http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/12/council-unanimous-in-asking-for.html

City council is unanimous in asking Quebec to launch an inquiry into collusion in the construction industry.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/12/charity-campaigns-as-xmas-approaches.html

Dans La Rue is opening a funding campaign and this Thursday will see the Grande Guignolée des médias. And there are Christmas trees at Jean-Talon market.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/12/projet-has-big-plans-for-plateau.html

Projet Montréal has big plans for the Plateau despite its financial troubles.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/12/new-york-vs-montreal-bagels.html

An intense discussion of the New York vs. Montreal bagel controversy in the New York Times, via Nathalie Collard on Twitter.

Hello fine people of Montreal LJ Community!

Does anyone have a big couch cushion, or an old duvet, or even an old dog bed they're willing to part with?  My dog is not happy with his current thin-duvet on the hardwood floor bedding and I thought I would ask here first before buying something new.

Thanks in advance!

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/12/la-presse-unions-ratify-deals.html

La Presse's unions have all ratified deals with their employer, saving the daily from the threatened shutdown today.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/12/lumiere-fest-lineup-announced.html

February's Montréal en lumière fest has announced its show lineup already. Winter really is upon us, although we can't complain about the November we had – unless you operate a ski hill.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/12/water-meters-another-twist.html

Water meters were on the menu when the new city council sat for the first time last night, and another twist came to light in the saga of epic fail: a required document from the city's internal auditor was never produced at the time candidates were selected for the water meter deal. An investigation has already begun into this anomaly.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/12/torch-stories-at-gazette-explained.html

Hour's news blog runs a piece from a disgruntled Gazette employee about the paper's enforced policy on lots of dull Olympic torch stories as a quid-pro-quo for advertising space.

(I begin to see a trend: the mainstream news part of the media is gradually fizzling from lack of interest while the actual reporting is all done via official or semi-official blog-like side projects. Eventually the official news may become a half-forgotten appendix to blogs and tweets. Odd, isn't it? I wonder what it will mean in terms of journalistic ethics, not to mention revenue models...)

Hello Montreal,
I am selling a bunch of my stuff in preparation for my cross-country move. Under the cut is books, CDs, movies, and some other random stuff.
I'll post another entry of just clothing in a few days :)


( Read more )

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/tar-sands-oil-coming-to-montreal.html

There was a protest today against the project to bring tar sands oil to Montreal for refining. Read about the impact of tar sands oil in George Monbiot's Guardian UK column. It's painful but required reading.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/abdallah-sues-la-presse-for-defamation.html

This place is getting litigious. The city's old director general Robert Abdallah is suing La Presse and one of its journalists for a cool half million for defamation of character for an article published in October – this piece, or something closely related.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/8th-anniversary-of-this-blog.html

It's the eighth anniversary of the Montreal City Weblog. I'd been thinking about how the media landscape has changed since I began this blog, but was decisively nudged by the news that the word of the year is Twitter.

The major local media have adapted to the reality of multimedia since the days of 2001 and in general their websites are faster and easier to use. I don't think the rotating-top-story method as used by Radio-Canada and Rue Frontenac is a great solution, though. At least Radio-Canada has a stable listing of the stories to one side, but on Rue Frontenac, if you decide you want to read a story and miss clicking it, you have to wait till it cycles around again.

But newspapers never did settle on one physical layout forever and for all, so there's no reason they all ought to settle for one interface style either.

Mobile content is also a new world since 2001. Rue Frontenac and La Presse both have very nifty iPhone apps (based on the same platform, but it's a good one) which not only hand you the manchettes but configure the content for comfortable mobile reading. I want more of the media to go this way. The worst local example is CJAD, which has a reasonable Twitter feed of news stories but when you try to click through any link from an iPhone it defaults to a generic Astral Media Radio page. Distinct fail. It would also help if they had a local-stories-only feed, but there's only a one-size-fits-all jumble of local stuff and general CP content.

Another iPhone fail is the CBC's own radio app. It offers Radio One local stations for everywhere in Canada except Montreal. You can use a radio streaming app like FStream and get the station, so there's a workaround. But the omission bugs me. I've emailed the CBC about this issue and had no response.

I've never blogged extensively from my iPod Touch, although I could if I had to. There's an app for that too.

When I do the blog in the morning I still get up and summon about twenty tabs into Safari. But throughout the day I mostly watch Twitter. Twitter is definitely the biggest change since this blog began. No question why it's so much more effective than, say, an RSS aggregator like Google Reader – it forces people to be terse. Google Reader does have its place, though.

I have to mention the decline in the old arts weeklies since 2001. There was a time when the Mirror, Voir and Hour had a sort of countercultural edge but it's seldom I find myself wanting to link to them now. (Hour's new blog does at least have some promise.) On the other hand, I'm often impressed by the crispness of the work coming from Metro, although they're in no sense a subversive paper. They have a few people who can get a good local story down onto the page.

Also, Rue Frontenac's been so refreshing. Those guys can really run a paper when they're not working to the Quebecor scandal-of-the-week model of journalism.

I wish there were more bloggers observing the local scene critically and consistently. I know it's hard and often unrewarding in the short term, but this city needs it.

Now I've only got two years to figure out how to celebrate the blog's 10th anniversary. I'm thinking gold lamé.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/grey-cup-bits-and-pieces.html

Mayor Tremblay is going to hold Regina's mayor to his bet. The mayor will have to wear an Alouettes jersey and fly the Montreal flag at Regina city hall.

Fagstein contrasts newspaper front pages from Montreal and Regina; Beaudet considers the increased pressure on the Habs.

More analysis than you may need about the Saskatchewan error that led to the Alouettes' win.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/toponymy-again.html

A slightly flustered Gazette blog entry quotes a Josh Freed column so lame and Josh Freedy that I didn't link to it, about how the official word "baguel" and the word "Longueuil" are supposed to rhyme. Anyone who thinks this, even for lame comic purposes, has a cloth ear for language: baguel and Longueuil do not sound alike. I am not enough of a linguistic scholar to give you the IPA for each word (Wikipedia says the city name is lɔ̃ɡœj), but let's just start with the fact that in "baguel" you're pronouncing that final L, whereas "Longueuil" involves a really choice diphthong that even francophones only use occasionally, and does not involve a terminal L. This is not a rhyme.

As for toponymy, Andy Riga goes on to quote some guy in a weekly paper who doesn't like anglos to refer to Nuns' Island. But the thing is this: people have been naming places around Montreal in English for a couple of centuries. We realize that those names won't be used in official business now, but there's no sensible reason for ordinary human discourse to be limited to official nomenclature. It's not natural.

In other words, it should be fine for an anglo to meet a friend at the corner of Pine and Park, or to live on Nuns' Island if they have the inclination. I'd be thrilled to know more about the names for parts of town in other languages too – il fiume San Lorenzo! El Oratorio de San José de Monte Real (the site of el corazón del Hermano André)! Bring it on!

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/bpr-squares-off-against-city-g.html

The engineering firm that's suing Louise Harel is also threatening action against the city's auditor-general, trying to make him back off some of the statements in the report that persuaded Mayor Tremblay to cancel the contentious water meter contract.

Latest: The auditor-general is saying not on your nelly.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/habs-r-us.html

One third of Canadiens feel the Habs are the Canadian team; Jean Béliveau can remember listening to Canadiens games on the radio in 1941.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/have-you-adopted-bixi.html

Nathalie Collard wants to know whether you've adopted Bixi.

I have. I bought a month's worth of Bixi in October and found it useful a number of times. I have a nice bike, but the Bixi covers all kinds of urban circumstances when you need to move around town fairly quickly yet don't have your bike with you, or want to be able to go someplace and not think about locking your bike or don't want it with you later.

I don't think Bixi is a service which will collapse as the novelty wears off – in fact, I think more people will gradually figure out how useful it can be.

The only reason I didn't renew my subscription was the assumption they would close Bixi down mid-month. Had I known we'd be getting one of the mildest Novembers on record I would certainly have done so, and will sign on again in the spring.

Hi all,
I dearly hope this doesn't sound like an uninformed foreigner post, and I apologize in advance if it does.

I'm American, have been living in France for 3 years, and am looking to move to Montreal with my boyfriend (who is French). I want to apply the skilled worker route, and according Quebec's immigration website, I meet the points criteria. (I have a BA and speak/read/write French fluently.) Does anyone know how long (ish) this takes when applying from France, which is my country of residence for legal purposes? It probably depends, but hey, I thought I'd ask...

Also...the whole process almost seems too easy, so I feel like I must be missing something. Is it really that simple to get accepted if you meet the criteria? What is the job situation like for semi-recent college graduates? I've been teaching for the last 2 years but am pretty open about employment opportunities, I did internships at a couple of non profits during undergrad and would love to continue studying later to be a translator if possible. I would be up for continuing to teach in the private industry or basically any entry level job that requires a BA. I'm not expecting to find my dream job right away or anything but want to make sure I can reasonably support myself if I do this (I have enough savings to get myself through the initial 6 months-ish). I'm *assuming* that my potential employment situation would be roughly similar to what it would be if I moved back to a big city in the US...yes, no, maybe?

thanks in advance if you actually got through this list of questions.

*sigh* I know thousands upon thousands of Montrealers are in the same boat, BUT...

does anyone have a family doctor that is currently taking new patients?

anyone know of anything? i will bribe you.

You can send me a private message.

thank you. I love you.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/grey-cup-parade-wednesday.html

Lots more this morning on the Alouettes winning the Grey Cup: Radio-Canada, CBC, Rue Frontenac, CTV video from the Globe & Mail; Calvillo in La Presse.

Twitter is telling me the parade will be Wednesday at 11 a.m. from Crescent to Jeanne-Mance along Ste-Catherine – the "usual route."

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/cops-and-coroner-at-poly-massacre.html

In the first of what I'm guessing will be a week of media meditations on the Polytechnique massacre, two police officials and a coroner recount their experiences in the aftermath of Marc Lépine's assault on the school. Harrowing reading.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/plateau-places-for-sunday-brunch.html

Metro's Monday list this week is ten places to have weekend brunch around the Plateau.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/snow-comes-bixi-closes-up-shop.html

Lysiane Gagnon writes about the success of the Bixi in the Globe & Mail while Spacing's Emile Thomas writes a somewhat over-the-top elegy to the close of its first season.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/gilles-carle-obit-and-archive.html

Radio-Canada has a Gilles Carles archive up (video plays immediately); Odile Tremblay does a moving obituary in Le Devoir.

Are there any restaurants near Snowdon metro that serve breakfast? Once upon a time there were a couple of places, but they seem to have closed or changed their hours.

Also, happy snow!

So I thought I'd be the first....

GO ALS GO!!!

from my apartment window I saw a flash of light accompanied with a loud banging sound, coming from somewhere above my building (23 floors up) and towards de Maisonneuve and Atwater, somewhere around Guy-Concordia metro, maybe. It didn't look or sound like thunder or lightning, and I wasn't the only one who thought so.. people in the neighbouring complex were gathering at their windows to see what was up.

I can't see where it was coming from because there are other apartment buildings blocking my view. Does anyone have any insight as to what that was? It sounded a bit like an explosion but that's obviously not very likely.

I also heard some brief sirens right after, but I also live near a fire station so that isn't unusual.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/alouettes-win-cup-in-last-minute-surge.html

The Alouettes have won the Grey Cup thanks to a last-minute surge at the end of the game.

So I was wondering if there were any services similar to Allo Stop that allows you to share a ride to coastal cities along the States...such as New Haven, CT or even Boston or NY? I've tried it to Quebec and couldn't have been happier, but as far as I know, they don't go to cities in the States...

Failing that, what are your experiences with craigslist for such type of things?

Lung.

So, I'm moving from here in Montréal to Scotland in around February, thus my question is twofold.

Any good places to get boxes for free/cheap and bubble wrap. I only need around 15- 20 boxes as when I moved here I only brought 7 boxes of stuff with me.

Second question: Any tips/recommendations on reasonably priced/ reputable and good international movers? I had a bad experience with a mover on the way here so I'd really rather get a word of mouth place.

Thank you so much guys!

[EDIT: Am on West Island!]

Hey everyone!

I have a few questions and as everyone I know has only ever moved in July-September, they don't have much advice for me.

I'm moving at the end of December (exact date still to be confirmed) and I'm looking to use movers to make it as quick and painless as possible. nora was kind enough to give me a zillion boxes (thanks again!) so I'm good to go packing material-wise. I just need some recommendations on movers (small or large companies), as well as if anyone knew how much I should budget (and tip!) as well as their experiences moving around that time. Anyone know the latest date that movers operate? Our apartment is in the village and my things will be heading downtown (near Guy-Concordia), my roommate's things will be going to a storage facility (still don't know where) and I might have to bring my appliances to another location as well.

Any and all help would be appreciated. Thanks! :)

Diana

PS. If you have any recommendations for storage companies as well, I'm sure she'd appreciate it.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/harel-denies-shes-going-to-quit.html

Louise Harel is denying a Journal de Montréal intimation that she's on the verge of ending her brief excursion into municipal politics.

The Journal's also been pushing a rumour that Vision and Projet have been discussing a merger, a notion vigorously denied on the Projet website.
Still not linking to Journal stories or anything from their bogus QMI newsfeed.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/grand-prix-return-is-news-everywhere.html

If we needed confirmation that the return of the Grand Prix is news everywhere: Sports Illustrated and the National Post have it, also media from Brazil, more Brazil (they're keen), Italy, Indonesia, Malaysia, Spain, Ireland and briefly from Switzerland.

Hello!

Would anyone happen to know where I could find Batman the complete animated series DVD box set in the city? I remember a few weeks ago they had it at HMV but when I went yesterday it was gone and I desperately need it!
If anyone needs an idea of what exactly im looking for here's the link http://www.amazon.ca/Batman-The-Complete-Animated-Series/dp/B001CTXUTQ


Thanks for any input!!

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/mystery-of-swiss-lane.html

Chris DeWolf asks about the origins of Mile End's Swiss Lane, which merits an official street sign but is listed neither in the city's street toponymy database nor in Méridien's generally exhaustive 1995 tome Les rues de Montréal, which often has the same wording as the website anyway.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/sunday-news-football-setups.html

Not much news this morning besides pre-game Grey Cup setups. People seem to be having fun in Calgary as fans from both teams get ready; the Alouettes are the favourites, even their coach demanding nothing extra special beyond how they've played all season; pre-game analyses galore, thoughts on Anthony Calvillo, a look at two Quebec players on the Saskatchewan team. The game starts 6:30 p.m. our time.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/gilles-carle-has-died.html

Filmmaker Gilles Carle has died at 80 after a long illness and will be given a state funeral. Retrospectives of his life and works depict a man deeply in love with filmmaking. Here's a six-minute scene from Les Plouffe.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/harel-being-sued-over-remarks.html

Louise Harel is being sued over remarks she made about one of the engineering firms involved in the water meter debacle.

I'm looking for a small artifical Christmas tree in a color that isn't green. White or silver are preferable.

Also where is the best place to get Christmas lights?
Thanks

What is your favourite place to get pad thai in the city? Bonus points if it is a sit down resteraunt in the plateau or downtown.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/writing-on-burger-bloggers.html

A writer looks at bloggers looking at burgers as Sarah Musgrave talks to the Montreal Burger Report guys. Fagstein thinks Ed Hawco's photo of Chris "Zeke" Hand is adorable.
As far as seasonings, Hawco sticks to salt and pepper, and limits the toppings – ? As far as what? This sloppy usage is creeping into mainstream journalese. The expression as far as X is concerned is bad enough if you can't phrase it better, but dropping the is concerned makes gibberish of it. If you must, it's As for seasonings....

Yes, I'm feeling prescriptive today.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/making-hero-of-marc-lepine.html

The 20th anniversary of the Polytechnique massacre (Radio-Canada archive video) is coming up, and of course there would be websites calling Marc Lépine a hero and supporting violence against feminists. I'm not looking for those sites or pointing to them – they can get their hits somewhere else.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/cn-engineers-go-on-strike.html

CN locomotive engineers are on strike although AMT has filed an injunction and this news item suggests that no commuter lines should be affected. I guess Monday will be the moment of truth if the strike continues.

In other AMT news, the Rigaud run may be eliminated: only a few people ride the scarce train to that town, but of course a train without many departures won't have a big ridership. It's a long-standing tactic for train operators to cut an unprofitable route down and then argue that nobody uses it so it should be axed.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/pizza-bagels-and-famous-chefs.html

La Presse writer gives us ten places to get pizza; the question of buying a bagel in French; an aperçu of New York chefs indulging in Montreal restaurants.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/chum-hospital-costs-increase.html

Here's a surprise: the CHUM superhospital will cost even more than expected as the government moves to cover payments that were originally going to be handled by the private part of the PPP ideal. At this point, does anybody but Jean Charest think that the PPP thing is going to save money for the government? It's simply a mechanism set up to assure a constant flow of public money into private hands.

http://w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog/2009/11/beat-guy-to-death-they-get-10-years.html

These two beauties were given ten years yesterday for beating and killing a random young guy on the Main last summer. They apologized to the family but the victim's mother is shocked at the plea bargain that let them plead guilty to involuntary homicide.

One Bottle Project is a grass roots movement created by Concordia students against the 'corporatization' of water in Montreal as well as outside of the city. According to Statistics Canada, 28% of Quebec residents use bottled water as their primary source of drinking water (this is close to the national average of 30%). This number is extremely disturbing since Canada is one of the most water-rich countries in the world (it contains 9% of the world's renewable water supply), and there is no reason for any Canadian citizen to be drinking bottled water during normal daily practice. It is simply a waste to be drinking bottled water.

The consumption of bottled water encourages the privatization of water. Bottled water is a rapidly growing market and the major beverage companies are all heavily vested in it. It only makes sense. Why sell soda or juice products when you can simply bottle the filtered water from the factory! Pepsi (Aquafina) and Coca-Cola (Dasani) have admitted to doing just this. Their water is simply repackaged public drinking water, filtered and sold back to you. At prices sometimes approaching 2.50$ a litre or more, bottled water can be more expensive than gasoline!

Bottled water also causes unneeded strain on the planet's resources. The production of the bottles requires oil. The transportation causes a further need for oil. The production of the plastic requires more water than the bottle itself contains (it takes 4 litres of water to produce a 1 litre bottle)... all this to repackage a resource we have in enormous quantities! It just doesn't make sense to drink bottled water in Canada.

For more information, please visit our website and learn how you can help reduce the strain on our planet.