File spoon-archives/aut-op-sy.archive/aut-op-sy_2001/aut-op-sy.0108, message 8


From: "Enda Brophy" <enda_b-AT-email.com>
Date: Thu, 02 Aug 2001 01:29:06 +0800
Subject: AUT: Montreal Squat


Montreal Squat Continues Under Threat of Police
Eviction 
by Jaggi Singh 7:41am Wed Aug 1 '01  
jaggi-AT-tao.ca  

As of Tuesday night – five days after re-appropriating
an abandoned building in downtown Montreal – at least
a hundred squatters and their supporters remain on
site. All around the squat, inside and outside, they
are discussing strategy, busily moving furniture and
other supplies up and down the building with ropes and
ladders, enjoying food and drinks, playing soccer, and
just plain socializing. The teams of squatters holding
walkie-talkies -- positioned at strategic locations
around the site -- are a constant reminder of the
threat of a police attack. 
Squat Update – Wednesday, August 1st, 1:18am 
[For earlier reports on the squat action in Montreal,
as well as updates and photos, check out the features
section at Indymedia Montreal:

 <A HREF="http://montreal.indymedia.org" TARGET="_new"><FONT COLOR="BLUE">http://montreal.indymedia.org</FONT></A> 

SQUAT CONTINUES UNDER THREAT OF POLICE EVICTION 

MONTREAL -- As of Tuesday night – five days after
re-appropriating an abandoned building in downtown
Montreal – at least a hundred squatters and their
supporters remain on site. All around the squat,
inside and outside, they are discussing strategy,
busily moving furniture and other supplies up and down
the building with ropes and ladders, enjoying food and
drinks, playing soccer, and just plain socializing.
The teams of squatters holding walkie-talkies --
positioned at strategic locations around the site --
are a constant reminder of the threat of a police
attack. 

Squat organizers are confident that a scheduled
meeting with Montreal mayor Pierre Bourque -- to take
place on Wednesday morning at 10am at Hotel-de-Ville
(City Hall) -- means that the action will last another
day without the police intervention that has already
been threatened after the landlord contacted the City
on Tuesday. 

The legal landlord of the building has been confirmed
as Robert Landau of Westmount, an upper class enclave
of Montreal whose residents include the Mulroneys, the
Bronfmans and the Molsons. [Westmount was where over
150 activists were arrested on May 1, 2000 during a
Mayday rally that aimed to “déranger les riches dans
leurs niches” (translation: “bother the rich in their
niche”). Some of those who were arrested are now
actively involved in the squat project.] 

In 1988, Landau, along with his then-partner Douglas
Cohen, razed over 100 low-income units on the site
where the squat is now located (known as Overdale
Street). The current squatted building was only saved
due to its historical significance, while the rest of
the property became what is still today a large
parking lot. The squat building has been abandoned and
unused for almost 13 years until last Friday’s housing
action. 

Landau’s current company is called Grinch Realities
[note: this is not a typo; as reported by both Le
Devoir and the Gazette, the company is called
“Grinch”!]. Today, Landau and Grinch officially
applied for a notice of eviction with the City of
Montreal after remaining silent since Friday. 

This afternoon, a meeting was held at the YWCA across
from the squat between a delegation of squatters and
city officials -- including a police representative,
and mayor Bourque himself. The squatters had decided
to accept the meeting with the Mayor after a long
discussion within a general assembly, but insisted on
a site away from City Hall or the squat itself (to
avoid a media spectacle), and also clearly insisted
that all decisions would be made within future
assemblies rather than by any small group of
individuals. 

The squatter delegation was also voted within a
general assembly, which are held at least once a day,
and sometimes as many as two or three times based on
the urgency of decisions. The delegation included
Marie-Claude, an activist with the Comite-des-sans
emploi (Committee of the Unemployed), the main
organizers of the housing action; “Cat” and “Warren”,
two youth who have lived on-and-off on the streets for
several years; Sorem of the youth group RAJ
(Regroupement Autonome de Jeunesse); Mathieu, a DJ and
cultural activist who’s active with the Association
for the Liberation of Teckno and the CLAC Cultural
Committee; and Jacqueline, 72, a longtime resident of
the East End, and active supporter of the Comité des
sans-emploi. Jacqueline has slept at the squat every
night, leaving each day for a few hours to shower and
feed her cat. 

At the meeting, the mayor verbally informed the squat
delegation of a possible eviction by police.
Eventually, the mayor did make an offer of re-housing
all squatters who needed lodging within social
housing, as well as considering creating a housing
coop with squat participants at another building owned
by the city. 

The mayor’s seeming willingness to negotiate stands in
contrast to his first comments regarding the squat on
Monday, which were widely cited on mainstream radio
and television. Bourque asserted that there is no
homeless problem in Montreal, and repeated the
right-wing myth that most homeless people choose to
live on the street, and that there is plenty of
shelter space that goes unused. At least one shelter
worker with Dans la Rue (In the Streets) publicly
discounted the mayor’s remarks, pointing out that
shelters are full even in the summer. Meanwhile,
housing groups estimate that there are 15,000 homeless
in the city. 

The mayor’s offer to the squatters was immediately
criticized by housing activists and squat
participants. Some noted that the offer of housing in
existing units does not only create no new housing,
but also insidiously displaces other people who have
been waiting for those same units. According to
statistics cited by the Comité des sans-emploi and the
housing group FRAPRU, there are least 8500 households
on the waiting list for social housing in Montreal.
The coop offer was also problematic for many, with
many squatters seeing the proposal as a way of
avoiding the main issue of squatter’s rights. 

According to squat delegate Mathieu, every time the
issue of squatter’s rights (the ability to occupy,
improve, and use abandoned buildings without police or
government harassment) was brought up in the meeting,
the mayor would arrogantly comment, “This is Montreal,
not Europe”. As well, Marie-Claude recounted that at
the meeting, Cat, who has lived on the street for at
least 7 years, gave an impromptu and impassioned
defense of the squat, and the sense of empowerment it
had provided her and other street people. Her speech
had no evident effect on the mayor according to both
Marie-Claude and Mathieu. 

The mayor’s offer, while reported positively by some
mainstream sources, did not interest most of the
squatters. In a general assembly held in the evening,
which included a long discussion of various of
options, the decision was eventually made to ask for
more details about the mayor’s proposal, including
specifics about the actual future coop building.
Effectively, the assembly decision bought the
squatters more time, after City Councillor Claire
St-Arnaud, who has been designated by the mayor to
deal with the squatters, agreed to another meeting
this morning. 

However, underlying all the negotiations between the
squatters and the city is the threat of police
intervention. St-Arnaud, as well as the mayor’s media
rep, has repeatedly told the squat delegates “the
clock is ticking”. As well, St-Arnaud demanded that
the squatters make a decision by noon after tomorrow’s
10am meeting. 

One squatter remarked that the city would never make
such ultimatums to a property owner and, not
surprisingly, the City’s ultimatums are being ignored
in favor of the democratic process at the squat. It’s
also clear, talking to squat participants, that a
clear majority will not leave a building in which
they’ve invested so much time and energy over the past
five days, and which for them is now more than a home
or hangout, but a symbol of collective power. 

* * * 

While negotiations between the City and squat
delegates continue in meetings and by cell phone, life
at the squat continues. On Monday night, there were at
least 200 people on site, some for a punk show inside,
others for a general assembly by the Anti-Capitalist
Convergence (CLAC), which is actively supporting the
project. [At their assembly yesterday, CLAC voted to
give $1000 towards the squat project, which might help
to secure another generator.] 

A large sign has gone up outside the squat, which
translates from the French, “For us to stay we need: a
plumber, an electrician, a carpenter, materials, food,
mattresses, furniture, canvass, transportation, paint,
tools.” One squat supporter, with obvious climbing
talent, scaled down from the roof of the three-story
building to write in large black letters with spray
paint: “Bourque: “Dehors les pauvres””. (loose
translation: “Bourque: “Out with the poor””). 

Building and fire inspectors were allowed to enter on
Monday, and their sole recommendation was to create a
second exit in case of fire. Otherwise, by all
appearances, the building is structurally sound. 

Food is served regularly, with some activists from a
Palestinian solidarity group arranging for leftovers
from four nearby Arab restaurants (pita, falafel,
hummus, baba ganoush, tabouli ... the cuisine at the
squat has become decidedly Middle Eastern). 

The squatters have already made flyers, in French,
English and Spanish, for a block party and
demonstration to take place this Friday evening.
Despite eviction threats, plans are also being
discussed for regular workshops (a Free School) on
both hands-on and intellectual topics. 

The squat has also become a media magnet. On Monday
afternoon, there were at least four satellite trucks
(CTV/TVA, TQS, RDI and CBC), as well as several more
reporters. Surprisingly, the print and radio coverage
have been very sympathetic. Tuesday’s Gazette carried
a page three photo of 8 year-old Camilla swinging on a
tire hanging from a large tree on the squat site.
Camilla, along with her parents who are Latin American
immigrants, is a regular, and consistently initiates
the regular evening soccer games in the parking lot.
Meanwhile, La Presse carried another page three photo
of squat participants planting a tomato plant. 

However, one incident the media did not report was the
police attack on a squat participant at a distance
from the building. On Monday afternoon, an 18 year-old
female punk --who was helping with squat security with
a walkie-talkie -- was tacked by two uniformed male
Montreal police officers near the Lucien L’Allier
metro. She managed to throw the walkie-talkie away
when she saw the police approach at a distance (it was
retrieved later by other squatters), but was
handcuffed and hit several times with a baton. Not
finding the walkie-talkie, the police released her. 

She returned to the squat to recount the incident to
an assembly that was happening at the same time. She
had a large bruise on her forehead, as a result of the
tackle on the pavement, as well as scrapes and bruises
on her thigh. Two nurses from a nearby clinic, who
have been visiting the squat to offer their help (and
to urge people to stay out of the sun), examined her,
and feared a mild concussion. The police attacked when
there were no observers and the majority of people
were inside for the assembly, so there are no
independent witnesses, although the blows to the
woman’s body speak for themselves. 

* * * 

In it’s five days of existence, the Overdale squat has
essentially become a community gathering space: lots
of punk youth, lots of local organizers and activists,
lots of supporters from all kinds of backgrounds,
several kids, many dogs, and many, many curious
visitors, including the media. 

The squat has also been eye opening for people who
have never experienced living on the street or
day-to-day poverty, but have taken the time to listen
to some of the squatters. Many informal discussions
around the squat involve street youth describing their
day-to-day lives, many of whom deal with the everyday
violence of being on the street, and dealing with
harassment from other citizens, security guards and
the police. There are stories of family abuse, and
dealing with drug problems. 

There are also stories of survival, of other squat
communities that exist beyond the media glare, of
adventures with friends around Quebec and Canada with
no money but other street skills, of future projects
and actions to be undertaken (all of which involve
attempting to stay outside of the profit system).
There’s an intense feeling that people have the right
to occupy buildings that are empty without paying rent
to a landlord whose only claim is a piece of paper and
the police. 

There is also definitely much talk of actively
defending the squat from any attempted eviction or
police action. Already, certain preparations are being
made in case of attack, such as assuring food and
water is available in the squat, and gathering
materials for barricades. There is some fear of any
police attack going horribly wrong if squatters refuse
to leave and barricade themselves in. There are
already allusions being made to the deadly
Philadelphia police attack on the MOVE house in
Philadelphia in the 1980s. If not deadly, there is
fear that any police attack will be dangerous to the
squatters, especially those on the top floor and roof.


In whatever way the Overdale squat action ends,
there’s a consensus that to date the action has been
enormously positive and opened up paths of resistance
and empowerment, not to mention public awareness about
housing, homelessness and poverty in Montreal. 


 




_______________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free -AT-yahoo.ca address at  <A HREF=" <A HREF="http://mail.yahoo.ca"" TARGET="_new"><FONT COLOR="BLUE">http://mail.yahoo.ca"</FONT></A> TARGET="_new"><FONT COLOR="BLUE"> <A HREF="http://mail.yahoo.ca</FONT></A>" TARGET="_new"><FONT COLOR="BLUE">http://mail.yahoo.ca</FONT></A></FONT></A>

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Small business owners...
Tell us what you think!
 <A HREF=" <A HREF="http://us.click.yahoo.com/vO1FAB/txzCAA/ySSFAA/9rHolB/TM"" TARGET="_new"><FONT COLOR="BLUE">http://us.click.yahoo.com/vO1FAB/txzCAA/ySSFAA/9rHolB/TM"</FONT></A> TARGET="_new"><FONT COLOR="BLUE"> <A HREF="http://us.click.yahoo.com/vO1FAB/txzCAA/ySSFAA/9rHolB/TM</FONT></A>" TARGET="_new"><FONT COLOR="BLUE">http://us.click.yahoo.com/vO1FAB/txzCAA/ySSFAA/9rHolB/TM</FONT></A></FONT></A>
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
ftaaott-unsubscribe-AT-egroups.com

 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to  <A HREF=" <A HREF="http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/"" TARGET="_new"><FONT COLOR="BLUE">http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/"</FONT></A> TARGET="_new"><FONT COLOR="BLUE"> <A HREF="http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/</FONT></A>" TARGET="_new"><FONT COLOR="BLUE">http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/</FONT></A></FONT></A> 




-- 

_______________________________________________
Talk More, Pay Less with Net2Phone Direct(R), up to 1500 minutes free! 
http://www.net2phone.com/cgi-bin/link.cgi?143 








     --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005