Election Notebook

This week in Neighbourhood Watch:
the West End, where tensions between
police and visible minorities still simmer

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

• Fo Niemi, of the Centre for Research Action on Race Relations (CRARR), says he’d like to see a lot more transparency and openness from whichever team wins in November. Since the mega-merger in 2002, he says, the city and its public security policies have become extremely secretive. “There is no public accountability or public participation in shaping policies relating to policing,” he says. The no-longer-new police focus on cracking down on so-called “incivilities”—minor infractions like spitting, causing a disturbance or walking on off-limits grass—has led to more harassment against young males, most of whom in Côte-des-Neiges are visible minorities. Niemi and other community groups in the area are busy creating a coalition and will be demanding face time with the candidates to find out where they stand on policing matters.

• Dan Philip, president of the Black Coalition of Montreal, is backing Louise Harel because, he says, she has regularly fought for the rights of minorities (despite her “ethnic boroughs” comment last summer). So he and constitutional lawyer Julius Grey launched their “Friends of Louise Harel” website (friendsoflouiseharel.com, duh) on Saturday, which contains all kinds of news on the candidate and party. But not all the content appears consensually given: blogger Jean-Luc Autret (montrealaisorigine.wordpress.com) found one of his Harel-related posts republished on the site without credit. He’s also been prevented from following Harel’s tweets. There is more weirdness to be seen on Autret’s blog, as well as on fagstein.com. Thanks to Kate McDonnell of montrealcityweblog.com (w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog) for pointing this out.

• Meanwhile, Noel Alexander of the Jamaica Association of Montreal says that even though the Tremblay administration and the predominantly Anglophone Caribbean community in NDG-CDN have been getting on better lately, thanks in large part to the efforts of the mayor’s brother, city councillor Marcel Tremblay, his community can’t be taken for granted. The city’s lily-white payroll, from city council members to road construction to garbage and snow removal crews, means that “all of the parties can be accused of discrimination.” He guesstimates unemployment among Anglo blacks to be around 40 per cent, but the city is doing nothing about it—except putting more police on the streets. “The guys are being harassed like hell,” he says.

Big boring debate

• When Gérald Tremblay is the most electrifying speaker available, you know you’re in for a long night. At Tuesday’s party leader’s all-French debate (featuring Tremblay, Vision Montreal’s Louise Harel and Projet Montréal’s Richard Bergeron) on the environment held at UQÀM, a potentially interesting topic for discussion ended as devoid of excitement as, well, this municipal election campaign has been to date. Discussed were the candidates’ plans for the Turcot interchange, protecting Mount Royal, traffic, traffic and more traffic and greenhouse gas emissions. Some interesting stuff was proposed, and the mud slinging was kept to a minimum, but there was a notable lack of electricity. Tremblay was by far the most animated, but Bergeron—despite a friendly crowd—got slogged down by a constant litany of facts and figures that were impossible to keep track of, and Harel was almost a non-entity for all the vibrancy she brought. See for yourself at webtv.coop.

Brass bucks

• Riffling through the Gazette on Friday looking for Doonesbury, EN came upon a two-and-a-half-plus page spread detailing the salaries of the city’s elected officials. Since you’re paying, here’s how much some high-profile City Hall peeps made in fiscal 2008:

Mayor Gérald Tremblay: $148,727

Plateau borough mayor Helen Fotopulos: $121,433

Opposition leader/Ville-Marie mayor Benoît Labonté: $92,912

Projet Montréal leader/Plateau city councillor Richard Bergeron: $54,278