The news collide to the point where it is impossible not to come across them. At a time when the Montreal Regional Public Health Department is opening an investigation into at least eight overdoses that occurred in the same area potentially caused by fentanyl, a group of citizens from Saint-Henri is mobilizing against the arrival of an emergency center. supervised injection and inhalation in his neighborhood, near a park and a primary school.
No one will question the seriousness of the opioid overdose situation in Montreal, which is reaching worrying proportions. We will even find some strong consensus around the positive effects of supervised injection centers, like Cactus for example, located in the city center. But… accommodations and openness risk taking a hit when such a project, about which in theory there is reason to applaud, lands in the environment of citizens suddenly energetically opposed to its existence. Out of sight near the heart.
This “not in my backyard” phenomenon is sociologically well documented, and it is not new. Although we now come across it more and more often around projects intended to reduce the use of fossil fuels – a wind farm project, for example, will quickly cause an outcry among the potential neighbors of these immense giants of the sky —, it is mainly in the field of social inclusion that we find the most vehement protests of the affected population. Concerns almost always revolve around issues of crime, security and public health.
The Maison Benoît Labre project, in Saint-Henri, perfectly illustrates the internal battle taking place among a group of citizens strongly opposed to the establishment of the first supervised drug inhalation center in Montreal. Questioned in recent days by journalists, all say they are absolutely concerned by the epidemic of overdoses causing more deaths than ever in the metropolis and are absolutely very favorable to the opening of supervised injection and inhalation centers. . But there is no question of said project landing in their backyard, which is the case.
Citizens’ protests directly target the fact that the center, which is very advanced, is built less than 100 meters from the Victor-Rousselot primary school and a small park very frequented by children.
Neighborhood residents fear that the “supervised injection and inhalation” portion will transform the neighborhood into a drug trafficking zone and weaken the physical safety of their children. Critics of the project are against the proximity of the center to the school. The proponents respond: but where is this ideal place for social inclusion projects to flourish? Unless they are ridiculously eccentric, they are intended to be in the beating and vibrant heart of the city, where social issues are now transforming into a health crisis.
We must applaud initiatives like that of Maison Benoît Labre, which will offer drug addicts for the first time in Montreal a center where it will be possible not only to inject safely, but also to inhale drugs such as fentanyl, crystal methamphetamine and crack cocaine. The center will offer services according to a circular principle, from accommodation to safe injection, including food and day center activities.
The construction project of around forty units is located near the Atwater market. Its creators hope that by offering the combo of living environment and safe consumption space, they will not darken the portrait of the neighborhood, but on the contrary improve it by providing supervision. We want to believe that it is precisely this type of social inclusion project that allows us both to participate in the eradication of a crisis and to contribute to destroying the stigma weighing on a growing homeless and drug addict population in Montreal.
Of course, “winning conditions” must be put in place, but this is what the community working around Maison Benoît Labre is apparently committed to: communications aimed at citizens, consultation efforts, a promise of monitoring and increased security around the residence, in addition to cleaning operations. The proponents of the project can still focus on strengthening constructive relations with local citizens, in order to alleviate the apprehensions which for the moment are combined with the worst.
Move the “problem” elsewhere? This is not possible, and we would only encounter elsewhere the same — human — reaction of apprehension associated mainly with fear. Initiatives like those of Maison Benoît Labre perhaps make us fear the worst when we encounter them at the project stage, but they smell of hope and participation in the resolution of a major crisis in Montreal . Let’s support them.