Our journalists share their horror stories with access to information, to obtain information that should be public and that you have a right to know.
“Letting nature take its course” is the worst option for controlling the overpopulation of white-tailed deer at the Pointe-aux-Prairies nature park, reveals a confidential report from the Forest Study Center submitted to the City of Montreal in December 2021 The culling of part of the herd would be the best option to avoid effects on biodiversity and population sprawl.
- Listen to the interview with Jean Louis Fortin, director of the Quebecor Investigation Bureau, via QUB :
How many deer will have to be killed? When? We won’t know, because the eight pages of the “Recommendation” section were redacted in the document obtained by the Access to Information Act in 2021.
PHOTO MATHIEU-ROBERT SAUVÉ, LE JOURNAL DE MONTRÉAL
Two years later, the City confirms that nothing has yet been done, but a committee of experts has been set up to look into the issue again. In the meantime, the deer of Pointe-aux-Prairies have reproduced and conquered the Boisé-d’Anjou nature park, as revealed by the Newspaper. They are now causing road accidents around Henri-Bourassa and Golf boulevards. Not to mention the risks of zoonoses such as Lyme disease and anaplasmosis.