The “Trainman” gets a whistle
By Joel Ceausu
The Suburban
He first thought it a prank, himself a fan of good-natured gags and controversy to get a message across as a local businessman, political gadfly, candidate and NDG booster.
Alex “Trainman” Montagano, an advocate for municipal finance reform and respect for minority rights, is known to many west-enders, particularly for his train-shtick, miniature modeling, Halloween street parties and regular traipses through NDG in attention-grabbing retro conductor garb.
In April he donned it to invite folks to view Guy Rex Rodgers’ celebrated documentary What We Choose to Remember about Anglophone Quebecers. “I was handing out flyers at Vendôme and a woman who said she was a CN employee asked me who I was and what I was doing,” he told The Suburban. “I told her and she left.”
Apparently he drew more than friendly morning smiles: A few days later a call from the Canadian National Railway Company’s legal department cautioning him to declare his opinions as his own and not those of CN.
On his podcast, in access-to-information court and at municipal council, Montagano’s no shrinking violet, but his response was “’Whaaaat?’ I started laughing, it was so ridiculous! This multi-billion-dollar corporation, part of Canada’s history, extension of the Grand Trunk? Is their problem me talking about minority language rights, because from what I understand CN went right along with Bill 96. I think I said, ‘Yeah sure, send me a letter’ and hung up.”
Asked for clarification, CN public affairs director Jonathan Abecassis told The Suburban CN received “a few complaints and questions from the public. We also got some comments on social media that a CN employee was handing out tracts.” Someone even sent in a photo of Montagano, he said. “We have no problem with him wearing CN branded hats or jackets, the problem arises when a member of the public confuses him as an active CN employee.”
Is there a real concern? “The fact we received a certain number of reactions from the public answers that question,” says Abecassis. “We don’t actively search for people doing this, but we received comments so we decided to reach out by conversation rather than letter.” The main priority, he says, is “clarity about who is speaking on behalf of CN.” He said they just asked Montagano to refrain from using CN’s recognizable brand to advance political opinions. As for those opinions, Abecassis says, “We’re agnostic on that. We’re not going anywhere on that.”
He agrees CN sells branded clothing to collectors — “it’s a big part of the industry — and agrees Montagano’s outfit is authentic vintage garb. (His blue get-up actually evokes more Thomas & Friends character than actual railway employee.) “But he’s also wearing a pretty large CN logo. When somebody wears a hat and talks about their political beliefs that’s one thing, but when they wear a uniform that could represent the company with visible logos, that’s a different story… But there’s no hard feelings.”
Montagano says complaints aren’t filed after his public interventions with the city and borough, running in a federal by-election and promoting the NDG Art Hop and Porchfest in the same uniform. “Is it because I’ve been talking about the English minority? And denouncing the scapegoating of the ‘other’ and Quebec Anglophones under a nationalist narrative? I actually wish they’d send me a cease-and-desist.”
Nevertheless, his love of trains and train culture remain intact, while he ponders a logo of his own, not confirming or denying that it may read: “CN is mean.” n
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