You fail to give us a source for your findings. My guess that it appears in stories about Montreal.
Montreal bagels suck. Lets not mince words. They are pretenders to the throne. People in Montreal must be used to bad food if they think their bagels can compare to the real thing. Is it the cold weather that causes this problem?? I had them from the Farimont when I was in Montreal for the Folk Alliance a couple of years ago. They tasted like stale cake. Awful stuff. A good bagel from a proper bagel shop in NYC beats them hands down. Even H&H, which has become more of chain store, still makes a decent bagel.
And don't get me started on that dogfood you call "smoked meat". It is a cross between deli and BBQ and tastes like... well, I won't use those words.