Power to the
vox populi

Montreal’s fifth annual Citizen
Summit lets the people do the talking

by TRACEY LINDEMAN

With four years under its belt, the annual Citizen Summit is heading into its fifth brimming with optimism. “This is the biggest Summit we’ve ever organized,” says spokesperson and director of the Montreal Urban Ecology Centre Luc Rabouin. And with 30 pre-Summit activities already completed and 80 workshops, lectures and roundtables to happen over the course of two full days, he isn’t kidding.

This monolith of community organization is, at its core, a social experiment hinged on the notion that the best ideas for social change usually come from the people themselves. That’s why organizers are asking Montrealers to tell them what kind of city they want, and just how much elbow grease they’re willing to contribute. These ideas will then be arranged post-Summit into a citizens’ agenda—a document that will not only serve as a laundry list of Montreal’s biggest problems, but will also present concrete recommendations for dealing with them.

Cops under scrutiny

Police power and the abuse thereof is one of those problems for Fo Niemi of the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRRAR). Niemi, along with city councillor Warren Allmand and lawyers Julius Grey and William Sloan, will attempt to answer the question of whether the Montreal police force needs a public policy review board.

“Generally speaking, we feel nobody wants to talk about these issues in a public forum. [We want to] pull these hot chestnuts out of the fire,” says Dimitri Roussopoulos, the honourary co-president of this year’s summit (with Annie Roy, of art intervention group ATSA), who also had a hand in bringing this panel to the summit.

Since 18-year-old Fredy Villanueva was fatally shot by a police officer last August, there has been much ado in the media about unnecessary force and its link to race relations, but hardly anything has been done about it. Niemi says that in response to a letter written to the city attorneys in the Villanueva inquiry, he received a patronizing letter that, among other things, criticized incorrect verb conjugation. Niemi feels that the criticism is a clear indicator of systemic prejudice within the judicial system and police force that makes the subject of the summit panel all the more relevant. Fresh off a victory in a racial profiling case, Niemi will speak on Sunday, June 7 about burying the insidious practice for good.

Consult us

While this particular panel is a one-of-a-kind at this year’s Citizen Summit, Roussopoulos draws links between it and the numerous sessions on local and participatory democracy. A perfect opportunity may present itself in August, when Montreal city council will deliberate on a statute that would allow ordinary citizens to initiate public consultations on any issue.

Roussopoulos has faith that this motion will pass, and that it will present Montrealers with the privilege of cutting a few politicians and bureaucrats out of the democratic process. “It’s important for us to tell them what we want”—both at the Citizen Summit and at City Hall, Roussopoulos says.

Summit attendees may get the chance: all four official mayoral candidates will be on hand Sunday. Each candidate will have the floor for 15 minutes to address key questions issued by the summit’s organizers. As the municipal election approaches, Rabouin feels the summit and the fruits that spring forth are perfectly aligned to have a real impact on electoral platforms.

“The more people come, the more it becomes the people’s voice in Montreal,” Roussopoulos adds. “Each Summit gets bigger and bigger. We hope people will take it seriously, especially in an election year.”

Green is social

Organizers are expecting to nearly double last year’s number of participants to 1,000, and they may just get it as awareness of social, environmental and economic issues grows in the public sphere. However, Rabouin is realistic when it comes to the direct outcomes of the summit. “[It] is important, but it’s only three days,” he says.

He hopes the summit sparks a citizens’ movement for reclaiming and redefining public space, and attendees may find inspiration for this in keynote speaker Richard Register’s work. The founder of an en ecological urban planning organization called Ecocity Builders, Register will talk about his life’s work in rebalancing cities to be more in line with nature in his keynote address, and then will facilitate a smaller discussion on how Ecocity Builders’ principles can be applied to Montreal.

“Social equality and urban environment are linked—they are not separate things,” says Rabouin.

THE SUMMIT KICKS OFF ON FRIDAY,
JUNE 5 AT THE SAT (1195 ST-LAURENT,
7:30 P.M.) WITH MUSICAL AND
ARTISTIC ACCOMPANIMENT. REGISTER
ONLINE BY THURSDAY, JUNE 4
OR IN PERSON AT THE SAT OR THE
SUMMIT (UQÀM’S J-A DE SÈVE PAVILION,
320 STE-CATHERINE E., $10, NO
REFUSALS). FOR THE FULL
PROGRAM, SEE
5SC.ECOLOGIEURBAINE.NET