This is Montreal (CBC)

As we heard last week, it’s not always easy to find spaces to plant trees in a city. That’s where tiny forests come in. What started in Japan has become a worldwide movement to plant densely-packed pockets of vegetation in cities, including Montreal. CBC reporter Ben Shingler shares his documentary.

When the forecast calls for torrential rain, some Montreal residents hold their breath. Ainslie MacLellan visits one street in Saint-Laurent where homes have flooded multiple times in recent years by sewer back up during heavy rain, and finds out how climate change, infrastructure choices and our transformation of the natural landscape have created the perfect storm.

In Montreal, we toss all of our recycling in a bin at the curb and it gets sorted out later. But in recent years, we’ve seen headlines about recycling piling up and the difficulties of finding markets for certain materials like paper and glass. So is our recycling system working? We take you on a tour of a sorting centre and hear about some big changes on the horizon. *After this episode was released, the City of Montreal provided some updated figures. Currently, between 15 and 20 per cent of material at the Lachine sorting centre ends up in the landfill. Previously the city had said the rejection rate was 30 per cent.

The temperatures are dropping and snow is on its way, but it’s not stopping some Montrealers from gearing up for the winter biking season. While winter cyclists are still only a fraction of the total bike riding population, they represent a growing group of commuters. We’ll hear what’s driving people to keep pedaling year-round and why one borough has even decided to subsidize 100 people to give winter cycling a try.

New name, same must-listen podcast. Dive into the Montreal stories you’re curious about and the issues you want to understand. Host Ainslie MacLellan explores the complexities of our colourful, vibrant and sometimes frustrating, but always interesting city.

June is Pride Month, especially in the U.S. Montreal’s Pride festivities are in August, but this wasn’t always the case. We’ll hear from Montrealers who had a hand in organizing Pride at various times in its history and hear how, in each era, the 2SLGBTQ+ community channeled political and social struggle into the movement of protest and celebration that we know today.

If you look at a compass or maps app, you may notice our sense of direction in Montreal is a bit…tilted. Our “north” leans pretty far west and if you head over to the South Shore and keep going, you end up in the Eastern Townships...which are not in Eastern Quebec. We’ll try to help you find your bearings by exploring our off-kilter geography. 

Big ice storms, pests, drought: there are lots of threats facing urban trees. In a special two-part episode, one Montrealer asks how the city is making sure our trees can withstand climate change…and won’t take out power lines when they fall. And a Pincourt school bus driver asks what’s happening with all the trees being cut down for the new Île-aux-Tourtes bridge?

This question came from a 9-year-old boy who is curious about our sewer system, so you’d better believe we took him and his dad on a field trip to Montreal’s wastewater treatment plant! We find out what happens to the water we use and what we can do to make it cleaner before we send it back into the environment.

Whether you’re running errands, on a commute, or just spending an afternoon in a Montreal park, lack of washroom access can be a barrier for people who want to participate in city life. So why don’t we have more public washrooms? We break down the costs, both financial and societal, and delve into the history of public toilets.

Teeth-rattling, rim-shattering, hub-cap-catapulting potholes seem to be everywhere you turn in Montreal. Sometimes they lurk underneath puddles, just waiting to throw you off your bike, or damage your car. So why are there so many, and why do they keep coming back? We’ll dig beneath the surface to find out.

From 1923 to 1983, the sounds of a rumbling roller coaster, carnival games, and the laughter of a giant animatronic woman invited people to Belmont Park, an amusement park along the Des Prairies river in Cartierville. Its wild history ties together a former prime minister, a Quebec superstar singer, a Guinness World Record and a police raid. The reasons for its closure are tied up in municipal politics and commercial rivalry, and also reflect how life and leisure in Montreal changed throughout the middle of the 20th century.

*This episode includes research by Sandra Hercegova

There are more than 4000 of them crisscrossing the central parts of the city — nearly 500 kilometres worth! In this episode, Ainslie MacLellan follows an urban explorer who has walked almost *all* of Montreal’s ruelles, learns more about how they shaped the development of the city, and meets Montrealers who are banding together with their neighbours to transform their alleys and their communities.

After 7 years as mayor, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante has decided she’s not going to run again. As recently as a month ago, Plante had said she would seek a third mandate. So what is prompting this decision now? CBC reporter Matt Lapierre joins Ainslie MacLellan to break down Plante’s surprise announcement, and political scientists Dónal Gill and Katherine Sullivan look at how it fits into a wider trend of political burnout, including amongst women. With research by Carla Désir.

With the second season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League underway, many Montreal-area women and girls are lacing up their skates and hitting the ice themselves. We’ll hear what La Victoire means for future generations of hockey players, and to the generations who have seen the evolution of women’s hockey in the city.

This is Montreal off this week, so we're bringing you an episode of the podcast This is Ottawa. At the Canadian War Museum, you can find an imposing black armoured car that once belonged to none other than Adolf Hitler. Host Robyn Bresnahan looks at how the car ended up in Ottawa after a stop in Montreal, and how the museum balances public interest with critics who say it “glamourizes Nazism.”

As the cost of food has risen, more Montrealers have been relying on food banks. But for some people with dietary restrictions, it can be a challenge to find food that they can eat that won’t make them sick. We’ll hear about the obstacles Montreal food banks face in meeting specific dietary needs and why many advocates are calling for more financial support from governments.

Every July 1, many Montrealers find themselves on the move, not just with their tables, chairs, couches and beds, but with their fridges and stoves too. Apartments here are often rented without appliances included, which does not seem to be a common practice elsewhere in Canada. We’ll explore some of the reasons this might be, and what this says about Montreal’s unique (but changing) rental culture.

You don’t need to go to Salem, Massachusetts to find stories of people being accused as witches. Quebec has its own distinct history with witchcraft trials. Ainslie MacLellan visits the Pointe-à-Callière Montreal Archeology and History Complex in Old Montreal to learn about witch stories from the city’s past, and what they can tell us about attitudes and beliefs in Montreal society over time.

This story includes a mention of suicide. If you or someone you know needs support, you can reach Talk Suicide Canada at 1-833-456-4566 or can text 45645 between 4 p.m. and midnight ET.

Ripped open bags, bad smells, even roving rodents: from Milton Park to Mercier, residents share their frustrations and their solutions for better garbage pickup. And Ainslie MacLellan gets the real dirt on trash collection from a longtime garbage collector, who shares which habits we should be breaking when we put our bags and bins to the curb.

Some Montrealers are looking for the perfect gift for someone on their list, but it won't be brand new with the tags still on. It will be from the thrift shop. Whether it's economic or environmental concerns or just the thrill of the hunt, we'll hear what's driving interest in thrifting and why one expert cautions that thrifting alone won't solve overconsumption.

Céline Dion is having a moment. It’s not her first, and millions of fans are hoping it won’t be her last. While Céline’s international stardom seems obvious now, it was all so unlikely.

Now, as a rare illness threatens to retire Celine’s more-than-four-decade long career, in Céline: Understood culture writer Thomas Leblanc reveals the surprising cultural, political and business alchemy that created one of the most enduring superstars the planet has ever seen.

Understood is an anthology podcast that takes you out of the daily news cycle and inside the events, people, and cultural moments you want to know more about. Over a handful of episodes, each season unfolds as a story, hosted by a well-connected reporter, and rooted in journalism you can trust. Driven by insight and fueled by curiosity…The stories of our time: Understood.

All episodes of Céline: Understood are available now. More episodes of Understood are available at: https://lnk.to/CelineUnderstood

For more than a century, the name Christophe-Colomb Avenue has appeared on Montreal street signs. The Italian-born navigator is known for leading several voyages for the Spanish crown to what we now know as the Americas. While he never set foot in Quebec, many places in the province bear his name. But throughout history, many have argued that he should not be commemorated, because of his legacy of cruelty and slavery of Indigenous peoples. We’ll look at Columbus the man, Columbus the symbol and talk about how we should reckon with streets and monuments named after historical figures.

Quebec sends about three quarters of its international exports to the United States — twice as much as the province imports from south of the border. With the news that U.S. president-elect Donald Trump is threatening tariffs on all Canadian and Mexican imports, we’ll hear how Quebec’s business sector is bracing itself for what’s to come.

Ribbed like a pumpkin, but with a spiderweb exterior like a cantaloupe, the Montreal melon was a wildly popular fruit in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It graced the dining tables of the finest U.S. hotels and was literally fit for a king. It was cultivated by local producers, particularly in Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, but it all but vanished by the 1950s. We’ll hear about efforts to revive the Montreal melon, and why some say it’s overdue for a comeback.

More than twenty years ago, a group of young activists, families, unhoused people and punks occupied an old hospital building to draw attention to a dire housing crisis. CBC reporter Erika Morris walks us through the history of this type of housing activism in Montreal and why we might not see as much (visible) squatting today.

When the plans for rebuilding the Turcot interchange were unveiled back in 2010, they included an artist’s rendering of an elevated park over Highway 20: the Dalle Parc. It was meant to serve as a pedestrian and cyclist path connecting NDG and the Sud-Ouest, but it was never built. We look at whether this project will ever see the light and at the challenges of retrofitting Montreal's landscape to make it more walkable and bikeable.

If you walk or bike along the Des Carrières rail path through Rosemont, you might come across a miniature skate park, complete with tiny ramps, half pipes, rails and little graffiti. We get to the bottom of who’s behind this public art piece slash DIY passion project, and take you into the small but mighty world of Montreal fingerboards.

If you’ve ever bought a lottery ticket or placed a bet at a Quebec casino, you may have wondered where that money ends up. How much of the money that Montrealers gamble ends up invested back into services that they use? Turns out there are limits to how far we can follow the dollars. We’ll talk about how our system stacks up with some other jurisdictions.

Construction is such a part of life here that the orange and white striped cone has gone from a simple marker on the road, to a symbol of Montreal itself. But why are there so many cones and why does it seem like some of them linger so long? We’ll hone in on cones and whether new rules to keep them in check are working.

Join us on a stroll back in time to Victorian-era Montreal, when some of Canada’s richest families settled on the slope of Mount Royal in the Golden Square Mile. We’ll look at what the remaining row houses and mansions tell us about power, wealth, even scandal in bygone Montreal. And we’ll hear how the changing face of the landscape invites us to reflect on the balance between building something new and preserving our built past.

As of this week, some Montreal-area transit users are now able to reload their Opus cards with the Chrono app, instead of waiting in long lines at kiosks. The function is expected to be rolled out widely this month. But we still can’t tap payment cards to ride and have to make sure we’ve bought tickets for the right zone. Some Montreal transit advocates say it’s time to think outside the fare box.

From Verdun to Rosemont to NDG, it seems like wild turkeys have been popping up all over Montreal in recent years. They’ve spurred a lot of curiosity and even delight from Montrealers, but we have seen some human-turkey conflict arise. We’ll hear about what life is like for a big bird in the big city, and how we can get along without ruffling any feathers.