Village demo against “gentrification” goes off without incident

Québec•

Village demo against “gentrification” goes off without incident

More : Beaudry, Chambre du commerce, Gay Village, Police, Queer Mcgill, Village Security Petition

by 2B site Webmaster on October 8, 2011

In response to a petition which called for, amongst other items, increased police presence in the village, a demonstration organized by Queer McGill’s Political Action Working Group took place yesterday in the park behind Beaudry métro. The tag-lines of the day were their opposition to perceived gentrification and police repression.

Placards, pamphlet and food hand-outs, and of course speeches on the megaphone were on the menu for the small and well-behaved crowd. The mostly queer-identified group of 60 demonstrators met under the watchful eye of the police, whose surveillance of the Village has noticeably increased since the petition for Village security was presented to the Ville de Montréal on Sept 12. The assembled activists were adamant that the petitioners did not speak for all of the “users” of the Village. One of the demonstrators went so far as to read a satire of the petition out loud.

Criticizing what they see as the commercialization of the Village, the demonstrators claimed the right to “spend time in the Village without having to buy a coffee, and to party without paying cover at a club.” For them, the demo sought to oppose the daily, “ongoing gentrification” of the Village and the rule of the “pink dollar,” which they do not support. They demand “alternatives to a police presence…. And build a new Village where community resources are devoted to improving the lives of queers instead of making money off of them.”

Amongst those who spoke was one Mona Luxion, member of the Queer McGill Political Action Working Group, who stated that their action “was to reclaim the Village, which belongs to everybody,” and accused the police of being the cause rather than the potential solution to criminality in the Village. Luxion stated that she hoped the Village might institute a kind of citizen-led surveillance, similar to neighbourhood watch initiatives known to work in New York City, rather than rely on the police.

The demonstrators proceeded to march eastward in the Village, whereupon the police attempted to keep them confined to the sidewalk, which was further labeled as exemplary of police repression by some participants.

Though organized by Queer McGill, the demonstration included members of several community organizations in the Centre-Sud. According to Kevin from Queer McGill, the demo went off without incident, and included between 80 and 100 participants. The group made it to Papineau and back to the Chambre du Commerce, staying on the street most of time, with the police using intimidation tactics like blaring sirens and swerving and accelerating around and through the pedestrian crowd. “They were yelling at us though the car windows. It became difficult to stick together as one unit… they threatened us with arresting everyone,” Kevin said. There were also some members of the SPVM on bikes, who stopped hovering over the crowd once the group got off the street.

With report from Thibaut Temmerman