Thousands marched Saturday in the union‑led demonstration that included students and community groups.
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Kate
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Kate
A proposed bike path on St‑Laurent in Ahuntsic is unlikely to happen; this piece lists other bike path plans that are likely to die on the drawing board under an Ensemble administration.
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Kate
A masked group robbed the Mamie Clafoutis bakery on St‑Denis on Friday morning, in protest of an automated payment system the bakery is experimenting with – a 24/7 store with no cashiers, which they’re calling BASIQ.
Mozai
I was a regular but after the renovation they wouldn’t take money. The staff weren’t apologetic nor snobby, just a neutral “that’s not a thing anymore.” I checked in about a year later and still wouldn’t take money. The place used to be crowded and now it isn’t, but it’s still there so they must be able to pay rent.
Kevin
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it.
In all seriousness, what did they think would happen if they opened a store relying on the honour system to make payments?Kate
Is it even legal not to accept legal tender?
Chris
Kate: it is.
R T
Multiple shops in the United States are using automated technology without widespread shoplifting, even in cities where you’d expect to see it, but many of them rely on turnstiles and cameras, rather than trusting you to scan things on your phone.
Some of those shops have non-cashiers on site to help customers and deal with other tasks—but so did Mamie Clafoutis at the time of the theft:
“Selon ce que ses employés ont pu observer, M. Delourmel explique que deux membres du groupe bloquaient les portes pendant qu’un troisième criait des slogans. C’est un pâtissier qui a finalement mis fin à l’intrusion, en moins de deux minutes.”jeather
I know a few other places that only accept credit or debit.
I admit I don’t care because I think Mamie Clafoutis is overrated at best, not sure I ever had anything from there I thought even hit adequate.
Joey
Unlike the vigilanteism at the Maxi store (which, as we saw, only early affects Loblaw’s bottom line, and at $5K is basically meaningless), you really need to twist yourself into a pretzel to plausibly justify this – you may disapprove of their going cashless or turning your bakery into a giant vending machine but you have the option of simply… not shopping there.
Nicholas
There just seems to be a lot of sympathy lately for theft and it’s in the same category as the other anti-social behaviour like smoking on the metro. It’s ok being you’re doing it for a cause or to stick it to the man.
Often ignored in these situations is the employee, and it often sucks for them. I’ve had to call cops on people who got violent or made threats and it’s not fun. Even if there’s no physical altercation, this stuff is not something to be cheered.
Blork
I confess this seems like another example of the dumbness of people living in the mirror world where thought and nuance don’t exist. They’re basically living a meme without any sense of what it really means. They hear about vigilante food store theft on social media, they cheer because it jabs them in the righteous indignation part of their lizard brains, and they jump at the chance to do it for themselves without giving any thought to what or the why of it.
MarcG
Re-posting part of the anonymous statement:
“En collaboration avec Leav, une start-up spécialisée dans les technologies de commerce de détail, Mamie Clafoutis se targue d’être « la pionnière d’une nouvelle ère de magasins intelligents automatisés. » Cela signe l’arrivée d’un modèle similaire à celui de Amazon Go, lequel a déjà infecté d’autres villes, en plus d’être salué par les médias comme une nouvelle innovation. Vous enregistrer au moyen de la reconnaissance faciale sur leur application peut vous offrir le « privilège » d’acheter du pain 24h/24, 7 jours sur 7, dans leurs boulangeries automatisées et sans caisse.
Toujours activé et ne nécessitant aucun employé·e, le système de Scan & Go de Mamie Clafoutis vous pousse à participer à votre propre surveillance. Nous n’accepterons pas ce mécanisme de contrôle et d’enfermement au prétexte de quelques instants de confort. Il doit être coupé à la racine, avant que ce mode de vie technophile se répande non pas seulement dans chaque boulangerie, chaque marché, mais aussi dans chaque moment d’échange de temps, d’attention, et de consentement dans nos vies…
Ces actions ne sont pas des exploits héroïques, au contraire elles sont simples, accessibles à quiconque souhaite s’y mettre, et il nous appartient de les reproduire encore et encore. Notre subsistance n’est pas un produit à scanner. Nous souhaitons inspirer celles et ceux qui se sentent écrasé·e·s par la botte du capital à prendre tout ce que leurs mains, leurs sacs et leurs esprits peuvent transporter.”
Nicholas
Idk man if you don’t want to shop somewhere then don’t. I ain’t downloading an app to shop, but also ain’t stealing bread as a political point. Just go protest, we know how to do that in Quebec.
Blork
One evening last year I was in Quebec City, west end (near Laval U.), and I was in need of a depanneur. I couldn’t find one, but Google pointed me to a 24-hour market called “Aisle24” on the ground floor of a condo building nearby, so off I went. When I got there it was all locked up. After a minute of poking around I realized it’s an “automated self-service” store. In order to use it you need to download an app (QR code was on the door) and register. You need that in order to even get the door to open. Then you shop, pay, and leave, all under the watchful eye of multiple cameras.
I did not download the app. (I found an Avril store across the street that was still open.)
I was a bit surprised to find it there, since it seems like something right out of Japan. But the building it was in is a new condo complex that seems to be oriented towards students and other non-permanent residents, with a bunch of common spaces and whatnot. (I could see in some windows, and it looked like a student residence with a large common kitchen and an open dining and social area. Lots of people sitting around doing homework and eating UberEats and whatnot.) So I suppose for a 20-year-old looking for a microwaveable dinner to eat in the common dining area it probably doesn’t seem like such an odd thing. Certainly doesn’t seem like something to get all “social justice warrior” over.
Marc
Regarding “Legal Tender,” probably one of the most misunderstood phrases out there: it simply means that the government (under the auspices of the Bank of Canada), or a federally chartered bank (eg. TD) guarantees to honour it. That’s all. As outlined in the federal Currency Act, the method of payment to settle a debt can be anything so long as both parties agree. The Act also outlines limits on the use of currency. For example, you may not pay for a basket of goods at the checkout in a store by handing the clerk a bag of loose nickels and dimes.
Chris
Another thought: in the context of trying to reduce dependency on the USA and its companies: all the App Stores are American and Visa & Mastercard are American. If we are not careful, our country could end up a place where you can’t even buy anything at all without foreigners’ permission.
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Kate
It would be nearly impossible to live here and not know that the Canadiens lost the Friday night match against the Lightning, pushing the series to a seventh game on Sunday. Tickets for a viewing party at the Bell Centre go on sale Saturday at 10 am; Sunday’s game starts at 6 pm.
Nicholas
I used to spend a lot of time around people who like hockey and thought like you, but a friend said no you just ignore it it’s very easy, she hadn’t heard about hockey in years. And now that I don’t spend time around those people it is very easy to ignore, even though I still spend time with some new people who like hockey.
I was talking the other day to someone about the transit strikes last year and he was barely aware of it. He doesn’t even own a car! Maybe people who spend a lot of time on a blog about news are a little skewed.
Kate
Even doing this blog, I’m fairly oblivious to most local sports stuff. I can’t make myself give a damn about the Alouettes or CF Montreal, or the Roses or the Victoire, let alone the various tennis stars.
But the Canadiens are so woven into the fabric of this city – even now, after 30 years without a Cup – that I’d have to be living somewhere else entirely not to pick up on it.
As for last year’s transit strikes, they hardly affected me either, even with no car. Transit strikes used to be real, no service for days or weeks, thumbing rides to get to or from school or work. Now they’ve been so defanged by Essential Services, and now that I work entirely from home, I really only know about them because of doing the blog.
It’s one reason I keep blogging. I feel a need to know wtf is going on. And while I’m finding out, I might as well let others know.
Daisy
I just found that out just now by reading this here. I guess I am in the “nearly impossible” category. I don’t follow hockey or know anyone who does, nor am I on social media. I only figured out that the Canadiens were in the playoffs in the first place because of the “Go Habs Go” on the buses and the metro announcements at the stations near the Bell Centre.
Nicholas
Go Habs Go happens basically year-round, as do Habs flags on cars, so while I know a team is there it could be the team is doing well or lost.
I remember it was June 30 one year. Playoffs were over, the summer sports were in full swing, school was out. And these two people I knew were still talking hockey. I said couldn’t we get a break, training camp starts in like a month! Oh, the draft was today and free agency was tomorrow. It’s pervasive in some circles and completely off the radar in others. “Why are people honking everywhere?” “Must be a sportsball.”
R T
My vague awareness of the playoffs came mostly from people in Habs jerseys travelling the “wrong way” (towards downtown) in the afternoon/early evening.
Joey
@Nicholas Something like 800,000+ people attended the NFL *draft* in Pittsburgh last week…
JP
I only stay in the loop because I’m often downtown and if there’s a home game, I want to avoid the influx of people on the orange lines or the REM, so I try to come home before the game ends. Literally the only reason I look up the schedule.
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Kate
Thirteen people were arrested Friday in a May Day demo at Square Victoria.
The more formal union march starts Saturday at 1 pm at the Cartier monument.
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Kate
Transit passes will be more expensive as of July 1, going up to $110 for a regular Zone A pass. TVA lists the new fees for other passes.
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Kate
The bike path along Hochelaga is being cut short – La Presse’s headline says by a third, but it’s more than that. SMF’s administration says it’s worried about congestion and losing parking spaces.
DeWolf
Talk about a bait and switch. The consultation focused on whether the path should stay on Hochelaga as planned, or be rerouted to De Rouen (requiring industrial land expropriations and a very expensive new viaduct across the railway tracks). At no point did the administration present the option of cutting the path short.
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Kate
Some storefront businesses are still failing to make French pre‑eminent on their signage and façades.
MtlWeb
I have always though that the OQLF sending their own inspectors to verify that businesses offer (greetings/service in french, predominant signage in French, French language on receipts and terminals) is like giving the OK to the mechanic at Canadian Tire to go ahead and fix what he feels needs to be fixed on your car. Their completed reports are always thorough, organized, and easy-to-read…..often a sign that the writer(s) have/has had more than enough time to create the document.
Kevin
What a way to look at the downside.
People made more than 10,000 complaints about language last year. The OQLF went to Taschereau, the Village, and Des Laurentides and inspected more than 1,000 companies and found that people could be served in French in 98% of stores.
But sure, the French language is going to disappear :clutches all the pearls:
Kate
Can people be served in French in 98% of the stores in Paris? I bet there are more stores there serving people mostly in Arabic than we have here.
Joey
My hot take on this issue is that Quebec has done more than enough to ensure that French remains the predominant language in Quebec – it’s been so effective at regulating every last bit of non-English in public life that the xenophobes for whom it was never just about language have had to turn to pretty open racism and discrimination to advance their project.
The risk to French in Quebec is about the same as the risk of any non-English language anywhere:* the homogenization of communication and culture across the world, enabled by the Internet and super-charged by extreme capitalism. If French in Quebec gets snuffed out, it won’t be because a few more percent of us speak English at home or send our kids to an English CEGEP, it will be because the Internet and the pursuit of wealth have seriously undermined the concept of local culture. Seems unlikely for now, but there’s less and less distinctly local things that are common to younger generations now than even 10 years ago – your feed comes from everywhere, and giant companies want to control every aspect of what you see (and, less and less, read). Instragram-first tourism means more and more ‘local’ culture is just a reflection of the latest trends. Just think about how absurd some of the province’s ideas about French-language content discovery on streaming services are – can little ol’ Quebec stand up to Disney/Netflix/etc? That, to me, is an actual existential threat to the idea that a French-speaking part of North America can last in the long run – not that there are 5% more English-speakers than we would like.
- Demography and soft power being what they are, it wouldn’t completely surprise me if another language (Mandarin?) replaced English as the global lingua franca in my lifetime, though I would still consider it very unlikely, especially since instant translation devices are already viable.
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Kate
The Quebec Order of Architects has given out its 2026 awards, and they’re mostly in Montreal: the enlargement of the bibliothèque L’Octogone in
St‑MichelLasalle, a condo building near the new UdeM campus, a renovated triplex in Ahuntsic‑Cartierville, a repurposed tavern building in Lachine, the new street‑level pavilion at St Joseph’s Oratory, the transformation of the Grace Dart long‑term hospital, a renovated house in Rosemont, and the Centre Sanaaq.DavidH
Octogone is in Lasalle.
Kate
Thank you! I was distracted by St‑Michel’s octagonal street (it’s now called François‑Perreault but used to be called Octogonal because of its shape) which also has a library on it. In contrast, the Lasalle building is not an octagon nor is it on an octagonal street.
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Kate
The Robins des Ruelles carried out another action Thursday evening in Rosemont, hitting a Maxi at a location unidentified by the journalist and taking an indefinite quantity of groceries. Item also mentions a similar action in Quebec City but is even vaguer about where that happened.
Joey
I’ve been wording about this since the last time – who exactly eats the loss in this kind of thing. Some rudimentary googling suggests that Quebec’s Maxi stores are corporate-owned, meaning that Loblaw would take the hit. The other banners are more likely to have a franchise model, meaning the franchisee (more of your local businessperson than faceless corporation – hence the fact that often the stores are formally called something like IGA Stephane Tremblay) is on the hook. Five thousand bucks is a lot of money but not enough to warrant an insurance claim, it seems.
TLDR these folks seem to have, at least in this case, targeted the right banner stores to ensure that the Loblaw corp takes the financial blow.
Chris
Loblaw takes no blow, they just calculate it as cost of business and increase prices correspondingly.
Annette
Chris: Loblaw’s increases prices corresponding to its wants, not its needs.
Meezly
And its wants are likely dictated by its board of directors chaired by chaired by lord Galen Weston.
Chris
Annette, that’s true, and is compatible with my point. Its wants are for revenue to exceed expenses. If hooligans increase its expenses, they’ll increase their prices to get the profit they want.
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Kate
A convent in Rosemont is going to be repurposed to become the heart of a new residential complex.
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Kate
Weekend notes from Le Devoir, CityCrunch, the Gazette, Journal de Montréal, CultMTL.Weekend driving issues et en anglais.
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Kate
The Armand Vaillancourt fountain in San Francisco is being taken down. Vaillancourt is 96 and reportedly considered it the most important piece of his career.
MarcG
They should integrate it into the work being done near Habitat.
Kate
What are they doing near Habitat?
MarcG
I was thinking of this article you posted in 2022, maybe nothing’s come of it.
Kate
I have no idea. Some projects that were previously promised are going nowhere – Friday, the Gazette considers a beach in Lachine which looked promising but has been shut down.
DeWolf
@MarcG and Kate — Work in underway on the Bonaventure project but it will be many years before the riverfront park is ready. Work is currently underway to move the expressway inland.
MarcG
Scanning the local urban planning forums it seems like they city bought the greenspace next to Mels late last year.
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Kate
Friday evening could see the Canadiens win their series against the Lightning, so police are preparing. The Radio‑Canada piece is more about managing traffic than coping with fan excesses. La Presse looks at the heightening excitement.
MarcG
My intuition, which is perhaps actually self-projection, says that the world has a lot of pent up anger right now, and combined with a general disconnection from material reality, a hockey riot could be just the thing.
steph
Can someone explain to me why we mostly riot when we win?
Kate
Here’s what an AI says:
Riots following Montreal Canadiens wins, such as in 1986, 1993, 2008, and 2021, are largely driven by a combination of intense, generational pent-up passion, alcohol-fueled over-exuberance, and a cultural tendency to express extreme emotion in the streets. These events often stem from chaotic celebrations where large crowds, rather than focused anger, overwhelm police and devolve into property damage.
Key Factors Behind the Riots:
- Pent-Up Frustration and Devotion: Experts note that because hockey is deeply intertwined with Montreal’s cultural identity, the long wait between wins can create an intense “burst” of emotions when they finally win.
- The “Celebration” Shift: The 1993 riot was interpreted as an expression of frustration stemming from economic issues and a desire for cultural self-determination in Quebec.
- Crowd Dynamics and Alcohol: Many incidents are not premeditated but occur when large, intoxicated, and celebratory crowds gather in downtown areas, such as Saint Catherine Street, turning into chaos.
- Police Response: Studies on these events suggest that sometimes a heavy police presence or early use of tear gas can escalate a peaceful celebration into a confrontation.
- Historic Precedent: The tradition of intense, occasionally violent fan action has roots as far back as 1955 with the “Richard Riot,” which was a response to a star player’s suspension, merging sports with cultural politics.
Tim S.
I would add weather – large crowds out for the first time as spring comes. If not hockey, could be a St Jean party or the Point St-Charles Victoria Day chaos in the old days. Don’t know why people are inspired to set things on fire, but the time of year seems to be consistent.
Kate
My mother used to talk nostalgically about playing cat and mouse with the cops and firemen in the Point on Victoria Day. And her aunt was married to a fire chief!
CE
I saw it from a distance on a bus but there seemed to be a good old fashioned May Day riot this afternoon on Réné-Lévesque near Beaver Hall.
Janet
This evening, I walked from the MMFA back to my home in the Old Port. Bad timing. The whole downtown around the Bell Centre was full of grown men in Canadiens jerseys. Lots of excitement. When I arrived in Victoria Square, there was even more excitement as I found myself in the middle of the May Day demo. First time I’ve ever been kettled. Took me awhile to find a way out that wasn’t blocked by cops in riot gear.
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Kate
Québec solidaire is pressing Premier Fréchette to apply for her share of federal money for public transit to repair and renovate the metro.
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