Instagram story viewer> @mtltoula> Posts

Toula Drimonis

@mtltoula

7.6K

followers

4213

following

Montreal-based writer/columnist who likes to opine, travel, and snap far too many pics. I need feminism & good wine; they both make life taste better.

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

This week’s @montrealgazette column is on a topic that made me angry. It should make you angry too. Quebec women are being short changed when it comes to preventative healthcare.

The same applies to all Quebecers because of the lack of organized screening for colon cancer, not to mention Quebec’s refusal to lower the screening age despite the fact that younger Canadians are being diagnosed with the disease.

Add to that Quebec‘s recent decision to no longer offer the flu vaccine for free to all and it’s obvious that governments are making decisions to save money by compromising our health.

Preventative healthcare is the single most important variable when it comes to quality of life and longevity. People are falling through the cracks, and those unable to advocate for themselves are being diagnosed far too late when their odds aren’t as good.

I don’t understand why there isn’t a bigger public outcry to demand the services that we all deserve and pay for.

#Quebec #healthcare #breastcancer #womenshealthmatters #preventativehealth taken in Montreal, Quebec by @mtltoula

627

72

2 days ago

Read Dangerously argues that reading is an act of freedom. Stories can challenge powerful institutions, expose injustice, and help us question beliefs that society or political leaders encourage us to accept.

Azar Nafisi draws on her experiences as a literature professor in Iran, her life under the Islamic Republic, and her later experiences as an immigrant in the United States. She reflects on why books matter particularly when societies become polarized, authoritarian, or hostile to free expression.

The authors she mostly quotes from here is James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Margaret Atwood, and Toni MOrrison.

The book isn’t for everyone. Some might find it long and purposeless. It’s written in the style of letters to her dead father and meanders all over the place. More of a reflective essay than anything else, but worth reading for the subjects broached. Especially in these times.

#reading #readerforlife #ReadDangerously #AzarNafisi
#ToulaReads taken in Montreal, Quebec by @mtltoula

38

2

3 days ago

Canadian author, essayist and poet Anne Carson has just won the Nobel Prize in Literature and now is as good a time as any to share the sentence that made me literally howl with laughter when I first read it in Red Doc.

Apologies to those who may find it vulgar, but it’s a banger. 🔥

Carson is forever obsessed with words and their etymology, weaving them together while asking big questions about life. Her work is lyrical, intellectually playful, philosophical and darkly funny. This sentence is very representative of that.

In essence, she’s criticizing humanity’s lack of common sense, particularly the tendency toward thoughtless, senseless cruelty.

But instead of simply saying that, she very playfully offers up a very specific (some might say, even uncouth) image that communicates the same thing: Human beings often possess so little common sense that you could literally hold all of it in your hand—with plenty of room left over.

Looking around at the state of the world these days, I think it’s more than fair to mock the absurdity of human behaviour and the thoughtless pain and damage humans cause each other with their selfishness.

Anyway… long live literature and words. And the beautiful, cutting, bleakly funny way that people weave these words together to give shape to what they feel.

#AnneCarson #literature #writer #Nobel #Canada taken in Montreal, Quebec by @mtltoula

3k

61

10 days ago

A few more snapshots from last night at Parti Québécois headquarters, commenting on the election results for Global News, as well as final seat numbers and popular vote percentages, plus participation rates (only sliiightly higher than last time), which I found low considering it was such a high-stakes election.

#Quebec #election #politics #qcpoli #television taken in Espace St-Denis by @mtltoula

100

1

12 days ago

What a night… Like the last provincial election, I was working with Global News as their political analyst. Like 2022, I was assigned with the very tall (or maybe I'm just short…) Tim Sargeant, and so hence the need for a box to fit both of us in the frame.

With the added complications of me walking around with a cane and having to protect my still-healing leg from all the mayhem of an election-night room, big thanks to the camera man and Tim for giving me his chair for most of the night.

Unlike four years ago when we were assigned to the Quebec Liberal Party headquarters, this time around we had a front-row seat to a Parti Québecois win.

The crowd of PQ partisans and volunteers was, of course, jubilant. The PQ formed government, although it will be a minority government with only 59 seats and will have to work together with other parties to get things done.

I appreciated PSPP speaking a few words of English, promising to work for all Quebecers, and reiterating his commitment to work to fight homelessness. He has a lot to prove and not a lot of time to prove it in. The last PQ minority government only lasted 18 months. He might be facing another election before any of us face another referendum. It will all depend on what he chooses to focus on.

A quick recap of the results: The CAQ was obliterated. QS stood its ground and held on to 9 seats. With 40 seats, the Liberals over-performed and are definitely no longer a party only anglophones vote for. They would have probably done even better if they had a better PR team. The Conservatives did very well too. With 19 seats they performed better than some said they would, solidifying Qc’s clear shift to the right. As for the PQ, they are forming government but with only 59 seats they didn’t do as well as some projections had them doing. As defiant as PSPP was during his speech, the truth is he will be leading a government on a tight leash for now.

It was a very long night. When it was all said and done I was happy to share a cab with longtime pal and CBC reporter Sarah Leavitt and head back home where I went straight to bed. 😴

#Quebec2026 #Quebec #elections #work #electionnight taken in Espace St-Denis by @mtltoula

119

12

12 days ago

Life lately…

#fall #elections #Montreal #fun #momentsofzen taken in Montreal, Quebec by @mtltoula

87

2

14 days ago

My latest for the @montrealgazette and my final column before Quebecers vote on Monday for a new provincial government. Feeling tired, disenfranchised and worried about the erosion of our rights (collective and individual) and the constant politics of division in this province, not to mention the number of politicians ready to say and do anything for votes. Safe to say it’s been a mostly uninspiring campaign.

Go vote and have your voice heard regardless. Even if you’re not 100% happy with any party, vote for the one that most represents your priorities and values so they can get the funding that your ballot represents. And good luck to us all!

You can read my column online and in today’s print edition.

#Quebec #elections #qcpoli #polqc #vote taken in Montreal, Quebec by @mtltoula

990

68

17 days ago

Broken leg improving. Entered my grandpa era.
✨✌️🤗 taken in St. Henri by @mtltoula

387

55

17 days ago

A study compiled the three most frequently used words by each party leader during the campaign —debates, press conferences and interviews (a total of 265 videos were watched)— and these were the results.

Their choices certainly point to:

* Priorities: Which issues dominate their speeches?

* Values: Do their words emphasize security, economy, fairness, change, unity, etc.?

* Audience: Who or what do they repeatedly address—“people,” “families,” “immigration,” “government,” etc.?

* Tone and framing: Are they emphasizing problems, solutions, criticism, identity, or optimism?

* Political strategy: Repeated words can reveal the themes a leader wants voters to associate with their party.

It ultimately says a lot about their priorities, focus, what they choose to communicate to voters, and what concerns they think will garner them votes. I’d say a few things stand out…

#Quebec #qcpoli #elections #campaign words taken in Montreal, Quebec by @mtltoula

102

1

17 days ago

Sunset train crossing in Saint-Henri… ❤️

#Montreal #mtljetaime #mtlmoments #SaintHenri #train taken in St. Henri by @mtltoula

48

3

18 days ago

I was trying to pinpoint what made me so deeply uncomfortable about last night’s TLMEP segment and I just figured it out. I will never stop pointing out that Bills 21, 9, and 94 are deeply discriminatory. And somehow we’ve managed to normalize this.

#Quebec #qcpoli #secularism #discrimination #religiousfreedom taken in Montreal, Quebec by @mtltoula

606

21

20 days ago

Just another day arguing my existence and my right to express myself politically here.
Tiresome? Yes.
Occasionally entertaining? Also yes.

Le bout le plus hilarant de cette tirade, c’est que je suis pas mal certaine que toutes les personnes que ce compte anonyme cite parlent français. But if we don’t think like you, c’est du “Quebec bashing.” 🥴

Also, this group of people is not remotely homogenous, but ok…

#Quebec #qcpoli #ethnonationalism #immigration #firstnamestatus taken in Montreal, Quebec by @mtltoula

289

34

22 days ago