Rock The Carriage
A humorous 45-second video that suggests but doesn't actually depict daytime sex between two male calèche drivers in Old Montreal has attracted more than 4,500 views on YouTube - and a single emailed complaint calling it "inappropriate," according to the tourism-promotion agency behind it.
The English-language ad, titled Dave Does Montreal, is part of an online advertising campaign with a $50,000 budget launched Oct. 20 by Tourism Montreal and expected to last one month.
In the video, a young male narrator stands in the foreground, extolling the city's architecture, cuisine, chic boutique hotels, ambience and other attributes.
While he talks, it becomes apparent some sort of vigorous, rhythmic activity is taking place in one of two horse-drawn carriages parked behind him.
About two-thirds of the way into the ad, the physical rocking stops and two men emerge from the calèche. One is clearly dishevelled, with his shirt askew; he gets into the driver's seat of the second calèche. The other man adjusts his pants then lowers the caléche roof, which had been shielding their activity.
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The ad is part of an initiative that has helped boost the annual number of gay and lesbian visitors to Montreal in the past decade to an estimated 450,000 from 300,000, said Pierre Bellerose, Tourism Montreal's vice-president of research, development and public relations. Such tourists account for six per cent of the total 7.5 million visitors a year, he said.
Montreal, Canada authorities say a fire at a popular nightclub in the city's Gay Village was deliberately set. Pointing to accelerants found in the debris, police confirmed that the Tuesday morning fire at Stereo on Ste-Catherine Street was deliberately started.
It's the second time in 14 months that the club has been targeted by arson. A major fire at the after-hours establishment in July 2008 gutted the building, forcing the owners to close for a year for major repairs.
The club was set to re-open this weekend with a splashy five-day party starting Thursday night, but owners said that will probably be delayed. Co-owner Tommy Piscardeli said he's not sure who is behind the arson, but he is frustrated his business was targeted again.
"I really don't know what it is," he told CBC News. "It could be anything, but I just want it to stop. We want to give people some music, we want to give people a good place to be, and we're having a really hard time doing it."
Hundreds of people have already bought tickets for the re-opening party, including Hector Breault, who is disappointed the event probably will be delayed. A security guard discovered the fire early Tuesday morning, police said. Arson investigators are still at the three-floor building collecting evidence.
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