There are more news stories on Autumn Kelly, but clearly nobody's digging up any dirt on the Pointe Claire woman marrying into the royal family tomorrow. British media are raising a few implied eyebrows over her plebeian background, and the National Post managed to find some priest to tut tut about her abandonment of her Roman Catholic "faith" in order to join her husband's Church of England, but that's a reach in a time when most people under 60 use a church only for the occasional wedding or funeral. After tomorrow, let's hope this remains a non-story. posted at 09:07

 
The city's Chinese community is raising funds to send to Sichuan to help victims of the recent terrible earthquake. posted at 08:59

 
The University of Montreal plan for its Outremont campus has won an urban design award – even though not a sod has been turned yet. posted at 08:56

 
Even though it opened officially last month, downtown's newest big venue, Salle Telus, won't be ready for general use till this fall – and, with Bell and Videotron sponsoring the big festivals, they're not likely to want to do shows in a hall named for a competitor. posted at 08:53

 
A quick look at several of the city's smaller museums as Museums Day approaches this Sunday. posted at 08:39

 
A slow summer is expected in local tourism, what with the strong loonie and other factors; Tourisme Montreal has certainly pulled out all the stops in its new "Montreal in two minutes" video.

Montreal remains a popular destination for sex change operations: although Quebec won't pay for them, other provinces will. posted at 08:28

 
I'm holding a printed copy of today's Mirror here (their website always goes up later on Thursday, so I can't yet link) and am pleased to see that this blog came in #3 in its category, after Midnight Poutine and Pregnant Goldfish, the latter of which I've never looked at. But the Poutine crew deserves congratulations. posted at 09:17

 
Municipal affairs minister Nathalie Normandeau now says she will make her decision on the division of metropolitan powers in two weeks' time. The suburbs are said to be fighting hard to get their 13 percent of the island's population recognized. I can tell you one thing: whatever solution the minister proposes in Bill 22, it won't last long. posted at 07:41

 
Concordia gets a gift from the Jesuits and McGill has bought the adjoining Anglican college now that Anglicans are down to less than 1% of the city's numbers. posted at 07:30

 
La Ronde opens this weekend for the summer season. posted at 07:26

 
Crime figures are down although some downtown residents still complain about prostitution and drug dealing. posted at 07:17

 
By chance, maybe, today La Presse is looking at medical errors made in our hospitals and the Journal at a specific instance of error: a north-end hospital that allowed a distraught patient to wander off and make a suicide attempt that was ultimately successful – a type of incident that's been seen before. But when emergency wards are overcrowded and understaffed it's inevitable that a few people will slip through the cracks every year. posted at 08:12

 
The municipal affairs minister's promise to solve the chronic power struggle within the metropolitan agglomeration by June has been dealt away in a political deal. It's not something that can be fixed by decree, anyway – the merger-demerger debacle has demonstrated that. posted at 07:59

 
The STM is promising better bus service in the western parts of the island; plans for a fast train link to Quebec City are on hold, waiting on endless studies. It only takes 3 hours to Quebec anyway, which makes little sense of the idea, although the point is made that the tracks between here and there are often busy. posted at 07:52

 
Many folks have no doubt noticed the postering campaign up and down the Main, urging that it be renamed for Lucien Rivard, a colourful Quebec bandit of the 1950s and 60s. Turns out it's a viral marketing stunt to promote an upcoming film by Charles Binamé; there's also a website here.

(I've also been told there's virtually no chance of removing any saint name from any Montreal street in the foreseeable future, due to longstanding sacerdotal clutch on city hall heart strings. This came up a few years ago when the Haitian community was asking about renaming Saint-Dominique.) posted at 07:39

 
The race track is being repaired and other little improvements added for next month's Grand Prix race. posted at 06:53

 
Yesterday's three provincial by-elections snubbed the ADQ, returning the PQ in two Montreal ridings and the Liberals in Hull and leaving the National Assembly balance unchanged. posted at 08:13

 
Pointe Claire enclave is all of a twitter over their part in this weekend's royal wedding. posted at 08:09

 
An interesting look at how independent video stores survive in a competitive market. posted at 07:56

 
This is the kind of piece Le Devoir can do so well: pondering what "forever" means in law specifically as applied to the land donated by Louis-Joseph Papineau for a public square, it first makes the case for allowing such things to be changed over time, and then the opposing arguments for letting the legacy stand. posted at 07:53

 
The Journal has some pretty specific details about the activities that got Selwyn House teacher Richard Doucet nabbed by U.S. police, although I have to say that the "super-flic" who spends not only his work hours but his evenings and weekends posing as a 13-year-old boy on chatrooms does not sound entirely happy either. Doucet remains jailed in the U.S. and may face more charges soon. Also an old boy's thoughts about the school – from Toronto, of course. posted at 07:47

 
The Bouquinistes who've set up Paris-style bookstalls along the Old Port yearly since 1992 won't be appearing this year because, in the end, it hasn't been profitable. posted at 07:21

 
The Vision Montreal party has dwindled since the departure from politics of its initial leader, Pierre Bourque, but the acclamation of Benoît Labonté as its new leader will either revive it, or consign it to the dustbin of history. But do we really need a year and a half of campaigning before the November 2009 election? posted at 07:31

 
Shopkeepers along Mont-Royal Avenue plan a march this evening to protest the city's treatment of their commercial area: high parking fees and those condos being built over the city parking lots are sore points.

(I understand their annoyance, but why don't they do more to emphasize their street as a walking street, and its easy accessibility by metro and bus? Surely nobody who's not disabled actually needs to drive to shop along Mont-Royal?) posted at 07:14

 
Water from Lake Ontario has been held back so's not to flood Montreal's ports, but the headline on this story seems chosen to build melodrama. posted at 07:05

 
A venerable and much-decorated firefighter on the brink of retirement says the escalating struggle between the city and its fire service has to stop or the public will inevitably suffer. posted at 07:01

 
A look back to an incident in 1936 that displays the cautious approach of Canada and Quebec to Nazi Germany before war broke out. posted at 20:05

 
The new area code 438 will slowly be coming into use, mostly for cell phone service at first; it's meant to provide more numbers for the 514 zone. posted at 19:57

 
The news that another Selwyn House teacher has been accused on pedophilia-type charges has upset students and parents at the tony private school. However, this time the suspect was entrapped online by U.S. investigators, and no charge has been made against his conduct as a teacher. posted at 10:56

 
Some of the British are getting only a bit excited over the marriage of Montrealer Autumn Kelly to the Queen's grandson next week, although some remain refreshingly snide. posted at 09:56

 
Guy Lafleur is still thinking about the Habs' season, how it went and how it might have gone differently; a La Presse writer also looks back, perhaps a bit wistfully. posted at 09:41

 
The tam-tam gathering in Mount Royal park is marking its 30th year this year but its origins are a matter for a little bit of debate. posted at 08:11

 
It's free compost weekend at the Saint-Michel environmental complex and several other locations. You need to bring your own shovel and containers and proof that you're a Montreal resident. posted at 13:59

 
Controversial airport flight path may be abandoned after protests, but of course the planes have to go over somebody's house sometime. posted at 11:00

 
Montreal Underground Film Festival runs next week, and the lineup's been announced for next month's Suoni per il popolo festival. Festival season is upon us. posted at 10:52

 
Museums Day, coming up on May 25, promises to be a good one this year, falling at a time when some exhibits are drawing to a close and others will have just opened. The Musée d'art contemporain is holding a huge "triennale" show, the Fine Arts show of Cuban art will still be open, and various special events are planned. posted at 10:02

 
Continuing opposition to the plan to "modernize" Notre-Dame East into a highway, plus thoughts on the utility of covering up the Ville-Marie and reclaiming the urban space lost when construction of the trench highway erased rue Vitre and its surroundings. posted at 09:44

 
The city is temporarily trapping raccoons on Mount Royal so they can be vaccinated and microchipped. posted at 09:09

 
Montreal municipal court tiptoes into the new century with a plan to find ways of helping homeless people suffering from mental disorders, rather than putting them in the slammer for not being able to pay fines. posted at 09:03