Our right to garden?
(posted by markefrank)
Quick update on what we’ve learned regarding our rights to garden in the Maguire Meadow.
The borough
Emily at Sprout Out Loud! was able to contact the Mayor Helen Fotopoulos (of the borough Plateau-Mont-Royal), and the Mayor assured Emily that she, nor the borough, had anything to do with calling the police on the community-minded activities taking place in the meadow.
From what Emily told me, Helen and she had a great conversation and any harsh feelings raised by the confusion around who wrote this blog (it was me, not Emily) have now been cleared up on their end.
Helen clarified that the land is still Canadian Pacific land, and so she suggested that someone contact Canadian Pacific and request permission to be there.
We have already started this process but are still waiting to reach someone at Canadian Pacific.
It was the Mayor’s assumption that Canadian Pacific was probably worried about public health concerns since the land is contaminated, and if anyone got sick while planting or digging Canadian Pacific wouldn’t want to be liable.
When asked where the process is in terms of the city’s requisition of the meadow, Marc Snyder (a political advisor for Helen Fotopoulos) stated that negotiations are ongoing, and going relatively well. However, no date has been suggested for when this process should be resolved.
This means we have no idea for how much longer we’ll have to go through Canadian Pacific for permission, but we’ll let you know when we find out.
The police
For my part, I was finally able to get to talk with a police officer at the station on Laurier (I went yesterday, but they were too busy to give me too many details). The conversation was a fairly lengthy one, but I will only summarize briefly.
First of all, it seemed the officer I talked to was aware of the little fuss raised over Sunday’s entry, since she asked me if I was the person who was upset with the Mayor’s office regarding the police intervention. That surprised me!
The person I talked with said she was the one who took the complaint that was filed with the police.
Over all, she stated that:
1. The complaint was not filed against those engaging in beautification and cleaning activities in the field.
2. There are long-standing issues in the field with young, “trouble-makers” who drink, start fires and throw rocks at the buildings during the night.
3. There was a group of young people who set up a camp, or parked their car and camped on the street beside the field, on the Saturday before the police approached us. She said at different times that the youth set up a camp in the field, and that the youth were camped out in their car.
However, I am not sure what the whole story was, but just that she was saying there was some sort of disturbance on Saturday in the field.
(Was anyone in the field on Saturday? Does anyone else know what happened this day?)
Anyway, to continue. She finished by suggesting:
4. That a complaint was filed (and she took the complaint) by someone upset at these trouble-making youth who have been using the field.
She suggested, without directly saying it, that the complaint was probably from a business or building owner of one of the buildings that border the meadow, who is tired of having his windows broken with rocks, and/or having his property vandalized by these youth.
How this fits into the Saturday altercation, I am not sure. But, the general story is that young people, either homeless, or just looking for fun, are the cause of the problem, and the reason the police are patrolling the area more often.
Oh, and
5. She said that the fire department also complains about these youth because they are often called in to put out fires at night in the field, started by these youth.
So, that is about it.
She repeatedly stated that the police have no issues with people beautifying the space, planting things, or cleaning up but they need to know who is there.
She said if we had authorization from Canadian Pacific, and the police “knew” about us, then they would not need to stop and ask who we are.
What was also suggested without being outright said was that Canadian Pacific did not call the police, but that the police use the private property line in order to get people to leave the area, especially since they are trying to reduce these problems around this space, that occur especially at nighttime.
And again, it seems specifically because a complaint was filed very recently, probably by a business owner or building owner, and the complaint just adds to years of problems in terms of nighttime activities in this space.
She gave me the names of the officers who have this file, and I’ll contact them tomorrow to see if I can learn more from them, and let them know about some of the community beautifying activities that are going on.
So…
Still kind of odd, and a bit confusing. But definitely a lot of things to consider.
I will ignore some of those parts of the explanation that seem strange to me, because I don’t think it is worth dwelling on too much. But just to name one quickly, it does surprise me that this officer has more or less said it is fine if we garden there, as long as they know that we’re there.
What is more interesting to me is the reminder that there is another layer of activity of that does occur in this space, specifically at night. Other citizens, with other priorities and needs use this same space and I can see how that could pose a problem to local residents and businesses.
We will be posting in the next day or so some early ideas about how this meadow could be incorporated into Montreal’s system of green spaces in the near future, but this element of security is one that we’ll have to make sure to address.
The only solution that comes immediately to mind falls right in line with what Sprout Out Loud! has been doing.
When one wants to reclaim, and make safe again, spaces that aren’t working, or that feel dangerous, what we need to do is occupy them! The more people that are there, the safer we feel, and the less likely others are to engage in aggressive behaviour. Community gardening is a great first step!
I need to go eat, but another thing I thought was sweet was that while the police officer was talking to me about the problems in the meadow she kept calling it the “park” and she would continually correct herself and call it the “terrain vague”. Finally at one point, she just let herself call it the park and I thought that was great…
See, even the police are starting to see what we have been suggesting all along!
This field is more than an abandoned, contaminated site…it’s a park!
It’s Mile-End’s most beautiful park. And we want to keep it that way.
More soon…
