I will be guest curating the news on OpenFile Montreal this Saturday and next, November 12 and 19. Tune in for a Montreal City-inflected spin on the day’s events!
Updates from November, 2011 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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While students were doing a big demo, a smaller demo was held Thursday to demand more housing for the many homeless in Montreal, and the folks edging closer to homelessness as the economy turns bleaker.
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I’ve seen tweets and Facebook remarks but no other news links about this yet: Thursday’s student demo was largely peaceful, until it reached the McGill campus, where riot police got out the pepper spray and tough tactics. General demo pix in La Presse and a report with pix in Metro.
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ant6n
I’ve heard of people being pushed into University buildings and locked in, meaning that students who were not part of the even were suddenly locked down as well. Some Iranian friend of mine mentioned that this created a bit of deja vu moment…
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Nick D.
There are now also two stories in the McGill Daily, as well as a flickr set, and various youtube clips, on the police violence against both students and bystanders, in the area near Milton St and University St:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ssmu/sets/72157628100825176/
http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2011/11/students-occupying-james-administration-assaulted-by-security/
http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2011/11/mcgill-students-violently-forced-off-campus/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4aSRIaDTI4 -
Kate
Thank you for these!
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Political irony may be some of the best irony around. Louise Harel, who was indefatigable in trying to force a merger of Montreal island when she was PQ municipal affairs minister ten years ago, now says the city structure is ungovernable and she is the one to fix it.
(It’s odd, hearing such a lot of municipal campaign talk, two years in advance of the vote. This didn’t happen last cycle.)
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Michel
(Assumes voice of Inigo Montoya) “I do not think that word (irony) means what you think it means.” :)
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Kevin
She already campaigned with a broom pledging to clean up the mess.
She just neglects to mention what everyone who votes knows: SHE MADE THE MESS! -
Kate
Michel, sweetums, never try to trump la blogueuse on the meanings and use of words.
Historical irony (cosmic irony through time)
When history is seen through modern eyes, there often appear sharp contrasts between the way historical figures see their world’s future and what actually transpires.From Wikipedia. There are many similar examples.
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Michel
Ah. I was thinking more political hypocrisy, but have been thoroughly admonished.
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Jack
I supported the merger so I am biased, the problem administratively wasnt Harel it was Charest pander solution to get votes in the 450. That is the problem! All these structures were born ad hoc by Charests univision coupled with Tremblay buying off the suburban mayors with more patronage posts, dont blame Harel. If your logic is because she started it, thats not enough.
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Shawn
I opposed the merger but I agree with Jack. A lot of the multi-layered bureaucracy was added by Charest as a sop to the suburban boroughs. I think I actually might vote Harel, even though I was profoundly anti-merger (and am a federalist) because someone’s got to take a scalpel to this thing, I think.
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Robert J
Yeah. The current situation is not Harel’s fault. If you opposed the merger and still think a smaller city is better than you should oppose Harel. But Charest caused the current problem with the de-mergers. Tremblay was forced to sacrifice central city powers to boroughs to keep them in the city. Hence the current mess. Personally I’m in favor of merging central municipalities but not the West Island. Suburbs and city should stay separate because they have different needs, but wealthy enclaves are parasitical.
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Kate
I’m not sure I buy that Harel is not partly on the hook. She really pushed for the merger, and it seemed to be part of the PQ’s tendency to get some kind of upper hand on Montreal. I am convinced the entire metropolitan area really is one city and that it’s pure evil for Westmount, for example, to get away with the things it does, but a lot of people bear the blame for the mess – the PQ for getting us into it, the Liberals for making a mess of getting us out of it, and Mayor Tremblay for not having the cojones to stand up to the Quebec government and insist on a less jury-rigged solution.
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mdblog
@ Robert J, are you saying that the West Island is a wealthy enclave? I can see your point about parasitical entities when applied to Westmount or Hampstead but not sure I agree with you if you’re including the entire West Island in that. Can you please clarify?
@ Kate, I agree completely with you about the entire region being one city, whether we recognize it as such or not. It’s high time that Montreal as a city/region take control of those aspects of government which will benefit from some centralization at the municipal level such as Transportation, Infrastructure, Land Development, etc.
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Mathieu
Well, the West Island as a whole is a wealthy region. Houses there are more expensive in general than any other suburb located at the same distance from downtown. Sure there are some poor families and it’s no Westmount, but we’re far from Hochelaga and Côte-des-Neiges!
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Robert J
@mdblog No. I don’t know if I was clear. I think Westmount, Hampstead, Côte-St.-Luc, TMR, etc. are parasitical. The West Island is as suburban as Laval, and should stay out of the city as long as it remains that. In Ottawa, they included all the suburbs in the city years back and suburban voters elected an anti-transit mayor. That’s why you don’t mix the two. So no, the West Island is not a wealthy enclave, its a fairly wealthy suburban area.
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Robert J
btw I’m defending Harel on the merger situation, but I by no means think she’s a great candidate for mayor of Montreal, better than Tremblay but not great. Projet Montreal’s work in the Plateau Mont-Royal worries me (though I agree with it on principle). If they are that heavy-handed on a larger scale they will alienate a lot of people and I’m not sure they’ll get much done. It’s too soon to place our bets I think.
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On OpenFile, Kristian Gravenor talks to Alfred Bohns, who has been putting up a fascinating collection of vintage photos of Montreal on Flickr over the last while.
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Thousands of students are holding a two-day strike and will hold a major demo Thursday afternoon against planned tuition increases. Like the Occupy movement, this is a trend also seen elsewhere.
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The emerald ash borer has been found in the botanical garden – bad news, but the city’s on the case. We have 45,000 ash trees (frêne, Fraxinus) here, making up 20% of the city’s trees. Even if the species isn’t as instantly familiar as a maple, you’ve undoubtedly seen their seeds strewn on the sidewalk.
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A 2010 report suggests that organized crime still has a place in the port, which allows illegal drugs to flow into the city.
Where there’s demand, there will be supply. I’d be far more surprised if they found the port was 100% clean and above reproach.
Craig Silverman 10:12 on 2011/11/11 Permalink
So excited to have you rock the Saturdays!