Montreal

Nous aimons Montreal. The New York Times does, too, in today's 36 Hours feature. While my heart is in Vancouver, let's face it: Montreal is far more exciting (and god strike me down) and more fun, too.

"Make no mistake: visiting Montreal is not like going to Paris. True, the brooding facades and crooked streets of Old Montreal feel distinctly European, and yes, the locals take their French seriously. But don’t confuse this cosmopolitan Canadian port city for a fusty, Old World wannabe. Freshened up by a wave of trendy new hotels, shops and restaurants, Montreal sings its own tune -- and it sounds more like Arcade Fire, the homegrown indie band, than La Marseillaise. With the city’s debilitating 1990’s recession behind it--and the specter of Quebecois secession all but forgotten --a lively patchwork of gleaming skyscrapers, bohemian enclaves and high-gloss hideaways now outshines the city’s gritty industrial past."

sebsnaps.com: Montreal

Posted by Sebastian / October 22, 2006 /
 

Reaction to Fortier's boo-job

Since Canadian cabinet minister Michael Fortier was booed at the opening of the 1st World Outgames in Montreal, there’s been little activity in the blogosphere about his reception.

My friend Cyd over at Outsports is an exception. On Outsports he writes, “People had complained that Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a conservative, would not come to the games. Now, here they were booing a conservative who DID come to support they event (and, I did get from the French speaker that he does support gay marriage). I'd think the crowd would warmly receive anyone who came to support them. It's no wonder gay people find little support among the conservatives they boo."

I was curious for a second opinion on the matter, so today spoke with Phil Connell, who runs Hudson Nuptials, a cool Toronto-based company that provides wedding planning services to gay men and lesbians from countries where same-sex marriage is not legal. He told me,

“The issue is that our federal government is seen in the gay community--largely--as anti-gay. This may not be the whole truth, but the same-sex marriage issue is today's representation of gay-acceptance and this government is on the wrong side. As a key representative of the party--in a key position--I can't say that I am surprised that Michael Fortier was booed. While I think it is great that he came to the ceremony to show his support for the community, the booing sent a clear message about what the gay community believes about this government--that it is anti-gay. Michael Fortier may himself be pro-gay-marriage, but the crowd saw an MP in a visibly anti-gay federal government.

If Michael Fortier and other pro-gay conservative MPs want to show their support for the gay community then they should begin fighting the anti-gay sentiment that litters the halls of parliament--in particular in the Prime Minister's Office--and he should do so publicly. This would have earned him cheers at this ceremony."

Photo: Montreal Gazette

Posted by Sebastian / Marriage / Sports / July 31, 2006 /
 

Harper's man in Montreal gets booed

All the excitement surrounding the 1st World Outgames is making last week's Gay Games look like a truly blase affair. Case in point: Stephen Harper's spokesman said the P.M. was too busy to attend the opening of the event yesterday in Montreal, so instead he sent his Quebec deputy, Michael Fortier. While Montreal mayor Gerald Tremblay was treated like a celebrity, Fortier's reception was not so gay. According to the Montreal Gazette:

Fortier's remarks were swallowed up in a rising tide of boos which grew even more deafening as much of the crowd began slamming their folding seats up and down. It was not lost on those in attendance that Harper has promised to revisit the issue of same-sex marriage in Parliament."

"Shame! Shame! Shame!" spectators cried, wagging their upraised fingers in unison.

His words lost in the din, Fortier gave up, compelling Tremblay to step to his side. "Please! Montreal is a welcoming and tolerant city. I'm asking you to listen to the representative of the federal government with respect," Tremblay pleaded.

It was no use.

The only applause Fortier got was when he uttered the names of Tewksbury and tennis great Martina Navratilova, who followed him out to read the Declaration of Montreal in English, French and Spanish.

For excellent coverage of the Outgames, check out Outsports.

Posted by Sebastian / Sports / July 30, 2006 /
 

Stephen Harper called a bigot: what's new?

It seems Canada's prime minister is a bit too busy to attend the largest LGBT event in world history, the first World Outgames, which official opens tonight in Montreal. Alberta-born singer k.d. lang, who will perform tonight at Olympic Stadium, said yesterday that the P.M. has chosen to "support intolerance" by not attending the Outgames.

"It's a sad statement that the national leader of one of the most progressive countries in the world chooses to support intolerance rather than all-inclusiveness," she said.

"It's a very, very important moment in the GBLT [gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgendered] community's history, as well as Canadian history. It's momentous for Canada."

Harper's spokesman offered up a simple reason for his absence. The prime minister "simply can't be everywhere at the same time," he said.

Posted by Sebastian / Sports / July 29, 2006 /
 

Way gay Montreal

The Gay Games just wrapped up in Chicago but later this week the more interesting 1st World Outgames -- the anti-Gay Games -- will open in Montreal, which the Toronto Star highlights today as one of the gayest places on Earth.

In case you missed the drama surrounding the two competing events, a brief recap: The Gay Games had originally been awarded to Montreal, but the Federation of Gay Games believed the city's spending plans for the event were too extravagant, so they changed course and awarded the games to Chicago instead. In response, Montreal organized decided to stage their own version of the Gay Games.

It turns out the Gay Games shouldn't have messed with Montreal. The Outgames has turned out to be larger than the Gay Games in all areas: spending, number of participants, number of events, and expected number of visitors. It also features something Chicago did not: the International Conference on LGBT Human Rights, which begins in a couple days, and will spotlight attention on the fight for basic rights for the LGBT population throughout the world.

The Toronto Star's piece today on Montreal: "For the past generation, Montreal's culture -- indeed, the culture of the entire province -- has been profoundly imbued by gay and lesbian influence. Indeed, it's tough to think of modern Quebec culture without its enormous gay and lesbian contribution...This is a province, in short, where homosexuality has traded stigma for cachet."

In case you're wondering what this photo is, last Labor Day in Montreal I snapped this shot at a promo event for the Outgames. I also have photos of various aerobic activities, but I have the taste not to put them on the Internet.

Posted by Sebastian / Sports / July 23, 2006 /
 

Metro cop convicted of pimping

The Montreal Metro police officer I wrote about two months ago, accused of pimping out a teenage girl to strip clubs in Toronto, has been convicted of the crime. Alan Jean-Pierre met a “shy Asian girl” at a Burger King in Montreal last year and told the teenager that she could make a few more loonies lap dancing and performing oral sex than flipping burgers. He was right: according to today’s Gazette, the girl was “raking in thousands of dollars per week. She handed it all over to Jean-Pierre, who had a network of similarly vulnerable girls working for him.”

Another young woman who had previously been pimped by Jean-Pierre said she made upwards of $20,000 per month dancing. That made for quite a marketing budget: he financed breast implants for many of the girls.

Posted by Sebastian / Montreal / May 17, 2006 /
 

Metro cop accused of pimping

Montreal Gazette: "A former teenage runaway said she travelled to Toronto with the metro security guard because he promised her that she could make big bucks there dancing in strip clubs. He wasn't kidding."

Posted by Sebastian / March 14, 2006 /
 

My favourite magazine

One of my favourite magazines, Maisonneuve, is going to relaunch this fall as Montreal magazine.

Some say the 2-year-old national arts magazine is a cross between the New Yorker (ok that's a stretch) and Vanity Fair (again, a stretch) while the new magazine coming this fall will be retooled to focus on life in English-speaking Montreal. The city, which the magazine calls "North America's most unique city," hasn't had a magazine of its own in more than a decade.

In case you are wondering where the word Maisonneuve comes from, it's the name of the founder of Montreal, Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve (and now you know why there is a boulevard called de Maisonneuve there).

Posted by Sebastian / Media / February 26, 2006 /
 

Gay strip bar files complaint
 
The Montreal strip club Taboo [nsfw] has filed a complaint with the city's police ethics commission, alleging that a 2003 raid on the bar was carried out improperly. Police, acting on tips that minors were stripping there and sexual acts were taking place at the bar on de Maisonneuve, busted the joint and interrogated patrons and employees for up to three hours.

Taboo's owners said "dancers and patrons were jarred by the investigators' questions, which included graphic descriptions of the dancers' state of arousal," according to today's Gazette.

Posted by Sebastian / January 20, 2006 /
 

There's always snow in Montreal
 
Another pic to share...today's shot is from two weeks ago in Montreal's Vieux-Port.



Posted by Sebastian / December 28, 2005 /
 

My Zagat picks

Few activities give my life meaning as much as being able to contribute my strong opinions to the annual Zagat guides. Yesterday I gave my "witty" and "pithy" reviews of a number of places for the 2006 Canada Restaurants, Canada Nightlife, and Canada Attractions guides (all of which only cover Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver). They'll be out in a few short months and will replace the failed guides that were exclusively for Toronto and Vancouver. Montreal still gets their own guide, but it will be in French and then the "smart" and "clever" comments won't be so funny when they're lost in translation.

NIGHTLIFE: A surprise is that this year there are six gay bars in Montreal under consideration for top nightlife in Canada, while the much less overtly gay (lame, boring) scene in Vancouver has at least as many on the survey (Was that a gasp! I just heard from my Vancouver readers?!). I gave props to Odyssey and the non-gay but metro-cool Opus Bar. Boston boys known to head north and frequent the bars of Montreal's Rue Ste-Catherine will be pleased to see Sky among this year's contenders.

RESTAURANTS: A few restaurant that received top votes from me include Mikado in Montreal; North 44, Scaramouche in Toronto; and in Vancouver, Sala Thai and -- sorry to be unoriginal -- Tojo's. The best news from Vancouver restaurant scene going into the new year is that the tiny, cute, mediocre Tangerine just up from the beach in Kitsilano has finally died. Jennifer Garner may have raved about the place in the American Airlines inflight magazine, causing numerous celeb-seekers like me to frequent the place, but the food was just never that good, and the only celeb I ever saw in there was me.

ATTRACTIONS: For the attractions guides, I named the oceanfront Stanley Park (pictured) the #1 attraction in the three cities, followed by Mount Royal Park in Montreal. You might say I have a thing for urban parklands, but these two really are the most impressive spaces you'll ever see. The beautiful but touristy Marche Bonsecours in Montreal and the brutal Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto both got the thumbs down.

I felt a bit more generous and gave a mere sideways thumb to the Vancouver Art Gallery, the CN Tower, and the Distillery District in Toronto for being so gosh darn ho-hum.

Posted by Sebastian / December 20, 2005 /

Montreal, Vancouver biggest challenges to US supremacy

Vancouver and Montreal are the two Canadian cities best positioned to rival up-and-coming U.S. cities such as Phoenix and San Diego in attracting new worldwide talent, according to Fast Company magazine. Canada's number two and number three cities boast the "right mix of technology and tolerance to attract talent," the magazine says.

Since that t-word, tolerance, is thrown in the mix, you knew Richard Florida had to be involved somehow. Florida is most famous for hypothesizing that the strength of a city's economy is correlated with its friendliness to artists and to gay men and lesbians (the "creative class"). Both cities have a huge gay population, and both have thriving arts communities.

In today's most fun and revealing quote, one person told the Gazette that the mass exodus of anglophones from Montreal over the past three decades hasn't hurt the city's tolerance trajectory, or its focus on the arts. "I think it just created a better environment generally," the woman said, before taking a whack at Canada's largest city.

"The paranoid people left. They all went to Toronto."

Posted by Sebastian / November 15, 2005 /

A buttery ban in Quebec

If you anything about the history of margarine -- who does? -- then you know that yellow-coloured margarine has long been banned in some places because it apparently confuses some people into thinking that it's really butter (all of which is a perceived threat to the dairy industry). Quebec is one of the last places to still have a ban on yellow margarine, and a raid on Wal-Mart stores in Quebec City last week turned up 72 tubs of the stuff with a street value of $180.

"This is serious," one government official chided reporters who found the situation humorous.

Posted by Sebastian / November 7, 2005 /

Strip club loses court battle

While the U.S. Supreme Court will soon be tackling a challenge to 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell,' Canada's top court has more pressing matters. The highest court in the land this week ruled that a Montreal strip club does not have a constitutional right to pump music onto the street to attract customers.

The Chateau du Sexe on Ste. Catherine St. argued that the city had violated the club's freedom of expression by creating a city ordinance intended to prevent public nuisances.

"Noise pollution is a serious problem in urban centres, and cities like Montreal are entitled to act reasonably and responsibly in seeking to curb it," the court's majority said.

But the one dissenting justice countered that, "Read in its grammatical and ordinary sense, [the ordinance] would preclude a Montrealer sitting in his garden listening to Mozart playing softly through an open window from a kitchen radio."

Posted by Sebastian / November 4, 2005 /

Outremont

When I travel, I generally prefer to avoid typical tourist traps. On a recent trip to Montreal, a friend text messaged me from Boston to ask where I was. "Mile End," I shot back. "That's not a place in Montreal," was the reply I got. In fact it is a storied section of Montreal (once home base of the city's Jewish population), which, along with adjacent Outremont, is one of my favourite places to hang out.

Outremont, a borough of the city that has historically been the home to Canada's francophone elite, gets some play in the Montreal Gazette this week in a piece highlighting the neighbourhood's two solitudes. Though a solidly francophone enclave on the back side of Mount Royal, the neighbourhood is now 25 percent Jewish and reportedly full of "indifference and passive aggressiveness." Tensions have emerged as the demographics have shifted, and especially now as the borough mayoral race heats up: it's a duel between old Outremont and new Outremont, a Hasidic Jew running against a francophone.

Posted by Sebastian / November 1, 2005 /

McGill cancels football season after 'probe'

The Gazette reports that Montreal's McGill University has cancelled its football season following "sexual probing of a rookie with a broomstick by veterans of the team."

Posted by Sebastian / October 20, 2005 /

Stripper deaths: no foul play

Canadian authorities now believe that the death of two young American men in Montreal in late August was not a result of foul play. Rather, they believe the 20-somethings, who had been working as strippers in Toronto for the summer, were fleeing a cabbie whom they had cheated out of a fare when they slipped and fell into a quarry in suburban Laval, just north of Montreal.

"At first, police said, 'Oh, they're in the adult entertainment industry, they were probably on drugs, partying,' " the pair's agent, Stephan Sirard, said. "But these two were very straight, good souls, smart, educated and hard-working people."

Posted by Sebastian / October 4, 2005 /

Playboy: McGill is tops

It is the most popular Canadian university for American students, and now that most American of American institutions -- Playboy -- has named Montreal's McGill University to its annual list of the top 10 party schools.

As the Gazette wryly points out, "It's not even October, but already McGill University has to be wondering if this @*#$&! semester will ever end."

"It's bad enough that McGill is still grappling with an ugly hazing scandal. As homecoming weekend dawns, it's being touted as a bastion of good times and hot babes. Never mind the objectification of women - somebody really should break it to those geeks in the chemistry lab!"

"To celebrate, the 52-year-old men's monthly is putting out feelers, so to speak, for nubile young women willing to bare all for their alma mater in the May 2006 edition. Gives a whole new meaning to striving for 4.0 scores. Then again, people do say they buy Playboy for the articles."

"Stately old McGill never asked to be so popular, aided and abetted by the fact that Montreal is a pretty cool place and Quebec is one of the few spots on the continent where drinking is legal at 18." 

Posted by Sebastian / September 30, 2005 /



St. Joseph's Oratory

On my Montreal Top Ten must-see sites is surely St. Joseph's Oratory, which crowns the western flank of Mount Royal and is the largest church in Canada. It also boasts the second-largest dome of its kind in the world, after St. Peter's

The basilica is best known for the pilgrims who pour into it seeking healing for blindness, handicaps, and illness. The people who come here are known as "knee walkers," because they ascend the basic's imposing central wooden staircase, praying prostrate the entire way. A piece in the Montreal Gazette looks at the interesting ritual that attracts dozens of faithful each day -- mostly immigrants to Canada.

A below-ground votive room in the basilica is one of Montreal's most haunting places, filled with 10,000 lit candles and walls lined with thousands of crutches of those apparently healed through prayer at the church.

Posted by Sebastian / September 28, 2005 /

Why Montreal is fabulous

It's the strippers, the awe-inspiring views from Mont Royal, the mansions of Summit Circle, and the peppering of daily life with Franglais. It's the stylish shops and hidden cafes of Sherbrooke Street West, the hipsters of the Plateau, and the bagels of Mile End. Shall I go on? Let's just say there is no shortage of reasons to love Montreal.

According to Urban Eye, "Everyone loves Montreal—at least, that’s how it seems. People who have lived in Montreal for a reasonable amount of time seem predisposed to raving about its virtues. Exiled Montrealers in Calgary or Toronto gush about the cosmopolitanism of their former home; and even if one extracts the exaggeration and sweetened nostalgia that usually taints recollections of a hometown, there does seem to be something special about Montreal, something that makes it more than just a pile of old brick by a river, its glory days gone by.

"It’s hard to say what exactly this greatness is, but I think part of the answer can be found in the city’s streets. Ordinary street life in Montreal—with its cornucopia of languages, dress, and skin tones, and its exuberant blend of Québécois culture with all the other influences that have shaped it—is the heart of the heart of the city. Inhabitants fill outdoor terrasses with animated chatter, winter sidewalks teem with sled-toting children, and the streets provide a stage for the little dramas that make up urban life."

Posted by Sebastian / September 16, 2005 /

Saint-Sebastien

C'est vrai. It's true. Je suis un saint. I'm a saint — at least in Quebec. This is a shot of a village on the edge of Les Cantons de l'Est (Eastern Townships) that gives some validity to my goodness (notice I am too modest to say godliness).

Coincidentally, the New York Times had a good piece on the region in this weekend's travel section. The author called the Townships, which are wedged between Montreal and the U.S. border, "travelers' gold."

"Imagine a region offering many of Maine's charms - tranquility, natural beauty, folksy art - but only 90 minutes' drive from a major city. That is what Montrealers enjoy in the string of pearly lake hamlets known as the Eastern Townships, 30 miles north of the Vermont border."

Posted by Sebastian / September 6, 2005 /

Boston Nord

You might as well have called Montreal Boston Nord this weekend, since the place was teeming with Bostonians. On Saturday morning alone, within a one-hour span, I counted 15 gay men I recognized from Boston. By the end of the weekend, I had counted a total of 22. The simple explanation is that Montreal is so close to Boston — it's an easy four-hour drive or 40-minute flight north (10x daily!) — that it's the most exotic getaway. The second explanation comes from a friend who said yesterday, "It's funny how Montreal is a destination for the Boston boys. I guess they are so uptight in Boston that they need to go to another city to “let their hair down." (Hey — Don't look at me. I didn't say it, I just repeated it.)



Rue Ste-Catherine was flush with life Saturday morning with Rendez-Vous, a series of promotions for the first World Outgames, which will be held in Montreal next summer. Among the most amusing 'acts' was a group showcasing their 'Gayrobics' skills and a steamy beach volleyball competition.



Posted by Sebastian / September 5, 2005 /

Bienvenue from the City of Saints

Below are a couple shots I took took of two of my favourite Montreal buildings: Eglise St-Viateur in Outremont, the neighbourhood that wends its way around Mont Royal's backside and that has traditionally been home to Canada's Francophone elite; and Marche Bonsecours in Vieux-Montreal, where urban Canada got its start.



Posted by Sebastian / September 4, 2005 /



American strippers disappear in Montreal

Oscar Wilde once said that "it's an odd thing, but anyone who disappears is said to be last seen in San Francisco." That is, unless you're an American stripper, in which case you disappear in Montreal.

Two 20-something men, described as "tall, buff and brawny," spent the summer stripping at Remington's, a gay strip joint in Toronto. Nearly two weeks ago the duo ventured to Montreal, where they were last seen leaving a bar and heading to an after-hours party in suburban Laval, just north of the city. They have been missing ever since. "What has stumped parents and police alike is how two robust American men could vanish together without any apparent trace," the Globe and Mail reported today.

According to one report, "Kraynack and Wright are are both muscular and 6-foot-tall. Kraynak served with the Army's 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq until early last year and was known for superior strength and easy disposition. He is also a Purple Heart recipient. A family friend said that there is no way anyone would mess with him unless there was a gun involved."

UPDATE: Two bodies believed to be those of the American strippers have been found in Laval.

Posted by Sebastian / September 1, 2005 /

Montreal wants Olympics again

Though they hosted the most financially disastrous Olympics game in history, one that won't even be paid off until 2006, and one that so bankrupt the Olympics organization that no one wanted to host the games for years to come, the mayor of Montreal has said he is considering a bid for the 2016 games to relive the glory of those failed '76 Games.

The city is still paying off a $1.2 billion deficit from the  Summer Games and the massive cost overruns for the Olympic Stadium, known as "The Big Owe." Montreal, the sophisticated smoking capital, even lays on extra tax on cigarettes to ease the burden.

"We're going to take a little breather, but many people have asked that question," the mayor said this week after hosting a financially unsuccessful world aquatics championships. "Montreal will not wait another 30 years to renew acquaintances with the world."

Posted by Sebastian / August 1, 2005 /

Montrealers have more fun

If Toronto is Canada's most unsmiling city, Montreal is certainly its most fun and exuberant.

The Globe and Mail has an interesting piece about the city and its undeniable ability to retain its dignity and je ne sais quoi even though it long ago ceded its place as Canada's most important city and has faced such staggering decline that it has dipped from the wealthiest city in North America, and the British Empire, too, to the poorest of the continent's 26 largest metro areas.

I've always loved Montreal, a city more interesting than Vancouver and less restrained than Toronto, a place whose fortunes are changing under the direction of Mayor Gerald Tremblay. "For the first time in a long time, Montrealers nourish dreams that their city can become a great one. Mr. Tremblay has given them goals that, suddenly, seem worth striving for. None is as ambitious as the objective of making the city one of the six richest in North America by 2025," according to the Globe piece.

Among the activities that are sure to bring renewed interest to Montreal is this week's World Aquatic Championships, the biggest sporting event there since the '76 Olympics. The sponsoring organization is using "dark and dreamy" 20-year old Montreal diver Alexandre Despatie to promote the competition in what the paper calls a "titillating" marketing campaign. No complaints here.

RELATED: An old piece I wrote about Montreal's culture of cuisine

Posted by Sebastian / July 18, 2005 /

Lessons from Montreal: How to cross the street

The quintessential Montreal look is best shown off when one steps off the sidewalk into traffic on a busy rue. I dare you to hit me is generally the look pedestrians in this jaywalking-crazy city, often considered the jaywalking capital of the world, offer vehicles. "To be a pedestrian in Montreal, you must boldly but stylishly step into the pathway of oncoming vehicles thus exercising your right of passage," the Gazette writes in recent report. 

“Dodging cars in daring mid-block crossings and ambling insouciantly through red lights are … as much a part of city life as the two-cheek kiss,” they said. “In the industrialized world at least, pedestrians in our city are in a class by themselves when it comes to recklessness and sheer bloody-mindedness.”

”They love to tell tales - probably true ones - about pedestrians in other provinces rigidly obeying the lights at some remote suburban intersection, waiting frozen at the curb even though it's 1 a.m. and there isn't a car in sight.”

McGill University even warns its students that jaywalking is fact of life in Canada’s second-largest city by letting them know that “Montreal drivers are quite ‘territorial’ and don't cede the street easily.” I bet you didn’t know that the term “jaywalking” originated five hours south in Boston, where residents live by the mantra “Crosswalk? What crosswalk?”

Posted by Sebastian / July 14, 2005 /

Portraits of homeless life in Montreal

The Montreal Gazette features photographs taken by the city's homeless in today's edition. The English-language daily gave five homeless residents cameras to record their lives and share with the world "a view of the city ÷ from the sidewalk."

There are more than 28,000 homeless people in Canada's second-biggest city, where 25% of the population is considered poor and 10% very poor. Many years ago I was involved with a group called the Poverty Task Force of Montreal, and I became obsessively interested in the city's woes, of which there are many. This photo project highlights a whole slew of challenges facing the city that was once the jewel of Canada and the British Empire. 

One of the photographers told the Gazette, "When you're homeless, the system is made to keep you like that," he said. "It's an inferno that people get used to. And now they become homeless at a younger age. That's alarming."

One man took photos of friends on Rue Ste-Catherine and then gave one away to his subject. "The guy was so happy, tears welled in his eyes," he said. "When you live in the street, you have nothing, so you learn to be happy with the smallest things."

Posted by Sebastian / June 28, 2005 /

A Royal Faux Pas

Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay yesterday committed a major royal faux pas, even drawing gasps from onlookers. In greeting Princess Margriet of the Netherlands, he gave her a peck on the cheeks, which quickly made protocol officials cringe. The Princess was taken aback by the gesture but her handlers denied she was upset by the distinctly Gallic gesture. "I don't know if she was amused, but I can tell you Her Highness was not upset. She definitely was not upset," a royal spokesman said.

The princess was born in Ottawa in 1943, when her family was exiled from war-torn Holland. The hospital room in which she was born was temporarily declared to be Dutch soil by the Canadian government so that she could retain full royal status and Dutch citizenship.  

Posted by Sebastian / May 11, 2005

The Next Border Security Debate

Hot on the heels of a decision to require passports for travel between the U.S. and Canada, the TSA said this week it wants to require all Canadian planes that overfly the U.S. on domestic flights to submit their passenger lists for vetting against the U.S. no-fly list (that same successful! list that found Cat Stevens diverted to Bangor, Maine, and Ted Kennedy denied boarding of a flight home).

Just about every domestic flight between major Canadian cities overflies the U.S., so this could prove to be quite a mess. For example, flights crossing American airspace include nearly every flight from the Atlantic provinces westward; nearly every flight between Toronto and Montreal (the busiest route in the nation); most from Toronto to Vancouver; many flights to Calgary; and just about every flight from Canada to the Caribbean (including the much-reviled Cuba!) and Latin America and Asia. Bonus points for the person who can correctly identify these overfly routes.



• A tribute to outgoing U.S. Ambassador Paul Cellucci: "Don't Let the Door Hit You on the Ass" (requires Quicktime or Windows Media Player)

• Newt Gingrich apologizes (gasp!) to Canada for saying on Fox News that some terrorists entered the U.S. through Canada on September 11. "Please accept my apology to the Canadian people for perpetuating the error; one I am sure that has been very painful to them," the former House speaker told the new Canadian Ambassador Frank McKenna. (via John)  

Posted by Sebastian / April 22, 2005



To Kill Seals, or Wear Them?

International animal rights groups have restarted their annual protests against Canada's controversial seal hunt and this year are pushing for a boycott of Canadian seafood in response to the two-month hunt. The government has authorized the slaughter of 320,000 baby seals, saying the cull is essential to sustaining a healthy seal population in Atlantic Canada.

Meanwhile, a group of artisans from Montreal and Kuujjuuaq, the northernmost town in Quebec's Nunavik region, headed to France for a fashion show of their sealskin and fur goods. The garments were a hit. Below, Vickie Okpik works on a sealskin parka that may be sold on the high-fashion runways of Europe. Buy your own online from Nunavik Creations.



Okpik said: "When we went to France, I was a little worried about the sealskin. I wondered if we'd see protests from animal rights activists, who might think it has something to do with the clubbing of baby seals. We have a lot of education to do on this subject. Seal is eaten here, so if we didn't use the fur for trim, it would be wasted. It's no different from eating beef and using cowhide for shoes.''

Posted by Sebastian / March 22, 2005



Let's Have a Little Geography Lesson

I have always been a geography fanatic, and in general have little tolerance for those who don't know the basics (which I consider to be our own continent). Like the person who recently asked, "Is Vancouver next to Montreal?"

In today's New York Times, in a story explaining the major drug bust in western Canada on Thursday, the writer was compelled to explain for us the location of Alberta: "Alberta, British Columbia's neighboring province,..." I understand the need to enlighten readers, given that 90% of Americans probably have no idea where the province is, and would probably be as accurate if they were blindfolded and forced to stick a tack in a map.

So for the edification of the great unwashed masses, I present a map of Canada. Note that Montreal is 2300 miles from Vancouver, not next door.



Posted by Sebastian / March 5, 2005



Montreal Gets First 5-Star Condo Development

Montreal, my favourite city on the continent, is getting its first five-star hotel/condominium development, Le Crystal de la Montagne, au coin debouch. Rene-Levesque et rue de la Montagne. Prices start at $212,000, which is amazing for those of us living in exorbitantly priced cities like Boston or San Francisco. Montreal is famous for its dirt cheap real estate prices, but things are surely changing.

• Air Canada charged with discriminating against obese passengers and putting at risk others with deadly allergies.

• Days after New York officials discover new strain of HIV, Toronto officials say syphilis cases there have risen ten-fold since 2001.

Posted by Sebastian / Feb. 15, 2005



Montreal

One of the things I love most about coming to Montreal is how suave the city is. The women here really know how to wear fur -- and lots of it. Just here for the day, which is about as long as it takes to pass through the customs and immigration gauntlet in the new transborder jetty at Trudeau International (nee Dorval). Oh how much easier it was when the airport was old, dingy, and eastern European-feeling.




Posted by Sebastian / Jan. 24, 2005



Une salle de bains a l'aeroport international Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau

Sometimes you just see a bathroom sink you need to photograph, like this beautiful granite countertop at Dorval. (And there's me, wistfully contemplating its beauty.)  Don't worry -- I made sure no one was around in the bathroom when I snapped this shot!



Posted by Sebastian / Jan. 24, 2005



San Francisco and Montreal

I managed to comfortably -- and warmly -- miss the biggest winter storm in the Northeast in years while in San Francisco this weekend. To make every Bostonian jealous, the weather was California perfection -- 65 degrees and no rain at all.

I'm en route to Montreal at the moment. Air Canada has moved up on my list of most reviled companies after my experiences today. I've always tried to overlook the fact that they have the worst reputation, but today's non-weather-related issues are causing me to rethink being so kind to the airline.

Posted by Sebastian / Jan. 24, 2005



Montreal - Au revoir Expos

Today, the Montreal Expos announced they will bid adieu to Olympic Stadium and move to Washington.  Civic pride has taken a blow in this city, but with just a few thousand people attending each home game, on average, there's little sense staying.

Montreal is perhaps my favourite city on the continent.  It's an intriguing city, and when I was in high school, a columnist for the Montreal Gazette wrote about the perennial good news-bad news nature of the city and its "romantic melancholy."  It's an apt description of a place that has been plagued by a mass exodus of thousands of businesses and people, mostly anglophones, over the past half-century.  They left for Toronto and Calgary, leaving Montreal with a bit of an image problem, fewer corporate offices and well-paying jobs, and most visibly, a declining anglophone elite.  Luckily, the past few years have been good to Montreal's economy, with a renewed tourist interest in the city, as well as improving signs in the real estate market, which has traditionally been weak here.  

"Life in Montreal is a little like being in a certain kind of abusive relationship. You're always thinking of leaving but the good times are unparalleled. And the make-up sex is sublime. You're hostage to love."

Posted by Sebastian / Sept. 29, 2004

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