Paul St-Pierre Plamondon says he’s convinced that he and his party are being spied on by the federal government.
Updates from May, 2026 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
-
Kate
-
Kate
McGill University’s student clinic is denying hormone treatments to trans U.S. students under 18, based on an American law.
There can’t be many American university students under 18 here, surely?
jeather
Under age 19. But there are some — I remember someone a bit ahead of me complaining when he started undergrad in Montreal he was underage (I assume 17) and couldn’t (legally) drink, and then when they invited him to visit grad schools in the US he was 20 and couldn’t legally drink.
CE
How many people does this actually affect? It only affects 1st year students which I imagine are about 1/4 of the undergrad population, only Americans, and only students transitioning. Statistically, there’s very much a possibility that zero people are actually affected.
Kevin
I know an 18-year-old McGill student from the USA who is trans, although I don’t know if they are the student referred to in this article.
John B
I’ve actually been going to McGill as a 1st-year undergrad this year, and there are a lot of Americans, and more than a few people visibly transitioning, even in first-year classes.
According to the article “Gimbert said the doctors at the meeting said they had already refused HRT to two U.S. students under the age of 19.” It may not be many people, but the whole point of accessibility and non-discrimination is to not discriminate against small groups.
Kate
Is it not possible that the McGill medics won’t give someone these treatments, knowing they will not be able to continue them when they return home? Rather than that they’re obeying U.S. law, I mean.
I can’t imagine it’s good for anyone to have these hormones turning on and off like a tap.
jeather
I don’t think that doctors should be not treating someone because maybe they will eventually have trouble accessing the treatment in the future. Or because a different country isn’t in support of it.
John B
My understanding is that they’re not giving the treatment because they don’t want to end up on an American list, with the implication being that they could face prosecution if they go to the US in the future.
jeather
I think it’s wrong. They cannot possibly be extradited for this, so worrying about effects on future travel is really putting the patient’s needs last. I am barely sympathetic to the doctors who don’t give legal pregnancy treatments because then they will need to fight their anti-abortion states, this is many layers of more protection.
R T
I’ve worked in student services and was trying to figure out if there was a jurisdictional hook (eg, McGill participates in some US Federal Student Aid (Title IV) programs so certain US student rights can attach to US students at McGill), but the more I read about it, the more I think this is individual healthcare providers freelancing out of concern for their own personal safety and not university policy. That concern seems pretty tenuous—the only criminal law cited in the executive order is the US’s anti-FGM law, that law applies only to those under 18, not 19, and extraterritorial application to the provider would be extremely difficult—though I understand why providers of trans healthcare would feel unsafe right now.
But if a student doesn’t tell the provider that they’re from the US, it’s not clear to me how the provider would know. I assume that they see the patient is being billed to Blue Cross, hear the accent and ask.
(It’s also extremely weird that the executive order is about those aged under 19, not 18. I’m not a lawyer, and especially not a US lawyer, but I can’t think of any other instance in the US where 18 vs 19 is an important distinction as opposed to 17/18 or, much more rarely (smoking, drinking, credit card borrowing), 20/21. Of course, the EO is most likely just typical Trump administration vibes-based BS and not actual legal interpretation.)
Nicholas
Kate, your argument about the doctors being worried that the students might lose treatment when they went home could make sense if all US students were banned. But here it’s the ones with the most time before going home being banned: students about to graduate and leave don’t have an issue, apparently.
I also wonder if this would apply to dual citizens who have lived here their entire lives. Or permanent residents? Or is it just people on student visas directly from the US? What about dual US/DE citizens who grew up in Germany and are here on a student visa and have never been to the US?
Kate
Then I wonder whether the McGill clinic is denying abortions to American students.
Chris
Hmmm, not old enough to modify one’s body with a tattoo, but somehow old enough to modify one’s body with hormone treatment…
Joey
Not old enough to modify one’s body with a tattoo, but somehow old enough to modify one’s body with an ear piercing gun…
jeather
Yes, best to stop all children from modifying their bodies with external hormones. Sorry, diabetics! Guess it’s fatal again. Sorry kids with precocial puberty, sorry kids with growth hormone deficiencies, sorry kids with underactive thyroids. sorry kids who have hormone imbalances from cancer. Can’t modify your bodies with exogenous hormones anymore.
Ian
Well put, jeather.
@Chris back in my day we were giving each other tattoos and piercings as young as 12. You must be sheltered.
-
Kate
A couple of tattoo artists are doing free Canadiens ink on fans outside the Bell Centre during home games.
-
Kate
A suspect has been named, and is being sought, in the Laval Starbucks shootout last October in which Bobby the Greek was killed.
Not only do the police want to arrest Denis Beaupré, they also know he’s bound to be at risk himself – at least he is now that police have painted a target on his back.
dwgs
The Radcan piece makes it sound like there’s a very good chance he’s already dead.
Kate
It does.
-
Kate
The worst roads in Quebec, and a separate list of the worst roads in Montreal, have been listed by CAA‑Quebec.
I was in a friend’s car recently, on Jean‑Talon. The section alongside the tracks, the southern edge of TMR, was phenomenally bad and bumpy. Ironically, just west of there, Jean‑Talon between Decarie and Côte‑des‑Neiges is the location of several luxury car dealerships. It must be amusing to take delivery of your Ferrari then have the suspension devastated before you reach l’Acadie.
That section of street doesn’t even make the CAA list.
La Presse also has some stats from CAA about flat tires and towing.
Joey
LOL that one of the streets on the Montreal list is “Sherbrooke Street Est,” which is like 10 miles long or something. Also kudos to the 1,700 residents of Saint-Hubert-de-Rivière-du-Loup on getting one of their streets on to the provincial top 10 LOL
CE
They interviewed someone from CAA on the radio this morning and he said the mayor of Rivière-du-Loup asked people to vote en masse for that street to help get the province to pay for repairs.
Joey
Voters: this is a stunt.
CAA: this is a stunt.
Politicians: this is a stunt.
Journalist: this is a stunt.
Headline writer: here are some facts.Blork
That video in the La Presse article doesn’t even show a road with bad potholes. A few times it shows a road that’s a bit rough, but those are not the kind of potholes that are causing problems.
I don’t drive much, but in recent weeks I’ve seen streets where there will be a stretch of a few car lengths where there are four or five holes so deep that if a tire went in the car would bottom out. Cars are zig-zagging like crazy to avoid them, which is dangerous.
There’s also serious potholes on the highways, such as a stretch of the 132 just east of the Champlain Bridge where there’s a line of holes that are each at least 20cm (8 inches) deep. Hit one of those on a motorcycle going 100kph and you’re as good as dead.
Jonathan
I didn’t realize Valerie was the mayor of so many other towns and cities.
-
Kate
The 11 teachers involved in the Bedford School scandal have had their teaching permits revoked. They were accused of creating an atmosphere of intimidation at the school, both of the students and of each other.
-
Kate
I don’t usually issue trigger warnings, but this description of a woman being subjected to a forced abortion by a fake doctor is horrifying. Just reading the headline and deck is more than enough. The fake doctor is on trial for trying to cause the abortion to a woman with no immigration status here. How she is doing, and whether she went on to have the baby, are not reported. Her partner has already been tried and sentenced.
-
Kate
A fire on the 24th floor of the Maestria condo tower downtown on Monday forced the evacuation of the whole thing while firefighters contained the flames to the single unit.
-
Kate
The city has adopted a new homeless camp policy which still sounds pretty vague in this piece. Where will they be tolerated? Who will oversee the boroughs to make sure they’re all acting fairly?
TVA reports that a homeless person opened fire with a pellet gun on Sunday near a kids’ playground connected to the Botanical Garden.
jeather 16:58 on 2026-05-12 Permalink
I was a bit side-eyeing him but “we have proof that the federal government has, in the past, spied on separatists, and I don’t see any reason to assume that has changed” is a fair enough argument. I think it’s a bit fear-mongering but whatever.
Kevin 17:21 on 2026-05-12 Permalink
When the proof is something that happened in the 1970s because of an informant, the accusation is a little long in the tooth.
Ian 21:22 on 2026-05-12 Permalink
Creating a conspiracy of which you are the target is a classic. You not only get everyone’s attention, but you are also deflecting the conversation away from your failings … what could go wrong.
Donald Trump does it all the time.
Joey 09:31 on 2026-05-13 Permalink
The more I see PSSP the more I think of the word snivelling.