Warner Brothers, which has just opened a new animation studio east of Place Émilie-Gamelin, the eastern edge of the Quartier des spectacles, wants to remake the square by pushing out the unsightly homeless (“une population moins intéressante ou attirante”) and putting on shows about its cartoon heroes at the Grande Bibliothèque.
Updates from November, 2011 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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An afternoon of music and other cultural events is planned around Victoria Square Sunday with a list of bands and other features starting at noon. The news I see about these plans are on Facebook and I can’t decide whether their constant use of this platform is a clever détournement or an irony-free hijacking of a supremely corporatist entity.
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Chris
It’s probably just pragmatism. Many people use facebook. Over half of Canadians, IIRC. Besides, most of the internet is corporate. Even one’s first link, one’s ISP, is generally a big company.
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A onetime Montreal cop has been granted parole after doing time for smuggling marijuana. Yet another life damaged because of stupid, stupid drug laws.
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Ian
Yet, as an ex-cop, it’s a bit like being hoisted on your own petard, no? Also, 35 kilos a week isn’t exactly a small-time operation – we’re not talking about some poor kid getting nailed with a nickel bag.
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ProposMontréal is starting a series on Montreal’s river crossings, with an initial look at the brief madcap era of building train tracks across the ice.
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Doobious
Awesome. Except for being off by a century on a couple of dates.
I remember reading about an early thaw one year that sent the tracks down to the bottom of the river. I wonder if they’re still down there.
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Kate
I’m sure they are. Nobody would’ve sent divers down to pull up bits of iron. But they’ve probably sunk way down into whatever sludge is on the bottom there now.
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ProposMontreal
Thanks Doobious, The date have been corrected. It’s not every day that you get to write 18## in a Montreal piece :)
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This weekend saw a small conference in Mile End about urban beekeeping, a trend that’s been growing.
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Piece about the Satosphere in a somewhat unlikely media venue.
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Alanah Heffez finds a witty visual juxtaposition between occuper and vivre Montréal.
Robert J 14:28 on 2011/11/06 Permalink
No to pushing out homeless. Yes to outdoor Batman.
William 17:24 on 2011/11/06 Permalink
I believe that quote refers to the drug dealers and those who behaviour is made dangerous by their drug abuse, but it would be interesting to have clarification.
Kate 17:58 on 2011/11/06 Permalink
Not all the homeless are saintly old Santa Claus hobos or sad innocent unwanted teenagers – a lot are specifically dealers, abusers and other flotsam and jetsam of our society. Not nice people, no precious. We deny them places to live, then we deny them places to hang out, we take people whose deep original crime is to be without resources and expect them to be resourceful enough to survive on the street.
Ian 21:37 on 2011/11/06 Permalink
Good observation, Kate, and one worth keeping in mind – when we as a society allow people to become homeless, we are effectively forcing them to the fringes of society and they will make do with that to our detriment.
Bill Binns 08:10 on 2011/11/07 Permalink
Push them out. I have a hard time working up any sympathy for the “homeless” who hang out in parks all day. I believe the vast majority of these people are living exactly the lifestyle that they want.
Ian 09:36 on 2011/11/07 Permalink
Oh of course, silly me. Being homeless is like being on vacation all the time! I guess I need to talk to more homeless people like Bill clearly has before I can gain that level of insight into a life of crushing poverty and addiction.
James 10:02 on 2011/11/07 Permalink
Go Kate! You are so awesome. It’s so refreshing to hear people that have thought stuff through before speaking on the internet. Er sorry I’ll stop gushing this is my last one I promise.
Bill Binns 10:42 on 2011/11/07 Permalink
@Ian – My job involves visiting hundreds of convenience stores per year. I can assure you that I speak to homeless people on a regular basis.
I have no doubt that there are homeless people and families that are deserving of help and are honestly trying to get back on their feet. I am all for finding and helping these people. These are NOT the people living in Berri Park, Cabot Square and other defacto camps around the city or the guys who stand at the bottom of the escalators in the Metro or the creeps that lurk around ATM’s at night.
Kate 11:11 on 2011/11/07 Permalink
Ah yes, the old “deserving” vs. “undeserving” poor argument, the clean humble obedient folks you think deserve help, vs. the emotionally traumatized, substance-abusing, often manipulative or even violent folks you’d – you’d what? Do what with them? You don’t have to be hypocritical here. In fact I sometimes wish people like you would actually come out and say it: we’d like to hound those people until they crawl off and die, because you’d welcome it, you really would, even if you’d mouth pieties about how sad or deplorable it all was.
Bill Binns 13:04 on 2011/11/07 Permalink
Exactly! What should be done? How do you help people who only want to be drunk / high at all times? We have been told that putting them in institution is WRONG because that is “locking them up” or “warehousing” them. Leaving them alone is WRONG because that’s “abandoning them”. Is the only answer that we must tolerate them wherever they decide to congregate? Should we hire caseworkers to follow them around with sandwiches and blankets?
You may think “people like me” offer few solutions but I don’t hear any great ideas coming from the advocates of the homeless either. Personally, I think making help available for those that can be helped or want to be helped is enough. As long as this is the case, I see no problem brushing aside the Berri Park crowd whenever they become a nuisance or a danger to others.
Robert J 13:19 on 2011/11/07 Permalink
Who gets to decide who deserves help? Who are we to judge others (there’s a couple good Bible quotations on this)? We can neither give up on helping people nor naïvely expect that it will work. That’s life. To make the easiest choice (send a few dozen cops and clear out the park) is just spineless.
Kate 13:37 on 2011/11/07 Permalink
It is a legitimate question. The people Mr. Binns doesn’t like are those who have learned, by dint of various hardships, to help themselves. That they help themselves to other people’s belongings in some cases is just a part of the picture. Of course they don’t trust cops or social workers – would you?
But just moving them on, sweeping them out of sight, doesn’t help them, and doesn’t fix the problem faced by the wider society that has to somehow cope with people who are often mentally or physically ill or emotionally afflicted in various ways that mean that, through no fault of their own, they’re never going to be turned into biddable members of society with a 9-to-5 job. Yes, so now what?
Bill Binns 15:42 on 2011/11/07 Permalink
Sorry Kate but saying that all of these people have suffered hardships or that all of them are in their situation through no fault of their own is as much of an ill-informed sweeping generalization as saying they are all criminals who deserve to be locked up.
I respectfully reassert my earlier point that the majority of visible homeless people that we see around town are living the way they have chosen to live. I do not believe it’s a crime against humanity to tell people to that some places are inappropriate for lying around drunk, panhandling etc.