Election Notebook

Neighbourhood Watch: Montreal North,
one year after the Villanueva riots shoved the borough into the national spotlight

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

• For better or worse, Montreal North is usually off the municipal politics radar. That changed last year, when unarmed 18-year-old Honduran immigrant Fredy Villanueva was shot and killed by police on Aug. 8. The rioting that followed exposed a borough that suffered from poverty, crime and ongoing tensions between police and the largely ethnically diverse youth. But it also marked a burgeoning political awakening, with community groups popping up to seek solutions to the neighbourhood’s pervasive problems.

Here’s how things stand now: Marcel Parent, the borough’s two-term incumbent mayor and Tremblay ally, is not seeking a third term. At 77, the former MNA for Sauvé is citing health reasons. Candidates vying to replace him as mayor include Ronald Boisrond, of Projet Montréal,

• But not necessarily popular. Will Prosper, founder of Montéal-Nord Républik, a community group formed in the wake of the Villanueva shooting, says Parent’s resignation is long overdue, and that he doesn’t think having a former cop run a borough where tensions between youth and police run high is wise. Prosper thinks that any successful candidate has to speak to the kids, and the only party that has impressed him so far is—no surprise here—Projet Montréal. PM, he says, seems “more active, more open to finding solutions to things like drop-out rates, poverty and greenspace.” As for policing, the most important and immediately quantifiable measure a new administration can implement is ending racial profiling, which is exacerbating tensions between youth and police. Prosper also says he has been approached by all three parties to run, but turned them all down.

• Five seats are up for grabs in the borough: one borough mayor, two borough councillors and two city councillors. Three of Projet Montréal’s candidates are from ethnic minorities, while both Vision and Union have two. As for women: Vision has two, Union has three and Projet has one.

• The long-sputtering Villanueva inquest, meanwhile, hasn’t been forgotten, merely delayed. After suspending it in May over disagreements about pay for the victims’ counsels, Judge Robert Sansfaçon, stepped down last month, citing ill health. Public Security Minister Jacques Dupuis said over the weekend that he is looking for a replacement, and hopes to get proceedings going by the end of this month.

• This Thursday, Oct. 15, is going to be a busy day for the candidates for the city’s top job. This morning, from 7 a.m.–9:30 a.m., Gérald Tremblay, Louise Harel and Richard Bergeron were in Montreal North for a breakfast discussion hosted by the Chambre de commerce et d’industrie de Montréal-Nord, where they each gave their spiel for 15 minutes followed by a five-minute question and answer period. This evening, at the Gesù (1200 Bleury), from 5–6:30 p.m., Culture Montreal will host the trio for a discussion on “What future for the cultural metropolis?” For more info, visit culturemontreal.ca.

Blue collar blues

• It’s about time we see some fireworks going off. The most exciting news of the week—and that includes the parties unveiling several aspects of their platforms—involved Mayor Gérald Tremblay’s ongoing dust-up with the city’s blue-collar workers. Col-bleu prez Michel Parent compared the mayor to finance rats Vincent Lacroix and Earl Jones over the mishandling of the water-meter contract. Tremblay sent Parent a formal notice to withdraw the comparison or face defamation charges. Parent, whose union has been without a contract for two years, isn’t budging. Meanwhile, the mayor’s team says pamphlets distributed by the union “strangely resemble” Vision Montreal’s platform. Louise Harel denies it vehemently, but the mayor is asking the provincial electoral commission to look into it.