This borough which I call home for a good portion of my life is facing a crisis. It is not its first time in this position, but it is, for me, the most disappointing of situations, and one that I take to heart.
I have been asked by a few journalists for my take on the situation, and I have been juggling with whether or not I should answer. Will it make matters worst? Will what I say be deemed as valid? Will people think I am taking a partisan approach, unable to be objective about the situation? Will the Party approve of my talking? And mostly, will my comments be taken out of context, to fit into someone else’s narrative?
So instead of responding to journalists, or on social media, I take to writing in my blog, my uncensored thoughts, my involvement, my positions and my hopes and fears.
A little background information for those not from Montréal:
The city of Montréal is partitioned into 19 distinct boroughs, with the city centre being its umbrella group. I live in the city’s most populous and culturally diverse borough, CDN-NDG, with almost 170,000 citizens and 135 different languages being spoken. The borough itself is subdivided into 5 districts, 2 of them in Notre Dame de Grâce (NDG), and 3 of them in Côte des Neiges (CDN). Theses 5 districts each have an elected city councillor, and the borough has an elected mayor.
This borough is disparate, there are many schisms and dichotomies which make it extremely hard to manage. The needs of CDN versus NDG are sometimes at polar opposites. We have wide gaps between people living on the brink of poverty versus the very rich. We have the eternal divide of French Vs English. We have diverse multi-ethnic communities who are under-represented in the decision-making processes.
And we have a whole history of problems having helped in its dysfunction, from overzealous developers who overstepped boundaries to pass their projects regardless of zoning bylaws and the public interest to unscrupulous mayors and civil servants. I need not get into the particularities of all of the corrupt dealings past elected officials and their cronies have done; some of it is public record, others are stuff of borough legend. Lots of us have stories to tell.
All of this has created a level of unparalleled cynicism. This is the legacy that those in power, our elected officials have to negotiate with.
A more up to date background and very summary information on the current borough crisis:
Our borough mayoress, a former investigative journalist, has been withdrawn from Projet Montréal’s caucus (Projet Montréal being the party in power in Montréal) on January 24th, 2020. She now sits as an independent. What triggered this is that the city’s comptroller general, after an investigation has found that there have been 2 cases of psychological harassment within the borough offices and had required the mayoress to act upon its recommendations, which she refused to do. As a result, the city mayoress and Projet Montréal leader expelled her from caucus.
So why is the expulsion of the mayoress from caucus creating a crisis? This is multifactorial, here is a non exhaustive list of examples:
The mayoress has accused the highest civil servant of our borough with incompetence and that she no longer has confidence in his leadership (breach of trust).
The person accused of harassment is her chief of cabinet, the one who deals with the civil servants, and who can no longer have direct contact with them, thus stalling any advancement in dossiers.
Those city councillors who are with the ruling party, Projet Montréal have a broken bond with the mayoress.
The mayoress of the borough is pitting herself against the mayoress of Montréal.
Lawyers are involved.
The borough mayoress has a formal notice for her to stop speaking against staff of the borough.
Everyone is taking sides, hostilities are rampant.
Mostly, though, is that our borough, which so desperately needs love and attention, is getting the most negative attention imaginable. And the dysfunction gap widens.
Truth be told, I am heartbroken. And I am disappointed. My hopes feel shattered, and my fears of not seeing my community shine as it should are imbedding themselves even more so than during the corruption years.
A little background information on my political involvement:
I have as far as I can remember been a political and human rights activist. Whether it be taking part in anti-apartheid demonstrations in the early 80’s, in sit-ins or feminist marches. I have been a militant union advocate and union president. I have been involved in many community groups and associations, from school PTAs, sports groups, to associations defending women in non-traditional workplaces. I believe that if you want the world to change, to be a better world, it takes being involved.
I have been active with Projet Montréal (PM) since 2013, when I was a volunteer for one of the candidates in our borough during the election campaign. My involvement became entrenched in 2016, when I became part of the executive of the local borough association of PM, and later in 2017, joining the governing board of the party. I was heavily involved in the election campaign of 2017, one of my roles was as campaign manager of a candidate.
My forays into municipal politics dates prior to that, however. I was recruited to be a candidate in 2005, for a now defunct party. I am embarrassed to say, but yes, I was going to run as a candidate for Équipe Jeremy Searle, Parti de d’arrondissement. He was at that time fighting for the underdog and fighting the image of corruption of our borough. I had even gotten a promise of funding from the then president of the union FTQ who also promised me volunteers for my campaign. I was on my way to get the required signatures but I backed out before my name went on a ballot, as I started seeing sides of the party leader that I could not adhere to; an unwillingness to incorporate anyone else’s ideas, a reactionary megalomanial personality, and mostly when he stated that art and culture should not be subsidized by government (in reference to Cinema V), I checked out. However, I continued to do door to door campaigning for one of his candidates.
So why municipal politics? That one is simple. From the moment anyone steps out of their front door, whether they be a homeowner or a renter, they are directly affected by the decisions taken by the various city administrations. It is also one of those rare instances where the ordinary citizen can have an impact on the choices being made on a day to day basis. And because I am a firm believer in Community, with a capital “C”.
And why Projet Montréal? That one is a no-brainer for me. For this party is the ultimate party of Community. It stands for and has a vision of a city run for its citizens. It has an environmental platform, is about social justice and equity and of urban planning at its finest, to name but a few. It has a vision of an intrinsically human and humane Montréal, a city which is in balance with the eco-systems of our planet.
Back to our ongoing borough crisis. I reiterate my disappointment, my sadness in seeing everyone jumping on the bandwagon and taking sides, intelligent and humane people, who are hurling accusations, more often than not very personal injurious accusations, regardless of what side they are on. People behind keyboards, with no thoughts as to how their virulent words can affect the psyches of those being subjected to the insults.
My disappointment, though, goes much further. For I had such high hopes, I saw the potential for change, a great metamorphosis, in the newly formed post-2017-election elected officials of CDN-NDG. I thought that finally, we would have a focus on fixing our community, our broken borough. Am I the only one who thinks that CDN-NDG should be the shining example of Montréal, the one cited in tourism magazines?
So I will open up completely now. My disappointment stems from before this borough crisis.
Deep breath.
Here is where I risk getting myself reviled. I am opening up. I am taking position.
Before opening up, it is important to remember a few key factors:
I did not know the borough Mayoress before the 2017 election campaign. I was, however, a huge admirer of her (and still am today), her work, her journalistic skills, her advocacy for human rights issues, her gumption, and her opening up about her rape which had the biggest ripple effect imaginable. I saw in her a formidable woman.
I fought steadfastly alongside my PM peers to get her elected in 2017.
I strongly publicly defended and supported her (twice) during the time that she was being psychologically harassed herself.
I was one of the signatories of a letter condemning the verdict when that same harasser was found not guilty of criminal harassment.
Mostly, though, I got to know her, and I like her.
So here goes. My disappointment is in her. Before the crisis.
She became the mayoress in November 2017. It was a new role for her, she had never ventured in real politics before, other than in a hypothetical sense. She had also never managed before. She needed to transform her activism into the act of governance, which is no easy feat. It is a juggling act; allowing your principles to guide you without taking over. Being able to adapt your tactics to be able to administer and govern.
The first few months/ year were hard on her. There were a lot of dossiers to master. And then there were the bombshell issues; taxes, Camilien Houde, snow removal. She was bombarded, and decisions were not always made in the best or timeliest of manners, or so it seemed by the general populace in the borough. She didn’t have the full help that she needed by her then-chief of staff.
Any new job has a learning curve. That is a given. It takes time and energy to be at your right competency level.
Ah, but politics are different. You are not given that leeway, to make your way into your job. Which means you need to dive in, and dive deep, from day one. It means that no one should hear from the elected official, one year after the election, “It takes time, we just got elected”.
I and many of her supporters, said to ourselves, “It’s a learning curve. She’ll get it.” “Give her time”. “She’s affected by the harassment case, once it’s over, things will be better, she will be focused”.
One year in, and I started feeling nervous. Little incentives were being effected in the borough, for sure. But we need strong leadership, we need someone who is going to go to bat for the borough, who will take concrete actions and make bold and tangible plans. In short, the borough needs a real leader.
I saw her defer constantly to others. She let councillors take on certain tasks which she should have done herself. She didn’t seem to master her dossiers during borough council meetings. And a nagging thought kept cropping up in me; she is an investigative journalist by trade, why is she not digging for answers herself in her role as mayoress?
She has said repeatedly, “I hate this job”, openly, to many people. I didn’t want to hold those words against her, we all need to vent once in awhile.
I heard her say more often than I can count, “People are stupid”. I didn’t want to hold those words against her, we all need to vent once in awhile.
I also saw all of the other borough mayors, many of whom were also newly elected in 2017, rise to the occasion, get involved, be present in city functions, and be the spokespeople and defenders of their communities.
Then I started thinking that if she is not able to muster up her abilities as leader, the 2021 election could be in jeopardy. And I started asking myself if I would be able to support her candidacy as borough mayoress for a second term. I needed to see a change.
And then change came.
The change came in the form of a new chief of staff, a young dynamo, fierce, intelligent, full of energy. The mayoress seemed to get a hold of her dossiers. She was being led and helped. She seemed like she was getting a little grasp of her role as leader. And she seemed a tad happier.
Ah, yes, this dynamo. She has a singular vision and a no-nonsense approach. She also lacks tact and can lack finesse in her dealings with people. She is brusque and authoritative, which, in our times, needs to be tempered with a broader picture of how to deal with people. This dynamo is a bulldozer.
Bulldozers are great, except that they also rip to shreds all that gets in their paths.
My initial impression of this dynamo was so very positive. Finally, someone who will get the job done. But even I witnessed firsthand her bulldozing approach, when she tried to dictate on two separate occasions how the local borough association of PM should do things, which is completely outside of her scope and mandate.
Then there were the leaks in the media in early December, about unhealthy work environments at the borough, with the dynamo’s picture front and centre. I so felt for her and offered her my support. I had no idea of the full extent of the situation.
One thing that came to my mind during that time, is that the real borough mayor is the dynamo.
And then the full-blown crisis exploded in the third week of January.
I will not pronounce myself on the crisis itself, as I feel it will serve no useful purpose and will only throw more fuel on the fire.
I can only pronounce myself on my personal response to it.
I am deeply saddened. All around disappointment.
Disappointed that the borough mayoress said to the media that the PM supporters and the borough association were supporting her, but that we were having to toe the party line. Disappointed because she has put words in my mouth which have never been said. Because if she knew anything about me, she would know that I do not do partisan politics, and that I do not toe the party line if I do not feel it is right.
Disappointed to see that the mayoress blames everyone else. There are times when one needs to do a mea culpa, and to fix the situation. That is the sign of a real leader.
Disappointed to see the vitriol during the borough council meeting of January. From all sides.
Disappointed to know that had she really wanted to get rid of the top civil servant, there were legitimate ways to do it. She chose not to go that route.
Very very very so very disappointed that everyone has lost sight of the fact that a second person has been found to have been the subject of psychological harassment, and nobody seems to be thinking at all about what all of this must be doing to that person.
So very disappointed that the mayoress, herself having been victim of harassment, did not act to mitigate the situation. Whether she agrees with it or not is irrelevant. And there were, at the beginning, so many different ways to mitigate. That would have been the sign of a real leader.
So very saddened that a dynamo’s reputation has been irrevocably damaged, and that her political career is shattered, whether she realizes it or not. It could have been avoided.
So more than very disturbed that the public feels it needs to be the judge and jury, who feel that a confidential report needs to be made public, destroying the confidentiality of those talking and those who are deemed the victims. Does no one see how ultimately disturbing this is?
So very disturbed that everyone, all parties, from the borough mayoress, the dynamo, to the top civil servant have only focused on themselves. All were given graceful ways of mitigating the situation, and none of them took it.
So very disturbed and disappointed that the end result is that our borough is held hostage by these people sticking to their singular vision, their pride and their egos.
And so very saddened that this will affect the borough for many months to come, time which could have been spent to better our community and make it shine.
We are not shining today.