Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante finally apologized verbally on Wednesday to protesters illegally apprehended during demonstrations held between 2011 and 2015.
They had called the media the day before to complain that even though the City had complied with an agreement on the sidelines of 16 class actions that provided for an official apology to these demonstrators, these were practically impossible to find on the City’s website.
“The City of Montreal apologizes for having violated the fundamental rights of those who demonstrated,” declared Ms. Plante in a press scrum at City Hall.
“For us, demonstrating is important and it is part of our rights, the fundamental rights of every citizen, of every citizen. »
The demonstrators were also demanding an apology from the director of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), Fady Dagher, but Valérie Plante argued that she was also speaking for her police department: “The SPVM is an entity of the City of Montreal so I am in front of you to convey this message that we share, both the SPVM and the City of Montreal. »
Persistent racism
The Mayor also wanted to react to the file presented by the daily Le Devoir earlier this week, which showed that many City employees were frequently victims of racism, that staff awareness of racism was sometimes unwelcome and, above all, that the complaints system set up for victims of racism was dysfunctional.
“It’s extremely serious, it’s unacceptable, because racism, really, is a violation of human rights,” exclaimed the mayor.
At his side, the city’s director general, Serge Lamontagne, was clearly distressed by the daily’s revelations: “I was disappointed to read what I read in the last few days, because it’s been two years since we are working intensively to bring about a change in culture. »
“It is clear that we have work to do. It is not normal for an employee to have difficulty filing a complaint,” he said, promising to do everything possible to ensure that the message and the intention of the administration reach all 28 000 municipal employees.