Five Years Ago

January 17, 2002

CLEARING THE WAY: "The demolition of an old building in Westmount to create parkland could be paving the way to a closer connection between green spaces on Westmount mountain and in Mount Royal Park. Only the concrete foundations of the Clifton apartments at 4350 Côte des Neiges Rd. remained last week. The building was located in a sometimes forgotten corner of Westmount, at the bottom of the mountain’s northern slope at the borough’s boundary. Built in the 1950s in a valley linking Westmount’s Summit Park to the western entrance of Mount Royal Park in the City of Montreal, the apartment block had been neglected for decades. Last month, in one of its last acts as a municipality, the City of Westmount acted on an agreement it had made with les Amis de la Montagne, a group interested in the preservation of Mount Royal. The city contributed toward the cost of re-landscaping the wooded lot around The Clifton into a natural park."



Ten Years Ago

January 16, 1997

STATION BYLAW: “Little was made Monday night of council’s adoption of a $2-million bylaw to renovate the protective services station on Stanton, but residents with comments to make about the project will have a chance to be heard after the City publishes the required notice. ‘It’s for the public to decide,� said Westmount’s director-general Bruce St. Louis, when asked if he thought residents would mount anything like the opposition that quashed a previous $6-million loan bylaw to demolish the station and build a new one. ‘The issues are different. I don’t think this will be as contentious as the issues of the other project.’�



Fifteen Years Ago

January 16, 1992

A WRITTEN GUARANTEE: “There is nothing surprising in MNA Richard Holden’s brief to the Parti Quebecois task force on the place of English Quebecers in a sovereign Quebec. What is more surprising, considering a boycott by both Alliance Quebec and the Equality Party, is that he made the submission at all. ‘I will feel better for having told them,’ said Mr. Holden. Though his submission may carry little or no weight, if Quebec does separate, ‘I’ve been on the record. It’s a moral thing.’ Alliance Quebec refuses to participate for two reasons; it doubts the sincerity of the effort, considering its co-chair and leader of the party have made donations to Action Quebec, a group that reports violations of the sign law, and it does not accept the premise of the task force in the event of a sovereign Quebec.�



Twenty-Five Years Ago

January 14, 1982

SCHOOL SIGNS RECONSIDERED: “The Protestant School Board of Greater Montreal is currently undertaking a cost study to determine the feasibility of restoring the school signs which have been removed from Westmount High School and obscured at Westmount Park School. The changes to the signs were made by the PSBGM in an effort to comply with Bill 101. But after complaints from school committees, the board admitted that such a move was not necessary.�