Mordecai Richler honoured by City of Montreal

The City of Montreal will honour the late Mordecai Richler by renaming the Mile End Library after the great Canadian author.

Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre made the announcement at a news conference at City Hall late Thursday afternoon more than 14 years after his death in 2001.

This important and long-awaited gesture is the first in a series planned over the next few months to celebrate this great Montrealer, Coderre said, adding that Richler has also been posthumously made acitizen of honour.

Two of Richler's sons, Noah and Jacob, thanked city officials.

"A library in Mile End it's perfect, and thefact that's it's located in a former Anglican church somehow makes it a little more so," joked Jacob Richler.

"Make no mistake, my father loved this city foibles and all. Maybe foibles especially."

Luc Ferrandez, mayor of the PlateauMont-Royal, said renaming the borough library after Richler is a fitting choice.

By deciding to name the Mile End Library in honour of Mordecai Richler, Plateau-Mont-Royal residents have chosen to remember the love this acclaimed author had for the community and its inhabitants, Ferrandez said.

In 2011,city officials at the time had pledged to revamp the shanty bandstand on the eastern flank of Mount Royal and rename it the "Mordecai Richler Gazebo."

The city was supposed to renovate the already-dilapidated gazebo and turn the area around it into a speaker's corner by 2012.

Coderre promised the area will be renovated this summer.

"If we have to go ourselves to the hardware store and do it ourselves, we will."