Valérian Mazataud Le Devoir “The City of Montreal apologizes for having undermined the fundamental rights of those who demonstrated,” said Ms. Plante in a press scrum at City Hall.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante finally apologized verbally on Wednesday to protesters illegally apprehended during protests held between 2011 and 2015.
They had called the media the day before to complain that even though the City had complied with an agreement on the sidelines of 16 class actions that provided for an official apology to these demonstrators, these were practically impossible to find on the City's website.
“The City of Montreal apologizes for having violated the fundamental rights of those who demonstrated,” said Ms. Plante in a press scrum at the 'Hôtel de Ville.
“For us, demonstrating is important and it is part of our rights, the fundamental rights of every citizen, of every citizen. »
The demonstrators were also demanding an apology from the director of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), Fady Dagher, but Valérie Plante argued that she also spoke for her police department: “The SPVM is an entity of the City of Montreal so I am in front of you to convey this message that we share, both the SPVM and the City of Montreal. »
Persistent Racism
The Mayor also wanted to react to the file presented by the daily Le Devoir earlier this week, which showed that many City employees were frequently victims of racism, that staff awareness of racism was sometimes unwelcome and, above all, that the complaints system in place for victims of racism was dysfunctional.
“This is extremely serious, this is unacceptable, because racism, really, is a violation of human rights. the person,” exclaimed the mayor.
Beside her, City Manager Serge Lamontagne was clearly distressed by the daily revelations: “I was disappointed to read this that I have read in the last few days, because we have been working intensively for two years to bring about a change in culture.
“It is clear that we have work to do. It's not normal for an employee to have difficulty making a complaint,” he said, promising to do everything possible to ensure that the administration's message and intent reaches all 28 000 municipal employees.
