MONTREAL — Quebec's Superior Court has granted a temporary 10-day injunction to halt the dismantling and displacement of a long-standing homeless encampment located under a major Montreal highway.
In her Tuesday ruling, Justice Chantal Masse ordered the Quebec Transport Ministry — which owns the property below the city's Ville-Marie expressway — to cease preparatory work that would disrupt the encampment and the small community of people that have taken shelter there.
Masse also ordered the ministry to "refrain from having any contact with the people living in the encampment."
The province must also work with the Mobile Legal Clinic, a local group that advocates for people experiencing homelessness and filed the injunction application in March.
Mobile's Director General Donald Tremblay said some residents have been living in the camp for years.
He says the ruling suggests the judge recognized that resident rights would be violated if they were forcibly evicted.
"The judge recognized that there is an apparent infringement of their rights, including the right to life and security. The court also weighed the repercussions of delaying the construction work versus the consequences of evicting the people," Tremblay said.
"And the judge recognized that there were bigger consequences for the people living in the encampment. The government was not able to prove that delaying the work would jeopardize the whole project."
Quebec's Ministry of Transport has determined the highway must undergo major repair work that was scheduled to start in September 2022 and be completed by 2025.
The tent community received a first eviction notice in November, but the ministry postponed the displacement to an undetermined date in order to find a solution. When none emerged, the eviction was rescheduled to April 12. Then in early March, residents got verbal notice that the encampment would be dismantled by the end of the month.
Karine Lacoste, who struggles with substance use and has been living at the camp for about a year, said its roughly 20 residents have nowhere else to go and will try to return if they are evicted.
"I feel safe here. We are like a big family. I think there is a way to manage this because they need to put us somewhere. A shelter close by gives us blankets in the winter, cigarettes, food and clothes. It's a really good place," Lacoste said in an interview on Friday.
Lacoste noted it would be tough for encampment residents to survive without the support system of the community they created. One of her friends, she said, has lived at the camp for seven years and currently has a pregnant girlfriend.
David Chapman, Executive Director of homeless shelter Resilience Montreal located two blocks from the encampment, said community members have limited relocation options — even in the short term — because of their complex and precarious situation.
For example, he said shelters separate couples by gender so they cannot spend the night together. They also don't allow pets, and people who are actively using drugs or alcohol are not allowed to do so on the premises.
"The government of Quebec and the Ministry of Transport have said that they've been actively working since last November to help the people under the highway relocate to a better place. It's utter nonsense," Chapman said in an interview.
"Resilience Montreal has offered the government of Quebec and the Ministry of Transport a relocation plan where we would temporarily put the people into a motel for a number of months until we could find apartments that suited each of their individual needs, but to date, the proposal has been ignored."
Court documents show Quebec's attorney general argued that neither the Ministry of Transport nor the provincial government are responsible for shouldering the cost of relocating and rehousing the encampment's residents.
The ministry also told court that delaying the start of the construction work would result in "significant complications and unacceptable risks."
Quebec's Transport Ministry said on Thursday it would not comment on Masse's ruling since the case is still before the court.
"We are inviting the government to negotiate a solution with us," Tremblay said. "Up until now, the government has refused to find a humane solution for these people. But we hope that the government will listen to reason. They have a responsibility to take care of people who are the most vulnerable in Quebec."
Tremblay also said that once the 10 days have lapsed, the legal clinic will return to court and request a 10-day extension of the injunction.
A man who did not want to provide his name and has been living under the expressway for years said the possibility of being evicted has caused him great anguish.
"They give us 10 days, but I hope that they will give us more time because it is not easy. I feel safe here. If we go to another place, it will be very hard. The people will go crazy because we have been here for a very long time," he said.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante told reporters on Wednesday that the city does not view sleeping in a tent as a solution, adding those experiencing homelessness need to have access to existing resources in a "dignified and humane way."
But Plante acknowledged the city is facing a housing shortage and has requested more social housing.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 16, 2023.
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This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
Marisela Amador, The Canadian Press
