15,000 demand city restore parking

A merchant at Jean-Talon Market has raised 15,000 signatures asking the city to restore car access and 10 parking spots that were removed when the Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie borough renovated part of the market this summer.

Lino Birri arrived at the monthly city council meeting Monday night with a green shopping bag filled with the signatures. Under the “right of initiative” provided for in the city’s charter, a citizen may force public consultations by submitting 15,000 signatures to the city.

Birri said merchants were not consulted on the elimination of parking to create a public square at Casgrain and Shamrock Aves.

The reduced access is hurting his 60-employee fruit and vegetable business, which could close it unless it is restored, he said.

“The work that was done was counter productive for a market that sells local products,” he said.

The city insists that it did consult and that 2,000 people took part in 14 public consultations between 2016 and 2018.

Earlier, opposition leader Lionel Perez accused Mayor Valérie Plante of wanting to shut down the Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence, founded by former mayor Denis Coderre in 2015.

“It seems like she’s looking for excuses to close it,” the Ensemble Montréal leader said to journalists at city hall.

Plante said last week that the city and the Quebec government have requested an audit of the centre and raised questions about its international activities, asking whether Montreal taxpayers should be footing the bill for them.

“There was never a request for a financial audit,” Perez retorted Monday. “There was a request in terms of organizational structure by the Quebec government,” he said.

The centre has invited Plante to visit three times, but she has never accepted, Perez said.

“For her to suggest the city of Montreal’s money is not being used wisely, she has to do her homework,” he said.

The centre revealed last week it is struggling financially since Quebec stopped paying an annual subsidy of $900,000.

Montreal has continued to pay a $900,000 subsidy, but has made no guarantees for next year.

In city council, Perez said international trips by representatives of the centre are often paid for by organizations in other countries that want to benefit from its expertise.

The centre referred 24 cases to police in 2017, after receiving 349 requests for help, he said.

In comments to reporters, Perez criticized a motion submitted by city councillor Marvin Rotrand affirming councillors’ right to wear religious symbols, noting there is currently no proposal to prevent them from doing so.

Perez, who wears a yarmulke (Jewish skullcap), noted, “obviously I have a vested interest on this matter.”

“At no point has the new government ever suggested that elected officials will not be able to wear religious symbols. So what this motion does is just create some confusion on the issue, on a very sensitive matter and we don’t think that’s productive,” he said.

Plante also noted there is no proposal to ban religious symbols for councillors but said she has no problem with them.

“We already have elected officials that wear religious signs and to me it has no impact whatsoever on your judgment or how professional you are in doing your job,” she said.