Montreal Art Center Attracts Cultural Clout to Thriving Griffintown District

One of downtown Montreal's last frontiers is "Griffintown".

Nestled along the north side of Lachine Canal between the Old Port, Old Montreal and Little Burgundy, At one time this area was the industrial heartland of an entire country. Where there used to be barges lined up waiting to go through the Lachine Canal locks loaded with chain and grain, now you are most likely to find aspiring actors and actresses lined up hoping to get on as an extra with one of the area's film studios or shoots.

One of the latest arrivals into this storied scenario is the Montreal Art Center. Located in a former engine works, the Montreal Art Center is already home to approximately 30 artists and will be adding more in the coming months up to a maximum of about 100 once the second stage is completed next year. The artists work in open concept studios and all have the opportunity to hang their work in their own spaces and in the main gallery. The Montreal Art Center is a private venture that neatly complements the condo developments and general atmosphere of the area, which also includes the Notre Dame St. antique dealers, the Lachine Canal National Park and cycle path. Also quite nearby are cultural features such as the Parisian Laundry art gallery and the reborn New City Gas complex, home to such events as C2-MTL, a "creative commerce" conference planned for May, 2012, in the structure, originally built in the 19th Century to provide light for the streets of Montreal.

Sun Media / Journal de Montreal Buries Electrolux Plant Closure News - 1000 Jobs Lost

Probably the most surprising thing about yesterday's announcement of 1000 jobs lost in the Electrolux plant closure in the Quebec town of L'Assomption, just NE of Montreal, was that it didn't make bigger headlines.

In fact, it was almost impossible to find out any reliable information about the closure at all if you get your news from Quebec's highest circulation newspaper, the Journal de Montreal, published by Quebecor's Sun Media . The print edition of yesterday's Journal had a medium sized headline on the front page, with an erroneous suggestion that the jobs were going to Mexico. Oh yeah, it also said see page 41. Guess what? The story was not on page 41.

The online edition of the Journal de Montreal "Canoe" or whatever they call it had not one word about the closure on the front page. In the business section ("Argent"), the story was one of four featured in a rotating cycle gadget at the top. So, Quebecor online readers in Quebec had basically a one in four chance of seeing the story if they looked at the "Argent" page. (how many Quebecois go to the Journal de Montreal for their business news? LOL). The story was given the same play in the Toronto Sun and the generic Canoe thingy. Unlike the front page of the print edition, the online story at least had the correct information that the jobs would be moving to Memphis, not Mexico, as detailed in the Montreal Gazette story linked above.

Why does Sun Media choose to cover up this story? Is the thinking that this closing will be seen as a Harper failure? Or is the idea more to save Electrolux (large corporation) from the wrath of little guy Quebecois  (labour) until the plant actually closes in two years time? Since the Journal de Montreal is written by replacement workers who file stories via the internet to avoid crossing picket lines, we know whose side this outfit is on when it comes to labour.

Or, quite possibly, the braintrust of Corporate Global Rule (of which Sun Media is obviously intent on becoming a PR arm of) is aware that the masses of lower class drones, who are fooled into voting Conservative and Republican, will only stay fooled up to a certain point. Obviously, the less the million+ readers of the Journal de Montreal find out about globalization costing 1000 of their neighbours' jobs, the better. Especially when the jobs are going to stiffs in Memphis who are already locked in at $13/hour, whereas the workers in L'Assomption are reportedly paid $18-20, according to a story in ruefrontenac.com, produced by the locked out journalists of the Journal de Montreal.