• Turcot project: Weekday closures in November will cause massive gridlock

    Motorists driving to or from downtown Montreal via Highway 20 around Remembrance Day weekend should make other plans or risk a commute they won’t soon forget.
    Transport Quebec is taking the unprecedented step of closing segments of the Turcot Interchange during the weekday rush hours, from the morning of Friday, Nov. 8 to Monday evening, Nov. 13, to allow for the dismantling of part of the expressway that runs over Highway 20.
    Till now, major work on the Turcot has been done on weekends to
  • Shakespeare in the Ruelles takes the Bard to the alleys of Montreal

    Remember the old Bob Dylan verse about Shakespeare from Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again?
    “Well Shakespeare, he’s in the alley / with his pointed shoes and his bells / speaking to some French girl / who says she knows me well.”
    Well Shakespeare, he’s going to be in the alley, right here in Montreal, in the alleys of St-Henri to be exact. Shakespeare in the Ruelles makes its world première Friday afternoon and repeats on Saturday and Sunday. It&rs
  • Quebec election: QS promises 38 new métro stations in greater Montreal

    If elected, Québec solidaire is promising to equip the greater Montreal area with 38 new métro stations by 2030, an extension that would include Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante’s proposed Pink Line.
    The party unveiled a vast project Thursday called “Grand Montréal express” that would come with $10 billion in spending in transport infrastructure during its first mandate.
    The party’s spokesperson, Manon Massé, said the project is “a bi
  • Restaurant review: East end's Hélicoptère soars with small plates

    Hélicoptère
    ★★★ out of ★★★★
    $$-$$$
    Address: 4255 Ontario St. E.
    Phone: 514-543-4255
    Website: helicopteremtl.com
    Open: Wed.-Sat. 5:30 to 11 p.m.; Sun. 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
    Wheelchair access: No
    Licensed: Yes
    Reservations: Essential
    Cards: All major
    Vegetarian-friendly: Yes
    Parking: On surrounding streets
    Price range: Small plates $6-$21; desserts $9-$11.
    When dining out, there may come a moment when the meal evolves from good to not so goo
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  • Live – Quebec election blog: Researchers forecast a CAQ minority government

    This is the Montreal Gazette’s live blog on the Quebec provincial election for Thursday, Sept. 6. It will be updated throughout the day. Email me at [email protected]:55 p.m.: Namesakes, calves and artichokes
    Some election campaign scenes from today via Montreal Gazette reporters who are crisscrossing the province with political leaders.
    ⁦@francoislegault⁩ meets another François Legault. “Does our name help you get reservations in restaurants,” jokes
  • Two men admit to killing Rwandan refugee over simple drug debt

    Two men who were set to undergo a lengthy murder trial before a jury next week at the Montreal courthouse opted instead on Thursday to admit to their roles in the violent death of Gilbert Nshimiyumukiza, a Rwandan refugee who had come to Canada to avoid the violence he witnessed in his home country.
    Nshimiyumukiza arrived in Montreal in 2009 looking to begin a new life after he witnessed his parents be killed as part of the genocide that ripped Rwanda apart. His new life in Canada began well but
  • Montreal's anglo theatre scene turns over a new leaf with fall season

    Two Broadway smashes (the musical Once and A Doll’s House, Part 2) and two hits from London’s Royal Court Theatre (Choir Boy and The Children) lead Montreal’s anglo theatre season this fall. There’s plenty of diversity, too, with Black Theatre Workshop and Teesri Duniya Theatre leading the way, plus circus, clowns, encore performances from last summer’s Fringe festival and a visit from China’s leading theatre company. It’s also heartening to see two of o
  • 'I want to come back for a good fight': ex-UFC champ Georges St-Pierre

    Fans hoping to see Quebecer Georges St-Pierre fight Conor McGregor or Khabib Nurmagomedov might be disappointed.
    The former UFC welterweight and middleweight champion played down reports he was interested in meeting the winner of the McGregor-Nurmagomedov showdown slated for UFC 229 on Oct. 6 in Las Vegas.
    “I didn’t say I was going to do it,” St-Pierre said Thursday. “People headlined me the wrong way, to sell articles. That’s the society we live in.”
    It doesn
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  • N.D.G. massage therapist sentenced to 18 months for sexual assaults

    A man who operated as a massage therapist in Notre Dame de Graçe for years has been sentenced to an 18-month prison term for having sexually assaulted seven of his clients.
    David Kost admitted to having abused the women who sought his services to deal with pain they were experiencing. He operated his business out of his home. Quebec Court Judge Denis Mondor noted that the sexual assaults were carried out over a period of four years, from 2012 to 2016, and listed this as an aggravating fac
  • Opinion: Urban Indigenous people's concerns are all too often overlooked

    Many people seem to have the impression that Indigenous people in Quebec all live in communities (also called “reserves” within the meaning of the Indian Act of 1876). This is far from the reality. In fact, more than half of the Indigenous population resides in urban centres; some were born in the city and have always lived there, while others move there by choice to pursue their life goals. There continues to be a need to raise awareness of this reality among the various g
  • Exo customers get a break, thanks to a decade-old class action suit

    It might seem like a long time coming, but commuter-train users who were inconvenienced during a strike by Société de Transport de Montréal maintenance workers more than 10 years have won compensation for all riders this October.
    During the May 2007 strike, Agence métropolitaine de transport service was stopped during rush hour and at night. A class-action lawsuit targeted the STM, AMT and Autorité régionale de transport métropolitain.
    All Ex
  • Oscar-winner Spike Lee to attend Montreal International Black Film Festival

    Spike Lee will talk about his journey as a filmmaker and discuss technology and the world’s socio-economic environment during an appearance at the Montreal International Black Film Festival Sept. 26.
    Academy Award-winning Lee has been a guest at the festival two other times. He won the Grand Prix du Jury at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival for BlacKkKlansman.
    Canada’s largest black film festival runs from Sept. 25-30 and features more than 70 films from 25 countries.
    The conversati
  • Quebec election: CAQ denies immigration plan aims to split families

    St-ALPHONSE-RODRIGUEZ — Elderly immigrants arriving in Quebec to join their families would be exempted from having to pass the new French tests that a Coalition Avenir Québec government plans to impose.
    And separating immigrant parents from their children, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration did in Mexico earlier this year, is out of the question here, CAQ Leader François Legault said.
    A day after saying he wants to extend his immigration reduction plan to i
  • Quebec election: PQ promises local food in public cafeterias

    ST-CHARLES-SUR-RICHELIEU — A sloppy joe with locally raised pork and a side helping of Quebec strawberries in high school cafeterias?
    If the Parti Québécois has its way, more local food will be on the menu of public schools and nursing homes across the province, as part of the party’s pledge platform to support the province’s farmers.
    PQ Leader Jean-François Lisée said Thursday if his party forms the government after the Oct. 1 election, it woul
  • Live – Quebec election blog: Québec solidaire promises 38 new métro stations, including Pink Line

    This is the Montreal Gazette’s live blog on the Quebec provincial election for Thursday, Sept. 6. It will be updated throughout the day. Email me at [email protected]:15 p.m.: Québec solidaire has ambitious plan
    Québec solidaire unveiled its transit plan for Montreal today and it’s quite ambitious.
    It includes adding 38 new métro stations, including Mayor Valérie Plante’s promised Pink Line.
    François Legault, whose Coalition Avenir Qu
  • Montrealer Adonis Stevenson's title bout set for Dec. 1 in Quebec City

    Groupe Yvon Michel confirmed Wednesday that Adonis Stevenson will defend his WBC light heavyweight title against Ukraine’s Oleksandr Gvozdyk on Dec. 1.
    The bout will take place at the Vidéotron Centre in Quebec City.It will be a 10th title defence for Stevenson (29-1-1) and the 40-year-old Montrealer’s first since a majority draw in May against Sweden’s Badou Jack.
    Gvozdyk, 31, is Stevenson’s mandatory challenger.
    He won bronze at the 2012 Olympics in London.
    Relat
  • Montreal going to Supreme Court over 11-year-old, unpaid $83,000 bill

    An unpaid bill of $83,000 dating from 2007 will see the city of Montreal before the Supreme Court of Canada over the next few months.
    The high court agreed on Thursday to hear the case, which will pit the city against Octane, a Montreal public relations firm.
    Octane is claiming the $83,000 for the lease of technical equipment used during the launch in May of 2007 of the city transportation plan unveiled by then mayor Gérald Tremblay.
    Octane was also suing Richard Thériault, then th
  • Brownstein: Chelsea Handler brings pot-and-politics tour to Montreal

    There had been some speculation that comedian and political activist Chelsea Handler was undertaking a seven-city tour of Canada this fall because she just might be motivated to bolt the U.S. for these relatively more placid parts.
    “I’m always considering moving to Canada, but I just have to figure out which coast I want to go to — which coast will be less affected by climate change,” says a somewhat serious-sounding Handler, who will be hitting Théâtre St-De
  • Free in Montreal Sept. 7-9: Dance, food, fashion, repeat

    Mad Heads and more
    This weekend’s Ukrainian Festival in Parc Beaubien has some pretty rich programming, from dance ensembles to rock bands to traditional music to Ukrainian cuisine. And that’s just the beginning.
    Rendez-vous with your Caribbean neighbours
    Speaking of art, dance and gastronomy, Afrofest Montreal is an open-air event celebrating the Afro-Caribbean and Haitian communities of Montreal. Expect drumming, dancing and workshops Saturday and Sunday at Espace Mushagalusa and F
  • Turcot project: Unprecedented weekday closure coming in November

    Transports Quebec is taking the unprecedented step of closing large parts of the Turcot Interchange during the weekday rush hours, from Friday morning, Nov. 8, up to an including Monday evening, Nov. 13.
    They are strongly advising motorists to find alternative routes or modes of transportation, particularly public transportation, to avoid what is expected to be massive gridlock.
    As part of the multi-year rebuilding of the Turcot, expected to be completed at the end of 2020, the old Highway 15 &m
  • Montreal police release surveillance video in bid to catch arsonist

    The Montreal police arson squad have made public a surveillance camera video in an effort to track down a man who set fire to a car parked in a private driveway in Dollard-des-Ormeaux.
    The 29-second clip shows the man walking onto the driveway from the street, producing a container of flammable fluid and then pouring it into the channel between the vehicle’s windshield and hood. He then ignites the fluid and flees.
    The incident occurred around 1:15 a.m. on May 31.
    Anyone with any informati
  • TIFF 2018: Xavier Dolan, Kim Nguyen lead strong Quebec contingent

    TORONTO — Every year is a big year for Quebec films at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), and 2018 is no exception.
    High-profile English-language releases from two of our province’s best-known directors, a return to form from the legendary Denys Arcand and a handful of notable indie gems will screen at the mammoth movie event, which kicks off Thursday and runs through Sept. 16.
    TIFF lucked out this year as Xavier Dolan’s long-awaited English debut The Death and Lif
  • Live – Quebec election blog: PQ celebrates golden jubilee as voters look to new parties

    This is the Montreal Gazette’s live blog on the Quebec provincial election for Thursday, Sept. 6. It will be updated throughout the day. Email me at [email protected]:15 a.m.: Farmers, children and transit
    The Liberals are reaching out to farmers, promising a new tax credit for farmers, prevent speculation on farmland and adjust financial.
    The Parti Québécois will be talking about its agriculture policy later today.
    The Coalition Avenir Québec says it will&nb
  • Côte-St-Luc gas leak cuts power to 12,000 homes

    A gas leak at Cavendish Blvd. and Kildare Rd. in Côte-St-Luc forced Hydro-Québec to cut power to 12,000 clients in Montreal’s west end Thursday morning.
    The leak occurred around 8 a.m. and firefighters required that power in the area be shut before they attempted to cap the breach.
    The blackout affects users in Hampstead, Côte-St-Luc and much of the Monkland Village neighbourhood in N.D.G.
    By 10 a.m. Hydro-Québec was reporting the number of clients affec
  • UPDATE: Tributes pour in for former PQ cabinet minister Lise Payette

    Lise Payette, a Quebec journalist, broadcaster, author and former Parti Québécois cabinet minister died Wednesday at the age of 87.
    Payette held several portfolios in a succession of PQ governments, including status of women, consumer affairs and social development.
    Among her most enduring contributions while in government was a revision of the Quebec Civil Code that no longer made it obligatory for a woman to assume her husband’s family name, the creation of no-fault automob
  • Quebec election: CAQ vows to boost aid to parents of disabled children

    St-ALFONSE-DE-RODRIQUEZ — A Coalition Avenir Québec government would boost a government aid program for parents of disabled children by $22 million.
    The money would allow more Quebec parents to access the subsidy, CAQ Leader François Legault told reporters.
    “We will leave nobody behind,” Legault said. “The aid we’re offering will be adjusted depending on the severity of the child’s handicap.”
    The CAQ plan responds to complaints by the paren
  • Canada's dairy farmers could be Trudeau's NAFTA bargaining chip

    Henry Holtmann has seen this before — Canada carving off access to its dairy market as a bargaining chip, and using it in trade talks. Now it could happen again.
    More than 2,500 kilometres from Washington, the third-generation Canadian dairy farmer is closely watching North American Free Trade Agreement talks, where U.S. President Donald Trump has taken aim repeatedly at his sector. Canada could once again barter away a piece of its restricted — and lucrative — dairy market, ov
  • Quebec election: Liberals sow promises to protect farmers

    Philippe Couillard says a re-elected Liberal government would introduce a new tax credit for farmers, prevent speculation on farmland and adjust financial aid to take climate events into account.
    In a speech Thursday to the provincial farmers’ union, the Liberal leader vowed to continue to defend supply management in the dairy industry in negotiations to renew the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
    “There will be no compromise to this effect on our part. Our farmers are put
  • Former PQ cabinet minister Lise Payette has died: report

    Lise Payette, a Quebec journalist, broadcaster and former Parti Québécois cabinet minister, has died at age 87, Radio-Canada is reporting.
    Payette held several portfolios in a succession of PQ governments, including status of women, consumer affairs and social development.
    One of her most enduring contributions while in government was a revision of the Quebec Civil Code that no longer made it obligatory for a woman to assume her husband’s family name after marriage.
    This stor
  • Laval police seek potential victims of sex assault suspect, now 73

    Laval police are seeking potential victims of a sexual assault suspect whose alleged crimes may have covered a 20-year span.
    Antoine Trudeau, now 73, was arrested June 27 in connection with sexual assaults investigators say began in the 1960s and continued for more than 20 years.
    The suspect, who then used the name Laflèche Trudeau, was a member of a religious group called La Mission de l’Esprit-Saint.Police allege his victims were minors who were a part of his following and believe
  • While you were sleeping: Genie Bouchard's taxes, and a bear roaming downtown Ottawa

    A few things that happened while you were getting some well-deserved shut-eye.
    Live forever where you’re born? Tennis pro Eugénie Bouchard has become a resident of the Bahamas, and she finds herself the unlikely target of the man expected to be Quebec’s next premier. Bouchard, who was born in Montreal, had been living in Florida, but according to a report this week in La Presse she officially became a resident of the Bahamas earlier this year. Long considered a
  • Montrealers trail rest of Quebec in access to family doctors

    The worst region in all of Quebec for access to a family doctor includes Côte-des-Neiges, Park Extension and downtown Montreal, where at least 47,000 residents have not registered with a general practitioner, the latest government statistics show.
    Yet despite its status as the region that’s the most deprived of GPs, the government has assigned only a handful of newly minted physicians this year to care for patients in the densely-populated health district.
    What’s more,&nbs
  • Montreal weather: Back to more seasonal temperatures

    It will be a grey, rainy start to the day, but it gets better around noon, Environment Canada is forecasting.
    The official daytime forecast: A few showers ending in the morning, then clearing. Wind north 20 km/h becoming light near noon. High 23. Humidex 25. UV index 7 or high.
    Tonight: Clear with a low of — uh, oh — 10.
    Yes, and the leaves are starting to change colours in the Laurentians.
    Don’t forget to submit your photos of Montreal via Facebook, Twitter and Insta
  • Brownstein: If only vanity-plate humour could cure traffic nightmare

    There is a good reason that the provincial powers that be don’t allow Montreal motorists to turn right on red lights: There would be blood on our streets.
    There is a festering rage on city streets the likes of which most have never witnessed here. Ongoing gridlock is bringing out the worst in impatient drivers. Forget yellow lights; motorists are increasingly burning red lights, making life even more miserable for city cyclists, pedestrians and other motorists.
    At last count, there were sa
  • Quebec election: PQ candidate Guy Leclair resigns amid DUI charges

    The Parti Québécois candidate in Beauharnois pulled out of the election late Wednesday after he was charged with impaired driving.
    Guy Leclair resigned his candidacy only hours after PQ Leader Jean-François Lisée vowed to back him until the Oct. 1 election. Although Leclair had a prior drunk driving conviction, Lisée said he deserved the presumption of innocence.
    But around 10 p.m. Wednesday, he accepted the candidate’s resignation.
    “It sucks, I fin
  • Alouettes are a better team now than when he arrived, Kavis Reed says

    The record hasn’t been flattering over the course of nearly two seasons, Kavis Reed admitted, but he maintains the Alouettes are better today, foundationally, than the team he inherited at the end of 2016.
    During a wide-ranging interview with the Montreal Gazette Wednesday afternoon at his Olympic Stadium office, the Als’ general manager maintained he has improved the Canadian content; the atmosphere in the dressing room; the environment where Montreal no longer is looked upon as the
  • #ICYMI: Cannabis shortage, a trans puppet, Pierrefonds killer, #Quebec2018 and more

    In Case You Missed It (#ICYMI) is a daily feature highlighting news in and around Montreal.
    There won’t be enough (legal) pot to go around after legalization on Oct. 17, if a new report commissioned by Health Canada is to be believed.
    One couldn’t be blamed for thinking we are a nation of stoners: A 2017 federal survey on cannabis use to estimate how much adult Canadians will consume in the first year of legalization came up with 926,000 kilograms for both recreational and
  • Boy, 13, dies after being hit by commuter train in St-Laurent

    A 13-year-old boy died Wednesday after being struck by a commuter train in Montreal’s St-Laurent borough. 
    According to the Montreal police, the boy was using a pedestrian crossing at the Bois-Franc commuter train station around 4 p.m. when he was hit by a train heading toward downtown Montreal. 
    Police say the boy suffered serious injuries to his upper and lower body. He died in a hospital Wednesday evening. The train driver, a 53-year-old man, was treated by Urgences-Sant&eacut
  • Serge Savard calls Max Pacioretty's situation with Canadiens 'sad'

    Hall of Famer Serge Savard won eight Stanley Cups as a defenceman with the Canadiens and as a general manager built Montreal’s last two championship teams in 1986 and 1993.
    As a consultant, Savard also helped Canadiens owner/president Geoff Molson in his decision to hire Marc Bergevin as the new GM six years ago, replacing Pierre Gauthier.
    Bergevin is now heading into his seventh season as GM after the Canadiens missed the playoffs for the second time in three years and finished 28th in th
  • Man arrested by Longueuil police after another was stabbed in the neck

    A 28-year-old man was arrested Wednesday after a stabbing in the Longueuil borough of St-Hubert.
    The Longueuil police force said it received several calls around 7:30 a.m. concerning an altercation between two men on Grand Blvd.
    Police say the victim, a 23-year-old man, was stabbed in the neck but authorities do not fear for his life.
    The suspect is detained and expected to be charged with attempted murder. Police said the two men knew each other.
  • Trans puppet videos seek to help children explore their gender identity

    Julia feels sad because people keep calling her Julia.
    She wants to be called Julian.
    “Because Julia is a girl’s name and I’m not a little girl,” says Julia. “I’ve never felt like a girl, but everyone thinks I’m a little girl.”
    Julia/Julian, who’s a puppet, then tells her friend Alex, a woman who’s not a puppet, that she wants to have her hair cut off.
    “And I don’t want to wear dresses or girls’ clothes any more,&rdquo
  • New anti-bullying campaign to feature videos starring a trans puppet

    Julia feels sad because people keep calling her Julia.
    She wants to be called Julian.
    “Because Julia is a girl’s name and I’m not a little girl,” says Julia. “I’ve never felt like a girl, but everyone thinks I’m a little girl.”
    Julia/Julian, who’s a puppet, then tells her friend Alex, a woman who’s not a puppet, that she wants to have her hair cut off.
    “And I don’t want to wear dresses or girls’ clothes any more,&rdquo
  • Quebec election: Québec solidaire would invest $2 billion in schools

    Québec solidaire says it wants to rebuild the Quebec school system by reducing the number of students in a class, hiring more support staff and renovating public schools in the province.
    The party is pledging to invest close to $2 billion in schools, if it wins on Oct. 1.
    Party spokesperson Manon Massé blamed former premier Jean Charest and current Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard for the poor state of public schools.
    “They filled classrooms so much that many students are cr
  • Boy, 15, in critical condition after being hit by commuter train in St-Laurent

    A 15-year-old boy is in critical condition after being struck by a commuter train in Montreal’s St-Laurent borough. 
    According to Montreal police, the boy was using a pedestrian crossing at the Bois-Franc commuter train station around 4 p.m. when he was hit by a train heading toward downtown Montreal. 
    Police say the boy suffered serious injuries to his head, upper and lower body. Authorities fear for his life. The train driver, a man in his 50s, was treated by Urgences-Sant&eacu
  • Aussie cyclist Simon Gerrans hopes to go out a winner in Quebec

    Australian cyclist Simon Gerrans is retiring at the end of the year, but not before attempting to add to his impressive resumé in the UCI World Tour races in Quebec.
    Gerrans, 38, is returning to Quebec for the first time since 2014 when he made history by posting back-to-back wins in the Grand Prix Cyclistes races in Quebec City and Montreal.
    He also won the Quebec City race in 2012 and then placed fourth two days later in Montreal.
    “They’re very different races,” Gerran

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