A homeless man who received more than $25,000 worth of tickets in four years is suing the city of Montreal and its police department for harassment and discrimination.
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Guylain Levasseur received 235 parking tickets between 2015 and 2018, mainly for parking violations when he used his vehicle to feed the homeless, we can read in court documents.
The matter is so serious that the Commission des droits de la personne et de la jeunesse (CDPDJ) has deemed it appropriate to take action against the city, the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) and four patrol officers who attacked Levasseur had.
Due to lack of money, the latter lived in his mobile home and distributed food to other homeless people: “We will have you screamed out of the village [gai]my big fag,” he told us in an interview if a police officer whose name he prefers to keep secret would have said to him.
However, Mr Levasseur only collected food and clothing, which he gave back to the homeless through his community association, Dehors Novembre. He was mainly present in the Centre-Sud sector of Montreal.
instructions against him
Authorities would then have targeted him because “his presence would have disturbed the good citizens and condominium owners in the Beaudry metro sector,” we can see in the 52,000 lawsuit filed by CDPJQ’s Me Liz Lacharpagne in 2022 read US dollars.
According to the lawsuit, it was Agent André Ayotte of the SPVM who was behind this ticket cocktail by “giving too many orders to PDQ 22 agents and park agents [à M. Levasseur] insults”.
Mr Levasseur even claims a police officer allegedly fined him $335 for simply leaning on a dustbin while speaking to someone.
Another time, while the homeless man was quietly eating at Tim Hortons, another police officer reportedly told him in front of several customers, “I’m going to make you lose your car and your driver’s license. »
Chief Dager
Guylain Levasseur’s allegations come at a time when the new SPVM leader, Fady Dagher, says he wants to take better care of the homeless. Last November, he said the police service “needed to be much more inclusive and understand the issues faced by marginalized communities.”
However, neither Mr. Dagher nor the SPVM’s media relations department responded to our requests for interviews on the case.
Levasseur will still have put in 603 hours of community service to pay for his tickets, according to an agreement with the city: “At one point I had 75 court dates. I couldn’t fight anymore,” he said.
The motion will be heard in court later in April.
The new leader’s plan is awaited
Homeless community organizations eagerly await the changes promised by SPVM’s new chair Fady Dagher regarding marginalized people.
The general director of the organization Droits Devant, Bernard St-Jacques, who has been working with the homeless for more than 20 years, confirmed that Mr Dagher had committed to meeting with several community organizations to come up with a concrete plan, but had not set a date .
Bernhard St Jacques
Straight ahead
Given the practices of some police officers, Mr St-Jacques paints a particularly grim picture of the situation in the metropolis.
Even today, police officers would not hesitate to give a homeless person several tickets for the same operation, he complains.
Difficult Complaints
Although there is a police ethics officer who takes complaints about the police from the public, “the majority of homeless people do not report them because they fear police reprisals,” he says.
“The homeless person will eventually have to sit down in front of the police officers [s’il porte plainte] and explain to him what he holds him responsible for,” he says, which is unlikely to encourage complaints from vulnerable people.
In addition, “they know that they will then see the same police officers or their colleagues on the street again”.
Homeless people confided in him and told him they had been approached by police officers who had yelled at them for daring to press charges.
SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN RESULTS FOR TRAVELERS
1994: 1054
2014: 3841
2018: 8493
2019: 9580
17 million dollars
The settlements distributed to the homeless between 2012 and 2019 total more than $17 million.
Source: University of Montreal Profiling Observatory report, January 2021
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