Out Again................Remember this tragedy:

                     MONTREAL - His name is forever connected with one of the worst crimes in Montreal’s history.

But time has dimmed the collective memory when it comes to the name James O’Brien, although those old enough will likely never forget the fire he helped set that resulted in the deaths of 37 people.

On Sept. 1, 1972, O’Brien, 22 at the time, and two other men, Gilles Eccles and Joseph Marc Boutin, were kicked out of a downtown bar. They returned later to the Blue Bird Café, on Union Ave. south of Ste. Catherine St., to douse the stairwell with gasoline and set it on fire.

The blaze killed 37 people in a country and western bar upstairs from the Blue Bird. Another 54 people were injured. The victims, including a girl as young as 14, died of asphyxiation or suffocation as they tried to escape the burning building.

Three months later, O’Brien and Boutin admitted to being drunk when they set the fire. They pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree murder and were sentenced to life, while Eccles eventually pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

When O’Brien entered his guilty plea in December 1972, he told the court: “We didn’t mean to kill anyone. We only wanted to scare the doorman” who had tossed them out.

All three were released on parole by 1983, but for years O’Brien continued to have problems with alcohol that put him back behind bars. The most recent instance came in 2008 after he was convicted of impaired driving. He had been unlawfully at large for nine months before his arrest.

O’Brien was granted day parole in May 2009, but until now the National Parole Board has been reluctant to grant him a full release while he continued to work on his dependence on alcohol.

According to a written summary of a decision made last week to grant him full parole, O’Brien, 61 and living in Montreal, has found a full-time job and has attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings regularly.

Psychological and psychiatric assessments have found O’Brien’s “anti-social acts were more consistent with a pattern of socio-affective maladjustment than a frankly anti-social structure. Nonetheless, you have taken the (lives) of 37 persons and, on multiple occasions, you have become a mortal danger to society as you have developed the habit of driving under the influence.”

When O’Brien is sober and behind bars, according to the parole board, his behaviour has “essentially been compliant and you have never been a person of particular concern to preventive security.”

As part of the conditions of his release, O’Brien must follow psychological counselling for six months. The two parole board members who heard his case were convinced this will help him manage the risk of reoffending by treating his drinking problem, the main factor in his criminality.

He is also not allowed to drive except for work-related purposes, and he is not allowed to be in bars.

           

          ----------------------------------------------------------------------HF&RV-----------------------------------

Can Mayor Tremblay clean things up? Don't bet on it

                    MONTREAL – This has been a discouraging week for Montreal. We've been presented with five – count 'em, five – different troubling insights into city hall's behaviour. It's hard to keep track of these revelations because of their sheer abundance. So let's review.

1. In 2008, the city awarded contracts for a new telecommunications network, most of which was to be done by Telus Québec. That company's unusually low bid meant that contracts totalled only $108 million, an anticipated savings of $50 million. The city's Auditor-General Jacques Bergeron now indicates, however, that taxpayers can kiss that money goodbye. "Serious indications of irregularities" exist in the awarding of the contracts, he wrote in a report. They're so serious that he's notified the police.

2. The city's new No. 1 civil servant, director-general Louis Roquet, sent a copy of the auditor-general's report to Telus before it had been made public, despite the fact that the report was stamped confidential. (Reports by auditors-general at every level of government are, like budgets, supposed to be secret until publication.) As it happens, Roquet is also the board chairman of a company that has been a business partner of Telus.

In a rare display of public outrage, the auditor-general called this "a very grave transgression."

It is hard to tell whether Roquet's disclosure is only a breach of protocol or something more serious, possibly a matter of interference in a police investigation. In any case, Mayor Gérald Tremblay said at a press conference Thursday that Roquet "acted in good faith" and that "he has all of my confidence."

3. The city last year sold for $1.5 million a piece of land in Rivière-des-Prairies that it had bought for $7.7 million 20 years ago and that it had evaluated at $5 million 10 years ago.

The report found that the executive committee, in approving the deal, was not given "relevant information." As well, city council never gave it final approval. The land, to be used a residential development, is the size of 33 Canadian football fields.

4. The same short-circuiting of the city's checks and balances is apparent in the police department's outsourcing of security work to BCIA, a company that had spotty financial credentials. The executive committee, city council and agglomeration council were never consulted about the deal, which lasted from 2006 until Monday. BCIA is now bankrupt.

The auditor-general says police chief Yvan Delorme never insisted on a contract with BCIA, only an oral agreement. La Presse has reported that the company's head, Luigi Coretti, twice hosted Delorme at restaurant lunches in 2005 before the latter became chief. (This is the same businessman whose favours to Tony Tomassi led to the latter's ouster from the Quebec Liberal caucus.)

La Presse reports that BCIA provided surveillance of the home of former executive-committee chairman Frank Zampino free of charge. La Presse has estimated the value at more than $50,000.

As with the Telus affair, then, unseemly ties appear to exist between city officials and suppliers.

5. The auditor-general found that seven boroughs awarded the lion's share of capital-works projects to a small number of firms. The most extreme cases were Anjou, where all five contracts (totalling $6 million) went to a company owned by Tony Accurso, and Verdun, where all 21 contracts (worth $23 million) were awarded to a company owned by Paolo Catania. The auditor-general found this "perplexing."

So, what can we conclude from these five situations?

First, let's note that all but one - the Roquet leak to Telus - occurred before last fall's election. They thus predate the mayor's third mandate - a mandate that he says will focus on combatting sleaze.

Second, let's also acknowledge that none of the five cases really qualifies as a scandal. We have no evidence of outright corruption. The auditor-general's cautious term - perplexing - is the mot juste.

Still, the pattern is dismaying. Tremblay has said Roquet, who took the top job Jan. 1, is the key guy in achieving reform. The central step in any reform would be to chop the cozy ties between officials and contractors, and Roquet's rapport with Telus makes him look likepart of the problem. What's more, Tremblay's absolution of that rapport does nothing to raise hopes the mayor is serious about ending such ties.

At Thursday's press conference, the mayor also defended Delorme because the chief has assured him he has "no link of any kind to BCIA."

As well, Tremblay expressed no concern over the lopsided nature of boroughs' awarding of contracts. Not even a tsk-tsk.

On the basis of his performance this week, Tremblay's aptitude for draining the megacity's fetid swamp hardly seems promising.

           Ahhhhh All is right with the Universe ,when politicians show their true colours,the Commander N Thief ,will get his share........Bet On It !!           HF&RV

Check the Trunk of Your Cars Please (MUC Police) need help

                            "Alleged Mob Boss" , howcome it's never Pizza Chef disappears,or Cheese magnate missing.....Nope always 'alleged' these guys have more film being developed on them than the Paparazi do with celebs.I would think the cops have more film on this guy ,than there is 'film' on the Gulf of Mexico these days.....                        MONTREAL – Reputed mob boss Paolo Renda, the brother-in-law of reputed Montreal Mafia don Vito Rizzuto, appears to have been abducted and police are asking for the public’s help in finding him.

Renda was reported missing by his wife, Rizzuto's sister, Thursday afternoon and his luxury vehicle was found on Gouin Blvd. W. not far from his home in the Cartierville area.

The windows were open and the key was still in the ignition.

The 70-year-old Renda was paroled in February after reaching the two-thirds mark of a two-year prison term he received in October 2008 for a conviction related to Project Colisée, a major investigation into organized crime in Montreal.

Renda pleaded guilty to possession of the proceeds of crime and to a related charge of participation in a criminal organization.

The apparent abduction is the latest blow to the Rizzutos, with Vito in prison in the United States on racketeering charges and the broad daylight assassination of his eldest son Nick Rizzuto Jr. in December.

Renda, was last seen at 3:15 p.m. yesterday, Montreal police Const. Yannick Ouimet said.

Renda's wife contacted police about 6 p.m. to report her husband missing.

Considered to be one of the highest ranking members of the Rizzuto organization, Renda saw the National Parole Board take the unusual step of modifying his release conditions just as he was preparing to leave a federal penitentiary. The parole board received information, from Correctional Service Canada, that there were concerns Renda might seek revenge for the December murder of his nephew, Nick Rizzuto Jr.

Renda's release conditions had already been set when the parole board received the information, but commissioners took the very unusual step of adding more conditions just as Renda reached this statutory release date.

While he was being investigated in Project Colisee, Renda unwittingly provided investigators with the clearest evidence of how the Rizzuto organization was operating in the absence of its charasmatic leader, Vito Rizzuto, who had been extradited to the U.S. in a racketeering case.

Renda was secretly recorded during a conversation he had with an mafioso from Italy. The mafioso did not agree with how things were being run. Renda explained that a type of four-man committee had talen over the leadership. Renda also identified himself as being part of that committee. The mafioso from Italy responded that the traditional way is to have one person in charge.

Renda is described as 5 feet 8 inches tall, and he weighs 170 pounds. He has gray hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing navy blue pants and a striped polo-style shirt.

Anyone with information about Renda's disappearance is asked to call Info-Crime at 514-393-1133.

Also this morning, Renda’s father-in-law, Nicolo Rizzuto Sr., is due in court to answer to a five-year-old impaired driving charge

.......Hey this last sentance is disturbing ,whats a 'five-year-old' doing drinking anyway,nevermind driving........  Cheerss ! HF&RV

Well I think We always knew that.

                 However it would be nice to finally rid the clownish caricatures ala P.Marois & her clan

LaBelle Province could make great strides in recovery from it's darker days of the 70's.but if it wasn't for overactive real-estate markets,the long slow decline in the provinces fortunes would still be happenning. Let's hope it makes a complete recovery & goes on to treat all it's residents equally,as the article says,it's separatist thoughts are archaic & only serves to hurt ,rather than grow,with the rest of a great country.

heres' todays Gazette story

A new poll shows that 30 years after the first Quebec sovereignty referendum, and 15 years after the second, most Quebecers consider the debate over whether the province should separate from Canada no longer relevant.

The survey conducted last month found that 58 per cent of a representative sample of Quebecers think the issue is as good as settled with only 26 per cent saying it is now more relevant. Only 14 per cent said they believe that Quebec will become an independent country within 30 years.

However, that doesn’t mean that Quebecers have come to embrace Canadian federalism. A majority of 56 per cent believe that Quebec typically comes up short in federal-provincial disagreements, and while 47 per cent agreed there are fewer reasons for Quebec to separate than there were 30 years ago, 41 per cent said there are as many if not more.

As well, support for sovereignty among Quebecers continues to hover around 40 per cent, the same level of support registered in the referendum held on May 20, 1980. The second referendum, in October, 1995, was more of a squeaker with 49.4 per cent voting yet and 50.6 per cent no to the sovereignty proposal put by the Parti Québécois government of the day.

The survey was conducted by the Montreal-based CROP polling firm for The Federal Idea, a new Quebec think tank founded last year to advance the study of federalism in Canada and other parts of the world.

“It doesn’t translate into greater enthusiasm for federalism,” said the group’s spokesperson, André Pratte, chief editorialist for La Presse. “It shows that even if they might think that the debate is old hat, people are still critical of the federal system.”

He said that while most people have given up on sovereignty, most still hold to sovereignist attitudes. “They may not be ready to vote for independence, but their view of the country largely corresponds to the sovereignist view. If there was a new federal-provincial crisis the debate would come back very readily.”

A majority of respondents, 57 per cent, were also of the opinion that French in Quebec is less secure than it was 30 years ago with only 15 per cent saying it is more secure. Another 21 per cent who ventured an opinion said its status is much the same as it was.

Pollster Alain Giguère said the perceived threat to French today is not from English Canadians, but rather the growing predominance of English the world over. “It’s not the English of the Plains of Abraham any more. It’s the English that’s become the Esperanto of the 21st century.”

Giguère said the most telling finding as far as he is concerned is that Quebecers increasingly don’t identify with constitutional options as much as they did. Asked if they were federalist or sovereignist, 22 per cent said federalist and 24 per cent sovereignist. However, 22 per cent said they were partly both and 25 per cent declared themselves to be neither.

He said it indicates that Quebecers in general have become less interested in politics, a finding that jibes with other recent polls that suggest Quebecers have grown cynical towards politics and politicians.

“This is quite new from a socio-political point of view. The political scene doesn’t rouse the level of passion we’ve seen in the past. People are more focused on careers, families and their personal lives.

Mount Royal Roads will soon be the Road Less Traveled ( & Les Traveled)

After reading this Gazette story & hearing that old Lunatic Drapeau had envisioned criss crossing the Mountain with highways,then I have to think that aside from Expo67 being a rousing success by all accounts ,then everything else he touched was moronic and came from a power hungry nutbar, He eradicated many areas of Montreal both French community's & English (Goose Village) all due to him not wanting to show the world that we too have lower income & industrial areas......Thank G ,he didn't get to ruin the Mountain too, Every other project he touched had huge cost overuns,like the Big O(we)

......Anyway on to the story:

Cars were cautiously introduced on Mount Royal in the 1930s. Years later, Mayor Jean Drapeau envisaged a network of highways criss-crossing the mountain, a dream that was not realized, though a through roadway was built.

This month, the city will take its first step toward trying to tame the automobile, by making it safer and easier for bicyclists and pedestrians to enjoy Mount Royal - and harder for motorists to use it as a cross-town shortcut.

That's not good enough for some opposition city councillors, who want much more of Mount Royal turned into a no-go zone for cars.

About 10,000 vehicles cross the mountain daily, most of that through traffic that has nothing to do with lookout views or green space.

Remembrance Rd. runs between Côte des Neiges Rd. and the Smith House on Mount Royal. There, Remembrance becomes Camillien Houde Way, which continues to Mount Royal Blvd. in the Outremont borough.

In the coming weeks, the city is to close the southern part of Remembrance (which runs east) to cars. By summer, only cyclists and pedestrians will be able to use the section of southern Remembrance between Beaver Lake and Camillien Houde. The northern portion of Remembrance, now one-way westward for its entire length, will become two-way (one lane in each direction) between Beaver Lake and Camillien Houde.

Between Camillien Houde and Mount Royal Blvd., cyclists will continue to share the road with cars. That strip is to be made safer for cyclists in the coming years, the city says.

The new configuration of Remembrance will "make it easier for users of the mountain to access it, and will reduce the number of cars using the road simply to go from one end of the city to the other," Manon Barbe, the city executive committee member responsible for transportation, said in an interview.

Through traffic will be discouraged by the reduction to one lane in each direction of much of Remembrance. "Drivers behind a bus that has to stop to drop off or pick up passengers will have to wait. They won't be able to pass."

The idea is to encourage motorists to use alternative crosstown routes, like Pine Ave. or Côte Ste. Catherine Rd.

In addition, the city will make it safer for pedestrians by building new crosswalks on Remembrance, Barbe said.

"It's currently asphalt, asphalt, asphalt, and people have to walk on roads and they have to cross with nothing there to make it safe."

The new pedestrian/cyclist path and crosswalks on Remembrance are to cost $5.2 million, part of a $25-million project that includes removal of the 50-year-old interchange at Remembrance and Côte des Neiges. The intersection, due in 2012, is to be rebuilt at ground level, similar to the new one at Park and Pine Aves.

The opposition Projet Montréal party has applauded the partial closing of Remembrance to cars, but it wants the city to go much farther.

Luc Ferrandez of Projet Montréal, mayor of the neighbouring Plateau Mont Royal borough, says closing part of Remembrance will not reduce through traffic, in part because that road and Camillien Houde will remain attractive to motorists, as they form a long stretch of road without street lights in the city centre.

He has said the city should, among other things, consider closing Camillien Houde completely to car traffic and turning the 450-spot parking lot at the Smith House into a garden.

"It's an excellent idea to get cars off Mount Royal and make it a people place rather than a big parking lot," said Alex Norris, a Projet Montréal councillor in the Plateau.

Barbe said closing more of the mountain to cars is unrealistic. "The mountain belongs to all Montrealers," she said. "We want the roads to be shared so the biggest number possible of Montrealers can enjoy this magnificent site."

Car access is needed for tourists, as well as for locals who want to zip up to a lookout to take in the view, she said. "If you're coming from a restaurant, it's nicer and more practical to get to the lookout in your personal car, spend 15 minutes on the mountain and then leave to do something else."

The work on Remembrance is in addition to a $7.5-million, 10-kilometre car-free route for pedestrians and cyclists that the city is building around Mount Royal. Four to five metres wide and incorporating parts of the existing Olmsted Rd., the gravel path is to wind all the way around the mountain and encircle all three Mount Royal peaks, as well as the cemetery grounds.

That project is to be completed over the next two or three summers, the city says.

ariga@thegazette.canwest.com

METROPOLITAN NEWS

For images of the new carless Remembrance Rd., info about the history of cars on Mount Royal and a look at Projet Montréal's proposal

 

                                                                                      HF&RV          Cheers !!

 

 

Decarie Misery for Motorists Turcot Lane Closed

                     MONTREAL - Get ready for worse-than-usual traffic jams on the Décarie Expressway.

After inspections revealed severe damage to the infrastructure, Transport Quebec yesterday closed one lane of the two-lane southbound ramp that connects the Décarie (Highway 15) to the Turcot Interchange indefinitely.

The stretch of road is used by about 31,000 cars daily, many travelling from Décarie to the Champlain Bridge.

The one-kilometre section of the ramp reduced to one lane runs between the falaise St. Jacques in Notre Dame de Grâce and an area just south of the Lachine Canal.

At its highest point, the ramp is about 100 feet in the air.

Transport Quebec was urged to immediately close the lane yesterday afternoon by the engineering firms maintaining and monitoring the 43-year-old interchange, said Mario St. Pierre, a Transport Quebec spokesperson.

News of the emergency lane closing comes as Transport Minister Julie Boulet and Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay continue to tussle over the best way to replace the aging structure.

St. Pierre said inspections revealed "degradation in the concrete" in the horizontal structure under the asphalt. "You can't see it from the outside," he said. The problem does not extend across the entire length of the closed ramp. "Only a certain portion of it is faulty, about halfway" across the ramp, he said.

Engineers say the structure is safe for a single lane in the middle of the ramp. "The central lane is directly on top of the pillars, so this is the strongest portion of the structure," St. Pierre said.

No problems were discovered on the northbound ramp.

When will the second southbound lane reopen?

"We don't know how long repairs will last because we don't know what repairs we will have to do and how we will do them," St. Pierre said.

Transport Quebec expects the lane closing to cause major traffic bottlenecks.

The affected ramp is used by 1,900 cars hourly during morning rush hour and 2,500 cars in afternoon rush hour.

St. Pierre urged motorists to use public transit, carpool or change routes or commuting hours if possible. "We're advising people to stay away," he said. He said motorists who normally take Décarie to reach the Champlain Bridge should consider another link to the South Shore or another route to the Champlain.

Quebec is working on plans to tear down and rebuild the interchange and other parts of what's known as the Turcot Complex. The complex includes the Turcot - where Highways 15, 20 and 720 converge - plus the Montreal West, Angrignon and de la Vérendrye interchanges.

The entire complex is used by about 290,000 cars daily

After years of planning, Quebec and Montreal can't agree on the new Turcot.

Montreal put forward a new vision of the highway system last week that would cut car capacity and boost public transit. Quebec has said Montreal's plan comes too late and is too expensive, at $6 billion. Quebec's plan would cost $2.5 billion.

Quebec has given Montreal a detailed cost estimate of the city's proposal, Tremblay spokesperson Darren Becker said. He said the city was not ready to comment on the estimate yesterday as the figures were being examined.

Last week, Quebec said it wants construction to start on the new Turcot this fall and be completed by 2017.

The sudden Turcot lane closing will probably exacerbate Quebec motorists' wariness of the province's crumbling road infrastructure.

In 2006, the de la Concorde overpass collapsed in Laval, killing five people.

In the aftermath of that disaster, sections of several highways were closed because of deteriorating support structures, and aging overpass pillars were found to have insufficient steel reinforcement.

Montreal motorists have long been concerned about the safety of the Turcot, with its decaying concrete and exposed reinforcement steel.

The Turcot was part of a flurry of road building to prepare for Expo 67. The $25-million Turcot Interchange opened on April 25, 1967, two days before Montreal welcomed the world to Expo.

So now it's called a 'New Vision Turcot Plan" ----sounds like political double speak

              So old Gerry Tremblay the present day Commander & Thief of Montreal, is bumping his gums about a 'new vision plan' for Turcot...........  what happened to the last 3 plans....all BS I guess ,till they bleed the city dry on cost of proposals...........hahahahah

 

MONTREAL – A circular interchange that would take up less space. A tramway linking downtown to Lachine and LaSalle. An attractive entry point to the city. Two lanes for cars, instead of three. Dedicated lanes for buses, taxis and carpoolers. A housing development next to a major new green space.

Montreal Mayor Gérald Tremblay made public the city’s counter-proposal to Quebec’s controversial plan to rebuild the Turcot on Wednesday, upping the pressure on the province to change its tune.

“It’s a new vision, a new mindset,” Tremblay said.

The proposal – presented at city hall by Richard Bergeron, Tremblay’s urban-planning point man – struck a chord among critics of Quebec’s plan, but the province did not immediately reply.

Tremblay, who presented the proposal to Quebec Transport Minister Julie Boulet this month, said he expects to get feedback – including the estimated cost of Montreal’s alternative plan – from Boulet within a week.

But Boulet appears cool to the idea of changing her plan. On Monday, she said “it’s a little late” to present an alternate plan. “We don’t necessarily have the time to start over, to start from zero,” she said.

Yesterday, Tremblay shot back. He said the city has been telling Quebec for four years that a new Turcot should cut car capacity, increase public transit, favour green space and improve the quality of life of nearby residents.

“We’re not starting from scratch,” he added, noting under Montreal’s proposal the north-south component of Quebec’s plan – connecting the Décarie Expressway to the Champlain Bridge – would go ahead. “We can do the east-west axis afterward,” he said, referring to the Turcot interchange and Highway 20, which links the West Island to downtown.

He said concerns about the safety of Turcot’s aging infrastructure can be dealt with by immediately tearing down elevated portions and rerouting cars at ground level.

Tremblay said the upfront cost of Montreal’s plan could be higher than Quebec’s but the city’s solution would decrease gridlock, a drain on the local economy, and open up much more land for development, which would generate tax revenue for the city.

The mayor also issued a plea to the premier, suggesting if Jean Charest is serious about his ambitious plan to cut Quebec’s greenhouse-gas output, he could start by cutting the Turcot’s size.

Quebec unveiled its Turcot plan in 2007. Construction was to have started last fall.

Built in the mid-1960s, the Turcot – a tangle of highways and access ramps west of downtown Montreal – is where Highways 15 and 20 and the Ville Marie Expressway converge. It’s used by 290,000 vehicles daily.

Critics say Quebec’s plan, which had a $1.5-billion price tag, would increase capacity to 320,000 cars, encourage urban sprawl and do nothing to cut car use. In addition, Highway 20 would be moved north, making it difficult to turn the falaise St. Jacques into a public green space.

City hall opposition leader Louise Harel, one of Tremblay’s fiercest critics, praised the mayor’s alternative.

“Quebec can now see that Montreal is speaking with one voice,” she said.

Daniel Bouchard, of the Conseil régional de l’environnement de Montréal, a coalition highly critical of the Quebec plan, also applauded the city proposal. “It answers everybody’s concerns – it cuts car traffic, increases public transit, increases green space and improves quality of life” in the area, Bouchard said.

“It’s a great improvement over Quebec’s proposal,” said Pierre Gauthier, a Concordia urban planner who developed an alternate plan supported by Turcot opponents.

“There are many good ideas, though we still don’t know by how much this would cut the number of cars,” said Gauthier, whose plan would cut car capacity by 40 per cent.

Quebec, for its part, said it will study the city’s plan and expects to issue a response by the end of next week.

Réal Grégoire, a spokesperson for Transport Quebec, said the department must determine whether it’s feasible. It is also studying the impact on the project’s price and construction schedule (Quebec wants it completed by 2017).

“We also have to verify whether Montreal’s proposal would have to go before environmental public hearings,” he said. “We have to identify what studies would have to be done to go ahead with this concept, because this is a new concept.”

Got Milk ? Lowlife Idiot Moron Scumbags, Hit the Bottle

    you were expecting this: guaranteed milk bottle defaced

 

By Andy Riga Fri, Mar 19 2010 COMMENTS(4) Metropolitan News

 

I suppose it was inevitable.

The crisp white Guaranteed Pure Milk Bottle was attacked by #$@%^ vandals between the night of March 18 and the morning of March 19.

Heritage Montréal's Amélie Renouf tells me that the graffiti will be removed next week.

Click here for previous Metropolitan News items about the milk bottle's history and its recent refurbishment.

- Andy Riga

Dorcester Square

  

restoration of historic dorchester square almost completed, but what about the potholes?

By ANDY RIGA TUE, MAR 23 2010 COMMENTS(0) METROPOLITAN NEWS

Filed under: dorchester square, history, Place du Canada, Dominion Square

Fear not, downtown office workers: you'll have a nice place to munch on your sandwiches this summer.

Dorchester Square has been inaccessible since a major $23-million refurbishment started last year. After a winter break, the work is set to begin in the coming days, city spokesperson Renée Pageau tells Metropolitan News.

A popular lunchtime spot, the square will reopen to the public around the end of June, Pageau said. No more "threadbare lawns, rutted walkways and clunky picnic tables," as Gazette colleague Jeff Heinrich wrote in a feature about the project last year. The new square will feature new trees, new lighting, new granite walkways, new benches and more flowerbeds. 

And what about the embarrassing Dorchester Square St. (AKA rue du Square Dorchester)?

That's the one between the square and the stately Dominion Square Building, home to The Gazette. It's used by many visitors to the city; tour buses stop there, and it's home to a key tourism-information bureau. The roadbed is a mess of potholes and the cobblestone crosswalk is pockmarked, with many stones missing or askew.

Pageau said the street is a local one so it's up to the Ville Marie borough to repair it.

Jacques-Alain Lavallée, a spokesperson for borough, tells me Ville Marie will patch potholes on the street soon.

As for repaving the street and dealing with the crosswalk, he said it's unclear whether the borough will do the work this year.

So the square will be closed during the mid-June Montreal Grand Prix, the city's biggest tourism draw, and the road may be a mess all summer tourist season.

Oh well. Maybe next year.

Once the Dorchester Square project is completed, work will begin on Place du Canada. That job is to be completed by 2012.

The $23-million price tag covers the restoration and modernization of both squares.

For more on the Dorchester Square and Place du Canada renovations, visit this website devoted to the projects. You'll find the detailed plans (and more historical maps and photos) inthis 38-page pdf.  

More maps and historical photos are on this page on the website of Claude Cormier Landscape Architects, which is working on the projects.

Here's a shot of Dorchester Square, circa 1910:

This shot, from The Gazette's archives, show the street (the Dominion Square building is on the right), from Metcalfe St., in the 1960s:

The two squares - Dorchester Square and Place du Canada - used to be one, known as Dominion Square.

This is from a McCord Museum page about Montreal's public squares:

 

A key location in Montreal's history, Dominion Square is bordered by Peel Street to the west, between De La Gauchetière and St. Catherine streets, although it is no longer known by that name. The southern section, below René Lévesque Boulevard, was renamed Place du Canada in 1966, while the northern section has been called Dorchester Square since 1987. These name changes are fairly recent when compared with the square's history, which goes back to the late 18th century.

In 1795, for public health reasons, municipal officials decided to prohibit burials within the city's fortifications. Shortly thereafter, the Notre Dame de Montréal parish council opened a new cemetery in the St. Antoine district, on the site of what would later become Dominion Square. Montreal was just entering a period of rapid urban expansion, and it wasn't long before the new cemetery was once again engulfed by the city. In 1855, the parish council therefore closed the St. Antoine cemetery and opened Notre Dame des Neiges cemetery on Mount Royal. Plans to use the land of the former Catholic cemetery for real estate development were halted by the Sanitary Association of Montreal, which feared that excavation might trigger a renewed outbreak of cholera: the victims of the 1832 epidemic had been buried in the cemetery. It was therefore decided that there would be no excavation and that the site would be turned into a public space, which was done in 1880.

While monuments commemorating Montreal's links with the British Empire are scattered around the square, French-Canadian influence was ensured when Bishop Bourget had Mary, Queen of the World, Cathedral, a small-scale replica of St. Peter's in Rome, built in the square's southeast corner. Toward the end of the 19th century, Montreal's business district migrated to this new area north of the old city. The celebrated Windsor Hotel, which opened in 1878 on Peel Street, on the west side of the square, attracted many well-known figures, including British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill and French actress Sarah Bernhardt. The ice palaces built opposite the Windsor during the annual winter carnival drew huge crowds. The most impressive one, having a tower over 33 m high, was erected for the 1889 carnival. That same year, Canadian Pacific Railway added a new page to the history of Dominion Square by building Windsor Station on the square's southwest corner and making it its head office. On the north side of the square, the Dominion Square Building, which opened in 1930, was for a long time the largest retail and office complex in Canada. As the buildings surrounding this downtown square began to get taller and taller, the City brought in a by-law prohibiting towers taller than Mount Royal.

Back to the Future (or Deja Vu ,all over again)

Remember the good old days in Montreal,when they were the bank robbery capital of North America ? Yes even Chicago,or NYC or LA ,couldn't touch Montreal's expertise in relieving banks of their excess cash................  then a few years after they slowed down in Montreal, Vancouver took Montreal's place...late 70's early 80's, (guess what it was Montrealer's discovering the 'Laid Back Westcoast'......However here's a story that appears on CJAD's online newspage, .Seems Montreal had Flashback to olden times today.....                              

 

Busy Day for Montreal Cops

Tue, 2010-01-19 16:36.

Andrew Cartwright

 

Montreal Police had a busy morning....they had three armed robberies to deal with...all happening within 2 hours.

The first took place in jewellery store located at 4035 Beaubien East...as police were able to arrest all three suspects in the store.

The owner suffered minor injuries...as the suspects were attempting to tie him up when they were caught by police.

The second armed robbery happened a few minutes later at a National Bank...found at 5100 Beaubien East.

A man with a dark complexion entered the bank brandishing a weapon.

He made off with an undisclosed amount of money and fled on foot.

The third happened about an hour later...at another National Bank...this time at 1201 Fleury.

Cops say a suspect fitting the same description...walked in with a handgun...made off with some money...and fled on foot.

Police believe the same man may have committed both robberies...

......................................................................................................HF&RV