Sounds like a bad low-budget movie script. Two arson attacks in Old Montreal, where tourists abound. Two heritage buildings belonging to the same owner, with rooms described by passing tenants as dangerous. Barely “a storage room”, a tourist will say; a real “nic-a-feu”, another will decide. At both addresses, tragic deaths with, in the background, the silent threat of a war of pizza which would be borne by the restaurateurs and bar owners of the metropolis.
The chief coroner did well to follow the intuition of the Minister of Public Safety. The similarities between these tragedies are uncanny. His choice to entrust coroner Géhane Kamel with the presidency of the public inquiry into the deaths of a French tourist and her seven-year-old daughter in Le 402, a youth hostel on rue Notre-Dame, last week, makes sense. Mme Kamel is already working on the thorny issue of the seven deaths at Place D’Youville, which occurred in similar circumstances in March 2023. She will have plenty of time to group them together.
In doing so, her vision will not only be broadened, but she will not have to take the same paths twice. The time saved will be precious, because this double public inquiry promises to be eminently complex.
Twice, we witnessed a disastrous transposition of the famous Swiss cheese model in Montreal. In risk management, this model compares the safety mechanisms put in place to avoid accidents to slices of cheese lined up in a row. The worst happens when the holes — the flaws in our systems — line up.
There will be several sections to examine here. The fire at Place D’Youville, which hosted illegal Airbnb accommodation, had already made it possible to identify several of the actors who will have to report to the coroner. We think of the Plante administration, of Public Security, but also of the Quebec Tourism Industry Corporation and Tourisme Québec, which at the time engaged in an inelegant game of “this is not -not-me-it’s-him.” This widespread indolence has greatly harmed the progress of the case and must be stopped.
We will also be waiting firmly for the Montreal Fire Safety Service (SIM). In March 2023, Duty had revealed that 402 housed two rooms without windows or emergency exit. Unable to explain how an architectural firm and a municipal inspector could have approved such transformations, the Order of Architects of Quebec and the Plante administration had promised answers that we are still waiting for.
Dispatched to the scene, the SIM noted the absence of a fire alarm system and smoke alarms, non-compliances which have since been rectified. “The building was safe,” the SIM argued. The media may have been hot on its heels on the two non-compliant rooms which until recently were still the subject of complaints on online reservation sites, the SIM kept its line: it has “no information to this effect. This type of obtuse response borders on refusal to discuss, fueling a dialogue of the deaf which undermines public confidence.
The criminal component adds an extra layer of complexity. Coroner Géhane Kamel will only be able to launch her investigation once the City of Montreal Police Department has completed its investigations. Investigators will have to be diligent, because the families of the victims, as well as Montrealers, but also tourists worried about the laxity in fire prevention in the metropolis, are entitled to answers and corrective measures.
Because the environment will not self-regulate itself.
Tuesday, The Montreal Journal we learned that the owner of the two burned buildings, Émile Benamor (whose offices were riddled with bullets during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday), had recently been slapped on the wrist by the SIM for another of his buildings. Located on Prince Street, the building has housed a youth hostel since August operated by the same people as Le 402. The SIM noted an absence of compliant means of evacuation and means of evacuation in poor condition. An air of deja vu?
Mme Kamel has an immense task ahead of her to identify the flaws in our defense mechanisms and correct them – or at the very least mitigate them – in order to prevent them from lining up again.
Until then, those who watch over our security have a duty to redouble their ardor if we do not want to play with fire again. Starting with the Plante administration, which, after promising a blitz of inspections, experienced a particularly calm summer on this front. It is high time to pull out the spurs and refocus priorities on the task of saving lives rather than frivolously obsessing over the spacing of a canopy or the height of plants on a terrace.
We certainly wouldn’t want to see the expression “never two without three” confirmed before our horrified eyes.