Villerary residents put up pro-Inuit online petition

The new group of Villeray residents in favour of the relocation of Nunavik House and the Northern Module into their neighbourhood have moved on to the internet to gather more support for their position.

There’s now a Facebook page and an on-line petition for group, which was formed this month after some in Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension borough opposed the plan to renovate an empty former Chinese Hospital into a patient residence for Nunavimmiut in Montreal.

Genéviève Beaudet, one of the group’s founders, said another member and resident of Villeray, Julie Poirier, created a Facebook site called “Contre le racisme. Pour un centre d’hébergement inuit” (Against racisme: for a patient boarding home for Inuit) at http://bit.ly/csLIK1, which now has 675 members.

And as of July 16 there was also a petition for Villeray residents to sign at http://bit.ly/c3vpMp which already had more than 50 signatures within hours of its posting.

The petition says in French:

“Given that the health and social services of Montreal and Nunavik have shown the real need of our fellow Inuit citizens, the urgency of taking action, the quality of the project and their willingness to set up a committee with members representing the community, given that every Quebec citizen has a fundamental right to receive health and social services, we, the residents of Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension, deplore the disrespectful comments made about Inuit and thr campaign of disinformation led by a small number of people in reaction to the project, we ask that

Our elected officials support this project as quickly as possible;

The Montreal Health Authority respects its commitment to better inform and involve the citizens of the neighbourhood.”

Beaudet said her group plans to submit the petition at the next borough council meeting on Sept. 7.