Montreal homeless encampment dismantled to move '50 metres farther'

Yellow bulldozers, police officers and workers in orange vests dismantled a homeless encampment along Notre-Dame Street East in Montreal’s Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough Monday morning.

A group of protesters stood behind police tape chanting “shame” as tents, mattresses and other personal belongings of those who lived at the encampment were piled into garbage trucks.

Signs saying “this is our only home” and “decriminalize survival” were hung around the area.

“It’s so absurd because they’re dismantling all this just to ask them to go 50 metres farther. It’s unacceptable,” said Guillaume Groleau with the homeless advocacy group Refus Local. “There is no more space in shelters and in emergency warming tents, where the hell do they want these people to go? These people just want community. There was a sense of community and help between these people, so why are we destroying this?”

Asterix, who lived in the encampment, was with him and said his tent was dismantled earlier.

Quebec’s transport ministry sent the people who were living in the encampment an eviction notice on Nov. 18, saying it would be torn down that week.

The Clinique juridique itinérante (CJI) managed to negotiate with the provincial transport ministry, extending the deadline to Dec. 2.

The ministry said it would tolerate the presence of encampments in four nearby locations until the end of winter.

Eric Groleau with Refus Local said he expects it’s only a matter of time before those encampments are bulldozed too, forcing people to move to another part of the city.

A spokesperson for the transport ministry told CTV News it sent the eviction notice to the campers at the city’s request.

When employees arrived on-site at 6 a.m., only two campers were left and the clean-up was expected to last part of the day.

The city did not respond to a request for comment at time of publication.

“Preventing homeless people living in encampments from finding shelter when they have nowhere else to go prolongs and exacerbates the homelessness crisis instead of tackling its root cause: the lack of affordable and accessible housing,” said the CJI in a Facebook post on Sunday.

“The Quebec government must do a better job of finding urgent solutions based on human rights that respect the dignity and autonomy of members of the street community.”