Spacing on the lower Main, once a live part of downtown Montreal, soon to be converted into a clean, sterile office building with no strippers, poutine or other embarrassments to propriety. Goodbye Frites dorées, Main Importing, Montreal Pool Room, Café Cléopatre, the lively 20th-century diversity that can’t make it into the 21st – just thinking about it now has a sort of low-rez grimy feel like a 1910 newsreel accompanied by a plinky piano.
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The cold snap hasn’t deterred people from attending the Fête des Neiges, which continues today and then next weekend as well.
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A new commuter train line towards Repentigny and then up to Mascouche, expected to open this year, is being held back: stations have to be built, land has to be bought, and more details have to be in place. They’re now issuing a possible 2012 opening date – and, of course, a higher cost estimate.
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The Gazette reports on the appearance and disappearance of a Facebook fan page for Kimveer Gill, the Dawson College shooter. In sheer quaintness of reporting this item’s up there, reminding us that Westmount is a “tony neighbourhood,” telling us Facebook did not return their calls, commenting that the alleged perpetrator of the page – one Mark Kyy – did not turn up on a search of the phone book.
The phone book, forsooth.
Mark Kyy still has a Facebook page, though, where he wishes happy birthday to Cho Seung-Hui and notes his membership of such groups as “I WISH I WAS DEAD!!!”, “Free Armin Meiwes” and “Fuck Haiti.” All pose? A cry for help? Could be either.
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Two AM radio stations have been shut down by Corus: AM940 and Info690.
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A Rue Frontenac writer alleges that a piece on Dany Villanueva in the Journal de Montréal makes mistaken accusations and has increased the likelihood the young man will be deported.
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I really like how Midnight Poutine is doing a weekly film screenings preview: even if you can find this information in a few other places it’s nice to have it organized regularly like this.
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On a trouvé un trou massif dans la chaussée du pont Mercier hier, et on va le réparer samedi.
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Toujours sur la thème de pression, Gilles Duceppe espère mettre de la pression sur le gouvernement Harper de faire quelque chose afin que la raffinerie Shell ne fermera pas en avril tel qu’annoncé.
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Je suis pressée ce matin, alors faisons vite les histoires de grève: les cols bleus font la grève dans le Plateau aujourd’hui; la ville attend la décision de l’arbitre dans les cas des pompiers et des policiers avant d’essayer de trouver une entente avec les cols bleus; le syndicat de la Commission des services électriques aussi fait pression.
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Metro notes that the blue-collar workers’ rotating strike touched Hochelaga-Maisonneuve during the snowfall today, but that sidewalks with a little pounded-down snow were more walkable than those that had been cleared by private contractors.
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Alanah Heffez has a nice piece today on the Orange Julep, including a photo of the previous, smaller Julep orange which I’d never seen before.
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Most of the city’s sport and cultural fees are going up under the new city budget.
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The promise of a fast train from Montreal to New York has been hinted at since I can remember, and several cycles of the idea have come and gone even since I started this blog in 2001. It alternates with the “fast train on the Windsor-Quebec corridor” idea, but it’s got more glamour.
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Lots has been written about Pierre Karl Péladeau’s speech last week, but Michel David of Le Devoir sums it up and pins it down perfectly.
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Workers at the CHUM’s Notre-Dame hospital discovered they were being watched by hidden cameras and do not like it at all.
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Spacing on the adoption of the city budget – kudos to them for covering bread-and-butter issues, anyway – and a brief Metro piece on the displeasure of the suburbs.
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One third of our city councillors continue to do other jobs, which opens the door to possible conflicts of interest.
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The fraud trial of the five men accused in the Norbourg investment scandal has been declared a mistrial; the jury was unable to reach a verdict after 11 days.
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Andre Dawson has decided he wants to be remembered as an Expo in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Later note: It’s been pointed out to me that it wasn’t Dawson’s decision and would not have been his choice. Hell, I’ve never understood baseball.
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Even though the Fredy Villanueva inquiry is still ongoing, his brother Dany Villanueva is facing possible deportation back to Honduras. The older Villanueva brother, not a Canadian citizen, had been in trouble with the police before the skirmish in a Montreal North park that killed Fredy and set loose the riot in 2008. But without his testimony about the shooting, the inquiry may be toothless.
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In the ill wind department, Quebec readers have been alerted to the pleasures of Haitian-Canadian writing by the sudden high profile of the culture in our scopes.
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Plans to replace Montreal’s aging collection of metro cars may be further delayed as Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive brings a case against the STM. Now the issue seems to be that the STM requires cars running on tires, as the Montreal metro always has, but the Chinese firm wants to press to make them accept rail cars instead.
This is a bit annoying, since the work really does need to begin – but would changing to rail cars necessarily be a bad thing? Our metro system can never allow trains to go outside because of the hazard of blowing a tire on random detritus. Changing to rail now would be a big shift, but it might save a lot of money in years to come. (If I’m not mistaken, there are already rails laid in the metro, although I don’t know how usable they are. Anybody?)
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Blue-collar workers began their rotating strikes yesterday with a demo at city hall but, in general, no major disruptions.