City in brief: Sept. 14, 2010

Class-action success

Montrealers, take note: sometimes it’s better to work in numbers. The Montreal Gazette reported that a Sept. 3 judicial ruling called for the city’s blue collar union to pay $2 million to Montrealers who suffered damages and injuries during an illegal strike. The union went on strike for about a week in Dec. 2004, and ignored a call to return to work. Since workers were not spreading salt or sand on the sidewalk, the streets and sidewalks turned icy and dangerous. In another decision rendered that same day, Quebec Superior Court Judge André Prévost ruled that Yves Boyer can proceed with a class-action lawsuit against the Agence métropolitaine de transport. The suit is in the name of commuters who were delayed by the constantly late or cancelled trains on the Deux Montagnes and Dorion-Rigaud lines during the months of January and February 2009.

Munroe-Blum talks, McGill slips

McGill principal Heather Munroe-Blum tried to convince a National Assembly commission on culture and education on Sept. 7 that Quebec’s universities need new funding models with higher tuition.The McGill Daily reported that Munroe-Blum faced some hard questions from MNAs, like the Parti Québécois’ Marie Malavoy who stated that she felt “anxiety’ about McGill’s direction with tuition. Malavoy also said she worried that the school is headed towards a North American school model where “the richest schools can attract the best students… and where the poorest remain on the periphery.” Universities make presentations to the 12-member commission every three years. The Daily also reported that the McGill delegation brought a barrel of apples from McDonald campus with them to the commission. Suck-ups.

Top schools shmools

In other news, McGill slipped a notch in international school rankings announced on Sept. 7. The 2010 QS World University Rankings had McGill as 19th in the world, one lower than last year, on the 500 school list. The ratings are handed out according to a number of factors, including the number of international faculty and academic peer review. The “Harvard of the North’ is the only Canadian school to place in the top 25, while the Universities of Toronto, Alberta and British Columbia also ranked in the top 100. Another six Canadian schools made the list, but Concordia missed that boat.

Midnight Poutine likes our food

Montreal blog Midnight Poutine posted a comparison on Sept. 6 of McGill and Concordia in a “face-off in a battle of the best around-campus food and drink.” The evaluation, posted by one “Amie’, crowned McGill ghetto’s Lola Rosa as the best vegetarian food over Bishop Street’s Burritoville. Apparently, they preferred Lola Rosa’s atmosphere over Burritoville’s “bohemain’ air. The Frigo Vert got a mention as the best takeout vegetarian food, with its samosas and sweet potato cinnamon loaves and Cafe Myriade on Mackay Street was selected as the best campus coffee. The Kanda all-you-can-eat sushi restaurants at both campuses were given the thumbs down with the following missive: “Sushi, like sex, is about quality, not quantity. At least sex won’t make you sick…well, give you food poisoning anyway.” Yum.

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