by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

There are 236 legal billboards in Côte-des-Neiges/NDG and one—the Buffalo Jeans billboard at Sherbrooke and Décarie—that’s not. “They don’t have any permit for it, it’s a no-no,” says borough rep François Puchin.

The city hopes that 115 articles in the borough urban plan will be enough to persuade a municipal court judge to slam the building owner and jean company harshly enough to dissuade others from posting rogue billboards. The fear remains that they won’t. “They might get fined and just keep paying their fine,” says Décarie councillor Marcel Tremblay.

The city has been foiled more than once in efforts to control outdoor advertising. Last fall, opponents of advertising trucks pleaded with the city to enforce its existing bylaw to rid the city of the rolling ads. But city lawyers advised against it, noting that the bylaw wouldn’t withstand a court challenge made by the fleet of 30 or so mobile billboards that roam the town. “The bylaw was never really applied and it’s from before the merger, which means that it has to be applied by each borough. And for most boroughs, it’s not a major preoccupation right now,” says city rep Nadia Seraiocco.

In 2000, the city lost another battle against the boards as a local businessman exploited a loophole in the city’s bylaws by installing his giant TV screen to beam outwards from inside his office window at Drummond and Ste-Catherine. “They tried to make us take it down but according to the bylaw, it was okay at that time. They changed it because of us,” says Mimo Kabbara, president of Spotvision, a company that rents the screens. The new law limits the size of a sign to 10 per cent of the window surface, but Kabbara’s remains in place.

Kabbara says he dreams of installing another screen on the Main and transforming Philips Square into a Times Square, but has not found the city overly obliging. “We broadcast the tennis tournament for seven days outdoors in Toronto, but we couldn’t do it in Montreal,” he says. “Too much paperwork.”

Last fall a series of masked individuals from groups carrying names like Décorateurs Engagés, Splat!, Clan Destin, NAPALM and FLICA vandalized billboards throughout the city.

Astral, the biggest local billboard company with over half of its 2,000 Quebec billboards placed in Montreal (Viacom is second with 970 billboards plus 2,300 bus shelter posters, while Pattison ranks third) does not report such vandalism to the police. “Our trouble is mainly taggers,” says marketing manager Guy-Renaud Kirouac. “I have a BFA myself and I wish I had the talent to do some of the stuff they do, but I don’t agree with it.”

In the U.S. a group called Scenic America has formed to lobby against billboards. SCRUB, a 13-year-old Philadelphia affiliate, reports having won a few difficult legal battles against the powerful ad firms. “It’s a consensus that they’re a blight. People have tuned them out. They’re an uglifying influence that are in your face 24/7. Not like a TV or radio, which you could just shut off,” says president Mary Tracy.