menu_open Columnists
Allison Hanes

Allison Hanes

Montreal Gazette

We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Hanes: SPVM is about to face a moment of truth over Montreal North racism allegations

Hanes: SPVM is about to face a moment of truth over Montreal North racism allegations

All eyes will be on Montreal Police Chief Fady Dagher on Tuesday evening when he offers a long-awaited update on the explosive allegations of racist...

previous day 20

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: While global warming accelerates, governments fall behind on mitigation

Hanes: While global warming accelerates, governments fall behind on mitigation

When Erol Araf’s basement filled with water in 2024, the Pierrefonds resident spent tens of thousands of dollars above and beyond his insurance...

06.08.2026 10

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Fires sow fear in Montreal

Hanes: Fires sow fear in Montreal

Two suspicious fires over the weekend have left Montreal on edge. An inferno gutted the popular kosher restaurant Nöam on Décarie Blvd. in the wee...

04.08.2026 20

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Reading is a delight of summer vacation. It's also an act of rebellion against AI

Hanes: Reading is a delight of summer vacation. It's also an act of rebellion against AI

The stack of unread books beside my bed keeps getting taller and taller. That’s mostly due to my habit of acquiring new novels faster than I can...

03.08.2026 20

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Quebec was warned of a 'weak link' in youth protection. Five years later, three children are dead

Two passages stand out from the final report of the Laurent Commission, which examined shortcomings in Quebec’s youth protection system and should...

30.07.2026 7

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Laval’s mayor is right to push hard for Orange Line métro extension

Five summers ago, Greater Montreal’s transportation planning body submitted a long-awaited big-picture transit plan for the region to the Quebec...

29.07.2026 20

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Will there ever be an end to the spending on the Big O?

As Montreal reflects back on the 1976 Olympics, held 50 years ago this summer, one enormous hunk of the Games’ legacy continues to generate...

28.07.2026 20

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Inside the Montreal Holocaust Museum's transformation

Donning white gloves, Marie-Blanche Fourcade disappears down a narrow aisle of floor-to-ceiling shelves in the vault-like room of a special facility...

25.07.2026 20

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Let's defy the bully in the White House — one bottle, one trip at a time

Even if there were American wine on the shelves at the Société des alcools du Québec, would any self-respecting Canadian seriously want to drink it...

22.07.2026 10

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: A national youth service could be a win-win opportunity for Canada

Young Canadians have so much to offer, yet they don’t always have the chance to make a difference in meaningful ways. Unemployment has been...

20.07.2026 30

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Montreal should take the plunge on open-water swimming pool in Lachine

The water quality was rated “excellent” in the Ottawa River last week, just below the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, where the National...

13.07.2026 30

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Who is behind the growing number of hate crimes in Montreal?

The summer I spent living over a bakery on Bernard Ave., one of my favourite things to do was to sit on my front balcony overlooking the street each...

09.07.2026 30

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Misogyny is more poisonous and pervasive than ever

Montreal has been reckoning with misogyny since a gunman walked into École Polytechnique on Dec. 6, 1989, separated out the men, and murdered 14...

06.07.2026 40

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Segal Cancer Centre's 20 years of breakthroughs 'help patients the world over'

It’s virtually impossible for Dr. Gerald Batist to name just one thing when asked what has made him most proud in the 20 years since the Segal...

03.07.2026 30

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: O Canada, it's time to stand on guard for thee

As the Dominion of Canada approaches its 159th birthday on Wednesday, the country is having a moment on the world stage.  Canada is one of the hosts...

30.06.2026 40

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: What could we do with billions for public transit instead of high-speed rail?

Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon provoked derision recently for vowing to derail the federal government’s “nation-building”...

29.06.2026 40

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Nightmare shooting leaves Montrealers asking why

Man rescued after getting stranded at Toronto's floating convenience store Bell employees fired over fake office attendance sue BCE Montreal cop...

23.06.2026 30

Toronto Sun

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Nightmare shooting leaves Montrealers asking why

Montreal is emerging from a recurring “nightmare” — the kind where indiscriminate gun violence traumatizes the city. One police officer died and...

23.06.2026 30

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: These anglo seniors show it's never too late to learn French

One by one, the graduates made their way to the front of the room wearing black caps and gold-lettered sashes. They shook hands with their teachers,...

22.06.2026 30

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Montreal must act swiftly to restore public trust in police

When Fady Dagher was chosen as Montreal’s next police chief in 2023, expectations were high he would help improve relations with the city’s...

14.06.2026 30

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Anti-Israel motion risks inflaming social tensions

Projet Montréal contends the city should cut ties with Israel over its violent repression of Palestinians just like former mayor Jean Doré did with...

10.06.2026 40

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Are the Quebec Liberals poised for a 'different tone' on language issues?

Last Monday, Premier Christine Fréchette gave a speech to a Montreal business audience in which she pledged to set a “different tone” in...

08.06.2026 50

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Beware those who don't want Canadian federalism to function

It’s hard to find a downside to the federal government announcing $10 billion in much-needed funding for infrastructure in Quebec, but Paul...

05.06.2026 30

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Extremists hiding in plain view

Political leaders from across the spectrum reacted with shock and horror over the weekend to a photo showing a group of masked men unfurling a banner...

02.06.2026 40

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Being a Quebec anglo means having to say 'are you kidding me?'

Quebec’s latest language flap was mercifully short-lived. One day after French language commissioner Benoît Dubreuil issued a report recommending...

01.06.2026 40

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Conflict in sovereignty camp shouldn’t soothe federalists

Even before then-premier Jacques Parizeau’s notorious comments blaming “money and ethnic votes” for the Yes side’s 1995 referendum loss,...

28.05.2026 50

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Shiny new REM isn't faster or more efficient for many West Island riders

On a fresh, sunny morning last week, I hopped aboard the REM for the first time, joining the ranks of 170,000 Montrealers who gave it a test run...

25.05.2026 50

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: The solution to crumbling roads and water mains isn't in Montrealers' pockets

The sad state of infrastructure is impossible to ignore in Montreal. Whether it’s the mayor getting double flat tires on the pockmarked roads, a...

21.05.2026 60

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: With referendum talk in Quebec and Alberta, Canada could be in for a divisive October

The R-word has returned with a vengeance — and it’s not going away any time soon. During an in-depth interview with radio host Paul Arcand last...

18.05.2026 40

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Quebec has fallen way behind on transportation infrastructure

The long-awaited Anse-à-l’Orme branch of the Réseau express métropolitain enters into service next Monday, and will whisk passengers from...

11.05.2026 60

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: So much for a fresh start under Fréchette for CAQ and anglos

There has been a running joke in the last few weeks that Premier Christine Fréchette is the new leader of the Collaboration Avenir Québec. She has...

07.05.2026 50

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Louise Arbour is a formidable pick as next governor general

Louise Arbour has been a law professor, a trial judge, the first francophone appointed to the Ontario Court of Appeal, a war crimes prosecutor, a...

05.05.2026 60

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: How to help pollinators beyond No Mow May

I don’t profess to be an expert at gardening. When I first moved from a condo to a home with a yard a few years ago, I didn’t know the difference...

04.05.2026 60

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Good Samaritans show up Montreal's failure to keep streets clean

Few have been spared the ravages of Montreal’s disastrous potholes this spring. Not Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada, who took to social media to share...

01.05.2026 50

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Quebec has more unfilled medical residencies than ever. That's not a surprise

The number of unfilled residency positions for medical school graduates hit a new high in Quebec this year, and slightly fewer recruits than last year...

30.04.2026 50

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Changes to Quebec's electoral map shouldn't be politicized

The road to power in Quebec doesn’t run through Montreal, so it has long been said. And every couple of election cycles, that maxim becomes a little...

27.04.2026 50

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Will Fréchette treat Montreal with the respect it deserves?

When she unveiled her cabinet Tuesday, Quebec’s new premier, Christine Fréchette, pledged to “co-operate better” with cities across the...

22.04.2026 50

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Coming back down to Earth on the climate crisis

Flying around the far side of the moon earlier this month, astronauts on board the Artemis II space mission observed Earthset, a phenomenon only a...

22.04.2026 60

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Welcome Hall Mission has a solution — and election platform — for Quebec's homelessness crisis

After more than a decade leading Welcome Hall Mission, one of Montreal’s largest non-profit organizations helping the vulnerable and unhoused, CEO...

20.04.2026 60

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Polytechnique scholarship has inspired engineering student to become an ambassador for women

When she stood in a crowded room high up on Polytechnique Montréal’s mountainside campus last summer, Ruby Sinclair knew that receiving the...

16.04.2026 50

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Fréchette's accomplishment marks another milestone for women

I was an exchange student living in France when Kim Campbell was running for the leadership of the Progressive Conservatives back in 1993. Since my...

14.04.2026 70

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: She survived the Holocaust, but her traumatic childhood shaped her life

Judith Nemes Black’s earliest memories are steeped in trauma. She remembers being forced from her home to move to a ghetto; waking up in the night...

13.04.2026 70

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Adults need guardrails on AI as much as kids

Over the Easter weekend, my brother-in-law turned to artificial intelligence for advice on how to speed up cooking the roast we were late putting in...

09.04.2026 70

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Outlawing insults against police would be going too far

You know casual misogyny has got out of hand in Montreal when a young man feels entitled to spew sexist, degrading filth at a female police officer to...

06.04.2026 70

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Supporting secularism and supporting secularism laws are not the same thing

The fate of Quebec’s controversial secularism law, Bill 21, is now in the hands of Canada’s highest court. But there is much more at stake....

03.04.2026 60

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Latest Quebec health reform would 'replace family doctors with CLSC bureaucrats'

Months after trying to forcibly assign family physicians to all Quebec patients under the coercive but now defunct Bill 2, the government says that...

03.04.2026 60

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Air Canada CEO was naive about French before. Now he seems downright clueless

Language politics should not overshadow the deaths of two pilots, but Michael Rousseau should have seen this coming when he recorded a condolence...

27.03.2026 90

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Vanier's cancellation of Holocaust commemoration 'cowardly,' survivor says

A ceremony slated for Wednesday was cancelled over safety concerns. "I think that it is their obligation as an educational institution to put students...

25.03.2026 100

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Quebec clinics complain new mandatory AI tool is not saving them time as promised

The filter for booking medical appointments is being rolled out to clinics as doctors raise concern it's a time suck, not a time saver.

24.03.2026 90

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes

Hanes: Laws must be fixed to prevent deaths foretold

The stabbing death of the owner of a Plateau dépanneur last week was predictable. Could it have been preventable?

20.03.2026 70

Montreal Gazette

Allison Hanes