TiohtiĂ :ke Mooniyang Montreal
Featuring Camille LarivĂŠe . David Austin . Nora Butler Burke . Mostafa Henaway . Ted Rutland . Fred Burrill
In Mohawk, Tiohtià:ke. In Algonquin, Mooniyang. In everyday settler colonial English and French, Montreal and Montréal, respectively. This is the land to which people have belonged for thousands of years. This land is not a puzzle with missing pieces. Its story has been alive for much longer than just three hundred and seventy five years, older than just 1642, when the city was supposedly “founded”, an anniversary that is now being celebrated. Once upon a time, in the year 1642, Montreal was founded. But once upon a time, long before 1642, there was a fortified village present on this land, archived under the name Hochelaga, home to a thriving Indigenous population. Before them, with them, and after them, there are many. Today the city of Montreal stands on unceded Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe territories, yet its roots lie in settler rationalities and its planned future leans the same way. Yet, despite colonial efforts to invisiblize, to erase, and to forget, the land is not marked by absence, but rather an enduring presence that continues to envision more just possibilities and futurities. Despite the violence, the occupation, and the amnesia, Indigenous peoples of this land are still here with the enveloping sacred waters and the curved breathing mountain. We are infinitely grateful to them for hosting us.
Montreal: Volume I E D I T O R I A L
B O A R D
KHALOOD SHAHID KIBRIA ALISON YU-SEN ZHOU EDITORS-IN-CHIEF DEBORAH COWEN SABRIEN AMROV ADVISING EDITORS C O N T R I B U T O R S
ALEX WALTON ALEXANDRA POTAMIANOS BRIANNA CHAN CAITLIN MORISHITA-MIKI EMILY MELO GRACE GALE HANIA BUTTER HELLA WIEDMER-NEWMAN JANE DRUMM JANE LAW MARIENKA BISHOP-KOVAC MARINA MCKENZIE MINHA LEE NICOLE TAYLOR OLIVIA CARUSO VERONICA SPANOS MCGILL
P R I N T I N G
GULLONS PRINTING
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The idea for this magazine was first conceived over Chinese food one night in the fall of 2017. One year later, and after a great deal of collaboration between the authors, editors, and advisors, this is the product of five days spent immersed in the city of Montreal. There, we had the privilege of meeting several activists, writers, artists, and academics whose knowledge and lifeworlds were invaluable to our learning. Their work inspires us to sustain the conversation in our city of Toronto. We thank Camille LarivĂŠe, David Austin, Nora Butler Burke, Mostafa Henaway, Ted Rutland, Fred Burrill, and Sameer Zuberi for being such generous hosts and teachers. We thank everyone involved for the work, care, and generosity they placed in this project. We extend our gratitude to the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto for its ongoing support of creative and experiential modes of learning. - The Class
TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S I N T R O D U C I N G
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SKETCHING THE PLACE D’ARMES MINHA LEE
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ON PLACE ÉMLIE GAMELIN MARIENKA BISHOP-KOVAC
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CE DONT TU TE SOUVIENS EMILY MELO
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SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS AFFAIR ALISON Y ZHOU
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ACTIVISM IN POINTE-ST-CHARLES VERONICA SPANOS MCGILL
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BILL 101 AND CHINESE IDENTITY BRIANNA CHAN
F U T U R E
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M A K I N G
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STREET ART IN TIOHTIÀ:KE/ MOONIYAANG KHALOOD KIBRIA
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UNCEDED VOICES AS LIVING MEMORIAL HELLA WIEDMER-NEWMAN
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BLACK IN MONTREAL THE EDITORS
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PROFILE: NORA BUTLER BURKE KHALOOD KIBRIA
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C H A L L E N G E S
DEVELOPMENT 25 NEOLIBERAL JANE DRUMM
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SPATIALLY RECONSTRUCTING THE LACHINE CANAL ALEX WALTON
30 ALEXANDRA POTAMIANOS GENTRIFICATION PAINTED 33 JANE LAW THE STATE AS DEVELOPER
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NEGLECT IN MONTREAL’S IRISH-CATHOLIC NEIGHBORHOOD OLIVIA CARUSO
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FOOD ACCESSIBILITY CAITLIN MORISHITA-MIKI
39 ALISON Y ZHOU DIRECT ACTION: A COMIC 41 MARINA MCKENZIE REMEMBERING THE NCC
IMMIGRANT WORKERS’ CENTER HANIA BUTTER THE PEOPLE’S POTATO KHALOOD KIBRIA
D E F I N I T I O N S
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NICOLE TAYLOR
FROM THE EDITORS
We passed through Place Emilie Gamelin, now renamed Jardin Gamelin, nearly everyday, twice a day, during our time in Montreal. With each pass, our group saw the racialized, mostly Black, homeless population of the park being frisked, surveilled and displaced by men in uniform. A state-sanctioned putzteufel, in which the sweeping of the homeless and racialized became a logistical necessity in rendering the park a nightlife scene. This daily tread through Place Emilie Gamelin quickly unwound the facade of a romanticized city that shaped many of our perceptions upon arrival. Our group was immediately exposed to such acts of bordering that created contradictions of flow and containment, where some were free to move through and take up space, while others were stopped, frisked, and violently displaced. We quickly became witnesses to Montreal’s landscape, and its ongoing redesign, to welcome some and exclude others. On our trip, however, every such encounter of state-sanctioned violence was followed by a meeting with members of incredibly resilient communities. Our impression of Montreal was profoundly shaped by these individuals and communities who welcomed us and shared with us the various nodes of resistance they stitched into the fabric of the city. Montreal stands on unceded Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe territories. Our first day began with a meeting with Camille Larivée, organizer of Unceded Voices, who would help us grapple with that living legacy. Camille showed us the breathtaking murals by Indigenous-identified, two-spirit, queer and women of colour artists from the collective. Their street art interventions recognize the importance of walls and structures as spaces for healing and re-asserting an Indigenous presence on stolen land. They paint without the City’s permission on unceded land that has been central in the building and maintenance of the Canadian settler-colonial project. We also heard from Professor Ted Rutland and PhD candidate Fred Burrill about how communities in Montreal actively resist rent increases, the conversion of plexes, and rapid condominium development - a refreshing change from the narrative of learned helplessness. We were left with Professor Rutland’s statement that if we are to progress as a society and build cities that people can truly call home, then we need to “democratize the city-making process”. Along a walking tour of the Centre Sud neighbourhood, Nora Butler Burke told us that we are still far from that goal as trans migrant women are constantly criminalized, punished and forced into a state of precarity by the criminal justice and immigration systems in the city. But she also told us about the support
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EDITORS’ NOTE
networks, both institutional and informal, that trans migrant women have formed in Montreal, allowing for the sowing of solidarities that can collectively face these oppressive systems. Professor David Austin shared some of the findings from his book, “Fear of a Black Nation: Race, Sex, and Security in Sixties Montreal,” as we toured around Little Burgundy. Professor Austin recounted how a few decades ago, most of its inhabitants were rail porters, one of the only jobs available to Black men. In spite of all obstacles, Black porters transformed the rail lines, a crucial part of settler colonial infrastructure, into a network of resistance and Black organizing. As we stared at the site where the Negro Community Centre once stood, a gaping hole left by its demolition four years ago, we reflected on the long traditions of relentless and creative organizing that define so many marginalized communities, and how they build infrastructures of resistance and community for themselves even when others are persistent on tearing them down. Ultimately, the institutions we study are fallible. As Mostafa Henaway of the Immigrant Workers Centre put it during our walk around Cotes des Neiges, “power is brittle”. This prompted us to wonder if we could do a different kind of accounting, based on the voices and experiences of the marginalised and the oppressed. Haitian organizer and hip hop artist Ricardo Lamour, and lawyer and community advocate Sameer Zuberi, also shared valuable lessons with us about community organizing. We learned that an education can take place in many forms, but as students, we must hold ourselves accountable to the institutions that make us. For twenty of us, the privilege of stepping into Montreal’s urban landscape was a reminder that within the everyday, there is potential for resistance and self-determination, that what is now, does not always have to be. We return to UofT mindful of the communities and individuals who welcomed us in Montreal. As one small step towards that, the students decided to collaborate on a magazine that will archive and commemorate the sites, histories, and individuals that informed our fieldwork, that we will share back with those who offered us so much. We hope and vow to carry our experiences forward to share and apply our learning to our home city of Toronto. Alison + Khalood
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INTRODUC This section is an attempt to peel back the layers of the city, revealing what is often obscured or taken for granted. It provides historical context for the unevenness in which people experience the city today.
CING Whose Place? Sketching the Place D’Armes On Place Émilie-Gamelin Ce Dont Tu Te Souviens The Sir George Williams Affair Activism in Pointe-Saint-Charles Montreal’s Chinatown
WHOSE PLACE?
SKETCHING THE PLACE D’ARMES MINHA LEE
“By placing bodies into the sketch, I hope to reinsert
the history of those whose history has been erased by the form of the Place D’Armes – the people whose labour contributed to the construction and preservation of the site, the Indigenous population whose genocide and displacement is celebrated by the statue at the heart of the square, the people who are being displaced by the “revitalization” occurring in neighbouring districts.”
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INTRODUCING
“To view montreal through the lens of landscape is to recognize its colonial character”
Colin M. Coates in The Colonial Lanscapes of the Early Town
T
his sketch, entitled Whose Place?, was inspired by the various built forms that make up Montreal’s urban landscape and the inconsistencies that exist in the city’s urban fabric. Construction and demolition are common sights in Montreal – a reflection, in part, of the widespread gentrification occurring throughout the city in the name of “urban renewal”. There are, however, pockets throughout the city that are pristinely preserved, with no destruction in sight. The Place D’Armes is one of these areas. Located in the heart of Old Montreal, the Place D’Armes is just a short walk away from Montreal’s Gay Village, as well as the former Red Light District, two areas that are rapidly gentrifying1. The Place D’Armes is a public square surrounded by some of Montreal’s most important buildings, including the Notre-Dame Basilica and the Bank of Montreal’s head office.
be prioritizing in these decisions. The power of decision-making is exemplified by the statue at the centre of the Place D’Armes which depicts Paul de Chomedey, the “founder of Montreal”2. It is clear that the Place D’Armes outlines a narrative of the “discovery” of Montreal, celebrating Paul de Chomedey’s role in making Montreal the city it is today. This narrative, however, memorializes Montreal’s settler colonialism rather than the history of the Indigenous populations who lived and worked on the land before the arrival of colonizers.
This focus on colonialism manifests itself in the built form of the Place D’Armes in troubling ways. While Indigenous people are depicted in the statue of Paul de Chomedey, they are shown as people to be conquered, and their genocide is celebrated. This is further supported by a plaque in the Place D’Armes which reads, “near this This description however, raises a problem in square, afterwards named La Place D’Armes, the that it does not identify for whom these buildings founders of Ville-Marie first encountered the are important. This points to a broader question Iroquois, whom they defeated, Paul de Chomedey that this piece aims to address: for whom are de Maisonneuve killing the chief with his own spaces revitalized and for whom are landscapes hands”3. preserved? Both demolition for revitalization and the preservation of existing landscapes The fact that this narrative is preserved while are choices made by people for people, so it is landscapes that speak to Montreal’s queer history, important to consider who has the power to indigenous history, and immigrant history, among make these choices, and who these people might others, are being torn down and the marginalized
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populations who occupied these spaces are displaced speaks to the power dynamics in decision-making in the city. Why is it that it is the spaces that are occupied by marginalized populations that are perceived to be in need of “revitalization,” rather than preservation? Why does the landscape of the city only reflect the history of those who are rich and powerful?
heart of the square, the people who are being displaced by the “revitalization” occurring in neighbouring districts. The figures not only occupy and enjoy the space from which they were displaced, but also construct the built form in the sketch, creating an urban landscape which displays not just a curated narrative of heritage and luxury.
The piece’s intention is to represent the Place D’Armes in a way that encompasses the history of all who have contributed to its existence, Why is it that it is the rather than a way in which narratives are carefully spaces that are occupied curated and portrayed, which is the case for the Place D’Armes as it stands today. This project by marginalized aims to bring to light the complex nature of urban populations that are form and to encourage a conscious effort to think for whom landscapes are designed and perceived to be in need of about preserved. Viewers are encouraged to understand “revitalization”, rather than the city as not a neutral entity, but rather a force that informs and is informed by its occupants. preservation? Its goal is to explain ways in which landscape can be destructive and violent, and describe its role in depicting and perpetuating a history that This issue is made even more complex by the fact privileges some groups at the expense of others. that the Place D’Armes is an area of mostly highend businesses, with the Hôtel Place D’Armes ENDNOTES boasting “urban sophistication withy luxurious Silver, E (2012) Sheena Hoszko – Red Light Monument. Available at: http:// comforts – and just a touch of sinful decadence”4. dare-dare.org/en/events/sheena-hoszkored-light- monument (Accessed 03 The way in which the Place D’Armes is branded November 2017). Maude, MM (2013) Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve. Available at: points to the commodification of settler colonial http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/paul-dechomedey-dehistory and Indigenous genocide to make the maisonneuve/(Accessed 30 October 2017). Keating, C (2017) Montreal’s Monuments to Colonialism. Available at: https:// Place D’Armes a place of “heritage” and luxury ricochet.media/en/1949/montreals-monuments-to-colonialism (Accessed 15 for those who can afford such things. December 2017). 1
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4
By placing bodies into the sketch, I hope to reinsert the history of those who have been erased by the form of the Place D’Armes – the people whose labour contributed to the construction and preservation of the site, the Indigenous population whose genocide and displacement is celebrated by the statue at the
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INTRODUCING
Hôtel Place D’Armes (n.d.)
ON PLACE ÉMILIE-GAMELIN
PUBLIC SPACES AND GENTRIFICATION MARIENKA BISHOP-KOVAC
P
lace Émilie-Gamelin, a park located in Montreal’s central area of ‘Centre Sud’, was one of the first sites our group encountered when we arrived in city. At 10AM on a weekday, as our group walked through this public park for the first time, we wtinessed multiple police officers carding and confronting Black men who were occupying space in the park. This was not the last time we witnessed such confrontations. We witnessed the scheduled and unscheduled programs of the park and people’s interactions within this public space on a daily basis. The spectrum of situations our group observed paralleled the complexities of Montreal and its history.
looked to “revitalize” the space making it “safer” according to Jérôme Glad of Pépinière & Co. and Pascale Daigle, Programming Director for the Quartier des Spectacles Partnership. It seems though that according to this plan,“safer” equates to having more of a police presence for the purpose of policing, surveilling and displacing the racialized, mostly Black, homeless population that meets in the park.
The City of Montreal’s Standing Committee on Social Development and Diversity Montreal and Public Safety Commission put forward a report and recommendations regarding the general assessment of the actions of the agglomeration of Montreal to fight against racial profiling Place Émilie-Gamelin has long been a meeting and social profiling 2012-2016. One of the place for Montreal’s vulnerable populations. The recommendations of the report was to remind site was named after Émilie-Gamelin, a Frenchpolice officers and STM officers that all citizens Canadian Social Worker and founder of the are entitled to equal treatment (“Bilan Contre Le Sisters of Providence of Montreal a Catholic Profilage Racial”). From our group’s interaction congregation serving the poor in the 1800s with Place Émilie- Gamelin, it seemed that this (“Soeurs De La Providence”). Place Émilierecommendation was not being followed. The Gamelin holds historical and contemporary alleged “improvement” of parks in Montreal, significance as it has been a meeting place for as in other cities in Canada, has resulted in members of vulnerable groups, and has also the displacement of significant vulnerable been a space of gathering for protests and public populations. The City must keep in mind that assembly. these spaces are for everyone, not just to appeal to tourists who contribute to Montreal’s tourist However, the redevelopment of Place Émilieand entertainment economy and Montrealers who Gamelin and its rebranding and renaming to have previously stigmatized these spaces because “Jardins Gamelin” have contributed to the the disenfranchised have occupied them. displacement of many of the former inhabitants of the space. The 2015 redevelopment plan
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1890 Soeurs de la Providence establishes l’Oeuvre de la Soupe, giving out at least 500 bowls of soup a day to the needy.
1980s The site sta occasionally throu the space into a c However, a conse remain a part of th
1963 Increased commercial activity within the community leads the sisters to put their land up for sale and relocate. The City of Montreal buys the land for 4,2 million dollars, allowing for the construction of the Metro Station.
Creation of Turtle Island. Tiohtiá:ke/ Mooniyaang unceded Haudenosaunee and Anishinabe territories, also now known as Montreal, has a long and rich pre-colonial history on Turtle Island. The Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) Nation is regarded as the custodians of the lands and waters of the region along with the Algonquin people, although this land has been a gathering place for many First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people.
1841 Creation of Soeurs de la Providence, a Catholic congregation of women that served the sick, elderly, and homeless.
December 1963 The demolition site is ravaged by a three alarm fire. After the fire, a parking lo constructed on the site. The space continues to a place of congregation for many homeless pe and substance users.
1910s-1960s Neighbourhood Ville-Marie transitions from a residential neighbourhood to an increasingly commercial zone.
REFERENCES
Bilan Général Des Actions De L’agglomération De Montréal Pour Lutter Contre Le Profilage Racial Et Le Profilage Social 2012 - 2016. Rep. City of Montreal: Commission Sur Le Dé Board, Montreal Gazette Editorial. “Editorial: Renovated Parks Are for Everyone.” Montreal Gazette, Postmedia, 30 June 2015, montrealgazette.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-reno Kelly, Jeanette. “Quartier Des Spectacles Collaborates with Ville-Marie to Make Park Safer.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 8 May 2015, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/gritty-p News, CBC. “Friends, Family Hold Vigil for Montreal Drug Overdose Victims.” CBCnews, CBC/Radio Canada, 30 Aug. 2014, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/drug-overdose-vi Pall, Navneet. “Photos: Montreal’s 50th Night of Protest - June 12.” Www.ottawacitizen.com, Postmedia, 13 June 2012, www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Photos+Montreal+50th+night+ Quartier Des Spectacles, “It’s All Happening at Les Jardins Gamelin.” City of Montreal, 13 May 2015, www.quartierdesspectacles.com/en/blog/606/its-all-happening-at-les-jardins-ga Saint-Jean, Guillaume. D’une Oeuvre De Charité à Une Place Publique. Le Devoir, 31 Aug. 2009, www.ledevoir.com/societe/actualites-en-societe/264902/d-une-oeuvre-de-charite-a-u Soeurs De La Providence, “Blessed Emilie Gamelin.” providenceintl.org/en/search-requests/three-great-providence-women/blessed-emilie-gamelin/.
PHOTOGRAPHS
“Asile De La Providence Montreal.” Images Montreal, imtl.org/image.php?id=11164. CBC. “A Man Lights Candles for the People Who Died over the Summer from Drug Overdoses.” Http://Www.cbc.ca/News/Canada/Montreal/Drug-Overdose-Victims-Remembere “Construction De La Station Berri-De Montigny (Berri-UQAM).” Archives Montreal, City of Montreal, archivesdemontreal.com/2014/09/22/chronique-montrealite-no-12-montreal Grenier, Jacques. “La Place Émilie-Gamelin Est plus Occupée Par Les Coups De Vent Et Les Pigeons Que Par Les Citoyens...” Un Échiquier Géant Pour La Place Émilie-Gamelin, Le lie-gamelin. “Montreal Police.” The Huffington Post, www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/06/12/montreal-police-pants_n_7572038.html. Pall, Navneet. “A Protester Holding the Number 50 as a Sign to Commemorate the 50th Protest after the SPVM Declared the Assembly Illegal at Parc Emilie Gamelin Because a Plan news/Photos+Montreal+50th+night+protest+June/6775016/story.html. Pall, Navneet. “Protesters Wearing Masks of Guy Fawkes Dance at Parc Emilie Gamelin after the Assembly Was Decalred Illegal.” The Ottawa Citizen, Postmedia, 13 June 2012, www “Resurgence.” (Surface) Images & Aboriginal Graffiti from Kahnawake: A Mohawk Rez Outside Montreal, Canada, ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY, 21 Sept. 2008, zeroanthropology.net Zig Zag. “The Warrior/Unity Flag.” Warrior Publications, warriorpublications.wordpress.com/2012/03/18/the-warriorunity-flag/.
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INTRODUCING
2015 This public park is being redeveloped by the Quartier des Spectacles Partnership Pépiniere & co. Redevelopment includes the creation of a cafe, public art, community garden for an urban agricultural project, and social workers.
arts to be used as a concert venue ughout the year. Ideas of turning concert venue are put forward. ensus is reached that it should he public domain.
2012 On the 50th night of the 2012 Quebec student protests, an assembly was held at Place Émilie-Gamelin. Montreal Police declare that the assembly was illegal since planned itinerary was not put forward. Protesters then took to the streets of Montreal.
2017
d ot is o be eople
Summer 2014 A Vigil is held in Place Émilie-Gamelin to remember overdose victims and demand projects that could save the lives of opiate users. 1992 The space is renamed Place Émilie-Gamelin in memory of the former Superior of the Soeurs de la Providence congregation during the mid 1850s.
éveloppement Social Et La Diversité Montréalaise Et Commission De La Sécurité Publique, 2017. Print. ovated-parks-are-for-everyone. parc-%C3%A9milie-gamelin-gets-glamorous-makeover-1.3066239. ictims-remembered-at-montreal-vigil-1.2751427. +protest+June/6775016/story.html. amelin#. une-place-publique.
ed-at-Montreal-Vigil-1.2751427. l-en-1914-et-en-1964/. e Devoir, 4 May 2007, www.ledevoir.com/culture/arts-visuels/142038/un-echiquier-geant-pour-la-place-emi-
nned Itinerary Was Not Provided.” The Ottawa Citizen, Postmedia, 13 June 2012, www.ottawacitizen.com/
w.ottawacitizen.com/news/Photos+Montreal+50th+night+protest+June/6775016/story.html. t/2008/09/21/surface-images-aboriginal-graffiti-from-kahnawake-a-mohawk-rez-outside-montreal-canada/.
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CE DONT TU TE SOUVIENS EMILY MELO
I
f Ontario has coined Yours to Discover, Québec has chosen je me souviens (I Remember). Embarking on our trip to Montréal this late summer it soon occurred to me that this phrase, rolling along on license plates, caught a sentiment universal to the city: it was a place full of memory. This memory did not just allude to its French Catholic upbringing, however, but rather could also be found in the narratives of the few and the neighbourhoods of the diverse. Over the course of a week our unit of twenty-two navigated Montréal through a series of lenses, inspired by agents advocating for the marginalized, professors spelling the gravity of demolished communities, and leaders telling stories of voices refusing to be silenced. Where there was modern and new there was history and resistance. People holding on to landscapes and religions, careers and homes. It is impossible to do justice to the city itself, and by no means is Montréal a place set in its ways. Yet sometimes returning to a place can only be done through this sequence of memory, and so here I’ve done my best to catch a snapshot of “our” Montréal which may perhaps even resemble ce dont tu te souviens.
ce dont tu te souviens The current at present is trafficked by locks. As the water rises the boats come too, and blue upon blue blushes into the draw. The lock gives out to a new tideline, and the late is left for those who recall. A mercy denied and a mercy beheld. The illegitimate children are of secondhand gods— curtained in corners and worshipped by night. They are lights that catch and burn in the dark, illuminating hands at the dépanneur. They are caught where they congregate, at intersecting ends of absent lanes.
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INTRODUCING
Je me souviens. The words roll by stamped onto backs, the eternal cross policing the streets for refusal to cede. Refusal to leave. There is a new place, a modern place: a concrete fix. Purgatoried by glass and by chainlink Scalpelled—razored, in gold at a price— crossing the corridor from faded to famed. Sunken and swollen, roads belly with asphalt, and hands pass to hands the blueprints for footpaths and redlines for demos. The metro is re-writ with cards that will re-load: relaying careers to shifts on underground tubes and laneway stores. Students like flies fault the waste of an oligarchy. Yet they pen their degrees to become « des idiots utiles ». There is guiltless selfhood in making ends meet, in failing justice at nine until five for the referral, the phone call, the humble man’s brag H O L D H A R D. Hold fast. The neighbours deal now in tailoring trees, learning to caution the appeal of home. The heart does not stop, but it needs to be managed, and in rebar the tenant is sunk by noon. Smoothed and white-washed to a clean modern edge. There is a distance not reached from Berri-UQAM, nor spotted exactly from the top of the hill. By day it is found in faces held parallel, counted with two eyes, and a pulse by the curb. It is understood backwards like only truth is, in a matter of five days—or was it a lifetime— to see what’s to see and feel what’s faded.
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THE SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS AFFAIR
BLACK RADICAL ACTIVISM IN SIXTIES MONTREAL ALISON Y. ZHOU
O
n 28 April 1968, several students, most of whom were Black, filed a complaint with the university administration at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia University) against Professor Perry Anderson, who they alleged was deliberately failing or marking down Black students. Due to the widespread feeling that this allegation was received with less-than-enthusiastic terms by the dean of students, students organized sitins and demonstrations to expose the depth of racism perpetuated within the institution. Finally fed up with the deafening silence from the administration, over 200 students at Sir George Williams occupied the university’s Computer Centre, the “nerve center” of the university1. While many of the protesters were white, and some of West Indian or Indo-Caribbean origin, including Cheddi Jagan, the son of former Prime Minister of Guyana, and Roosevelt Douglas, who would later become Prime Minister of Dominica, most were Black2. The occupation of the computer room lasted until February 11, 1969 when the protesters began clearing out after receiving news that an agreement had been reached. However, when riot police descended upon the room to clear everyone out, the students quickly realized that no formal agreement had been made and those who had not left yet refused to leave. They had no idea that many of them would soon find themselves locked up in a Montreal jail after being beaten and abused by police upon arrest3. Later known as the Sir
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INTRODUCING
George Williams Affair (SGWA), the arrests that followed a mysterious and damaging fire that forced the students out garnered national and international attention. In 2015, Director Mina Shum collaborated with the National Film Board of Canada to create a feature documentary about the Sir George Williams Affair. Rodney John, one of the original six Black biology students to file a complaint against Professor Perry Anderson, is one of the film’s narrators. He now lives in Toronto at the age of 76. He remarks that, “to this day, I feel a sense of anguish over what we had to go through, the way in which our lives were sidetracked...You know, in the larger scheme of things, we were just a fraction of the larger struggle for the humanity of minorities, which is still going on. And any number of people have paid a much higher price. People have paid a price with their lives”4. Rather than treat the Sir George Williams Affair as a dislocated event or mere outgrowth of radical African-American politics, we seek to understand it within a history of Black radical activism native to Canada and Montreal. Montreal’s Black community was informed by multiple positionalities: the Canadian and Quebec nations, the Caribbean nations they had left behind, as well as the diasporic Pan-African nation, defined as the international community of Black peoples. With approximately 80% of Black Montrealers born in the Caribbean as of 1968, community activism in
out in, “All Roads Led to Montreal”, Black ENDNOTES Austin 2007, 67. radical activism in Montreal, “like so many Austin 2007, 68 social movements around the world in the Austin 2007, 531-532 CBC 1960s and 1970s, drew inspiration from African David Austin American struggles against economic and racial Sean Mills Austin 2007, 77 oppression”, as well as transnational ideologies of Pan-Africanism and Black Power, but was “nonetheless native to Canada”5. Within these positionalities, of course, a diversity of politics are represented. The Haitian community in Montreal, for instance, is a “brand of activism” on its own because of both its influence on the city as well as events directly impacting Haitians, including the “Crisis of 1500”, when several hundred nonstatus Haitians faced the prospect of deportation in 1974 following an amendment in immigration laws6. 1 2 3 4 5 6
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Following the Sir George Williams Affair, as well as critical contributions to Black quality of life by the Congress of Black Writers and the Caribbean Conference Committee, many new groups were formed amid a burgeoning social and political consciousness among Black Montrealers. In the words of Tim Hector, writing from Antigua, there was consolation to be found in the fact that the Sir George Williams Affair demonstrated that black people were no longer “prepared to have their humanity denied and challenged, and not have that denial and challenge taken seriously. When they are not taken seriously,” he concluded, “they will destroy sacred cows (computers) and shake the pillars of the universe.... In so doing they will ensure the triumph of humanity eventually, at which time man will reign supreme, and not property”7.
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ACTIVISM IN POINTE-SAINT-CHARLES VERONICA SPANOS MCGILL
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INTRODUCING
Pointe-Saint-Charles is a neighborhood of Montreal with a long history of community action and activism that dates back to worker strikes during the construction of the Lachine Canal in the nineteenth century. Since the construction of the St Lawrence Seaway in the 1950s, community-run not-for-profits and political organizations have proliferated in response to neighbourhood decline and loss of employment opportunities as the former industrial suburb transformed into an inner city slum. Several of these organizations have stood as models for the development of province-wide systems to provide communities with access to affordable legal, medical, economics and housing services1. Here we trace some of these histories.
1954-1959 Construction and opening of the St Lawrence Seaway. A significant factor in the deindustrialization of Montreal’s industrial heart, the Lachine Canal was replaced by the South Shore Canal. The resulting loss of jobs and neighbourhood decline lead to the loss of about 50% of the residents of PSC.2 3
“Sans prétendre que le mouvement social de Pointe-Saint-Charles a fait à lui seul l’histoire du quartier au cours des 35 dernières années, nous pouvons cependant affirmer qu’on lui doit l’essentiel de ce qui a permis de canaliser la résistance à la dégradation des conditions de vie de la population et la mise sur pied de nouveaux modes sociaux et politiques d’action. Cette particularité a eu des conséquences non négligeables sur la transformation du quartier depuis la fin des années 1960.”4 “Without claiming that the social movement of Pointe-Saint-Charles has by itself created the history of the neighbourhood over the last 35 years, we can however assert that it has been essential to allowing us to marshal resistance to the degradation of the population’s quality of life and to the establishment of new social and political modes of action. This has had significant consequences for the transformation of the neighbourhood since the end of the 1960s.” (Translation own)
1964
Regroupement des citoyens de PSC founded.
1968
Clinique communautaire de PSC founded.
The first citizen run committee defending the interests of PSC residents, founded in 1964 by Catholic Youth Workers.5
Students at McGill University were concerned by the inadequate medical services in PSC and founded the CCPSC in order to address interlinked health problems and social issues. The CCPSC became the model for the Local Community Service Centers (CLSC) network in Québec, which are maintained by the province and offer free services, as well as mental health, sexual health, needle exchanges, access to social workers and vaccinations.6
1968-70
Les Services juridiques communautaires de PSC founded.
Created and run by law students and citizens of PSC to offer free legal services to residents. A revolutionary idea at the time, popular legal clinics proliferated and developed into the legal aid system in Québec. The Services juridiques allows citizen to fight the state, landlords, creditors and law enforcement in the courts without prohibitive costs.7
1971 Loge-Peuple created.
The first self-governed housing cooperative in Quebec, Loge-Peuple was short lived but inspired similar initiatives in PSC, Montreal and Québec. Today, PSC has 50 housing coops offering more than 1200 accommodations mostly inhabited by low-income families, and 2500 of 5800 housing units in the neighbourhood are social housing prohibitive costs.8 //16
1973 Carrefour d’éducation populaire de PSC founded.
Established to meet the educational needs of adults in PSC, especially in French literacy. Now a location for many educational purposes, it provides a variety of service from free childcare to a location for people to assemble and act of issues of social justice. The Carrefour continues to be involved in ongoing campaigns around PSC.9
1981 Action Gardien founded
Called Action Watchdog Committee in English, Action Gardien runs a dialogue table and works to bring together other community groups of PSC (the CCPSC, Maison Sainte Colomba, the Carrefour, Services juridiques, among others) to join forces and focus their activities. One of their first actions was to oppose the Programme d’intervention en quartiers anciens (PIQA), an urban revitalization project put forth by the Drapeau government that favored gentrification on PSC and other ‘old neighborhoods’.10
1984 Programme économique de PSC (PEP) founded
Formed by a dozen other community groups to look for solutions for issues of unemployment and community-compatible development. PEP acted as a model for the development of Corporations de developpement economique et communautaires (CDEC) around Québec.11
1989 Regroupement économique du Sud-ouest (RESO) created
The PEP was expanded to include the other post-industrial neighborhood around the Lachine Canal (Saint-Henri, Côte Saint-Paul, Ville-Emard, Petit-Bourgogne, and Griffintown) in order to address their similar needs.12 13 14
1990s Participation of PSC groups in pan-Québec and pan-Canadian struggles
Pauvrété-zéro (1997): struggle against the Bouchard government’s policy of zero deficit and the resulting budget cuts to social services that disproportionately affected the poor and working class.15 Tribunal Populaire (1998): a mock trial in which Action Gardien and citizen put the government on trial for the adverse effects of their cuts to social services.16
2002 Lachine Canal reopened
Closed in 1970 (as shipping traffic had moved to the South Shore Canal), Lachine Canal was unused for more than 30 years until it was reopened for recreational uses. The Revitalization was announced in 1997, with public and private investments totaling around $350 million and attracting new development to the surrounding areas, including PSC17.
2004 Le collectif La Pointe libertaire founded
A radical Left-Libertarian collective, La Pointe libertaire works towards the self-governance of PSC by its citizens, and is involved in many local, organizations and movements with the goal of promoting decentralization18.
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INTRODUCING
2005-2006 Casino de
Montreal prevented from moving to PSC
Loto-Québec and Cirque de Soleil planned to move the Casino near to the Peel Basin, and argued that it would bring important jobs and an influx of money to the neighborhood. Residents disagreed, believing that it would motivate further gentrification, and were successful in their mobilization to prevent this relocation19 20. Casino campaign banner 21
2009 Collectif 7 à nous created.
A collective (including the Centre social autogéré, Action Gardien, the RESO, and le Club populaire des consommateurs, among others) founded to protest the unauthorized demolition of buildings. Acted as an organizational core for the struggle to claim Bâtiment 7 (part of the former CN grounds adjacent to the neighborhood) for the community22.
Judith Cayer, the project manager, poses in front of Bâtiment 7 25
2011 Bâtiment 7 ceded to the community
After years of demonstrations and organizing, Groupe Mach (the latest owners of Batiment 7) ceded the building to Collectif 7 à nous, along with promises to decontaminate the structure free of charge and supply the Collectif with $1 million to renovate it. It took further demonstrations for the City of Montreal to ratify the cession23 24. //18
KEY ORGANIZATIONS: NAMES, TRANSLATIONS, WEBSITES
Regroupement des citoyens de Pointe-SaintCharles (Pointe-Saint-Charles Citizens’ Coalition): defunct organization Clinique communautaire de PSC (CCPSC Community clinic of Pointe-Saint-Charles): https://ccpsc.qc.ca/en Les Services juridiques communautaires de PSC (Community Legal Aid of Pointe-Saint-Charles): http://www.servicesjuridiques.org/ Carrefour d’éducation populaire de PSC (Carrefour for Popular Education of Pointe-SaintCharles): http://carrefourpop.org/ Action Gardien (Action Watchdog Committee): actiongardien.org Programme économique de PSC (PEP Economic Programme of Pointe-Saint-Charles): defunct organization Regroupement économique du Sud-ouest (RESO - Economic Coalition of the South-West): http:// www.resomtl.com/fr/accueil.aspx Le collectif la Pointe libertaire (The Libertarian Pointe Collective): lapointelibertaire.org Collectif 7 à nous (7 is Ours Collective): http:// www.batiment7.org/
ENDNOTES La Pointe libertaire, Présentation du quartier Pointe-Saint-Charles, (Available at: http://archive.lapointelibertaire.org/node/86, n.d.) 2 Gordon C. Shaw & Viktor Kaczkowski, St. Lawrence Seaway, (The Canadian Encyclopedia, 2009) 3 Heritage Montreal, Neighbourhood Pointe-Saint-Charles – History, (Available at: http://www.memorablemontreal.com/accessibleQA/en/histoire. php?quartier=14, n.d.) 4 La Pointe libertaire, Présentation du quartier Pointe-Saint-Charles, (Available at: http://archive.lapointelibertaire.org/node/86, n.d.) 5 Action-Gardien, Le communautaire à travers le temps... une histoire de luttes et de revendications, (Available at: http://actiongardien.org/node/1246, 2017) 6 Clinique communaitaire de Pointe-Saint-Charles, History - A bit of background, (Available at: https://ccpsc.qc.ca/en/history, n.d.) 7 Alexis Vaillant, Histoire, (Available at: http://www.servicesjuridiques.org/apropos/histoire/, 2012) 8 La Pointe libertaire, Présentation du quartier Pointe-Saint-Charles, (Available at: http://archive.lapointelibertaire.org/node/86, n.d.) 9 Carrefour d’éducation populaire de Pointe-Saint-Charles, Qui sommes-nous, (Available at: http://carrefourpop.org/qui-sommes-nous/, (n.d.) 10 Action-Gardien, Notre histoire, (Available at: http://actiongardien.org/ node/1246, n.d.) 11 Action-Gardien, Le communautaire à travers le temps... une histoire de luttes et de revendications, (Available at: http://actiongardien.org/node/1246, 2017) 12 Action-Gardien, Le communautaire à travers le temps... une histoire de luttes et de revendications, (Available at: http://actiongardien.org/node/1246, 2017) 13 Regroupement economique et social du Sud-Ouest, Mission, (Available at: http://www.resomtl.com/456/mission.sudouestmontreal, n.d.) 14 Marcel Sévigny, Casino… une victoire populaire impressionnante ! Analyse des intérêts en jeu, (Available at: http://archive.lapointelibertaire.org/node/79.html, 2006) 15 Action-Gardien, Le communautaire à travers le temps... une histoire de luttes et de revendications, (Available at: http://actiongardien.org/node/1246, 2017) 16 Action-Gardien, Le communautaire à travers le temps... une histoire de luttes et de revendications, (Available at: http://actiongardien.org/node/1246, 2017) 17 Parks Canada, Lachine Canal reopening - Lachine Canal National Historic Site, (Available at: https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/lhn-nhs/qc/canallachine/decouvrirdiscover/reouverture-reopening, 2017) 18 Anna Kruzynski and Marcel Sévigny, Déclaration de la Pointe libertaire, (Available at: http://www.lapointelibertaire.org/?page_id=41, 2010) 19 Alexandre Shields, Loto-Québec jette l’éponge, (Available at: http://www. ledevoir.com/politique/quebec/104152/casino-loto-quebec-jette-l-eponge, 2006) 20 Marcel Sévigny, Casino… une victoire populaire impressionnante ! Analyse des intérêts en jeu, (Available at: http://archive.lapointelibertaire.org/node/79.html, 2006) 21 Action-Gardien, Notre histoire, (Available at: http://actiongardien.org/ node/1246, n.d.) 22 Marco Silvestro, Une expérience d’expropriation populaire à Pointe-SaintCharles, (Available at: http://archive.lapointelibertaire.org/node/2129.html, 2013b) 23 Marco Silvestro, Luttes urbaines : Victoire citoyenne à Pointe-Saint-Charles, (Available at: http://archive.lapointelibertaire.org/node/2128.html, 2013a) 24 Marco Fortier, Bâtiment 7, la fierté d’un quartier militant (Available at: http:// www.ledevoir.com/societe/actualites-en-societe/496900/pointe-saint-charlesbatiment-7-la-fierte-d-un-quartier-militant, 2017) 25 Marco Fortier, Bâtiment 7, la fierté d’un quartier militant (Available at: http:// www.ledevoir.com/societe/actualites-en-societe/496900/pointe-saint-charles1
batiment-7-la-fierte-d-un-quartier-militant, 2017)
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INTRODUCING
MONTREAL’S CHINATOWN
EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF BILL 101 ON CHINESE IDENTITY BRIANNA CHAN
Montreal hosts one of the largest ethnic Chinese populations in Canada.1 These include new immigrants, second generation Chinese Canadians, and their descendants who may be born and raised in Montreal. Like many other Chinatowns in Canada and the USA, Montreal’s Chinatown is located in a downtown area and has experienced displacement and gentrification.2 This article focuses on the historical formation of Montreal’s Chinatown as a commercial and tourist area, and the impact of Quebec’s French language policy on Chinese people’s lives and identities. HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE The earliest Chinese settlers in Quebec were the Hong Kong Cantonese who worked on the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885.3 Chinatown was initially built as an ethnic residential enclave to provide services for Chinese immigrants in the area.4 As the population grew, it developed into a commercial district, hosting many offices of regional Chinese newspapers, organizations and associations, divided by family surnames, regional origin in China, and spoken dialects.5 Chinatown was significant as the centre for facilitating commercial exchanges, as well as social, cultural and religious activities for the wider Chinese population.6 Gradually, low rent housing in Chinatown became difficult to find as land value increased in the surrounding areas. By the 1960s, only around 8% out of the 8000 Chinese residents in Montreal still lived in Chinatown, becoming more of a
commercial enclave than a residential area.7 Since the establishment of Bill 101 in 1977, and especially since the beginning of the 21st century, the Chinese population in Quebec has been declining.8 This combined decentralization and decline has impacted community building and coherence.9 With the creation of an immigrant investor category in 1986, many wealthy Hong Kong entrepreneurs immigrated to Canada, with some settling in Montreal on the South Shore and in the suburbs.10 Yet another “Chinatown” was created along Rue St. Catherine in the Concordia area for Asian students.11 New hubs were established to accommodate increasing needs due to migratory influx of East Asian immigrants all over the Greater Montreal Region, serving more than just the Chinese population. ROLE OF BILL 101 ON THE COMMUNITY Established in 1977, the Charter of the French Language (Bill 101) became the centre of Quebec’s language policy, asserting that French would be the official language used in everyday life within the province, while English would be used as the language of business.12 This had important implications on the Montreal Chinese: for business and for education, as businesses in Chinatown must adhere to the French language policy.13 Signs and labels must be provided in French in all establishments and daily business must take place in French.
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All immigrant children from non-English speaking families must now be enrolled in French schools.14 These language disputes alienated the already divided Chinese community which led many of the Chinese families to move out of Quebec to other regions in Canada if they could afford to do so.15 According to Croucher (2006; 2008), many first generation Chinese Montrealers have seen this as an identity threat and have shown active resistance against their families and children being forcefully assimilated into the Quebecois culture as they fear losing their ethnic identity through the loss of the Chinese language.16 However, younger generations have been more willing to embrace their intersecting identities as both Chinese and Quebecois as they believe that will give them more opportunities to succeed in Montreal.17 GENTIRIFCATION AND REDEVELOPMENT
Montreal’s Chinatown can be considered a divide between the francophone east and the anglophone west on the Island, a liminal zone between the two sectors.18 In the 1950s, public and private investors started to look to Chinatown due to its ideal location between Old Montreal and the Central Business District.19 In the 1970s, Chinatown was highly impacted by Montreal’s redevelopment plans, which restricted the size of Chinatown to prevent its expansion in all directions, leading to its land mass being severely reduced by expropriation and development.20 The construction of several massive federal projects like the Palais de Congrès, Complexe Desjardins, Complexe Guy Favreau and Quartier International destroyed swaths of the Chinatown community.21 During this time, urban redevelopment had several adverse effects on Chinatown in the form of structural and institutional discrimination, including decreased employment rates, vacant lots and empty buildings as visible signs of under utilization, as well as gentrification tied to
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INTRODUCING
rising land and property values.22 The government still saw historical and economic value in Chinatown, particularly because Chinatown was seen as a tourist attraction that had the capacity to contribute to economic growth. A planning framework was negotiated between Chinese community organizations and the City of Montreal in 1982 to combat the displacement of residents, small businesses and cultural facilities, and to prevent visitors from becoming overly intrusive. This led to the installation of street signs, improvements to existing buildings, refurbishment of malls, widening of pavements, addition of murals and trees, landscaping, and conservation of heritage buildings.23 Since the 1990s, the appearance and urban planning of Montreal Chinatown has undergone a drastic change into more of a tourist area, with Chinese symbols, temples, public squares including the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Park, the Chinese Pagoda Park and the Holiday Inn with ‘Chinese style’ roof design, while entrances to Chinatown are marked by gateways adorned with traditional and contemporary Chinese art. The role of French language policy in gentrifying ethnic neighbourhoods like Chinatown helps contextualise movement within Montreal’s Chinese community.
REFERENCES Lai, D. C. Y. & Chan, T. C. M. (2015). Montreal Chinatown 1980s-2014. Canada Chinatown Series. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC. (Published). 2 Chan, K. (1986). Ethnic Urban Space, Urban Displacement and Forced Relocation: The Case of Chinatown in Montreal. Canadian Ethnic Studies = Etudes Ethniques au Canada. 18 (2), 65. 3 Lai & Chan, 2015. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid. 6 Croucher, S. M. (2008). An Analysis of Montreal’s Quartier Chinois and Sense of Self: Une Loi peut faire mal au dragon, mais La Loi ne peut pas tuer le dragon. Chinese Journal of Communication. 1 (2), 213–223. 7 Lai & Chan, 2015. 8 Ibid. 9 Chan, 1986. 10 Lai & Chan, 2015. 11 Ibid. 12 Hsu, Y. (2014). Feeling at Home in Chinatown—Voices and Narratives of Chinese Monolingual Seniors in Montreal. International Migration & Integration. 15, 331–347. 13 Croucher, S. M. (2006). The Impact of External Pressures on an Ethnic Community: The Case of Montréal’s Quartier Chinois and Muslim-French Immigrants. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research. 35:3, 235–252. 14 Ibid. 15 Shaw, S. J. (2003). The Canadian “World City” and Sustainable Downtown Revitalisation: Messages from Montreal 1962-2002. British Journal of Canadian Studies. 363–427. 16 Chan, 1986. 17 Ibid. 18 Shaw, 2003. 19 Ibid. 20 Hsu, 2014. 21 Shaw, 2003. 22 Hsu, 2014. 1
23
Shaw, 2003.
NEOLIBERALISM: Neoliberalism is a set of ideas, policies and practices that grew to become influential on a global scale since the 1970s. While there are many different versions of neoliberalism on the ground, as well as competing interpretations of its meaning, history and impacts, it also holds some common core elements. Neoliberalism sees the market as the ideal model of human social and cultural as well as economic relations. It denotes the extension of market relationships into virtually all domains of life. This typically involves a critique of unions, ‘big government’ and welfare policies in particular, and an embrace of the private sector, and qualities of entrepreneurialism and self-sufficiency. Neoliberalism has had a particularly fraught relationship with cities, often leading to cut backs to public services, as well as privatization and marketization of public spaces and infrastructures. Neoliberalism is deeply gendered and racialized, and tied up with gentrification and deepening socio-economic polarization.
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This section hones in on some of the challenges unique to Montreal. They are stories of continuity and upheaval. Many writers in this section are writing on a certain community or site, but relate to each other in their focus on processes of colonial violence, racism, erasure, and marginalization.
CHALL ENGES Neoliberal Development and the Canal Spatially Reconstructing the Lachine Canal The State as Developer: The Case of Griffintown Gentrification Painted Neglecting Montreal’s Irish-Catholic Neighbourhood Food Accessibility in Montreal The Negro Community Centre
NEOLIBERAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE CANAL JANE DRUMM
I
n the mid 1800s, Montreal was Canada’s principal industrial centre; however, the period of economic restructuring and de-industrialization during the 1970s and 80s moved manufacturing away from the city core leaving a derelict cityscape. The recent re-development of the Lachine Canal in the southwest borough of Montreal reflects how the city is adopting notions of neoliberal urban planning. Revitalization projects have attempted to transform the former industrial area into a site of tourism, recreation and upscale condominiums, with the aim of attracting investment and enhancing Montreal’s competitive advantage on the global scale. However, these redevelopment initiatives have contributed to spatial polarization in Montreal by making the Canal an exclusively affluent area, thereby exacerbating issues of affordability in the city. The Lachine Canal’s revitalization offers a strong example of how urban areas, and particularly obsolete industrial sites in cities, are being transfomed into areas of consumpiton and profitability, which are designed to meet the needs and demands of very particular types of residents. The following few pieces in this section explore changes in the Lachine Canal and its surrounding neighbourhoods.
Photo credit: stlawrencepiks.com - Seaway History
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CHALLENGES
SPATIALLY RECONSTRUCTING THE LACHINE CANAL REIMAGINATION, RENATURALIZATION & REVITALIZATION ALEX WALTON
T
iohtiá:ke/Mooniyaang (Montreal) is situated on unceded Haudenosaunee and Anishinabe territories that have been occupied by Indigenous peoples for many thousands of years prior to Euro-colonial settlement1. There are continuities between these historic displacements and contemporary forms of urban development that are directly highlighted by the remaking of the Lachine Canal. Looking to the Canal in the past and present makes clear that erasing the physical presence of people from the spaces they occupy is a powerful (and violent) tool of both colonial and neoliberal projects2. Montreal’s Lachine Canal at present is recognized as a National Historic Site3, which, I will argue is an example of how industrial landscapes are being reimagined and physically reconstructed into spaces of tourism and privileged consumption by displacing incumbent poor and racialized communities4. HISTORY
The Lachine Canal runs through the south west part of Montreal and was built in 1825 as a way for boats to bypass the steep and otherwise unnavigable Lachine rapids. Although colonial settlement occurred almost 200 years earlier, the Canal’s construction was a turning point in the Euro-colonial development of Canada, and thus had a major role in the dispossession of Indigenous peoples of their land5. In the 1840s the Canal underwent its first in a series of expansions, realized through the mass exploitation of an Irish migrant work force6, that allowed for an increase in the Canal’s import and export capacities7.
During the expansion project the government mandated the transformation of the Canal’s lock system into hydraulic energy sites, creating an accessible source of cheap energy8. The availability of cheap energy coupled with Montreal’s status as a transportation hub resulted in the Canal becoming one of the earliest sites of Canadian industrial development9. Throughout the latter half of the 19th century, continuing into the early 20th century, the Canal continued to attract a wide assortment of industry, spurring the development of the Canal’s surrounding areas into fast growing working class neighbourhoods10. The Canal runs most of its course through the neighbourhoods of Point Saint Charles, Little Burgundy, SaintHenri and Griffintown, all of which have housed an array of working class and immigrant communities over the decades11. In the 1940s industry across North America was gradually shifting from the inner city to suburban regions, resulting in disinvestment along the Lachine Canal and within its surrounding neighbourhoods12. In 1959 the Saint Lawrence
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Seaway was completed, which rendered the Canal obsolete and was key in driving away what remained of the manufacturing sector, along with a great deal of employment opportunities13. In the 1960s through to the 1980s the municipal government actively facilitated decline in the Canal’s nearby neighbourhoods by sanctioning housing demolition projects to clear land for the construction of an expressway, and otherwise neglected the needs of the people within the neighbourhoods14. Since the late 1990s the Canal has undergone extensive public reinvestment conceptualized around recreational use and “renaturalization”, which largely has resulted in a space characterized by neoliberal development, accessible to wealthier and generally speaking whiter communities15. This is not to say that the Canal was not in dire need of detoxification following its deindustrialization – it was – but instead to emphasize who then reaps the benefits capital reinvestment in the form of clean-up projects.
how trends of privatization and gentrification embody the overarching construction of the Canal as a kind of quasi-public space catering to privileged demographics19. Reinvestment has drawn in affluent residents attracted to the ‘loft-living’ style offered by the conversion of industrial buildings into luxury condos, as well as to the overall transformation of the Canal into an “urban park corridor”20. The Canal is now lined by a nearly 15-kilometer-long mixed use bike and walking path and many new build condo developments. Images one is taken in Saint-Henri, near the Atwater Market, and depicts the pervasiveness of new build condos and their physical proximity to the Canal’s “public” path. Extensive gentrification of south western Montreal, and the ensuing social exclusion, illustrate who the target audiences of the Canal park actually are21. (1)
THE CONTEMPORARY CANAL
Upon visiting the Canal today, one experiences a highly curated landscape of consumption, disconnected from its histories of labour and poverty16. An explicit example of the attempted spatial reconstruction of the Canal can be found under the “Things to do” subsection of the Canal’s webpage on the Parks Canada website17. It states; “Whether it’s to admire the spectacular and diverse views of Montreal, to relax in a pastoral setting, or to indulge in sports activities, you’ll experience a moment of pure escape in this tranquil natural setting”18.The language employed above of the Canal as a place of “pastoral” recreation, of “nature” and “escape”, speaks to the image co-opted by government reinvestment that is being imposed on the landscape. In the following section I use photos to depict
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CHALLENGES
Photo credits: author The second image was taken in Griffintown. It displays an advertisement for an almost finished building complex that endorses ideas of “exclusive” living.
(2)
As one moves north east along the Canal path, away from the predominantly residential neighbourhoods of Saint-Henri, Little Burgundy and Griffintown, and towards Old Port, the heart of Montreal’s downtown, there is an obvious shift in the landscape from that of a luxury lifestyle catering towards residents of the area, to a vision marketed at a tourist gaze. Image five depicts a factory located just west of Old Port (arguably the centre of the Canal’s activity) that has been preserved as a piece of the park space. (4)
Image three is of a private dock located on the edge of the canal that can only be accessed by residents of one of the surrounding condo buildings. (3)
However, gentrification and privatization have not been met without resistance; image four is of a piece of graffiti found on a bridge crossing the Peel Basin that denounces the construction of condos.
This section of the Canal is characterized in part by the integration of vacant factory buildings into the built environment. There are numerous plaques along the Canal discussing the importance of such factories in terms of Canadian industrial development, however, the cultures and histories of the peoples who lived and worked in these spaces go completely unmentioned. In the context of tourism, it is important to consider which histories are being preserved and how they are being configured to fit the narratives that reinvestment projects aim to tell.
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(5)
ENDNOTES Unceded Voices (n.d.) Unceded Voices: About. Available at https://decolonizingstreetart.com/about/ (accessed 4 November 2017). 2 Twigge-Molecey, A (2014) Exploring Resident Experiences of Indirect Displacement in a Neighbourhood Undergoing Gentrification: The Case of Saint-Henri in Montréal. Canadian Journal of Urban Research, 23(1): 1-22. 3 Desloges, Y (2003) Behind the Scene of the Lachine Canal Landscape. The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology, 29(1): 7-20. 4 Bliek, D and Gauthier, P (2006). Understanding the Built Form of Industrialization along the Lachine Canal in Montreal. Urban History Review, 35(1): 3-17. 5 Coates, C (2011) “The Colonial Landscapes of the Early Town”. In Metropolitan Natures: Environmental histories of Montreal. Pittsburgh, Pa: University of Pittsburgh Press. 6 Horner, D (2010) Solemn Processions and Terrifying Violence: Spectacle, Authority, and Citizenship during the Lachine Canal Strike of 1843. Urban History Review, 38(2): 36-47. 7 Desloges (2003) 8 Gelly, A (2003) A Precipitous Decline, Steam as Motive Power in Montreal: A Case Study of the Lachine Canal Industries. The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology, 29(1): 65-85. 9 Desloges (2003) 10 DeVerteuil, G (2004). The changing landscapes of Southwest Montréal: a visual account. Canadian Geographer, 48(1): 76-82. 11 Bliek and Gauthier (2006) 12 Bliek and Gauthier (2007) Mobilising Urban Heritage to counter the Commodification of Brownfield Landscapes: Lessons from Montréal’s Lachine Canal. Canadian Journal of Urban Research, 16(1): 39-58. 13 DeVerteuil (2004) 14 Ibid. 15 Bliek and Gauthier (2007) 16 Ibid. 17 Parks Canada (2017) Lachine Canal National Historic Site: Things to do. Available at http://www.pc.gc.ca/en/lhn-nhs/qc/canallachine/activ (accessed 28 October 2017). 18 Ibid. 19 Twigge-Molecey (2014) 20 Bliek and Gauthier (2007) 21 Ibid. 22 Bliek and Gauthier (2006) 23 Twigge-Molecey (2014) 24 DeVerteuil (2004) 1
CONCLUSION
The Lachine Canal was critical in the industrialization of Montreal and is key in understanding the city’s spatial organization22. Disconnecting space from history is a violent tool employed to dispossess incumbent communities of their neighbourhoods23. Through the medium of narration and photography, I have attempted to illustrate the exclusive nature of neoliberal development schemes as they manifest themselves in the contemporary built environment of the Lachine Canal, and extend into the peripheral working class neighbourhoods of south western Montreal. Over the last two decades urban centres across North America have reinvested in their inner city (and often formerly industrial) neighbourhoods, that, through the latter half of the 20th century were earmarked for disinvestment and decay24. With that I encourage people to reflect on how spatial reconstruction, generated by capital reinvestment, is employed to exclude poor and racialized communities from neighbourhoods they once called home, and in turn to consider who redevelopment-type projects are actually for.
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CHALLENGES
“IT’S NOT A QUESTION OF ‘DEVELOPMENT VERSUS NON-DEVELOPMENT’, BUT ‘DEVELOPMENT FOR WHOM?’”
- Fred Burrill, PhD student and rent strike activist in Saint-Henri
THE STATE AS DEVELOPER: THE CASE OF GRIFFINTOWN ALEXANDRA POTAMINOUS
M
uch of the literature on redevelopment focuses on how, with the rise of neoliberal forms of governance, localities have had to take an “entrepreneurial” approach alone to attract investment1. However, this outdated view fails to account for the way that the federal government plays a role in facilitating gentrification2. The Lachine Canal’s designation as a National Historic Site places it under the guise of the federal government, who is able to manipulate the space in preparation for the upper class and capital. Increased involvement by the federal and local government is a unique feature to third wave gentrification3. In the case of Griffintown, the government acts as a developer by funding the “greening” of infrastructure, like the waterfront revitalization of the Lachine Canal and the redevelopment of the Bonaventure Expressway. In a final section of this short article, I will offer an answer to a question that Miller first posed in her work on the exclusionary effects of green gentrification, “For whom is the space being (re) created?” and argue that the state’s investments play a role in trying to make Montreal a competitive city4.
amenity”6. In the case of Griffintown, many of the changes to the waterfront have been pursued by the Government of Canada and Parks Canada, which have invested in the restoration of the Lachine Canal walls and the Peel Basin7. The cleaning and subsequent opening of the waterway for “leisure” boating makes available more space for other green amenities, like parks and pathways dotted with trees and shrubs. Along the Lachine it has also led to the expansion and renovation of existing bike and pedestrian pathways. These projects work to make the waterfront the “centerpiece” of the area. They encourage the commercial gentrification of the shore line as boutique stores and highend restaurants begin to open8. The state’s involvement also paves the way for condominium developers, who are able to capitalize on the area’s green amenities to attract upper class buyers9.
STATE EFFORTS TO TRANSFORM
The federal and local government have designated funds to the waterfront revitalization of the Lachine Canal and the renovation of the Bonaventure Expressway, which are part of a larger trend of “green gentrification”5. This is defined as the gentrification that follows from the “creation or restoration of an environmental
Photo Credit: Montreal Gazette
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The changes to the Bonaventure Expressway serve to accelerate gentrification through the “greening” of infrastructure, as well. A proposal has been put forward create an “urban boulevard” that is much more pedestrian and cyclist friendly10. The City of Montreal and the Government of Canada are working together to tear down a portion of the expressway in hopes of two boulevards flanked by green space11. The plan involves creating hiking paths and bike lanes lined with many more plants and flowers. Similar to the explosion of these amenities in Beijing during the Olympics, these state-funded projects work to “clean-up” the space both physically and socially12.
Both the physical and branding work being done around the Lachine caters to needs of “affluent, ecoconscious residents” and conforms to “elitist” visions of the city as a place of recreation WHOSE CITY?
The changing role and nature of the state at both the federal and local level as increasingly “entrepreneurial” has led to the production of spaces with a bourgeois “flavor”13. Geographers writing on this issue have sought to understand “For whom is this space being (re) created?”14 Both the physical and branding work being done around the Lachine caters to needs
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of “affluent, eco-conscious residents” and conforms to “elitist” visions of the city as a place of recreation. It acts as a way to sanitize the space in anticipation for the white, uppermiddle class body and capital16. These “green” projects lead to increase land values and threaten the of displacement low-income residents, who cannot afford to participate in so-called ‘ecofriendly’ living17. This wave of “green gentrification” is a way for both the country and the city to compete on a world-wide scale for residential and commercial investment18. Since losing its place as Canada’s economic center to Toronto, Montreal has struggled to make a name for itself in the urban hierarchy of cities19. The transformation of brownfield spaces, in the case of Griffintown is framed in government documents as a way to make Montreal a “sustainable” urban area and tries to emulate places that have successfully done this like New York City. Federal and local government have evidently acted as “developers” in accelerating gentrification in Montreal’s Griffintown neighbourhood. The area’s designation as a National Historic Site and the changing role of the federal government has led to the increased involvement by this level of the state20. The government’s funding of “green” infrastructure has prepared the space for developers, investors and importantly, the uppermiddle class in an effort to launch Montreal onto the world’s main stage21. However, these projects are being challenged by groups who criticize Griffintown’s “glamorous” redevelopment. The anti-gentrification work of POPIR Housing Committee, for instance, gives us hope for a more just and equitable vision of the city.
ENDNOTES David Harvey, “From Managerialism to Entrepreneurialism: The Transformation in Urban Governance in Late Capitalism,” Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography 71, no.1 (1989): 3-17. 2 Jason Hackworth and Neil Smith, “The changing state of gentrification,”Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie 92, no. 4 (2001) : 464–477.; Jason Hackworth, The neoliberal city: Governance, ideology, and development in American urbanism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2007).; Ute Lehrer and Thorben Wieditz, “Condominium development and gentrification: The relationship between policies, building activities and socio-economic development in Toronto,” Canadian Journal of Urban Research 18, no. 1 (2009):140-161. 3 Jason Hackworth and Neil Smith, “The changing state of gentrification,”Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie 92, no. 4 (2001) : 464–477. 4 Jessica Miller, “Is urban greening for everyone? Social inclusion and exclusion along the Gowanus Canal,” Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 19, (2016): 285.; Annick Germain and Damaris Rose, Montréal: The quest for a metropolis (Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley, 2000). 5 Jessica Miller, “Is urban greening for everyone? Social inclusion and exclusion along the Gowanus Canal,” Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 19, (2016): 285-294. 6 Jessica Miller, “Is urban greening for everyone? Social inclusion and exclusion along the Gowanus Canal,” Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 19, (2016): 287. 7 Parks Canada, “A mega project - Lachine Canal National Historic Site,” Parks Canada, last modified March 30, 2017a, http://www.pc.gc.ca/en/lhnnhs/qc/canallachine/info/gestion-management/revitalisation- revitalization/b; Parks Canada. Parks Canada, “Engineering and architecture - Lachine Canal National Historic Site,” Parks Canada, last modified March 30, 2017b, https:// www.pc.gc.ca/en/lhn-nhs/qc/canallachine/info/gestion-management/ revitalisation-revitalization/agrandissement-expansion/4 8 Kenneth Gould and Tammy Lewis, “The Gowanus Canal: From open sewer to the Venice of Brooklyn,” in Green gentrification: Urban sustainability and the struggle for environmental justice. (New York: Routledge, 2017), 85-114. 9 Lauren Markham, “Gentrification and the Urban Garden,” The New Yorker, (2014, 21 May). 10 Andy Riga, “Say goodbye to elevated stretch of Bonaventure Expressway,” Montreal Gazette, (2016, July 6). 11 Andy Riga, “Say goodbye to elevated stretch of Bonaventure Expressway,” Montreal Gazette, (2016, July 6). 12 Siqi Zheng and Matthew Kahn, “Does government investment in local public goods spur gentrification? evidence from Beijing,” Real Estate Economics 41, no.1 (2013):1-28. 13 David Harvey, “From Managerialism to Entrepreneurialism: The Transformation in Urban Governance in Late Capitalism,” Geografiska Annaler. Series B, Human Geography 71, no.1 (1989): 3-17.; Jason Hackworth, The neoliberal city: Governance, ideology, and development in American urbanism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2007). 14 Jessica Miller, “Is urban greening for everyone? Social inclusion and exclusion along the Gowanus Canal,” Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 19, (2016): 285-294.; Dan Immergluck, “Large redevelopment initiatives, housing values and gentrification: The case of the atlanta beltline,” Urban Studies 46, no.8 (2009):1723-1745. 15 Melissa Checker, “Wiped Out by the “Greenwave”: Environmental Gentrification and the Paradoxical Politics of Urban Sustainability,” City & Society 23, (2011): 212, 214.; Chris Hagerman, “Shaping neighborhoods and nature: Urban political ecologies of urban waterfront transformations in Portland, Oregon,” Cities 24, no. 4 (2007): 285-297. 16 Susannah Bunce and Gene Desfor G, ‘Introduction to ''political ecologies of urban waterfront transformations",’ Cities 24, no.4 (2007):251258.; Siqi Zheng and Matthew Kahn, “Does government investment in local public goods spur gentrification? evidence from Beijing,” Real Estate Economics 41, no.1 (2013):1-28. 17 Melissa Checker, “Wiped Out by the “Greenwave”: Environmental Gentrification and the Paradoxical Politics of Urban Sustainability,” City & 1
Society 23, (2011): 21. 18 Jessica Miller, “Is urban greening for everyone? Social inclusion and exclusion along the Gowanus Canal,” Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 19, (2016): 285. 19 Mathieu Van Criekingen and Jean-Michel Decroly, “Revisiting the Diversity of Gentrification: Neighbourhood Renewal Processes in Brussels and Montreal,” Urban Studies 40, no. 12 (2003): 2451-2468.; Annick Germain and Damaris Rose, Montréal: The quest for a metropolis (Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley, 2000). 20 Jason Hackworth and Neil Smith, “The changing state of gentrification,”Tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie 92, no. 4 (2001) : 464–477. 21 Annick Germain and Damaris Rose, Montréal: The quest for a metropolis (Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley, 2000).
GENTRIFICATION Gentrification is a process of capital investment, an increase in property values, and physical renovation and renewal that mostly occurs in lower cost and racialized neighbourhoods. Areas that experience gentrification soon become unaffordable to the people who used to call them home, facilitating the influx of wealthier and white residents who displace prior residents.
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GENTRIFICATION PAINTED JANE LAW
ARTIST STATEMENT: My intent is to show how space and place is increasingly constructed and commodified via processes of gentrification, revealing how narratives of the state and private sector overwhelmingly saturate the voices of the local peoples. This allows the viewer to witness and bring into question the histories that are preserved, reshaped, commodified, and/or erased in the process of gentrification. The ability of the viewer to passively view the artwork places them in the role of the gentrifier, while touching and lifting up the wax paper invites a deeper understanding of the complexities and exclusive practices of development. The comparison between the pre-gentrified and gentrified versions of the street commentates on the target audience of the gentrified version of the street.
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NEGLECTING MONTREAL’S IRISH-CATHOLIC NEIGHBORHOOD OLIVIA CARUSO
I
n 2008, members of the community organized a funeral service to honor the late Griffintown neighbourhood who had succumbed to its “long illness” of administrative neglect and poor urban planning practices1. Griffintown—located in Southwest Montreal— was once a working-class neighbourhood strongly associated with Montreal’s IrishCatholic community2. Having been subjected to slum-like conditions and coerced into leaving Griffintown throughout the 1900s, however, the neighbourhood’s residents have since been erased from the space’s collective memory and there remains little to remind present-day visitors of the neighbourhood’s Irish history3. Here, I suggest that the decline of the Griffintown’s Irish-Catholic community was a by-product of the municipal government neglecting the neighbourhood, and explore the community efforts underway to mark these stories. HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Thomas McCord—a prominent Montreal businessman—acquired the Nazareth Fief in 1792, after signing a ninety-nine- year lease with the Sisters of the Hôtel Dieu4. McCord’s attorney—Patrick Langan—took advantage of his client’s absence in the late-1790s by leasing his property deals to Mary Griffin, who then proceeded to develop the land in accordance with her plans for “Griffintown”5. While the land was returned to McCord upon his return to Montreal in the early-1800s, the area continued to be unofficially referred to as Griffintown6.
Griffintown’s Irish population grew significantly during the mid-1800s, as the victims of the Irish famine and Napoleonic War joined the Irish navvies that settled in the area following the completion of the Lachine Canal in 18257. Notably, upwards of 69 percent of Griffintown’s residents had an Irish background by the 1890s8. GRIFFINTOWN’S DECLINE
In the post-WWII period, political actors facilitated the depopulation of the neighbourhood by failing to invest in Griffintown’s public infrastructure. The out-migration of people to the suburbs was expedited in this period as residents desired a modern lifestyle that Griffintown could not provide—the neighbourhood, for example, lacked hot running water9. While it is easy to dismiss the government’s negligence by attributing people’s move out of the neighbourhood to the pull factors of suburban life—modern homes, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation making homeownership more accessible, etc.—it is important to note that, in the context of the period’s social climate, the backwardness of Griffintown’s public infrastructure would have been a significant push factor to leave the neighbourhood10. By the 1950s, Griffintown lost over one thousand families, making it evident that the lack of development in the neighbourhood significanlty contributed to the depopulation of the space11. The municipal government gave preferential treatment in the allocation of redevelopment
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projects to the other districts neighbouring the Lachine Canal12. While Southwest Montreal became a target for redevelopment in the 1960s and 1970s—Little Burgundy, for example, had over 80 percent of its housing stock demolished—Griffintown was never slated for reform13. While it would be incorrect to suggest that a redevelopment project would have saved Griffintown, the fact that it was never even slated for one further highlights the perceived irrelevancy of the neighbourhood. Montreal’s municipal government was more interested in investing in the city’s reputation than they were in investing in the residents of Griffintown. The construction of the Bonaventure Expressway—one of the megaprojects initiated in preparation for Expo ’67— called for the destruction of industrial spaces, commercial buildings, and over 55 residential units16. Indeed, the significance of the Expo dissuaded the municipal government from conceding to the community’s protests17.Jean Drapeau’s municipal government, for example, asserted that the conditions of the slums were irrelevant so long as the people living in them admired the projects18. The expedited decline of the community through the systematic depopulation of the space was, therefore, a byproduct of the municipal government prioritizing the city’s international reputation over the wellbeing of the its constituents. The community’s concerns about their declining neighbourhood were not adequately addressed by the municipal government. By the 1970s, only 840 people remained in Griffintown—compared to 4,500 in 1951—and only three of the neighbourhood’s 365 houses satisfied municipal standards19. The depopulation of the space was, therefore, a consequence of Griffintown being
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left in the shadows of the modernizing city.
Montreal’s municipal government was more interested in investing in the city’s repuation than they were in investing in the [Irish] residents of Griffintown Operating in this context, the Griffintown Progress Association organized a meeting in 1972 to engage political actors in a discussion about the neighbourhood’s decline20. Those in attendance, however, simply refused to pressure landlords to abide by city bylaws and suggested that residents unhappy with their living conditions should move out of Griffintown21. The failure of Montreal’s municipal government to take ownership of the problem and offer the community meaningful support, therefore, works to further highlight their disinterest in both the condition of Griffintown and the lives of the neighbourhood’s residents. By actively trying to rebrand Griffintown, the municipal government removed the Irish community from the collective memory of the space. Throughout the course of the 1990s, Griffintown was renamed “Faubourg des Recollets” and an attempt— although unsuccessful—was made to change the neighbourhood’s street names22. The act of renaming the neighbourhood officially erased the Irish community from the history of the space and, given the francophones names, repositioned
Griffintown as a French neighbourhood23. PRESENT DAY
The history of the Irish community in the space has been neglected by present-day redevelopment projects. The gentrification of the community has failed to capture the neighbourhood’s character as the space has been, and continues to be, treated as if though it were a “carte blanche”24. By failing to acknowledge the material culture of Griffintown, the recent developments have romanticized and simplified the history of the space, consequently inspiring the birth of a new neighbourhood under the same name25. Former residents of Griffintown have given a voice to the Irish community by taking the lead in the memorialization of their history. The memorialization of the Irish community has been a product of grassroots initiatives operating independently from the government26. While the government has not played a significant role in memorialization efforts, it is important to note that the community has resisted government involvement for fear of how they would be represented27. The community is, therefore, denying the government the right to tell the story and, by extension, obscure the history of the neighbourhood and the people that it neglected for over 100 years.
ENDNOTES Anonymous (2008) Death Notice – Griffintown. Canada NewsWire, 4 April. Barlow M (2017) Griffintown: Identity and Memory in an Irish Diaspora Neighbourhood, (Vancouver: UBC Press), p.5. 3 Ibid., p.4. 4 Driedger SD (2010) An Irish Heart: How a Small Immigrant Community Shaped Canada, (Toronto: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.), p.66. 5 Ibid., pp.67 & 69-70. 6 Ibid., pp.71-73. 7 Ibid., p.81; Barlow, Griffintown: Identity and Memory, p.3. 8 Driedger, An Irish Heart, p.242. 9 Ibid., 345; Barlow, Griffintown: Identity and Memory, pp. 105-106. 10 Barlow, Griffintown: Identity and Memory, p.110. 11 Ibid., p.107. 12 Ibid., pp.120-121. 13 Ibid., p.121; Deverteuil G (2004) The Changing Landscape of Southwest Montreal: A Visual Account, Canadian Geographer (48)1, p.78. 14 Barlow, Griffintown: Identity and Memory, pp.113-114; Driedger, An Irish Heart, p.360. 15 Driedger, An Irish Heart, p.360. 16 Ibid., p.361; Barlow, Griffintown: Identity and Memory, p.117; Perl A, Hern M and Kenworthy J (2015) Streets Paved with Gold: Urban Expressway Building and Global City Formation in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, Canadian Journal of Urban Research 24(2), pp.97-98. 17 Driedger, An Irish Heart, p.361; Perl, Hern and Kenworthy, Streets Paved with Gold, pp.97-98. 18 Perl, Hern and Kenworthy, Streets Paved with Gold, p.98. 19 Driedger, An Irish Heart, p.365; Barlow, Griffintown: Identity and Memory, p.84. 20 Driedger, An Irish Heart, p.365. 21 Ibid. 22 Ibid., pp.367-368. 23 Ibid. 24 Bliek D and Gauthier P (2007) Mobilising Urban Heritage to Counter Commodification of Brownfield Landscapes: Lessons from Montreal’s Lachine Canal. Canadian Journal of Urban Research 16(1 supplement), p.44; Freide E (2015) Griffintown Rising: The Transformation of a Storied Montreal District. The Montreal Gazette, 27 July. 25 Bliek and Gauthier, Mobilising Urban Heritage, pp. 43 & 46-47. 26 Barlow, Griffintown: Identity and Memory, p.153; Macleod (n,d) St-Ann’s Church – The Destruction of St. Ann’s Church. 27 Macleod, St-Ann’s Church. 1
2
The physical and cultural decline of Griffintown’s Irish community was a by-product of Montreal’s municipal government’s neglect. Today, as private and public investors are currently taking an interest in the community and transforming it into a trendy neighbourhood, it will be interesting to see how the voice of the Irish-community will adapt to, or be further silenced by, the space’s current development.
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FOOD ACCESSIBILITY IN MONTREAL THE POLITICS OF FOOD AND FOOD DESERTS
CAITLIN MORSHITA-MIKI
A
ccess to food is an issue often overlooked in the Canadian context, even more so when we consider larger cities such as Montreal. However, it remains a pervasive issue, which greatly endangers and disenfranchises those affected by it. Through years of neglect on the part of the municipal government, and now a steep rise in gentrification, a food desert is being created in the neighbourhood of Saint-Henri, Montreal. Fears have been expressed by residents in regard to a decreasing amount of affordable businesses which cater to community needs, while those flourishing are expensive and do not cater to the needs of those in the area1. The issue of food accessibility is a well-known cause of indirect displacement, as it forces those within the community to seek resources elsewhere2. This issue is exacerbated by a lack of government intervention at all levels and the monopoly held by corporate grocery chains. Despite the fact that access to fresh foods is dwindling in Saint-Henri, high-end restaurants and boutiques in the area are on the rise. This phenomenon has led to protests from the community through forms of looting and petty theft from said high-end niche boutiques. This can be observed in the case of Parreira Traiteur, which protestors looted in 2016 to decry to food desert in Saint-Henri and demonstrate the injustice of the wealth disparity in the area being created by gentrification3. The co-owner of the establishment expressed confusion over being targeted, as the establishment worked with
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producers from the area, thus demonstrating that the business supported local merchants and thus the neighborhood. However the basis of the business is to deliver fine foods across the city of Montreal, which inevitably causes more outsiders to come to the community4. The prices at this boutique, and many others like it, are not accessible to those living in the area5. This means that residents are forced to travel longer distances to have access to reasonably priced fresh foods. In response to gentrification in Saint-Henri, the municipal government put forth a by-law which was unanimously agreed upon by councilors in the area and took effect in late 20166. This legislation limits the number of restaurants able to open, in hopes of allowing businesses such as shops and grocers to open in the area7. However this legislation does little to address the food desert present in Saint-Henri, as it does not promote locally owned businesses or grocers. Most interventions regarding the food desert have been led by a community group, Solidarité SaintHenri, which has led a variety of movements to work towards ending food insecurity in the area. Solidarité Saint-Henri is partially funded by the Directeur de santé publique de Montréal8. Though these efforts do help the community present in Saint-Henri, there exists little research into the long-term positive effects and overall impacts9. For Saint-Henri and other areas like it to be rid of food insecurity, the federal and provincial governments must be held accountable
for their inaction and they must stop passing the issue off to municipalities10.
ongoing issue which is exacerbated by both the monopoly of corporate grocers in the area as well as a lack of governmental intervention. Though The largest threat to food accessibility in SaintSaint-Henri is only one case, it is representative Henri and other areas like it are large corporation of a systemic issue impacting impoverished grocery stores, which are able to raise prices due neighbourhoods, both in terms of access to food, to lack of competition. In Saint-Henri there is one but also the manner in which society treats those large grocery store and three smaller grocers, one suffering from food instability. of which sells mostly gourmet and luxury foods, ENDNOTES the others are significantly more affordable but Hays M. (2016) The one-in-six rule: can Montreal fight gentrification by banning they cannot meet the needs of the entire Saintrestaurants? The Guardian, 16 November. Online article. 11 Twigge-Molecey, A (2014) Exploring Resident Experiences of Indirect Henri community . Displacement in 1 2
IGA Supermarché Toppetta, has been the sole grocery store for a number of years, one Montrealer recalls the day it originally opened as being shocking to the low income residents who feared the rapidly rising food prices12. To make matters worse, the online reviews of the sole grocery store indicate that the produce sold by the chain store is often found to be rotting, or several days past the expiration date13. The store is described as being expensive and their stock of fresh produce is of poor quality, or severely under stocked14. And yet, little intervention is occurring on the part of the municipal government to ensure that residents of Saint-Henri’s right to food is protected. Thus, few options are left for the people of Saint-Henri as fresh produce becomes increasingly inaccessible. Many working class families are forced to consume processed food, as they lack other alternatives15. As one community member states: “It’s not the best but it’s big and unfortunately it’s the only one nearby”16.
a Neighbourhood Undergoing Gentrification: The Case of Saint-Henri in Montréal. Canadian Journal of Urban Research. 23(1): 1-22. 3 The one-in-six rule: can Montreal fight gentrification by banning restaurants? 4 Parreira Traiteur. Découvrez-Nous. Available at: http://parreiratraiteur.com/#/ (Accessed 23 October 2017) 5 Montpetit, J. (2016). How one Montreal neighbourhood has become a battleground in Canadas gentrification debate. CBC, 21 May. Online article. 6 The one-in-six rule: can Montreal fight gentrification by banning restaurants? 7 Ibid. 8 Solidarité Saint-Henri (2017) Autonomie Alimentaire from Available at: http://www.solidarite-sh.org/autonomie-alimentaire (Accessed 23 October 2017) 9 Collins, P. Power E. & Little, M. (2014). Municipal-level responses to household food insecurity in Canada: a call for critical, evaluative research. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 105(2):138 10 Ibid. 11 Company of Canada. Jaffna Spiceland & Fruits Gourmet & Specialty Foods Montréal. Available at: http://companyofcanada.com/c-1038392-jaffna-spiceland-- -fruits. html (Accessed 23 October 2017) 12 Barlow M (2014) Race, Class, and Food Insecurity In: Matthew Barlow Available at: https://matthewbarlow.net/2014/05/21/race-class-and-foodinsecurity/ (Accessed 25 October 2017) 13 Google (2017) Justin Adams’ review. Available at: https://goo.gl/maps/ bi4RnTwNhky (Accessed 19 October 2017) 14 Google (2017) Pierre Luc Nicol’s review. Available at: https://goo.gl/maps/bDauYXcmT1M2 (Accessed 19 October 2017) 15 Smith Maguire J. (2016) Introduction: Looking at Food Practices and Taste across the Class Divide. Food, Culture & Society 19(1):11-18. 16 Google (2017) Eve Ludrovsky’s review. Available at: https://goo.gl/maps/6bxUHWX4DwH2 (Accessed 19 October 2017) 17 Kendall M. (2014) #Breaking Black: 1 in 5 children face food insecurity the grio, 20th January. Opinion Piece.
Miki Kendall puts it best when stating that the poor are treated as though they have “a wealth of options, and are immune to dietary restrictions based on religion, allergies, access or storgae capabilities.”17 Food instability in Saint-Henri is an
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THE NEGRO COMMUNITY CENTRE
DEMOLITION OF COMMUNITY INFRASTRUCTURES ALISON ZHOU
M
ontreal’s Black community first took root in Little Burgundy due to its closeness to work. Until the 1950s, most Black men worked for the Steel Company of Canada or the Canadian Pacific Railway as red caps, porters and cooks. They could therefore walk to work at Windsor or Bonaventure stations. Black women worked primarily as domestic servants in the homes of the wealthy in nearby Westmount.1 The Negro Community Centre (NCC) had been a gathering spot for Montreal’s Black community since its establishment in an old Methodist church in 1926. They were able to offer a daycare, a theatre, a gym, a lunchroom and a music school, thus serving as a hub of activities in Little Burgundy.2 In addition to being an important community hub and space to “lighten the blow of racial discrimination” throughout the 20th century, the NCC was also at the forefront of political efforts to combat racism in Montreal and transnationally, from the struggle for decolonization to civil rights to mobilization against South African Apartheid.3 “For many years, we were Little Burgundy, and we did fabulous things there,” said Tiffany Callender, of the Cote-des-Neiges Black Community Association.4 However, deindustrialization of the area, starting in the 1950s, combined with the decline of passenger trains, resulted in massive job losses. Slowly, the area emptied out. The 1960s saw massive residential displacement with the building of the Ville-Marie expressway through the neighbourhood, followed by large-scale urban renewal. From 1951 to 1973, the population of Little Burgundy dropped from 21,381 to 7,000.5 Black Montrealers were never so
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geographically concentrated again. To this day there is ongoing gentrification, displacement of Black residents, and erasure of powerful cultural histories in the neighbourhood. The destruction of the Negro Community Centre is one such example. In 1987, a wing of the building collapsed, but a lack of funding meant it couldn’t be repaired. This led to its permanent closure in 1989. On November 18, 2014, the courts ruled that over 50% of the heritage value of the centre had eroded, and therefore should be demolished. The demolishment began only two days after the provincial Court of Appeal struck down the borough’s attempt to save the building.6 Hardly a metaphor, the demolition of the NCC was rather an instance of the thing itself: the erasure of Black presence and archive. ENDNOTES High, S. 2017. Montreal Black history: ‘Hidden stories’ find a new home at Concordia. Concordia University News. Retrieved from http://www.concordia.ca/cunews//main/stories/2017/03/13/35concordia-undergrads-showcase-local-black-history-research-projects. html?c=news/stories. 2 Editorial: 375 years of erasure. The Link. Retrieved from https:// thelinknewspaper.ca/article/editorial-375-years-of-erasure 3 Austin, D. (2007). All roads led to Montreal: Black Power, the Caribbean, and the black radical tradition in Canada. The Journal of African American History, 92(4), 516+. Retrieved from http://link. galegroup.com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/apps/doc/A173715356/ AONE?u=utoronto_main&sid=AONE&xid=72523123 4 Shields, B. April 24 2014. As Little Burgundy changes a piece of its history crumbles. Global News. Retrieved from https://globalnews. ca/news/1270671/as-little-burgundy-changes-a-piece-of-its-historycrumbles/ 5 High, 2017. 6 Shields, 2014. 1
PHOTO CREDITS (RIGHT) https://montrealexplorations.org/negro-community-centre/ http://numerique.banq.qc.ca/ressources/details/ imag?id=06MP48S1SS0SSS0D0P17797).
Daisy Peterson Sweeney teaching piano lessons for children at the NCC
The NCC offered various programming for children in the community
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DIRECT ACTION IN MONTREAL MARINA MCKENZIE
T
he following comic contrasts the neighbourhoods of Saint-Henri and Park Ex, in the context of organizing and resistance against gentrification - a serious and ongoing issue in the city of Montreal. The artwork hopes to explore differences in methodology used in these areas, reasons behind the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of provoking change, and the disconnect between narratives produced by residents versus outsiders. Scholars have argued that although it can be important to obtain government support through legislature and funding, direct action and grassroots mobilizing are much more central to the success of a social movement (Clement 2008). Our group heard similar perspectives from activists Fred Burill, who organizes in the neighbourhood of Saint-Henri, and Ricardo Lamour, a Black hip hop artist who organizes with the Haitian community in Montreal. Fred and Ricardo both emphasized the possibilities of resistance that can be born from reappropriating and being unapologetically visible in public space. However, although direct action is often cited as an effective method of enacting change, especially by activists and communities engaged in acts of resistance, it is also common for such forms of protest to be criticized for harming the “credibility” of those protesting (Wheeland 2015). This sort of rhetoric, which often arises in mainstream media coverage, seems to be a tool to control resistance and to pre-determine what “appropriate” and “acceptable” forms of protesting are in the face of severe inequality and violence. The following comic seeks to challenge and complicate such simplistic narratives.
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RESISTANCE + FUTURE MAKING
Street Art in Tiohtia:ke/Mooniyaang Frozen in Flux Black in Montreal: Honouring Legacies, Building Futures Immigrant Workers’ Centre Scholar-Activist: Nora Butler Burke The People’s Potato
This section is about collective pushback. It describes some of the flashpoints of resistance that constitute a wider network of activism in Montreal. These are stories of community activists, places, and projects that are constantly imagining and building alternatives, with hopes that a better future awaits the city.
STREET ART IN TIOHTIÀ:KE / MOONIYAANG
ON UNCEDED HAUDENOSAUNEE AND ANISIHNAABE TERRITORIES KHALOOD SHAHID KIBRIA
U Colonialism allows for everything to be possessed
nceded Voices is a convergence of primarily Indigenousidentified women, two-spirit, queer and women of colour street artists. In the group’s own words, the purpose of the project is twofold: “to promote anti-colonial resistance through diverse street art interventions; and to foster relationships and dialogue between the collective and the broader community”. The project thus reveals how street art can be used to empower marginalized communities and reclaim their right to the city.
- chelsea vowel The convergence in 2017 in
Métis writer and educator Tiohtià:ke featured the following
10 artists: Aura, Chief Lady Bird, Cedar Eve Peters, Dayna Danger, Dolly, Elizabeth Blancas, Jessica Sabogal, Jessica Canard, Melanie Cervantes and Shanna Strauss. These artists have managed to reclaim urban space in Montreal’s Saint Henri neighbourhood through creating magnificent anti-colonial murals that creatively disrupt the city. By
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placing their public interventions on walls that cannot be missed, Unceded Voices confronts the constant silencing of Indigenous voices and instead assert an enduring Indigenous presence on the land. The way these artists interact with the walls they paint is not one of possession. Their project invites members of the local community to take part in the creative process of painting the mural, while also encouraging non-Indigenous people to reflect on their own complicity as citizens of a settler colonial state. Unceded Voices tells unique yet intervowen stories of resistance. The artists unapologetically celebrate themselves, while also drawing attention to the injustices of the past and the oppressions that Indigenous peoples of colonized Turtle Island continue to face today. Unceded Voices seeks to cultivate a community dialogue about a different future that centres the voices of Indigenous peoples.
FROZEN IN FLUX
MONTREAL’S UNCEDED VOICES AS LIVING MEMORIAL HELLA WIEDMER-NEWMAN
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n 2015, the Montreal-based group Decolonizing Street Art: Anticolonial Street Artists Convergence organized a team of female and non-binary Indigenous and or POC artists under the moniker Unceded Voices to paint murals in various Montreal neighbourhoods, in an effort to resist “colonialism, capitalism, and all forms of oppression, including but not limited to racism, patriarchy, heterosexism, ableism and transphobia.” In the zine they produced for the occasion, the organizers of the action acknowledge that Montreal occupies the territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka, the keepers of the Eastern Door of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, but stress at the same time that “it’s not enough just to acknowledge the keepers of this land.”1 Camille Larivée, the lead organizer of the collective, sees art as a way to celebrate Indigenous visual traditions and to re-instate the oral tradition through meet-ups with the public and artists. There are different ways of reading the Unceded Voices murals. One could use the vocabulary of feminist Indigenous Chicana muralists who see their artistic practice as a means of actively taking space in a world in which they had theretofore only been represented2. I would like to read the Unceded Voices project here as a form of ‘living memorial’ that commemorates the past, protests the conditions of the present, and offers ethical guidelines for the future. Memorials are tricky things. In some senses, they are a way of forgetting. Of setting in stone, a
historical catastrophe and thereby constructing it as a thing of the past. Memorials are also a kind of protest and imperative to a functional society. They act as an ethical framework, and a warning. But often a “never again” implies that the mechanism that drove the catastrophe is gone for now, banished by the apotropaic gaze of commemoration, and hence no longer in need of criticism or repair3. The violence perpetrated against Indigenous people is so deeply entrenched in Canadian history that memorializing it is a unique challenge, compounded by the fact that, as Mona Domosh4, Cronin and Robertson5, and others have noted, Indigenous people have long been cast as belonging to some distant past. The group behind Unceded Voices know that systemic injustice is alive and well and in the group’s interventions in the St. Henri neighbourhood, we can see a juxtaposition of murals of commemoration with murals of protest. How to connect Indigenous dispossession to other forms of persecution? How to make “an absence into a presence”6, in Jenny Burman’s words? This is the question Unceded Voices answers in a sophisticated way. The first thing that struck me about the murals was how their colour and vibrancy stood out against the grey pallid sky. They seemed to scream out from the walls of this rapidly gentrifying neighbourhood. The group usually ask the property owners for permission to paint the walls, Camille tells us, but one of the murals depicting a
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“To me, Unceded Voices is about having a voice, sharing our voices and not being silent.� -- Monique Bedard (Aura)
herd of buffalo, was simply painted onto an un-primed wall facing a parking lot. The first mural that stood out to me was Jessica Sabogal’s mural depicting a woman covering her eye with a sign that reads: “White Supremacy Is Killing Me.” The figure does not represent a specific person, but also does not pretend to be some universal metaphor for suffering. This work is about white violence against people of colour, past and present. It is undoubtedly about a current problem, but contains implicit in it, a memorial to those who have indeed been killed by white supremacy. The mural had been vandalized over the summer with the words: “Anti-White” scrawled on it in red paint, an act that CBC news characterized as racist and indicative of greater systemic problems7. Camille told us other artists in the group, as well as members of the community helped repaint the defaced mural, but what I found most interesting was that they did not wash away the red paint splattered across the alleyway in front of it. In Camille’s understanding, the red paint had become part of the mural’s very history. Cher Krause Knight, quoting the germinal memorial expert James Young, says that memorials are ‘forever incomplete’ and ‘fundamentally interactive’8. Sabogal’s mural proves the shadowy side of Young’s truism. Leaving the traces of an act of hatred emphasizes the layered aspect of memorials and makes it into a living confirmation of ongoing racism. Toward the end of the tour, we came upon what I think of as the most telling murals -- due to their strong contrast -- hung perpendicular to one another. One is loud and imposing, and depicts a
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frontal view of the head and torso of a figure overlapped by another figure in semi-profile, left fist extended in a show of resistance. This one is by Elizabeth Blancas and takes up the entire wall. Block letters to the left of the figures read: “Women and Two Spirits Are the Backbone of Every Tribe.” The smaller one is by Dolly Deals and it shows the ghostly disembodied face of a nun peering out at us from beneath her habit. In front of her stands a row of children with their backs to us, two of them look like phantoms. Written on the mural in English and French are the words: “Some of us never came home from that school.” How do these murals fit in with the visual grammar of memorials? The idea of what constitutes a memorial in the first place has changed quite a bit since the naturalistic figurative ones conceived right after the war to the incorporation of absences or “voids” in the architectural language of the Jewish museum in Berlin, to the more abstract, minimalist shapes suggested by Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial, to collective mobile memorials like the AIDS quilt and the Stolpersteine in Germany. The
AIDS quilt was made up of many individual squares ENDNOTES Unceded Voices Zine, Anticolonial Street Artist Convergence, fall 2015. with the names of the deceased on them, and was Guisela Latorre, Walls of Empowerment, Chicana/o Indigenist Murals in California, then publicly exhibited on the Mall of America in (Austin, University of Texas Press, 2008) 179. James Young, The Texture of Memory, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 2. D.C. Interestingly, some of the quilts also included Mona Domosh, American Commodities in an Age of Empire, (New York: Routledge, 2006) calls to the government to increase funding for J. Keri Cronin and Kirsty Robertson ed., Imagining Resistance: Visual Culture and AIDS research and condemnation for sexual Activism in Canada, (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2011), 4. Jenny Burman,“Absence,“Removal,“ and Everyday Life in the Diasporic City: Antidiscrimination in the workplace, proving the quilt Detention/Deportation Activism in Montreal,“ Space and Culture vol. 9 no. 3, august was “as much about the survivors as about the 2006, 101. CBC News Article, Acessed Oct. 20 th , 2017. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ 9 deceased. ” Deals and Blancas’ murals serve a similar montreal/indigenous-mural-callingout-white- supremacy-vandalized- days-aftercompletion-1.4267811. function -- especially as anyone who was gender Cher Krause Knight, Public Art: Theory, Practice and Populism, (Oxford: Blackwell non-conforming would have face especially harsh Publishing, 2008), 24. Carole Blair and Neil Michel, “The AIDS Memorial Quilt and the Contemporary treatment at the schools -- but they weave a more Culture of Public Commemoration,” Rhetoric and Public Affairs Volume 10, Issue 4, December 2007. exulting narrative, looking to the future, but Jenny Burman,“Absence,“Removal,“ and Everyday Life in the Diasporic City: always aware of the past. Anti-Detention/Deportation Activism in Montreal,“ Space and Culture vol. 9 no. 3, 1 2
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In her piece on the effect of deportations on cities, Jenny Burman writes “Absence is made presence when those left behind develop a well-founded suspicion of the state that transforms their sense of possible futures.10” By juxtaposing the memory of the victims of industrial schools with the current issue of the intersection of sexuality and gender with Indigenous identities, Unceded Voices is making absence presence. The murals are further mobilized by the anti- gentrification activism in the St. Henri neighbourhood. I would like to term the Unceded Voices project a ‘living memorial’ project, as it both commemorates the lost, protests current losses and offers an ethical framework to avoid future losses.
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BLACK IN MONTREAL HONOURING LEGACIES
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azz pianist, composer and educator, Oscar Peterson was born and raised in Montreal’s neighbourhood of Little Burgundy. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Jazz Pianists of all time. Oscar Peterson’s famous “Hymn to Freedom” (1962) was embraced worldwide as the unofficial anthem of the Civil Rights Movement. It is still taught to children today.
Oscar Peterson Mural by Gene Pendon, “Jazz Born Here” This mural was installed in 2011 in the heart of Montreal’s Little Burgundy neighbourhood. Photo credit: Burgundy Jazz, Educator Guide 53//
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Hymn To Freedom When every heart joins every heart and together yearns for liberty, That’s when we’ll be free. When every hand joins every hand and together molds our destiny, That’s when we’ll be free. Any hour any day, the time soon will come when men will live in dignity, That’s when we’ll be free When every man joins in our song and together singing harmony, That’s when we’ll be free
“THIS CITY IS A CITY OF RESISTANCE” - RICARDO LAMOUR HAITIAN HIP HOP ARTIST AND ACTIVIST
BUILDING FUTURES Montreal has a very long history of Black organizing, radical traditions and community-building, much of which is rooted in the work of groups and instituions that were active in the 1960s and 70s. Today the city’s Black community continues to resist against oppressive systems of racial discrimination and ongoing state-sanctioned violence, which often manifest in the form of police brutality. The city is home to groups like Montreal Noir, which is a collective of community members that works to fight anti-Black racism in Montreal North. This group was born after Montreal police shot and killed a 46year old Black man in March of 2016 in the area. There is also an active Black Lives Matter chapter in the city, that advocates for Montreal’s Black community on a city-wide scale. Montreal is also home to the largest Haitian community in Canada. Members of Montreal’s Haitian community and organizations in the city like ‘Maison D’Haiti’ have provided support to thousands of Haitian asylumseekers who have been coming to Montreal from the United States after the Trump adminstration threatened to end the Temporary Protected Status designated for Haiti.
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SCHOLAR-ACTIVIST
TRANS, MIGRANT SEX WORKER’S RIGHTS
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rans migrant women [in Montreal, as well as across Canada,] face exclusions on a daily basis, such as restrictions on the type of work they can do, as well as demands for them to undergo certain kinds of education where they may face further discrimination.
Nora Butler Burke, a student in Concordia’s Humanities Interdisciplinary PhD Program, aims to bring migrant and trans issues together through an examination of an often-overlooked and misrepresented community in Canada. Butler Burke explains that because of the precarity migrant trans women commonly encounter as a result of their criminalization, they face daunting barriers to securing legal status in Canada and to accessing identity documents that accurately reflect their name and gender identity. This led her to create the Trans Migrant Legal Fund where she works with lawyers to do support work with trans women as they navigate the criminal justice and immigration systems. “There’s a desperate need for systemic societal transformation. But I’m also really dedicated to developing concrete changes for trans migrant women through my work,” Butler Burke says. “The work that we’re doing is directly responding to the needs identified by migrant trans women,” Butler Burke explains. “That’s a very concrete way for me to transform my research into meaningful action, and to be accountable to the women I’m working with.”* *Please note that this activist profile & picture was directly retrieved from Concordia University’s website
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IMMIGRANT WORKERS CENTRE ORGANIZING AND MOBILIZING UNDER PRECARIOUS WORK
HANIA BUTTER
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here is a sizeable population of migrant workers in Montreal for whom reasonably accessible employment tends to be precarious. Precarious employment refers to a job that is not the standard fulltime 9-5 that comes with benefits and vacation time. Precarious jobs fall under the umbrella of non-standard work, which tends to be racialized and gendered, and is often temporary1. The very definition of nonstandard work in Canada has become entwined with the word “insecurity”, and under these circumstances labourers are often exploited as they face harsh and possibly unsafe working conditions2. Over time, however, Montreal’s migrant workers have formed resilience and resistance in the shape of organizational advocacy groups which aim to combat the unfair treatment that they are subjected to. Among such groups, the Immigrant Workers Centre stands out for the work it does around supporting and organizing Montreal’s migrant workers.
This technique also seeks to react to issues while simultaneously shaping a culture of resistance through outreach, education, and casework to empower a group that has been systematically marginalized6. The IWC utilizes individual casework to organize community and labour efforts as individual grievances are reflected in the everyday experiences of migrant workers7. It is for this reason that the IWC seeks to politicize the realities and concerns of its clients, which involves radicalizing casework and employing a series of non-conventional strategies and pressure tactics to win each case8.
The IWC also often partners with other groups to collectively resolve conflicts, or to creatively raise awareness of issues through unique campaigns. One such example is the Artists’ Bloc, which allows migrant workers to illustrate their experiences via art activism9. The power of Originally founded in 2000, the Immigrant art activism lies in its ability to use images and Workers Center (IWC) is a grassroots organization stories to highlight the underlying influence and located in the Côte-de-Neiges neighbourhood repercussions of global economic and neoliberal in Montreal. It was established to challenge the policies on the lives and livelihoods of migrant current inequitable system of labour unions in workers. To reach a wider audience the Bloc 3 Canada . The IWC’s focus on community-based created a game—The Network of Immigration— efforts to build a strong immigrant workers to narrate their stories of resistance as seen movement differentiates it from other labour through the lens of the metro map of Montreal10. unions and organizations4. The method of With the rise of precarity also comes the rise mobilization employed is derived from utilizing of resistance as depicted through the work of radical traditions to enact concrete progress while the IWC and the Artist’ Bloc’s Network of defending the basic rights of the working poor5. Immigration.
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What makes the IWC an actor of change is its emphasis on forming a collective consciousness. They acknowledge that the ill treatment of one individual is the result of greater inequalities present in society. This acknowledgment enables them to create and deploy non-conventional methods of mobilization to incite change. Through more collaboration and politicized campaigns, the IWC may be able to contest current labour policies and regularizations at a greater federal/provincial scale in Quebec.
ENDNOTES (Cranford, Vosko, Zukewich, 2003) ibid 3 (Henaway, 2012) 4 ibid 5 ibid 6 ibid 7 ibid 8 ibid 9 (Roger-Hall, Salamanca, Artists’ Bloc, 2017) 11 ibid 1
2
FALLING/DRAINING by Althea Balmes “There is something to be said about the resilience and dedication of migrant healthcare workers. But this comes with a high price. In these drawings, I want to show the discrepancy of caregiving because in truth, their own health is sometimes neglected for the sake of others. The drawings ask, if healthcare workers are caring for us, who is caring for them? The drawings remind us that even the strongest and the most resilient people need our help.”
“Draining” and “Falling were originally commissioned by Canada’s Source for HIV and Hepatitis C Information (CATIE) as part of its Hepatitis C campaign for Filipina migrant workers. The pieces were later published in the fourth edition of the Immigrant Worker’s Centre newspaper, “La Voix des Migrant(e) s” (The Migrant Voice) Photo credit: altheabalmes.com
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THE PEOPLE’S POTATO
LOCAL COMMUNITY-LED ALTERNATIVES
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he People’s Potato is a collectively-run soup kitchen at Concordia University that offers an anti-capitalist alternative to corporate food systems on campus by providing vegan meals to students and community members on a by-donation basis.
The People’s Potato was born in 1999 when a few students concered with the lack of affordable food options at Concordia began feeding students free vegan lunch. Since its inception, the Potato has grown from a small-volunteer run collective to a worker’s collective. The organizational style of the collective is anti-hierachical and anti-capitalist, as every worker takes part equally in decision-making and tasks are shared in an egalitarian manner. The Potato strives to promote the values of non-hierarchy, anti-racism, queer poisitivity, anti-sexism, anti-ableism, anti-poverty, antioppression, egalitarianism, anti-colonialism, anticapitalism, worker self-management, and ecological sustainability and integrity into all of its initiatives, projects, activities and areas of support.* The images presented here were taken by students during our group’s visit to the People’s Potato. They show some of the posters that were displayed on walls all around the kitchen. *Please note that the above stated description was directly retrieved from the People’s Potato’s website and display notice at Concordia University in Montreal. Photo Credit: Khalood Kibria
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