City buskers shouldn’t have oligarchic power

The working conditions of street entertainers on city of Montreal streets has become a high-profile issue this summer with the posting last week of a dramatic video on YouTube showing five police officers tackling a street performer.

The performer, Stéphane Moore, was knocked to the ground in front of a shocked audience in Place Jacques Cartier.

Police said although Moore had a permit to perform outdoors, he did not have a signed contract with Ville Marie borough, spelling out where and when he could perform. Leaving aside for the moment the issue of whether police should have acted so forcefully, the city of Montreal is within its rights to start requiring buskers to sign schedule contracts. This new obligation is an addition to existing rules requiring performers to undergo performance evaluations and buy operating permits.

Street musicians and outdoor performance artists are using public space when they perform on city streets, in parks and in the métro system. That’s a privilege, not a right. There’s clearly a role for municipal government in the regulation of the hours and places where buskers can perform, to prevent performers from battling one another for prime locations.

Last month, Ville Marie borough passed a new bylaw requiring buskers to play by the scheduling rules. The idea is to open up opportunity to work in high-traffic public places like Place Jacques Cartier. Until last year, space allocation and scheduling had been handled by the Société de développement économique du Vieux-Montréal. When that group decided it no longer wanted that responsibility anymore, a group of performers that have had something of a monopoly on performing in Old Montreal decided it could do the job of space allocation and scheduling itself.

This group has launched legal action against Ville Marie’s new bylaw, saying its own system whereby performers draw cards to decide space allocation, and performance times, works just fine. But there are signs that the system does not, in fact, work fine. Some entertainers trying to break into Ville Marie complain that they have been frozen out of the best places to perform. They argue, with good reason, that letting a small self-appointed group of performers control access, directly or indirectly, over who can work in the parts of the borough is like giving them the de facto power of a cartel.

The new Ville Marie bylaw, passed at the borough’s last regular meeting on June 12, is not an abuse of municipal power.

When properly regulated, outdoor performances add to Montrealers’ pleasure in their city.

And that, really, is the whole point of street entertainment, and why there’s a role for municipal government to set rules.