After the dismantling, next Monday, of around ten tents at the homeless camp on Rue Notre-Dame, the Ministry of Transport, owner of the land, does not intend to carry out further evictions on the rest of the site for now.
Updated yesterday at 3:06 p.m.
This is what recent exchanges between the Traveling Legal Clinic (CJI) and the Quebec Ministry of Justice reveal.
“Subject to rights and by virtue of a “mutual and reciprocal understanding” between the CJI and the MTMD, the evictions of camps, scheduled for December 2, 2024, on MTMD land along rue Notre-Dame Est, will be limited at three specific locations,” indicates a press release released Friday by the CJI.
“The MTMD will tolerate the presence of camps until the end of winter 2025” elsewhere on its land, continues the organization.
Who decides?
In the office of Minister Geneviève Guilbault, it is confirmed that no other dismantling is planned for the moment along Notre-Dame Avenue.
But Geneviève Tremblay, strategic advisor to Minister Guilbault, affirms that it is not a question of “tolerance” towards the camps, because this decision does not come from the Ministry but rather from the municipal authorities, who have issued notice of non-compliance to the MTMD under the nuisance regulations.
“The Ministry is not responsible for the decision or not to maintain, tolerate or prohibit camps on the ground,” she explains. We will act in accordance with case law, which indicates that we can only proceed with dismantling upon receipt of an opinion from a holder of public authority relating to a risk to personal safety, etc. »
Around forty homeless people have been living in tents there for several months. Two weeks ago, around ten of them received an eviction notice from the MTMD, giving them until November 21 to vacate the premises.
The MTMD justified its decision by explaining that it had received tickets from the Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district, because the presence of the camps contravenes the municipal by-law on nuisances.
On municipal land, camps are regularly dismantled. The City of Montreal believes that the dangers for people who live in tents justify its interventions.
Last week, the CJI convinced the MTMD to postpone the expulsion of campers until after 1is December, since it is on this date that winter shelters for the homeless must open. For example, in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, the CAP Saint-Barnabé organization must add 30 places in a respite stop, which offers chairs where the homeless can spend the night in a warm place.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Currently, there are no more places in shelters, which turn away dozens of people every evening.
“Preventing homeless people living in encampments from seeking shelter when they have nowhere to go prolongs and exacerbates the homelessness crisis instead of addressing its source: lack of affordable and accessible housing. The government of Quebec must do better to find urgent solutions based on human rights that respect the dignity and autonomy of members of the street community,” underlines the CJI in its press release.
The notices of non-compliance issued by the borough concerned three sectors along rue Notre-Dame: a plot of land located south of Morgan Park, another at the corner of rue Notre-Dame and avenue Bourbonnière , as well as in the area of Joliette and Aylwin streets. Around ten tents are set up on these grounds.
Municipal authorities noted nuisances such as noise, waste cluttering the premises and criminal activities, including the sale of drugs.
But on the plots of land which are not covered by the infraction reports, no eviction notice has been issued. Tents will therefore be able to remain along Notre-Dame between Aird Avenue and Morgan Park, and between Morgan Park and Darling Street.
Does the district of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve intend to crack down on the MTMD for the rest of its land in this sector where camps are set up?
“We are going to evaluate our options, but we still need the ministries to talk to each other and be able to keep people warm and sheltered because we cannot collectively accept that people are sleeping outside in the middle of winter,” replied the Mayor of the borough, Pierre Lessard-Blais, in a written response, deploring that the lack of places in shelters due to insufficient government funding “falls directly on the population and the community environment”.
“The Government does not have to wait for administrative paperwork to see that dozens of people will continue to sleep outside, without water, without heat, without toilets, without dignity and without security. »
Precision
A first version of this text indicated that the MTMD would tolerate camps on its land until the end of winter, an assertion based on exchanges between lawyers from the Attorney General of Quebec and those from the Traveling Legal Clinic. The MTMD, however, clarified that it was not up to it to make a decision on this subject, but that it was acting after the intervention of the municipal authorities. Our apologies.
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