More than a hundred demonstrators pounded the pavement of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve on Sunday to shout their opposition to the increase in trucking in the east of the island. According to them, the Ray-Mont Logistiques project crystallizes all the disdain of decision-makers for the quality of life in their neighborhood.
Containers overflowing from the Port of Montreal are beginning to pile up at the Ray-Mont Logistiques site in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. The company has obtained authorization to go ahead with the first phase of its “intermodal logistics platform” project and the citizens of the neighborhood are mounting the barricades with increasing intensity.
More than a hundred of them demonstrated in the streets of the district concerned by this conversion of the site located at 5227, rue Notre-Dame Est.
“It has become an incredible place, full of life. The amount of birds, plants, tree communities, flora and fauna that are alive. We like to go there, to walk there. But we are told that we are coming to protect the fauna and flora by asphalting the land, ”accused Anaïs Houde, co-spokesperson for the Mobilization 6600 Parc-Nature MHM. “We are told that we are going to add trucks to reduce our GHGs. We get talked into like we’re not smart. It puts us in a rage. You do destruction, at least agree to say so. »
“Their profits are polluting our lives,” read one banner.
Sunday’s demonstration is aimed as much at the company Ray-Mont Logistiques as at the City, at the Quebec Ministry of the Environment, which issued the permit, and at the federal government, which owns land in the area.
Anaïs Houde promises to mobilize this Wednesday to block the machinery which must “demolish” the Steinberg woods to build “a truck road”.
In the demonstration, Danielle Trachy, a citizen of the district, sees in her industrial installations a form of unfavorable prejudice from decision-makers and companies towards her district.
“We are in Hochelaga, a disadvantaged neighborhood. We have the feeling that they feel that we don’t have the power to demonstrate, the financial power. We are troubled that it is done so easily, ”she testifies alongside her husband and her neighbors.