it.
Kevin
I’m biased, but anyone who gives up a union will end up poor and worse off.
We’re in an age where you go shopping in a store and face prices tailored to your loyalty-card and Facebook ID (even if you don’t have an account, they have and sell your data).
Anyone who wants to disempower their union and thinks they can get a better deal from a company that knows infinitely more, well, they might as well just chew off their leg, take a hammer to their teeth, and then get started digging a grave.
bob
The Rand Fornula be damned.
Mozai
Does banning street prayers mean banning street preachers too? Will we see an end to the people threatening me with damnation unless I conform to whatever their personal tastes are, or will they still get a pass if they have a permission slip from Jesus Christ?
CE
What stores are tailoring prices based on a Facebook ID?
Ephraim
CE Instacart in the US was actually changing prices based on many factors.
Kevin
Dynamic pricing is everywhere.
Kate
Mozai, I wonder if they’ll arrest the Éternel Jésus Christ guy off the corner of University and Ste‑Catherine. Will his sign count as speech? I’ve heard of protest signs being counted as hate speech.
saintlaurent
> Dynamic pricing is everywhere.
As experienced by anyone who has ever purchased a plane or train ticket, gone to a matinee movie, taken advantage of a senior discount, taken an Uber in a rainstorm, stayed in a hotel or Airbnb during peak tourist season, purchased a concert ticket on the secondary market, bought fresh produce out of season, day-old bread at the bakery, or a frozen turkey before Thanksgiving.
jeather
Dynamic pricing is about individual pricing, not discounting things for everyone.
Kate, they used to sell daffodils for cancer research, I remember buying them before I could easily look up which plants are bad for cats.
saintlaurent
> Dynamic pricing is about individual pricing, not discounting things for everyone.
Individualized pricing is what you’re upset about, and is distinguished from dynamic pricing, which has been around for a *very* long time. They are not synonymous.
Ephraim
There is a difference between Yield Management (hotels, airplanes, etc) and dynamic individual pricing. The price changes according to availability, but it doesn’t change based on what postal code you are in, it changes based on a model of how many seats are left. It might vary based on what country you are in, it might vary based on what connection you may…. for example, YYZ might be more expensive that YTZ.
Should I pay more because I live in H3Y, H3Z, H4A, H4B? These are Westmount. What about H1V, H1W, H1T? HoMa. Are they more price conscious or less price conscious?
We already know that some website have higher prices if you are using an Apple browser
Kevin
Saintlaurent
My bad, I assumed that everyone understood that the term dynamic pricing meant prices being changed for individuals based on the data collected by companies.Ian
I’ve worked union and non-union jobs and I really think it needs to be said that if you don’t have a union, you are probably getting screwed.
Even stupid “office norms” like not discussing your salary are meant to disempower you. In a union you know precisely what you should be earning based on your (regulated) job title, skills, experience, and seniority. In a tech office it’s how much the seniors like you, how much of a shark you were in negotiating your initial contract, and good luck.
Ian
Also @Ephraim the city charges more for my street parking permit becasue I live in H2V, but I suspect that’s not the location-based consumer pricing you meant. Certainly groceries are more expensive in Westmount than HoMa. That said, I have to admit I was suprised the new Maxi on Bernard in Outremont does price matching.
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Kate
TVA covers a stabbing on Queen Mary Thursday afternoon, including a photo of blood drops on a copy of the Journal de Montréal on the ground. I could feel the photographer’s “aha!” when they caught that one.
Would you call the corner of Queen Mary and Trans Island part of Côte‑des‑Neiges? I’d’ve said Snowdon, putting the boundary around Victoria, but it’s not a hard border, obviously.
Ian
I would’ve said Victoria, too.
R T
One point in favour of Victoria is that the IGM results in a number of streets that either end at Victoria or dead end in the block east of Victoria, meaning these streets are connected to Snowdon but not CDN.
Kate
The IGM = Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal, which takes up a chunk of land northeast* of the corner of Victoria and Queen Mary.
*Montreal orientation, of course
MarcG
Anyone know the story behind that funny Circle Rd development that feels like TMR?
Kate
That’s a good question, MarcG. A quick Google gave me this: “A giant real estate experiment by a development syndicate headed by Sir Herbert Holt, one of Canada’s larger-than-life personalities from the last century. Holt, who was a key figure in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railroad, also became the president of the Royal Bank, turning it into one of Canada’s largest.”
But how the syndicate got hold of a piece of land like that is not explained. I’d bet they got it off a religious order, but I do not know.
Janet
My boyfriend used to live on Circle Road but doesn’t know how it came about. A little more digging revealed a little more info. Kate’s surmise is right. https://happenings.washu.edu/event/virtual_walking_tour_of_circle_road_a_vestige_of_montreals_golden_age_with_norm_spatz_ab_70_march_72
Kate
Aha! “the purchase of the land from the sisters of the Congrégation de Notre Dame” – the Villa Maria land is contiguous, so it may once have been part of the same domain. Thank you, Janet.
MarcG
Joey
Queen-Mary and Trans-Island is about as dead centre Snowdon as it gets.
Kate
MarcG, interesting maps, thank you. But Queen Mary and Decarie used to have tram lines on them, not trains.
MarcG
Ah, I see that Decarie is labelled “Montreal Park & Island Railway” which was a tram company, but Queen Mary is labelled “CPR” – did they run trams as well?
Kate
I doubt it. My guess would be that the CPR had a right-of-way there that was never developed.
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Kate
François Legault made his final speech as premier Thursday in the National Assembly.
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Kate
The family of slain Meriem Boundaoui had their moment in court Thursday at the killer’s sentencing hearing to talk about the family’s loss.
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Kate
Montreal dentist Terence Yacovitch is in the Gazette on Thursday, talking to Bill Brownstein about how his patients don’t have easy access to his practice any more, between road work, installation of a new bike path, and inevitable reduction in parking spaces. He says he’s losing his clients because they can’t get to his office any more.
Yacovitch’s practice is on Mont‑Royal at Esplanade. I’ve never found it hard to get to. If you’re looking for a good dentist, go see either of the two Doctors Yacovitch (father and daughter) – they’re great.
Blork
He’s been my dentist for more than 25 years. He has performed miracles inside the choas of my mouth.
Besides removing the parking spots for a bike path, they also built a median in the middle of the street, separating east and west bound traffic. But that median is completely unnecessary and makes no sense at all. A median for a median’s sake, and you can see that it’s failing because they need to mark it with cones because so many cars and snow plows were cracking into it in winter when it’s hard to see, especially since it doesn’t even go in a straight line.
I was there last week and took a photo of the median: https://www.blork.org/pix/median-mont-royal.jpg
Joey
The construction on that stretch was a total disaster last year (and is about to start up again) – days upon days of nothing happening, shoddy work leading up to winter that has been documented here. But at least that’s somewhat temporary and kind of understandable, since the underground infrastructure needed to be completely replaced. What’s worse is the street design, which seems totally insane for that stretch – all kinds of easy-to-miss concrete medians that have shrunk the lanes so that trucks and buses struggle to get through, and there is no room for anyone to stop a vehicle between St-Urbain and Parc, which is critical for the small independent businesses located on that stretch. There just isn’t room for a REV-style bike lane on both sides of the street. I know connecting the Cote-Ste-Catherine bike path to St-Urbain was a priority for the city, but there were much more viable alternatives, i.e., improving the existing paths on Villeneuve or Laurier. I guess we’ll wait and see what the finished product looks like, but it definitely feels like Projet Montreal at its absolute worst.
Also, this is insane: “As for the gripe regarding poor delivery access for many merchants in the area, Norris’s plan is to create a new delivery zone on the other side of Mont-Royal next to the Maxi store.”
Joey
I assume they had to put the median in because the lanes are so narrow that you can’t just rely on drivers staying on their side of the line. For years there has been an issue with drivers headed north toward Mt-Royal on Esplanade ignoring the signs indicating that only a right turn is permitted (if you’re headed west from there, you basically have to continue along Mt-Royal to Clark or St-Laurent and turn on Villeneuve or head south down-St-Urbain until Pine); no matter what they installed – planters, big yellow and black signs, etc. – drivers would always find a way to make an illegal left turn, hence the median (though as your pic shows, there’s ample room for drivers to try some BS)… They should’ve put the south-side bike lane in the park. Also, in summer tour buses and event buses usually park there, no idea where they’ll go now.
mare
He’s my dentist too, and I always go there by bike, rain or shine. That said, the bike path is fine but apparently they started building it without any forewarning and it took way longer than expected (as it always does) because they found unexpected (as they always do) problems underneath the road bed.
Like @Blork wrote the median is also weird and a very unusual road feature in Montreal for a narrow road, just to force traffic from Jeanne-Mance and De l‘Esplanade to turn West. Hard to see after a recent snowfall because it appears to be just a little remnant of a passing snowplough. I can see cars (but also cyclists) trying to barge through and be unpleasantly surprised.Ian
His daughter was my kids’ dentist until they were old enough to see my dentist, who doesn’t treat kids. I live in the area though so we just walk over.
The few times I ever drove I would just park at the Provigo a block away (shhh) and do groceries while the kids hot their teeth cleaned.
I know finding parking is tricky in Mile End and acknowledge that the roadwork on Mont Royal has been oerplexing, but I find it hard to accept that Yacovitch is bleeding patients.
Nicholas
It’s great to see that in this laïque season of remembrance and togetherness we can have Blork criticizing a PM project and Ian saying it’s fine. And apparently this entire blog goes to this dental practice. What a wondrous thing Kate has created. Praise be.
Kate
I don’t know whether mare and Blork recommended Dr. Y to each other, but I didn’t hear about him from either. A non‑blog friend who lived near his practice recommended him to me.
Blork
It appears that Yacovitch Dental is the central mass around which the Montreal City Weblog revolves.
GC
I can’t imagine I’d give up a good dentist just because of difficult parking. (Back when I owned a car, I mean…) Maybe because I generally only need to go twice a year, anyway. I suppose if you have children or special needs, it might be more often?
GC
Actually, I see now it’s about accessibility and not just parking. Different considerations!
Thierry
My wife and I have been patients of Dr Yac and his crew for over 38 years .. I am a cane user these days, my wife uses a walker.. this last year has been hard for both of us to see the doctor and his hygienist… yes that construction project makes absolutely no sense. I was an urban planner, my wife a social worker. We live two blocks away from Dr Yacovitch.. but Mountain Royal is our “barrier” to direct access! Who thought up this new layout? Dangerous for all of we who are not agile! Yes dangerous with bikes flashing past with no respect for we oldsters! The city authorities must please return our neighborhood to its old charm and SAFETY!!
Meezly
My daughter sees Dr Katy Yacovitch because my dentist doesn’t treat kids under 12. I knew it might’ve been a factor, but had no idea the clinic has lost so many patients due to the road construction and the current state of Ave Mont-Royal. We live within walking distance so never had to think about parking. I’ll be mindful about referring neighbourhood acquaintances to this clinic as well!
It’s a shame. As a cyclist, I use that part of Mont-Royal Ave a fair amount and do find it safer now with the new bike paths, esp going east when so many cars are turning right onto St-Urbain. But I understand this is not ideal for less mobile pedestrians.
I also noticed STM removed the eastbound bus stop near Jeanne-Mance. This means that northbound passengers disembarking the 80 at the corner will now need to cross the Ave du Parc intersection to catch their bus. Buses rarely wait even when they see passengers getting off the other bus and are obviously needing to make a connection.
Anton
Not every one on this blog. Never knew this dentist, mines not far on the south side of that park in the Transat building.
Meezly
The Venus Flowers’ story seems incomplete. The article reported that they “had a staggering financial loss of 85 per cent over the same period”, but never mentioned the owner had converted half the front section of the shop to an ice cream parlour (Vache Glacée) and opened it right after the road construction barriers were put up!
At the time I thought it was terrible timing, as clearly the owner was hoping to attract people from Parc Jeanne-Mance/Mont-Royal, but with the barriers you couldn’t cross the street easily! There was also established competition with nearby Dairy Queen and super popular Iconoglace. So was the “staggering loss” purely a result of the roadwork situation, or partly due to a bad business decision converting half your flower shop to an ice cream counter?
With Beauty’s, I haven’t been there in over a decade as their food is mediocre and overpriced. If I want a good breakfast I go a little further to Bagel Etc. Beauty’s clientele seems to be made up primarily of nostalgic former-Plateau types driving in from the suburbs, or tourists. I don’t know anyone living in the Plateau who go to Beauty’s very regularly because there are so many other better breakfast/lunch options in the area. No wonder their business is now taking a hit.
Joey
@Meezly, I had a long chat with John at Venus a couple of months ago. The huge drop in business has nothing to do with the ice cream shop and everything to do with the fact that his store was dead centre in the middle of a major construction site. He’s not the only one – all the shops on that stretch of Mount-Royal suffered – so far I think only the relatively new taco place has closed.
Your assessment of Beauty’s fair enough (though the fare is pretty decent, if a little pricey and not as charming IMO as Bagel Etc – but certainly better than, say, Allo Mon Coco or l’Oeufrier in the area), but they have been packed for decades. Anyway, the city seems to have gone out of its way to make it functionally impossible for them to receive deliveries, which is completely insane.
Meezly
@Joey, thanks for clarifying. A third of my houseplants are from Venus, it’s usually my go to place not only because it’s close by but their prices are reasonable compared to other plant shops in the area.
Kate
Do you know if they have hypoestes, Meezly?
Meezly
I’m pretty sure I saw them last year, but don’t know about now. I’d give them a call to be sure.
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Kate
I might be out of the loop on some things, because the top two local topics completely skidded past me on first read: gasoline is around $2 a litre now, and two branches of Walmart are going to close in June.
Also, some drivers who were oblivious to the bureaucratic change in season (this is almost as big a deal here as the clock change) were ticketed for not moving their vehicles for street cleaning.
I may need a checklist for topics I tend to miss because they don’t concern me – driving, things that affect people who live in the suburbs and shop at malls (e.g. Walmart news), sports, news affecting families, children, primary education, news affecting the disabled. Lots of things. Plenty of cultural stuff too, and not just on the francophone side.
You’re reading this blog. What do you think I’m overlooking?
Nicholas
One of the Walmarts closing is the one in Cote Des Neiges Plaza, which has been well patroned in my few visits over the years. But there is another one now across from Namur métro, and two near each other probably make little sense, so they’re keeping the one that’s unpleasant to walk to and farther from where many people live. There are also one each around the ends of the green line. So not entirely suburbs.
As for seasonal ticketing, April 1 is the date a number of seasonal bike lanes open, and often that replaces or displaces parking.
Tim
It’s too bad that the Cote Des Neiges Walmart location is closing. I always assumed that the Walmart lease allowed the mall to underatke the massive renovations of the past 10 years.
I can get so much done at Plaza Cote Des Neiges: Walmart, Canadian Tire, asian grocer, Dollarama, wood fired bagelry, cheap movies…
Ian
The Bixi stands went in last week on my block, that time of year.
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Kate
Some notes on what’s open and closed for Easter weekend. Weather forecast.
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Kate
A soi-disant maple syrup producer in St‑Chrysostome, Steve Bourdeau, has been selling adulterated maple syrup to stores all over Quebec. Labelled as pure, it’s proven to be cut with at least 50% cane sugar. No punishment is mentioned here, although I can think of a few possibilities. If you’re going to sell sirop de poteau…
Ephraim
I have just one question… why aren’t they forcing a recall? You sell counterfeit, deal with the repercussions.
Kevin
Would criticism of his actions be considered Quebec-bashing?
DeWolf
Sure enough, the can of maple syrup I got on sale for $5 from IGA awhile back is from this producer. What should I do with it?
Kate
Make something sticky?
Blork
@DeWolf: put it in a fancy glass container and sell it to a U.S. tourist for $47.
Nicholas
The authorities haven’t done anything, just the journalist. They should shut him down, confiscate all the adulterated product and fine him into bankruptcy. (Grocers should also sue him or refuse to pay.)
Tim
If you still have the can, take it back to the IGA @DeWolf.
Ian
Drive to Ste Chrysostome and pitch it through the sucrerie’s window
Joey
@DeWolf, how does it taste? Do you notice a difference?
DeWolf
@Joey, it will be a long time before I open it (if I ever do). I usually have a big reserve, habit from when I lived overseas and maple syrup was insanely expensive. There’s always one basic maple syrup in the fridge for cooking and a special syrup for dessert, drinks, etc. — that one I get directly from Chemin des Sept, a cidery that has a small sugar bush they use to tiny batches of wood-fired syrup each spring. It’s really good.
@Tim, good idea. Wonder what they’ll say. Now that I think about it, I probably got it at PA.
Kate
Isn’t Quebec maple syrup supposed to be labelled with the name of the producer?
I have 2 cans here, one of which is the classic design with a typical sucrerie name, and the other… it’s an anonymous can, which I got at Jean‑Coutu late last year because they were on sale for $5 at the cash, which now makes me wonder if it’s from the dubious guy’s batch. Says Pure Maple Syrup, but it would.
CE
Unless it’s a specific custom can (which is rare) the cans are bought in bulk and a sticker is put on the side to indicate the producer. Someone at a sugar shack told me they had started using the non-classic design because they were cheaper than the classic design (which has been in use since the 1950s).
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