The Corner Booth

As Consul General at the U.S. Consulate in Montreal, Robert P. Sanders experienced first-hand the change in tone between Canadians and Americans going from the Joe Biden administration to Donald Trump’s. The career  apolitical diplomat, who previously held posts in a variety of locales from Islamabad to Port-au-Prince, is wrapping up his time in Montreal, but not before joining hosts Bill Brownste...

Moving Day is coming up for more than 115,000 Montrealers on July 1, when a critical mass of Quebec leases expire, and it’s become a day housing advocates dread. “ This is a really tough day for the city. It’s funny, it used to be a day of transition. A day of newness. A day of hope. A day of change,” said James Hughes, president and CEO at Old Brewery Mission. With July 1 around the corner, Hughe...

Steven Guilbeault is stepping down from government. The Liberal MP for Montreal's Laurier—Sainte-Marie riding announced last month that he intends to resign his seat this summer, citing a desire to pursue the fight against climate change "in a different way." "I understand that, even before Prime Minister Carney was elected leader of the Liberal Party, that things were going to change. What I had...

Antisemitism has been front and centre in Montreal news the last two weeks. So when Projet Montréal announced its plan to bring a motion to council Monday condemning Israel for “genocide” of Palestinians, The Gazette’s Allison Hanes suggested the timing risked inflaming social tensions. Liberal MP for Mount Royal Anthony Housefather and CRARR executive director Fo Niemi joined hosts Bill Brownstei...

Did Prime Minister Mark Carney open Pandora’s Box by saying “50 per cent plus one” in a referendum would not be enough for Quebec or Alberta to separate from Canada? That’s the question posed this week to constitutional lawyer Frédéric Bérard, along with former MP and MNA Clifford Lincoln, on this week’s episode of The Corner Booth with hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand from Snowdon Deli.

On last week’s episode of The Corner Booth, Tom Mulcair said Quebec’s new premier, Christine Fréchette, was “steadfastly refusing” to speak English and steering clear of anglophone media. After a week where the CAQ leader had her first official meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron and the latest poll showed a bump in support for her party, Fréchette’s multi-hyphenate minister Christopher...

There might be a new premier in Quebec, but according to former NDP leader and Quebec Liberal cabinet minister Tom Mulcair, it’s the same old, same old CAQ coming out of the National Assembly.  ”This is where I see (premier) Christine Fréchette playing the same old games, a very divisive approach to politics, and I think it’s going to be very hurtful to her chances in the next election,” Mulcair s...

Ashkan Karbasfrooshan, an entrepreneur who founded online media powerhouse WatchMojo, has dealt with doubters his entire career. And the prospect of bringing the Montreal Expos back after Major League Baseball moved them to Washington after the 2004 season, has brought out the skeptics. But that isn’t stopping Karbasfrooshan, and he joined hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on this week’s episod...

The streets of Montreal went viral on social media this week, but for all the wrong reasons. Feigang Fei, who owns the restaurant Cuisine AuntDai on St-Mathieu St. Frustrated with the lack of progress on Ste-Catherine St. W. roadwork, he posted a photo on X of a construction site sitting empty on a sunny day. Fei, along with Ville-Marie city councillor Leslie Roberts, joined hosts Bill Brownstein...

Douglas Dixon knew about Alligator Alcatraz, the infamous immigration detention centre in Florida operated by ICE. But never in his wildest imagination did he think he'd end up there in shackles. Now back in his native Montreal after 21 years in the United States following his deportation, Dixon shared his harrowing story with hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on the latest episode of The C...

Perhaps no Montrealer bleeds bleu, blanc et rouge more than The Sick Podcast's Tony Marinaro. So after all the hours poured into watching, analyzing and commenting on the Montreal Canadiens, does Marinaro think the young Habs have a fighting chance against the more battle-tested Tampa Bay Lightning? That's the question posed to him by hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on this week's...

The Montreal area is the epicentre of the Canadian political landscape this week. The federal Liberals, including Prime Minister Mark Carney, are in town for their policy convention. Tomorrow, the next CAQ leader will be announced a hop, skip and a jump away in Drummondville. Then on Monday, the riding of Terrebonne will decide their next member of parliament in a byelection that will reverberate...

Everyone is looking for a break at the grocery store these days, even former Gazette fine-dining critic and cookbook author Lesley Chesterman. " It's unbelievable the amount of money that we're all spending on food these days. I mean, we're all talking about gas, but let's talk about the price of beef, the price of coffee, the price of chocolate. "All of these things have...

Montreal police Chief Fady Dagher announced on Thursday the SPVM's five-year plan to root out discrimination within its force and in how it deals with the general public. This week, Dagher joined hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on the latest episode of The Corner Booth at Snowdon Deli to explain why he considers himself "part of the solution" when it comes to weeding out racism...

Depending on how you look at things, Montrealers can be considered a pretty optimistic bunch. On the one hand, according to the recently released annual World Happiness Report, Canada has slipped to 25th among countries. “But if you separate Quebec, they’d be fifth,” observed Gazette columnist and author Josh Freed, who is this week’s guest on The Corner Booth with hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron...

The Montreal Olympics are turning 50 this year. And to mark the anniversary, The Gazette’s own Terry “Aislin” Mosher has returned with a new book titled Jean Drapeau’s Baby, a visual memoir of the Montreal Olympic Games, featuring his favourite cartoons from this exciting time in Montreal’s history. The longest running continuously working political cartoonist in North America joined hosts Bill Br...

The spectre of trade tariffs under U.S. President Donald Trump continue to loom over Quebec and Canada. Quebec’s business community greeted the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling last week against Trump’s tariffs with tempered expectations, and then Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said the exact timing of a potential referendum within a first mandate of a PQ government had to remain adjus...

This week, Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette said anglophones are “invaluable”, helped build the province and are full-fledged Quebecers amid tensions over language and constitutional issues. But former MNA Robert Libman and TALQ director general Sylvia Martin-Laforge aren’t buying it. They joined hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand on this week’s episode of The Corner Booth at Snowdon Deli t...

Soraya Martinez Ferrada is about to reach her first 100 days as mayor of Montreal, and a lot has happened so far. On this week's episode of The Corner Booth with hosts Bill Brownstein and Aaron Rand, the mayor talked about entering city hall having to deal with STM strikes that paralyzed the city. More recently, she went viral on social media for blowing out the tires of her car on potholes on...

Jacques-Cartier MNA Gregory Kelley has been caught in the middle of the Quebec Liberal Party crisis. His wife, fellow MNA Marwah Rizqy, was suspended from caucus in November for firing her chief of staff, Geneviève Hinse, without consulting then-party leader Pablo Rodriguez. After weeks of pressure, Rodriguez resigned as leader amid allegations over fundraising. Rizqy remains out of the party, but...

Charles Milliard is the last man standing in the race to run the Quebec Liberals. The runner-up less than a year ago to Pablo Rodriguez was teaching at Bishop's University when controversy unfolded in the party, which thrusted the political neophyte back into the leadership conversation. With the only other known candidate, Mario Roy, not being permitted to run, the coast is clear for Milliard...

In the wake of Premier François Legault’s resignation announcement last week, there’s a void in Quebec politics a number of suitors are looking to fill. One of them is Conservative Party of Quebec Leader Éric Duhaime. He’s trying to differentiate his party from the sovereignist Parti Québécois, as well as the Quebec Liberals and Coalition Avenir Québec, who are both looking for new leaders. Will Q...

It was not a total surprise François Legault resigned as Premier of Quebec this week. But the timing of it caught many off-guard. Legault's resignation on Wednesday sent shockwaves across the political landscape, and with a provincial election coming up in October, there's even more uncertainty about what's to come for Quebec. To make sense of it all, former Quebec Liberal cabinet mini...

In the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's ousting of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro and his increased rhetoric about annexing Greenland, how worried should Canadians be about entering Trump's crosshairs? Two Americans living in Montreal — Jacob Blanc, Associate Professor, McGill University and Graham G. Dodds, PhD, Political Science Professor, Concordia University — joined hosts Bill...

Times have changed in the world of organized crime. Not only are things becoming less and less centralized, younger people — including teens — are getting involved. With the criminal underworld in flux, will Montreal police be able to adapt to these new challenges? Retired police detective Pietro Poletti shared his unfiltered thoughts on the state of organized crime and Montreal police with hosts...