Valérie Plante

City of Montreal announces expansion of EMMIS squad amidst criticism

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The city’s announced EMMIS expansion will cover all 19 boroughs of Montreal. Photo Andraé Lerone Lewis

Houda Kerkadi,
Local Journalism Initiative

EMMIS threatens the trust between social workers and the unhoused population

Projet Montréal, the municipal political party led by Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, announced the expansion of the Équipe mobile de médiation et d’intervention sociale (EMMIS) initiative last month, covering all 19 Montreal boroughs. 

This decision came amidst criticism from urban experts and the unhoused community, who believe the initiative threatens trust between street workers and the unhoused.

Expansion of EMMIS

EMMIS is operated by the Société de développement social, an organization that promotes the involvement of the private companies in responding to the houselessness crisis. In 2021, the City of Montreal introduced the EMMIS project as a solution to cohabitation issues arising due to the housing crisis. 

“There’s [been] more violence, [EMMIS] is really a way to prevent things from escalating,” Notre-Dame-de-Grâce City Councillor Despina Sourias said. 

Citizens, businesses and residents can call on EMMIS to de-escalate and provide support with cohabitation issues that may arise between unhoused and housed individuals. The EMMIS team has social workers and police working in tandem in response to these calls. According to Sourias, EMMIS aims to deploy approximately 90 intervention workers across the city by 2025 to work in partnerships with existing local organizations.

With the expansion, teams would be able to offer services such as car rides to shelters and referrals to community resources, as well as provide support tailored to the unique realities of each borough. 

The expansion is set to cost $50 million, with funds coming in from both the city and the Ministry of Public Security, which Sourias said supports the SPVM investing in local initiatives. 

Criticism of the squad 

Ted Rutland, an urban politics and policing expert, said that the EMMIS team destroyed the bond community members had with social workers. 

In 2023, he published a report alongside the Réseau d’aide aux personnes seules et itinérantes de Montréal (RAPSIM), in which 38 street outreach workers who work with unhoused people were interviewed about EMMIS. The report found that EMMIS impaired the workers’ ability to gain the trust of the unhoused population and form long-term relationships. 

Rutland said that the starting point of EMMIS’s intervention comes from a complaint regarding an unhoused person, with the resolution often being removing that person with or against their will.

“They’re not working for unhoused people,” Rutland said.

According to the city’s website, EMMIS does not offer any follow-up interventions to unhoused individuals. 

Rutland said that EMMIS workers do not seek to build relationships with the unhoused to help them in their goals—neither the short term nor long term—but instead seek to respond to complaints from residents or businesses. He argued that Projet Montréal’s investment in projects such as EMMIS help create a sanitized view of downtown Montreal.  

“It’s fundamentally a middle-class and largely white vision of what it means to live in a city,” Rutland said. “They want the police to ensure that anyone who wants to enjoy a pedestrianized view, or a cute cafe, or move into a neighbourhood and renovate a complex or tower downtown, never have to feel uncomfortable.” 

Investing in long-term solutions 

John Wright has been unhoused for the last two years, ever since he said he lost his wallet and keys. Today, he sleeps in a makeshift shelter outside of the Open Door, a drop-in service centre for low-income and unhoused people in downtown Montreal. Wright said that the centre does not always have room for him. 

Wright believes that only social workers should be working with unhoused folks. 

“I’m not scared of the cops, but [for] someone that’s a crackhead or on panic [and is] scared, it’s wrong. The social worker that’s on-site should make the call for the cops if they need help,” Wright said. ”If not, you’re doing [it] wrong. These people are on drugs, they don’t want the cops, they’re scared shitless of the cops. I think calling the cops is just wrong, get them out of our life.”

Wright said there are two social workers who support him regularly, but he still believes that the city should be investing in long-term solutions if they want to support the unhoused population at large. 

“Build more [and] more homes, more social housing, it’s not enough man, it’s not enough,” Wright said. 

For the city, dealing with the root causes of houselessness is not only a municipal problem. 

Sourias said that, as the provincial government controls housing and health services, the municipal government is limited in what it can do in this domain. She added that all levels of government need to invest and care about houselessness. 

“To work on all these issues, the city does not have all the means to do it. We don’t have all the competencies either,” Sourias said. “[The provincial government] has the funds and the competencies to act globally on it. What we work on is what we call cohabitation.”

Sourias emphasized that investing in EMMIS is essential because it prevents escalation, but Rutland argued that EMMIS does not truly prevent escalation since they do not answer 911 calls directly but instead are referred to by police. 

“We haven’t solved the problem of the police ending up in these situations where they’re not trained to respond, where there’s a high risk of violence,” Rutland said.  

Rutland argues that the decision to expand EMMIS instead of offering funding to community organizations is a reflection of the city’s ultimate goal of simply removing the unhoused off the street; an extension on the “Not In My Backyard” mentality. He said that EMMIS ultimately can remove somebody from a public space, even if they do not want to move. 

“You can make a source of discomfort disappear if a person disappears for a while,” Rutland said, “but if you don’t address the fundamental needs, the problem doesn’t go away.”
 

This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 4, published October 22, 2024.

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Plante attacks Beis for speaking English in flood debate

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By Joel Ceausu
The Suburban

A heated exchange about flooding and lack of emergency preparedness at city council last week was infused with language politics when Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante attacked Pierrefonds-Roxboro Mayor Jim Beis for making a comment and asking a question in English.

After hundreds of homes were severely flooded, said Beis, “we know that 311 was overwhelmed with over 3,000 calls, not having the resources to answer. Accordingly, not giving the right information,” with people sometimes waiting three hours, he said. “911 was overwhelmed, the fire department was doing what they could with the resources that they had, however that still wasn’t enough.” Speaking in English, Beis described what he called “an absolute fiasco.”

“311 told residents, well you have to call your borough. The borough would call the Red Cross. The Red Cross would call 311. It was a circus, people who were devastated had to deal with this, and where was the administration through this whole thing? They didn’t have to be emptying out basements in some boroughs like ours were doing, but they had to be present with a message to reassure the public, something they did not do for six days.”

After councillor responsible for public security Alain Vaillancourt congratulated city workers for their response, to the applause of his colleagues, Beis continued: “You know what I see here?…Words, philosophies, nice policies, feel good moments, clapping, smiles, and you know what happens? There’s no execution, ever, when there’s a crisis.”

Plante responded: “First of all, I find it peculiar that the mayor of Pierrefonds-Roxboro addresses this assembly only in English,” as several of her colleagues nodded and murmured in agreement. “Here we can speak in both languages, but I want to say it anyway and I want to mention it, because it happens often on the other side of the chamber, where one is chosen over another.”

Plante accused Beis of “playing politics” about public security teams. “The state of emergency is not decreed by a mayor,” she said, adding that Montreal crews were present for the boroughs. “You criticized 311 to have improvements, so be it, but stop playing petty politics about the services of the city.” As she continued to accuse Beis of petty politics, speaker Martine Musau Muele told Plante her time was over and the mayor’s microphone was muted.

“We are capable in French, English, Greek, Italian, we are capable of asking anything in any language,” Beis replied in French. “I asked the question not to criticize employees, but I criticize the administration who are not able to make the decision when it is necessary.”

Montreal North councillor Chantal Rossi also chimed in: “My colleague was criticized because he asked a question in English, even though he comes from a bilingual borough. Yes, he can do it… we are a francophone metropolis, but to criticize the fact that the mayor of a bilingual borough asks a question only in English really affects the privilege of the mayor of Pierrefonds-Roxboro.”

Muele did not see the comment as an insult to Beis, and repeated the administration’s assertion it was a statement of fact. n

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Lawyers’ protest attacks Plante on homeless hypocrisy

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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

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Bottausci furious after “bogus” invite to CMM

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By Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban

Dollard-des-Ormeaux mayor Alex Bottausci is fighting tirelessly through what he calls “disjointed” planning by the Montreal Agglomeration and the Communauté Metropolitaine de Montréal (CMM) to push forward the interests of his residents. The CMM, headed by Montreal mayor Valérie Plante, met last spring to put together its urban planning proposal for the Greater Montreal Area, including demerged cities.

Following its revisions of the CMM’s proposal, next to its own plans created and revised through public consultations with its own residents, DDO has not only rejected the majority of the proposals but has presented their own plans to the Plante administration. “After the last Agglo meeting (last March), I positioned a request for the Jacques Bizard corridor. I directly asked for a sit down meeting with Sophie Mauzerolle, responsible for infrastructure to discuss which was publicly acknowledged and agreed to. I fired off an e-mail the next day to request a lock-down on a date. We have yet to get a response,” Bottausci told The Suburban.

Meanwhile, the CMM invited the demerged cities to the table last Monday, April 29, to review the PMAD (Plan métropolitain d’aménagement et de dévelopment) plans. “As far as DDO was concerned, there was nothing in the PMAD for transport, nothing for Sources, St-Jean and Saint-Charles in terms of transit oriented designations,” Bottausci said to The Suburban. Without the designation, the only three existing North-South arteries are not considered in the plans as public transport roads. “So no more buses,” Bottausci highlighted.

When asked about the CMM’s revision on DDO’s density proposals derived from public consultations, Bottausci replied that the consideration given went “in one ear and out the other.” The Jacques-Bizard corridor that “mysteriously disappeared”, as Bottausci puts it, from the plans last year was not included in last week’s revision meeting at the CMM either.

Bottausci requested explanations as to why his city’s proposals have not been considered, to which CMM representatives responded “We are in revision now.” According to Bottausci, the idea that the revision was happening before their eyes and that the demerged cities were made part of it at that table is an illusion, as revisions were clearly already made before he sat at the table. “They did revise and changed things around but none of that includes the plans we made derived from our findings at public consultations,” Bottausci explained.

Bottausci summoned the head of urban planning, Sylvain Boulliane, to send out a letter to make DDO’s requests known. “Our answer is ‘N…O…’ NO, we want what our residents want. We govern our own affairs and we know what our population needs. I don’t need them to make demands, especially while offering no support. Asking for densification in the wrong places, meanwhile offering no transportation plans? It is mind boggling. They want their cake and to eat it too. It does not make any sense and we are not having it,” Bottausci said to The Suburban.

When asked what the next Agglo meeting will look like given the “disconnect” between DDO’s plans and the PMAD, Bottausci said he would not comment save for the following — “We will align at the next Agglo in accordance with the response from CMM and the meeting with Sophie Mauzerolle. We are looking for answers and hopefully we get them before the next Agglo meet- that will determine how we engage there. If they don’t want to consider what we are asking, why should we consider what they are offering?” n

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Zoubris:”Cavendish has to be a priority”

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By Joel Goldenberg and Beryl Wajsman,Editor
The Suburban

Jimmy Zoubris, Mayor Valérie Plante’s special counsel, responded Sunday on CJAD’s The Suburban Radio Hour to questions from The Suburban’s editor-in-chief Beryl Wajsman on the long-delayed plan to build a “city within a city” in the Hippodrome area and the plan’s lack of a Cavendish link from Côte St. Luc northward.

CSL Mayor Mitchell Brownstein and councillor Dida Berku told The Suburban last week that the extension is left out completely from the plan, even though a link was a condition of the sale of the land from Quebec to Montreal for $1.

Wajsman pointed out that without a west of Décarie access and egress, horrible traffic congestion will continue and intensify when the Hippodrome project is completed and, even sooner, when the Royalmount megamall is completed late this summer. There are also plans for a redevelopment of Décarie Square, which is in close proximity to the Hippodrome site; a 268-unit rental project is currently being built at Décarie and De La Savane, and a new commercial-residential building has been completed at the Westbury development. “There’s a feeling that what the west end is concerned about doesn’t necessarily get the attention of city hall — what about the Cavendish link?” Wajsman asked.

Zoubris replied that the city is moving quickly, calling the site of the former Blue Bonnets raceway “not only one of the last big untouched sites in the City of Montreal, but it’s also very important for the development of that area. “When the Mayor and my colleagues mentioned that we’re going through with this project, she did mention Cavendish, she did say for us, it’s necessary that Cavendish be done as well. But we can’t stop the whole progress of the area to complete Cavendish, which is a very difficult project.”

Zoubris said the first phase of the Hippodrome project could involve Cavendish going to Jean Talon because it does not require BAPE approval. “There are many factors involved in [the extension], including dealing with the rail company (CP), which has never been easy. People have been talking about Cavendish for as long as I can remember.” Wajsman insisted, especially in light of the Royalmount project, that the Cavendish link is needed to ease traffic, and that all the municipalities involved — CSL, TMR and St. Laurent — want the extension done. Zoubris said many options are being considered, and added that Montreal has worked with TMR to alleviate traffic around the Royalmount site, including the new pedestrian bridge over Décarie north of the Royalmount-De La Savane overpass.”For us, [Cavendish] is a priority, people are working on this, it hasn’t been left behind.”

Does the city understand the Cavendish link is important to ease traffic and would make the Hippodrome project a viable one? Zoubris replied that with the planned amount of houses and existing and future businesses on Décarie, Cavendish “has to be a priority, something we have to work on all together, which I think we are as much as possible with the [island-wide agglomeration] and different levels. There’s a lot of factors and it’s a very technical thing.”

Wajsman emphasized that it is important for a political leader to speak about doing the link.”Can we hope to hear the Mayor say more on the subject as time goes on?”Zoubris replied that much will be heard about the link. “I expect there’s going to be a lot of announcements in the next while concerning development in the area. It was the first time in a long time where everyone was at the table — federal, provincial, municipal — and even the committee we created with some of the major players from the city of Montreal.”

Wajsman said some of thse major players are frustrated they are not hearing more on Cavendish.”What I’m hoping to see in the coming weeks and months is that the Mayor will underscore this, because the words of the highest elected official in the city count.” n

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Plante won’t act on complaint against anti-Israel barrage at Agglo, Norris cut

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By Joel Goldenberg

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante has decided that she and the island-wide agglomeration council will not act on B’nai Brith Canada’s complaint that the council broke its own rules in allowing a barrage of anti-Israel questions to be directed at Hampstead Mayor Jeremy Levi, in December and January.

Levi, who defended Israel’s right to defend itself in a video shot by anti-Israel activist Yves Engler and in social media postings, was not present at the December meeting, where seven anti-Israel questions were asked, and did not respond at the January meeting, where nine questions were asked. At the first meeting, the questioners told agglomeration officials they were asking about subjects like road conditions.

Plante said “it’s the house of citizens; citizens are allowed and they are welcome and we should be happy that they take the time and leave their home to come and ask questions. To me, this is democracy.

“Freedom of speech in these spaces are part of our values, and within our laws. As elected officials, it often happens that we get uncomfortable questions. I get a lot of questions that are uncomfortable and emotional from citizens. It is difficult, but it is also my job to welcome comments, questions. And right now, I know it might be difficult because of the conflict happening in the Middle East, but I think we should value the fact we are a democracy where any citizen can ask a question.”

Plante also said Levi acted on his right not to respond to the questioners. Former Projét Montréal majority leader Alex Norris — dropped from that role late Thursday — also mentioned questioners’ right to freedom of speech during that meeting.

Levi replied at that meeting, “If I understand correctly, Councillor Norris, what we’re saying is, we recognize that there are rules, but we’re not going to follow the rules.” Norris did not respond.

B’nai Brith’s complaint to the Quebec Municipal Commission about the December meeting said the agglomeration allowed questions that were supposed to be about city-related topics and were instead about the Israel-Hamas War and the situation in Gaza. The CMQ responded that an investigation is unnecessary. B’nai Brith filed a second complaint about the January meeting, which was also rejected.

Levi responded to the news of Plante’s refusal to act by posting on Facebook that, “It’s rather ironic that in the last two Montreal agglomeration council meetings, 16 individuals have attended under the guise of championing free speech, only to use it as a platform to criticize my exercise of the same right. Mayor Plante’s argument that allowing people to flout agglomeration rules in the name of free speech might have had some validity if it weren’t for Councillor Norris repeatedly suggesting that complaints be filed against me for exercising my own rights.

“If Mayor Plante genuinely supports free speech, she should consider making Agglomeration rules more accommodating to the range of topics discussed. Hampstead sets an example in this regard. Unlike Montreal, we don’t restrict questions to a 90-second limit, limit them to two per person, or confine the question period to 30 minutes. Council meetings in Hampstead sometimes involve passionate debates with individuals, making us perhaps the only municipality on the island of Montreal with such lenient rules for participants. During each question, I intentionally exercised my right to remain silent. However, this right was consistently undermined by Councillor Norris, who encouraged individuals to file complaints against me whenever I chose to remain silent.”

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs posted its reaction to Norris no longer being majority leader.

“Alex Norris’s disqualifying conduct at the Montreal Agglomeration Council, including allowing its use for repeated antisemitic attacks against Hampstead Mayor Jeremy Levi, was deplorable. Today, we are pleased to see he lost his position as a leader.” n

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