Apparently it’s biggish sports news that a segment of the Davis Cup will be played in Montreal this September.
Updates from June, 2012 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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The selling of street food may return to Montreal after a 65-year ban – but so far this news is about a new study, and the city has done studies on this before. In fact, invoking another study is their usual response to a surge in interest in allowing street food.
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MB
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A teacher at a Lasalle high school has been suspended for showing his students – at their request – the infamous video that allegedly shows the dismemberment of Jun Lin. Patrick Lagacé discusses the lapse in judgement.
DNA tests have confirmed what police had already guessed: the remains sent to schools in Vancouver were a match to those found in Montreal. Most macabre detail: the head has yet to be found.
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qatzelok
I’m waiting for the story about this teacher’s dog having pups.
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Marc
Update broke this afternoon: the teacher has been fired.
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UQÀM has given up on its “virage santé” and returned to selling junk food in its vending machines.
It’s not alone. I snapped a picture a few months ago of the vending machine in a waiting room at the Royal Vic, crammed with chocolate bars and chips. What can you do when this is what people really want?
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jeather
Yes, how come people who are stressed and worried about their illness or the illness of a loved one want familiar, comforting foods while in a waiting room?
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Kate
Only if your doctor is telling you to cut back on salt, sugar and refined carbohydrates and those are the only things the hospital offers you, it’s kind of a mixed message.
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jeather
When I went to the Royal Vic a lot in December (my grandfather was there), the cafeteria was filled with healthy foods (and some unhealthy ones, but mostly salads and grilled chicken and fish), but the vending machines were filled with vending machine foods. I remember this being similar at the Jewish, but haven’t been there in a few years. Vending machine foods aren’t the only foods available.
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Bill Binns
We would be far better off teaching people moderation than trying to hide the bad food from them. It’s quite possible to enjoy a candy bar from time to time without becoming obese. New York just passed a law limiting the size of soft drink cups. This will have not the slightest effect on the health of any person whatsoever.
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walkerp
That’s not true at all. Look at how much smoking has dropped off since all the anti-smoking legislation. People follow the path of least resistance and when bad habits are taken out of that path, they tend to do them less.
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Bill Binns
I quit smoking because it was costing me $400.00 a month not because I couldn’t find cigarettes to purchase. Throw $8.00 in taxes on every candy bar and watch people quit eating candy too.
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ant6n
If one were cynical, one would say that hospitals are in the business of fixing you if you’re broken, not ensuring that you don’t break ;-)
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Dhomas
@ant6n In Canada, hospitals are not (in most cases) businesses. In fact, the more people can stay out of them, the better for the taxpayers. Preventative medicine is therefore very important. Now if I could only find a family doctor…
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walkerp
Bill, yes I agree with that too. Make it hard to get at and expensive.
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ant6n
@Dhomas
Oh I know, but then again I’m not cynical ;-)
In the States that could be an issue, though -
Chris
jeather, vending machine is the only food available off-hours, when the cafeteria is closed.
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We’re not hearing a lot about local Olympic hopes, so it’s sad to hear that diver Alexandre Despatie has had a pretty bad head injury that might put an end to his Olympic bid.
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Faiz Imam
All signs indicate that he’ll be back in time for the Olymipcs, no concussion it seems. Though it there was would he tell?
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With friends like this you don’t need enemies: a guest columnist in the Gazette writes under the heading Montreal is no stranger to overcoming adversity about how filthy and graffiti-ridden our streets are, how our downtown is no longer safe – patrolled by police in riot gear. I do not recognize the 1980s New York picture this guy is drawing and I think it’s irresponsible of the Gazette to run this kind of item, tending as it does to reinforce its suburban readers’ fear of the city.
Our city is so safe, there isn’t a street I wouldn’t walk down alone at midnight. It’s so clean, the idea of describing it in terms more suitable to a third-world favela is an insult to people who actually have to live in those favelas. We have some drama, yes, but trying to heighten that drama by publishing inflammatory rubbish is a distasteful editorial choice.
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Mark
The irony is that the people I know in the suburbs experience much more vandalism by bored kids–cars purposefully scratched, bus shelters smashed, etc.–than downtowners do.
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Bill Binns
I appreciate the safety of Montreal, it’s really of the major things that keeps me here. I also found myself standing in the Metro last weekend noticing the almost total lack of graffiti. Amazing for a city of this size. The columnist may have a point regarding our infrastructure though. How can a city built on an island take such poor care of it’s bridges?
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C_Erb
The city doesn’t maintain the bridges, they’re federal jurisdiction.
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Jack
Joel Raby is a 1%’er, who is writing solely from that perspective, ignore him. I mean seriously, how many investment bankers do you know?
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jeather
I know people who live in the west island. None of them are scared of the city. (Also, 1%ers live in Westmount, Outremont and TMR. Their kids live in the Plateau.)
I have no idea what this article is talking about (not Montreal) or who it is aimed at (not Montrealers). I think most people agree that our municipal leadership is lacking, sure, but our crime rate isn’t exactly terrifyingly horrific, and I don’t see any current travel alerts about Canada — there is one from late April, saying mostly “be careful and avoid getting caught up in a demonstration”, but nothing now.
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paul
Safe, yes…
Clean, no. I would argue that it is the dirtiest city in North America (at least from personal experience)
I recognize that we have more important things to spend our money on, but I think the problem isn’t from a poorly run municipal service but rather a cultural indifference to littering that you don’t see elsewhere. I question if there are education campaigns?
I would reduce garbage pick-up to once a week, spending the money on other cleaning measures. Project Montreal has indicated a desire to reduce this service, but are tied into their union contract until 2014.
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jeather
FWIW, in the Sud-Ouest we have once a week garbage pickup (as of April of this year).
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walkerp
East coast cities in general, U.S. and Canada, are dirtier and more broken down than west coast cities. Montreal is okay, but people still litter here, don’t pick up after their dogs and so on all behaviour that is basically unthinkable on the west coast.
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C_Erb
Dirtiest city in North America?? Have you been to Philadelphia? I often heard it referred to as Filthadelphia, a nickname it more than earned. There are many other American cities that make Montreal look clean enough to eat off in comparison.
Also, myself, I don’t mind a bit of dirt and grime here and there. Have you been to Ottawa? That place is almost shiny it’s so clean. It’s also incredibly boring!
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Ian
Even compared to Toronto Montreal is cleaner, maybe not for graffiti but certainly for air quality. Also, while we have more riot cops, Toronto has a lot more homelessness. I’ve never had anyone barf through my mail slot while I was living in Montreal.
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John B
Safe: ok, maybe.
Cean? No way. This is the dirtiest city I’ve lived in, and I’ve lived in most major Canadian cities. There’s trash everywhere. I found a half-drunk pepsi on my car yesterday. I clean up a couple of pounds of litter from in front of my apartment building each year. There’s trash everywhere.
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paul
@C_Erb – Filthadelphia, nice! :-) I haven’t spent more than a few hours there and can’t comment.
For interest’s sake what other centres do you feel are dirtier? I haven’t visited the southern US, but compared to the major eastern centres (NYC, Chicago) and the West coast, Montreal is much dirtier IMO.@Kate, not to derail the conversation but I find it interesting that comparing the cleanliness of our city to third-world centres is irresponsible and insulting, yet the students comparing their movement to the Arab Spring (not to mention Charest to Mubarak, SPVM to the SS, etc) is appropriate and justified. Any rationale behind this??
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Kate
You guys are seeing a dirtier city than I see. I’ve been all over town this week and kept my eyes open, and it’s a city – there’s the odd bit of litter, yes, but it’s certainly not crawling with filth.
I think people get hung up on the general grottiness after the snow recedes in early spring. Yes, we have a couple of discouraging weeks – the trees still bare, the sidewalks scattered with leftover gravel, litter and dog poo reappearing from vanishing snowbanks. But go out today! This city is so beautiful in June with flowers and leafy trees and clean sidewalks and nice stuff.
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qatzelok
It’s true that Montreal has a lot of people walking around 24/7, and these people create a lot of litter.
Perhaps Saskatoon does it better: everyone permanently locked in a car with a plastic bag on the seat to put their empties. Or Halifax, which has no pedestrians after 6 pm.
These are the soulless dead-bourgs that the Gazette article is praising. It’s like that paper will do virtually ANYTHING to lower its readers’ self-esteem. Would it be an exaggeration to call The Gazette a “reader abuser?”
It might explain the nasty collective behavior of its readers/victims.
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paul
Agreed Kate, the spring weeks are especially challenging and the city is in generally good shape especially on major thoroughfares – but I can definitely give you some streets to visit which are regularly filled with garbage.
@qatzelok – are the much cleaner NYC, Chicago, Vancouver, etc ‘soulless dead-bourgs’? Trash Saskatoon and Halifax all you want, but all cities have their pros and cons; what they lack in vibrancy, they make-up for in civic pride. I am not arguing that Montreal becomes suburban Calgary; Montreal’s vibrancy is what makes it great – but it doesn’t mean we cant emulate certain aspects of a variety of cities. We don’t need to reduce our strengths to address our weaknesses.
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qatzelok
@ paul: “We don’t need to reduce our strengths to address our weaknesses.”
I disagree strongly. As soon as you start cracking down on jaywalking (for example), you begin to negatively affect pedestrians. Same with those banes of suburban priss-heads – litter and graffiti. Crack down on those, and you reduce other positive things. The Gazette wants all of Montreal to look like boring Monkland Avenue.
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paul
@qatzelok – I don’t really care what the gazette wants, I am just suggesting what I would like to see. Jaywalking is one of the best things in Montreal, but beside the point; we are talking about litter, tagging etc.
Could you elaborate on what positive things tagging and litter bring to our city??
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qatzelok
Youth culture and pedestrian traffic.
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paul
I think that is grasping: I find it hard to believe that a significant reduction in litter would result in a reduction of pedestrians or a decrease in culture.
The percentage of people that regularly litter or tag must be extremely minimal, but their impact on the street scape is quite large – I would argue for the worse but I imagine we disagree.
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Kate
OK @paul – tell me where the garbage is, I’ll go with a camera and report back.
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jeather
Montreal is dirtier than many nice cities, but — except for a bit after the snow melts — it’s not this pit of squalour. I might not want to walk around barefoot, but I don’t need closed shoes and pants that cover my entire leg.
And wanting less litter doesn’t mean killing people who litter on sight, nor does it have anything to do with jaywalking. (Quebec City has litter, too, and almost no jaywalking [where I am]. It’s eerie.)
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Kevin
I’m late to this discussion but I just got back from a week in southern France
Our city is filthy.
Garbage cans are 2-3 a block in Cannes, Nice, and smaller cities and they are always empty. I can’t tell you how often I search for a can in Montreal only to find it overflowing with trash.
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A group offering help to homeless natives in Montreal is losing the space it’s been using on La Gauchetière, but can’t find another. Surely there’s some disused church hall available? Christian charity, anybody?
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Steve Quilliam
She says she’s been looking everywhere beetwen Atwater and Papineau. What’s wrong with the rest of the island ? What’s wrong with Laval or Longueuil ? Is she discriminating againts there areas ? I think the Ville-Marie borough is doing more than his share on this specific matter. It’s time other places do their part.
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Kate
Downtown is where people go, and the part of town people know. A little hard on Ville-Marie but it’s a fact of life here. Social assistance has to go where the people are because they would not be homeless if it were easy for them to get organized to buy a bus pass to get to Laval or Longueuil.
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Richard
The jab about “Christian charity” is unkind and misleading. A massive amount of relief work is being done for the homeless by Christian organizations. Welcome Hall and Pops come to mind (there are many others). That was cheap.
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Bill Binns
Isn’t there something a little strange about an ethnically distinct homeless charity?
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Kate
Bill Binns: several factors come into play here. A major one is that we owe the natives, big time, for all the damage our culture has done to theirs. Also they have a distinct cultural style and needs, so that a shelter specifically conceived for them is a reasonable thing to offer. I don’t know whether some may want help getting back home, reuniting with their families, etc., but that might be something a native-focused shelter would need to consider.
Also, I doubt that a specifically native shelter would have come about had there not been issues with natives staying at the other ones. Natives deserve to have someplace to go where they are not marginalized, either by their own behaviour or by attitudes from other homeless folks.
Native Canadians and Inuit are not just any ethnicity in Canada.
Richard: I’m not apologizing. Some Christians do a lot of good, but the Catholics are letting a lot of buildings sit idle, or are turning them over for profit. I realize they are underfunded now, but those buildings were supported for generations by public donation and tax breaks, and at least some of them should be returned to the public for their benefit.
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FEUQ has issued an apology for some people doing Nazi salutes – meant as a satirical insult to police, not as a support for fascist ideas, but found offensive nonetheless by Jewish groups.
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Ephraim
As I said, Martine Desjardins is the only responsible leader of any of the student unions. I salute her for being responsible enough to act immediately, to realize that it does offend many and for actually taking action. None of the other student unions were so responsible, including CLASSE and Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois playing their usual game of not taking responsibility and only tweeting about the incident when they realized that it had gone viral. No one there seems to understand that to say you represent the students means you take responsibility for their actions… you are the face and the voice of your members.
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Bill Binns
Last week Martine Desjardins also said that the students had no interest in disrupting the Gran Prix and we saw how well that worked out. As has been said here before, these people are not “leaders” they are “spokespersons”. They have no more control over the mob than anyone else.
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ant6n
@Bill
It’s not like that government has control over their ‘mob’ (the police). -
Bill Binns
@ant6n – I would argue that the goverment has an almost supernatural control over the Police (at least at the demonstrations). I have watched many officers stand motionless and stonefaced while people screamed at them from millimeters in front of their face, flipped them off etc. Doing these things to the Police just about anywhere in a one on one situation will leave you crawling around in the gutter trying to locate your teeth.
I certainly couldn’t do it. I think they calm themselves by thinking about the triple overtime they are earning.
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OMG I would be so happy if I could get a beautiful, delicious taco off the street for a dollar or two. Study me! Study me!!!