The City of Montreal has agreed to postpone the dismantling of an encampment under the Van Horne overpass, as a legal clinic argues the removal infringes on the residents’ rights and contradicts the city’s own protocol.
The Clinique juridique itinérante is seeking a court order to bar the city from removing nine tents behind a skatepark and basketball court at the site.
At the Montreal courthouse Thursday, the city agreed to delay the dismantling until June 1 to allow the two sides to debate the issue before a judge next week.
“Being asked to relocate is always an anxiety-provoking experience for people living in encampments,” the clinic’s founder, Donald Tremblay, said after the brief hearing. “They don’t know what might happen to them.”
A skateboarder uses the Van Horne skatepark, which also houses a small encampment of unhoused people in Montreal. Allen McInnis / Montreal Gazette
The Clinique juridique itinérante previously won a court order halting the dismantling of one of the city’s largest encampments, along Notre-Dame St. E. That case remains before the courts.
In the Van Horne case, the clinic argues that evicting people from the area violates their charter rights and would plunge them into deeper instability and isolation — in addition to contradicting the city’s protocol.
The Plateau-Mont-Royal borough posted notices in the area last week ordering people to leave before Thursday morning to ensure “the full and safe use of recreational facilities.”
“The notice replicates the very type of intervention that the (city’s) protocol seeks to avoid,” the clinic states in court documents, adding the approach “compromises the safety, dignity and rights of people experiencing homelessness.”
The City of Montreal’s new encampment protocol was announced in February and adopted on May 11. It calls for a more tolerant approach, suggesting the city only resort to dismantling as an “exceptional measure” after other options have been exhausted.
The tents of unhoused people share space with a skatepark near the Van Horne overpass in Montreal. Allen McInnis / Montreal Gazette
If the city deems an encampment must be removed, the protocol requires boroughs to establish designated “tolerance zones” where people could be relocated.
However, the legal clinic argues the city has ordered the people to leave without offering a concrete alternative.
“It appears the city is using the exceptional measure of relocation as its first resort,” it states.
The City of Montreal declined to comment for this article, citing the ongoing legal proceedings.
The Plateau-Mont-Royal borough said it followed the city’s protocol and pushed back against the notion it made no efforts before issuing the eviction notices.
The borough noted teams have been visiting the encampment for several weeks to direct people toward resources and other locations.
In a statement, borough mayor Cathy Wong said the borough tolerates several encampments on its territory.
“However, the Van Horne skatepark and Mile End basketball court are recreational areas largely used by local youth and families,” Wong added. “The presence of an encampment in this location raises numerous safety concerns.”
Roughly 10 people have been living in the encampment for about a year. People on site this week declined to speak with a reporter, but were aware of the eviction notices.
In sworn statements prepared for the courts, several of those living there speak of staying in another encampment until city workers forced them out last fall.
They describe feeling safer near the skatepark because it’s a less isolated location, of not being comfortable in overcrowded shelters, and of how the eviction notices triggered stress and anxiety.
At least one man says he called the city’s 211 number — as suggested on the eviction notices — only to be referred to the nearest shelter, which told him it was full.
He says he was never offered any help to move his belongings, beyond being handed a garbage bag.
“The people living around the Van Horne skatepark and the Mile End basketball court are a tight-knit community,” the man, unhoused since he was 16 years old, says in his statement.
“We take care of ourselves, we check our belongings and we protect one another.”
An unhoused man rests in the sun at the Van Horne overpass skatepark, the site of a small encampment. Allen McInnis / Montreal Gazette
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I joined The Gazette in 2014. Since then, I’ve reported on social justice issues, covered landmark trials, tracked elections and written long-form features. I now cover city hall.
jfeith@postmedia.com