A Montreal police officer uses pepper spay on protesters Monday, May 22, 2017, as they tried to enter an abandoned CHSLD on the corner of la Gauchetière near St Hubert St.Pierre Obendrauf / Montreal Gazette
More than 100 housing activists stormed a disused nursing home in the city’s east end Monday afternoon, touching off a tense standoff with Montreal police for three hours. Tensions escalated around 3:30 p.m. after a police officer pepper-sprayed some of the activists at the entrance to the former Centre hospitalier Jacques-Viger on de la Gauchetière St. Police also escorted outside a handful of protesters who are members of the Front d’action populaire en réaménagement urbain (FRAPRU). But more than 70 activists — including parents with at least three children — stayed behind in the vast complex of buildings that take up a city block. Police cordoned off the property and called for reinforcements. “They forced their entry inside,” said Constable Raphaël Bergeron, a spokesperson for the Montreal Police Department. “They were involved in a little brawl with a police officer due to the fact that a demonstrator who wanted to go inside, the police officers were trying to block the access. Pepper spray had to be used to disperse the demonstrators, but a pretty good number had already entered the premises.”
All the activists exited the building around 6:30 p.m. after police promised they would not lay charges against anybody. Still, the protesters had to provide their identification to police. Bergeron added that one of the protesters was arrested on an outstanding warrant, and police issued two tickets under a municipal bylaw that he did not specify. FRAPRU protesters are seen at an abandoned CHSLD in downtown Montreal on Monday, May 22, 2017.Pierre Obendrauf / Montreal Gazette
Initially, FRAPRU held a rally at Place du Canada at 1:30 p.m., calling on the provincial and federal governments to fund the creation of 50,000 social-housing units over the next five years.
“In Montreal, there’s a waiting list of 24,000 people for social housing, so we don’t think it’s unrealistic to ask for 50,000 units for all of Quebec over the next five years,” said Emilie Joly, one of the organizers.
The protesters then marched through downtown streets, refusing to give police their itinerary. Still, police on motorcycles followed them at a distance.
When the protesters turned on de la Gauchetière, they ran toward the entrance of the unoccupied property. A lone security guard fled on foot, allowing them free rein of the property.
“It’s deplorable that they used pepper spray on us,” Marie-Josée Corriveau, a FRAPRU spokesperson, said at the scene. “This is a public building, and all we wanted to do was show that it could be used for social housing.” During the brief occupation, a police vehicle circled the block repeatedly with an officer in the passenger seat warning through a loudspeaker that the building was in danger of collapsing. The FRAPRU activists said the provincial government had abandoned the property three or four years ago.
A couple of protesters could be seen on the roof of the property, which borders St-Hubert St. to the west, René Lévesque Blvd. to the north, St-André St. to the east and de la Gauchetière to the south. Earlier, a Montreal Gazette reporter briefly followed the protesters into the basement of the property after they stormed one of the entrances. The basement was already in a state of disarray with rooms half-emptied of their furniture. The activists unfurled their FRAPRU banner against a wall. Some of the protesters tried to turn on the faucets, but no water flowed through them. Among the protesters were a few with physical disabilities, and a couple were in wheelchairs. A mother walked down a basement hallway holding her daughter’s hand. Similar social-housing protests were also planned in the Montérégie, Abitibi and Bas-Saint-Laurent regions.
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