The endless wait to renew his passport and the resulting frustration continued for dozens of people Monday morning at the Guy-Favreau complex in Montreal, when two police officers were dispatched to incite people to leave the scene.
“Around 10 a.m., a call was made by security because a lot of people were impatient. Two police officers invited people who were a little impatient to leave,” mentioned to the To have to Montreal Police Department publicist Raphaël Bergeron. He adds that no arrest or statement of offense has been issued.
When passing the To have to at the Complexe Guy-Favreau, late Monday afternoon, the atmosphere was calm, but undeniably gloomy. Abandoned camping chairs sat among the hundreds of people huddled outside or in the Passport Services office. In the absence of clear indications, various lines had been created in front of the entrance to the premises, while the security agents struggled to respond to the numerous requests for information from those present. Others were bringing food to their relatives who were waiting inside the premises.
Gontran Chartré is one of those who did not get an appointment and had to leave the place. Reached by phone by The duty a few hours after his aborted visit to the passport office, the man who had been waiting for five o’clock in the morning was still shocked by the management of the queue by the staff there. “At one point, someone came to us and said ‘it’s over, go home’, while they [la sécurité] told us that if we followed the line, we would have an appointment, he says. They just told us to get out and they called the police. »
Mr. Chartré also deplores the “condescending” attitude of the staff on site. “There were people cutting the line and the security guards were looking at us smiling, they weren’t intervening,” he recalls, a palpable anger in his voice. “I imagine they have their helmets full, but the communication was terrible. »
When the police came, Mr. Chartré claims to have seen several people “start to cry” when they understood that they would not have their passport in time to travel. “There are people for whom it is a disaster today”, he laments, when he himself had planned to leave for Italy on Wednesday with his children in order to join his girlfriend there. .
Police interventions have already taken place last Friday at the Service Canada office in Laval and last Tuesday at the Saint-Laurent office.
An exasperated crowd
Met on the spot, Clémence is one of the lucky ones who managed to get a ticket for an appointment the same day. Arrived in line at four o’clock in the morning, she waited on the floor below for a few hours. She then went upstairs to the passport office to “explore a bit” and managed to get one of the tickets “randomly” given by officials, she said. She claims to have seen “several police officers” arrive at the end of the morning.
In the line for people with an appointment, François and Christine waited in the hope of not having to cancel their trip for a second time. “I made my appointment at the beginning of May on the Internet to get my passport, stating that I would need it in two to five working days, but I was given an appointment a month and a half later, says Francois. We were supposed to go to the United States at the end of May. They hope that their new trip, scheduled for July 31, will not meet the same fate.
Outside, the line for the next day already numbered more than sixty people around 4 p.m. Some slept on the ground or on their camping chairs while a duo sat on the ground enjoying chips and salsa, looking haggard. A man had brought an extension cord to plug in his computer so he could work from home, and a group of people who were about to spend their second night out were asking people in line to write their names on a piece of paper. of paper. They intended to give it to the staff of the Complex the next day so that the order of arrival was respected.
Strong reactions in the House of Commons
Service Canada offices will be exceptionally open on June 24 and 1er July, which are statutory holidays, Ya’ara Saks, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Families, Children and Social Development, announced in the chamber on Monday. She added that last week, 48,000 passports were handed over to the country. This was not enough to calm the ardor of the Bloc Québécois and the Conservative Party, which sharply denounced the interminable wait at Service Canada offices.
“When are they going to stop improvising and open the offices in the evenings and on weekends until the crisis is finally resolved,” launched Bloc Québécois MP Alain Therrien in the chamber. “Canada is a G7 country, not a Third World country,” was scandalized by Gérard Deltell, of the Conservative Party. Families, Children and Social Development Minister Karina Gould was not in the room as she visited a passport processing center in Mississauga, Ont., to determine ways to improve its operation. efficiency.