By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban
Hundreds of people attended a downtown rally last week to call out Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante on what speakers said is her hypocrisy regarding the ongoing anti-Israel encampments and the situation of the homeless in Montreal.
There was a heavy police presence amongst the anti-Israel crowd at Victoria Square, and at one point, police took away an anti-Israel activist who tried to approach the counter-protest. The Victoria Square encampment, where the Victoria statue was vandalized, has been in place since June 22 and the McGill encampment has been in place since April 27.
Lawyer Peter Villani told the crowd that he wants everybody, including the anti-Israel protesters, to use the downtown park this summer.
“But they’re telling me, and this is the message I want you to take home, that I have no right over there!” he said. “Imagine that! A beautiful city park that the city spent a lot of money updating. Many of my colleagues spend their lunch hours there. And they’re telling me I can’t go there?! Really, in Montreal, it’s a no-go zone for us?! C’mon!”
Villani also told the crowd the rally is about democracy “and telling our Mayor that this has to stop, that we’ve had enough of the insults to people, enough of the defacing of public and private property!
“Things need to change in the city, because the way we’re going, it’s a very slippery slope away from the rule of law. What’s happening in the city is a loss of the sense of democracy and the rule of law! This is what, as lawyers, we need to make sure that we signal whatever happens on our streets, in our neighbourhoods, to our children, that’s there’s no way any group should have to suffer what we’re suffering right now. This makes no freaking sense!”
Villani said Plante is faster to act on homeless encampments than the anti-Israel variety.
“The homeless are the most vulnerable in our society! Why is she doing that and not taking the [anti-Israel] encampment down? This is not about what’s happening in the Middle East, it’s about what’s happening here in our city of Montreal!”
Villani said his parents escaped from fascist Italy “so they wouldn’t have to put up with all of that.
“And what’s happening here? What’s happening to our liberties?!”
Lawyer Alyssa Yufe, a community volunteer, spoke about values and the law.
“It’s time to call attention to the stark difference between the way that our laws apply to camps for the unhoused and the way our laws are being applied to hateful camps in downtown Montreal that are operating under the guise of freedom of expression”
Yufe added that the unhoused population in Montreal has increased by 33 percent during the time Valérie Plante has been Mayor.
“Last year alone, 426 homeless camps were dismantled. Do you know who dismantled them?! The police, under the orders of Valérie Plante! At the same time, Plante, by her actions or inactions, is encouraging residents and non-residents of Quebec to take over public and private greenspaces in Montreal and appropriate them for hateful and even illegal agendas!”
Yufe said that in Montreal, one can be fined for sleeping on a park bench, with a fine of up to $1,000 for a second offence.
“A law like this is unfair, even when it’s consistently applied to all. It’s only poor people with no choice who have to resort to sleeping on park benches. So fining the unhoused is bad. Do you know what’s worse? That the law is not even being applied consistently! The encampments here before us and at McGill are being allowed to stay!”
The event was organized by members of the Montreal legal community and attended by Federation CJA CEO Yair Szlak and Rabbi Reuben Poupko, amongst others. n