An elegy for a beautiful tree points out bureaucracy's failures in too much compartmentalization.
posted at 12:46

 
Jean Béliveau reflects on the accolades that his hockey career is still bringing him.
posted at 12:15

 
Literacy students, usually too old for the standard student fare breaks, may get their own deal from the STM so that they can afford to attend classes.
posted at 12:13

 
A gang of dealers that found its market around Mont-Royal metro has been rounded up.
posted at 12:11

 
The idea of year-round bike paths is floated, and not for the first time either in the memory of this blog. But now that winter's over, people are already forgetting the difficulties. Keeping the paths cleanly plowed and successfully barring motorists from blocking them when there's a parking spot shortage after a storm will both be very difficult to achieve.

Bike paths open tomorrow for the summer.
posted at 11:39

 
Signs of spring in Montreal: pothole repairs, seagulls and squirrels, the lovely smells.
posted at 13:36

 
More on citizen dissatisfaction with the Tremblay administration; more on yesterday's student demo for free university tuition, although one expert says tuitions should actually be six times what they are now.
posted at 13:20

 
The effect of the proposed giant CHUM project on traffic and on the physical barriers between downtown and Old Montreal has been studied by the public consultation office, which proposes scaling down its towers and reorganizing highway accesses.
posted at 13:13

 
Various glimpses of Montreal's quirks: our huge SUVs and little hill; where was this travel writer when so many cabbies were trying to solicit her business?; a report of an odd conversation with a Green Onion; visits in Chinese, and in Dutch, with photos.
posted at 12:58

 
This afternoon is the first Critical Mass ride of the springtime and tonight is a metro party (imported from Toronto), followed by the Faceless Invasion on Saturday. Flash mobs may be a thing of the past, but it seems planned spontaneity is here to stay.
posted at 00:26

 
Students held a major protest this afternoon in expectation the Quebec government will end its long tuition freeze. They want tuition to be free.
posted at 23:42

 
The Canadiens are to do special honour to Jean Béliveau during a big fund-raising event tonight to recognize a life well lived although fraught with difficulties.
posted at 11:08

 
Petro-Canada wants to build a new coke plant in the east end, near its other refineries; local people aren't happy about the inevitable increase in pollutants in an area where respiratory illness is already more common than elsewhere in town.
posted at 10:54

 
Mayor Tremblay gets some opinion poll bad news: a lot of Montrealers disapprove of his management of municipal issues, taxes more than anything.

They're also not pleased with his handling of garbage, transit and the environment. It seems to me he can't win (nor could anybody in those shoes): how can he make a better job of all the other matters if he cuts taxes? You can't have it both ways. You want a clean, safe city built on sound environmental practice, it doesn't come cheap.
posted at 10:45

 
The expropriation of the peep show business at St-Laurent and Ste-Catherine is going ahead, eventually to open space for the construction of that very exciting glass box in the picture.
posted at 10:35

 
Greenpeace dumped five tonnes of corn yesterday in front of the Quebec Liberal Party HQ as a stunt to demand promises about the labelling of genetically modified food. (Unfortunately for them, the HQ is on a northern block of Waverly Street, far from most interested eyes.)
posted at 10:32

 
A Toronto writer bewails the arts grants he sees propping up federal popularity in Montreal. But people in the arts world here are worried what the adéquiste trend might do to arts support in Quebec.
posted at 11:19

 
Montreal may be getting a huge fresco depicting characters from its history, done by the folks who did the Fresque des Québécois. It'll be somewhere in Ville-Marie but the exact location's not set.
posted at 10:59

 
The city has boosted its commitment to the environment with a new round of sustainable development plans including development of public transit.

Also, the Biodome is getting a little work done and some help in preserving two endangered species.
posted at 01:50

 
Clothing maker Gildan Activewear is moving en masse to Central America, cutting 1,800 jobs worldwide including several hundred people in their Montreal plants.
posted at 15:05

 
The electoral map of Montreal is relatively unchanged, except for Laurier-Dorion, which has reverted to the Liberals, and Crémazie, which turned PQ.

The final seat count is 48-41-36; official numbers can be found on the Director-General's site.
posted at 09:27

 
The Liberals have managed to squeak through with a minority government. That was expected, but the shocker is the new official opposition: the ADQ, which knocked the Parti Québécois down to third place.

Party standings are 47-42-36 as I write, although there will probably be recounts after several close races, including the one for Jean Charest's seat in Sherbrooke.

I was going to link to the ADQ website but it seems to have been knocked over, no surprise there. Here's the Wikipedia page meantime. also a pretty good resumé of the campaign.

I don't have a link, but according to CBC TV commentary little has changed on the island of Montreal. It's in the rest of Quebec that the shift has occurred. Here's a list of elected candidates. There'll be more numbers and analysis tomorrow: let's just say the landscape has changed and it'll be awhile before we know how it will affect this city.
posted at 23:57

 
The polls are open for an election which is close, close, close – as uncertain as the Canadiens' chance at a playoff berth. Post-mortems of the campaign are already published and the fate of 500 candidates hangs in the balance.
posted at 11:35

 
Montreal is about to host what is being called the first war crimes trial in Canada or else the first war crimes trial in 15 years depending on your sources. Désiré Munyaneza, a Hutu, is accused of genocide toward Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994. He's being tried under the relatively new Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Act.
posted at 11:28

 
The Laval metro was meant to be a benefit to the suburb, but when it opens next month it's also expected to bring more crime and endanger the children.
posted at 10:43

 
Various polls predict the first minority government in Quebec since 1878. I wonder whether everyone who's been saying they'll vote ADQ really will, when they're alone with their thoughts and the stubby pencil.

And for those in Quebec thinking about not voting, I'll quote the wise man who said "in elections, often there's nobody to vote for, but there's always somebody to vote against."
posted at 20:30

 
Sheldon Souray played his 500th NHL game last night as the Canadiens beat the Capitals to stay in the race for the playoffs.
posted at 15:09

 
Big talk about new venues includes a new spectacle hall next to the Bell Centre, and of course the perennial plan for a new symphony hall.
posted at 12:39

 
The tiny Glenmount enclave wants to be annexed to TMR but it's not so easy: the piece of land is valuable, and it all comes down to dollars, as usual.
posted at 12:36

 
The Director-General of Elections has changed his mind, and face coverings must be briefly raised for identification if you want to vote in Quebec.

I am of two minds about this. On the one hand, only a tiny minority of women in Quebec cover their faces. Hijab, covering the hair and usually tucked under the chin, is vastly more common, and doesn't cause any identification problems. But there is no question that we chiefly identify strangers by face, and that a fully hidden person must be vouched for in other ways which are not usual in Western society.

But in the current atmosphere of anxiety over accommodements raisonnables – a mood in which people are getting riled by something as inconsequential as how a privately owned hotel allocates its resources for a week and a hospital that has given good service for years is made to change its policy because eating a ham sandwich is suddenly a human right – something like this looms much bigger than it really ought. There's some pertinent and amusing thoughts about the whole thing here.
posted at 12:18

 
Continuing what seems to be a mania for order, Ville-Marie is cracking down on calèche drivers, making sure their carriages are pretty. Artisans and performers working Place Jacques-Cartier will also be under much tighter controls.
posted at 11:53

 
Interesting background on how sexual predator Benoît Guay, of the Montreal police force, was finally caught. He pleaded guilty yesterday.
posted at 15:27

 
Wired News covers a new would-be flash-mobby event called the Faceless Invasion: "hundreds of young people running around Montreal in a competition to see who is the wildest and craziest - and doing it all while wearing Mexican wrestling masks." Oh dear. There'll be tears before bedtime. And in other face-covering news, the director-general of the Quebec election has ruled (apparently after threats) that it's legal to vote in full Islamic face-covering niqab, even if André Boisclair thinks otherwise.
posted at 14:14

 
The STM bus fleet will go green next year, when the older buses will all be running on biodiesel – they don't even need any modifications – and new buses will all be hybrids.
posted at 13:58

 
Thoughts on the issue of ticket quotas for police. I take the point that reckless driving is a dangerous factor in our city life, but maybe the profit from tickets shouldn't become the main motive driving a police force.

When I went to report on my stolen bicycle last fall, I had a pleasant enough conversation with the desk sergeant, which included him laughing merrily and saying "Would you believe, some people actually imagine we go out looking for their stolen bikes!"

I hadn't actually expected that – if anyone were to go looking for it, it would be me, checking out the pawnshops and eyeballing the classifieds – but it was more his attitude: what a waste of time, cops looking out for stolen goods. Why officer, I thought that was part of the job description.
posted at 11:24

 
A study shows that the much-vaunted quartier des spectacles is already feeling the squeeze from new construction projects in the area, especially residential ones. Remembering how the new condo owners at Rachel and Saint-Dominique tried to banish the Fringe Festival from the Parc des Amériques (move to the Main for some peace and quiet?) it isn't too far-fetched to picture future condo owners quelling the Jazz Festival and others by their collective disapproval of the noisy summer extravaganzas.
posted at 11:14

 
As the provincial election campaign wraps up, a big promise is thrown in Montreal's direction by the PQ.
posted at 11:10

 
A departing, disgrunted police sergeant says Montreal police are at risk of being perceived only as ticket machines. He's the officer that got in trouble for running a ticket-contesting business on the side.

More ticketing is likely to occur this summer when the city ramps up its cleanliness brigade and begins issuing fines for making a civic mess.
posted at 11:15

 
The federal budget ignores cities, says the mayor, and Jean Charest is accused of ignoring Montreal with his campaign.
posted at 11:10

 
The federal budget may be raining funds on Quebec and providing money for small festivals, but the mayor is disappointed at the lack of gas tax money and public transit funding for the city, and environmentalists also find support for public transit lacking.
posted at 11:25

 
The Park Avenue YMCA is removing the frosted windows that caused such a fuss a few months ago, and putting back regular windows with blinds. Trivial news, perhaps, but reported in all our media today and elsewhere as well.
posted at 11:08

 
I noticed today that despite the apparently fevered election campaign, here in Laurier-Dorion I have seen nothing. A few placards are up on poles, but I've received no brochures or cards or anything from any party to either outline its overall platform or promises for the riding. This riding used to be a Liberal stronghold, but Christos Sirros quit not long after his re-election in 2003 and was replaced after a close byelection by a young PQ up-and-comer named Elsie Lefebvre. Could be a close and interesting race, but where are the candidates, and what's going on? Are the parties somehow expecting to benefit from voter apathy? If so, that's a dangerous line to take.
posted at 11:41

 
Quan Nguyen hits the high points of the St. Patrick's Day parade in this photo set.
posted at 11:30

 
Not making this up: the issue of Muslim prayer at a cabane à sucre sounds like broad satire on the collision between two cultures, but it's not. Even the cabane à sucre menu without pork – fèves sans lard – is causing remark. At least in the pages of the newspapers.
posted at 11:17

 
The question of who will oversee the development of the Quartier des Spectacles is apparently proving pretty divisive at City Hall. I have to say that few architectural sketches have left me as cold as the one attached to this story. It's an office building, folks – it doesn't look fun or flyée.
posted at 11:09

 
Montreal's fashion week begins, with next autumn's collections already on the agenda. This is important if only because Montreal's still a needletrade town: I have no idea if the public can attend these shows or if they're just for folks in the business.
posted at 10:42

 
As usual, thousands of people gathered to watch the St. Patrick's Day parade which included such notable Hibernians as André Boisclair and Gilles Duceppe.
posted at 19:26

 
S.W. Welch, books, cat and all, has moved to Saint-Viateur, as noted here before. This is a nice profile by Chris DeWolf.
posted at 15:24

 
OK, it went to shootout, but the Canadiens' hopes of making the playoffs are still alive.
posted at 13:36

 
The many Montreal acts at SXSW in Austin. TX; a two-part deification of the Arcade Fire as "best band in the world" by the Guardian UK.
posted at 13:32

 
Pointe-St-Charles tavern Magnan's is 75 years old this year and more popular than ever; homeless folks at the Accueil Bonneau and other shelters are feasting on fish and venison seized from poachers by the law; the ever unresolved question whether Fairmount or Saint-Viateur make the best bagel, with some notes on the history and recent development of the bagel (no, they should not have blueberries in them, get away).
posted at 12:53

 
Despite what you may think on looking out a window, Montreal is still short 40 cm of snow compared to an average year. That warm snowless lead-up to Christmas must've cut the numbers.
posted at 12:38

 
Le Devoir has a section on new residential developments in town: lower Westmount near the new MUHC superhospital, townhouses in Lachine, a soi-disant affordable one in Park Ex and specialized residences for older folks in Outremont and Laval.
posted at 16:45

 
Fashion week gets under way this week: one designer is interviewed. There's an idea for the next YULBlog: what the well-dressed blogger is wearing.
posted at 16:23

 
Pre-analyses of tonight's critical Canadiens-Leafs game: with Huet sidelined, Halak will be in goal; Kovalev's presence is uncertain; as the regular season hurtles to its close, who will squeeze into the playoffs?
posted at 14:22

 
A profile of Montreal-based Wikitravel. Interesting to see that "pissed off" is now acceptable in a newspaper.

(Not that I mind – I think it's time journalists stopped being coy about what's actually said and written. But I admit I noticed it.)
posted at 13:50

 
This writer sees a ray of hope for the architectural future of this city.
posted at 13:16

 
A blizzard hits town four days before the Spring equinox and one day before the St. Patrick's parade. It's noted here that the last snow of the year is often in April, so don't go looking for crocuses yet.
posted at 13:10

 
Some thoughts on how to celebrate St. Patrick's Day; Montreal Zen Poetry Festival presents, well, zen and poetry; Maisonneuve magazine has abandoned plans to launch a "city magazine" and is sticking to its current quarterly format for the moment; a poetic piece about S.W. Welch books, reopening this weekend on Saint-Viateur at Esplanade.
posted at 17:35

 
The rise and fall of Conrad Black, born in Montreal, ennobled in England, and now on trial in Chicago for racketeering and fraud.
posted at 15:56

 
A new book by Journal de Montréal writer Fabrice de Pierrebourg, Montréalistan, profiles twenty of what he calls radical Islamists living in this city. The book is sure to become something of a hot potato as it's released next week.
posted at 13:15

 
The city has dished out the better part of a million bucks to major festivals, including the Festival des films du monde, which continues to exist.
posted at 12:54

 
The concrete barrier between Montreal West and Ville St-Pierre was bulldozed this morning but the Montreal West mayor says he still intends to block those streets to calm traffic.
posted at 12:50

 
Three new books by local bloggers are being launched this afternoon by Septentrion.
posted at 12:40

 
The annual protest against police brutality turned nasty last night in Côte-des-Neiges, resulting in 15 arrests, including six minors.
posted at 12:36

 
I'm not commenting much on the election campaign, but this morning I was amused to see Pierre Foglia and Richard Martineau saying much the same thing about André Boisclair: they'd both been prepared to write him off after the debate, but now they're not.
posted at 11:25

 
A Montreal company is offering access to medical specialists for a fee, something that's technically not allowed here, although is being more and more tolerated. Isn't it time the government fessed up that we actually do have a two-tier system like Britain and commenced regulating it properly, instead of letting it be introduced sneakily like this?
posted at 11:22

 
A belief in the importance of spirituality has netted a nice $1.8-million jackpot for Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor. Here's some background and a Wikipedia entry.
posted at 10:59

 
A scuffle in the west end of town: bad feeling as Montreal West blocks off Ville St-Pierre with a row of concrete blocks. They say they want to block a hazardous route to the highway; Ville St-Pierre folks call it elitism. (Anyone who thinks "we don't do that here" should ponder the long wall along l'Acadie that fences off TMR from Park Extension.)
posted at 10:45

 
A look at why so many kids from Haitian families throw their lot in with gangs.
posted at 10:40

 
None of the media are too interested in city affairs this morning after the big debate (with no clear winner) and the sudden revival of the Canadiens' playoff hopes.

So: the map of montreal misconceptions; a beautiful 1963 photo of Viger Square – yes, the one that's now a concrete maze where homeless folks camp in the summer; this piece on Île Sans Fil annoys me, because I know they're doing good work and pestering them to make their technical meetings more touchy-feely is so beside the point; a look at tofu in Montreal.
posted at 11:13

 
The Canadiens teeter on elimination, another war of words breaks out with a disgruntled Russian player, and a major game is in the offing tonight.
posted at 11:27

 
Info and analysis are starting to come out of the 2006 census. Canada's cities are seeing a growth boom, Montreal is growing a little more slowly than the other major towns, and Quebec is having a baby boom. I'm sure more factoids will emerge as the media digest the numbers.
posted at 11:21

 
The environment is clearly becoming more important to people, let's hope not too late: various green groups say the city's plans to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 20% between now and 2012 is too feeble an effort, and that the campaigning provincial parties are not putting enough emphasis on environmental issues.
posted at 11:08

 
Here are a few interesting old streetcar photos from around town (although the attribution of the 1960s is mistaken because trams were gone from the city streets by then).
posted at 02:03

 
It's not really news, just a reminder: this Sunday is the St. Patrick's Day parade along the usual route, starting at noon.
posted at 00:06

 
Forfar Street. Conway Street. Britannia Street. Don't ask a cabbie to bring you there today, but before 1964 they were part of the Montreal map. Here's a mixed photo tour of Goose Village, which shows some views from an entire little Montreal neighbourhood that was demolished and erased from the map in preparation for Expo 67.
posted at 11:23

 
The Green Party wants to put tollbooths on the bridges to pay for a tramway system for the city; Richard Bergeron says there should be laws against McMansions like those proliferating in the newer subdivisions of suburban Montreal; new housecleaning products are bring introduced here that work "without chemicals" which is quite some claim.
posted at 11:19

 
Another obit for Ryan Larkin, this time from the Globe & Mail.
posted at 10:49

 
An item on the Main's Jewish history from an Albany writer is already out of date, giving S.W. Welch's old address next to La Cabane (he's moving to 225 Saint-Viateur West this week) and mentioning the old Simcha's sign.
posted at 15:41

 
It's no surprise to me to read that, numerically, local media have been mostly caught up with the Quebec election campaign.
posted at 15:33

 
So far this year there have been twelve murders in town, compared with six this time last year, the most recent being a killing in an espresso bar in Park Ex. By comparison it's pointed out that Boston has roughly 125 homicides a year, while we have an average of around 50.
posted at 14:56

 
It's odd but kind of nice that several blogs and sites are dedicated to Expo 67: expo1967 and Expo Lounge both blog about features of the fair, while Expo67 2.0 follows commemorative activities, expo67.morenciel.com has various retrospective bits, this government site has photos and audio and this rather odd site (audio plays immediately) has lots of images and material about a forthcoming documentary. The CBC also has some archival material on Expo 67 (video plays immediately). (I've linked one or two of these before, but not all.)
posted at 13:53

 
Another lament for the city as open-air ashtray.
posted at 13:19

 
Six months after the Dawson shootings, a three-part piece looks carefully at Kimveer Gill and still concludes there's no simple explanation for his actions. They also look at how the family of Anastasia de Sousa – Gill's only fatal shooting that day – are doing.
posted at 19:37

 
Cute bit about one of the other Montreals, one of among six in France: Montréal-du-Gers (no photos, unfortunately). There's also one in Aude which is the oldest in the world. And then there's Montreal, Wisconsin, population 838, probably the newest.
posted at 18:01

 
My usual blog trawl has turned up two reports of what sounds like gratuitous police nastiness during a Women's Day march on Thursday. I haven't seen anything about this in the mainstream media (although, granted, not everything gets web-posted). Notable in this account is the arrest of Jaggi Singh for doing, apparently, nothing much. I'd like to read other accounts if there are any.
posted at 17:51

 
Where to experience a cabane à sucre without leaving town.
posted at 17:15

 
In what's hardly a startling revelation, Jean Charest admits the city demergers have been difficult and the fallout is not yet settled.
posted at 16:43

 
The Ibero-Latino-American film fest Festivalissimo continues this week with till March 15; the 25th annual Festival international du film sur l'art is also open and runs till March 18.
posted at 14:19

 
More slogans have been added to the La Presse item, including the one that made me laugh out loud: Montréal vous accommode raisonnablement.
posted at 14:08

 
As the Spectrum prepares to close forever, a new venue opens: the old Cinéma Berri on Saint-Denis is being transformed into an 800-place hall and discotheque by the man who also owns Le Dagobert in Quebec City.
posted at 13:33

 
Montreal wants to cut greenhouse gas emissions from municipal sources, even though these represent only 1.5% of all emissions on the island.

Also, an environmentalist says the STM should test more of its older buses for emissions, and clean up its fleet.
posted at 13:18

 
Opulent description of afternoon tea at the St. James Hotel.
posted at 13:12

 
Montreal police are to be given new accommodements raisonnables lessons over the coming year. Their union is not thrilled with the implication.
posted at 13:06

 
Lots more suggestions for the city slogan, but I have a radical suggestion: None. The great cities of the world don't need a cheesy slogan. The sites for London, New York, Paris, Tokyo, are all refreshingly slogan-free.
posted at 12:18

 
How do bicycle couriers cope with the cold? The way the rest of us do, only more so: layers.
posted at 12:08

 
As mentioned yesterday, the city is out to replace the lead pipes connecting a lot of residential buildings to the water mains, a project that will take 20 years to complete. Landlords will be encouraged but not obliged to make the upgrade.
posted at 11:51

 
Cold temperatures are being blamed for a number of fires in the Montreal area this week.
posted at 11:43

 
It is getting so that this blog needs to have a regular bulletin on accommodements raisonnables related stories.

Two police constables were officially reprimanded for encircling a Dollard-des-Ormeaux home and trying to round up some men helping a friend tidy up her garage, three years ago. The catch? They were all black and had been taken for "bandits".

A woman constable was nearly run over on the weekend by an irate Purim partygoer who didn't appreciate her intervention toward 1 a.m. The Purim holiday involves drunken revelry by a community often thought to be, if anything, too sedate.

And the Coop fédérée has to pay $15,000 to a man of Moroccan origin: after turning down his CV more than a dozen times, they offered him an interview once he resubmitted the same qualifications as "Marc Tremblay". The Coop fédérée is the umbrella organization for agricultural cooperatives in Quebec.
posted at 11:43

 
Bloggers' reports are coming in on the Disney opening at the Museum of Fine Arts, including Matthew Forsythe's Flickr set and Zeke's thoughts on the thing.
posted at 11:28

 
The city is putting $55 million into refurbishing the area around Place des Arts, the soi-disant Quartier des spectacles. Plans should be announced in October and the work is expected to take four years.

I'll be curious to hear which cities they plan to emulate. Already we're losing the Spectrum to an office tower, and condo towers are planned that will loom over Place des Arts from above the metro station, and Complexe Desjardins falls short of being what I'd quite call festive. "You vill HAF FUN!" is not a formula that our bureaucrats have been great with, is what I'm thinking.
posted at 11:19

 
Yesterday's chill broke a record for temperatures recorded on March 6.
posted at 11:02

 
This city has been without a catchy slogan since the demergers mess, so La Presse is asking for suggestions. I guess "la ville aux cent clochers" doesn't grab them any more.
posted at 10:53

 
The city is sending letters warning residents in certain districts to filter their tap water if they're pregnant or have little kids. (I got one myself yesterday.) Parts of the Plateau, NDG and Villeray were built up at a time when lead pipes were still being used to connect houses to the water mains. The pipes will all be replaced, but it'll take 15 years to do them all.
posted at 10:49

 
The Canadiens were doing badly enough without this, but what's being called l'affaire Kovalev has caused a media scuffle around one of the team's stars: did or did not Alex Kovalev criticize his team to the Russian media? His teammates say they believe him that the story was invented by the Russians.
posted at 11:32

 
There are more than 15,000 signatures on a petition to save the Spectrum from demolition: it's to be replaced by a 15-storey commercial building. But I doubt the Park Avenue magic will work this time, for the simple reason that there's a buck in this for somebody and no one from the city is speaking up against the project.
posted at 11:16

 
Peace among the unions brings a flock of film productions back to Montreal.
posted at 11:12

 
An interesting twist in the Brossard police shooting last week: the accused says he thought it was a home invasion and that he was simply defending himself and his family.
posted at 11:00

 
A big fire closed off Mont-Royal Avenue and destroyed one of the Plateau's best food shops, the Maison du Rôti.
posted at 22:32

 
The mayor says wages are frozen and there won't be a new deal for the STM maintenance union.

Uh oh.
posted at 13:50

 
The fourth annual Nuit Blanche, held Saturday night, is called a big success.
posted at 12:03

 
A coalition of small shop owners is planning a major fight against the Tremblay administration's increase in property taxes and parking meter rates.
posted at 11:55

 
Yet another look at the documentary Chez Schwartz.
posted at 11:46

 
Jews immigrating here from Europe and South America are rejuvenating Montreal's declining Jewish community.
posted at 11:41

 
Students get this week off for spring break, although with winter temperatures. It was strange this morning to see on the weather page that it was –2° with a wind chill warning, and then see that it's going to plunge down to –24° tonight.
posted at 11:28

 
I know I've linked to some Chowhound pages before, but I think not this one covering Jean-Talon market (beware the photos if you're hungry!) and the O Noir resto, although I think we've seen this Promised Land piece before.
posted at 11:22