Montreal Pride parade cancelled hours before event due to lack of volunteers
CTV News | August 7, 2022
Montreal Pride parade organizer Simon Gamache admits that they messed up when they cancelled the event at the last minute Sunday.
Gamache said he was made aware at 8 a.m. that they did not have the resources to go ahead with the signature event of Pride week that draws thousands to Montreal's downtown core.
"It's totally on our part that the mistake happened," Gamache told CTV News Channel Sunday. "We did not request all the resources we needed for today."
The biggest issue, he said, was that they "didn't plan appropriately to deliver the parade."
To hold a proper parade, organizers needed about 200 volunteers, and they were missing around 80, a third of what they needed.
Montreal First Peoples' Festival is a place to 'feel the Indigenous spirit'
Montreal Gazette | August 8, 2022
André Dudemaine was not impressed by the Pope’s apologies to Indigenous communities during his recent visit to Canada.
“The Pope was here to turn a page on a chapter from the past,” Dudemaine said. “And in our book, we are no longer there; we are elsewhere. We are looking at the present. We are looking at the future.”
Dudemaine is co-founder of the Montreal First Peoples’ Festival, a.k.a. Présence autochtone, the 32nd edition of which celebrates Indigenous culture in its myriad forms from Tuesday to Aug. 18. He is careful not to dismiss the reactions of those who were moved by the Pope’s gesture, but feels that his festival’s purpose lies elsewhere.
“So, good for the people who believe in the Catholic Church,” Dudemaine said, “and good for the residential school survivors who have been touched and relieved by the words of the Pope. We are not against that, obviously. But when you look at the work (the Montreal First Peoples’ Festival) has done during the last 31 years, and the work (festival organizer) Terres en vues and the festival have in front of us for the next 30 years, for us the Pope’s visit was very short. And without false humility, we think what we do is a lot more important.”
Montreal police investigating death of man found in garbage bin as homicide
CBC News | August 8, 2022
Montreal police are now considering the death of a man whose body was found in a garbage bin on Monday morning to be a homicide.
A sanitation worker made the discovery during garbage collection in the city's Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighbourhood near the corner of Adam Street and Letourneux Avenue.
Police say they received a 911 call just before 9 a.m. The man's death was confirmed at the scene shortly after.
Investigators say the man, who is in his mid-50s, bore signs of violence.
The death marks the city's 18th homicide this year. The investigation has been transferred to Montreal police's major crimes unit.
135-year-old Montreal pumphouse to be restored, used as learning centre
CBC News | August 9, 2022
It's been 70 years since Montreal's Craig Pumping Station managed the city's water system, but heritage advocates are hoping a restoration project planned for the historic building will highlight the impact it had on the city we know today.
"It saved Montreal from flooding," said Danielle Plamondon, co-founder of the heritage group Les AmiEs de la Craig, who has fought to preserve the site for years.
The pumphouse — one of the oldest in North America — sits abandoned and dilapidated under the Jacques-Cartier Bridge. But in 1887, it was one of Montreal's newest, built to prevent future floods after after the city's financial district was completely submerged in the spring.
Now 135 years old and useless after the construction of the seaway in 1959, I-beams bolted to the sides of the pumphouse keep the stone walls from buckling.
"It's our baby and for me, when I saw those beams, I said, 'Oh my God, she's crumbling and we need to take care of her,'" said Plamondon.
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