A cemetery is no ordinary place. It is a place of memory and meditation that belongs to the community. It is a heritage site that we like to visit even if none of our relatives are buried there. It is a park where it is good to walk, especially when it is in the heart of Mount Royal.
A strike in such a place should not be treated like any other labor dispute. The elect must get involved.
The current situation at Notre-Dame-des-Neiges cemetery is disastrous. Office workers and maintenance workers, without a contract since 2017 and 2018, have been on strike since last September and January. Basically, they want wage increases and a job floor. The employer, an NPO struggling with financial difficulties, wants to reduce the payroll.
Negotiations are dragging on. Result: the cemetery is closed and families can neither bury their dead nor visit their deceased.
As if that weren’t enough, the recent ice storm did a lot of damage to the park. We can speak of a disaster: 75% of the trees were affected. A forestry engineer consulted by cemetery managers explained that due to the hot weather leading up to the storm, the branches were soaked with sap, making them even more vulnerable to the weather. A month earlier, the ice would have done much less damage.
Since then, due to a labor dispute, there are only four executives working in cleaning. At this rate, we should not expect the cemetery to reopen soon.
The Notre-Dame parish factory in Montreal, which manages the cemetery, would like to open the gates exceptionally next Sunday, Mother’s Day. She should announce her decision shortly, but only the safe sectors would be accessible.
During this time, the coffins are piled up in the repository. More than 200 coffins are there, awaiting burial.
And all this happens in the most total indifference.
Not a sound from Quebec or Montreal City Hall. Not a sign that would tell us that we take this conflict seriously, that we care about the families who cannot bury their dead.
During the previous labor dispute, in 2008, the Association for the Defense of the Rights of the Dead and Families of Notre-Dame-des-Neiges Cemetery turned to the Quebec government, which intervened.
It is high time for Quebec to take an interest in this negotiation.
The bereaved population does not have to pay for this conflict, even less after three years of pandemic during which everything related to funeral rites was difficult and painful.
This is all the more pressing since under the Funeral Activities Actthe cemetery has until May 15 to proceed with the burial or cremation of the corpses, failing which it is liable to fines of several thousand dollars.
Let’s face it, the management of this cemetery has been problematic for several years. A few scenarios are circulating to get this Montreal gem out of the doldrums. They deserve the attention of decision makers. Some suggest the creation of a trust which would make it possible to solicit donations from the public for the upkeep of the cemetery. The Association of families proposes for its part the transfer of the cemetery to the City, which would see to its maintenance, which would allow the Fabrique to concentrate on the management of the Notre-Dame basilica of Montreal. One thing is certain, the status quo is no longer possible.
The dead, like the living who visit them, deserve better.