Parents voice concern about new supervised drug-use site near Montreal elementary school

Dozens of parents and residents of Montreal's St-Henri neighbourhood attended a meeting Tuesday evening to voice their concerns about the proximity of a proposed supervised drug-inhalation centre to a nearby elementary school.

Dozens of parents and residents of Montreal's St-Henri neighbourhood attended a meeting Tuesday evening to voice their concerns about the proximity of a proposed supervised drug-inhalation centre to a nearby elementary school.

A new, four-storey building on Atwater Avenue is expected to have 36 studio apartments meant for people who are homeless and experience mental health or addiction issues. It's located less than 100 metres from Victor-Rousselot Elementary School, which has about 300 students from preschool to Grade 6.

"Everyone I've talked to is fully in support of it. It's just this is a super densely-populated area, and, you know, it's too close to a school. It's too close to kids. I mean, it's too much exposure for really young people. It's not fair," said Lindsay David, who lives nearby.

Davis, like several other people from the neighbourhood, say they were blindsided by the proposed project organized by Maison Benoit Labre, a local non-profit that runs a day centre for unhoused people. They all say they had no idea the centre would allow people to bring their own drugs to consume onsite until it was reported in the media over the summer.

"I'm thinking of the term gas-lighting. They said one thing and it turned into something else entirely. It was going to be housing … and my next-door neighbour told me it was going to be a supervised injection. That's not what we were initially told," said Phil Malwyn, another St-Henri resident.

"It's just way too close. [I'm] not against the centre in principle, but the location."

Parents met with officials from the non-profit and the school Tuesday evening to discuss the project. Outside the school, Malwyn was with several concerned residents, carrying a poster that said, "Not in my schoolyard" and "No crack, fentanyl, and crystal meth within feet from our children."