I was looking up an old blog post when I reread this 2019 one about China buying the old Shriners hospital at 1529 Cedar for a consulate.
Looking on Google Maps the building is not labelled as a consulate, and looking up China consulate Montreal I find one address at Lasalle College on Ste‑Catherine, and another in 2100 University. Nothing on Cedar.
Wonder what the story is.
It’s on most of our media that WestJet flights are cancelled because the flight attendants are on strike. Note bias in CTV headline “leaving thousands of travellers stranded.” Also beware, CTV has started autoplaying video with ads again.
It’s Westjet, it’s Montreal… that’s what, 3 to 5 flights a day, 2 or 3 to YYC and 1 or 2 to YYZ. They don’t really fly that many flights from Montreal anymore. I think Delta, Air Inuit, PAL and Air Creebec might actually be bigger airlines here than WestJet. Maybe in the winter when they have the old “Sunjet” flights”
WestJet operates Sunwing flights as well now.
In any case, La Presse is putting it on the front page.
Typical editorial cartoon topics were thin on the ground this week. World politics came up a few times, Chapleau dancing Trump and Netanyahu and Godin commenting on Hamas’s latest response while artificial intelligence inspired Côté (still in reruns) and Godin.
As usual, Canada’s powerlessness vs the American behemoth gets a couple of japes while Chapleau makes a pointed comment about climate change (this is the photo Chapleau credits).
Godin takes his turn at asking where Charles Milliard is, although given that the government isn’t sitting and it was the middle of the construction holiday, where should he be?
Côté’s social observation cartoons are usually worth a look, even in reruns.
I’m only posting this banal piece about restaurateur Martin Picard having his laptop stolen because it leaves two questions unanswered:
“Un individu est entré par effraction dans un local adjacent au restaurant montréalais Au Pied de Cochon, samedi, et a volé l’ordinateur du propriétaire…”. How did getting into an adjacent space give the thief access to Picard’s laptop?
“Il y avait des données dans cet ordi-là que j’ai besoin…” – Nobody had helped the renowned chef set up an automated backup? I guess they will now.
I would guess that the restaurant has rented out the space next door and use it as an office or similar.
I was thinking about that heist on the Main in 2020 when someone got into a vacant store space then broke through an adjoining wall to a jewelry store. But it seems unlikely someone would do that to a restaurant, no matter how good their secret recipes.
Usually people start backing up their precious data once they’ve inadvertently lost it. If this is the first time Picard lost his laptop (he’s what, in his late 50s?), he’s been pretty fortunate – up until now.
As a Picard, he should be looking after his Data better.
*rimshot*
Radio-Canada talks to a man who was bitten by a tick in Lafontaine Park. The item goes on to discuss Lyme disease – not the only illness that can be caught from these pests – and the lengthy list of things you must do to avoid ticks or deal with them, because you shouldn’t cower in fear at home but should still go out and blunder around in the underbrush.
Among other things, afterwards, you need to have someone else help you inspect your entire body “comme le dos, l’arrière des oreilles et le creux des genoux”; there’s no explanation how to proceed if you do not have someone handy to do this.
The doctor suggests calling 811 if you find a tick. You may have a long wait, as 811 wait times have become much longer in our enshittified times.
Shoe drop: Lafontaine Park doesn’t even have any wild areas with underbrush, does it?
Not super enthused about this development – Chronic Lyme is really debilitating and falls into the same ‘poorly understood and not really treatable besides symptom management’ category as Long Covid, ME/CFS, and Fibromyalgia.
The article doesn’t mention it but there are also mosquito and tick repellent products that use lemon eucalyptus oil rather than DEET or picaridin which have the added benefit of smelling very nice.
As with mosquitoes, I’m curious to know whether we could eradicate ticks without causing an unintended ecological crisis. Wouldn’t the world be a better place without those two creatures? Does any delightful species rely on them for food or obscurer needs?
Of course we never do know. Whatever poison we set out for ticks could turn out to devastate other species. It’s always Murphy’s Law with biology.
I remember reading that during Expo 67, the whole site was fogged with pesticides to keep the endemic shadflies away, as a result of which a lot of river fish died of starvation. It was probably DDT in those days, too.
I was bitten by a tick a little under 2 weeks ago. I’m not sure why the article says to call 811. My doctor told me to go see a pharmacist. The pharmacist was fully prepared with an online form to fill out for diagnostic and reporting purposes. They even inspected the tick itself (I saved it after removal) and the bite site to see if I was at risk of disease. The pharmacist was able to directly prescribe antibiotics, too. My tick bite seemed to occur within about 6 hours of discovery, so I was likely not at risk (though for other medical reasons, they still prescribed the antibiotics as a preventative measure). The procedure was very quick and effective. I’d definitely recommend going to see the pharmacist.
Also, use icaridin spray to prevent tick and mosquito bites.
Glad you were able to get medical care so effectively, dhomas.
This tick biologist in NB says that ticks are absolutely useless
All the more reason to celebrate that opossums are in town – they can eat their body weight in ticks each year and are completely unaffected by them.
How do we encourage opossums to hang around our parks and gardens, then?
Opossums were regarded as dirty pests but the perception is gradually changing now as they’re getting their due recognition as a valuable species. They’re also resistant to ticks and rabies. It seems more opossums are being spotted in more suburban areas. Unfortunately, they are also frequent victims of vehicle collisions as their defence mechanism is to freeze.
Surprisingly, faking dead (“playing possum”) is an entirely different defence mechanism from freezing (which I do not believe they do though I am not sure). They’re the only extant North American marsupial, current evidence has marsupials originating in South America.
In these parlous times, apparently little kids are being taught the helpful rhyme:
Check your pits, check your bits
Check your back, check your crack
I’ve had a possible tick bite twice. Both times I went to a pharmacy and both times they refused to prescribe antibiotics because I didn’t have the tick with me and the rash was already there.
dhomas 07:45 on 2026-08-03 Permalink
According to Montreal tax records, it has been owned by “THE CONSULATE GENERAL OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA IN MONTREAL” since 2019. The owners’ address is 2100 Ste-Catherine O., which is the official address of China’s consulate in Montreal:
https://montreal.china-consulate.gov.cn/fra/zlgxx/
The information from consulate-montreal.com must be outdated (especially since University street at that level no longer exists, having been renamed Robert-Bourassa about 10 years ago).
It looks like some urbex folk took some photos between 2 years ago and 10 months showing that the site is currently abandoned, inside and out. The photos can be seen in the Google Maps photos section of 1529 Cedar avenue.
The site is “patrimoine”:
https://www.patrimoine-culturel.gouv.qc.ca/rpcq/detail.do?methode=consulter&id=108860&type=bien
So, the Chinese Consulate might be playing the long game and allowing it to become a hazard so they can raze it, as we’ve seen so many other before. Then, they can build a new consulate on that site. The location is quite nice, even if the building is not suited to consular use.
Kate 08:23 on 2026-08-03 Permalink
I don’t know the actual terms, but the city does place limits on what you can build on Mount Royal. It may be futile to wait for the building to crumble so they can construct something new.
Thanks for finding out the facts, dhomas.
bob 10:53 on 2026-08-03 Permalink
I think it also faces some extra problems in renovations because beyond the heritage thing, they can’t just plaster, paint, and buy new furniture. It needs to be a secure building for all the sneaky spy stuff governments do. And even if it crumbles, building something there, because it is subject to these extra mountain things, might get the plans more scrutiny than they want. And also, China-Canada relations over the last 6 years have been pretty abysmal, and Montreal’s Chinese population is not huge, so they may not feel the need for such a large mission away from the capital.
According to TVA they bought it for $17.5 million in 2019, so it’s interesting that this dilapidated property’s municipal evaluation for tax purposes is currently $32.6 million. They’ve refused to pay those taxes, citing diplomatic immunity. I don’t know what the market value is, though I assume the encumbrances bring it down, but that’s about a year over year increase of 15%. So merely by acquiring and holding on to the property, they have fulfilled Chairman Mao’s famous dictum of “Don’t wait to buy real estate. Buy real estate and wait.”.
Kate 22:07 on 2026-08-03 Permalink
I think you got a bum copy of the Little Red Book, bob.