Gay for the Olympics

City hall gets colourful
 
Waving (rainbow) flag: Nope, it’s not an optical illusion. Mayor Denis Coderre announced this week that for the duration of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, a rainbow flag will fly atop city hall instead of an Olympic one. It’s in solidarity with LGBT athletes, and a response to Russia’s much-publicized and much-derided anti-gay laws. Take that, Putin.

Get off tha bus: Hey, remember back in the day, when everyone in Montreal complained about how the city needed better access to Trudeau Airport by public transportation? And then, after years of bitching, it finally happened? Well, it was a hell of a ride. Just like that, the STM scaled back the ol’ 747 this week, reducing its schedule. You know who are probably really excited about this? Cab drivers. You know who’s tight with cab drivers? This guy.

Wakie and Blaikie: Respected Canadian legal firm, which once counted former Prime Ministers Pierre Trudeau and Jean Chretien within its collared ranks, is shutting down. Blame it on in-fighting and simply losing ground to other mega-firms, or some other legal mumbo jumbo that’ll be ripped from the headlines on The Good Wife in a few months. Heenan Blaikie The big names have already jumped to other firms, but you have to feel for those who worked at the Montreal office and were blindsided by the news. A world with less lawyers, though, isn’t such a bad thing. 

Punch drunk: The SAQ’s march to pretentious douchebaggery — or sommelier-ing, as they call it — continues unabated. Our province’s purveyor of hooch is jacking up their prices (some as much as 70 cents in a month) and gradually cutting down on cheapo wines. Sales on wine have dropped as a direct result of price hikes, but no one at the SAQ seems to care. Possibly because they’re drunk…with power.

Meals on wheels: After a successful first year, food trucks will be making their return to Montreal this summer. And it would stand to reason that more trucks would make the whole thing even better. At least, that’s what the city thinks. ■