A recent court judgement declares that a borough is not a city, this coming up in response to a case brought because residents of Outremont were not welcomed in consultations on the enlargement of a synagogue on their street: the borough boundary goes down the middle of Hutchison and the synagogue is on the Plateau Mont-Royal side. The judge said that limiting consultation to a borough is not OK when residents of other boroughs may be just as concerned by an issue. posted at 15:39

 
Andy Riga brings together a collection of modern tram videos; I'd also add this brief Luas video because it goes ding at intersections, and because the Dublin tram has an interesting point: two routes were built that do not intersect, and both are popular.

We're accustomed to a metro system that has to grow organically out from the centre, which tends to make us default to the notion of building a tram system the same way, but it doesn't necessarily make the best sense. I suggest choosing a couple of heavily travelled bus routes and replacing them with tram service regardless of whether they intersect. For example, both Pie-IX and Sherbrooke West from Vendôme out to Montreal West are served by buses that are crowded at almost all times of day. Trams like those in the videos would be much more efficient.

One thing they need to ask, however: how do these modern low-floor trams cope with snow and ice?

The Amis des Tramways site has a lot of photos of our extinct tramways system, and notes that this August marks 50 years since the last tram plied the streets of Montreal. posted at 14:20

 
UNESCO has chosen the œuvre of Norman McLaren to be part of its Memory of the World archive. posted at 13:28

 
Sylvie Vachon has been named PDG of the Port of Montreal; this position was held for years by Dominic Taddeo and then briefly by Patrice Pelletier, who was let go earlier this year.

In other maritime news, the federal government will take over control of all five of the Lachine Canal locks this fall, two of which have been the responsibiity of the Société du Vieux-Port. Article's a little terse, but it sounds like what matters here is that a certain acreage of land passes into federal control as well. posted at 13:16

 
Lots going on in town this weekend: Otakuthon, Osheaga, MEG, Divers/Cité, the FrancoFolies, even the Highland Games. posted at 09:19

 
I haven't yet seen this man who juggles for cash at an unnamed intersection. posted at 09:00

 
The local tourism industry is not having a great season and airport revenue is down. More specifically, Peel Street is having tough times as its restaurants tough out the street closure. posted at 08:51

 
Andy Riga is doing a series with background blog postings on tramways in Montreal including a look at our old and now much-regretted tramway system with some nice photos and an audio interview; a brief comparison of what the three major municipal parties think about trams (if Mayor Tremblay's best shot is to replicate the moribund 515 bus route, it's a bit sad), and two pieces pro and con but not actually engaged in a debate. Sounds like there's more to come. posted at 22:12

 
A window fell out of the Old Brewery Mission yesterday and crashed into the street, and windows cracked up on the Eaton Centre tower this afternoon. Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold. Stand by for mere anarchy? posted at 17:50

 
Police in Brazil have ruled that Arturo Gatti's death was a suicide, meaning his wife goes free. posted at 17:37

 
I was looking up something else on imtl.org when I noticed a brief news item on the sale of Windsor Station to Cadillac Fairview. The 1888 structure has already survived at least one attempt at purchase and demolition, but maybe this time we'll be lucky and get a nice clean glass box instead of all those fussy arches and dirty stone walls. posted at 08:56

 
Wood stove dealers plan to challenge the city's ban on new woodstoves, put in place in April in an attempt to limit the air particles that cause winter smog days. posted at 08:52

 
Claude Dauphin, city hall's security czar, was recently quoted as not being too concerned about the influx of street kids downtown in the summertime; two business group reps beg to differ, saying the city's endangered by the punks and their dogs. posted at 08:50

 
Evidence is beginning to suggest that Earl Jones lived it up on the money in his control, leaving very little for his erstwhile clients to reclaim. posted at 08:47

 
Peel Street is still closed to traffic while the city waits for an engineering assessment of the hotel from which a concrete slab fell two weeks ago; for different reasons, traffic is being limited on McTavish Street, at the request of McGill University as it begins an experiment to limit cars on its campus. posted at 08:45

 
Universities prepare to tackle the swine flu hazard caused by the return of students from many places into close proximity in their halls. posted at 09:09

 
Seems the local commercial real estate market is facing the recession with a modicum of good sense. posted at 09:08

 
The FrancoFolies opens tomorrow and runs till August 9. posted at 09:03

 
The bike path on the Jacques-Cartier bridge is going to be renovated, but that means it will be unusable for some part of 2010. posted at 09:02

 
Sunday's torrential rains caused a lot of basement flooding in different neighbourhoods where sewers backed up. The city seems to be taking the position that such a downpour is extremely unusual, but they haven't exactly been so rare lately: maybe this is a climate change that's come to stay. posted at 08:54

 
The dubious charms of living outdoors under an overpass – but what do these guys do when winter comes? – and then there's the "crevettes", mostly young itinerants who show up in town for the summer scene and then move on when summer ends. posted at 08:48

 
With the sale of one of the Plateau's Roman Catholic churches to an evangelical sect, the fate of the Refuge des jeunes which has used its basement for years remains uncertain. posted at 08:43

 
In another brilliant coup, the Harper government is pulling the plug on climate research in Canada: obviously if we stick our fingers in our ears and go "la la la la" then global warming will go away.

(This is the kind of thing that we used to snicker at the U.S. doing, back during the Bush years. How did we come to be doing it ourselves?) posted at 08:40

 
Earl Jones is out on $30,000 bail – he's not allowed to manage anyone's money and his location is being kept secret. posted at 17:55

 
The statue of Maisonneuve on Place d'Armes has been taken down for cleaning and restoration, along with the friends who accompany him around the base. The statue dates from 1895. posted at 17:53

 
Area code 579 is going to be added to our metropolitan area. I like the illustration. posted at 17:22

 
The City Hall fonctionnaires who find filming locations around Montreal to match any number of other places, from Moscow to Paris to Berlin. posted at 09:07

 
Interesting history of the Faubourg à m’lasse which was demolished to build the Maison Radio-Canada. posted at 08:59

 
The OCPM has recommended that the tallest tower in the Seville block rejuvenation plan be knocked down a few storeys, and that efforts should be made to save the remnants of the old theatre. These suggestions are not binding, and I think that although it's important to keep buildings from dwarfing Mount Royal and turning downtown into even more of a canyon, it's too late to do anything with the Seville: keeping the façade of an old theatre on a building with no theatre is pointless. The report can be found in PDF form from the OCPM page. posted at 08:57

 
Not surprisingly, some candidates in this November's municipal elections are mobilizing Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs to reach potential voters; I'm vaguely amused by the Longueuil candidate's observation that this will reach people that can't be found in Tim Horton's or the mall. Also today, news of a new municipal party in Outremont which is addressing itself to the elite. posted at 08:45

 
Bloomberg and the New York Times note the arrest of Earl Jones while the Globe and Mail looks at how he found his clients. posted at 08:37

 
The damp summer has been great for mushrooms, but it's being noted that toxic mushrooms are becoming more common here: a woman from the Townships has died after noshing on some kind of amanita. posted at 08:34

 
The Montreal Pool Room has agreed to move, bringing the vision of pristine glass boxes closer for the lower Main. posted at 22:37

 
Last night's storm flooded the l'Acadie Circle again and led to the rescue of several motorists who got stuck in the flood. Insufficient sewers are blamed for the repeated floods in the (relatively new) traffic circle, but blame is being tossed around by Quebec and Montreal while Sammy Forcillo says he can't control the heavens. posted at 18:05

 
Some bits and pieces of Bixi advice from a regular user. posted at 18:01

 
A man working on part of the Turcot interchange was brained by a piece of masonry today, and was seriously injured despite wearing a safety helmet. Also today, news of an alternative to the government's plan to rebuild the Turcot in a more 21st-century mode. posted at 17:58

 
Earl Jones has been arrested and will be arraigned tomorrow. posted at 16:57

 
A top 10 of the city's resto-bar terrasses might come in handy if the rain ever stops. posted at 09:06

 
High school students have shown that a stream that flows through Dorval and empties into Lake Saint-Louis is in terrible shape, basically full of sewage. posted at 09:04

 
Three festivals that use Parc Jean-Drapeau as their venue are at odds with the city over grant money and payment expected for use of the park. posted at 09:02

 
The Grand Charivari that closed Juste pour rire last night was well and truly soaked by the massive thunderstorm that hit just as it was under way. It's supposed to be reprised September 7 as part of the grand opening of the Place du Quartier des spectacles. posted at 08:51

 
One economist maintains that Montreal becomes a more attractive prospect for starting new businesses when the world's in a recession. Be nice if there was any actual evidence here and not just wishful theorizing. posted at 08:48

 
Nice bit on Montreal movie Les doigts croches and its first-time director. posted at 08:46

 
Brief history of residents turning a back alley green in the Plateau. posted at 08:38

 
Guillaume Saint-Jean on a park that used to be a military graveyard on Papineau. posted at 08:35

 
A piece on wall murals as a defense against tagging is vaguely hopeful, but I could collect a whole series of counterexamples showing murals that have collected tags since they were painted. It's just that tags don't show up as obviously on a mural as on a blank wall. posted at 11:19

 
That was quick: the Via Rail strike is over and train service resumes this evening. posted at 10:58

 
Via Rail has laid off hundreds of its workers, saying that their services won't be needed while the engineers' strike continues. posted at 01:00

 
Not surprisingly, Bordeaux won the trophy game at the Olympic Stadium, beating Guingamp 2-0. posted at 00:53

 
Hundreds marched here Saturday afternoon in support of human rights and against the current regime in Iran; similar demonstrations were held in many cities worldwide. posted at 00:46

 
A peek at the booksellers' alley behind the Grande Bibliothèque, which to some extent replaces the old bouquinistes' setup down at the Old Port, and which has an extended schedule this weekend. posted at 11:19

 
Juste pour rire's Grand Charivari parade will be staged tomorrow evening. This "tradition" began last year, when they called it a Charivarir and brought it up Park Avenue, a route probably not felt to be a successful experiment, because this year's version starts at Saint-Denis and Ontario and moves down to Ste-Catherine and then west along to the Place des festivals. posted at 10:57

 
New York Times on the French Champions Trophy being played this afternoon at the Olympic Stadium. It's an attempt to build an international audience for soccer, but the players have some doubts about playing abroad on synthetic turf, and – not too surprisingly – many French fans are none too keen on losing a major game to foreign soil. I hope its a fun game but I still feel soccer's mostly a matter of supporting one's home team (or one's ancestrally relevant team, during the World Cup), not just watching pro players strut their stuff – I mean, how do you decide which side to cheer for? &ndash although, on the third hand, it could be interesting to see rising star Yoann Gourcuff play here. (Radio-Canada indicates that the underdog are Guingamp, so they're clearly the ones who need cheering.) posted at 10:30

 
Desperately trying to make some kind of sense of the murder of the four women found in the Rideau Canal, CBC finds that the brother of the "aunt" in the sunken vehicle had heard from her that she feared for her life, and that the "aunt" was in fact the senior wife in a polygamous marriage, although (and this makes it even more horrible) the murdered kids were not hers, as she had never been able to have children. The father, the mother and the oldest son, charged with murder, will be pleading not guilty. posted at 10:00

 
Kathleen Winter on the glories of Rosemont and Jean-Talon Market. posted at 09:32

 
Part of Ste-Catherine Street is to see a new recycling effort sponsored ironically by Naya, producers of bottled water. Unmentioned in the item is that this would be the part of the street that goes through the Village and is closed to traffic for the summer: the bins look the same as the recycling bins set up for any major festival.

The city's also starting a project to encourage people to collect rainwater although they don't plan to distribute rain barrels and they seem to be admitting that a lot of the city's residential architecture doesn't easily allow for it. posted at 14:24

 
A festival called Hoodstock is to take place August 8 and 9 in Montreal North to commemorate the death of Fredy Villanueva. posted at 13:53

 
Artist Kit Malo is offering to sell personalized drawings for $10 and up to help support ArtPop, part of late September's Pop Montreal festival. (Note the VIA Rail ad on the festival homepage – let's hope the strike is settled before then!) posted at 13:42

 
Quebec is giving up on using a partenariat public-privé to build the new Turcot exchange. posted at 13:26

 
Fascinating obit/retrospective of architect Sandy van Ginkel whose influence saved Old Montreal from a dire fate, helped select the location of Expo 67 and may have helped preserve Mount Royal Park. posted at 13:03

 
Montreal is still listed in the 25 best places to live by some posh British mag, but we've slipped from 16 to 19 for unspecified reasons. Their critique of the city: it's hard to find a regular doctor, hard for skilled immigrants to find good jobs, cars have too much pride of place here, and we don't recycle enough. It's a fair cop. posted at 11:54

 
A Via Rail strike will start at noon unless a last-minute deal is struck. Travellers are lunging for bus tickets and other means of getting around once the trains are halted – but there's already a shortage of rental cars. posted at 11:43

 
Notes on two iPhone apps that track Bixi locations and availability. posted at 11:27

 
The parents and brother of the three teenage girls found drowned in a car near Kingston with an older female relative have been arrested and charged with first-degree murder. There's a further twist: the older woman found with the three girls was not their aunt, but the first wife of the father in this horrible story. Surmises are being made that this was an honour killing, known to be a tradition in Afghanistan, country of origin of the Shafia family. posted at 17:42

 
Via Rail's locomotive engineers are poised to strike tomorrow afternoon, which will affect the whole country but hit hardest at the busy Quebec-Windsor corridor. posted at 09:03

 
All three levels of government are desperately trying to come up with a plan to revive the Grand Prix. I bet they wish they'd never passed a law banning tobacco advertising now. posted at 08:57

 
The first part of Spacing's look at our unsatisfactory wastewater treatment plant is intelligently critical of the city's failure to get its act together on this issue. posted at 00:30

 
The 253 locked out workers of the Journal de Montréal invaded the paper's city room Wednesday afternoon but left after making the point that the labour standoff has reached its six-month anniversary. posted at 00:10

 
The owner of Théâtre Ste-Catherine has apologized for his "go fuck yourself" email that stirred up a little media storm last week. posted at 00:07

 
The Telegraph UK looks at Montreal as a summer destination and another tourism piece in syndicated circulation emphasizes, not surprisingly, the city's European flair on the cheap for American travellers – although honestly, could anyone who's been to Europe ever mistake this for a European city?

Here's a New York video saying pretty much the same thing – Paris on the cheap. It's easy to divine through these items what Tourism Montreal is flogging, but I wonder what's the point of pushing tourists in the direction of farmers' markets, as they're chiefly useful if you've got a kitchen and an urge to cook dinner. posted at 17:56

 
Spacing has been looking at the new symphony hall (although the writer's very uncritical on the whole PPP thing and its viability in this economy) and the search for new public art for the project. posted at 17:48

 
A familiar building on a corner in Chinatown has been barricaded off on suspicion of instability, a bulge having been reported in one of its walls. It doesn't seem immediately dangerous, but after last week's fatality the city's likely to be cautious on falling masonry for awhile. posted at 17:43

 
Arrests have been made in the case of the four Saint-Léonard women found drowned in a lock near Kingston, but further details have yet to be released. posted at 17:39

 
A senator says that Montreal's airport has lax security, although I'm not sure how he thinks anyone could actually do their jobs loading and unloading planes if they were searched every time they went onto the tarmac. He also says "Canada ranks 19th out of 22 reporting countries in the number of police per 1,000 of population" which is a strange complaint considering how low our crime rate is and how relatively few acts of terrorism we've seen.

Also today, a study published in Maclean's says city management is crap compared to shining examples of urban success like Sherbrooke and Gatineau. There might be issues of scale here, just for starters. posted at 14:03

 
Vincent Lacroix gets yelled at in the street as he moves to a halfway house in Saint-Henri. posted at 13:52

 
The federal government has abruptly cut funding to the Divers/Cité festival. Considering that the federal tourism minister was publicly disciplined for funding Toronto's gay pride week, it shouldn't come as a surprise to see confirmation that the Conservative government is not too interested in backing gay pride events. (Is it just cutbacks? I doubt it: the FrancoFolies just got an extra $1.5 million from federal coffers.) posted at 11:45

 
Earl Jones hasn't done a runner, he's still in Canada, according to his lawyer, although his exact whereabouts are being kept a secret. The lawyer also says he's "very depressed." posted at 11:40

 
Andy Riga found a new blog on local wildlife recently, which is a bit twee but might be of interest. posted at 11:08

 
Vincent Lacroix is about to leave jail after serving one-sixth of his sentence, although he will be in a halfway house for some time. He still faces more charges. posted at 13:29

 
Earl Jones is still on the lam with no warrant out for his arrest. Some of his alleged victims are pressing his family to turn him in, not believing their implication that they don't know where he is. posted at 13:01

 
Funeral was held this morning for Léa Guilbeault, killed last week by a falling slab of concrete on Peel Street, part of which is still closed while engineers check out the rest of the façade. Some more background on building inspection rules. posted at 11:57

 
The Impact have sacked Sandro Grande for the recent incident in which he grabbed his own coach by the throat.

Bob Gainey has signed goalie Curtis Sanford away from the Canucks for a one-year contract with the Canadiens.

The Alouettes are doing well.

A player on the French football team Girondins de Bordeaux, scheduled to play the Trophée des Champions game here on the weekend, fears catching swine flu while in Canada. They're playing Guingamp at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday. posted at 11:19

 
Nearly 1500 climate researchers are converging on the Palais des congrès in a ten-day conference that opened yesterday for discussions preparatory to the big climate meeting in Copenhagen this December. (Not to ignore the tourism benefits of such a conference – but how much airplane exhaust did all these trips involve, and couldn't this kind of meeting be done virtually? Or can we still not discount the psychological effect of bringing a lot of people together into one physical space?) posted at 09:26

 
Despite the construction holiday, nearly a hundred construction sites are still active on the streets of Montreal, the city spending more than $600 million this year to repair roads and fix water mains. posted at 09:20

 

The funeral of Arturo Gatti brought a large but respectfully quiet crowd to rue Dante outside Madonna della Difesa on Monday morning. posted at 12:12

 
Julius Grey has found himself a hot potato in Hampstead where the mayor has had to veto a council resolution to discontinue his services to the town. The reason? His support for Louise Harel, architect of the forced city mergers – but there's also some older stuff about Grey being a buddy of the mayor's. posted at 09:07

 

Guillaume Saint-Jean evokes the Dorchester Street location of the St. James Club, which stood where part of Place Ville-Marie stands now. Grand clubs have slowly lost purpose and prestige, as witnessed by the recent announcement that the Club Saint-Denis is shutting up shop after 135 years. Image of the St. James Club from the Bibliothèque nationale's Albums Massicotte, an incredible compendium of pictures and clippings about Montreal. posted at 08:55

 
Thirty people showed up yesterday afternoon to picket the Théâtre Sainte-Catherine – but isn't the old slogan "101 ou 401"? posted at 08:42

 
Juan Rodriguez' take on the upcoming Francofolies fest. posted at 02:14

 
Earl Jones's wife and daughters have made a statement saying that they too are "devastated" by Jones's actions, and it sounds very much as if his closest relatives are alleging they were also burned. The full statement is here.

If no one is with Jones it changes things. He may not be on the run at all, but have decided to end it. Time will tell.

The Gazette now has a news category and La Presse an entire dossier on Jones, with new stories on an investor who has lost $6.5 million and on the emptied bank accounts. Also a bit more on his family's statement. posted at 20:43

 
Something of a state of play report on the lead-up to this fall's municipal election, although things have become a little quiet now for summer. posted at 20:39

 
One of the first previews of Worldcon (and it won't be the last) looks at science fiction from a francophone viewpoint. posted at 16:11

 
It's a mess, but now it's news: the language kerfuffle at the Théâtre Ste-Catherine, reported as clearly as possible by Fagstein, is blowing up into a cause célèbre; the theatre (which, despite its name, has been an anglo venue for several years, staging independent theatre and comedy as well as segments of the Just For Laughs fest) will be the unwilling venue today at 4 p.m. (or should that be 16h?) for a demo by the Jeunes Patriotes in overreaction to theatre czar Eric Amber, who had overreacted to a request to be removed from his mailing list unless messages were in French. I can't summarize it any more efficiently than that – Fagstein has links to what you might call the original documents in the case. posted at 11:09

 
Spacing Montreal – er, Spacing Montréal – is back in business. posted at 10:43

 
The death of boxer Arturo Gatti may have been suicide, it turns out; his wake is today in Montreal North. The Gazette has the details. posted at 10:40

 
Jacques Godin, killed on Friday when a powerboat ran down his sailboat on the river off Pointe-aux-Trembles, was a skilled and experienced sailor who had even participated in a transatlantic sailing trip. It's not clear whether there will be charges. posted at 10:35

 
There are more cracks visible in the façade of the Peel Street hotel from which dropped the concrete block that killed Léa Guilbeault on Thursday evening. La Presse's photo gives a clear idea how big the piece was. There's also some mildly shady-sounding stuff about the ownership of the building being secret and the building not having been inspected for nine years; reports are to come about the shape the building is in. posted at 22:27

 
Feature on the famous people whose graves can be found in one or other of the big cemeteries on Mount Royal. posted at 11:46

 
The biggest street fair in Canada has begun along Ste-Catherine, but not with the most propitious weather. posted at 11:31

 
More Earl Jones fallout as folks who were comfortably retired face going back to work, the Sûreté du Québec starts an investigation and victims of the alleged scam gather to exchange news and compare stories – but Jones has vanished (although Serge Chapleau has a little joke about a possible disguise...) posted at 11:13

 
Looks like somebody forgot to back up the customized Wordpress theme at Spacing Montreal, but their content is still available. (It's even lost its oh-so-politically-correct accent-aigu for the moment, but I don't doubt it will be Spacing Montréal again soon.) posted at 10:57

 
The rail link between Montreal and Toronto is to get an upgrade with $300 million being poured into the project. Additional rails being added should allow passenger trains to zip past freight trains. posted at 10:31

 
The octogenarian who shot a nurse this week is still being held in jail – but it's at least partly because the home where he was living won't take him back. posted at 10:28

 
Part of Peel Street is still closed as the identity of the victim of last night's freak accident is released; the Gazette (whose office is just around the corner) gets an eyewitness account. posted at 11:46

 
Municipal candidates have been presented in Verdun and Villeray by Vision Montreal and Projet Montréal. Louise Harel is pushing the affordable housing issue pretty hard in Verdun, where I wonder how well her péquiste cohorts will do. posted at 10:34

 
A cyclist is suing the city for an accident in which his front wheel got stuck in a pothole, making him do an endo. The thing is, it happened on Olmsted Road, the winding path up Mount Royal, which has been uneven and cratered for a long time, and whose gravelled surface has always been hazardous for cyclists. posted at 10:15

 
The ex-girlfriend of a famous but necessarily unidentified Quebec zillionaire has been left high and dry by a Superior Court ruling that, while he owes support to the children of the relationship, she isn't due any alimony herself. She had wanted $56,000 a month plus a $50-million nest egg.

Patrick Lagacé strips away the gossip-mongering and explains the key issue: in other provinces, Anglo-Saxon common-law marriage rules apply, but they don't in Quebec. "Lola"'s case was that it's not constitutional for Quebec to deny these "rights" to the many Quebecers who live common-law, but I like the point that, had the judge ruled in her favour, she would in effect have been marrying the many cohabiting couples here who have chosen not to marry.

I guess "Lola" should've made him put a ring on it. The case may go to the Supreme Court. posted at 10:07

 
A woman was killed by a piece of falling concrete this evening while dining with her husband on Peel Street. Another woman is in critical condition because a city truck backed over her in NDG. posted at 20:31

 
Bloomberg has the Earl Jones story; Sports Illustrated has the story about Arturo Gatti's funeral to be held Monday at "a church in Little Italy" (Madonna della Difesa, at 11 a.m.). posted at 20:28

 
A fire broke out in the midst of the east-end oil refineries today sending up a big plume of black smoke and closing Notre-Dame for awhile. posted at 20:17

 
It shouldn't come as a surprise that ragweed is thicker where the island's greener, mostly the far eastern or western reaches. posted at 08:53

 
Interesting interview with Florent Veilleux, an artist whose workshop on Papineau has spawned a whole series of strange sculptures that will become part of the Juste pour rire street festival, which begins tonight. posted at 08:50

 
The inquiry on the death of Fredy Villanueva is to resume this autumn now that a deal has been made to pay for lawyers for the family, the sticking point which sparked the boycott of the original hearing. posted at 08:47

 
Not to be eclipsed, the FrancoFolies plans a series of big bashes every night of its schedule on the Place des festivals. It starts at the end of the month. posted at 08:43

 
The 84-year-old man who shot a nurse at a Saint-Léonard nursing home yesterday was charged with attempted murder and various weapons and assault charges today. posted at 22:36

 
Sad stories of older folks left without a penny are following the Earl Jones story as even tales of his golfing habits are turned over for clues.

Meanwhile, Vincent Lacroix is seeing his three properties sold off to pay something back to the people he scammed. posted at 22:30

 
The biggest Montreal news today is that tennis champ Rafael Nadal plans to return from his injuries here next month at the Rogers Cup. There are news links to this in a variety of languages including some I had to think twice to identify. posted at 09:11

 
Stephen Harper says the host scandal is coming from people wanting to drive a wedge between Catholics and Protestants, which is so far off the truth that it's a joke. Fact is, the man, for good or bad, is prime minister, and should have found out before attending a Catholic mass about how to behave there as a non-Catholic. His failure to do so is entirely typical of his blasé attitude to the cultural values of Canadians.

So far from dividing Catholic and Protestant, I suspect that, in Canada, most people no longer draw very strong lines between them: some people go to Christian churches but most do not, and the line between churchgoers and non is a lot more distinct than the fine lines between different churches. Harper's casual attitude to the Catholic host suggests he sees it that way himself, but as prime minister he needs to be more scrupulous. posted at 09:05

 
The Canadiens will play a match this fall at the Olympic Stadium, probably against the Washington Capitals. posted at 08:57

 
A study group has recommended a municipal code of ethics to be imposed on Quebec towns, and the municipal affairs minister is keen on seeing it implemented. Am I cynical to think that adding another layer of "commissaires" is just a dog and pony show to try to convince the public it isn't being flimflammed? Any politician who's intent on helping out his buddies will always be able to do so. posted at 08:55

 
Three thousand new recycling bins are being tested in three boroughs, but some blue-collar workers say they'll be too frail to use in wintertime. posted at 08:35

 
The Impact has lost midfielder Sandro Grande to an indefinite suspension after he grabbed his own captain by the throat (Radio-Canada has a photo) in a game on Saturday. posted at 09:05

 
The Queen has given Jean Chrétien the comparatively rare honour of the Order of Merit, an accolade currently shared with two dozen others including Joan Sutherland, Tom Stoppard, Nelson Mandela and Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web. posted at 08:45

 
The Sheikh family of Park Ex will be broken up as the parents are deported today. Their "crime"? When they came here as refugees from Pakistan, they failed to mention having spent some years in Dubai, although that country does not extend any citizenship to refugees. Their MP, Justin Trudeau, is going to bat for them, but may not have the clout to get the family reunited. posted at 08:39

 
Brother André is moving closer to full canonization as priests in Italy try to decide whether someone's recovery from illness in 1982 was a miracle or not: this news, which would've been a very big deal here a few decades ago, will probably only be seen as a quick upgrade to the Oratory's value as a tourist attraction. posted at 08:23

 
The Botanical Garden is going to have a biodiversity centre, although this brief item doesn't say exactly where it will be. I'm only concerned that, as time goes on, the garden will devote more acreage to deserving projects of various kinds and end up full of aménagements and no actual greenery. posted at 08:19

 
You're not imagining it – it's a rainy July, it's not going to stop – and you've got a better chance at a hot day up in Kuujjuaq. posted at 02:28

 
The 30th annual jazz festival, which closed last night, has been deemed a success despite the dire economic climate and fairly crappy weather. Some high and low notes, more high notes and yet more high notes as journos look back on the festival. posted at 19:30

 
The Atlantic proceeds with its Montreal food tour, proposing an ideal food day involving L'Express, Schwartz's and the Café Olimpico, and a poutine poll. Also today an inquiry into the origin of mustard. posted at 08:59

 
Guillaime Saint-Jean does a really nice piece on St. Bridget's Refuge, whose ruins can still be seen on La Gauchetière near St. Patrick's church. (I also missed blogging his piece last Monday on the fate of the Church of the Messiah on Sherbrooke Street, torched by its own organist 20 years ago. Here's the imtl file on the building and a blog entry on the perpetrator.) posted at 08:43

 
The wife of boxer Arturo Gatti has been charged with his murder in Brazil. posted at 20:06

 
As victims speak up, a more detailed picture is coming into focus of decamped investment counsellor Earl Jones and the missing millions. posted at 10:00

 
Toronto view of the success of the Place des festivals as the 30th jazz fest draws to a close this evening. posted at 09:58

 
There's a party this evening to celebrate the Turcot struggle: it was supposed to be held yesterday but was moved because of yesterday's big storms. posted at 09:57

 
The New York Times looks at the standing river wave off Habitat 67 and the folks who surf it. More here on water-related activities around town this summer. posted at 22:29

 
Arturo Gatti, a boxer who grew up here, has been found dead in Brazil under suspicious circumstances. He was 37 and had retired fairly recently from the ring. posted at 22:03

 
The federal government is splitting up a family in Park Ex, sending the parents back to Pakistan and letting the kids (2 adults and a 5-year-old) stay here – at least for now. posted at 21:57

 
Today's heavy rains have snarled traffic and flooded basements all over town. posted at 21:51

 
Recommendations for the Fantasia festival, which runs till the end of the month. posted at 12:57

 
Montreal North councillor James Infantino follows the borough mayor into retirement from politics, as the old guard in the borough leave it to its problems. posted at 11:34

 
I've been told that Without Annette has sorted out the Zoofest program and made it more linear, but the links still go to the official site with the browser resizing and funny noises.

(I'd like a word with whoever propagates the idea that it's zany fun to have a Flash website where the user has to make an effort to locate basic information.) posted at 11:16

 
The assets of Earl Jones, decamped from his West Island office, have been frozen, although if he really was running a Ponzi scheme there won't be much to freeze. He's said to have been responsible for between $30 and $50 million, much of it the nest eggs of little old ladies. posted at 10:48

 
It's not exactly news that construction sites are complicating downtown traffic and stretching out into the suburbs. Where I've been working, on Chabanel, they're digging up and remaking the median, although what really needs work is the patched and uneven sidewalks that make walking a constant adventure for the ankles. posted at 10:14

 
Interesting obit for architect Sandy van Ginkel whose influence kept an autoroute from cutting through rue Saint-Paul. posted at 10:07

 
I'm being quite distinctly nagged to promote Just For Laughs' new festival Zoofest – but wait, don't click on that link unless you enjoy having your browser resized and then make "funny" noises. It's not easy to find linear information about the schedule either, but my impression is that this new fest is designed to take over the cultural territory pioneered by the Fringe. I'm not a Fringe freak but I tend to distrust the chronic Rozon urge to put all the cultural eggs in one basket and sit on it themselves. posted at 16:16

 
Local folks are against the impending enlargement of the police station that already takes a bite out of Jarry Park's green space. The Coalition des amis du parc Jarry has more on the issue. posted at 15:19

 
A West Island investment guy seems to have vanished off the radar with the savings of a fair number of folks hanging in the balance. posted at 14:33

 
The owner of a bike rental business in the Old Port resents the Bixi and has succeeded in getting the city to move a Bixi station away from his store. posted at 14:27

 
Eco-Centres are now refusing to accept used batteries from businesses that collect them, even though only a small number of people can be bothered to recycle them at all. posted at 14:23

 
The loss of the Grand Prix has cut into hotel business here although it's difficult to know how much the recession is also to blame. The taxi business is hurting even worse. posted at 14:18

 
As you can see, my blog is now back, having been deemed not a spam blog. posted at 14:07

 
Blogger has locked this blog on suspicion of spamming, so I will not be able to make any new postings until this is sorted out. I am only able to post this message by editing over an existing posting (which I'll put up again later). Sorry about this – if it's not resolved quickly, I'll take a few days' break and redo the blog in Wordpress. posted at 23:06

 

Effective union poster caught my eye on Chabanel Street. posted at 18:09

 
Longtime jazz maven Len Dobbin fell ill at Upstairs jazz club last night, and died later in hospital. One of the city's proponents of the genre, it's strangely fitting he died in the midst of the festival. Obit from the Gazette. posted at 13:33

 
All three levels of government are kicking in a total of $150 million to build an ozone treatment plant for the city's sewage, sparing everyone downriver from dealing with our dreck. La Presse catches a subtly funny remark by new municipal affairs minister Laurent Lessard: the plant will process 2.5 million cubic meters of water a day – as much as Thetford Mines uses daily. The minister used to be mayor of that major metropolis and I foresee Thetford Mines becoming a standard unit of urban activity. posted at 08:43

 
Shell is considering closing its Montreal refinery, news big enough to make Bloomberg. 500 people work there. posted at 08:34

 
After serving merely a sixth of his sentence, fraudster Vincent Lacroix has been granted bail and can go live in a halfway house. He faces further criminal charges unless his lawyers can get those dismissed. posted at 01:57

 
Saku Koivu has signed with the Anaheim Ducks thus saying a definitive goodbye to his years as captain of the Canadiens. posted at 01:47

 
Alex Kovalev expected to end his career in Montreal, but it slipped out of his fingers before he knew it. Now he hopes to become a credit to the Senators. posted at 08:55

 
A Montreal writer and his publisher have hit a publication jackpot with an unauthorized biography of Michael Jackson that had been planned for publication next week. But the ending has had to be rewritten in a hurry.

It won't be the only one coming out shortly, though. posted at 08:32

 
It's come out that in addition to the $350 million planned for the water meter contract, the city is expected to kick in another $68 million to build and run a central facility to monitor the system. La Presse and the Gazette both adorn the story with views of the mayor looking sheepish. posted at 08:25

 
An archaeological dig is being done at Dorchester Square as part of the overall renovation scheme. Once a graveyard, the area is being examined for remains of 19th-century Montrealers whose bones contain clues about the lives led here at that time. posted at 08:21

 
There's excitement over the mere possibility that big film productions may come back to town with the end of a union squabble and the introduction of a new tax break for producers. The return of the loonie to suitably humble levels can't hurt either. posted at 08:52

 
The Atlantic proposes a food tour stop in Montreal and people get opinionated in the comments. In other food news, somebody's opening a restaurant called Mile End in Brooklyn, to bring Montreal specialties to benighted New Yorkers, although our bagels are so ephemeral that by the time they're shipped to Brooklyn they'll have to be toasted to be edible. posted at 08:49

 
Benoit Labonté leaps with barely concealed glee on the Plateau deficit story, blaming the mayor's mismanagement for the squeeze. posted at 08:45

 
Some young Montreal entrepreneurs are doing very well in the business of getting rid of chewing gum on surfaces. It's a pity the habit leads to such a nasty means of disposal, but good on them for turning it to their profit. posted at 08:37

 
Kevin Ducharme, gravely injured last week in an attempt to car surf, has died of his injuries, and the driver faces charges. Before you think "stupid teenagers!": Ducharme was 38, and the driver is 33; they're both from up north. The Gazette, reliably, tries to find a scary trend but fails, even after segueing into an only tangentially relevant disquisition on street racing. posted at 20:33

 
The city has a tentative deal with Quebec to rein traffic speed on residential streets back to 40 km/h by this time next year. I'm unclear on why they have to petition Quebec for this, as well as why it takes a year, but in any case it will only be effective if it's policed. posted at 20:00

 
The Ottawa Senators have signed Alex Kovalev to a two-year contract. posted at 19:36

 
Notable incidents this weekend: a suburbanite stabbed his wife and was cornered by firefighters; ambulance techs and police were pelted with rocks in Côte-des-Neiges when they showed up to treat a victim stabbed in a church hall party; a man who tried to rob an east-end bar was subdued by bar patrons and now faces charges. posted at 09:03

 
Elegiac Jean Béliveau on Saku Koivu's time as Canadiens captain and the non-event of his departure from the team. Yesterday's demo at the Bell Centre was in support of keeping Alex Kovalev on the roster. posted at 08:42

 
Communauto has competition: a firm called CityFlitz is opening a service this week that does short-term car rentals cheap – you only have to accept that the car you get will be plastered with advertising and that you can't leave the city with it. posted at 08:39

 
Interview with jazz festival supremo André Ménard about his ongoing addiction to music. posted at 08:36

 
The Union Montreal candidate for Plateau borough mayor presented all six council candidates yesterday in a popular Mont-Royal Avenue bistro; the borough is in deep financial trouble and is facing the municipal equivalent of bankruptcy. posted at 08:32

 
Slightly off-kilter Bixi article says there have been "several" head injuries seen this summer in Bixi riders without helmets, which isn't very precise news, and seems worded to scare us. There's simply no way for the Bixi system to offer helmets in a range of sizes, sanitized to the satisfaction of users. (The article resurfaced Monday morning with the headline Cyclists' Bixi injuries vex MD but still with nothing to substantiate the intimation that Bixi riders have had an extraordinary run of trouble.) posted at 23:39

 
There are petitions to get Saku Koivu and Alex Kovalev back on the Canadiens, and a group is gathering at the Bell Centre this afternoon to support Kovalev and convince Bob Gainey to sign him back up. posted at 11:29

 
Despite their growing popularity, how tough are the Bixi bicycles, and will they hold up to rough treatment? La Presse finds a lot of Bixis with broken bits, as well as damaged parts on the stands that hold the bikes at the stations.

It's a trade-off. I found a Bixi abandoned in a back alley this week while on my own bicycle. A quick call to 311 was linked to somebody who told me where the closest station was, so I wheeled it back there and shoved it in. It wasn't broken. But it was a lot heavier than my own bike, a Trek hybrid – decent bike but not a high-end ride. It's impossible to have a machine light enough to ride and with a lot of small moving parts that doesn't have some vulnerable spots. If the Bixi was a battle tank it would be unrideable.

Also this weekend, a glance at the Route Verte and ways to use it. posted at 10:02

 
Guerrilla gardening has its devotees around town, part of Le Devoir's look at alternative urban agriculture this weekend. posted at 09:53

 
A look at the renovation of Dorchester Square, although going so far as to say it has blighted downtown Montreal for a decade is a bit silly. It's just a lived-in urban square. posted at 09:29

 
The Carifiesta/Carifête seems to have gone off well despite an ongoing legal struggle over control of the event. posted at 19:09

 
Le Devoir is looking at other ways of living in the city, reviving their fascination with an American woman who is said to live mostly on what she can scavenge around any big city. It's interesting but it's a time-consuming way of life, and Nancy Klehm also strikes me as a tad too blasé about the toxicity of urban sources.

But living differently in the city is an idea that's percolating around the edges of what I look at for this blog. Marché Duluth is a new blog that talks about a Plateau concept that brings more local products into town – local in this sense being farmers and small producers outside town but not too far off. Another link I keep finding is les Urbainculteurs, who sell various items to encourage urban agriculture.

But if you walk through back alleys in many parts of town – Little Italy, east through Rosemont or north through Villeray and then north of the 40 into southern Ahuntsic, very many back yards are already bursting with tomatoes, peppers, chard, zucchini, grapevines, figs, all kinds of herbs. If you want to grow some of your own food and have old-country neighbours, you can do worse than listen to their advice, because they never gave up producing some of their own food in the city. posted at 15:56

 
The city is buying equipment for the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in hopes of getting the Grand Prix back, possibly in the same spirit that launched the south seas' cargo cults. Considering they will have to blandish Bernie Ecclestone, in the UK press again this week for praising Hitler and Saddam Hussein, it's probably not the smartest thing this city has run after. posted at 15:11

 
Quebec is pouring several million dollars into a scheme to make police presence less hostile in eight of the poorer boroughs. posted at 15:03

 
The choice of a new director for the Musée d'art contemporain has sparked a general complaint as 80 people connected with the art world have signed an open letter to protest the museum's choice, seen as lacking in daring and vision. posted at 12:22

 
The Caribbean parade is about to start on René-Lévesque at Guy, marching eastward. Curious how the Gazette calls it the Carifête while La Presse calls it the Carifiesta. (Fagstein emails to point out that these are actually two distinct events happening at the same time.) posted at 11:43

 
Marcel Parent, mayor of Montreal North borough, has decided not to run again for the position in November, citing his health – he's 77.

Meanwhile the mayor has lined up another candidate for the Plateau. Robert Pilon hopes to be elected in Mile End. posted at 12:55

 
The art group Paysages Éphémères is bringing a series of installations on the theme of summer vacations to Mont-Royal Avenue from the metro eastwards. posted at 12:50

 
Montreal could be paying twice what it should for the new water meters, according to an estimate drawn up by Gaz Métropolitain in 2003 and comparing it to the deal struck with the Génieau consortium this year. The city is defending its choice, saying the specs changed in the meantime and the two estimates can't be compared. The contract is currently on hold. posted at 12:13

 
Four women from Montreal have been found dead in a car sunk in a lock near Kingston. There are a lot of unanswered questions so far. posted at 12:03

 
The Bixi has been so popular that the city's going to expand it to new boroughs with 2000 new bikes and 100 new stations this summer. posted at 11:59

 
Dilallo's is an 80-year-old institution in this town, and A.J. Kinik goes to review the burgers at the Ville-Émard location.

(According to canada411, there are five Dilallo locations now – three below the tracks in Montreal, and two on the South Shore. There's also a mysterious Chez Di Lalla snack bar on Villeray and there's Da Lillo's on Jarry, which I assume are not related, but both of which gave me double-takes when I noticed them.) posted at 17:50

 
A possible competitor in the city's contentious water meter deal, excluded from the bidding process, has submitted a legal question about the process. posted at 08:39

 
More than 378,000 Quebec households moved yesterday and 71 are still without a new address in Montreal as larger families are finding it difficult to get affordable housing with enough rooms. Maybe more affordable housing units are helping in Montreal but other Quebec towns are feeling the shortage of larger apartments too. In any case, there are still vacancies in Montreal North, where it seems nobody wants to go live since last summer's riot. posted at 08:27

 
There are various questions around the trial and sentencing of Louise Desnoyers, particularly her state of mind when she killed her son, but she crossed into a more unforgiving country before she did it. posted at 08:10

 
The New York Times looks at Montreal chefs serving seal meat, with the misgivings of the journalist too. posted at 08:03

 
Louise Desnoyers, who drowned her son in Lake Champlain in 2006, received a 15-year sentence today in a Vermont courtroom despite the vigorous support of her colleagues and friends. She'll have to serve it out in the U.S. posted at 21:58

 
Notre-Dame East has finally reopened to traffic today after a truck ran into the railway viaduct on Monday: the authorities are clearly taking no chances with overpasses these days. posted at 21:52

 
Bob Gainey has signed on $83 million worth of new guys in the last two days. The team will be unrecognizable in September. Red Fisher calls the upsides and downsides as he sees 'em. posted at 21:49

 
Emphasis is placed on current difficulties getting to and from the airport while work is done on Côte de Liesse and Dorval Circle. posted at 14:22

 

I was reminded of this scene recently while wandering around the Olympic Stadium area. I took the above photo in 2002 during the public squabble over whether this fountain, Riopelle's La Joute – the only major sculptural piece done by an artist better known for his paintings, and one of the few major pieces of public art in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve – would be taken away from this, its original setting, and moved downtown.

At the time it was still working as a fountain and visible to anyone who passed through the east-side Pie-IX metro entrance, as well as from the concrete walkway above. Claims that it was hidden away and neglected were spun as leverage to move it to its current location by the Palais des congrès. Various promises were made to replace it with another fountain or piece of sculpture after the removal. But this is how the space looks now:

I don't live in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve but I tend to think they wuz robbed.

At the moment, that entrance to Pie-IX metro station is under heavy renovation, so I suppose it's possible this is just a temporary measure. But it's been five years since the sculpture was taken away, so I wonder if any thought or budget has been given to the promise to find a replacement. posted at 13:35

 
Another piece on the moving company that hauls with bicycle trailers, who will probably be just as busy as every other mover in town today; a number of households are in the street after not finding new digs. Overview of moving day in La Presse quotes "Christopher Dewolve" in Spacing, plus a look at moving family Clan Panneton. posted at 12:05

 
Verdun and Montreal North will get new hockey rinks from the Canadiens' foundation to help kids. They've already built one in Saint-Michel. posted at 11:59

 
The Communauto car-sharing service continues to grow as more people see the advantage of having the use of a car without the hassle of owning, parking and repairing it. posted at 11:52