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'Nintendo' email costs Montreal med student

July 24, 2015, 3:13 pm
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  "I was at home playing on my Nintendo," started an ill-advised email sent by a med student to his profs.
   Lucian Nenciovici started his email with that phrase in reply to a query sent by two of his Universite de Montreal profs asking why he missed a compulsory meeting.
   Nenciovici went on to explain in the paragraph "dumb jokes aside..." and  then offered a 600 word detailed summary of his schedule on the day in question.
   The email, with its attempted Nintendo-based irony, went over like a rhino in a bouncy palace..
   Nenciovici already had a strike against him for what were deemed to be compassion-related deficiencies. He apologized for the Nintendo email and his case was eventually sent to a school committee where a vote of 28-6 decided to cast him out of the school in late 2009.
   These details all became public because Nenciovici then attempted to sue the school for $150,000 for expelling him. A judge rejected his case earlier this month.  
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Judge rules that police are allowed to write on your body

July 25, 2015, 7:44 am
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O'Callahan
Haigh
   Do police have the right to mark your skin with a pen?   
   That question recently went before a judge as a trio of Occupy Montreal protesters asked for compensation for having this done to them in 2011. 
   Nina Haigh, Adam O'Callaghan and Benoit Godin were forcibly taken out of the square in late November 2011 by police who marked their hands with invisible ink that could only be seen under black light. 
   The officers wrote the numbers as a way of identifying who owned which items on the site.
   The three found the notion of being written upon as psychologically jarring and made it the focal point for their lawsuit asking for about $20k each. 
   "Three of us went to court for slightly different reasons, my reasons were to fight how they branded protesters with ultra violet inks with the intent of subterfuge and without our permission," Haigh told Coolopolis. 
   O'Callahan also fought for the principle of being permitted to go unbranded by police.  "Eighty percent of the arguments concerned  marking of the human body," he told Coolopolis. "Lawyer Julius Grey was interested in the human rights aspect of the case, we hoped to create a precedent of not allowing marking of the human body."
   Quebec Court judge Sylvain Coutlee noted that bars and movie theatres routinely use such a marking technique and it's not a violation of the body. No blood was taken. None of the three went to a doctor. It's neither invasive or unreasonable, he noted. 
   Their claim was rejected. "The judge decided its perfectly ok for this to happen which I still feel is wrong to alter a humans body without consent," siad Haigh. 
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Honey Martin pub ordered shut for two days for trivial reasons

July 25, 2015, 9:06 am
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Michael Griffin
  Liquor authorities and police are continuing their enthusiastic campaign to crack down on bars for minor reasons.
  Homey little Honey Martin Pub on Sherbrooke W.was recently ordered to close(or more specifically not to serve alcohol) for two days as punishment for what appears to be trifling infractions.
   The bar is owned by Michael Griffin who is also a respected and oft-employed boxing referee.
   Griffin had a brother named Richard who was shot dead, likely by Mafia he owed money to.
John Griffin and wife
    Another brother named John was found guilty of killing Denis Poirier over a drug debt.
   John and Richard, who grew up in NDG, were said to be part of the West End Gang but they did more business with the Italians and were sometimes teased for their inclination to dress and talk like Italian mobsters.
   The family history is well-known and it was raised as part of the file even though Michael is not considered a player in such affairs and has mostly avoided trouble.
  According to the police,  Michael was once accused of attempting to extort $300,000 over a lease disagreement back when he owned the Van Gogh Club, then at the NE corner of Drummond and De Maisonneuve in 2000.
   Michael was also found to have  a 9mm pistol and a basebal lbat in his car in May 2008 outside a downtown disco. His son was inside the car at the time.
    He was also once described as aggressive and belligerent when given a ticket for a bylaw infraction.
   Michael and John were also accused of overly-vigorously trying to get through a police cordon to see their brother after he had been shot, which seems understandable given the circumstances.
  But how is all of this relevant to the pub?
  When a bar gets called before the RACJ liquor authorities are usually presented a lengthy list of infractions compiled by police over time.
   The Honey Martin's list is thinner than an Amish phone book.
   Someone was robbed at knifepoint outside on the sidewalk in 2011, a phone was stolen inside in 2011, someone was assaulted in 2012, five people were seen drinking inside and a man was arrested for a probation violation all that same year.
    The pub was warned in 2003 for not displaying its liquor license. It was closed for a week for serving in an authorized manner. It was ordered shut for four days in 2004 for noise.
  The decision also suggests that Griffin backed off a plan to sell a stake in the bar to someone named Patricia Kahlil of Toronto. 
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Father of young family disappears from Chateauguay

July 27, 2015, 1:33 pm
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   Chateauguay family man Justin Arns has been missing for three days after leaving late for work on Friday July 24 in a white 2014 Hyundai Elantra.
  Arns has a daughter and his fiance is pregnant with their son. Michelle Holden is imploring anybody with information to pass it along.
 We have seen several similar disappearances over the last few years and written about many of them and sadly none of them seem to turn out well.
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Quiz - why is this Montreal painting famous?

July 30, 2015, 5:54 am
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What great Canadian artwork was created at this house?

July 30, 2015, 8:03 am
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One of Canada's most famous paintings was created at this downtown home at the end of Overdale in the early 1880s.
   The painting was very large and featured folks from Ottawa.
Anybody?
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Quiz - who's this famous Montreal oddball?

August 6, 2015, 4:08 pm
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It is indeed Ludwig Karls from the famous Karls Shoe Store on the Main above Rachel. He is seen here on his wedding day in 1956.
  His store was about the craziest place in town, shoes piled hazardously every place as he'd bark at customers and staff without the slightest hesitation. 
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Rustbelt glory on the Guy street bridge

August 7, 2015, 9:20 am
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No Montreal spot offered a more evocative taste of rustbelt glory than the Guy St. bridge over nowhere, a 2,000 foot overpass built in 1931 and demolished in 1987.
   The bridge offered a heart-piercing view of a downtown skyline contrasted with the gritty train yards below, later replaced by a barren expanse of of mud, rocks, dandelions and strewn junk.
   Magic Montreal moment: treading loftily in piercing winds on an afternoon winter sunset above ice-and-snow-covered mud to the Golden Square Mile from a down-and-the-heels Little Griff Henry pockmarked with shabby landmarks like the Bar Victoire and the Salvation Army.
    A similar span a few blocks east at Mountain failed to deliver the same experience as the skyline view was less impressive.
   The bridges were built to get people and vehicles over the train tracks that led to Chaboillez station but  those tracks were eventually pulled after the CP and CNR went union into Central Station.
   From then on those those wandering over the bridge from below St. Antoine to near Notre Dame were left to existentially ask: why am I on a bridge here when there's nothing for it to span? The lands below were slowly filled up with housing and now there are no fields, no bridges, just memories. 
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Gay male murders in Montreal - a list

July 7, 2015, 8:31 pm
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A partial list of gay men murdered in Montreal.
Mar. 22, 1978 John Court Lund, 44, from Denmark, killed in his apartment at Sherbrooke and Decarie. A 16-year-old boy was later arrested.
Victim John Court Lund
Dec 28 1978, Serge Harvey, a priest, 42, was stabbed 29 times in a Montreal hotel room by Canadian soldier Kyle Thompson, 21. Harveypicked the boy up at the bus station after he missed a bus to his military base in London Ontario. Thomas killed Harvey – brother of cabinet minister Gerald Harvey who thought he was gay, even though Harvey made no advances on him.  
Jan 11, 1982 Normand Millette, 31, beaten to death in a Point Claire apartment.
April 22, 1982 Anthony Dalonzo, 34, stabbled and strangled with a hanger at a St Laurent apartment.
Victim Joe Rose
March 19, 1989 Joe Rose, a 24-year-old student, was stabbed to death on March 19, 1989 by a  group of teenagers who targeted him because of his pink hair.
March 9, 1989   Richard Gallant, 28, is found on a bed in a friend's apartment on Montcalm St. His throat has been slashed. Gallant's body is found by a friend for whom he was house-sitting. No arrests.
May 19, 1982 Jack Manson, 66, shot in the head at his Montreal Westt home.
April, 1990 - Brian Booth, a 53-year-old resident of the Yukon Territory in Montreal to attend a convention, is stabbed to death in his hotel room. Was tied up. Police arrest two suspects, one of whom is convicted of second-degree murder.
April 14, 1990 - Yong Sua Mok, 26, a doctor at Maisonneuve- Rosemont Hospital, is found stabbed to death in his apartment. Was found tied up. No arrests.
April 2, 1991 - Gaetan Ethier, 46, labourer, is found stabbed and beaten to death in his St. Andre St. apartment. Serial killer Michael McGray later confessed.
April 7, 1991 - Robert Assaly, 59, a retired teacher, is discovered stabbed to death in his home in Nuns' Island. Was found tied up. Serial killer Michael McGray later confessed.
April 27, 1991 - Normand Gareau, salesman 45, is found beaten to death in a rural area near L'Assomption. Police believe he was killed at his home on Sherbrooke St. and his body dumped in the country. No arrests.
Sept. 20, 1991 - Marc Bellerive, 33, an accountant, is stabbed at least 40 times while bicycling in Maisonneuve Park. No arrests
Oct. 9, 1991 Pierre-Yvon Croft, 48:  stabbed to death in Jarry Park 15 times. No arrests.
Nov. 30, 1991,  Garfield Walker, 30:  stabbed to death in his apartment on Henri Julien. A killer confessed 10 years later.
Nov. 30, 1992 - Yves Lalonde, 51, is beaten to death by skinheads in Angrignon Park. Four juveniles - members of a skinhead gang - are arrested and charged. One was a member of an international neo- Nazi group and had photos of Adolf Hitler in an album in his house.
Dec. 18,1992  Daniel Lacombe, 37:  teacher suffered a heart attack during a beating by a group of teen-age boys at a roadside bathroom stop in Joliette; resolved.
Jan. 18, 1993 Michael Hogue, 42:  bound and stabbed to death in his suburban Laval home. A killer later confessed.
 Jan. 27, 1993 Robert Panchaud, 36, welfare recipient  bound and fatally stabbed in his downtown Montreal apartment on Chambord. He was picked up at the same Gay Village bar as Hogue
Victim Eran Allon
Oct. 21, 1993  Rolland Gagne, 70, a former priest, is found strangled in his home on Gilford St. He was bound when discovered. Police charge two suspects - one of them 17.
Nov. 9, 1993 Rev. Warren Eling, 53:  the Anglican priest was found bound and strangled in his home on Nov. 10, 1993,  Was bound when discovered. crack-smoking thief and lover Danny McIlwaine was busted. 
1996 Normand Trudel, 45, gay bar owner. No suspects.
Dec. 6, 1993 Harry Dolan, 57, worker,  at home.
Feb. 19, 1995 Richard Niquette, 44, well-known actor, killed at home of perpetrator. Solved.
June 26, 1995 Andre Lafleur, 53, bureaucrat, at his home, solved.
Aug. 8, 1996 Real Halde 53, in bed with throat slashed, Andre Lortie, 28 charged with second degree murder.
Dec. 5, 1996 Normand Trudel (L'Italienne) 45, gay bar owner, at his own home. Unsolved.
April 26, 1997 Francois Tousignant, 58, gay bar owner, found at his own home. Unsolved.
1997 Walter Bourbonnais, 70, killer never found.
Lin Jun
2010 Jan. Eran Allon, from Israel. Killed by his gay lover Michael-Andrew Garreau, 36, who then dumped the body into a suitcase and left it on St. Dominique between St. Cat and Dorch.
May 24, 2012 Lin Jun, a student from China, was killed on Decarie by Luka Magnotta who dismembered the body and put it in the trash outside. 
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Jacques Cartier Square timeline

June 28, 2015, 12:30 pm
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Chateau Vaudreuil
15 Dec. 1660 Land between Notre Dame and St. Paul was granted to Joseph Charles d'Aileboust des Musseux, who served as president of the Montreal seigneurs.
1672  The property was purchased by Philippe de Riguad, Marquis de Vaudreuil. He sought to build a chateau similar to the Chateau de Ramezay nearby on Notre Dame, but facing south.
Vaudreuil
1723 Work begins on Chateau Vaudreuil, which had large gardens in behind.
1725 Vaudreuil dies in Quebec City.
1726 Vaudreuil's family lives in the house for a few years but allow it to be used as a home for governors of New France.
Aug 9. 1763 Francois Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil sells the property to Michel Chartier de Lotbiniere.
Sept. 12, 1771 Lotbiniere sells it to Joseph Fleury Deschambault, a merchant and bureaucrat born in Quebec City.
1773 The Fabrique de Notre Dame purchase the property and install the Saint Raphael College in the Chateau Vaudreuil.
June 6, 1803 A major fire claims 41 homes including the Chateau Vaudreuil. The blaze started in a nearby home belonging to someone named Chevalier. A prison and two chapels were also leveled.
Aug. 21, 1803 A half dozen local notables form a committee to sell the property.
Dec. 14, 1804. Durocher and Perreault, fur merchants, purchase the property for 300 guineas. They were also on the committee to organize the sale, a conflict of interest that went overlooked, likely because the new owners donated one third of the property to the city to use as a market. The New Market as it was called, complimented the dirty, overcrowded market nearby at what is now Place Royale. The deed donation stipulated that the property be used in perpetuity as a public square and a market, which is why you will always see flower salespeople and a few other assorted veggie salespeople on the land. A new street sprouting west was opened called Fabrique but before the name could be made official, it was called Marche Neuf (anglos called it Market St). Temporary stables were put up but they stayed 40 years. Pilloried prisoners were stuck at the top of the land and visitors would sometimes toss things at them.
1808-1809 The square was extended south from St. Paul to de la Commune (aka Common, aka Commissionners) in three separate land purchases, one from the Proux Succession and another from the John Pickell succession.
Aug 17, 1809 An eight foot high likeness of Admiral Nelson on a 50 foot stand was unveiled at the top of the square. It is the city's oldest standing monument.* In 1847 a visitor noted that it's a shame that Nelson has his back to the city but in fact he does not, which has led to some speculation as to whether it was turned around at some point. Various objections have been made over the years to the monument, seen to represent British supremacy. The Vauquelin statue across the street built in the 1930s was installed to counter the Nelson monument.

Jan 2, 1847  The market was closed and activity was relocated to the nearby Bonsecours Market. Some farmers were still permitted to sell their goods at the spot and did so until 1960. In 1847 the square was officially named Place Jacques Cartier but city council passed another decree to the same effect in 1865, suggesting that locals were calling it something else, perhaps Nelson Square.
Feb. 7, 1887 A large wooden toboggan route was installed. It proved extremely popular.
-Most of the buildings around the square are from the earliest times, although the Hotel Nelson dates from 1866. There's another ugly larger building on the west side built in the 1980s.
1989 An international contest was held to reorganize the square for the city's 375th birthday. All 117 projects from 28 countries were rejected.
*The Nelson Column is sometimes called the city's oldest monument but in fact there was one to George III from 1773 in Place d'Armes that was decapitated by invading Americans on May 1, 1775. The head was recovered from a nearby well and preserved by McGill.
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Why American tourists snub Montreal

June 28, 2015, 2:17 pm
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   American tourists have simply stopped visiting Montreal and la belle province.
   Under six percent of all tourism in the province comes from the United States, 88 percent of Quebec tourists are from Quebec. 
   Quebec welcomed 4.2 million tourists a decade ago. We now struggle to get two million.  
   This is particularly hard to swallow as Americans are spending more than ever on leisure travel and the 80 cent Canadian dollar makes it a cheap place to visit. (Anywhere is cheap with the strong greenback these days however.) 
No I'm not planning to visit Montreal
   Americans have only been required to present a passport to enter Canada since 2009, a switch that hurts, as over half of all Americans do not even own passports. 
  The tourism drought isn't about our hurt vanity: Quebec now has a staggering tourism deficit of over $3 billion per year, according to stats from 2012. 
   Want more? Quebec received 900,000 fewer American tourists than it did a decade ago. 
   The more we spend on tourism bureaucrats and plans, the more tourists stay away. The head of Tourisme Montreal earns - brace yourself now - $400,000 a year. Refund please.
   AirBnB listings, which offered a promise of revival by offering lodgings of as little as $15 a night, have been targeted in a misguided attack by authorities. 
   The decline is ongoing. Our recent Formula One Canadian Grand Prix attracted fewer out-of-towners and the raunchy hallmark excesses have been replaced by tame family-oriented amusements for locals. 
   The jazz festival barely has any big names, suggesting that the organizers have tossed in the trombone.
   So what did we have in Montreal 10, 12 years ago that we don't have today?  You might not like the answer. 
   Back then tourist buses filled with 19-year-old Americans from Boston would roll into town as kids saw us as a spot to get hammered legally and stagger into local strip joints.  
   Montreal was a boozier bawdier, more lawless place, a city known for biker shoot-ups, brazen jaywalkers, sexy serveuse restaurants, cocaine in bars, underaged youth easily being served anywhere.
   We had le danger and le desperation and le unpredictability. 
   We were an open city of the north, with mayhem on tap, not unlike during the days of prohibition. But then we got safe and boring. 
  And yes, we had our beloved Expos. The Expos left in 2004, thus taking us off the American map. 
  According to one study, 11 percent of all fans at Montreal Expos games were from out of the province. The city was mentioned one billion times per year in various publications thanks to the Expos, which had a value of $22 million in free advertising.  
   And while we are aware that correlation does not imply causation, one would have to be blind not to notice that American tourism here flatlined after the Great American Pastime left town.
   So the solutions seem pretty simple: let the booze flow, pension some cops off and get the Expos back. 
   
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The top 5 weird things about Henri Richard

June 29, 2015, 8:27 pm
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   The great little Habs forward Henri Richard long lived in the shadow of his older and larger brother Maurice "The Rocket" Richard but it's now time for us to fully embrace this guy to the point of obsession as a national treasure not only because he was good at sports but more importantly because he brings the weird.

  The top 5 reasons:

His age Henri Richard played 20 years in the NHL and won a ridiculous 11 Stanley Cups but he's only 20! As in: he has celebrated 20 birthdays since being born on the leap year special day of Feb. 29, 1936. It was a leap year, you see and those happen only once every four years. You know who else was born on that day? Neither do I and who cares anyway!? Henri was definitely short changed on birthday presents with his one-birthday-every-four-years scam. So we've got to heap on the love to make up for it.
His nickname Henri Richard's nickname was "The Pocket Rocket." If that doesn't sound like a an obscene nickname then your imagination is truly lacking.
His famous brother never invited him over Henri once told reporters that his famous brother Maurice of Ahuntsic never invited him to his house ever, not even once!
His lousy season Richard was a small but steady player who played in 11 All Star games but in 1967-68 he was just terrible and told journalists that it was probably because he was spending way too much time worrying about a car repair business that he owned.
He's shy Henri lived a larger-than-life existence after his retirement, posing for photos with fans at his Park Ave. tavern, driving around town in a giant Lincoln Continental, and carrying a big fat wad of bills in his pocket. But meanwhile he was painfully shy and you couldn't barely get two words out of him. Awwwwkward!

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Vacant old buildings starting to pile up in Montreal

June 30, 2015, 10:01 am
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Some notable vacant buildings in Montreal.

Royal Victoria Hospital; About 700,000 square feet of unused space was recently
abandoned with the moving of health facilities to the West End. It's perched in a perfect location just north of downtown. Plans? None. McGill wants to be given the land but that plan comes with a hefty price tag and does not appear imminent.
Children's Hospital: Same as above. Health care facilities were recently shut down and the building vacated with the move to the West End superhospital. No plans have been discussed for this imposing building right square downtown near the Atwater metro.
Planetarium Building at the old Chaboillez square was abandoned almost four years ago
when a new planetarium was built near the Olympic
Stadium. Various pitches have been nixed. According to a little-discussed deed stipulation, Dow required the building to remain a planetarium but that could technically be nullified with some creative lawmaking.

Snowdon Theatre: CDN/NDG borough has owned this landmark building on Decarie but appears unable or unwilling to do basic
repairs on the building, forcing a valued gymnastics centre out and leaving the building to rot. City Councillor Marvin Rotrand and borough mayor Russell Copeman have not stated any plans for the property.

Empress Theatre: Years of rountables, studies, and discussion forums
have proven completely futile as nobody seems willing to invest in fixing up this Sherbrooke street landmark.

Railroad offices on Bridge Lovely old abandoned
building in front of Costco sits empty to give passersby that vintage rustbelt feel.



St Sulpice Library 35,000 square feet of prime real estate on St. Denis has long sat empty in this heritage site. An outcry resulted in a recent plan to possibly do something with it.
ning out.




  Dome theatre Onetime theatre used by Dawson drama school has been abandoned on Notre Dame in St. Henri for many years.






Picasso's RestaurantOnce-thriving late-night hotspot was slayed by high rents to owner Peter Sergakis, who also owns the nearby recently-expanded PJ's sports bar.



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Convicted cocaine tax defrauder still has a big job at the city of Montreal

June 30, 2015, 1:17 pm
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   The head of the city of Montreal's public consultation department spent over four years defrauding taxpayer dollars to buy cocaine.
   Luc Doray - a lifelong, well-connected ardent separatist and government fonctionnaire - falsified $33,000 in receipts while working for the Parti Quebecois provincial government between 1994 and 1998.
   Doray, now 60, was reimbursed by our tax dollars for his cocaine purchases by submitting over 150 invoices including one bill for a $374 meal from a place that doesn't serve food. He also purportedly spent $5,800 for 34 meals at a bistro but it was really for white powder that went up his nose.
   He even submitted a fake lease for $540 a month, all very good news for some coke dealer but not such good news for taxpayers.
   Doray who was already in his mid-40s at the time, was eventually caught and tried and hit with an eight month suspended sentence and ordered to repay $29,000, do community service and pay a $4,000 fine. His payments were to be $500 a month, but we don't know if that included interest.
  Doray had two other charges against him dropped in return for his guilty plea.
   He was able to repay the bills with our tax dollars, as he kept his job at the city of Montreal. 
   You see, Doray was nailed while working for the province but that was only a loan. He returned to his old job in Montreal after being canned in Quebec City in 1998.
  Doray started at the city of Montreal and rose fast under Mayor Jean Dore.
   When he returned from Quebec City to push pencils back in Montreal he was earning about $77,000 so his annual taxpayer-paid salary is surely much higher now.
   Doray blamed bulimia and his sexual orientation for his cocaine cash fraud scheme.
   While in Quebec City Doray worked under Louise Harel and Andre Boisclair, who was also gay and also saw his career damaged by cocaine disclosures.
   I have filed an access to information request to look through Doray's expense accounts at the city of Montreal since 2002.
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Lux for life: a lament for a lost spot on the Main

August 21, 2015, 11:22 am
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About a million early-80s bucks were tossed into creating the stupefying 24-hour Lux complex at 5220 St Lawrence where you could get a drink, munch fries, peer at magazines and buy oddball doodads... although in truth you'd more likely just mill about amid fellow scenesters also not spending a dime.  
   The artily-designed multi-purpose facility was bankrolled by thirtysomething physician Dr. Jean-Marie Labrousse and whipped into shape by designer Luc Laporte in 1983 and soon became a defining spot for its era but was, alas, never a lucrative venture.
    The restaurant was hampered by slow-arriving waiters with a low threshold of tolerance for nightowl spendthrifts who descended on the place after the energy of the evening had sputtered out.    
   The bright, multi-level cavernous place – almost overwhelmed by a pair of industrial curved staircases - struggled from the outset  as 4 a.m diners betrayed the magnificence of the environment by drunkenly thumbing through cheapie menu options after blowing their wad in bars down the road.
    Quirky items such as toothpaste from Italy, toast with Cheez Whiz and a 50-cent vitamins didn't prove to be hot sellers but a visit was an occasional mandatory pilgrimage. Spenders were few. Fashionable loiterers posing as consumers were many.
    3:15 a.m. alternatives offered less bang for the non-buck: Lola's Paradise (3604) down the Main required you to make a purchase and attempt coherent chit chat.
   But at Lux you could stand for an eternity basking in flattering halogen lamps flipping through Vogue and Details without the customary magazine store cashier raising an eyebrow after 20 minutes of reading.
   The copper-green metallic circus was set in a semi-no-man's-land of the Main near Fairmount, a remote spot during a time when nightclub poles were anchored by Business and Di Salvio's closer to Sherbrooke.
   Hungry nightbirds (nobody would go to Lux before clubs closed) would usually hop from the cab further down at The Main for smoked meat or even Bagels Etc.
   The end was clearly near when poetry reading sessions started in the bar upstairs during the endless early-90s recession. It closed in 1993 and is now used as arty office space.
    Though it had its faults, Lux injected risk and imagination into a building where generations of garment workers spilled sacred blood from needle-pierced thumbs (previous building occupants included Kiddies Togs Manufacturing, Grand Cloak Manufacturing, Lyon Textiles and SW Sportswear) turning it into a loitering wonderland for 80s scenesters.
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Montreal on pace to set homicide record

August 31, 2015, 7:58 am
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   Montreal looks likely to easily cruise to its lowest-ever annual homicide total since on-island totals were compiled in 1972.
   The current total of 16 murders puts the city on a pace for about 21 homicides for 2015, five fewer than last year's record-low number and well under the 34-per-year average over the last decade.
   Murder rates spike in the summer. So now that the heat, partying and loitering has largely passed, we could conceivably flirt with a sub-20 homicide total for 2016.
   Predictions of an inevitable underworld struggle between rival fractured Mafia factions have proven just incorrect.  Biker gangs? Whatever they're doing, it's not murder.
  Roughly half of this year's killings consisted of crimes of passion and drunkenness while many others were street-gang scuffles. Only a few have the earmarks of settlings-of-accounts.
   Consider for much of its history Montreal has been the perennial Canadian leader for murder per capita. And between between 1989 and 1993 Montreal had 79 homicides on average. We've had 4 years of 97 murders or more since 1972.
  Consider that in 2000 Montreal already had 16 homicides by April 30. In 2006 we reached the 16 murder milestone on May 15. In 1993 Montreal saw 16 murders by St. Patrick's Day.
   Explanations for the demise in homicide? The rise in abortions, aging of the population, closer surveillance of negligent parents, better mental evaluations, decline of street drug dealing and...of course..the rise of that time-sucking distraction known as the internet.



 


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Howe the nightclub era faded into oblivion

September 5, 2015, 8:36 am
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 Nostalgia junkies bemoan the end of the nightclub era but was its death an act of mercy?
  In theory, the spirit of vaudeville, complete with floor shows featuring chorus lines, emcees, dancing monkeys, magicians, emcees and hypnotists, might seem an exciting concept.
   But by the late 50s nightclubs were clearly on the decline and their acts were underwhelming.  
  In September 1958 you could hop in in the tail-fin, drive downtown and leave your keys with doorman for free valet parking and sit and listen to falsetto-ish Arthur Lee Simpkins and funny violin guy Baron Buika at the Bellevue Casino. See them below. They weren't that great.
   But then again you could also just catch a movie: Frank Sinatra, Carey Grant or Jerry Lewis all had films playing. Why not just plunk a couple of bucks on that? .
    Or you could simply stay home and watch Playhouse 90 and not pay a cent. (Heck if you want local? The CBC was airing a drama production starring Cafe St. Michel doorman and future-Hollywood star Percy Rodrigues.)
   Chances are your postwar prosperity had you in a suburban home with a modern kitchen. You've got those boomer babies running around needing attention. You have your TV dinner, kids get a Pop Tart treat. So are you going to camp out on that new couch in front of the TV or hitting the town?  


   If those acts didn't thrill you, there was also the Black Orchid at McGill College and St. Catherine where you could catch the Four Lads from Toronto. These lads made their name in Montreal and would stick around for as long as anybody would have them, putting in a residency at the Bonaventure Hotel bar during Expo 67. Problem was that they were pretty bad. Have a listen below for proof.

 The El Mo on Closse across from the Forum offered up Kathryn Grayson, a torch singer from the mid-west. By now she was in her mid-30s by now and her film career was behind her.  Would you pay to see this? 





   Also on St. Cat was the Yeomen, a fok music group with lots and lots of banjos. They were playing the Venus de Milo Room, across from Simpson's. Politically progressive though they may have been, they music grated.


  Radio deejays were still under enormous pressure to play old fashioned tunes, even though kids wanted rock'n'roll.
    Music industry executives pushed acts like Perry Como and Andy Williams but kids wanted Chuck Berry, Elvis and Eddie Cochran. The emerging boomers were culturally oppressed by the big overlords foisting sleepy music on them at all times, which explains some of the cultural explosions of the 60s. Check out these Montreal radio top 10 charts below. Even the three French radio DJs were pushing this same dreck. That music, below, just blows.
   Nightclubs were slow to pick up on the demand for a new sound. Norm Silver would be the first to aim at the rock crowd at the Esquire Show Bar on lower Stanley.



  
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Good old Count de Beaujeu, local lunatic royalty

September 12, 2015, 7:06 am
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   Funny story: Count Georges de Beaujeu was, as his name suggests, from one of Montreal's finest clans.
   But he did his best to undermine that reputation by being an absolute dick.
   Beaujeu was dumped by his girlfrend Mrs. Herbert Feehan, a widow. She then got with another guy who planned to marry her.
   The jealous Beaujeu found the guy and told him all sorts of nasty things about his ex.
  The couple split in 1929 and were not on speaking terms in 1930. So the crafty Beaujeu was at the Royal Victoria Hospital and got Feehan's sister to persuade his ex to come drop by. She did and shared all sorts of information about her new relationship, love letters, names, wedding dates.
   Beaujeu then used that information to contact Feehan's new beau then told the guy unflattering stuff about Feehan.
   Feehan's fiance dumped her and so Feehan sued Beaujeu for being a big mouth tattletale.
   She asked for $5,000 but settled out of court for $1,450.
   A year earlier - 1929 that is - the Count de Beaujeu was charged with manslaughter after killing Berthe Giasson , 22, in a drunk driving affair in Outrement. He was found after the accident in a downtown nightclub.
   Then a dozen years after that - Count de Beaujeu made the news again in 1941 when he was living at a hotel on Sherbrooke Street.
   The Count de Beaujeu, then 42, was in a restaurant on St. Catherine, dressed in riding clothes but he did not have a riding crop in his hand, he was swinging a blackjack - a sort of old-fashioned tool of assault - and went around hitting other diners at the establishment.
   He was booked on drunkenness, disturbing peace and assaulting an officer.
  The Count de Beaujeu was arrested and taken for mental evaluation.

   
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Dwight Janes, epic anti-slavery activist, needs to be honoured in Montreal

September 16, 2015, 9:07 am
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  It's time to honour Montrealer Dwight "The African Consul" Janes with a street, statue or square, or something.
    Flour merchant Dwight Plimpton Janes was born in Vermont but lived in Montreal where he married in 1828 and then moved to his wife's hometown in Connecticut around 1835.
    Janes joined the anti-slavery movement and butted heads with powerful people during the Amistad affair before returning home to Montreal in 1840.
  Janes was a key player in the underground railroad, helping blacks escape slavery and find freedom in Montreal. He surely helped out Shadrach Minkins, a waiter and refugee from slavery who was busted out of a Boston court after being ordered back into slavery under the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850.
   Minkins set up a couple of restaurants in Montreal - one called Uncle Tom's Cabin according to his biographer - before settling into his barber shop on Mountain below St. Antoine where he snipped hair from the mid-1850s. Minkins married an Irish immigrant and had a couple of children with her and died in 1875.
   Janes was good friends with John Dougall, a proselytizing Protestant born here in 1841 and whose Montreal Daily Witness (1846-1938) took constant aim at booze and slavery.
  "His sympathy with suffering humanity was exceedingly strong," Dougall wrote in his obit for Janes. "He was so well known as a friend of the slave that he was sometimes called the African Consul."  Dougall hired Antonio, a teenage slave from the Amistad who moved to Montreal.
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Montreal people still losing their tempers

September 17, 2015, 11:57 am
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  It's normal to get angry. We all do. Hit your thumb with a hammer? Lose information on your computer? Go ahead and yell and curse.
   But when your anger takes aim at other people, you're entering a dangerous grey zone of legality that can only lead to bad results.
  I witnessed two middle-aged men fly into blind rages on the same afternoon earlier this summer in separate incidents.
   Firstly a portly middle-aged guy behind the wheel of a Toyota Rav 4 angled his vehicle in front of mine while I attempted to clear intersection at Drummond and Dorch. He saw that I had a camera, as I was taking photos of new buildings while jammed in traffic. He grew infuriated and left his vehicle. He stuck his stubby hands in my car in an ill-conceived, halfhearted attempt to grab my beat-up old Sony mirrorless. I uttered not a single word during the entire incident and actually smiled throughout. That's him in the pic. Probably not otherwise a terrible guy, likely fun at parties.
   About an hour later at Costco a shopper behind me in line started heckling me. Apparently the customer was irritated that I had removed an item from my cart and placed it in a pile of other items that people didn't want to purchase.
   I don't know why this bothered him, as it in no way inconvenienced him but he started flinging items and yapping and placed expensive items onto the conveyor belt as the cashier processed my purchase. I furtively snapped his photo, as he was becoming possibly dangerous with his increasingly irrational behaviour.
   After I left he came running to confront me, as the cashier told him that I had taken his picture. He held onto my cart and ordered me to delete my photo of him. A security guard eventually got him to finally leave me alone.
   I later complained to Costco about their cashier inflaming the already-agitated man against me. They apologized and agreed that their cashier was wrong to further provoke the angry man. (I considered bringing Costco to small claims court for compensation).
  Maybe I'm naive but ....why are people still getting so angry?
   When I rode my bike a lot in my twenties I sometimes became angry at motorists who I felt endangered my safety, so I joined the dark side and got a car. Since then I've been pretty calm in public.
  But once I was walking into Central Station and was once almost hit by a speeding bicycle courier (remember those?) at Metcalfe and Dorch. When I pointed out his recklessness he swung his wheel to hit me, so I tossed a grapefruit at him and hit him square on. He just rode away and I regretted the loss of my grapefruit.
   Quebec has a good reputation for being non-violent. Peacefulness is part of what makes Montreal a good place. Our rate of assault is considerably lower than other places. We should keep it that way.
   So while you might be a fine individual, it's important to be that way all the time. Simmer down, control your temper.
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