This Magazine

Progressive politics, ideas & culture

Menu

Montreal

January-February 2022

Uniting Montreal’s North

Grassroots collective focuses on community

Madeline Lines

A late summer day in 2008 changed everything for the community of Montréal-Nord, a multicultural suburban borough in the city’s north end. Fredy Villanueva, an 18-year-old Honduran refugee, was shot and killed by a police officer in a park. The shock of his death rippled through the tight-knit neighbourhood, sparking immediate outrage, rioting, and protests. […] More »
March-April 2018

Montreal group turns competitive skating into contemporary art

Meet Le Patin Libre

Allyson Aritcheta

Taking to the ice with smooth transitions and ever-changing focal points, contemporary ice skating company Le Patin Libre uses minimalistic choreography to create a performance that founder Alexandre Hamel calls “magical.” The Montreal-based troupe, founded by Hamel in 2005, focuses on providing a skating experience for its audience that’s free from competition and scores. “It’s […] More »
November-December 2017

ACTION SHOT: Montreal’s asylum seekers

Photo by Ryan Remiorz

This Magazine

On a sunny Friday afternoon this past August, families—many of Haitian descent—began crossing through the Canadian border from Champlain, New York. Suitcases in hand, they started their trek to Canada in search of asylum—and a new home. Early this year, President Donald Trump threatened to end a program that granted Haitians temporary protection after their […] More »
July-August 2017

Peek inside Canada’s only feminist bookstore

Montreal's L’Euguélionne carries 4,000 titles

Megan Jones@MegJonesA

On a Thursday evening in May, about a dozen women gather around a large wooden table at L’Euguélionne, Canada’s only feminist bookstore. The Montreal shop is filled with chatter as the crew, participants in a zine-making workshop, sift through piles of paper. Since it opened in December 2016, L’Euguélionne has become a hub, hosting public events like […] More »
July-August 2017

Should Canadians live on former industrial sites?

Public officials say sites along Montreal's Lachine Canal are safe for residents to live on—but pollution remains a problem

Patrick Maynard

The Lachine Canal is emblematic of Montreal’s revival. Tourists write about it. Modern condos sprout up next to it. A bike path running along the waterway is rated among the world’s best rides. But alongside the canal’s booming recreational offerings are the remnants of its industrial history. A review of a national database of federal industrial […] More »
November-December 2016

How one Montreal artist is creating stage magic for LGBTQ performers

Kama La Mackerel's new open mic offers a safe space for queer and trans Canadians to perform

Leah Lalich@LeahLalich

Photo by Pascha Marrow Asking Kama La Mackerel what her art practice consists of is not an easy question to answer, but one she reacts to with a smile and a warm, inviting laugh. From poet to photographer, curator to performance artist, the simple response, she says, is that she has never restricted herself. “It’s about letting […] More »

Gender Block: writing’s on the wall

Starchild Stela's radical softness

Hillary Di Menna

Growing up in a low-income household in a small Quebec town, Starchild Stela passed the time drawing. “It was one of the few things I felt I received validation for,” they say. As a teen they started to graffiti and moved to Montreal where they have been working since. Within the last five years the artist says they have become […] More »
November-December 2014

Dance your pain out

Maude Abouche

Montreal choreographer confronts street life, addiction, and the Canadian aboriginal experience As calls for a public inquiry into the many cases of missing and murdered aboriginal women in Canada go unheard by the federal government, Montreal choreographer Lara Kramer’s most recent piece, titled NGS (“Native Girl Syndrome”), could not be more timely. “Native Girl Syndrome” […] More »
July-August 2014

Pop culture: Every day I’m hustlin’

Alexandra Molotkow@alexmolotkow

Thoughts on the creative value of taking a break “MY LIFE IN MONTREAL WAS SO GOOD,” said the songwriter Sean Nicholas Savage in a recent interview for Bad Day magazine. “We did so many projects. We made tons of albums and we were making movies and just doing tons of shit all the time.” Savage […] More »

Friday FTW: May Day roundup

Catherine McIntyre

Labour rights were in the spotlight this week after a clothing factory in Bangladesh collapsed killing 400 employees—a timely tragedy for International Workers’ Day, or May Day, as it’s known. May 1 is an official holiday in 80 countries (Canada not included) and it’s celebrated with varying degrees of unrest just about everywhere else. May […] More »
May-June 2012

JJ Levine tackles sexuality with lens and scissors

Shannon Webb-Campbell

The fate of JJ Levine’s unconventional hair salon, Lesbian Haircuts for Anyone was in jeopardy this past winter. Levine’s salon has operated out of Bikurious cycle shop in Montreal for the past six years. In 2008, Bikurious owner Danielle Flowers sold the shop, which was then called Révolution Montréal, to two of her employees, on […] More »