If your “personal hygiene is uncomfortable”, get out!

A new regulation adopted in Montreal libraries in several boroughs, with regard to people experiencing homelessness, is causing controversy.

The motion proposes: if a person whose odor becomes too bothersome for library users, an employee could ask them to leave the premises. This would therefore be a way of dislodging homeless or vulnerable people from these libraries, even though it is a public place.

In these regulatory changes, the Ville-Marie Borough Council indicates that under no circumstances can a person sleep in the establishment. The fact of “using the premises, furniture and equipment for purposes other than those which correspond to the mission of libraries, in particular for sleeping,” he notes.

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Also, an employee would have the right to ask a user to leave the premises, if their “personal hygiene inconveniences other users or staff”, we can read.

Moreover, the regulation proposes that a person who has “bed bugs on themselves or on objects in their possession or when an infestation of bed bugs is active in their residence” cannot frequent libraries.

A non-inclusive regulation?

For the president of Mission Old Brewery, James Hughes, this is a regulation that goes against the values ​​advocated by Montreal. “It will create tension. It is not inclusion that we are aiming for in Montreal, these are not our values. This regulation must be overturned as quickly as possible,” he insists.

Libraries remain public places, which “belong to everyone,” notes Mr. Hughes. Therefore, it is important to adapt and not give fines to these people who are homeless. “To fine these people between $350 and $1,000 is unimaginable!” he concludes.

Mayor Valérie Plante defended herself on the new regulations on Friday, mentioning that “in no case does discrimination have any place in Montreal,” we can read in an X publication.

Thus, “the wording of the new provision in the library regulations” will be modified.

She ends by maintaining that Montreal libraries “will always be inclusive, safe and welcoming places for everyone.”

See the full explanation above