See Spot run into red tape

Dog owners and Lachine at odds over
bylaws that bar pooches from good parks

DON’T PENALIZE MY PET: Shari Harrison

by LINA HARPER

Some Lachine dog owners, like Shari Harrison, believe that Montreal dogs should have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of other dogs’ bums. To most Montrealers, the idea of letting their pets chase balls and play with other dogs is a no-brainer, but right now, the borough’s bylaws concerning dog play areas are currently a mixed bag. The borough of Lachine only allows dogs in six designated dog parks—dog parks that Harrison says are substandard, citing risks for pooches like burr bushes, low fences and sharp rocks. And they are barred from the nearby Promenade Père-Marquette, a narrow island by the canal owned by Parks Canada.

Tensions are mounting among the borough officials and Lachine citizens, both dog-owning and non. As the complaints to the borough trickle in about poop, barking and frightened children, restrictions all over the borough have tightened. But Harrison thinks that most people are responsible dog owners and the offenders are the exception, not the rule. She says these restrictions show “the enormous bias the borough of Lachine has against dogs and dog owners, and the extent to which they are willing to go in order to make an honest citizen’s life miserable.”

Harrison plans to exercise her right to walk her dog in a better park this Sunday, Sept. 21, with the “First Day of Fall Second Annual Dog Walk.” And while last year’s event went off without a hitch in another, bigger park, this year’s walk has been relegated to the Promenade du Rail Lachine, a “thin strip of land [along Victoria between 10th and 28th Avenues], one of the busiest and noisiest roadways in Lachine,” she says, one also shared by cyclists, pedestrians and rollerbladers. “We’re trying to do a loving, peaceful thing,” says Harrison about the walk. “We just want a decent park…. Lachine doesn’t like dogs.”

The borough disagrees. “We’re not against dogs. We like dogs,” says borough rep Karine Belisle. But if the borough really wanted to show their appreciation for the four-legged, says Harrison, Lachine mayor Claude Dauphin would have accepted her offer to be a judge at the “fun, silly dog show” taking place after the dog walk. Belisle says the mayor declined because his agenda is booked months in advanced.

One Lachine dog owner, Jacques Valois, has gone so far as to take the issue to the Superior Court of Quebec. For the past two years, Valois has been trying to get Lachine to obey federal regulations and remove what he calls illegal signage prohibiting dogs on Promenade Père-Marquette, his favourite path.

The crux of the legal case is jurisdictional: Père-Marquette is owned by Parks Canada but leased to and maintained by the borough of Lachine. Whereas most federal parks generally allow dogs on leashes, Lachine does not. Valois believes the regulations for federal parks should be upheld, and is expecting a favourable outcome. The Park Canada Web site states that dogs may be walked on leashes if “any evidence of their passage is promptly removed,” but adds a warning that “the district of Lachine prohibits dogs from all its parks.”

Valois is suing on principle, he says. “We should be able to benefit from this park like other Canadian citizens,” says Valois. “I feel like it was the right thing to do.”

Valois’s case will be heard at the Palais de Justice next Monday, Sept. 22.

FIRST DAY OF FALL DOG WALK
WILL START AT 28TH AVENUE AND
VICTORIA AT 10 A.M. ON SUNDAY,
SEPT. 21. FOR MORE INFO, SEE
DOGLAWS.MEETUP.COM/14/