Dive into the Montreal stories you’re curious about and the issues you want to understand. From Laval to Longueuil and across the island, host Ainslie MacLellan explores the complexities of our colourful, vibrant and sometimes frustrating, but always interesting city. Every Thursday.
Montreal has long enjoyed a reputation as an affordable rent haven that has supported the artists that live, work, and make the city vibrant. But with rents skyrocketing and with most artists earning a lot less than the Montreal average, one listener asks: "How are artists affording to live in Montreal anymore?” We’ll also hear how parties in the municipal election are proposing to support local artists.
Candidates in Montreal’s mayoral race are making some ambitious promises to solve homelessness, including more social and transitional housing and new policies on encampments. But cities across Canada have struggled in recent years to respond to the growing number of people who find themselves living on the streets. So what will it take to change things? Reporters Kwabena Oduro and Ben Shingler spoke with people at one Montreal encampment and join host Ainslie MacLellan to talk about solutions....
MR. JEAN MARC RICHARD HAS WON A CASH PRIZE OF $833,337! In 1999, a letter with this claim from Time Magazine lands in a Montreal man’s mailbox. But according to the fine print, he's not actually a winner. Jean Marc Richard, feeling determined to get his promised payout, launches a court battle with one of North America’s biggest publishers. This week, This is Montreal shares an episode of the new CBC podcast See You in Court. Host Falen Johnson and journalist Craig Desson rip open the case of Ri...
The fatal police shooting of 15-year-old Nooran Rezayi in Longueuil has left a family and a community demanding answers. Reporter Matthew Lapierre explains what we know so far. We also hear why some worry an investigation by Quebec’s police oversight body the Bureau des Enquêtes Indépendantes (BEI) might not be enough to truly get to the bottom of what happened.
With Valérie Plante not running again, Montrealers will be choosing a new mayor when they go to the polls on November 2. On top of that, the city is dealing with some major issues: from housing and homelessness, to infrastructure and transportation. Journalists Ben Shingler and Sudha Krishnan look at how the campaign is shaping up, and why municipal politics may deserve more of our attention.
Whether straight, zig-zagging or curved, outdoor staircases are a fixture of many Montreal duplexes and triplexes. But how did a wintry city like ours end up with so many stairs to shovel? We’ll debunk some rumours step by step and hear how the evolution of the outdoor staircase is wrapped up in ideas about class, aesthetics and even morality.
In 2018, Quebec brought in restrictions on the use of neonicotinoids, a class of pesticides that had been shown to be harmful to bees. Now Vermont is becoming the latest U.S. state to take similar steps. In this episode from Vermont Public Radio Podcast Brave Little State, reporter Sabine Poux heads into the field with This is Montreal’s Ainslie MacLellan to find out what impact the restrictions have had on this side of the border.
As the school year begins, Quebec schools are still dealing with the aftermath of budget restrictions imposed by the province. Some parents worry that, even if specialized education positions are spared, they could still go unfilled. We hear from parents, a special education technician and a school psychologist who say meeting the needs of all students is an investment in our future.
Ribbed like a pumpkin, but with a spiderweb exterior like a cantaloupe, the Montreal melon was a wildly popular fruit in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but it all but disappeared by the 1950s. In this archive episode, we'll hear why some people are going to great lengths to try to restore the Montreal melon to its former glory.
From Verdun to Rosemont to NDG, wild turkeys have been popping up all over Montreal in recent years. In this archive episode from June 2024, we'll hear about the curiosity turkeys have spurred amongst Montrealers and get some advice for how to avoid accidentally running afoul of our urban bird neighbours.
From 1923 to 1983, the sounds of a rumbling roller coaster, carnival games, and the laughter of a giant animatronic woman invited people to Belmont Park, an amusement park along the Des Prairies river in Cartierville. In this episode from the archives, we take you through the twists and turns of the amusement park's history, tying together a former prime minister, a Quebec superstar singer, a Guinness World Record and a police raid.
Dive into the Montreal stories you’re curious about and the issues you want to understand. Host Ainslie MacLellan explores the complexities of our colourful, vibrant and sometimes frustrating, but always interesting city. Every Thursday.
If you check out a compass or maps app, you may notice our sense of direction in Montreal is a bit … tilted. Our "north" leans pretty far west and if you head over to the South Shore and keep going, you end up in the Eastern Townships — which are not in Eastern Quebec. In this favourite episode from March 2024, we try to help you find your bearings by exploring our off-kilter geography.
New housing developments, especially highrises that require zoning changes, can draw opposition from residents, in some cases leading to referendums on whether the projects can go ahead. While some argue referendums amount to NIMBYism during a housing crisis, others argue citizens should have the power to block projects that don’t meet neighbourhood needs.
No matter who wins the NBA finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers, a Montrealer will be hoisting the trophy. And perhaps no one is cheering harder for both the Pacers’ Bennedict Mathurin and the Thunder’s Luguentz Dort than people in Montréal-Nord. We’ll hear from Montrealers who love basketball about their sport in their city: how far it’s come, how far it can go, and what it takes to get there.
This week’s strike by maintenance workers has left many commuters out of luck. The labour action is happening at a time when the STM is facing pressure to cut costs, all while facing some major maintenance challenges over the next decade. We’ll look at what this all means for workers and Montreal transit users in the long term.
Quebec is aiming to open up trade with other provinces, but the province says cross-border alcohol sales will take more time to sort out. Some small producers say change can't come soon enough because they have been getting the bottom of the barrel.
Since the federal government scrapped its carbon tax, Quebec stands alone as the only province with its own price on carbon. Now the Quebec government is facing calls from some corners to eliminate it, in order to bring down the price at the pump. But some experts say that would put us even further from our climate goals. And some Quebecers are still trying to wrap their heads around what exactly we’re paying — and where the money goes.
With another spring pothole season upon us, we’re digging into the archives to ponder Montreal’s pothole problem. We’ll get into the science of potholes, their impacts, and what we could be doing differently to deal with them.
Between the West Island and the South Shore and stretching all the way from Ile-Perrot to Lachine, you'll find Lac Saint-Louis. But is it a lake? Is it just part of the Saint Lawrence River? Or is it both? The answer is more complex than you might think.
We head to the Montreal Climate Summit to hear how environmental advocates are trying to reshape their message about climate change, to emphasize how it’s hurting the health, homes and finances of Montrealers.
With the city's summer festival season around the corner, Montreal's festivals are in fundraising mode. But post-pandemic, and faced with rising production costs, some say independent festivals need more support to keep going--and to keep Montreal's reputation as a world-class city for arts and culture alive.
With the cost of groceries on the rise, more Canadians are turning to food banks to feed themselves. In this episode, as we approach the end of the federal election campaign we look at why food has gotten so expensive and what solutions are being proposed to make grocery shopping more affordable.
From the cost of buying a home, to the climate changes hitting North America, many of the top issues for voters are also top of mind for young people, and central to their futures. So why do young people show up to the polls in fewer numbers than other generations, and what can be done to get more of them to cast their ballot?
In the shadow of U.S. tariffs, reviving pipeline projects has been up for discussion in this federal election campaign, even in Quebec, where opposition has been strong in the past. So how did Montreal go from the city where half a million people marched for climate action, to a place where the environment seems barely on the ballot?
Montreal rents are rising sharply. The median price of a single family home has more than doubled in a decade. So what can the next federal government do to get housing built more quickly?
Usually, it might be Quebec sovereignty that’s on the table come election time. But this time around, with U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats of tariffs and annexation, some Quebec voters, like those in the rest of Canada, have Canadian sovereignty on their minds. We’ll look at what that might mean for the electoral map in Quebec.
Those white plastic temporary car shelters — known as tempos — pop up in driveways in many Montreal driveways each winter. Those who love ‘em say they save the time and hassle of digging out their cars after a snowstorm. Those who hate ‘em say they’re an eyesore at best and a potential hazard at worst. We’ll hear how they became a Quebec winter phenomenon and why, more than fifty years after they hit the market, some Montreal residents are pushing to be allowed to put them up in their driveways....
For some it was the choppy sound of a video call. For others, it was tuning into the daily news briefings. For others still, it was the voice of a patient saying goodbye to loved ones who couldn’t be with them in their final hour. Five years after Quebec declared a public health emergency over COVID-19, five Montrealers reflect on what they remember most about the early days of the pandemic and how their lives have changed since.
Many Montreal families may be heading off-island to hit the ski slopes for March break this week. But throughout most of the 20th century, you could find downhill ski runs on and around Mount Royal, complete with tow ropes, T-bars and even a 100-ft long ski jump! We'll hear why downhill skiing disappeared from the heart of Montreal, and why not everyone agrees over whether it should come back.
