The creation of a committee made up of members and LGBTQ2+ organizations would make it possible to better take into consideration the expectations and requests of people from these communities with the City, judge elected Montrealers.
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“The City of Montreal does not systematically consult the various partners and citizens who are members of the LGBTQ+ communities, even when there are issues that affect them directly,” lamented opposition councilor Julien Hénault-Ratelle.
The elected official and his colleague Stéphanie Valenzuela therefore want a committee to be set up to advise the City upstream on any file that concerns members of sexual and gender minorities.
For Mr. Hénault-Ratelle, such a committee would have been useful to address the issue of the recovery of the Village or the sometimes difficult access to housing for LGBTQ2+ people.
“There is the news that reminds us almost every day that we must continue to take action to protect and preserve the rights of sexual and gender minorities,” he said.
The Tétraultville district councilor mentioned in particular the demonstration that took place against the Barbada drag queen’s story time more than a week ago in Mercier-Est.
The creation of this committee has been evaluated at $200,000 per year to obtain an internal resource for the City and potential compensation for committee members, according to Ensemble Montréal.
This is not the first time that the opposition has proposed such a measure. In 2018, they called for the creation of a commissioner’s post.
The same year, the City had launched a Table on Diversity, of which the Conseil québécois LGBT was a member. However, according to Mr. Hénault-Ratelle, this committee had a broader mandate and did not arrive with an action plan.
“According to my understanding, [la Table] is dissolved right now,” he added.
Later in the day, the Plante administration confirmed that the Table’s mandate ended in December 2019 when the final report was delivered to the mayor.
The work “has greatly contributed to the administration’s efforts to combat racism and systemic discrimination”, it was specified.
The opposition will table a motion to this effect at the municipal council on June 12.