Mohammed Abdullah Warsame, who threatened to bomb public transit in Montreal, pleaded guilty this week, but his lawyer says he’s homeless and mentally ill. Whether he ever joined al‑Qaida or met Osama bin Laden, or has the capacity to cause the carnage he has threatened, is moot. A dangerous nutbar can still be very dangerous.
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Kate
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Kate
The office of the French language commissioner says there’s too much English on Quebec’s official websites, and that people should have to prove they’re eligible (ayant droit) before they can access it. But French language minister Jean‑François Roberge says the English that’s there can stay.
As it is, I have to attest on my honour that I’m entitled before I can even buy a lottery ticket online in English, let alone pay my Hydro bill.
RE
Or use the library…
(I saw the signs at BANQ at one point but not sure how much they’re enforcing).
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Kate
The Consignaction system may have simplified the return of empty cans for some – and there are grocery stores and deps which no longer have to process bags of sticky half‑empty beer cans – but it’s making things more difficult for some of the folks who scavenge for empties because they need the cash.
Nicholas
I had high hopes for this, but who did it simplify things for? The island has 25 Consignaction locations, which is like one per borough/city. Previously every grocery store was a return location. You used to be able to go to the store, return your bottles and cans, and then buy more. Now you have to make two trips in one. I went to a Cosignaction the other day and there were seven people in line, mostly scavengers, and there were two machines, the same number as a single grocery stores had, except they’re also not open evenings. If they were the fancy machines where you empty your bag into a drum and then it counts everything in seconds that would have been great, but no, those machines are only available at Consignaction+ locations, of which there are just four on the island, mostly in car-oriented locations scavengers will never go to. Maybe it’s a jobs program, as there were three clerks just standing around chatting with the scavengers like they knew them, there to take some but not all bottles and fix the machines if they break.
So now we have a new system with fewer locations, slower service, more employees and costlier rents. If this is what passes for success, what does failure look like?
Jim
The new Consignaction system is in my opinion an improvement over the old system, but it still has a long way to go.
I’m lucky to have a Consignaction+ fairly close and I can use a car. With the app, drop-off works great: barcode on the bag, direct deposit, usually same day. I’m actually surprised I hardly see anyone using the express system with the app, although it does not really help if you have glass bottles.
But many locations are still not practical without a car, and lineups can be long if you don’t use the app. So I still see it as an improvement, but not yet a real success. More reachable locations and more capacity are needed.
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Kate
La Presse went to Australia to study how Melbourne is using technology to make that city more livable.
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Kate
Friday evening’s thunderstorm and the understandable defection of many of the volunteers who would normally be manning the route and ensuring its safety caused the last‑minute cancellation of the Tour la Nuit.
Chris
Seems Friday’s bibs will be honoured for Sunday’s ride.
Nicholas
Chris I wondered if that would be the case, but it’s always tough squeezing as many people as they do into the course. Adding thousands more will be a challenge. But the weather looks similarly dreary tomorrow, so maybe it’ll balance out.
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Kate
The Union des municipalités du Québec is asking the province to provide more funding for public transit, and stable, predictable, and sustainable funding instead of the unreliable games played in recent years.
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Kate
So much for dreams of the Cup.
But the Victoire will have a hockey celebration Saturday.
Nicholas
Does anyone think a Cup celebration for the Habs would be three measly blocks long on an already pedestrianized street?
Kate
It would obviously be much bigger but possibly also cause more damage.
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Kate
City hall is putting aside $3.4 million to help people left homeless on Moving Day. But then you read that it’s $1.1 million per year for 3 years, and that will get thinned out by incidental expenses.
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Kate
Man, is it raining hard over here, with incidental thunder, just as the Tour la nuit gets started nearby at Jarry Park.
I’ve even put out a bucket to catch rainwater for some of my plants that aren’t directly rained on, so I can water them later without turning on a tap.
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Kate
Bike path counters, which were turned off in March, are back on again now. With a link to the city page showing the locations and the numbers since 2022.
Joey
No idea why Karim Benessaieh didn’t explore this more:
On note cependant de grandes différences entre les données fournies par la nouvelle plateforme depuis 2022 et celles d’Éco-Compteurs. Le nombre de compteurs et de passages enregistrés diffère chaque année, avec un écart pouvant aller jusqu’à 3 millions de passages en 2022 et de plus de 1 million en 2025.
Kate
Yes, I thought the change being made was for other reasons besides the claimed ease and cheapness. Something is up.
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Kate
The city is asking us to reduce water consumption this summer while it repairs a water main under Atwater which is at risk of breakage at the same time two other major mains in town are also down for repairs.
La Presse includes a map – basically, more than the entire eastern half of the island is concerned.
The city will be closing some park fountains and limiting road washing and plant watering. We can only hope we don’t get any heat waves this summer.
Hamza
i find it the height of montreal irony for plante and projet to be the first administration in decades (maybe a century) to decide to bit the bullet and finally fix the damn leaking/exploding water mains and spiff up the streets/sidewalks at the same time – and then get electorally punished for doing the hard but right thing.
Kate
That right there is why most administrations don’t put money and effort into maintenance and repairs, even when the need is urgent. They’d rather keep kicking that can down the road till somebody else has to take the electoral hit.
nick
“En moyenne, chaque Montréalais consomme 306 litres d’eau par jour, ce qui dépasse la moyenne canadienne de 220 litres par jour.”
I don’t think that’s true.
R T
Well, in some sense, it’s impossible to know for certain if it’s true because Montreal doesn’t have water meters; we only know for sure how much water is going out. However, it is known that people in cities without water meters consume much more water than those in cities that do.
(Many years ago, I took a class that spent a week on Montreal’s water and sewer systems. It’s unclear to me if this is still true, but another reason it was almost impossible to know how much more water Montrealers consumed than their peers was that it was very roughly estimated that the city was losing half of its water to leaks.)
Chris
“A complete ban on watering could even be considered eventually”. Strange that they suggest this before suggesting, I dunno, a ban on washing cars, or spray-cleaning driveways, etc. Living things must die before we inconvenience car culture!
Kate
The CTV piece does say:
The city is also urging residents to comply with its bylaw on the use of drinking water by:- reducing watering;
- avoiding using water for outdoor cleaning, such as for a car or the exterior of a home;
- taking other daily steps to conserve water, including turning off the tap when brushing teeth.
R T : Apparently the leaky water mains are good for the city’s trees.
Chris
Indeed I didn’t read all 4 links, but now I’ve read the CTV one too. Seems the bylaws are explained a bit here: https://montreal.ca/en/articles/regulations-concerning-water-use-what-you-need-to-know-16578 Spray cleaning a driveway seems already disallowed.
But even the CTV article ends with “Depending on how the situation evolves, officials note that additional measures may need to be implemented, including a watering ban.” So here too they threaten plants before banning car washing.
thomas
The water main in question was installed in 1984. The fact that it already requires emergency repairs should be scandalous. Water mains are generally expected to last at least 60 to 70 years. For perspective, the current work on rue de la Cathédrale, mentioned in the article, is replacing a water main that dates back to 1911.
Kate
The massive main that burst in August 2024 at the corner of de Lorimier and René‑Lévesque had been installed in 1985. Possibly some bad engineering decisions about materials or methods were being made around that time, but it was reported earlier this month that it still isn’t clear what went wrong there – or maybe somebody knows but isn’t saying.
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Kate
Friday night will be the Tour la Nuit, and Sunday the Tour de l’Île. Notes on streets to be closed for the cycle events and for any other reasons.Weekend notes from Le Devoir, CityCrunch, Journal de Montréal, CultMTL.
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Kate
It isn’t a new story that a lot of social housing units are in disrepair, nor is it news that many school buildings are in such poor condition that they can make kids sick.
One of the authors of the school report asserts that “the root cause of the education system’s crumbling infrastructure is that governments didn’t invest enough in maintaining schools over decades.” You think maybe?
jeather
“Education Minister Sonia Lebel believes the province is already investing enough in education.”
Which I assume is true because surely her kid(s) are in public schools, right?
Meezly
I’ve been waiting for an education-related topic to post this petition:
https://www.assnat.qc.ca/fr/exprimez-votre-opinion/petition/Petition-12243/index.htmlDeadline is June 4 and there’s only about 11K signatures so far.
Key notes:
Data indicates a marked decline in book purchases by schools and libraries in 2025, representing approximately 250,000 fewer children’s books;
in a context where we wish to strengthen literacy and graduation rates, protect the French language and Quebec culture, and mitigate the effects of overexposure of young people to screens, access to books in schools is essential…It’s shameful citizens have to beg the CAQ to invest in something as basic as book and basic infrastructure.
Please sign and share.
Kate
Signed.
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Kate
Quebec is delaying funding for STM projects while bank charges pile up fruitlessly.
Nicholas
It’s weird the story keeps using “frais bancaires” when the quotes use “frais financiers” and “financement à court terme”. Bank fees read to me as overdraft, which obviously isn’t happening to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. They’re paying interest. And because these are short term loans by the STM, rather than long term loans issued by the province, the interest rate is surely higher. But at least they can make the budget deficit look artificially lower during an election year.
Hey what’s that school funding story just above about?
Joey
Buried at the bottom is the news that this kind of thing is no longer possible – basically projects were being approved at all levels but financing was held back for reasons… which meant that transit agencies had to borrow to finance the early stages until the full funding came through. Except that:
“De nouvelles normes de comptabilité dans le secteur public s’appliquent à la STM depuis avril 2024. Celles-ci n’autoriseraient plus le début des travaux avant les approbations officielles, comme c’est le cas du côté fédéral.”
In other words, rather than just allocate the money upfront with the other approvals, projects will be completely delayed until the mysterious budget-allocation process is complete.
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Kate
Claude Lemieux, who carried the ceremonial torch at the Bell Centre on Monday, has died. Lemieux was 60 and TMZ says he died by suicide: although mainstream media don’t mention it, this news is all over social media.
Ricardo
It’s amazing how as strong as he was, as tough as he was, as feared as he was, his mind ate him up from the inside. It’s so sad. gutted.
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