The Cinemania festival opens tomorrow at the Imperial with a hommage to Philippe Noiret.
posted at 10:50

 
The Salon du livre, held in mid-November, is celebrating its 30th anniversary by adding an additional day, welcoming a European detachment and according a half dozen important literary prizes.
posted at 10:46

 
Must blog about these excellent Turcot Yards photos as well as an interesting entry showing a 1913 map of the area, and a post of additional Gabor Szilasi photos of the overpasses at night.
posted at 10:25

 
Yesterday afternoon an armed man, visibly agitated, caused consternation at St. Joseph's Oratory, but then surrendered without further incident after speaking with a priest.
posted at 10:08

 
Montreal-area mayors have a plan to end garbage landfill by 2025.
posted at 11:59

 
An STM bus has fallen into a massive pothole caused by a broken water main on Villeray at 22nd Avenue, neatly bringing together several news threads.
posted at 11:57

 
Guy Laliberté, the mega-rich mogul of the Cirque du Soleil, has launched a foundation to help bring drinkable water to desperate parts of the world.
posted at 11:45

 
Montreal theatre director Brigitte Haentjens has won the Siminovitch prize, the biggest in Canadian theatre.
posted at 10:30

 
People sometimes believe that their wood stoves are, as a return to the good old days, bound to be good for the environment. Not really: 100,000 households in Montreal use them, and the smoke has been adding to winter smog problems over the metropolis.
posted at 10:27

 
An incident on the weekend with a Bombardier Dash 8 in Copenhagen has resulted in financial consequences; unfortunately, a hit to Bombardier is never good for this city's economy.
posted at 11:12

 
The Alouettes moved into the CFL playoffs this weekend and the Canadiens have hit their stride with a run of solid wins.
posted at 11:07

 
The Journal de Montréal gets involved in the transformation of an east-end schoolyard from a typical slab of cracked asphalt into a real playground for the kids. (But isn't it time that supposedly non-confessional public schools were renamed from things like Saint-Nom-de-Jésus?!)
posted at 10:33

 
Place Chénier, a small square with a statue on the edge of Old Montreal, will be obliterated when the CHUM project constructs an 18-storey building on the spot.
posted at 10:22

 
Interesting piece on the Russian Jews of Montreal and a group that wants them to move to Israel – and why they probably won't.
posted at 16:09

 
The third-rate shabbiness of many of Montreal's public offices is blamed on "post-Olympic syndrome" and analyzed historically and culturally, with telling points about how aiming for mediocrity only gets you mediocrity.
posted at 15:51

 
A BBC report on the decrepit condition of the United Nations HQ in New York makes no mention of the scheme to get the organization to move to Montreal instead of trying to fix their existing digs.
posted at 14:10

 
Details of some of the suggestions for the envisioned transformation of Place d'Armes. But nobody mentions what would be the single best thing: demolishing that incongruous piece of international style planted on the west side of the square in the last century.
posted at 10:40

 
It takes a British paper to dissect the angst of success of the Arcade Fire.
posted at 10:36

 
Not enough beds for chronic care, according to doctors, and with Quebec's plans to close hundreds of long-term beds soon this is bound to get worse. A quo bono? As with the ongoing pinching of general practice in Montreal the obvious answer is that the public is being herded into thinking it reasonable to pay the private sector for services they've already paid for with their taxes.

Meanwhile the Quebec public curator has made various recommendations about the treatment of the aged and infirm, but a lot of good "dignity" will do if they don't even have anywhere to sleep.
posted at 15:54

 
Article on local psychogeography group fails to evoke a torrent of arcane terminology from local practitioners: the subject is notoriously hard to pin down. Can a person claim to be a psychogeographer without the theoretical background?
posted at 09:18

 
Amusing anecdote about a jury in a gangsterism case being spooked by the intense stare of a man in the audience – who turned out to be the judge's brother.
posted at 14:27

 
Islands in the Rivière des Mille-Îles, which encircles the north edge of Laval, are menaced with development, but, being privately owned, are not likely to be saved from the bulldozer.
posted at 13:54

 
Next year's Montreal Grand Prix is on the official calendar for June 8.
posted at 11:00

 
Ho-hum. A group of architects and urbanists propose a 40-storey residential-commercial tower for the Park-Pine intersection. Blocking the view and the space with tall buildings seems really silly to me, but luckily this is just a suggestion for the ongoing study into what to do with the corner.
posted at 10:52

 
Short of buses, the STM ordered more – only to find that they too have mechanical problems: two didn't even make it from the Saint-Eustache factory to the STM garage without breaking down. I'm not entirely clear on the STM's commitment to Nova Bus, but it's obviously time they looked further afield for buses that actually, you know, work.
posted at 10:43

 
A piece on shopping in Montreal has floated to the top of searches even though it's a little out of date, mentioning a museum show that closed this summer. Also, the writer keeps being distracted by the food.
posted at 11:26

 
A dissection of the laundry list of factors in favour of moving the United Nations to Montreal.
posted at 11:24

 
Montreal's Rizzutos have continued to pull strings internationally, apparently directing entire criminal organizations in Europe from their prison cells. But their European agents were arrested this week.
posted at 11:19

 
Interview with a Quebec writer who has written a book about poutine, not from a culinary perspective but as a symbol of Quebec and its troubles with self-image.
posted at 11:15

 
An in-depth look at the inaugural show at Old Montreal's new DHC/ART gallery. I'm linking to their site for convenience but, once again, it's bad Flash animation on a site where a simple pane of informative html is all that's required.
posted at 11:06

 
Montreal police are doing deals hiring out security services and providing files and reports to private businesses. Bad enough that publicly funded equipment and skills are being traded in this way (and how often will public needs wait on private contracts?) but giving businesses access to police paperwork sounds dodgy in the extreme.
posted at 10:49

 
The mayor wants a billion dollars to institute serious waste composting throughout the city.
posted at 10:44

 
Walking Turcot Yards has a great recent entry showing some Gabor Szilasi photos of the Turcot interchange during its construction.

Fagstein has a summary of the Johnson Commission report on the Concorde overpass collapse.
posted at 10:40

 
Quebec minister of economic development Raymond Bachand is still holding out for the scheme to get the United Nations to move to the Montreal waterfront. La Presse has a dossier on the scheme, but other local media seem to be meh on the topic.
posted at 10:27

 
Numbers show that crack cocaine is becoming more popular in town, and it's nasty stuff.
posted at 10:15

 
Imam Saïd Jaziri is claiming that he was tortured before being returned to Tunisia because Canadian authorities handcuffed him on the plane. I don't think Canada is necessarily always above criticism, and I don't doubt that handcuffs aren't exactly fun, but this is getting a bit silly, besides belittling the experience of those submitted to real torture in all too many parts of the world.
posted at 09:54

 
Yesterday was a warm Indian summer day but it did not break a record like the weekend did.
posted at 09:28

 
The city's going to want us to double the amount we recycle over the next ten years.
posted at 09:17

 
The mayor (I thought he was in Asia) says Montreal is booming and this means it should aspire to grandiose projects like getting the United Nations to move its headquarters here, but others quoted in the article are not so sure about all this. Meantime the federal outfit responsible for the Old Port is eager to start work on turning a huge piece of land into something more glitzy and profitable, nouveau dynamisme économique and all that.
posted at 11:03

 
Local Anglicans come blinking into the 21st century and agree to bless same-sex unions, which is apparently not quite the same thing as holding same-sex weddings. I don't understand why gay folks don't simply boycott the religions that treat them like pariahs, but faith is a funny thing.
posted at 10:51

 
Brief account of a fraud trial at the Palais de justice that began in 1993 and may not conclude before 2010. If then.
posted at 10:48

 
Montreal-based imam Saïd Jaziri is to be deported back to Tunisia today after the rejection of a final court appeal. Richard Martineau explains the reasons for the imam's deportation in heavy-handed irony mode.
posted at 10:37

 
The troubles on the Main during the extended roadworks have shown a fracture between landlords and shopkeepers because their interests are not the same.
posted at 10:21

 
A glance at the old Jewish Main, although the notion that Trevanian's book is an accurate documentary is ludicrous.
posted at 10:52

 
The de Maisonneuve bike path is to be opened on Halloween – just as many people are putting away their bikes for winter, but let that pass.
posted at 10:47

 
Teams of architects are spending the next week pondering what to do with Place d'Armes when it's refurbished over the next couple of years.
posted at 10:40

 
The mayor is off promoting Montreal in Asia, and the opposition doesn't like it (although they'd probably carp if he didn't do any promotion work either, since it's the opposition's job to snipe).
posted at 10:33

 
The CHUM project may be coming along even more slowly than its west end mirror image, the MUHC project.
posted at 10:27

 
On the one hand, a look at how many parents are sending their kids to private high schools now; on the other, a look at a feud between two north-end public high schools which has sparked two arrests this week.
posted at 11:31

 
Longish piece about the city's used bookshops and why their proprietors chose the interesting if generally unremunerative trade.
posted at 11:02

 
The federal government is trying to coax the United Nations to leave its longtime New York City digs and set up housekeeping here on the Old Port, specifically to replace Silo No. 5; as a lagniappe, the Calder "Man" statue that's long been on Île Sainte-Hélène (and the site of the Piknic Electronik every Sunday) would be graciously moved to embellish the new ultramodern "global city".
posted at 10:48

 
Biggest local story this week is the submission of the Johnson report on the Concorde overpass collapse, blaming Quebec's negligence and irresponsibility; Quebec's intention to organize the maintenance of overpasses and its refusal to apologize to those injured or bereaved by the incident.
posted at 11:40

 
The death of a man tasered by police this week has provoked Amnesty International to call for a ban on the devices.
posted at 11:28

 
Ville-Marie's Benoit Labonté snipes at the mayor's plans for the Quartier des Spectacles, a brief he lost this summer.
posted at 11:21

 
Local Anglicans – we still have them – are to vote today on whether their ministers can bless same-sex marriages. It's vaguely amusing to see churches infighting over whether to accept reality, especially when turning their backs on it would make their relevance even more marginal.
posted at 10:54

 
Homeless folks displaced from downtown by Ville-Marie's new laws are turning up in neighbourhoods that haven't seen the phenomenon before.
posted at 10:48

 
Halloween is big in Montreal with the Grande Mascarade being the main event but also the annual screening of Rocky Horror and events at the Botanical Garden.
posted at 11:38

 
The city is saying there will be no increase in its taxes in the 2008 budget.
posted at 11:32

 
Imam Saïd Jaziri is being detained until he can be deported next week.
posted at 11:28

 
A look back to a year ago when saving Park Avenue was all the rage.
posted at 11:19

 
The fate of the cracked concrete slab that had downtown in a tizzy in August is still uncertain: the thing's being propped up by lots of temporary pillars and work has to be done, but has not yet started.
posted at 11:16

 
Following from yesterday's exegesis on the Hiltons is the news that Dave Hilton also won his case but remains in prison on other charges.
posted at 11:04

 
The city plans to launch its 311 service in mid-December.
posted at 10:59

 
Roadwork on the Main enters something being called the final phase, but since it all has to be repaved next summer it's not the sort of "final" that most people understand by final. And no special tax deals are being cut for businesses on the brink, either.
posted at 10:42

 
The man who was tasered this week by the Montreal police has died in hospital.
posted at 10:33

 
Amusing piece about Gazette photo tech Arden Lanthier and his penchant for rescuing cats from dangerous highways. (I've worked with Arden, and yes, he does talk like that.)
posted at 10:37

 
Some more details on the oeuvre of Michel de Broin, who won the Sobey Art Award this week.
posted at 10:34

 
The imam Saïd Jaziri, facing deportation, has been hospitalized instead after beginning a hunger strike.
posted at 10:22

 
Who needs Paris? Montreal has its own Hiltons. The parallel assault cases of the Hilton brothers, and some of their history (although this Globe and Mail piece wrongly describes the Maison du Egg Roll as being in the "hardscrabble area of Verdun"); another glimpse of the lads and of the woman who charged Davey Hilton with assault; brother Alex Hilton was found not guilty yesterday of charges connected with a punch-up in the Montreal Pool Room but picked up again almost immediately on other charges.

(Later note: I'm told the Egg Roll is no longer on Notre-Dame in Saint-Henri but has actually moved to Verdun, so my apologies to the Globe and Mail writer for the snub.)
posted at 10:18

 
More details on the new wing of the Museum of Fine Arts and how it's saving the adjoining church.
posted at 10:11

 
Details of the cultural establishments hoping to set up shop in the new glass box building to be plunked down at the corner of Saint-Laurent and Sainte-Catherine. Expropriation of key properties is still under way.
posted at 09:52

 
Tasered by city cops, a man lies in critical condition in hospital; police maintain it's still better than shooting a suspect that's out of control. A recent death in B.C., following a number of other taser deaths across Canada, may open discussions on whether it's an acceptable alternative.
posted at 09:36

 
A group of urban planners is going to be scrutinizing the MUHC superhospital project to steer it away from pointless excesses.
posted at 23:07

 
I don't know who Everett Potter is but he writes up a decent upscale visitors' guide to the city, hitting the posher spots, and I guess you can't blame him for miscues like saying Pierre Trudeau was universally beloved.
posted at 23:03

 
Controversial imam Said Jaziri has been arrested and will probably be deported back to Tunisia over irregularities in his refugee application, leaving behind a pregnant Canadian wife.
posted at 11:13

 
Montrealers, like New Yorkers, are jaywalkers, and repeated police crackdowns haven't changed a thing, despite injury and death statistics connected with the habit.
posted at 10:53

 
A litany of the reasons people in the regions dislike Montreal, and two more bits on the longstanding rivalry between Montreal and Quebec City.
posted at 10:48

 

Montreal artist Michel de Broin has won the Sobey Art Award – I guess for his entire oeuvre, since no specific work seems to be mentioned. Above is his Révolutions, a popular piece of public art that graces a small park behind Papineau metro station.
posted at 23:00

 
More details on the state of the Ville-Marie autoroute and what its future prospects look like.
posted at 22:41

 
A funeral home family has made a big donation to allow the Museum of Fine Arts to refit the adjoining church building into a museum space.
posted at 22:37

 
Today is Blog Action Day on the environment, and although this isn't primarily an enviro-blog I do try to follow local environmental issues. These issues are so crucial that the environment should not be a separate tidy little media category – they should inform every choice, both public and private, even if the consequences are sometimes not easy to accept.

Today the news came from Statistics Canada that air and water quality are worsening, and it's no coincidence that this is happening fastest in southern Ontario and Quebec, where population density is highest. We foul our own nest but most people live in denial about it, no surprise when politicians hedge constantly on the necessary determination to act for change.
posted at 11:33

 
Interview with Claude Chamberlan, founder of the Festival du nouveau cinéma, currently in progress. CitizenSHIFT also has a video blogger covering the entire event.
posted at 11:29

 
The rivalry between Montreal and Quebec City: is it real, or simply a notion stoked by the media? Is it perhaps felt more on their side than on ours? And who does such a rivalry best serve?
posted at 11:26

 
Chris DeWolf covers the renaissance of the old Il fait beau dans l'métro commercial, which has become a kitsch icon.

(But can anyone find me the contemporary English-language equivalent? I vaguely remember a similar ad with the immortal refrain

Let's go by metro
Let's go by the bus
Let's go by metro, by metro, by the bus.)
posted at 11:12

 
There's apparently more nature to see than just birds and animals over on the Îles de Boucherville. But what's described is nothing new: even in the days of ancient Greece there was a tradition of outdoor pastoral frolics outside of town – just look at a few urns.
posted at 10:48

 
One pedestrian was killed crossing the street and another was left in critical condition in another road accident on the weekend. Since the beginning of the year, 21 pedestrians have been killed in traffic accidents, and 80 others seriously injured.
posted at 10:38

 
More headlining of the urban/suburban divide, with some saying that the suburbs depend for their existence on the city and others claiming that the suburbs are cities unto themselves and no longer need Montreal. Also a look at the urban texture of some new suburbs and the experience of typical commuters.

Is it useful to think of Montreal as engaged in a death struggle with its own suburbs? Or is this just a temporary problem until we can arrive at some way of regarding the entire metropolitan agglomeration as one city?

It seems to me that it's chiefly Quebec that benefits from setting Montreal at odds with its suburbs. If the whole agglomeration were to unite and speak with one voice, Quebec would have to negotiate with a powerful city-state, instead of dominating a restless band of squabbling functionaries. It would be very interesting to see this play out.
posted at 14:00

 
Yet more on the whole too-skinny model issue, with a UK site taking note of Montreal Fashion Week's ban on models that are too young or too frail. The model issue is being very widely reported, but in a world where millions are menaced both by famine and by a massive wave of obesity the fate of a handful of neurotic mannequins seems a strange thing to focus on.
posted at 13:43

 
It can be difficult to fire a blue-collar worker, even one with a long record of being a troublemaker.
posted at 13:34

 
Montreal has a record 98 roadwork sites carrying on simultaneously.
posted at 13:32

 
Outremont's disgraced mayor gets golden handshake of more than $100,000 on quitting his job. Opposition parties are also demanding that four councillors from the Union Montreal party should resign too, but so far they're refusing to do so.
posted at 11:22

 
Four major pillars supporting the Ville-Marie autoroute have been rebuilt since a crack was found in one of them back in June. Work should be finished before wintertime.
posted at 11:06

 
Workers at Notre-Dame-des-Neiges have massively voted to reject the supposedly final contract offer made by management.
posted at 10:52

 
A new study shows that, by and large, urbanites and suburbanites are happy with their choice of where to live.
posted at 15:48

 
Nathalie Petrowski on why a special ticket wicket – the new Vitrine culturelle – makes little sense in Montreal.
posted at 12:12

 
The Museum of Fine Arts is to announce its annexation of the Erskine and American Church next door on Sherbrooke – not really news, but money is to be spent to make it a more museum-like space.
posted at 12:07

 
Outremont mayor Stéphane Harbour steps down after the scandal of public funds misuse refuses to go away.
posted at 11:55

 
More environmental pieces from Hour: the hundred-mile diet and the importance of eating local produce (this is a topic I've discussed with friends, and we all stick on two things: what about fruit in the depths of winter, and what about tea and coffee?); profile of a business that sells non-disposable goods (their website, although referenced, isn't yet operational); the failures of green construction at Benny Farm, whch have been noted before in this blog.
posted at 10:50

 
The municipal affairs minister says Stéphane Harbour should explain his actions but these La Presse columnists go a bit further: either way, the Outremont mayor's encounter with scandal hasn't gone away quite yet.
posted at 10:25

 
The Canadiens' new backup goalie Carey Price got a win last night in his NHL debut, and the Gazette is already handing him the burden of being the successor to Dryden and Roy.
posted at 10:17

 
The city has opened its Vitrine culturelle physically at Place des Arts and virtually via a website (which has the biggest sponsorship logos I've ever seen clustered at the bottom).
posted at 09:52

 
A nice summary of the Monteregian Hills, of which Mount Royal is the one most of us know best.
posted at 09:36

 
The 36th Festival du nouveau cinéma opens this evening and runs till October 21.
posted at 11:18

 
Quebec puts money into the fashion industry as Fashion Week opens with no models under 16 but no minimum weight for the catwalk. Should there be a weighing-in as before a boxing match?
posted at 11:17

 
A two-storey tunnel is proposed to link Montreal to the South Shore in place of the Champlain bridge. The hopeful developer claims the increased flow of traffic would reduce urban sprawl and be good for the city.
posted at 10:24

 
Outremont mayor Stéphane Harbour still hopes to keep his job, blaming two of his henchmen, since departed, for the financial disarray of the borough. Harbour was tossed out of Mayor Tremblay's party and caucus this week.
posted at 10:08

 
A lot of police descended on five telemarketing offices yesterday and 130 people were rounded up in connection with allegedly fraudulent phone sales.
posted at 10:00

 
Suggestions of activities available on Mount Royal, the safest park in Montreal where even the old sentier des tapettes is in decline.
posted at 09:46

 
City shelters are being squeezed dry by the province, which apparently sees no votes in being more generous to the homeless.
posted at 11:01

 
There's been two shootings this weekend in Little Burgundy, and people are getting nervous about possible gang implications.
posted at 10:57

 
Sixth edition of Pop Montreal called the best so far.
posted at 10:51

 
Details on a gigantic mall being built outside down that is expected to become a destination, in the lingo. Nothing's said about this new cathedral of commerce being green, you'll notice.
posted at 10:50

 
A summary of the whole Outremont booze debacle as seen from a distance.
posted at 10:44

 
Management at Notre-Dame-des-Neiges is making its final offer to workers today to settle the labour problems that have plagued it since May. The union is to respond on Friday.
posted at 10:41

 
The Journal continues to pursue excursion boat companies for dumping sewage directly into the river, and to criticize the Old Port for not being more active in adding installations to deal with the problem.
posted at 11:44

 
A man drowned off the Îles de Boucherville this weekend when he and friends tried to bring an all-terrain vehicle to the island aboard a small boat and it capsized. Well, my sympathies to his friends and family, but if by the age of 63 you haven't worked out why that might not be a good idea...
posted at 11:32

 
An explanation of what a carbon market is, as Montreal prepares to open one. I hope I may be forgiven if the whole thing sounds like making deals over deck chairs on the Titanic.
posted at 11:57

 
Yet more bulletins from Pop Montreal as the festival draws to a close this evening.
posted at 11:45

 
Outright rave for this city points out an advantage we have: even with the strong loonie, we still offer pseudo-European charm on this continent and without making U.S. tourists cope with the even stronger Euro.

I dislike bogus quaintness as much as anyone, but the article should make us ponder what we offer that other North American cities don't. Choices like tearing down the Spectrum block to turn it into an electronics megastore, right in the midst of the much-vaunted Quartier des spectacles, make absolutely zero sense when the city's looked at in this way. We need to encourage more diversity, more small businesses, more variety, so that the distinctiveness of our culture will win people over. If instead we encourage a growth of North American corporate uniformity, we will lose. We will lose.

Here's yet another rave about the city's food. If I'm not mistaken, Americans like to feel that it's a mark of their culture and individuality that they've discovered Montreal and appreciate its charms. Let's not waste this.
posted at 11:43

 
More on the low water levels in the river, a problem that cascades from low Great Lakes water levels caused ultimately by global warming.
posted at 11:20

 
Fascinating piece about a Montreal business family that revived Masson Street and is now applying the method to Notre-Dame around Atwater. Also pieces about city funds to support commercial streets. In contrast we have the history of the dead zone on Ste-Catherine east of Atwater around the old Seville Theatre, and an engineering professor's critique of what's been done wrong in the excavations of Saint-Laurent Boulevard.
posted at 13:45

 
I find myself unable to get all outraged by proxy about the story of the coffin that was almost buried in the wrong grave by mistake. Yes, it was clumsy of cemetery management, but had the error not been noticed, nobody would have been inconvenienced. Eventually all the coffins get buried, and so it goes.
posted at 11:12

 
It will cost you five dollars more to flee the city in a plane come next year.
posted at 10:55

 
Summer temperatures linger while the leaves fall. September beat records for sun, and October seems to be continuing the trend: crunching through fallen leaves in flip-flops is a sensation we may have to get used to.
posted at 10:48