mtlurb

JE comprends pas OU EST LE 300 MILLIONS?!??!?!?!! Un trou et un peu de beton vaut pas 300 MILLIONS!!!! Le gouvernement à pris à sa charge l'UQAM, mais où sont les maudits garanties pour que ce projet continue et ne défigure pas le quartier!! C'EST QUOI CE BORDEL!??!?!?!!

Vous avez pas compris, la limite de vitesse est facultative sur les autoroutes

they have nothing on us. On est ben plus fumeux de potes et laid back... et ça me viens de copains et copines vancouverois.

C'est très encourageant que Maisonneuve prend énormément d'expansion coté commercial au niveau de la rue. Dans 20 ans peut etre que ça sera St-catherine 2 ?

L'icône de Montréal c'est le Mont Royal avec la croix au dessus... je peux très bien comprendre pourquoi il n'as pas été dans l'annonce Politically correct de Telus...

ouais un genre de mauve, très beau!!!

Who visits Montreal in January? January 27, 2008 by Jen Well, we did. We just got back from a fantastic trip to Montreal, and despite a surge of super-cold weather near the end, it was a perfectly lovely weekend. Though we were there to see the sights with friends and had a 15-month old in tow, we managed to eat our way through the city with no problem whatsoever (big surprise, right?) Montreal is a great mid-sized city with good public transportation, so even with the wind whipping and the temperature dropping, we felt as though we were able to see a good deal of the city and get a sense that people cope with winter there the same way they do here in Minneapolis - by saying #@%* the cold, I’m going out anyways. We had a great stay at Les Bons Matins, a great little auberge located on a quiet street downtown. Despite some initial mix-ups on our reservation, the staff there did a great job too accommodate us with our many needs (not easy with the aforementioned little one and four adults with particular tastes.) We ended up with 2 of their suites, with our friends Mike and Shelley (and little Lenin) in a garden level unit and Brent and I directly above them. The decor is bright and sunny, and features art throughout by the owner’s brother. The care in all of the details - from a guest fridge stocked with bottled water and sodas, to the fresh cookies in all the kitchenettes each night - was delightful. I forget, after months of business travel to big chains, what’s its like not to be charged $8 for a bottle of water in your room. The breakfasts, included with the rooms, was superb. Each morning we started with an appetizer (at breakfast!!) of small waffles or french toast, with a dollop of lemon or passion fruit mousse. This was accompanied by fresh squeezed orange juice and coffee, to quote Shelley, “only the French can do.” There was a small menu of hot items including eggs, smoked salmon, eggs benedict, and various accompaniments. All of this was served in a cafe of warm yellow walls and checkered-tile floors, where each morning we would come in from our suites next door, and sit amongst other travelers dressed in turtlenecks and norwegian sweaters, everyone equipping themselves for the day ahead with warm pastry and coffee. We managed to seek out a few star meals outside the auberge as well. We sought out Shwartzman’s deli and braved the packed diner setting despite the nasty looks generated by trying to get the stroller in through the door and past the deli line. (I was chewed out by a weathered-looking woman trying to get her coleslaw, but as it was entirely in Quebequois French, I prefer to think she was shouting “Thank goodness you are here with that wonderful stroller! Perhaps you can help me out to my car with my 7 kilos of meat?”) Being someone who loves their deli, I was curious to know how the Montreal smoked meat would stack up to, say, a New York Pastrami, and I have to admit that it did so admirably. Perfectly seasoned and with just the right amount of fat, the meat and the soft white bread it arrived upon was a perfect lunch. After devouring each of our sandwiches, we spied a neighboring table get plates of meat and a stack of white bread on the side - a great option for those who want to be in control of their own bread-to-meat ratio. Brent and I had two very good dinners, one at a bistro on Rue St. Denis called L’Express. The highlight was the Pork Rillettes (see here for my earlier encounter with this amazing method of serving meats.) The version at L’Express came with a small jar of wonderfully delicate dijon mustard and an enourmous jar of cornichons for self-service. The duck and steak frites were also excellent. Best of all, though, was the setting. It was classic brasserie, loud and intimate all at the same time, with tables wedged close enough together that you can smell the food on your neighbor’s plate. On our last night, we braved the fourteen-below weather and went back to Old Montreal where we had been shopping a few days earlier. We had spotted a restaurant called Merchant Boeuf, which a friend had recommended. The night we were there the place was jammed with locals, for a “menu gourmande” that several affiliated restaurants we’re hosting. This fixed-price meal was almost too good to be true, with a starter, choice of entree (including a mega-burger and a whole roasted chicken presented table side mounted on the beer can it was roasted on), and dessert for $15CAN. Such a deal - Brent had the menu with the burger and declared it one of the best he’s had, complete with bacon and cheese. I ordered off the a la carte menu, since I was craving the onion gratin soup, but we both wished that one of us had ordered that chicken, once we saw them coming out to the tables around us. I can only imagine the kitchen in the back - they must have had hundreds of them roasting back there. http://savoirflair.wordpress.com/2008/01/27/who-visits-montreal-in-january/

'The city is mine' The home secretary Jacqui Smith says she feels unsafe walking London's streets after dark, and, undoubtedly, she's not alone. What a shame, says confirmed nightwalker Kate Pullinger - how could anyone not love a great city at night? Tuesday January 22, 2008 The Guardian I've always loved the city at night, even before I knew what it was like. I come from a rural suburb of a small town on the west coast of Canada and I spent my adolescence dreaming of cities in the dark. To go anywhere when I was a kid you had to drive; there was no public transport. And when you got there, wherever There was, there wasn't anything to do, except drink. I knew that when I finally made it to the city the night would sparkle and shine and pulse and that when I walked down the street, night music - Roxy Music, the Velvet Underground, Curtis Mayfield, Ultravox even - would accompany me. My first ever city was Montreal, where I spent a dissolute 18 months struggling with the concept of university. Montreal at night was always romantic but bipolar: a continuous street party during the summer - hot sweaty nights in cafes and bars that spilled on to the streets; phenomenally cold, encased in ice, in the winter. I would bundle up in multiple layers before heading out. In January and February I would wear both my coats. Montreal at night involved a lot of trudging, carrying your party shoes in a bag, stamping the snow off your boots. Falling snow at night in the city is irresistible; it squeaks and crunches beneath your boots on the pavement and comes to rest on your eyelashes and cheeks like glitter, only even more precious, more fleeting. Walking by myself through Montreal at night was to feel a kind of freedom that was completely new to me - the people are sleeping, the city is mine, all mine. Through the frozen air I could hear and see myself breathing - walking at night always makes me feel more aware of my own physicality somehow; it's the unexpected silence, the unsolicited peace - and my joy at escaping the suburbs was complete: I'm alive, I'm my own person, and I'm at home in the city. After Montreal I came to London, where a lot of women are afraid to walk alone at night. When Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, said at the weekend that she wouldn't walk at night in Hackney, or Kensington and Chelsea, she was just being honest, despite her aides' subsequent attempts at spin. In a world where we are afraid to let our children cross the street by themselves, this is hardly surprising. Our levels of fear bear little relation to the statistics - Smith was right that crime rates have fallen, too - but we are told to be afraid, so many of us are, both despite of and because of our experience. But not me. For me, growing up was all about becoming free, becoming who I wanted to be, not who other people expected me to be, and London was a part of that. It was the 1980s and London had an urgency to it, made all the more vivid by the fight to the death between that era's David and Goliath - Ken Livingstone and Margaret Thatcher. I was young and broke and needed to save my money for pints, books and movies: walking was the cheapest way to get around and most nights out ended with a long walk home. The city was huge, and foreign to me, and I needed to map it out in my mind by stalking the twisty streets with their ever changing names: Eversholt Street becomes Upper Woburn Place becomes Tavistock Square becomes Woburn Place becomes Southampton Row becomes Kingsway all inside 15 minutes. It was only through walking that this would ever make sense, and it was only when walking at night that I witnessed the secret lonely heart of the city; for a time it seemed as though every other doorway in the centre of town was temporary shelter to at least two homeless people. Alone at night I could repeat the street names and practise the English-as-in-England words that were new to me: "wanker", "loo", "pants", "tuppence", "sacked", "fanciable", "shag". I had a bicycle some of the time and there is nothing to match riding a bike by yourself through the streets of London late on a summer's night when the air is so soft it feels like velvet and your wheels spin and your hair gets messed up under your helmet but you don't care and you have to peel off the layers to stop yourself sweating. I was living in Vauxhall and working in Covent Garden at a catering job that required an early start before the tube was running, and crossing Lambeth Bridge on foot at 5am provoked in me a kind of epiphany, an ecstatic communion with the city and its only-just-buried layers of history. At night it's as though the city's history comes alive, bubbling up from where it lies dormant beneath the tarmac: when the crowds are gone, modernity slips away, and the city feels ancient and unruly. How could anyone not love London late at night, or early in the morning? How could the wide black Thames with the city reflected upon it not remind you of everything that is most desirable and glamorous in life? But sinister, too, of course, and this is part of what makes the city at night such a grown-up, adult, provocative space. There are parts of town that always have been, and always will be, creepy. In London: the backend of Whitechapel. Stockwell on a rainy night. Acton when you're a bit lost. And Hampstead, because everyone there seems to go to bed very early. In attempting to recant her comment about not walking alone at night in Hackney, Smith named the parts of the city where she does feel comfortable (for her, Peckham), and this is something that most women would recognise: we make our routes, we do what we feel comfortable doing, and it's not possible to ask anything else of us, home secretaries included. I've lived in Shepherd's Bush, west London, for 11 years now and I always feel safe on the Uxbridge Road. It's one of those wide, long streets that is full of life, full of commerce and connection, full of people I sometimes know and often recognise. The walk home from the tube feels safer than the shorter walk home from White City, with its looming football ground and empty pavements, cars zipping past too quickly. Just before Christmas I walked home by myself from a party; several people asked if I would be OK before I left. When I got outside the night was foggy and the street lamps glowed through the freezing mist; a black taxi passed with its yellow light blazing, the low purring sound of its diesel engine reassuring. I wandered along, a bit drunk, bundled up, and the residential streets were completely empty. When I got into bed I put my cold hands on my husband's warm back and woke him up, happy. I wear sensible flats and carry my party shoes in a bag still, not because of the snow, obviously, and not because I want to be able to run away if I can, but because I like to do my walking in comfort. I don't walk at night as much as I used to, but that's because of children and work and the fact that the days and nights aren't as long as they used to be. It is true that I would not take out my mobile phone on a dark street for fear that someone might think it worth snatching. It's also true that I do not listen to music through headphones when I walk by myself, but that's because I've never liked listening to music through headphones: it has always made me worry that someone is about to sneak up behind me, even when - or especially when - I'm lying on the couch in an empty house. Plenty of people don't love London, I realise that, and plenty of people probably love it even less at night; I'm well aware that it might take only one incident for me to change my mind about walking alone at night. I have been mugged in London, but that was in broad daylight in Finsbury Park on the way to the tube station; I lost volume one of a two-volume Complete Plays by Shakespeare that my mother had given me. The young man who pushed me against a brick wall to wrestle my bag away from my shoulder had a look of desperate determination; the police later found the bag and the wallet, but not the Shakespeare. I've walked these streets for 25 years now. I'm not a young woman any more - aren't the young more likely to be victimised? - and I'm fairly tall - aren't little women more preyed upon? - and on dark winter nights I walk quickly with a hat jammed down over my head. But when I look up from the pavement and see the sparkling lights, I hear the night music; could it be that I am who I always wanted to be, and the city at night belongs to me? By the light of the moon ... Nightwalking across Britain's cities Birmingham As a proud Brummie and shamelessly debauched hedonist, I, and the city I truly love, properly come alive at night. Birmingham has more canals than Venice and those moon-washed nightwalks along the most famous ones at Brindley Place and Gas Street Basin are just as magical as the Italian city's finest. By day, Birmingham's Victoria Square and Centenary Square are thick with office workers, tourists, shoppers, teens and trolls. But after dark you can peacefully appreciate the floodlit beauty of the historical council house, the Floozy in Jacuzzi fountain (well, that's what we locals call her, anyway) and Iron Man sculpture, the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery and the Victorian listed buildings on Colmore Row - before popping into the late-night bars One Ten or the once-famous cigar lounge at the Hotel du Vin. St Paul's Cathedral and Square are intoxicating before dawn - not simply because of the drinking opportunities, but because of the path they lead towards the charm bracelet streets of the Jewellery Quarter. I've often done a wee-small-hours West Midland's Audrey Hepburn impersonation by peering into the hundreds of jewellery shops there. There are plenty of midnight munching opportunities - get a night owl down to Ladypool Road, the heart of the city's Balti Belt and where neon restaurant signs blaze above hordes of my fellow, friendly nocturnal buddies. Wersha Bharadwa Manchester Go to eat in Chinatown, and leave around midnight. Stroll back under the gloriously garish Imperial Arch. The unmistakeable smell of oil on hot wok will linger but slowly the grid of streets will wind down and sleep. Emerge into St Peter's Square and hear the hoot of the last tram passing in front of the Pantheon-like circular central library (which has been known to offer small-hours tours of its basement stacks). Move on into Albert Square and wait for the midnight bongs from the clock of the floodlit town hall, Manchester's glorious statement of civic one-upmanship. Then on to Cross Street (where the former home of the Manchester Guardian was long ago replaced by Boots) and turn left into King Street, where the fashion shops doze and dream of bigger profits. Cut through towards St Ann's church and the square after which it is named. If the circular Royal Exchange theatre had a curtain, it would have come down long ago, but memories of entrances and exits long ago live on. Then, past brash Harvey Nicks and Selfridges, to the silent route between the cathedral and the old corn exchange to Cathedral Gardens. Take a seat and gaze at Urbis, the glass ski slope that has become an icon. Behind you, at Chetham's school of music, a sleepless student may entertain you with a Bach partita. David Ward Leeds The best thing to be in late-night Leeds is a bird. Floodlighting is pretty inspired in the city centre generally, but specially good at rooftop level. Get the lift or stairs up any high building - the uni campus has a good selection - and drink it all in. At ground level, the ginnels off Briggate and Vicar Lane are a wonderful maze by moonlight; unchanged since Atkinson Grimshaw did those great Victorian paintings, except nowadays there are lots more bars and places to eat. Try the riverside, too, spooky if it gets too late but lively enough till at least midnight. Cross the canal from Water Lane and thread back through the Dark Arches where the river Aire crashes about beneath the train station. Best for quiet strolling is Kirkstall, with its subtly lit Cistercian abbey, just off the always-busy A65. You can swim at Kirkstall baths till 10pm, get a tapas at Amigos, a Leeds end-terrace that is forever Spain, and then potter across the road and spend as much of the dark as you want to in the 12th century. Headingley is great for strolling, with more shortcuts and alleys through the student-colonised redbricks round St Michael's and the Skyrack and Original Oak pubs. Martin Wainwright Bristol By day, Bristol's harbour area can feel like a place of local authority and corporate regeneration. Fair enough, that's what it is. But by night the magic of the docks returns with the youngsters and bohemians who arrive to party. Walk along the cobbles on Welsh Back alongside the Floating Harbour. Turn into Queen Square with its the wonderful Georgian architecture - much more subtly lit than their counterparts in touristy Bath, and more glorious for it. Look out for the bohos-made-good and London refugees dining in the hip dockside eateries. Cross Pero's Bridge to the Watershed media centre. The laptop brigade who make use of the wi-fi access will have gone, replaced by the art crowd with their red wine and movie talk. The Falafel King van on the Centre is a great, much cheaper alternative to the riverside restaurants. Or get away from the city centre and head to Montpelier. Again, it's a people-watching place - this is eco-trendy territory. Supper at the One Stop Thali cafe, where the locals take their own tiffins to be filled with steaming curry. Walk up to the Cadbury House pub, multiple award winner. And don't forget Clifton. Sorry to be obvious. By day, the Avon gorge can be a little grubby, especially in the winter. After dark, the suspension bridge gleams and the chasm below yawns. Steven Morris Edinburgh Edinburgh's more intimate scale makes it a great city to explore on foot, as long as you don't mind the odd uphill jaunt, and there's no denying the city's beauty at night. There are obvious highlights: a walk along Princes Street gives a great view towards Edinburgh Castle, which is illuminated at night, as are most of the noteworthy monuments, while the Mound has the National Gallery of Scotland and the Royal Scottish Academy Building at its foot - with their regal columns, these buildings look pretty spectacular when floodlit - and the impressive headquarters of HBOS, which includes the Museum on the Mound, at its top. Once you're up there, there are guided walks through the Old Town - the night-time ghost tour routes focus around the Royal Mile - while there are less obvious highlights if you head north into the New Town, which is mainly residential and has some of the finest classical Georgian architecture in the country. There are beautiful terraces to explore, such as Royal Circus or Moray Place, and you can admire the architecture while catching glimpses inside where people haven't closed over their tall Georgian shutters - a bit nosy, but who can resist? Wrap it up with a warming drink in Kay's Bar, a cosy pub in an early 19th-century building on Jamaica Street West, tucked in the New Town's heart. Fiona Reid http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,2244671,00.html

Revisiting Drapeau's personal Versaille Alan Richman, National Post Published: Friday, January 25, 2008 Story Tools Gordon Beck/Canwest News Service The Olympic Stadium adds grandeur to a part of Montreal that is woefully lacking in it, even if it is too large and impractical for just about every sport, including baseball, the sport played there ... Having once worked simultaneously as both the sports columnist and the restaurant critic for the long-defunct Montreal Star - employing a sportswriter as a restaurant critic might well have contributed to its demise - I am used to my commentary being greeted with derision from numerous walks of life. Nothing I said then might equal the mockery I anticipate from what I am about to say now. I take a deep breath. I ask: Is it possible that the Montreal Olympic Stadium, built for the 1976 Games, is an enduring work of art? I have always loathed the stadium, but not for esthetic reasons. I have hated it for far longer than is healthy for a man to despise an inanimate object, entirely because of what the stadium represented: Greed. Extravagance. Envy. Pride. That's more than half the original seven deadly sins. I don't include gluttony, simply because I recall the smoked meat sold during athletic events as being ordinary. I disliked the stadium because of the considerable pain and suffering it caused the city and the province. It infamously cost about $1-billion, and we're talking 1970s dollars. It was wrong for the climate, forever showing water stains, like a suede jacket worn in the rain. It is no longer utilized in winter, because engineers worry it might not be able to withstand the weight of a significant snowfall. It's too large for just about any legitimate sports event except the opening and closing ceremonies of an Olympic Games. The one sport that was played there most often, professional baseball, didn't fit. Famously, the retractable roof never worked properly. The space was finally covered with some kind of hideous fabric. It reminds me of a tarp thrown over a sports car parked out of doors. I have one fond memory of covering an event there. I was standing in line for free food in the press room during the 1976 Olympics. Mick Jagger was in front of me, wearing a lime-green suit with a cigarette burn in the shoulder, looking like a guy who needed free food. A few days later he would send a note down to the field during the women's pentathlon, trying to meet Diane Jones, a member of the Canadian team. I left Montreal in 1977, a year after the Olympics had nearly bankrupted the province of Quebec, so the problems that kept popping up were no longer of concern to me. I stopped covering events, except as an occasional visiting sportswriter. I no longer paid income taxes to the province, so I stopped feeling cheated by the cost overruns. My bad attitude lingered on, though. In 1975 and '76, when I was the sports columnist for the Star, I had written often and angrily about the abuses that were permitted - I should say promulgated - by the city government. I recall being consumed with outrage when two workers died in an accident on the job, and Mayor Jean Drapeau justified the deaths by pointing out that in construction-deaths-per-dollar-spent, the stadium lagged behind virtually every other major project. From then on, I was in a rage. I couldn't really decide whether the mayor or the stadium was the more irrational piece of work. I shouldn't have blamed the government for everything. Let's not forget the unionized workers who built the place. Knowing of the alarmingly tight deadline, they responded with strikes, walkouts and protests. When those led to a crisis, they demanded more money for having to work so hard. The stadium was so impractical, so ridiculous and so wrong-headed that I never considered the possibility that it might be beautiful. Drapeau had it built by French architect Roger Taillibert, calling his works "poems in concrete." To me, the stadium was blank verse. Drapeau was no longer at the peak of his powers when he commissioned it. He was out of touch with practicality. But he was also something of a visionary, successor to the French profligates who built the great tourist attractions of France. The Olympic Stadium was his Versailles. A few months ago, on a visit to Montreal, I was driving through the eastern part of the city in search of a trendy restaurant: Nothing trendy ever happened in the eastern part of Montreal when I lived there. I drove past the stadium. It was sunset, and it seemed to glow. I was caught up in the gracefulness of its sweeping, melodious lines. I thought it was stunning, capable of taking flight. Others have called it a toilet bowl. Writer Josh Freed once said, "It killed the Olympics. It killed baseball and city finances. Please, let's take it down before it kills again." My old pal Mike Boone, who worked with me on the Montreal Star and is now city columnist for the Montreal Gazette, recently reminded me that baseball players never liked it, either. He recalls Ross Grimsley, a pitcher who once won 20 games for the Montreal Expos, telling him, "I was looking for the locker room. I walked a hundred miles, down corridors that didn't lead anywhere." Boone calls the stadium "a bidet with a dildo attached to it." I now think of it as Starship Drapeau. I risk being thought as addled as Drapeau when I say this: shortsighted, all of them. To be fair, even Boone concedes that if you drive up to the eastern lookout on Mount Royal, park your car and look east when the stadium is lit up, it does look lovely at a distance. I don't know if this entered into Drapeau's thoughts, but that part of Montreal is woefully lacking in grandeur, and the stadium provides what little there is. Drapeau believed that great cities needed spectacular monuments. He had wanted a symbolic structure built for his enormously successful Expo 67, but never got the building because it would have cost too much: $22-million. That's about a 50th of what the Olympic Stadium finally cost. Had he been successful in the '60s, the Montreal Olympics might not have been such a fiscal tragedy in the '70s. Of course, the stadium has been a disaster. It remains one. In 1991, a 55-ton concrete beam fell, not killing anybody, an unexpected break. In 1997, the province spent about $40-million for a new roof that was supposed to last 50 years. It soon ripped. Canadians should start thinking of the stadium as a great old pile. Sure it's obsolete, drafty and ruinous. So are castles in France. But if it hadn't been so terrible, it wouldn't be nearly so fascinating. http://www.nationalpost.com/life/story.html?id=264191

En passant, je me cite :

À Montréal avec impatience Renaud Lavoie Lundi 28 janvier 2008 Le match des étoiles a pris fin à Atlanta et si les organisateurs se disent satisfaits des résultats du week-end, déjà les joueurs ainsi que les dirigeants de la LNH pensent à Montréal qui accueillera cette classique en 2009. On s'attend à une grosse fête pendant les trois jours d'activités et plusieurs employés du Canadien ont passé le week-end à Atlanta afin de comprendre un peu plus le fonctionnement de cette rencontre spéciale. Mais il y a aussi un point positif pour les amateurs de hockey qui seront présents au Centre Bell l'an prochain : il n'y aura pas beaucoup de joueurs qui vont se désister pour des raisons ''personnelles'', parce que Montréal est jugée comme la capitale de la fête dans le merveilleux monde du sport. D'ailleurs, la LNH n'a pas du tout apprécié que quelques joueurs se désistent. Sans critiquer Roberto Luongo et Martin Brodeur, entre autres, la LNH et l'Association des joueurs s'entendent pour dire que les hockeyeurs présents au match des étoiles devraient avoir plus de temps libre avec leur famille. De cette façon, il y aurait moins de ''déserteurs''. Mais l'an prochain, dès qu'un joueur recevra la fameuse invitation pour cette classique, attendez-vous à ce que la réponse soit OUI immédiatement. Parce que Montréal sait faire les choses en grand. Et ça, les joueurs le savent très bien. Le hockey visé par le congrès américain Il y a, aux États-Unis présentement, un dossier qui fait beaucoup de bruits et qui pourrait se répandre dans toutes les sphères de la société. On parle évidement de la consommation de drogues, stimulants, stéroïdes et hormones de croissance. Le baseball majeur sert présentement de cobaye devant le congrès américain, mais les recommandations des élus américains vont avoir un impact sur tous les autres sports professionnels, y compris le hockey. Les dirigeants de la LNH regardent donc avec beaucoup d’intérêts ce qui se passe à Washington. Ce qui inquiète le plus l’Association des joueurs de la Ligue nationale de hockey, c’est la façon dont les tests seront effectués. Et déjà, on sait que l’AJLNH va s’objecter automatiquement à toutes formes de tests sanguins. Le problème est majeur. C’est qu’il est impossible présentement de déterminer si un athlète a consommé des hormones de croissance par de simples tests d’urines. Et la grande crainte des associations de joueurs professionnels, c’est que le Congrès américain impose des tests sanguins aux athlètes. Évidemment, on s’attend à ce que la technologie avance au cours des prochaines années afin que les hormones de croissance soient détectés par l’urine. C’est à ce moment qu’on aura réellement une bonne idée du nombre exact de hockeyeurs qui ont consommé des produits illégaux afin d’améliorer leurs performances. Est-ce que tous les joueurs de hockey sont vierges dans ce dossier? Sûrement pas. Mais il ne faudrait pas croire non plus qu’une centaine de joueurs seront accusés, comme c’est le cas présentement au baseball majeur. Bref, les différentes ligues professionnelles ont une épée de Damoclès au dessus de leur tête présentement et devront absolument montrer pates blanches, sinon l’opinion publique pourrait forcer les dirigeants de la NFL, MLB, NBA et la LNH à le faire. Les semi-retraités de la LNH Teemu Selanne a confirmé son retour au jeu lundi. La Ligue nationale de hockey pourrait bien prendre position dans les prochaines années, afin d'empêcher certains joueurs de prolonger leurs vacances estivales afin de rejoindre leur équipe trois ou quatre mois après le début d'une saison. Garry Bettman parle de cas isolé lorsqu'il est questionné sur Scott Niedermayer et Selanne. Mais si d'autres joueurs veulent s'inspirer de cette façon de faire dans l'avenir, la ligue interviendra en les forçant à débuter la saison avec leur équipe respective. http://www.rds.ca/hockey/chroniques/244686.html

Le lobby de l'environnement se mobilise pour faire échec à Rabaska Il y a 8 heures QUEBEC - Une pléiade de groupes de pression environnementaux et leurs alliés politiques joignent leur voix dans l'espoir de faire échec au projet Rabaska, un terminal méthanier devant être aménagé sur le fleuve Saint-Laurent au large de Lévis. Réunis au sein du collectif "Stop au méthanier", près d'une vingtaine d'organismes, parmi lesquels figurent Greenpeace, Québec Kyoto, le NPD et le Parti vert du Québec, promettent de soulever la population contre le projet de 840 millions $ des sociétés Gaz Métro, Enbridge et Gaz de France. L'objectif avoué du lobby écologiste est de "rejouer" l'épisode du Suroît, le projet de centrale thermique que le gouvernement Charest avait dû abandonner en 2004 en raison de la levée de boucliers populaire. Les militants écologistes membres du collectif inviteront les citoyens à signer un "manifeste" qui justifie à leurs yeux le renvoi du projet à la déchiqueteuse. Ils invoquent en outre l'absence d'études et de contre-expertises sur les besoins gaziers du Québec, les impacts environnementaux du projet et ses retombées sur la santé humaine. Déjà une brochette de vedettes québécoises ont apposé leur signature au bas du manifeste, notamment Chloé Ste-Marie, Michel Rivard et Marc Labrèche. Convaincue de pouvoir rééditer avec succès la croisade du Suroît -et dans une certaine mesure celle du mont Orford-la coalition ne se laisse pas démonter par l'avis favorable à Rabaska produit par le Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement (BAPE). Elle refuse aussi de se laisser distraire par le décret adopté l'automne dernier par Québec qui donne le feu vert à la réalisation du projet. "Le décret du Suroît était signé lui aussi mais le projet est tombé", a fait remarquer le porte-parole de la coalition, Yves St-Laurent, en conférence de presse mardi à Québec. Quant au BAPE, s'il a remis un avis favorable au projet, c'est parce qu'il a fait preuve de "complaisance" envers les promoteurs, croit M. St-Laurent. "Le BAPE a remis un document complaisant (...) les seules expertises qui ont été produites devant le BAPE sont celles du promoteur et celles des opposants avec leurs faibles moyens", a-t-il expliqué. L'opposition tous azimuts des groupes environnementaux s'appuie sur la thèse selon laquelle le Québec n'a pas besoin d'un terminal méthanier pour répondre à ses besoins énergétiques. L'organisme prétend par conséquent que Rabaska ne servira essentiellement qu'à exporter du gaz de Russie vers les Etats-Unis. "C'est pour les Etats-Unis ce gaz-là", a tranché M. St-Laurent. "Le marché n'est pas là au Québec et ne le sera jamais (...) C'est de la science-fiction de dire que c'est pour autre chose que fournir le marché américain", a renchéri Arthur Sandborn, le syndicaliste et militant de Québec solidaire passé chez Greenpeace. Par ailleurs, en prenant bien soin de ne pas identifier qui que ce soit, le collectif avance que des "amis du Parti libéral" oeuvrent dans l'ombre au service des promoteurs afin de profiter des retombées du projet. "Les intérêts qui se cachent derrière Rabaska sont bien proches de la filière libérale traditionnelle. Le gouvernement tente-t-il de privilégier encore une fois les intérêts de ses amis au détriment de ceux de la nation?" s'est interrogé M. St-Laurent, sans étayer ses allégations. Au cabinet du ministre des Ressources naturelles, Claude Béchard, la réaction à ce nouvel appel des groupes écologistes à la guerre sainte a été expéditive. "Le projet a passé le test du BAPE, le décret est adopté, le dossier va de l'avant", a dit à La Presse Canadienne, Pascal D'Astous, porte-parole de M. Béchard. http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jJwknB2blIsEcF-IiXnEesU79Izw

Le Québec en force Photo: © 2007 Alliance Atlantis Communications Marc Labrèche dans L'âge des ténèbres Le cinéma québécois fait encore une fois bonne figure aux nominations des Prix Génie, qui récompenseront, le 3 mars prochain, les meilleures productions cinématographiques canadiennes de l'année. Les films québécois Continental, un film sans fusil et L'âge des ténèbres sont en nomination dans la catégorie du meilleur film en vue de la 28e cérémonie des Génie. Ce sont les films Promesses de l'ombre de David Cronenberg et J'ai serré la main du diable de Roger Spottiswoode qui ont reçu le plus grand nombre de nominations, soit 12, dans la catégorie du meilleur film. Dans la même catégorie, on retrouve aussi Loin d'elle de Sarah Polley. Les films québécois en nomination: L'âge des ténèbres (Denys Arcand); Continental, un film sans fusil (Stéphane Lafleur); Les 3 p'tits cochons (Patrick Huard); Nitro (Alain Desrochers); Bluff (Marc-André Lavoie, Simon-Olivier Fecteau); Ma fille mon ange (Alexis Durand-Brault); Roméo et Juliette (Normand Chaurette); Surviving my mother (Émile Gaudreault); Ma tante Aline (Gabriel Pelletier); Silk (François Girard). Par ailleurs, Roy Dupuis, acteur principal dans J'ai serré la main du diable, Marc Labrèche (L'âge des ténèbres) et Claude Legault (Les 3 p'tits cochons) ont recueilli des nominations dans la catégorie du meilleur acteur. Les Québécoises Anne-Marie Cadieux (Toi) et Béatrice Picard (Ma tante Aline) sont finalistes dans la catégorie de la meilleure actrice. Dans les catégories des rôles de soutien, on retrouve les acteurs Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge, Gilbert Sicotte, Marie-Ginette Guay, Véronique Le Flaguais, Laurence Leboeuf et Fanny Mallette. Les 11 acteurs québécois en nomination: Anne-Marie Cadieux, Roy Dupuis, Marie-Ginette Guay, Laurence Leboeuf, Marc Labrèche, Véronique Le Flaguais, Claude Legault, Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge, Fanny Mallette, Béatrice Picard et Gilbert Sicotte. http://www.radio-canada.ca/arts-spectacles/cinema/2008/01/28/001-Prix-genie-nominations-quebec.asp

Ici, dans le vieux:

Festivals: The Festival International de Jazz de Montréal wins the prestigious 2007 Silver Posted by: eJazzNews Readeron Tuesday, January 29, 2008 - 11:26 AM Montreal, Monday, January 28, 2008 - The Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International presented the prestigious Silver Adrian Award 2007 to the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal during a ceremony held today in New York. This was the 51st anniversary of the Silver Adrian Award, considered a very high distinction in the travel sector. A jury consisting of experts from the domains of hotel management, travel, tourism and media considered no fewer than 1,300 submissions before choosing the Festival in the category of "Attractions/Theme Park for Feature Placement Print-Consumer Newspaper" after having read an account in the San Francisco Chronicle. "We are very honoured to receive this prestigious award. It is the result of years of work by the Festival to develop and deploy a marketing strategy, which appears to have paid off handsomely, judging by the growing number of tourists who flock to Montreal each year for our annual 'high mass' of jazz. I would also like to highlight the excellent work and commitment of Lou Hammond & Associates, the agency which has represented us for years in the U.S. market," stated André Ménard, co-founder and artistic director of the Festival. Every summer, the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal presents over 650 shows, including over 280 indoor performances and 372 free outdoor concerts on 25 different stages. Close to 3000 musicians from some 30 countries take part in this massive musical party, with over 2.1 million people pouring onto the site to enjoy it all. For its upcoming edition, the Festival is preparing an enticing outdoor program set to groove to the rhythms of the world. The 29th edition of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal takes place from June 26 to July 6, 2008. www.montrealjazzfest.com http://www.ejazznews.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=9071&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Hydro-Québec vend à Pétrolia ses permis d'hydrocarbures, à Anticosti Il y a 8 heures MONTREAL - La société Pétrolia (TSXV:PEA) a annoncé, mardi, avoir racheté les intérêts d'Hydro-Québec sur les permis de prospection de pétrole et de gaz de l'île d'Anticosti, dans le golfe du Saint-Laurent. La contrepartie de l'acquisition est une redevance prioritaire sur l'éventuelle production pétrolière, que l'acheteur basé à Rimouski versera à Hydro-Québec. Pétrolia met ainsi la main sur les droits de la société d'Etat provinciale relatifs à 35 permis, couvrant du territoire qui totalise près de 64 000 km carrés. Suivant la transaction, l'acquéreur devient également partenaire de Corridor Resources, de Halifax, dans les activités d'exploration découlant de ces permis. Dans un communiqué, Pétrolia mentionne les caractéristiques favorables des zones concernées, notamment en termes d'épaisseur des zones poreuses, laquelle serait liée aux capacités de production de ces zones. A la différence des basses terres du Saint-Laurent, qui ont seulement du potentiel pour le gaz, les données de Pétrolia lui indiquent que la moitié nord de l'île d'Anticosti est propice à la découverte de pétrole. http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5gLOmrwDNJedTRegPTPZDRuoqO-Bw

Aging grande dame gets a facelift More than cosmetics for Montreal's Ritz-Carlton: The old, stone hotel is getting a glass addition - and condos HELGA LOVERSEED Special to The Globe and Mail January 22, 2008 MONTREAL -- Montrealers appreciate their old buildings and can get quite annoyed when somebody proposes a radical facelift to a historic edifice - recently, it was the glass cube addition proposed for the old Erskine and American United Church that raised the ire of the architectural heritage community. But a major facelift planned for a grande dame of Montreal - the Ritz-Carlton hotel - that includes a glass and steel addition across one end and the top of the century-old stone landmark has raised barely a whimper. That could be because the $100-million renovation is better than what was rumoured to be the alternative - seeing the hotel close. Far from closing, the hotel, which opened in 1912 with double rooms and a bath going for $4.50 a night, will be getting an extensive makeover to bring it up to modern standards, as well as to tap into a recent trend for hoteliers - offering condo units. The Ritz-Carlton, at the corner of Sherbrooke and Mountain Streets along Montreal's Golden Square Mile, was designed by famed New York architectural firm Warren & Wetmore. An imposing neoclassical building with terra cotta trim, it was inspired by the architecture of Robert and James Adam. Print Edition - Section Front Section B Front Enlarge Image The Globe and Mail It was the first hotel to bear the name Ritz-Carlton, (although it isn't part of the global chain) and at the turn of the 20th century, it epitomized opulence. Swiss hotelier César Ritz allowed his name to be added to what was to be just the Carlton Hotel, but with a number of conditions: Every unit had to have a bathroom, there had to be a kitchen on each floor, 24-hour valet service, a concierge and a sweeping staircase so that guests (gowned ladies in particular) could make a grand entrance. The Ritz-Carlton enjoyed many decades of prestige but by the 1950s it was showing its age. In 1957, a wing was added, and in 1970 the bedrooms were revamped. Now, Torriani Group, which manages the property, and its partners, Mirelis Investments Ltd., a Montreal wealth management and real estate financing firm, and Rolaco Group of Geneva, which has interests in real estate, insurance and banking, are undertaking its most profound makeover yet. "When we did the first renovations back in the 1970s, we built on the original template and that had its limitations," says Andrew Torriani, president and chief executive officer for the Ritz-Carlton. "We installed marble countertops, large shower heads and so on, which were the latest thing then, but now we're having to do much more than a cosmetic job. The electrical and mechanical systems have to modernized, the air conditioning rumbles and the plumbing is starting to calcify." In addition to updating the operating systems, the number of bedrooms and suites will fall to 130, from 229, to make way for the bigger bathrooms (with double sinks and separate shower and bath), demanded by today's travellers. The smaller number of rooms is also more appropriate for the size of the high-end hotel market in Montreal, according to Mr. Torriani. The 10-storey Ritz-Carlton will also be heightened by one floor and enlarged, with 35 private residences and 15 condo suites. The latter can, if owners wish, be rented out by the hotel, earning revenue for both. "By adding the condos and private residences, we can broaden the customer base," says Fernand Roberge, chairman of the Ritz-Carlton advisory committee. "The owners will be able to use the services of the hotel but, of course, the revenues from the sale of the residential units will also defray the cost of the hotel renovation." Adding a residential component to help finance construction or renovation is becoming a common practice among luxury hotel operators around the world (Fairmont and Four Seasons are two examples). Mr. Roberge, who has 40 years' experience in the hotel industry, is confident that this formula will work just as well in Montreal. Although the new condos are still at least a year away, he has already had more than 50 enquiries from would-be purchasers, through word-of-mouth referrals. The new luxury residences and condo suites will form an inverted L-shaped, glass and stainless steel shell across the top and west side of the hotel building - an addition that will contrast to the imposing limestone and terra cotta exterior of the original. "In doing this renovation, we didn't just want to imitate the old style," says Claude Provencher of Provencher Roy + associés, the lead architectural firm on the project. "So often that leads to a banal, pale imitation, which, frankly, doesn't respect the integrity of the original building. These faux add-ons tend to look awkward and we wanted to avoid that. "We wanted to preserve the integrity of the original Ritz-Carlton and to that end, we have designed something that is subtle, elegant and delicate. The look inside the hotel, though, will have the same ambience as the original. We wouldn't dream of tampering with that," Mr. Provencher says. The exterior stonework will be cleaned and the windows replaced, but the public spaces - the lobby, the Palm Court, the Oval Room and the popular Jardin du Ritz with its flowerbeds and duck pond - will remain much the same as before, albeit brought up to 21st century building standards. The major structural changes to the hotel will be the addition of a spa, a rooftop swimming pool and health club, and a remodelled restaurant, which in Montreal, with its fiercely competitive food culture, had ceased to be one of the city's top eating places. The grande dame of the Golden Square Mile is expected to don her new livery in just over a year's time. The building permits are in place and construction is expected to start later this winter. All that remains is to decide whether the hotel should close in the interim. That could be a bad public relations move, as people might think it is closing altogether, but, Mr. Torriani says, if guests are not staying in the hotel while the work is going on, it would speed up the makeover, allowing it to quickly rejoin the ranks of the world's most prestigious hotel properties.

niiiice!! !!

Nice d'entendre ça! Je crois pas qu'on a un fil parcequ'elles étaient complètent bien avant que mtlurb.com démarre!

Je suis d'accord, rien que 20 minutes de char ne peuvent régler.

alors on oublie ça d'attirer les banlieusards. L'offre de la banlieu est imbattable.

Très bien dit! J'ajouterais une point faible à ce qui à trait à "ré-attirer" les banslieusards en ville... c'est pas en construisant des petits condos de 800 pieds carrés qu'on va attirer ces gens là. Il faut que les condos puissent accueillir une famille typique de deux adultes et deux enfants.

Ok mais il est temps de ce réjouir sérieusement tout le monde! Le temps des gros projets à Montréal est bel et bien commencé! Pour moi, tous les projets du quartier des spectacles sont bien mieux qu'une seule tour de 40 étages! Je suis vraiment heureux, très heureux! Je vais bien dormir!

Montreal Croupiers Take Electronic Poker Table Battle to Court by PokerPages.com Mon, Jan 28th, 2008 @ 12:00am Three unions representing 1,450 croupiers at Quebec area casinos lodged a request with Quebec Superior Court to force the board that regulates gambling in the province, the Regie des alcools des courses et des jeux, to address complaints that the 25 automated electronic Texas Hold'em poker tables installed Jan. 18 at the Montreal Casino are illegal. The croupiers, who have been without a contract since Dec. 21, 2006, are in ongoing discussions with the Societe des casinos du Quebec. The croupiers say the tables are illegal and charmless. The PokerPro tables, made by PokerTek, a North Carolina USA-based company, do not meet Quebec's legal requirement that slot machines be pure games of chance, said Jean-Pierre Proulx, a spokesperson for the croupiers union, affiliated with the Quebec Federation of Labour. Proulx maintains that poker has a large element of strategy as well as chance, so should not be treated the same as a slot machine. The union has been waiting for a ruling from the Regie on the legality of the machines. 43 Electronic Tables Already Installed Besides the 25 automated poker tables installed at the Montreal, 13 have been installed at Lac Leamy in Gatineau and 5 in Charlevoix. According to Vito Casucci, a spokesman for Pokertek, the machines can deal 50 per cent faster than human dealers, allowing customers to spend their money faster. The union is concerned that casino staff may consequently lose their jobs and that the new poker rooms represent a trend toward more electronic games. According to a union spokesperson, the Regie has steadfastly refused to meet with them or confirm that a complaint against the introduction of the dealer-free machines has been lodged. The union filed a complaint with Quebec's alcohol and gaming regulator Dec. 7, arguing that the absence of a human dealer makes the tables illegal under Quebec law. "We are asking the court to make a ruling that the Regie has to meet with us," union spokesperson Jean-Pierre Proulx said. "They have not responded to our demands, they put our lawyer on hold and said they have no file of our complaint. Technically, the Regie is not doing their job." He said the croupiers' unions, affiliated with the Quebec Federation of Labour and representing workers from Montreal, Gatineau and Charlevoix, complained to the Regie twice in December and twice this month. Regie spokesperson Rejean Theriault said receipt of the complaints was acknowledged but the situation could not be analyzed until the machines were opened Jan. 18. "It's like investigating a murder when there's no body," Theriault said. http://www.pokerpages.com/poker-news/news/montreal-croupiers-take-electronic-poker-table-battle-to-court--30339.htm

amNY.com Extreme Commuter: From Montreal to Queens By Justin Rocket Silverman, amNewYork Staff Writer jsilverman@am-ny.com January 28, 2008 [/url] This Extreme Commuter rides a plane the way most of us ride the subway. Professor Adnan Turkey lives in Montreal but teaches computer science at DeVry Institute of Technology in Long Island City. He's been making that commute once a week for nine years, 45 weeks a year. Although the flight itself is only about 75 minutes long, getting to and from the airport makes it impractical to make the ride daily. Price is a factor, too. Flying directly from Montreal is too expensive even once a week, so for half the ticket price he drives across the border to fly out of Burlington, Vt. So every Monday at noon he leaves his house in Canada and makes that 2-hour trip to Vermont. He puts the car in long-term parking ($6 a day) and flies to New York, where he will sleep in a small rented apartment and teach until Thursday afternoon. Then he takes the flight and drives back home. Door-to-door it's about seven hours each way. "After working many years in Canada, I thought, 'why not come to New York City?'" he asks. "It's just next door and it's the capital of the world." Adnan knows of no other commuters on the Montreal/New York City run, and says many of the border guards laugh in amazement when he states his business in the U.S. Although the weekly $150-round trip JetBlue ticket, and the monthly rent in New York takes a bit out of his income (he won't say how much), Adnan says he has no plans to ask his wife, also a university teacher, and two college-age daughters to move to New York. Besides, money has never been his primary interest. "Education is a noble mission, so salary is not the No. 1 concern, at least for me," he says. "When I see the next generation of students learning and becoming skilled, that's my job satisfaction." Know an Extreme Commuter? Transit reporter Marlene Naanes wants to hear the story. Email her at mnaanes@am-ny.com Copyright © 2008, AM New York http://www.amny.com/sports/football/giants/am-commuter0128,0,4574142,print.story