The Official Opposition in Montreal is calling for a public coroner’s inquest to shed light on the circumstances of the fire that occurred on March 16 in a heritage building in Place d’Youville and claimed the lives of seven people.
Ensemble Montréal thus adds its voice to that of the three opposition parties in the National Assembly, which had called for such an inquiry a few days ago.
Currently, the investigation conducted by coroner Géhane Kamel is private in nature. However, in view of the extent of the drama, the interviews and the conclusions of the medical examiner should be public, supports the party.
“A public inquiry will shed light on the circumstances of this tragedy that mourns all Montrealers, to understand the sequence of events that led to such a tragedy,” reads a letter from Chief Aref Salem. sent Monday to Chief Coroner Pascale Descary, her deputy Luc Malouin and the Minister of Public Security, François Bonnardel.
The municipal opposition party is also asking that the Office of the Auditor General of the City of Montreal look into the file, particularly with regard to the “process for issuing transformation permits that would have been granted despite the non-compliance of the architectural plans as well as inspections of buildings built before 1940 in the borough of Ville-Marie”.
“It’s troubling because buildings that have residents and sub-tenants received transformation permits while the architectural plans showed that the basement rooms had no windows,” said Abdelhaq Sari. , the party’s public safety spokesperson.
“We want the light to be shed because we do not currently know if we are just talking about these cases. [dans pareille situation] or if it’s just the tip of the iceberg of a much bigger problem,” adds the Montréal-Nord city councilor.
“We have been asking for explanations for more than a week and the borough and the administration have been burying themselves in silence for a week. It takes a rigorous and objective person to shed light on this disturbing and appalling situation. This person is the Auditor General,” insisted Mr. Sari, who would like the latter to share her conclusions in the context of a plenary session.
A motion calling for the investigations will be tabled at the next meeting of the municipal council, scheduled for April 17.
On March 31, the Bureau du coroner du Québec deemed it premature to hold a public inquiry into the incident.
This dispatch was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta Exchange and The Canadian Press for the news.