Must-watch old documentary on old time Lakeshore in West Island
Must-watch history of the Lakeshore on the West Island from 1979. Many thanks to the brilliant video archivist Martin Lamontagne for digging this up. Highlights-Some people living out there who boast...
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Mother's Day matricide
Lots of stories about maternal love today on Mothers' Day, so we've got to counter that. Here's the tragic story of Myra Kanner, 21, who in 1972, purchased a $50 rifle, shot and killed her mother...
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Montreal's most badass prison revolt: 1886 nostalgia
Perhaps the wildest all-time attempted jailbreak around Montreal took place in 1886 at St. Vincent de Paul in Laval where 16 convicts were shot. The main characters were Peters, jailed for holding...
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Montreal tobacco company scientist denied smoking leads to cancer
Good old Leo Laporte went to bat for his employer for decades denying the link between smoking and cancer. Is smoking bad for you? Leo Laporte, who graduated from McGill as a Chemical Engineer,...
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Stress turns 80 next year
Stress turns 80 next year. The concept has become one of our modern favourites but it was only coined as a term describing a psychological state by Montreal researcher Hans Selye in 1936. Selye,...
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Quebec immigration officials busted for mishandling application
During their 18 months in power the Parti Quebecois made it more difficult for skilled workers to immigrate to Quebec by hiking up language proficiency requirements with new rules that came into...
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Montreal cleaning maid thinks it smart to carry her life savings around in...
Poor ol' Elizabeth Ulrich. This cleaning lady, who moved to Montreal from Romania as a middle-aged woman in 1939, had a habit of hauling her life savings around in her purse. You can imagine how...
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Montreal disorientation - infuriating East End geography
So where's St. Catherine street? Easy! Any Montreal toddler could guide you there with their first-ever steps. Sherb to St. Cat is a happy walk downtown Within seconds newcomers and tourists...
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Depressing proof that Quebecers are less friendly and more alienated
Quebecers are living in fear, loneliness and suspicion - at least in comparison with the rest of Canadians - a recent Statscan study reveals. Now I'm usually shrugtastically immune to eye-popping...
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Montreal's pig parasite poisoning trial
Eric Kranz, was acquitted on charges of poisoning his roommates Six postgrad students at McGill's West Island MacDonald Campus were living together in a house in Ste. Anne's in 1970 when something...
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The ill-fated Menard brothers and their brief-triumph over parking tickets
If you want to know the heartbreak that parking tickets can bring, just go down to 303 Notre Dame E and chat with anybody randomly sitting around. You'll get an earful of sad tales about parking...
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Henri Marchessault: disgraced drug squad chief's links to the Rosemont Trottiers
Henri Marchessault remains the symbol of the disgraced Montreal cop after the drug squad chief was caught reselling some of the drugs that he was in charge of in 1983. But what role did the...
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Drinking in Hudson
Obscure drinking competitions from the 80s: Every Christmas Eve between 1979 and 1983 - and possibly beyond - patrons of the Chateau du Lac Bar in Hudson would compete to see where more English or...
View ArticleBilly "The Bishop" Johnston dead at 84
Billy Johnston of the much-discussed West End Gang bank robbery clan has died of cancer at age 84. The Bishop, as he was known, died just weeks after his brother Abie. Brother Stevie - who was...
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Montreal's forgotten watering hole
High quality water once flowed from this spot near Montcalm and Notre Dame, home of the Laurentian Water well from about 1900. Here's the story behind it. Prior to being a bottle water company, a...
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Wisdom from the cheap seats: Ken Singleton's greatest anecdote
Slugging Expo outfielder Ken Singleton was truly a great Montrealer. Good looking, charming, great ballplayer, silky voice and totally chill. Sadly he was sadly gone too soon in a disastrous trade....
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Cops need to give loitering tickets to pedestrians who wait needlessly at red...
Montreal police should give loitering tickets to people standing like sheep at red lights. That is, after all, what loitering is: "to stand or wait around idly or without apparent purpose, to...
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The tragic life of Montreal photographer David W. Marvin
Montreal photographer David W. Marvin, who died in 1975, is being celebrated for his pictures chronicling the world of Griffintown in his too-short and far-too-tragic life.Marvin in a self-portrait...
View ArticleMontreal city workers water shrubs in the pouring rain
In the winter city workers plow when there's no snow. It's fun for all of us to observe and contemplate this fact. So what do they do attain that same level of dramatic absurdity in the summer?...
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Montreal, 1990 in photos: Not pretty
Some photos from a book called Montreal The International City published in 1990, apparently about five writers, including someone named James Ferrier and Louise Legault penned it.You just have to love...
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