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Yesterday, Monday, September 28, about 200–300 people demonstrated in the working‑class neighborhoods of Ville‑Émard and Côte‑Saint‑Paul, in the Southwest borough of Montreal. We were there with our banner to hand out Le Porte‑Voix.
It was a protest of the “Popular Counter‑Attack against High Rents,” a coalition for social housing that grew out of local citizen groups and tenant committees.
Starting from Jolicoeur metro station, we walked to Monk Boulevard. While a marching band played, we shouted slogans against high living costs and rent hikes.
Just before crossing the Lachine Canal bridge, the SPVM (Montreal police) blocked the road. After about ten minutes of chanting slogans against the police and capitalism, we were able to continue a few blocks away, where we stopped for a speech.
The speaker reminded us that the profit‑driven logic that creates high rents and real‑estate speculation pushes more and more tenants each year into precarity and homelessness.
The building at 5550 Saint‑Patrick Street, where we were, is a clear example of the current dead‑end.
The company Mondev will turn it into luxury condos, eliminating the 150 social‑housing units originally planned for the project, and doing so with the borough’s approval.
The demonstration continued to the intersection of Rue de l’Église and Saint‑Patrick, where activists began occupying an abandoned residential building.
When we left the site, around 8 p.m., about a hundred people were still there supporting the occupation.
Around 24 hours later, the building is still occupied!
This makes it the longest political squat in decades in the province of Quebec.
The place is being organized: food brought by neighbours, self‑managed farming collectives, and chemical toilets. A film screening is planned soon.