Here’s the lowdown:

(Decisions apply to all schools and head office unless otherwise indicated)

• Lester B. Pearson School Board: CLOSED
• English Montreal School Board: CLOSED (according to CJAD)
• Riverside School Board: UNKNOWN
  
• New Frontiers School Board: UNKNOWN (See website)
• Commission scolaire Marguerite-Bourgeoys: CLOSED
• Commission scolaire de Montréal: CLOSED (daycare remains open)
• Commission scolaire de la Pointe de l’Ile: CLOSED
• Commission scolaire de Laval: UNKNOWN

English CEGEPs:

All open (or at least none say they’re closed)

• Champlain College St. Lambert
• John Abbott College
• Marianopolis College
• Dawson College
• Vanier College
• Collège Gérald-Godin

Universities are usually open through all but the most crippling of snowstorms. Check individual class websites or student portals for details.

As the snow fell this weekend on Montreal, the post-snowfall ritual sprang into action. It usually starts with lots of people complaining about the fact that the snow hasn’t been plowed yet. The complaints come so fast I have a feeling they’re written before the snow starts falling in the first place. With the complaints come increasingly ludicrous suggestions on how to fix the problem, such as:

• Blowing snow onto lawns, which apparently exist everywhere downtown.
• Lifting the ban on Tempo tent car shelters, which displace snow from driveways.
• Adjusting clearing schedules so that politicians’ streets are cleared last, which I’m sure will be the most logistically easy thing ever to accomplish.
• Getting out of the business entirely and give us our tax money back.

Almost all the letters are ignorant of just how much organization goes into plowing streets in Montreal, and assume that, without having spent a single second inside a snow plow, they know better how to efficiently clear streets.

Really, the complaints are more misplaced frustration at having to spend two hours digging out their car with a shovel when they were already late for work. Sadly, no magical solution has been found for that yet.

The city then gives a guesstimate about how long it will take to clear, overemphasizing the fact that more snow or rain will delay the operation.

Then, as the plows finally come by to clear the streets, car-owners who ignored no-parking signs panic to relocate them before getting a ticket.

The big difference this time is that the city decided to open up its paid parking lots for free overnight parking (when they’re not used anyway). Drivers can park their cars in them during snow-clearing operations, provided they get them out of there by 6am 7am (thanks Andy) the next day.

Except, because the move was poorly publicized (or because no one wants to get up that early), the lots sat unused this time.

So instead, drivers desperate for a place to park had to each solve the standard snowbank parking dilemma. When faced with a free spot knee-deep in snow, there are three options:

1. Find some temporary place to stash the car and dig the spot out with a shovel, hoping nobody swoops in and steals the spot after you’ve cleared it (this also presents the recursive problem of where to put the car when you’re clearing the spot)
2. Declare the spot unparkable, and keep going looking for another one, which most likely doesn’t exist
3. Drive the car as far as it will go into the spot, and then give up, leaving it either parked diagonally, parked far from the curb, or both

The pictures below show some Montreal drivers who chose Option 3 on Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.

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