New Nunavik House location incites neighbourhood panic

A plan to renovate a former Chinese hospital into a new patient and escort boarding home for Nunavimmiut in Montreal continues to meet stiff opposition in the boroughs of Villeray and Rosemont.

People in the Montreal boroughs of Rosemont and Villeray launched an abusive campaign this week against plans to renovate a former Chinese hospital at 7500 St-Denis Street into a new patient and escort boarding home for Nunavik Inuit in Montreal.

“This project will lead to a major increase in crime in your neighbourhood,” said the Danger-Imminent website at www.danger-imminent.com, citing prostitution, drug trafficking, vandalism and the smell of urine among the potential hazards the project could bring.

On June 1, the website was taken down after the webmaster received complaints about its “racist” approach.

“You only need to go the corner of St. Laurent and Viger to see the magnitude of the disaster to come if we do not act quickly,” the original version of the website said.

The website alleged the proposed Inuit patient facility would destroy the quality of life for Villeray and Rosemont residents by attracting people with “drug and alcohol addictions.”

The renovation work is supposed to start any day now, the website claimed.

Danger-Imminent supporters planned to complain about the project at a June 1 borough council meeting in Villeray and at a second meeting Rosemount borough council meeting June 7.

On its website, Danger-Imminent said it wants more information on the project, alleging that details of the project have been kept quiet so far.

The group said the building at 7500 St. Denis formerly had a religious purpose, which means the project sidestepped any public consultation.

Plans to advance the project now appear to be at a standstill while health care and municipal officials try to reach a consensus.

Tensions came to a head earlier this week when the health and social services agency of Montreal and representatives from the Nunavik health board met with Anie Samson, the mayor of the Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension, and other borough officials.

Tensions boiled over at a May 31 meeting in Montreal, the Nunatsiaq News has learned, with Nunavik health board president Alacie Arngak now ready to pull the plug on the project.

Jeannie May, executive director of Nunavik’s health board, said June 2 that the negative response
surprised and disappointed her.

“Of a population of three million people, a handful of Inuit really shouldn’t have an impact on their community,” May said. “I think they have a big misconception about who the Inuit people are. We’re sending sick people here and most patients just want to get better and go home again.”

Samson has publicly shared her concerns about the facility before with the Nunatsiaq News, saying the neighbourhood’s social resources are already strained and that local residents just don’t like the idea of a new boarding home in their neighbourhood, especially one that serves Inuit.

“They may be intolerant, but if the project is imposed, I worry the project will be poorly accepted by those around it,” Samson said.

Efforts should be made to relocate to a new building attached to the McGill University’s future mega-hospital, she said.

The proposed St. Denis Street site, which belongs to Quebec’s health department, would require about $12 million in renovations to make it suitable for a patient and escort residence.

The former Chinese hospital, which operated until the late 1990s, would accommodate 150 beds and a mini-cultural centre to showcase Inuit art and culture.

It’s the first seriously proposed location for an Inuit patient home in Montreal since the Nunavik health board announced they want to move Nunavik House, which is chronically overcrowded, from its Notre-Dame-de-Grâce site on the west side of the city,

The old Chinese hospital is located far to the north-east, an area that’s miles away from the hospitals that Inuit in Montreal normally use.

Inuit patients and their families complain that Nunavik House is located in a dangerous neighbourhood on St. Jacques St. exposes vulnerable people to drugs, alcohol and violence.

A petition signed by almost 200 Nunavimmiut asked that Nunavik House be relocated.

The long-term lease at the current Nunavik House location expired March 31, but has been extended until the end of this year.

with files from Sarah Rogers