Acts of vandalism | Terrebonne is trying to protect a wooded area near James Awad’s home

The City of Terrebonne has installed a fence and posted a guard at the edge of the land of James William Awad, the organizer of the Sunwing flight which skidded in December 2021. This “investment of $100,000” aims to protect its corridor from biodiversity against “acts of vandalism” and “tree cutting” perpetrated in recent months.

Hugo Joncas
Investigative team, La Presse

The municipality says it was forced to take these measures to protect this “natural gem”. The wooded path adjoins the luxurious property of the young businessman on the side of the City of Bois-des-Filion, just on the edge of Terrebonne.

“It is sad that the City had to take these exceptional measures to preserve a site belonging to all,” said the director general of the City of Terrebonne, Serge Villandré, in a press release.

The municipality says it made this decision after noting “the cutting of several dozen trees on August 3 in this sector of the Corridor, as well as the degradation of the premises linked to human activity (developments, waste disposal, scrap, furniture or other similar materials on the public domain)”.

Awad poses as a victim

Joined by The PressJames Awad had a different version of events.

“They are putting a fence on my house just to piss me off,” he said.

James Awad also complained about it on Twitter on Friday, without however mentioning the misdeeds to which the municipality refers.

“The City of Terrebonne put up a $75,000 (taxpayer’s money) fence to block the road that gives me access to the back of my property to drive me crazy and hired a 24-hour security guard 24 and seven days a week to be sure that I will not destroy the fence, ”he wrote in English.

According to him, the new barrier cuts off a path he used to get from one of his imposing properties to his other house, just next door. “They didn’t even consider that I no longer have access to my home! complains James Awad, who owns six properties on the same street, Place du Coteau in Bois-des-Filion, on the edge of the neighboring municipality.

He assures that “hundreds of people” use the path that Terrebonne has just blocked. “There are a lot of people who do motocross there! »

He says he has nothing to do with the deforestation last August, which the City denounces. “Themselves deforested to install the fence,” he says.

Terrebonne recalls that “charges of mischief can lead to fines and, in some cases, imprisonment”.

In conflict with Bois-des-Filion

James Awad also has many problems with the City of Bois-des-Filion, where the six houses and land he owns Place du Coteau are located. He sent to The Press a letter sent to him by a lawyer on behalf of the municipality, which gives him formal notice to carry out a long series of corrective works on his properties.

Bois-des-Filion accuses him in particular of “a massive felling of 26 trees” and the development of spas, galleries, ponds and an outdoor fireplace without authorization, in areas prone to landslides.

The City also claims that several of the famous statues he installed in front of his properties are in fact on the public domain, just like a low wall he had built.

Bois-des-Filion also accuses it of a non-compliant sign at one of its Crusty Crust pizzerias in a completely different area, boulevard Adolphe-Chapleau.

Numerous aerial offenses

James Awad is the organizer of the famous charter flight to Mexico whose passengers had massively violated the health rules by partying on board, last December 30.

Transport Canada levied 44 fines and penalties on 39 of its private club guests for violating mask-wearing and mandatory vaccination rules in place at the time, according to an update the federal government sent at The Press. A young pilot who was among the passengers also temporarily lost her license.