A wine collector who confided 219 priceless and irreplaceable bottles to the SAQ for storage will be drinking Notre Vin Maison for the foreseeable future as the corporation has destroyed them all. But the story delves into complications beyond a mere warehousing error.
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Kate
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Kate
Lots of plaudits in the media for actress Sophie Faucher, who has died at 68.
As a bad anglo, I have to confess that I knew nothing of her career, but the second La Presse piece linked above gives a resumé of her stage and TV work.
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Kate
The city plans to repave the Camillien‑Houde, notoriously full of potholes, and in plenty of time for the international bike race to be held there in September.
Bert
A question I have wanted to ask for a while, has that strip of road between the Fleuve and the Seaway been paved? Streetview dates to 2022 and has it as gravel, as I have always remembered it. Are we in for a Parix-Roubais TT?
steph
The voie du Fleuve is all paved between the Ville de Sainte-Catherine locks and St-Lambert locks. Lots of bugs, but a very nice ride.
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Kate
A dozen people are living in a camp under the Van Horne viaduct, and a court injunction says they can stay there for the time being. The city had wanted to move the residents on, since it’s close to a skate park and a basketball court.
Homeless people hesitate to call emergency services even when it’s critically necessary, because they know they will not be treated the same as other people, an observation made by organizations working among them. Homeless also often carry an invisible weight of unpayable fines and other legal encumbrances that make them wary of engaging with the forces of order.
dhomas
I don’t understand the point of “démenteler” these encampments. These people will still be homeless. They’ll just be homeless elsewhere. The last time they dismantled the Notre-Dame encampment (2024? Early 2025?), it just sent the homeless population everywhere else. Shortly after, there were people living in the park close to my house near Radisson metro. Tents appeared on the banks of the 25 (they are still there to this day). It solves nothing and just causes more inconvenience and stress to the homeless population.
On the topic of emergency services, I recently spent a few long periods in the ER at the Glen and I can confirm that homeless people are definitely treated differently (indigenous people, as well). While I was there, a homeless person came in for triage. He needed help getting out of his wheelchair and into a waiting room chair. I’d seen other patients get this kind of help. No one wanted to help the homeless guy. I ended up helping him out of the chair myself.
Kate
I was thinking about your first point, dhomas, and I believe it comes down to this: the city can’t quite face the reality that if it wants to displace an encampment, it should be moving the residents to another encampment, because that would acknowledge both the permanence of some of the camps and the apparent impossibility of giving the displaced residents more proper and decent places to live.
We’re edging closer to permanent camps anyway, with recent discussions of adding toilets and showers to some of them, but we’re not quite there yet.
I hope whoever’s in your entourage that has needed the ER will recover. Good on you for helping the homeless man.
Chris
>I don’t understand the point of “démenteler” these encampments
Perhaps because you’re looking from their point of view.
From the point of view of one’s neighbourhood being ruined (not saying that’s my personal view, but it is a view held by many), moving them on solves the problem and shares it around.
Kate
It’s a knotty problem. I can’t deny that the presence of people with mental and/or drug problems is unsettling, unhealthy and occasionally dangerous. Solutions have to be found that are bigger than any of the stopgaps we’ve seen so far, but I don’t know what they are.
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Kate
TVA says the number of Moving Day address changes are down this year, as they have been for the past two, although the supporting story is only an interview with one moving company owner.
Seems likely that people unsatisfied with their living space who would, in the past, have moved house on July 1 hoping for better, are now more likely to hang onto something they can afford, even if it’s sub par.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation says rents are falling in other Canadian cities because of new construction, but there’s little change in Montreal yet.
mb
I’ve been on the apartment hunt last 2 – 3 months, and I can see that rents appear to be dropping in mtl too. In fb marketplace once you’re chatting with a landlord or agent, you get a notification when the price drops. It hasn’t dropped on all apartments. But i’d say a solid 1/5 have dropped in price from the time I began talking to within a few weeks.
One weird thing I noticed, some landlords are keeping up the price of an apartment in the lease, but offering tenants a “rebate” in the annex of the lease. And they say it explicitly: “rents are dropping so we’re offering this rebate but for our bank we want to keep it at $X amount on the paperwork.” I suppose it has to do with getting approved for higher loans if they charge higher rent on the actual lease itself.
In any case, the rents are declining from totally obnoxious amounts to just moderately obnoxious amounts. So, nothing to celebrate much about just yet.
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Kate
I am disappointed in my people. Seems 70% of us would like to see a new law put in place against insulting police.
SMD
Agreed. Also helpful to note that it was a poll paid for by the police Fraternity and shared to the press to manufacture more consent. I also wonder if the result would be different if the motorist in the video had been insulting a male police officer.
bob
If a waitress brought a man his bill and he didn’t like the total, so he told her to shut the fuck up and called her a shitty bitch and told her he could buy her and make her his slave, and so on, for a while, would that be permissible?
OtherChris
Will they mass detain people chanting “Flics, porcs, assassins” at protests? Used to be quite a popular chant…
jeather
If we give the waitress a Taser and the legal ability to use it, maybe.
Nicholas
bob, yes, it is permissible. It’s also permissible for them to kick you out and ban you from the restaurant, put you on social media, make you suffer social consequences for your shameful actions. It would not be permissible for the state to impose a criminal or civil penalty on you. We need to rediscover shame.
bob
@jeather – If this guy were being tased in front of me I would immediately pull out my phone and check the weather, or look up a bus schedule or something.
@Nicholas – You set a low bar because your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries.
Ian
All good points, but apparently it needs saying – FUCK the police.
Tim S.
Nicholas: “It would not be permissible for the state to impose a criminal or civil penalty on you.”
Why?
We have governments, in part, to regulate how we treat each other. Why is this type of interaction so categorically out of bounds?
Nicholas
Tim, because we have a liberal democracy where saying mean things doesn’t get you sent to jail. I like living in that world, even if it means we sometimes have to deal with disgusting people being assholes. Every country that has decided to police what people can say ends up policing those standing up to power much more than those with power.
But I can see where the 70% come from.
And in the hypothetical of yelling at a waitress, I would hope that other diners and staff would speak up and tell that person off until a manager kicked them out and told them if they came back it’d be trespass. That’s the shame we need. Today I was on a crowded platform and some elder teen was riding his scooter and honking at everyone to get out of the way, and I told him off, using some choice words. And a person I was travelling with who got on before me said people started quietly complimenting my action, and said they wish the official announcements were like that. When you see someone being an asshole, tell them off. Make them feel bad so they don’t do it again. Tell them that you feel sorry for them, because their life is so empty that the only way they feel good about themselves is by ruining other people’s day. Other people, including those who don’t feel safe doing that, will thank you, and maybe we’ll get fewer people acting like this without sending them to jail.
Tim S.
Good for you Nicholas. Last time I did that, it ended up getting physical and while I fortunately wasn’t seriously hurt, the other guy did end up getting arrested anyways.
I would suggest that the alternative realistically doesn’t involve people quietly admiring you. It involves blood feuds, or at best, duels.
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Kate
The city is closing fountains to save on water. This item says “des travaux d’urgence seront bientôt entrepris” to repair the Atwater main, although I thought the work had already started.
Anyone taking means to reduce water use? As I’ve mentioned, I’ve put out buckets to catch rainwater for my plants that are under the upper balconies, but that’s about it so far.
Quinn Kasynobeepbeep
Seems like a smart move for the city, but it’s going to be weird without the fountains. Are they planning any alternatives?
MarcG
Weird slice of spam. AI is smart enough to make the comment seem legit but then chooses a name with ‘Casino’ in it?
CE
I put out buckets too for my plants and also keep one in the shower to collect the water I run before turning it on. The problem this year at the moment is that there’s so much pollen falling in the buckets that the water is thick with the stuff!
Kate
I’ve been seeing photos from around town showing drifts of poplar fluff like snow, but there’s none in my neighbourhood. Just a lot of maple keys over the last week or so.
Quinn K., I don’t know you, but I’ve removed your spam link to a Polish casino.
EmilyG
I think I’m in an area in the west part of the island that isn’t affected by the water restrictions.
We do have a lot of poplar fluff here. (Pierrefonds)
CE
100% of the pollen in my neighbourhood is coming from a single massive poplar and it just happens to be in the back yard of the house next to mine. The tree is nice 50 weeks of the year but right now it’s making a mess and making me feel terrible!
MarcG
Cottonwood poplars are one of the few trees around that I’m not allergic to. Cetirizine Hydrochloride and air filters work wonders!
MarcG
A good mask outside helps too, if you prefer engineering solutions over pharmacological ones (or the drugs just ain’t cutting it)
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Kate
A group of residents of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve have started filling potholes themselves after waiting fruitlessly for the city to do it.
Ephraim
I think Wanksy did it better
RE
Thanks for reminding me that there are some really bad ones at the REM du Ruisseau parking lot…and I’m wondering whether that’s REM responsibility or the city’s. Either way was going to let the REM know.
Kate
Interesting. There is no waterway anywhere near that station. Presumably it’s named after Boulevard du Ruisseau or Croissant du Ruisseau, which lead up to it from the other side of Henri‑Bourassa… but no sign of any ruisseau in the area.
City toponymy site says, “Voie qui conduit au ruisseau Bertrand, dans l’ancien village de Saraguay, annexé à Montréal en 1964.”
mare
Halfway this page: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/hidden-rivers-flooding-1.7293373
Ian
2 potholes at Park & Bernard deep enough to have exposed rebar got painted over last week when the crossing lines were redone. Solid “pas ma job” energy.
Kate
Thank you, mare. People had such arrogance thinking they could delete waterways from the map and build over them without consequences!
Ian: rebar? Old streetcar tracks painted over??
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Kate
A man died in an apartment fire in St‑Léonard overnight. We have so many arsons here that it’s wise for CTV to add that this fire was judged accidental.
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Kate
If it forms the next government, the Parti Québécois would remove Quebec from the federal high‑speed rail project.
PSPP condemns it as a “renforcement de l’unité canadienne.”
dwgs
Of course they would.
Ephraim
Of course, we can’t have anything good.
Taylor C. Noakes
There are many good reasons to be critical of the Alto project, and I think I saw PSPP quoted somewhere saying that a TOR-MTL HSR isn’t as useful as improvements to help people get around their own cities, which I would agree with
But this isn’t a smart political strategy, unless it’s actually setting up the PQ’s voter base for a pivot if PSPP actually gets elected – talk less about Referendum 3, talk more about going our own way until ‘the right conditions have been met’. Perhaps this is an early signal. Note that he’s not talking about building a Quebec-centric HSR system, or developing a local version of VIA, or indeed any alternative.
Opposing the HSR project will do nothing to win ridings from the Liberals, nor from the PCQ.
I’m getting the distinct impression PSPP’s a bit of an empty suit, the PQ’s Poilievre. No ideas, no vision, and slowly realizing calling a referendum if he wins is potential political suicide.
bob
Corrupt trash.
You’d think people would catch on to this strategy of making Quebec worse, then blaming the feds, then demanding more federal money.
Ephraim
The part that is needed, is the Toronto/Montreal part, the rest of it isn’t as important. But we also need to plan for the future. Every plane, bus and car we can get off the road between the cities is a plus. And if you could connect Montreal to Toronto in 2 hours. That’s 540km. The average (not top) speed between Paris-Strasbourg is about 224 km/h. That would make Montreal/Toronto in 2 hours and 25 minutes. C-Series in China are averaging up to 300 km/h, so 1 hour and 50 minutes. With absolute PERFECT timing by plane, assuming no traffic whatsoever we are talking about 2 hours and 45 minutes to 3 hours, downtown to downtown (real flight time is 1 hour and 9 minutes, but scheduled time is 1 hour and 28 minutes.
Tim
Sorry to interrupt your daydream Ephraim, but the projected travel time from Montreal to Toronto is approximately 3 hours.
https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2025/02/19/canada-getting-high-speed
Taylor C. Noakes
@Ephraim – the problem is that this project isn’t about getting people out of cars or planes (how could it, Air Canada is a partner in the Cadence consortium – I suspect we’re going to see stations at YUL and YYZ).
If the goal were to get people out of their cars and into trains *for the environmental benefit*, the Fed would be spending money on developing cities commuter networks, as well as expanding intercity service. They’d be building rail lines to connect Montreal with Sherbrooke, or Ottawa with Kingston, and to improve the efficiency and frequency available on that network (i.e. removing at grade crossings and creating a dedicated network).
If the goal were to do that *and* do so for the lowest cost and greatest political impact, they’d start by funding Alberta’s HSR project first and foremost. Making Calgary & Edmonton ‘suburbs’ of one another would likely have a greater overall economic benefit than building a new HSR line on Canada’s Main Street as it would create another main street.
I absolutely want HSR in Canada, but the Fed is going about it almost completely backwards. if other projects are any indication, it’ll cost a fortune, require on-going support, and not nearly attract as many people as it needs to be viable. It won’t reduce car use, because it’ll essentially become a luxury for those who can afford it, something marginally better than VIA but not sufficiently better to change habits.
Worse, it’ll likely put a halt to the development of a larger HSR network (because it’ll be judged too expensive), and will undermine VIA’s revenue, such that VIA will face reduced funding and eventual privatization (no different than Canada Post). It’s a grim future.
Tim S.
“They’d be building rail lines to connect Montreal with Sherbrooke, or Ottawa with Kingston, and to improve the efficiency and frequency available on that network ”
A thousand times this.
The other thing about Calgary-Edmonton is it would be an easier construction, geographically, and then the lessons learned could be applied out East. Though I can’t imagine what it would be like to expropriate land in Alberta right about now.
Ian
So it’s not enough to speak only French, now we’re not supposed to leave the province? Yikes.
Uatu
But a new airport in St Hubert is ok. Sure.
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Kate
The rising Molson district is seeing a scrap between city and developer, the latter agitating to add more floors than the zoning allows, while the city wants to avoid a local referendum.
It seems nearby residents are not concerned about shade or even about the new buildings blocking the view of the mountain or dominating the waterfront. It’s increased traffic – of course.
(Here’s a suggestion: give an extra low social housing rent to people willing to live without cars!)
In other news, CTV tells us about 210 new affordable housing units going up on what they call Lorimier Avenue. “Up to 84 eligible households will be eligible for the Quebec Rent Supplement Program (PSLQ) through the Quebec Housing Corporation (SHQ). By way of this program, individuals will not pay more than 25 per cent of their income toward rent.
Additionally, 126 units will be offered at 95 per cent of median rent.”
Notice the weaselly “up to” and the princely offer of 5% off. We’re living in a true utopia here.
Nicholas
The people who just moved into brand new towers are trying to stop other people from moving into even newer towers, what a perfect story. It’s like the people who gentrify a neighbourhood immediately complaining about newer gentrifyers. Change was great but should stop as soon as I move in.
Worth noting again that the city now has the right to remove the ability to demand a referendum from the zoning by-law, so if they don’t want to hold referendums because they cost too much they could change the law to remove them and then discretionarily decide whether to approve a project based on public consultation, not public veto. That they’re not even doing this for Ville-Marie shows how much the new administration, like the last administration, doesn’t actually want to push the envelope.
Kate, median rents include all housing, not just housing that’s listed for rent but housing that is old and rent controlled. Median rent is much lower than the asking/listed rent, which itself is lower than asking rent for new units. Renting a brand new unit downtown at even the median rent would be a good discount from what is charged generally for new units, and so 5% off that is slightly lower still, and a fair bit lower than it would be without this deal. For reference the CMHC says the median rent in the Montreal area over all unit types is $1,200, though downtown a 2br is $2,150. (Story is unclear if it’s region-wide median rent or neighbourhood.)
DeWolf
The irony: the most NIMBY neighbourhood in Montreal is a district of recently-built high-rises full of people who are militantly opposed to any new development nearby. These are the same people that killed the proposed development across from Gare Viger.
Of course the city can always invoke article 93 but the new administration seems oddly reluctant to use it, given all the fuss they made about increasing the amount of housing.
Ephraim
I have a list of about 900 illegal AirBnBs…. all of which could be back on the market as apartments. In fact, if the city retroactively goes after the commercial property taxes, they may need to sell them to be able to afford to pay the property taxes. Throw in a 7 year audit for GST/QST and income tax and they may well be a fire sale.
Ian
The only thing I am certain of after all these years of the city not being able to go after AirBnB then it was a Revenu QC thing then it was a city dossier after all then suddenly being able to fine them then suddenly not doing so despite the hugely scandalous AirBnB complex fire with multiple deaths
…
is that somebody who is not elected but still has significant policy power is definitely on the take from AirBnB and NOTHING is ever going to happen to actually enforce any of the laws that did, do, or could apply. Someone with blood on their hands and a really nice vacation home somewhere far from the hoi polloi.Ephraim
Well, that’s the problem… it’s a huge tax cheat and RQ isn’t doing enough to go after them. They should look at the revenue reports and they go after anyone who made over $30K for GST/QST and ask them for their tax number for GST/QST or proof that they rented for only 30 days and over. Make people’s lives miserable for doing business with them.
RE
100% what Ian said…it’s the only plausible explanation at this point.
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Kate
A record five players from Quebec will be in the Canada team vying for the men’s FIFA World Cup, although Radio‑Canada says one of them has already fallen out due to injury.
Tim S.
Honourable mention for Luc de Fougerolles, a London boy whose Montrealer father made sure he was eligible for the Canadian team. Seeing his name and then hearing his accent is a bit disconcerting, but it’s cool to remember that there are people all around the world still attached to their Canadian roots.
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Kate
Louise Arbour was sworn in as Canada’s 31st Governor General Monday morning, where – despite her impressive CV – like any store clerk, the main ability that got her the job was the ability to speak French.
ALBERT
AND ENGLISH!!
Kate
But no Indigenous languages.
Chris
>the main ability that got her the job was the ability to speak French
And the main ‘ability’ that got the last GG her job was being Indigenous.
>But no Indigenous languages.
No surprise there. Even amongst Indigenous people, only 13% speak an Indigenous language.
Kate
It was long since past time for an Indigenous GG, Chris.
Chris
Sure, but then what’s your point about this one getting the job for the reason she did? It’s a symbolic role, and so the appointees are symbolic. One symbol last time, another symbol this time.
su
“Her decision to travel to and from the event in a passenger vehicle, rather than a horse-drawn carriage.” Was she driving? Was it electric?
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Kate
A rabies outbreak in raccoons in the Montérégie has sparked a vaccination campaign for both raccoons and skunks, in an effort to keep the wave from reaching the outskirts of the city.
Nothing’s mentioned here about pets, but I’d imagine if you have a cat or dog in the area on the map, you’d want to make sure its rabies shots were up to date.
Later, CBC radio at noon noted to pet owners in the target area that this would be a bad time to let their animals out to wander around.
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Kate
Cartooning this week touched on two Quebec stories.The slogan used by white supremacists in a demo in Shawinigan – Je me souviens d’un Québec blanc – inspired Chapleau and Godin.
The bill to ban energy drinks to people under 16 evoked the only cartoon that made me laugh this week, a tribute to Panoramix the druid. The one Conservative MNA asked whether Quebec would ban grapefruit as well, in a reference to how it too can amplify the effects of pharmaceuticals. (The bill was sparked by the death of Zachary Miron, who pounded Red Bull on top of his ADHD medication – which makes me wonder how many Quebec kids are taking those pills, if we need to protect all of them from energy drinks.) Chapleau illustrates the grapefruit story.
Ygreck in the Journal thinks a lot more about the federal government than any of the other cartoonists – its blandishment of Quebec, its flirting with artificial intelligence and its risk of recession among others. He draws Mark Carney far more often than the others do.
We also had a resurgence of thoughts about the 51st state and quips about artificial intelligence, and the perennial story, orange cones.
(Côté’s been doing reruns but now says he’s back from vacation.)
Tim S.
The English translation of the Druid’s name to Getafix is, in my opinion, an improvement over the original, especially in this case!
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