A handful of elderly people stand up to a wealthy real estate owner so as not to lose their homes. Is it a movie script? No, it’s a struggle that is actually taking place in Montreal, in the borough of Ville-Marie. Journalist Noémi Mercier goes behind the scenes in Ousted: the elders strike backa powerful documentary.
The affair of the Mont-Carmel residence has not finished making ink flow. In January, its residents filed a third lawsuit against Henry Zavriyev, who acquired it in December 2021. After opposing the transformation of this private residence for seniors (RPA) into a simple rental building in the summer of 2022 , this time they are asking for damages for the deterioration of their living environment since the change of ownership.
The background of the story is technical. The law allows tenants to be evicted when a building changes vocation. Henry Zavriyev, a successful young real estate investor, wants to avail himself of this right in the case of the Mont-Carmel residence, as he has done in acquiring other RPAs. However, he faces resistance from elderly tenants who allege that maintaining the vocation of the residence was included in the deed of sale.
Surprise, these seniors are organized. Motivated, too, shows journalist Noémi Mercier in Ousted: the elders strike back, a documentary she co-directed with Alex Chartrand. “What was interesting was going behind the scenes, inside the residence,” says the journalist, who had followed the case in the media before devoting herself to it.
The articles and topos that there were on this subject reported on the situation and the legal actions, but no one had gone inside to document the deterioration of the living environment and what the resistance looked like. [des aînés].
Noemi Mercier
His film shows a story that is not finished, but which raises topical questions that underlie important social issues. Behind this story looms the challenge posed by the aging of the population and the increasingly difficult access to housing for the middle class and the less well-off. It also shows a conflict of values between personal enrichment and the common good.
Noémi Mercier montre aussi combien précieux sont les espaces communs dans une RPA où la majorité des gens vivent seuls. Plusieurs locataires de la résidence Mont-Carmel racontent le deuil et le sentiment d’isolement qu’ils ont vécus lorsque leur « Salon de l’amitié » a été fermé par le nouveau propriétaire. « C’était une grande salle où ils tenaient leurs partys, leurs réunions, où ils pouvaient aller jouer au billard, énumère la journaliste. C’est là aussi qu’il y avait la chapelle. » Cet endroit a été fermé pendant environ six mois, poursuit-elle, sans égard à l’impact que ce délai a pu avoir sur le bien-être des résidants âgés.
Le documentaire raconte la détresse vécue par les aînés, mais également – et c’est l’aspect du film qui le rend exceptionnel – leur résistance. Le hasard a fait en sorte que, parmi les résidants de Mont-Carmel, quelques-uns sont des militants aguerris. Qui ont passé une grande partie de leur vie active à lutter pour la justice sociale. Trois des personnes du comité qui se trouve au cœur de la bataille sont des sœurs auxiliatrices, une congrégation religieuse peu connue, mais au profil atypique.
IMAGE TIRÉE DU DOCUMENTAIRE ÉVINCÉS : LES AÎNÉS CONTRE-ATTAQUENT
Suzanne Loiselle est l’une des locataires de la résidences Mont-Carmel qui mènent la lutte contre le changement de vocation de l’immeuble.
« [Cette congrégation] is openly feminist, politicized and antipatriarchal in the Church, details the journalist. These three nuns have been involved in all social struggles in Quebec for half a century. One of these women was even in Rwanda during the genocide. “They, Henry Zavriyev, 29, that does not impress them”, noted Noémi Mercier.
The young man, described by a speaker in the documentary as an investor who takes advantage of flaws in the system to carry out “renovictions”, does not let himself be dismantled. He insists that he invited the tenants to stay at the Mont-Carmel residence and that he feels he is making a social gesture: he rents renovated apartments to another type of vulnerable people, asylum seekers .
The outcome may be through political intervention, since the government has been challenged by seniors, who want to be better protected against this kind of eviction. “There, you have potentially dozens of elderly people who thought they had found their last home, for whom moving is the end of the world, who find themselves left behind, sums up Noémi Mercier. The fight of the residents of Mont-Carmel is this: to ensure that this process is supervised. »
Ousted: the elders strike back is presented this Friday, at 9 p.m., on Noovo. It will then be broadcast at Noovo. ca and Noovo. information. The documentary is also available on Crave.