City Of Montreal Research Articles

Between Realism and Revolt: Governing Cities in the Crisis of Neoliberal Globalism

Between Realism and Revolt explores urban governance in the “age of austerity”, focusing on the period between the global economic crisis of 2008-9 and the beginning of the global COVID-19 pandemic at the end of 2019. It considers urban governance from the perspective of governability. How did cities navigate the crisis and the aftermath of austerity, with what political ordering and disordering dynamics at the forefront? To answer these questions it engages with two influential theoretical currents, Urban Regime Theory and Gramscian state theory, with a view to understanding how governance enabled austerity, deflected or intensified localised expressions of crisis, and generated more-or-less influential political alternatives. It develops a comparative conjunctural analysis of case studies in the cities of Athens, Baltimore, Barcelona, Greater Dandenong (Melbourne), Leicester, Montreal and Nantes, and concludes by highlighting five characteristics that cut across the cities unevenly, with different tonalities and in different configurations: economic rationalism, weak hegemony, retreat to dominance, weak counter-hegemony and radically contagious politicisations. The book can be ordered online from https://bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/between-realism-and-revolt.

Managing Recreation in New York's Adirondack Park: A Case Study of Public Perceptions and Preferences for Reducing User Impacts to the High Peaks Wilderness Complex

This qualitative case study research investigated public perceptions and preferences regarding management options for addressing recreational impacts to the High Peaks Wilderness Complex (HPWC) in New York State’s six-million-acre Adirondack Park. The Park is the largest in the contiguous United States, attracting local and international visitors from Philadelphia, Montreal, Boston, and New York City, major cities within 350 miles of the HPWC. The Park saw 12.4 million visitors in 2018, resulting in crowding, trail erosion, clandestine trails/campsites, water pollution, and plant/wildlife impacts. Data was gathered from 1,200 individuals via an online questionnaire, semi-structured interviews with NGOs, community influentials, and agency representatives, and participant observation. Findings showed the public strongly supported passive management options such as increased funding for education, trail reconstruction, enhanced management of the HPWC, and the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) promotion of alternatives to the most popular wilderness trails during busy months. The public was split in their support of direct management techniques such as temporary trail closures, limiting the number of hikers, and mandatory permits for hikers/parking. NGOs expressed a diversity of preferences for direct wilderness management, but widely supported enhanced education, trail improvements, and funding increases for management and the hiring of more rangers. The results of this research provide insights for improving management practices that facilitate sustainable recreation while also protecting and restoring federal and state designated wilderness. This manuscript culminates in a suite of management implications based on our research findings, including filling all vacancies within the Adirondack Park Agency Board with professionally and culturally diverse individuals, including women, Tribal representatives, minority communities, environmental attorneys, natural scientists, and regional planners. Funding should be allocated for the hiring of additional rangers, Summit Stewards, and trail crews, for enhanced trail maintenance and hiker education efforts. We also recommend implementing the Wildland Monitoring Program in order to better understand trail carrying capacity and ecological limits. Limiting the number of hikers/vehicles through a permit system is but one solution if efforts to heighten ranger presence, education, and improve trails all fail to address resource degradation.

From compromise to counter-insurgency: Variations in the racial politics of community policing in Montreal

Community policing is a varying operation. Recent scholarship has attempted to grapple with this variation by examining differences in the way community policing operates across space (e.g., from neighbourhood to neighbourhood), but has problematically overlooked the issue of variation over time. Aiming to analyze both geographical and historical variation, this article examines community policing in the city of Montreal between 1978 and 1994. In this period, I argue, community policing embodied at least three distinct logics, each of which were linked to variations in the racial politics of the city: (1) a logic of collaboration, (2) a logic of compromise, and (3) a logic of counter-insurgency. These three logics, emerging at specific points in time, were also specific in their geography. Documenting geographical and historical variations in community policing, I conclude, can help to link diverse forms of policing to the differentiated socio-spatial hierarchies that shape it and better contribute to the making of what Gilmore (2017) “abolition geographies.”

Aerosols in an urban cold climate: Physical and chemical characteristics of nanoparticles

Atmospheric aerosols are of significant importance in climate change and health research. This study provides a 2-years meta dataset of real-time aerosol number and size distribution measurements in a model cold-climate city of Montreal (Canada). We provide selected information on the chemical composition and morphology of aerosols (~10 nm to 10 μm). We deployed a suite of complementary techniques such as aerosol particle sizers, MOUDI, S/TEM imaging, EDS, QQQ-ICP-MS/MS, IC, and TOC analyzers. The highest geomean nanoparticles (<100 nm) number density (9260 ± 1.6 number/cm3) was observed in the winter. A broad range of metals, including emerging contaminants, was quantified in all aerosol sizes include Pb, Cd, Ni, Zn, As, Al, Mn, Co, and Se, with concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 67.64 ng/m3. Nanosize particles included Ni, Cd, Pb, Zn. Iron exhibited the highest concentrations consistently in two modes (<180 nm and > 1 μm). S/TEM-EDS confirmed the abundance of nanoparticles, single and clusters, with multifaceted morphologies and compositions. We identified (a) emerging nanoparticles, (b) secondary organic aerosols, (c) bioaerosols, and (d) combustion particles. Diurnal, weekly, monthly, seasonal, and yearly variations of aerosols are provided. We herein discuss the implications of these results on air quality and climate modelling.

3D VIEWPOINT OPTIMIZATION OF TOPOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS: APPLICATION TO 3D CADASTRE FOR VISUAL EASEMENT VALIDATION

Abstract. Offering optimum 3D viewpoint to user can be attractive in relieving occlusion in 3D scene. This could be much relevant for the visualization of 3D cadastral systems since they constitute complex datasets including both physical and legal objects while users are operating a number of visual tasks that require precise outlook. However, 3D viewpoint usability has yet to be evaluated to demonstrate its relevance in accomplishing given end user’s visual tasks. Hence, in this research project, the focus is set on visual identification of 3D topological relationships (disjoint and overlap) as it is one of the main users’ requirements in 3D cadastre. To this end, this paper addresses this issue using a virtual 3D model of the Planetarium Rio Tinto Alcan (Montreal city) in which property issues take place, especially regarding the easement validation procedure. Empirical tests have then been administrated in the form of interviews using an online questionnaire with university students who will specifically address such issues in their professional career. The results show that a 3D viewpoint that maximizes 3D disjoined or overlapped geometric objects’ view area within the viewport significantly outperforms traditional combined software points of view in visually identifying 3D topological relationship. This paper also suggests that user’s inexperience in 3D cadastre reduces visual task efficiency when visually identifying 3D topological relationship among overlapped geometric objects. Eventually, this study opens up new perspectives on 3D topological relationships modeling and visualization.

Space, Religious Diversity, and Negotiation Processes

After a literature review of space, urbanity, and religion, this article identifies some descriptive categories and analytical frameworks to theorize problems faced by religious minorities, especially Muslims, in obtaining space for their cemeteries and places of worship. A second section focuses on debates and an analysis related to these themes in the province of Quebec (Canada), especially in the City of Montreal, showing that while spatial dimensions rarely constitute an analytical category, this aspect is nevertheless a continual source of tension. The article illustrates how dysfunctional administrative processes have dominated the public scene in recent years. A case study shows how a few actors are exploiting provincial regulations in order to oppose public decisions that seek to accommodate the needs of Muslims, using a process for approving amendments to zoning bylaws by way of referendum. After a brief examination of the case related to a Muslim cemetery in a village near Quebec City, to shed light on the recent debates surrounding regulations, the article analyzes the decision-making process resulting in a failure to modify zoning regulations in order to welcome new places of worship in a borough of Montreal. While analyzing administrative and legal aspects, the article also exposes the complexity of the social and spatial dynamics at stake. Our conclusion is that any successful public policy on diversity must employ multilayered strategies, particularly to support space regulations with foundational intercultural and interreligious initiatives. It also brings attention to the perverse effect of some local participatory procedures, whereby a few actors maneuver to mobilize citizens, in order to resist the religious pluralization of space.

Religious Minorities and Struggle for Recognition

Religious minorities are increasingly present in the public sphere. Often pointed out as a problem, we argue here that the establishment of these minorities in Western societies is happening through struggles for recognition. Communities or individuals belonging to different minorities are seeking recognition from the society in which they are living. In Section 1, we present, briefly, our perspective, which differs from the analyses generally presented in the sociology of religion in that it adopts a bottom-up perspective. In Section 2, we present and discuss articles dealing with case studies in the cities of Barcelona, Geneva, and Montreal. In Section 3, we discuss two articles that present a process of individualization of claims for recognition. Finally, we present an article that discusses the case of an unrecognized minority in the Turkish school system.

Anthropogenic Photolabile Chlorine in the Cold-Climate City of Montreal

Chlorine atoms play a key role in the oxidative potential of the atmosphere and biogeochemical cycling of selected elements. This study provides a decadal analysis (2010−2019) of chloride ions in PM2.5 particles in the city of Montreal, where these are most concentrated systematically in the winter (up to 1.6 µg/m3). We also herein present the measurement of photolabile chlorine, which includes chlorine-containing compounds (e.g., Cl2, HOCl, ClNO2, ClNO3, and BrCl) that release chlorine atoms upon interaction with radiation, in urban Montreal, Canada using Cl2-RPGE (Cl2 Reactive Phase Gas Extraction) tubes and quantifying the chlorinated product by GC-MS. Photolabile chlorine in urban Montreal was measured during a discontinuous period primarily in summer 2018 and winter 2019 with a time resolution of 30 min, with concentrations ranging from 3 to 545 ng/m3 expressed as Cl2. The reported values are considered lower limits, as compounds such as HOCl and ClNO2 can only be partially converted in the current setup. The largest peak of gaseous photolabile chlorine occurred in the winter, when significant sources of anthropogenic salt are used in snow removal in the city. This coincides with observed chloride ion measurements in airborne particles, implying that anthropogenic salt addition produces photoactive chlorine. The maximum chlorine signal was consistently obtained during the daytime, which is in accordance with the tropospheric radiation profile. Complementary photochemistry laboratory experiments indicated that upon tropospheric radiation (340 ≤ λ ≤ 400 nm; UVA), an increase (20–100%) was observed, confirming the formation of Cl atoms from photolabile chlorine compounds. Thus, this portable technique is adequate for Cl atoms and photolabile chlorine-containing compounds upon photolysis using UVA lamps. High-resolution S/TEM and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were used to evaluate collected particle morphology and composition. The behavior of complementary pollutants (O3, CO, PM2.5, and NOx) was also briefly discussed. We herein discuss the measurement of photolabile halogens within a northern urban metropolitan environment and the impact of anthropogenic sources on chlorine concentrations.

Healthy built environment: Spatial patterns and relationships of multiple exposures and deprivation in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver

BackgroundVarious aspects of the urban environment and neighbourhood socio-economic status interact with each other to affect health. Few studies to date have quantitatively assessed intersections of multiple urban environmental factors and their distribution across levels of deprivation. ObjectivesTo explore the spatial patterns of urban environmental exposures within three large Canadian cities, assess how exposures are distributed across socio-economic deprivation gradients, and identify clusters of favourable or unfavourable environmental characteristics. MethodsWe indexed nationally standardized estimates of active living friendliness (i.e. “walkability”), NO2 air pollution, and greenness to 6-digit postal codes within the cities of Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. We compared the distribution of within-city exposure tertiles across quintiles of material deprivation. Tertiles of each exposure were then overlaid with each other in order to identify potentially favorable (high walkability, low NO2, high greenness) and unfavorable (low walkability, high NO2, and low greenness) environments. ResultsIn all three cities, high walkability was more common in least deprived areas and less prevalent in highly deprived areas. We also generally saw a greater prevalence of postal codes with high vegetation indices and low NO2 in areas with low deprivation, and a lower greenness prevalence and higher NO2 concentrations in highly deprived areas, suggesting environmental inequity is occurring. Our study showed that relatively few postal codes were simultaneously characterized by desirable or undesirable walkability, NO2and greenness tertiles. DiscussionSpatial analyses of multiple standardized urban environmental factors such as the ones presented in this manuscript can help refine municipal investments and policy priorities. This study illustrates a methodology to prioritize areas for interventions that increase active living and exposure to urban vegetation, as well as lower air pollution. Our results also highlight the importance of considering the intersections between the built environment and socio-economic status in city planning and urban public health decision-making.

FREDERIC-BACK PARK, MONTREAL, CANADA: HOW 40 MILLION TONNES OF SOLID WASTE SUPPORT A PUBLIC PARK

The City of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, took over the management, in 1988, of a former limestone quarry that was also used as landfill site. The surrounding population of this site was exposed to many nuisances related to the rock extraction and transformation and to the landfilling activities. So, the main goal of the city was to rehabilitate this degraded site, build a public park and give it back to the population. The site’s total area covers 192 ha. From this surface, 72 ha were devoted to the landfill. Over the years, 40 million tons of municipal solid waste have been landfilled. Building a park on such a large site that still produces landfill gas and leachate involves several major challenges. The priority was first to control the landfill gas and the leachate to minimize environmental risks and impacts. In parallel, a process involving design workshops, research, testing, brainstorming and topographical models was launched in order to develop the Master Plan for the park construction. The Master Plan provides the framework for teams working on the project, sets the guidelines for the site’s rehabilitation and phase-by-phase transformation based on the principles of sustainable development. The park construction was initiated in the mid nineties. Nowadays, 48 hectares are already open to the population. The Park will be finalized around 2026 and will then be completely accessible to the public. This is the result of a close collaboration between the Department of Parks and the Department of Environment of the City of Montreal.

Reconstruction of past backyard skating seasons in the Original Six NHL cities from citizen science data

This study conducted linear and change‐point analyses of historical trends since 1942 in the length and number of days suitable for skating on backyard rinks in the “Original Six” National Hockey League cities of Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Montreal, New York, and Toronto. Analysis is based on the relationship between ambient air temperatures and the probability of skating, using thresholds identified through the RinkWatch citizen science project. In all cities, coefficient estimates suggest the number of high‐probability skating days per winter is declining, with easternmost cities displaying notable declines and growing inter‐annual variability in skating days in recent decades. Linear analysis shows a statistically significant decline in Toronto, with a step‐change emerging in 1980, after which there is on average one‐third fewer skating days compared with preceding decades. The outdoor skating season trends towards later start dates in Boston, Montreal, New York, and Toronto. Future monitoring of outdoor rinks provides an opportunity for engaging the public in identification of winter warming trends that might otherwise be imperceptible, and for raising awareness of the impacts of climate change.

Profiling the Future: The Long Struggle against Police Racial Profiling in Montreal

ABSTRACT Racial profiling is an increasingly well-studied problem in Quebec. Efforts to combat this problem, in contrast, are virtually non-existent. Seeking to address this gap, this article examines the long struggle to combat racial profiling in Montreal. This struggle began in earnest in 1979. It saw its most significant achievements between 1984 and 1991 and it saw most of these achievements watered down and rolled back between 1992 and 1997. The struggle was finally reborn in 2008, with an activist-led movement that led to a new strategic plan on racial profiling in 2018. Tracing the history of this struggle serves two purposes. First, it reveals the divergence between the narrow range of measures adopted by the City of Montreal and the wider range demanded by Black, anti-racist, and other progressive actors. Second, it shows that the current strategic plan, while touted as “the most ambitious and far-reaching” effort in the city’s history, is actually a diluted version of the actions taken between 1984 and 1991, actions that did little, if anything, to reduce racial profiling. The present strategic plan signals a failure to learn from the past and points toward a pair of possible futures: one in which the status quo endures and racial profiling continues unabated, and one in which social forces are transformed, driven by the actions of people and organizations that have demanded more from the City, and that proposes a new political vision and a wider set of actions.

From Policy Challenge to Implementation Strategy: Enabling Strategies for Network Governance of Urban Resilience

What transformations do municipal administrations implement to enact a resilience policy? This article responds to this question from a comparative perspective by analyzing enabling and impeding mechanisms developed in the cities of Montreal (Canada) and London (UK) as they establish their strategies. Collaborative network governance and institutional work mechanisms used in Montreal and London are analyzed in connection with the influence of macro‐ and micro‐contextual elements under which a network can resiliently manage risk and crises. In both cases, the development of resilience emerges from their emergency management structures, as units in charge try to animate their new area of responsibility through collaborative governance. As a siloed approach this is embedded in daily routines, organizations with limited resources focused on shared motivation and values, collaboration across organizational boundaries and creation of joint capacity to implement resilience. This transformative process concerns the organization in charge of resilience in the municipal administration and the wider network that they build and animate.

A novel low-cost method for assessing intra-urban variation in night time light and applications to public health.

Night time lighting (NTL) pollution is a public health concern given its known impact on a range of health outcomes. The daily cycle of the hue of natural ambient light shifting from relatively blue-white light at noon to relatively yellow-red light at sunset is important for human functioning. Disruptions of the circadian clock can result in melatonin suppression, sleep and mood disorders, and increased risks of cancer in adults. Current measures of intra-urban variation in NTL are based on costly in-person or coarse satellite image-based assessments. The central objective of the current study is to validate a novel low-cost measure of intra-urban NTL variation. Estimates of red, green and blue NTL intensity were derived from a cloud-free night time image of the city of Montreal, Canada, taken from the International Space Station (ISS). The new measures are shown to converge with in-person assessed NTL and to predict known child health-related outcomes. Specifically, the results suggest that ISS-assessed blue NTL is associated with feelings of safety and self-reported health. In conclusion, ISS-based measures of NTL, particularly of blue NTL, are valid indicators of intra-urban variation in NTL for applications in public health. Limitations of, and future directions for, the method are discussed.

From the Editors

Montreal, December 2019 Dear Readers: The Council for Research on Religion (CREOR) is pleased to announce the first edition of its E-Journal, The Journal of the Council for Research on Religion. This first issue deals with the theme of “Religion and Violence,” a SSHRC funded colloquium that took place on April 17th - 20th, 2018. The colloquium was a collaboration between members of McGill and Concordia University, further details concerning the colloquium can be found on the following site: https://creorgraduate.wordpress.com/religion-and-violence-colloquium/CREOR is Montreal's first academic research council in the field of Religious Studies. The Council is an inter-disciplinary and inter-university entity drawing on the expertise and research interests present in the city of Montreal. It consists of members from the disciplines of Religious Studies and other disciplines within Arts, as well as from Education, Law and Medicine, and other disciplines, such as Management and Music. CREOR is based in Montreal and collaborates with researchers from Montreal based universities and colleges and from around the world. Editorial Team for the Religion and Violence Vol. 1Chief Editors: Dr. Gerbern S. Oegema Dr. André Gagné Graduate Student Editors: Amanda Rosini Elyse MacLeod David Anthony Basham

Sounds in the city: bridging the gaps from research to practice through soundscape workshops

ABSTRACT Sound has been relatively underrepresented in urban design considerations, especially the positive aspects of sound. Yet, a vast body of academic literature on urban soundscape could inform professionals. We report on workshops with iterative improvements, designed to bring soundscape research to practice. The two workshops were conducted as part of the Sounds in the City partnership, in collaboration with the City of Montreal. Different workshop formats are compared, and recommendations are furnished both in terms of promoting awareness of the role of urban sound and with the intent of informing similar knowledge mobilization activities for researchers in related environmental fields.

Report on the 2nd International Workshop on Robotics Software Engineering (RoSE'19)

The 2nd edition of the 2nd International Workshop on Robotics Software Engineering (RoSE) was held at the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE) in the city of Montreal, Canada, on the 27th of May 2019. The focus of this edition of the workshop was on multi-robot systems and facilitating robot programming. In this report, we rst present an overview of the workshop sessions before we highlight challenges identi ed in workshop's interactive discussion sessions.

The 42nd Annual Meeting of the Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology

The Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology held its 42nd Annual Meeting in the vibrant city of Montreal. This meeting brought forward diverse leaders, from early to veteran career scientists, women and underrepresented minorities, to discuss their research uncovering the

Impact of different control strategies of perforated curved louvers on the visual comfort and energy consumption of office buildings in different climates

Highly glazed façades in office buildings are often affected by excessive solar heat gains and daylighting. The use of exterior shading devices is one of the most effective strategies for controlling daylighting and solar heat gains through glazed façades and for maintaining the thermal and visual comfort. Exterior shading systems can either be fixed or movable (tilting and/or retracting). The latter are frequently used with control systems. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of four control strategies applied to a shading device made of movable curved and perforated louvers on the visual comfort and total energy consumption (for heating, cooling and artificial lighting) of an office space using integrated thermal and lighting simulations. The investigated control strategies were: an incident irradiance control, a vertical eye illuminance based control, a cut-off angle control and a blocking control. The obtained results were compared to those of three systems with fixed (unmovable) louvers. Simulations were performed for four cities with different climatic conditions: Montreal (Canada), Santiago (Chile), Boulder (USA) and Miami (USA). The assessment of the visual comfort was based on the spatial daylight autonomy (sDA) and simplified daylight glare probability (DGPs). The results indicate that, for the cities of Montreal, Santiago and Boulder, the optimal strategy is the ‘vertical eye illuminance control’, together with the ‘incident irradiance control’ in the case of Santiago. These strategies minimize the total energy consumption of the office space while ensuring visual comfort. In Miami, the best strategy corresponds to the ‘blocking control’ for the south façade orientation while blinds with fixed louvers (tilt angle of 60°) perform better than the active control strategies studied for the west façade orientation. The real world implementation complexity of each control strategy is also discussed.

Cost-effectiveness of Housing First Intervention With Intensive Case Management Compared With Treatment as Usual for Homeless Adults With Mental Illness

In the At Home/Chez Soi trial for homeless individuals with mental illness, the scattered-site Housing First (HF) with Intensive Case Management (ICM) intervention proved more effective than treatment as usual (TAU). To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the HF plus ICM intervention compared with TAU. This is an economic evaluation study of data from the At Home/Chez Soi randomized clinical trial. From October 2009 through July 2011, 1198 individuals were randomized to the intervention (n = 689) or TAU (n = 509) and followed up for as long as 24 months. Participants were recruited in the Canadian cities of Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto, and Montreal. Participants with a current mental disorder who were homeless and had a moderate level of need were included. Data were analyzed from 2013 through 2019, per protocol. Scattered-site HF (using rent supplements) with off-site ICM services was compared with usual housing and support services in each city. The analysis was performed from the perspective of society, with days of stable housing as the outcome. Service use was ascertained using questionnaires. Unit costs were estimated in 2016 Canadian dollars. Of 1198 randomized individuals, 795 (66.4%) were men and 696 (58.1%) were aged 30 to 49 years. Almost all (1160 participants, including 677 in the HF group and 483 in the TAU group) contributed data to the economic analysis. Days of stable housing were higher by 140.34 days (95% CI, 128.14-153.31 days) in the HF group. The intervention cost $14 496 per person per year; reductions in costs of other services brought the net cost down by 46% to $7868 (95% CI, $4409-$11 405). The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was $56.08 (95% CI, $29.55-$84.78) per additional day of stable housing. In sensitivity analyses, adjusting for baseline differences using a regression-based method, without altering the discount rate, caused the largest change in the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio with an increase to $60.18 (95% CI, $35.27-$86.95). At $67 per day of stable housing, there was an 80% chance that HF was cost-effective compared with TAU. The cost-effectiveness of HF appeared to be similar for all participants, although possibly less for those with a higher number of previous psychiatric hospitalizations. In this study, the cost per additional day of stable housing was similar to that of many interventions for homeless individuals. Based on these results, expanding access to HF with ICM appears to be warranted from an economic standpoint. isrctn.org Identifier: ISRCTN42520374.