Opposition to Ray-Mont Logistiques’ industrial project in eastern Montreal is taking a decidedly more radical turn as the personal residence of one of its leaders has been targeted in recent days.
On the night of May 8 to 9, individuals reportedly showed up at the home of the company’s vice-president of innovation, in Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville, in Montérégie, armed with paint. The next day, Mother’s Day, an unequivocal message smeared the garage doors: “The lot will remain vacant.”
“I have a family, a wife and four children under 10. How do you think they feel? explains the boss, still shaken. Of course, they don’t understand. And, of course, they are afraid. How people would think that doing such a thing was a good idea is beyond me. »
Logistics platform project
The company, which specializes in grain transportation, has been dealing for five years with the actions of a group of citizens from the Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district, opposed to the establishment of a logistics platform on industrial land in the area. Despite the demonstrations and multiple acts of vandalism, no opponent had yet gone so far as to attack the private domain of one of his employees.
Burned car
“The right to demonstrate is fundamental in a democracy. And I can understand that we can disagree with a project, says Charles Raymond, CEO of Ray-Mont Logistiques. But when discussions give way to intimidation and violence, that is not acceptable. It is not like that, with violence, that we solve problems in Quebec. »
This gesture is reminiscent of other acts, of a criminal nature, perpetrated in recent weeks against many leaders. In addition, the house of the president of the Royal Bank in Quebec was defiled, and the car of one of her vice-presidents, former minister Michael Fortier, was set on fire at her home.
And what makes them even more similar is that, like those perpetrated against RBC leaders, Saint-Bruno’s act was also claimed – with supporting photos – on Montreal counter-information , a site presenting itself as an organ of “anarchist and anti-authoritarian news and analysis”. The text, taking the form of an anonymous letter to the president of Ray-Mont, plays on the tone of the threat, of the acts committed.
Mobilization 6600 dissociates
Montreal police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police declined to comment. The police of the agglomeration of Longueuil confirmed for its part the opening of a criminal investigation, and to be in contact with the investigators of other police forces in this file.
The organization Mobilization 6600 Parc Nature MHM, at the forefront of the fight against the Ray-Mont Logistique project, ensures that it is not at the origin of these latest actions, dissociates itself from them and condemns them bluntly.
“No, no, we are not behind this at all. We are taking peaceful, positive and constructive actions, explains his spokesperson Cassandre Charbonneau-Jobin. Moreover, we are putting the final touches to our Week of Actions […]: these are picnics, conferences, hikes… We are peaceful in our actions and our words [ …] No one is comfortable with that, it’s unacceptable. »
Like the neighborhood MP, Alexandre Leduc, however, she fears amalgamation and deplores that a meeting with the Ministry of the Environment, scheduled for June, has been “cancelled” following the latest actions.
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