A meeting organized by the Table de concertation du Faubourg Saint-Laurent took place Wednesday evening to discuss drug addiction issues in the sector. However, several residents encountered closed doors, provoking anger and indignation among them.
The meeting, to which the media were not admitted, was held in a room whose capacity was limited to 30 people. To access the room, citizens had to be residents of the quadrilateral bounded by Sanguinet, Saint-Dominique, Sainte-Catherine streets and René-Lévesque boulevard. They also had to have registered in advance via a QR code printed on invitations posted in the neighborhood.
Dozens of residents showed up, but were unable to attend the meeting. Some were unable to register in advance due to lack of places, others because they did not understand that such registration was necessary. Some citizens said they saw the invitation at the last minute — when available places were sold out — while others saw unofficial invitations that did not allow people to register. Some places intended for registrants who did not show up were allocated to people on site.
“There was a lack of information” to be able to properly register, says area resident Joël Boutin. He saw an informal invitation without a QR code left near his home by a neighbor. “It’s quite frustrating to see this […] because it seems that people are very interested in the subject. »
According to a police officer on site accustomed to this type of meeting, such consultations generally attract 5 to 10 people. At one point, tempers got heated and five police officers stood near the entrance to the meeting room, while an organizer tried to calm the ardor of the people who were refused access.
The event took place at the Montreal Memories Center, at the initiative of the Table de concertation du Faubourg Saint-Laurent. This organization’s mission is to “promote communication, exchanges and consultation between the different stakeholders in the Faubourg Saint-Laurent”, including residents, organizations and businesses. According to the official invitation, several groups were to participate in the session, including the Cactus Montréal organization, the CIUSSS du Centre-sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal and the Ville-Marie borough.
A project that provokes reactions
The main issue that mobilized citizens is the moving project part of the services offered by the Cactus Montréal organization from rue Berger to rue Sanguinet.
“For the moment, Berger Street is home to two of our main services: our supervised consumption site and our access site to sterile consumption equipment,” explains Alex Berthelot, director of community services at Cactus Montréal. Originally, when we set up the two services together, it was at the very beginning of supervised consumption rooms in Montreal. The idea was to transfer the trust that the community and users already had in Cactus Montreal’s other services to the supervised consumption rooms. »
If the operation was a success, according to Mr. Berthelot, “now the two services have become a little harmful to each other. By the high volume of traffic to the material access site […]this means that we don’t have time to do the intervention as we should. » The number of users is approximately 200 people per day for the equipment access center and 50 to 60 people at the supervised injection site.
“With the opioid crisis getting worse, in the supervised consumption room, we resuscitate an average of 6 to 8 people per day,” he explains. This forces the interruption of the equipment access service due to visits from emergency services. “So that each of the services can operate at full capacity, it has become important to separate them,” says the director.
A long-standing problem
Cohabitation between neighborhood residents and drug addicts has been causing turmoil for a long time. A year ago, neighbors called for the Cactus supervised injection center to be moved. The constant presence of drug users, incivility and threats made their daily lives “untenable”, they said.
The screams, syringes left on the ground and consumers in crisis are still testing residents’ patience, according to Jeanne Henao, who lives in the area. “After sunset, I don’t go out anymore [seule] “, she said, fearing for her safety. However, she does not feel listened to by the authorities in place, including the police. “While I have a lot of empathy for everyone, I also wish someone had some for us [les résidents]. »
“The work of the Cactus organization, it must be emphasized, is incredible, especially given the Herculean task it faces,” said another local resident, Philippe Robichaud. Although he recognizes the difficulties faced by the residents of the neighborhood, the latter is “exceptional all the same,” according to him. He has the impression that the organization does not have the necessary resources to accomplish its mission.
Has he ever thought about moving? In a neighborhood, “everything can change in one direction or another, so I tell myself that continually leaving is what creates these kinds of pockets of despair. I rather want to come to meetings, talk to users” and help improve the situation, explains Mr. Robichaud.