We’re facing an air quality warning as 950 fires burn across Canada.
Updates from July, 2026 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Another affordable housing announcement was made Saturday, some to be in the Molson Brewery district, and some at the Hippodrome site.
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Kate
Two kayakers capsized into the river off Verdun, Friday evening, then the fire service boat sent to their rescue got stuck on a shoal. The kayakers were rescued by civilians on jetskis, and it took two hours for the firefighter crew to free their rescue craft.
The suggestion is made that the fire service could be better equipped for water rescue, or at least have a wider variety of boats for different situations.
Reported five days later in the Gazette.
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Kate
A two-parter from La Presse on the 50th anniversary of the Montreal Olympic games
CBC has a short video on the anniversary as does Le Devoir. MSN offers a photo gallery and there’s a memorial exhibit at the airport.
A 13-year-old swimmer that year is still the youngest Canadian to win an Olympic medal.
There will likely be more on the Olympic anniversary theme to come.
CE
On CBC radio the other day they ran a story saying that Nadia Comăneci will be coming to the city for a 50th anniversary event and will meet 50 women born between 1976 and 1978 who were named Nadia.
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Kate
The fountain statue of Jacques Cartier in St‑Henri Park features some Indigenous faces around the base, and nearby resident Dr Stanley Vollant, an Innu, doesn’t like it, although he doesn’t go so far as to recommend it be taken down.
On pondering this story, I think the offensive angle is not so much that the Indigenous faces are “monsters” as that there was a tendency to portray such people generically. So you have one named Frenchman and four interchangeable anonymous Indigenous faces. That the faces are gargoyles, in that they’re spouts when the water is running, is also offensive. The fountain is not currently operational.
You’ll see similar generic Indigenes used as heraldic supporters here and there as well.
Footnote here that we don’t actually have a portrait of Jacques Cartier from his time, but the statue is meant to be that person, and the wording on the plinth is about how he claimed this land in the name of New France. So, not good. Maybe not Sir John A. levels of bad, but not good.
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Kate
Montreal has the world’s biggest urban farm, a model that others are beginning to imitate.
(Or maybe not. See comment from Nicholas.)
Nicholas
The Ottawa Expérimental Farm is 250 times bigger than this facility, and is located about ¼ the distance from its downtown as this facility is from ours, so if anything is more urban. (And Lufa is in a former mall in the burbs; is that “urban” now?) And Montreal is so sprawly that if you go the 10 km or so out from downtown that Lufa is, in many cities you can find actual farms. Including in Montreal: there are farms on the South Shore closer than this facility. Heck, you don’t even have to go off the island: out in the same West Island that this facility is located you can find MacDonald campus, which describes itself as having agriculture “on 240 hectares of land in an urban setting”, 150 times bigger than this facility. I just can’t think of a definition they could use that doesn’t have an obvious counterexample off the top of my head, and I know very little about agriculture.
Chris
>a former mall in the burbs; is that “urban” now?
Kinda. Mile End used to be the burbs too, ages ago, but sprawl changes the definitions over time.
Ephraim
It’s on top of the old Sears Head Office, that was never a mall, under you count the Sears Liquidation Furniture place that was in the basement. The mall is still there, across the street.
Kate
Nicholas, you may be right in some sense, but I sense hair splitting, if only because – as far as I know – Macdonald campus doesn’t sell farm produce, but uses its facilities for teaching and research.
Also, I live in town – in the very centre of the island, geographically – but I could easily walk to two of Lufa’s facilities from my place, the newish one on Crémazie, and the older one around on Antonio‑Barbeau off l’Acadie. That doesn’t put them in the sprawl.
I also note that Lufa only claims to be the “world’s largest commercial rooftop greenhouse”. i was quoting the article’s journalist in my entry above, not Lufa themselves.
qatzelok
I think the word “urban” means, in this case, more than just “located in a city.”
It means “urban-style farm.” – as in “rooftop greenhouse that produces marketable veggies.”
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Kate
La Presse has a double feature Saturday on getting to and getting from Trudeau.
PatrickC
They have Uber as an option, but not a taxi?
Nicholas
Uber and taxi should have similar times (assuming the Uber doesn’t illegally use the Taxi/bus lane on the 20), so to illustrate different options it’s fine. They mention the new bus from the Sources REM, but didn’t take it, which would have been interesting.
And of course these routes are all assuming you’re coming from downtown. Lots of people are, but many are coming from all over. There are also lots of ways to avoid some of these blockages: not taking the direct ramp to the airport but using the circle or Cote de Liesse; taking the 211/411 and then the 214/209; taking the 460; taking the train (timing would not have worked for their trips, as it usually doesn’t), etc. You can even Bixi to Dorval Circle now, and then take a bus or walk or walk to a parking lot and take the shuttle; given some people are walking from the ramp to the airport, walking from the Circle is not so bad.
Joey
Yeah, it’s weird that they didn’t try a taxi (principal difference with uber would be the wait time to get in the car) or even acknowledge that Uber’s competitor, Lyft, operates from YUL as well – recently it’s been quicker to take the shuttle from the terminal to the Lyft pickup zone than wait in the Uber line.
ADM doesn’t seem to be doing enough to manage traffic – basically the only vehicles approaching the terminal should be shuttles to more efficient drop-off/pick-up points, with individual drivers who want terminal access paying for it (common practice elsewhere). Instead we get chaos.
Nicholas
ADM is doing lots of things medium term (new deck, more approach lanes, REM), but short term the solution they are suggesting is just don’t go to the terminal. So long as you don’t go to the terminal you can get shuttle buses from various parking decks. But people have this idea they must go to the terminal.
And charging for access to the terminal would immediately solve this problem. You could also make it cheap or free if you’re in and out quickly; people who hang out a lot or circle get a much higher rate. This is common outside North America, but within I think only the liberal bastion of Dallas Fort Worth charges for airport access.
MarcG 06:47 on 2026-07-19 Permalink
It’s better for now