MONTREAL: It’s been almost two weeks since a group of 500 street youth, punks, anti-poverty and social housing activists, anarchists and their supporters marched through downtown Montreal and literally broke into and re-appropriated an abandoned three-story building on Overdale Street, just around the corner from the Molson Centre.

The public education campaign and squatting action were timely in many respects.

Earlier this summer, even mainstream papers were openly talking about the city’s “housing crisis,” referring specifically to the over 400 households that had no place to go after their leases expired in July. Those hundreds represent potentially thousands more who rely on the charity of friends and family for a roof, or who are accepting either substandard housing or expensive rents.

Since the action, there’s been a radical change in the way people talk about social housing and squatting in Quebec. A recent article in La Presse, for example, announced the intention of FRAPRU – a province-wide coalition of social-housing and tenant organizations – to organize symbolic squatting actions throughout Quebec next spring as part of an increase in pressure tactics (“Le FRAPRU veut squatter dans tout le Québec,” La Presse, mardi le 7 aout, 2001).

The majority of squatters left the original Overdale Street squat after five days, when the city accepted their conditions for vacating. Those conditions included collective self-organization, the assumption of building costs by the city, as well as an amnesty from any criminal charges as a result of the squat takeover.

Six squatters remained at the site, but were evicted by a muscular police operation involving three busloads of police, the riot squad as well as a special tactics team. In the end, the remaining squatters negotiated their departure without charges, but five supporters, including three medics, were arrested.

Meanwhile, near the corner of Rachel and Préfontaine streets, there stands tangible proof of the squatters’ victory. Two Montreal landmarks are visible in the distance on either side of “Centre Préfontaine” – the Mount Royal cross to the west and the Olympic stadium tower to the east. At least seventy-five squatters now occupy and operate the centre, which is a large red brick building that was reluctantly ceded by the city last week.

The Centre Préfontaine has become a new social centre of activism and alternative culture, as well as “an organizing space to fight the forces of gentrification in Montreal” to quote one of the flyers on site. Each day, squatters and supporters meet in general assemblies. They collectively planning projects at the site, including community gardens, a library, media centre, printing press, communal kitchen, meeting and show spaces and more. The squat is now also the permanent home to at least forty people, including children.

This was once, ironically enough, a former youth drug-rehabilitation centre. One large sign that belonged to the old rehab refers to the “Keys to Success,” defined starkly as “Work, Propriety and Temperance.” These words were replaced with, “Organization, Freedom and Respect.”

The original Overdale Street squatting action on July 27 was organized by the Comité des sans-emploi – the Committee of the Unemployed – a volunteer anti-poverty group based in Montreal’s east end. It has been in existence for over ten years, gaining national attention with its Commando Bouffe (Food Commando) in December, 1997. A few members entered the posh Queen Elizabeth Hotel during lunch and appropriated steaming heaps of buffet food, which they served to hundreds of supporters outside. The group has since shifted focus from direct actions touching on hunger and poverty to the issue of gentrification and social housing.

The building that the Comité des sans-emploi chose to squat is highly evocative of the gentrification process that drives the housing crisis. In 1988, an entire block of low-income housing was razed in the neighbourhood to make room for condominiums. Before the demolition, the “Battle of Overdale” mobilized hundreds of activists. Tenants were evicted forcibly by police, resulting in several arrests. One elderly resident died weeks later due to the trauma of the police eviction. As it turned out, the condos were never built: the site serves as a parking lot.

The sole remaining building in the area was saved because of its historical significance. It was the family home of Louis Hippolyte Lafontaine. The building is surrounded by high-rises and hotels, but has remained empty thirteen years, until the squat action this summer. Suddenly, it became a community gathering space, bustling with activity. After the building owner – Westmount art dealer Robert Landau of Grinch Realties – took out a notice of eviction, squatters began to prepare to defend their home.

When the squatters didn’t budge, public sympathy, along with the upcoming city election, combined to force Mayor Pierre Bourque to offer up an empty city-owned building. He also accepted all of the squatters’ conditions. The committee declared their unexpected acquisition an “historic” victory, and a legitimization of the right to occupy and use abandoned and unused property.

Now the building that started it all is again boarded up, albeit sporting much more graffiti and mural art than before. The plywood covering what was once an open entrance carries a simple message: “We will return!”

Jaggi Singh is a writer and activist based in Montreal.

Jaggi Singh’s reports for indymedia:

“Policeviolently evict Montreal squatters“
– October 5, 2001
“‘Historic’ Victory for Squatters Amidst Police Intervention”
– August 2, 2001
“Squat Continues Under Threat of Police Eviction”
– August 1, 2001
“Montreal Squat Enters Third Night”
– July 30, 2001
“Housing Action Re-Appropriates Empty Building in Downtown Montreal”
– July 28, 2001