Community organizations in Ahuntsic refuse to leave their premises despite a notice from Montreal School Service Center (CSSDM) which ordered them to leave on December 27.
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“All we ask for is time. We have nowhere to go, there are no other premises that can accommodate us,” argues Rémy Robitaille, general director of Solidarité Ahuntsic, which brings together 13 organizations.
Food bank, clothing counter, services for seniors, francization, daycare… all have lived under the same roof for nearly 25 years, in a former school belonging to the CSSDM.
Mr. Robitaille expects to obtain at any time a safeguard order, a judgment which would make it possible to urgently stay the lease termination notice which ordered the organizations to vacate before 5 p.m. Friday.
In the meantime, no one is packing up. The organizations plan to reopen their doors on January 6 as if nothing had happened, to continue offering their services to some 25,000 people in need in the neighborhood.
A requested deadline
Ultimately, the CSSDM wants to use the old school to offer French courses.
But the termination notice received at the end of November for December 27 is based on a disagreement concerning the conditions of the lease.
Solidarité Ahuntsic has refused any rent increase since 2017, including a 224% increase in February, following a first eviction notice for the end of August 2025.
This fall, the Solidarity MP for Maurice-Richard submitted a petition to the National Assembly with 1,425 signatories requesting a five-year reprieve.
Thus, the groups will be able to move to a new community center being developed on land at the corner of Saint-Hubert and Louvain Est streets, for which the first shoveling of the ground will take place in 2025.
Liberal MP Désirée McGraw was on hand Friday to support the group.
“Because of this lack of planning, it is the poorest who suffer,” protested the official opposition spokesperson for community action.
A judicial case
By email, the CSSDM indicates that it must use the premises occupied by Solidarité Ahuntsic to relocate the William-Hingston francization center due to work in its Parc-Extension building.
The spokesperson, Joëlle Lachapelle, adds that due to “the repeated refusals of Solidarité Ahuntsic, since 2018, to regularize and sign a lease”, the case is now being brought to court.
Given the ongoing legal proceedings, she did not want to provide further comment.
– With Dominique Scali
