Visit my new blog: Metropolitan News.

As a print reporter, it’s depressing reading the web some (most?) days.

Steve Faguy has a story in today’s Gazette (and more on his blog) about how difficult Facebook makes it for users to extricate themselves from the “social-networking” site. It’s about Montrealer Steven Mansour, who has documented his efforts to delete his personal information from Facebook’s database. Why anybody would put all that personal information on Facebook in the first place, I’ll never understand. Anyway, just more reason to avoid Facebook.

Also today, on Radio-Canada’s Je l’ai vu à la radio, another Montrealer, Jessica Barker, was a guest, talking about how it’s much better to have real friends than Facebook ones. Her $23 “fuck facebook” t-shirts (pictured above) are proving very popular, she says.

I had a story in today’s paper about complaints by a new sovereignist group, the Réseau de Résistance du Québécois, that Montreal’s St. Patrick’s day parade is too English. The RRQ plans to crash take part in the parade even though organizers say the group is not authorized. RRQ members will be distributing leaflets and waving Quebec and Patriote flags.

Here’s a response from a reader who describes himself as a “bitter Irish man living in Montreal.”

Too English….I agree.
It should be Irish….. it makes me sick when I see a bar by the name of Sir Winston Churchill advertising their events for the celebration.
A good read…. thanks.

Eddie (bitter Irish man living in Montreal)

Not sure why this is news but someone has set up a website — Red Dot Campaign – to help Canadians say no to junk mail. The site has a sign you can print out and slap on your mailbox.

Two weeks ago, someone left a comment (scroll down to the 10th one) on a previous Don’t Mind Me posting, suggesting people take the advice of Dear Bulk Mailer. That U.S. website suggests you get back at junk mailers by using their no-postage-necessary return envelopes to mail them bricks. The idea is you’ll hurt their bottom line because they’ll have to pay for shipping the heavy packages.

Well, according to the the Red Dot Campaign FAQ, that won’t work in Canada. It says: “If the post mark states ‘Return Postage Guaranteed’ the company has paid to get the letter returned at a cost of about $1.25.”

It’s a first for me: a follow to a story that has appeared in the Lee Valley Tools newsletter and on the Home Improvement Show with Jon Eakes show on CJAD. But this school project was too cool to pass up. Here’s the top of the story:

Reinventing the wheel

Teen builds fully functional bicycle made entirely of wood – even the chain

By Andy Riga, The Gazette

Most kids listen absent-mindedly to their grandparents’ childhood stories.

Not Marco Facciola.

Inspired by his grandfather’s tales of life in Holland during the Second World War, the 16-year-old designed and built a unique school project: a fully functional bicycle made entirely of wood. Yes, even the chain. He used a bit of glue but no metal, plastic or rubber.

The bike is making him the toast of woodworking, cycling and environmental websites and may earn him an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman.

“I’ve ridden it only once for 15, 20 feet – I just wanted to make sure I could hand it in as a fully functional bike,” said Marco, a Grade 11 student at St. Thomas High School in Pointe Claire.

“It was a bumpy ride because there are no shocks and it’s not like a regular bike where the air in the tires absorb the bumps. But the seat’s comfortable – I carved it to make it fit me.”

Marco’s maternal grandfather, Case Vandersluis, often spoke of how as a teenager in Holland he had to build wooden wheels for his bike because tires were scarce because of a wartime rubber shortage.

Vandersluis went on to become a mechanical engineer.

The rest of my story is here.

For more pictures and Facciola’s first-person account of building the bike, read the Lee Valley Tools newsletter article. Or click here, to listen to Facciola on the Jon Eakes show.

Speaking of Eakes, back in prehistoric times when I covered technology for The Gazette, I wrote about his very helpful home-improvement website. He still has it and it’s still very helpful.

I’m three weeks behind on my TV watching so I just caught the Jan. 26 episode of 3600 secondes d’extase, Marc Labrèche’s show on Radio-Canada.

One of the skits involves an anglo pretending to be a francophone who tries to bring a petition to Air Canada to complain about its lack of French language services. It sounds vaguely familiar, though at no point did I throw an used tissue at a store window.

To see the clip, visit the 3600 secondes video vault and scroll down to “Clifford et Air Canada – extrait du 26 janvier 2008.” (That’s the day before my story ran.)

Yesterday and today, Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois has been talking up the need for – wait for it – more English in French elementary and high schools in Quebec, so that young people are bilingual by the time they hit the work force. Meanwhile, Liberal Premier Jean Charest is set to announce a toughening of Bill 101.

Marois says she wants to eliminate the hour per week of English that students in French schools currently get, beginning in Grade 1. Instead, she thinks it should start in Grade 5 and be more intensive, with courses such as geography and/or history taught in English.

I don’t understand the rationale for starting later. Research shows it’s easier to learn languages when you start at a younger age. My daughter is in Grade 2 in a French school. Six months into the school year, they’re still learning their colours (they were colouring in pictures of teddy bears last week). If you don’t know your colours in English by the time you get to Grade 5, how are you going to learn geography and history in English?

Environment Canada has some nifty new icons (like the one above) on its revamped website but why did they have to redesign the whole @#$%! page?

The old page allowed you to see the weather for the week at a glance. Now, you have to hover over the word “details” on the main page for individual daily forecasts, or look at the text version without the helpful graphics for a look at the whole week. Maybe I’m just too cranky and lazy.

Here’s how Environment Canada described the exciting changes, effective Jan. 23.

La Presse columnist Rima Elkouri has a column today with a different twist on the recent language dust-up. She interviewed to Marco Micone, an Italian-born Montreal writer. He has an interesting take on immigrants in Quebec and how statistics are being manipulated. More about Micone here (a bio) and here (a description of his poem, Speak What).

Here’s an excerpt from Elkouri’s column:

«Périodiquement, on nous replonge dans ce discours de la survivance qui est, selon moi, très passéiste.» Ce discours donne l’impression que, quoi que fasse l’immigrant, quel que soit son comportement culturel et linguistique, il ne va jamais satisfaire la majorité francophone de souche.

…

Même dans les cégeps anglophones, fréquentés par 40% des enfants de la loi 101, les effets de cette loi se font sentir, plaide (Micone). «J’ai enseigné dans un cégep anglophone pendant une trentaine d’années. Or, pendant les 10 dernières années, on entendait parler français dans les corridors. C’était des enfants de la loi 101 qui avaient fait le choix du cégep anglophone, mais qui parlaient français entre eux.»

Ne peut-on pas opposer à cet exemple celui d’élèves d’écoles secondaires francophones qui, dans la cour d’école, parlent anglais entre eux? «La situation est tellement complexe qu’on peut aller chercher les situations qu’on veut pour prouver son point», admet l’écrivain. Tout dépend de la façon dont on présente les choses. «Lorsqu’on veut faire peur au monde, on utilise l’indicateur qui est le plus susceptible de frapper l’imagination.» Si on dit que 3900 allophones, enfants de la loi 101, font le choix du cégep anglais, on peut estimer que 3900 sur 157 000 élèves, c’est une goutte d’eau dans l’océan. Mais si on parle plutôt de 50% d’allophones, c’est plus frappant comme statistique. Sauf que, dans les faits, les 4% d’élèves de langue maternelle française qui choisissent le collégial anglais sont plus nombreux (6000 élèves).

Une situation qui rappelle à Marco Micone une discussion qu’il avait eue avec le père de la loi 101 lorsque l’écrivain était militant, dans les années 70. «Un soir, on était cinq ou six au restaurant; Camille Laurin nous avait dit: la raison pour laquelle il faut une loi, c’est bien entendu pour obliger les immigrants à fréquenter l’école française, mais c’est aussi pour empêcher les 10% de francophones qui fréquentent l’école anglaise de le faire. Parce que ces 10% sont bien plus nombreux que tous les allophones.»

My Franco Comme Moi feature (about seeing what it’s like to be a francophone shopper in English parts of town) generated quite a few email responses from readers (and at least one online discussion). The reaction was mixed – I had a few anglos and francos telling me I got it bang on; a franco accusing me of glossing over the problem; and several anglos telling me that I was fanning the flames by exaggerating the problem of unilingual anglo store workers. Oh well – I guess the dialogue de sourds continues.

The Gazette is going to publish several email responses I received in the paper and online in the coming days. (UPDATE: HERE THEY ARE) I thought the exchange below with a francophone Gazette reader (yes, they exist) was particularly interesting. (I have not included the reader’s name because I have not asked whether she would mind being identified here. I also removed a sentence in the letter in which she refers to particular restaurants and stores in N.D.G. and Westmount where she has had difficulty being served in French.)

Reader:

Dear Mr. Riga:
I read your article this morning and frankly I was quite surprise because I am a francophone living in N.D.G. and it is very difficult to be served in French.
I do not make a scene when I speak in French and I am answered in English in a conversation with 3 or 4 exchanges but I can honestly tell you that it irritates the ‘@#$%*&?%$%’ out of me.
I do disagree with your article. I think you are sending an errouneous message.

Me:

Hi there,
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my story.
As I mentioned in the story, I did find some stores where workers resisted switching to English — and even I found it irritating, so I can see how a francophone would, as well. But I found that the extent of that situation seems to have been exaggerated.
We are hoping to publish some of the emails I have received about the article. Would you mind if we used your name?

Andy

Reader:

Dear Andy:
Thank you for having read my email.
When I sent it, I did not think it would be read.
Anyway, your email has reconciled me with the Montreal Gazette because frankly for the last 10 days I was beginning to believe that your newspaper had something against French Canadians.
We receive your newspaper at home and it is always a pleasure to read it, however, lately, I felt uncomfortable with the Gazette’s ”manufacturing consent” about the fact that only anglophones cannot be served in their own language in Quebec.
Yes you can print my reply, however, you must correct my mistake with the word ”erroneus”.
Do we have a deal ?
Thank you for publishing both sides of the story as an honest journalist should do.
Regards

Me:

Hello again,
I had spotted the spelling mistake and it is fixed.
As for your comments about The Gazette, I think sometimes nuances get lost in the language debate.
The anglophone community and The Gazette have changed over the past 30 years. One example: several other reporters here have decided, like me, to send their kids to French schools instead of English ones in order for them to get the best of both worlds. In fact, I’m technically an allophone (I learned Italian first) and my daughters are anglophones (they learned English first) but my grandchildren could very well end up being francophone…
Thanks again,
Andy

Last month, I repeated something I had read online about a way to use Montreal parking meters for evil. Fagstein jumped in to tell me I was wrong. Today, I finally got around to double-checking with Stationnement de Montréal, the outfit that runs the city’s parking meters. A spokesman told me that what I had read (and passed on) was an urban legend that several reporters have called him about over the years.

Say I put $2 in a meter for an hour of parking. Another person can’t come by a few minutes later and “reset” it to 7.5 minutes by inserting a quarter in a bid to try to get me ticketed. Basically, if someone does that, they’re just wasting a quarter because the higher amount is what counts, the SdM spokesman says.

Sorry about that.

I recently met Danny McFanny or was it Curly McFanny? I can’t tell them apart sometimes. They’re both members of the McFanny Family Singers, a little-known local group with four CDs under their belts. 

Among my family’s favourite McFanny songs (these are direct links to the MP3s; save them on your desktop, then click to listen) are Stop Farting, Froggy Went to Court, and Montreal. You can download all the songs from all four CDs for free from the group’s website. Because of a technical glitch, you currently can’t download the entire CDs (including the cover art) in Zip files.

Here’s the group’s first music video, starring Curly:

I had a piece in today’s paper about my personal undercover language investigation. I was initially going to write it as a blog item but it turned into a feature for the paper.

Here’s the top of it:

Speaking French in anglo ‘hoods
‘Francophone’ goes on shopping spree

ANDY RIGA, The Gazette

In Quebec’s long, tumultuous history of language squabbles, it might have been a first.

In one corner, me – an anglophone Gazette reporter – trying (politely) to be served in French as I returned some empties and bought a 6/49 ticket in Notre Dame de Grâce.

In the other, her – an anglophone cashier for a major grocery chain – insisting on answering in English until finally relenting and addressing me in passable French.

It was the only uncomfortable moment in Franco Comme Moi, my bid to see how the other half shops.

It’s not quite Black Like Me, the book by John Howard Griffin, where a white reporter underwent medical treatments to look black in 1959 to see what life was like for African Americans.

But for a week, I went undercover as a radical, unilingual French-rights activist, speaking only French to store, café and restaurant workers in more-or-less anglophone parts of town.

In October, I wrote about the old Seville Theatre and the abandoned Ste. Catherine St. West block it sits on. I also posted some comments from readers. 

Well, the theatre is in the news again. I had a story in today’s Gazette about work being done there this week. Since the owner (Claridge Properties Ltd.) isn’t talking, it’s unclear if this means there is going to finally be some action.

Here’s is today’s story:

New act for old Seville?

Boarded-up landmark is undergoing work to reinforce its facade, suggesting the owners might be preparing to sell

Andy Riga,
The Gazette

Passersby got a peek yesterday at the long-shuttered box office of the Seville Theatre on St. Catherine St. W., but it’s unclear whether the landmark building is about to be resurrected.

In an effort to reinforce the former theatre’s facade, which is protected by a heritage designation, workers removed wood panels that for years have covered the building at street level.

Steel beams and chain-link fencing were installed to support the Ste. Catherine-side wall, as well as a section on Chomedey St., where part of the wall collapsed in 1994.

The owners of the building informed the city the work was to be done but they have not submitted plans to redevelop the land, said Jacques-Alain Lavallée, a spokesperson for the Ville Marie borough.

The current work is not being performed at the city’s request.

“The owners’ engineers recommended it,” Lavallée said.

Officials at Claridge Properties Ltd., which bought the theatre and the rest of the block between Chomedey and Lambert Closse Sts. in 2002 for $10 million, did not return calls from The Gazette yesterday.

Claridge – an investment company controlled by Montreal’s Bronfman family – initially planned to create an environmentally friendly, mixed-use complex featuring retail space, offices, apartments and condominiums. That plan fell through.

The entire block (on the north side of Ste. Catherine) has been abandoned since October, when the last tenant, the Bombay Palace restaurant, moved out.

The wall-reinforcement work may be a sign Claridge is ready to sell, said Roger Peace, president of the Shaughnessy Village Association, which represents neighbourhood residents.

“We understand they’re trying to fix it up and clean it up to make it easier to sell,” he said.

The rest here.

While working on an upcoming travel column tonight, I came upon a strange line on a Via Rail website page that features Google maps.

“Please note that station locations on some Google maps may not be entirely accurate. We are currently verifying the exact locations of all our stations.“

Now, one would think Via knows where its stations are. If it’s referring to the Google maps on the page, is it possible Canada’s national rail service is relying on public maps created by who-knows-who? If so, why on earth doesn’t it just create its own maps?

Speaking of trains, I had a story in today’s paper about governments musing once again about a high-speed train along the Quebec City-Windsor corridor (and a tram-train linking downtown Montreal, Trudeau airport and the West Island).

Here’s the top of it:

Train comes full circle, back into vogue

Airport transit line, high-speed T.O. link suddenly feasible

By Andy Riga,
The Gazette

To understand why two long-mulled train megaprojects are suddenly in vogue again, visit Dorval at rush hour.

Streams of cars arrive and leave Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, often in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Motorists speed to and from Toronto on Highway 20. Planes take off for the short hop to Toronto. Travellers wait in long lines for taxis at the airport stand.

After decades of debate, study and neglect, some experts say the time is right for the proposed trains: a high-speed Montreal-Toronto rail link, and a light-rail transit line connecting downtown, the airport and the West Island.

Why now? Fuel costs are rising, there are growing demands to cut greenhouse gases spewed by aircraft and cars, and society is realizing vehicular traffic is a major drain on the economy.

- – -

The two train lines were front-page news on Thursday.

That day, the Quebec, Ontario and federal governments announced they will spend a total of $2 million to update previous feasibility studies of a high-speed train in the Quebec City-Windsor, Ont., corridor.

Premier Jean Charest praised such a train’s “social and economic benefits.”

On the same day, it emerged that transit authorities and all three levels of government are studying plans for a “tram-train” light-rail project to provide the first direct public-transit link to Trudeau airport. Serving commuters and airport users, it would run from the West Island to downtown.

“It’s a moment of repositioning,” said rail expert David Hanna, director of graduate studies in urban studies at the Université du Québec à Montréal.

“In the 1950s, society repositioned itself, saw the automobile as the fact on the ground and basically scrapped public transit and trains, and shifted very radically toward cars.”

Now, “I think we’ve turned full circle,” realizing it’s not economically or environmentally feasible to rely so much on road transport and air traffic, particularly highly polluting short-hop flights, Hanna said.

The rest is here.

On the final day of the last provincial election, I mused in my campaign column about whether Mario Dumont and “the ADQ (would) have to declare as an election expense the Journal de Montréal‘s sensational reasonable-accommodation exposés.”

This week, the Journal set its sights on the scourge of unilingual anglos working in downtown stores, and this time it’s Pauline Marois and the PQ rubbing their hands in glee.

CBC’s Daybreak had a good piece about the controversy this morning. Click here to listen to the audio (.ram file).