{"id":7997,"date":"2021-05-07T12:11:35","date_gmt":"2021-05-07T16:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/?p=7997"},"modified":"2021-05-07T16:09:31","modified_gmt":"2021-05-07T20:09:31","slug":"article-nakuset-in-dialogue-by-renee-corbiere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/article-nakuset-in-dialogue-by-renee-corbiere\/","title":{"rendered":"ARTICLE: Nakuset, In Dialogue, by Renee Corbiere"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This piece was submitted to the Citizen Journal project of the Peter-McGill Community Council. Please note that the opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect those of our organization. This project aims to create space for the voices of residents, students and friends of the neighbourhood through articles, photos, videos, and podcasts in any language. Are you interested in contributing? Contact us at benevolat@petermcgill.org<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>

The Carrefour Jeunesse Emploi (Montr\u00e9al-Centre-Ville) offers free and exclusive events and training sessions for its members. The Members’ Council chose the theme Urban <\/em>Indigenous Issues<\/em> for this year’s training sessions, which took place on Monday, April 18th on Zoom. The event featured guest speaker Nakuset, Executive Director the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal. The objective of the session was to learn more about the topic while striving to become better allies to the Indigenous Population of Tiohti\u00e0:ke. <\/p>

Citizen Journalist Renee Corbiere recaps the event in her article.<\/p>

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Nakuset: In Dialogue<\/strong><\/div>
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I, Renee Corbiere, had the privilege of sitting in on an educational online session hosted by Nakuset in April.<\/div>
Nakuset informed on Indigenous histories and consequences of colonialism which contribute to the disproportionately high number of unhoused Indigenous people in Montreal. She also described several actions that need to be taken by the city to mitigate these issues. She referred to extensive conversations that have been had with the city that she feels are being ignored. Not only conversations, but reports, recommendations, and calls to action which she describes as having been \u201cplaced on a shelf\u201d by city officials.<\/div>
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Nakuset, Executive Director at Resilience Montreal, says one of the best immediate actions we can take to support the homeless in our city right now is through provision of tents.<\/div>
She describes the success of the Raphael Andre Memorial warming tent erected shortly after the<\/div>
freezing death of Raphael Andre: a space where those in need could access food, services, and<\/div>
temporary relief from the cold – the warming tent was essential to the well-being of many.<\/div>
Following its closure, the individuals who frequented the tent are still in need.<\/div>
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SPVM Evictions of Encampments far from Reconciliatory<\/strong><\/div>
Throughout the harsh winter months particularly, organizations like Resilience Montreal<\/div>
and Meals for Milton-Parc have worked tirelessly to provide essentials like food and outdoor<\/div>
living essentials to those in need. The city shelters lack space to accommodate everyone looking<\/div>
to escape the cold nights. In response to the encampments these organizations have been able to<\/div>
support, the city has taken to actively dismantling them. It has not been long that many of these<\/div>
tent communities have been able to stand before the SPVM inevitably arrives to confiscate and<\/div>
dispose of hundreds of dollars worth of donated supplies.<\/div>
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Enduring a cold walk home and witnessing the SPVM aggressively trashing tents and belongings of our unhoused neighbours, I can only ask myself: why? Why, for lack of better words, does our city wish to see the unhoused perish? Why, in place of inadequate shelter services, does the city not allow the homeless to survive in tents or encampments? Why do we direct tax dollars to SPVM officers violently destructing encampments, rather than funding housing and shelter programming? I must ask, if the city will not do the work to help those in need, then who will?<\/div>
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Most recently, on May 4th, the encampment located in Hochelaga Park was dismantled.<\/div>
Protestors gathered at the scene starting the morning of the 4th and remained throughout the day to show support and solidarity to those who lost their homes that day. As a volunteer for Meals for Milton-Parc myself, it is disheartening to see all that we work to provide gone to waste in<\/div>
minutes. I cannot imagine the loss it must be for those losing their only belongings.<\/div>
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Shockingly, this needs to be reiterated: people need homes, not necessarily houses, but at least a safe space to call home. We are all begging our city leaders to recognize that. We are pleading for them just to care. We need immediate action to target this housing crisis. The time has passed for consultation and conversation. It is due time that our unhoused neighbours receive the government support they need, but also the popular respect they deserve. Rather thanrelocation, I challenge our city leaders to move beyond symbolic gestures and strive for tangible means towards reconciliation.<\/div><\/div><\/section>
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This piece was submitted to the Citizen Journal project of the Peter-McGill Community Council. Please note that the opinions expressed in these articles do not necessarily reflect those of our organization. This project aims to create space for the voices of residents, students and friends of the neighbourhood through articles, photos, videos, and podcasts in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":8000,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129,59,56],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7997"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7997"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8011,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7997\/revisions\/8011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}