{"id":8273,"date":"2021-06-09T10:03:21","date_gmt":"2021-06-09T14:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/?p=8273"},"modified":"2021-06-09T10:03:21","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T14:03:21","slug":"event-re-cap-virtual-meeting-about-cohabitation-at-cabot-square-by-philippe-fines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/event-re-cap-virtual-meeting-about-cohabitation-at-cabot-square-by-philippe-fines\/","title":{"rendered":"EVENT RE-CAP: Virtual meeting about cohabitation at Cabot Square, by Philippe Fin\u00e8s"},"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>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Virtual meeting about cohabitation at Cabot Square, May 20th, 5:00 pm \u2013 6:30 pm.<\/p>

The virtual meeting about cohabitation at Cabot Square went smoothly, thanks to Maryse Chapdelaine, project manager at Peter-McGill Community Council, in collaboration with Emma Campbell. About 50 people attended the meeting, all directly or indirectly concerned with neighbourhood issues at Cabot Square.\u00a0 During the meeting, speakers used the phrase \u201cpersons in a situation of homelessness\u201d instead of \u201chomeless people\u201d to avoid stigmatization and hasty judgment.<\/p>

  1. The meeting started with an excellent introduction by Cathy Wong, City councillor. As usual, during the whole evening, Ms Wong said pertinent, generous, and well documented comments. In her introduction, she mentioned that cohabitation in Cabot Square is a delicate balancing act between social and community actors, residents, Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations, and the city\u2019s institutions, in particular the police.\u00a0 She spoke of solidarity between all parties involved, especially given the deconfinement coming soon.<\/li>
  2. Maude S\u00e9guin, councillor on homelessness for the City described well the context for the City\u2019s interventions: which are made in collaboration with the Health ministry, who oversees this question. According to Ms S\u00e9guin, the pandemic exacerbated emergency situations for homelessness, by forcing the closing of several shelters.\u00a0 To remedy this lack, the city will implement a plan until March 2022 to put the number of accommodations back to what it was before the pandemic.\u00a0 In particular, it will add beds in organizations such as Chez Doris, Open Door, day centers and two centers specifically for Indigenous people, without mentioning of course the big tent at Cabot Square (see later). Moreover, the city will install a \u00ab\u00a0wet shelter\u00a0\u00bb (centre with medically supervised alcohol consumption).\u00a0 According to Ms S\u00e9guin, the pandemic led to an important creativity among all actors and a new expertise. \u00a0For example, there are now several peripherical shelters, which means that emergency lodging is not limited to downtown anymore.<\/li>
  3. Nakuset and Alexandra Ambroise described specifically the situation as lived by the Indigenous peoples. Nakuset reminded all about the tragedy of Rapha\u00ebl Andr\u00e9\u2019s death.\u00a0 A short time after his death, she had spoken with Yves Lafreni\u00e8re, Michel Audette and other actors, to install bed accommodations for Indigenous persons (but not exclusively for them).\u00a0 The big tent at Cabot Square \u2013 which by the way is called \u201cRapha\u00ebl Andr\u00e9\u201d \u2013 was installed for this purpose.\u00a0 Alexandra Ambroise manages the tent since February 2nd<\/sup>, and its clientele tripled since its opening. Ms Ambroise explained that<\/li><\/ol>
      • The tent has 15 beds (more like long chairs): 6 for women, 6 for men, 3 for rotation every 30 minutes;<\/li>
      • 15 employees work at the tent;<\/li>
      • The tent opens at 7:30 pm for employees and 8:00 pm for users;<\/li>
      • 75 hot meals are prepared every day;<\/li>
      • About 90 to 125 users come each night;<\/li>
      • And the tent is cleaned during the night and thoroughly disinfected in the morning.<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>

        Moreover (information added by Maude S\u00e9guin), security is maintained by Mohawks, which is an interesting arrangement.<\/p>

        4. Marie-Claude Ouellet then presented the \u00ab Plan de cohabitation sociale: Square Cabot et environs, printemps-\u00e9t\u00e9 2021 \u00bb, emphasizing that it is an ongoing plan, subject to modifications. This plan, with lots of details about names of interventions and important dates, has 6 axes:<\/p>

          1. Support to the persons in a situation of homelessness or marginality;<\/li>
          2. Intervention and social mediation;<\/li>
          3. Security, maintenance and cleanliness. In particular, Cactus manages the used syringes recovery. \u00a0Every resident is invited to dial 311 if they find that more recovery boxes should be installed in their neighbourhood;<\/li>
          4. Animation and occupation of public space. Ms Ouellet mentioned proudly that, despite the pandemic, there were almost as many activities in the Square in 2020 than in 2019. Also, she mentioned that the Round House Caf\u00e9 is back this year;<\/li>
          5. Communications;<\/li>
          6. Coordination of actions.<\/li><\/ol><\/li><\/ol>

            5. Finally, the question period allowed everyone time to express their grievances and comments. Questions were pertinent; answers were clear and precise.<\/p>

              1. Pedestrianisation of Sainte-Catherine street. Between Guy and Metcalfe, Sainte-Catherine street is pedestrian during the weekends; however, between Atwater and Guy nothing will be done before September.
                1. Cristina D\u2019Ariemo stated that the terraces on that segment are installed on parking spots, which should not reduce the available space on sidewalks; this remark produced a lot of reactions from residents who said on the contrary that there is not much room to walk where there are terraces.<\/li>
                2. Ms Wong expressed her exasperation due to the lack of collaboration of merchants, as well as her own experience trying to move her toddler\u2019s stroller.<\/li>
                3. Ms D\u2019Ariemo spoke again and said that the merchants would accept that the segment between Atwater and Guy was pedestrian, if there were some animations on the street. If it is not the case, they prefer to keep the parking lots to ease deliveries.\u00a0 Two surveys will be done this summer (mid-summer and at the end) to get a better idea of what is going on in this zone.<\/li><\/ol><\/li>
                4. Hector-Toe-Blake Park. Some police will be present in the park (according to police); however, no animation is planned this summer, according to Ms Wong, who nevertheless encourages residents to express their ideas.<\/li>
                5. Evaluation: the question was asked on how to determine whether the Plan de cohabitation sociale will meet its objectives.
                  1. For Maryse Bouchard, evaluation will be assessed though satisfaction surveys. She repeated that the plan is evolving and will therefore be modified if necessary;<\/li>
                  2. Ms S\u00e9guin reminded us that the plan is subject to the norms from the Health Network, which will perform adequate evaluations;<\/li>
                  3. Finally, Ms Ambroise mentioned that, since the tent Rapha\u00ebl Andr\u00e9 opened, 10 people got out of the street, which brought enthusiastic congratulations from all the participants in the meeting.<\/li><\/ol><\/li><\/ol><\/li><\/ol>

                    6. In the end, Ms Wong, Ms Chapdelaine and Ms Ouellet concluded by their closing remarks this meeting, which was filled with information, faith, and reconciliation.<\/p>

                    \u00a0<\/p>

                    Philippe Fin\u00e8s<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                    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":8274,"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":[129,173,56],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8273"}],"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=8273"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8278,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8273\/revisions\/8278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.petermcgill.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}