Windows on Westmount Ville Marie
Windows on Westmount Ville Marie
 Westmount Mayor Peter Trent | ||||
|
FROM SOAP BOX TO TINDER BOXby Peter Trent, The Examiner May 28, 1998
It was May 8. A man named Richard Hugo came to Westmount City Hall to get a permit to deliver circulars "between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. above Sherbrooke". We, in common with just about all municipalities, have a by-law to regulate the distribution of pamphlets door-to-door: you know, they must be completely inserted in the mail box and not left on the porch. The carrier must not ring the doorbell or walk on the lawn. That sort of thing. The clerk asked what was in it. "Reflections on Canadian Unity" came the reply. After paying the $5.00 fee, M. Hugo left. On the sunny Sunday morning of May 17, I got a call from the police. They said that people were indeed distributing a pamphlet of that title. Problem was, it was written by the "Mouvement de Libération Nationale du Québec". After the police faxed me a copy, I asked for an immediate inquiry. The contents were threatening, especially since it pointedly reminded the reader of the letter-box bombings of 35 years ago here in Westmount. The next day - Victoria Day - I learned about the permit. Furious, I got on the phone to our Director-General and demanded what the hell were we doing giving out a permit to distribute this kind of tripe? After I calmed down, I realised that there was some sense in a by-law that regulated delivery, but stopped short of regulating content, of pamphlets distributed door-to-door. Would our citizens agree to a by-law that allowed the City to refuse distribution of a flyer on the ground that we deemed the contents to be inflammatory, irresponsible or incorrect? That's called censorship. If it contains threats, it's up to the police to lay charges. It's the police that have to determine when a political tract turns into a criminal act. Mind you, to dignify this pamphlet with the term "political tract" is stretching a point, even if it were free of gratuitous psychological threats. Its "thesis" was that, in the event of partition, the enclave of Westmount would suffer from being cut off from the City of Montreal that engirds us: we would have no water, electricity, garbage dumps - not even firefight-ers. (We have our own Fire Brigade, but I niggle.) It warns we could be reduced to collecting rainwater to survive. References are made to the Americans in Tehran and the plight of West Berlin. Now, even 18 months ago when I made public my objections to the partition strategy as being unworkable (as well as unwise), I jocularly referred to a Checkpoint Charlie at Murray's Restaurant and passport control for students entering Dawson College. But the writer of this pamphlet takes such a scenario seriously and used it as his basis for threatening a "living hell" in post-partition Westmount. It would be laughable in any other context.
The Achilles heel of the partitionists' approach - at least with regard to getting individual municipalities to declare they will remain with Canada in the event of separation - is its inherent impracticability, which the writer of this pamphlet has unwittingly proven. But the absurdity of his thesis does not mitigate the despicable nature of his veiled threats. In its press release, this group said "depending on the reaction of Mayor Peter Trent and citizens, other operations are planned in the months to come". It was only later that their leader, Raymond Villeneuve, learned that Westmount has never adopted a partitionist resolution and, moreover, that I personally have always been against a partitionist strategy. He therefore exhorted my citizens to support me. Talk about being hugged by a viper! Well, if it makes him go away, I suppose can live with such comments.
Unfortunately, the media covered this event like a blanket. I got no calls from citizens, but I spent Victoria Day fielding calls from five TV stations and four radio stations. Media coverage and call-in pro-grammes had the effect of boosting the total calls to Police, Public Security, and City Hall to about fifty. Not an avalanche, but not a light dusting. Some callers were unhappy with my relatively mild public stance. They also insisted we "do something". Well, I had decided at the outset not to add fuel to the flame by overreacting. That just plays into their hands. A fire-and-brimstone reaction, combined with that heavy media play, would have easily raised the temperature. Which is precisely what this bunch wanted. Which brings me to a larger issue. Because it is so approachable, the municipal level of government is increasingly called on to serve as standard-bearer - or stalking horse - for any number of causes clearly outside a city's jurisdiction. Witness the well-meaning group who recently wanted us to pass a resolution in favour of bilingualism, and to take Ottawa and Quebec to task for not defending our language rights.
Virtually alone among anglophone cities in the Island, Westmount refused to adopt a partitionist resolution, in spite of attempts to press-gang us into the cause. I felt and still feel that using the city as soap box can turn it into a tinder box UNITY UDI Reference to the Supreme Court of Canada on questions on secession of QuebecWestmount Unity Committee wins
Westmount
Unity Committee's Hears Councillor Herbert Bercovitz's Speach WE HOPE!
|
Gov.
Gov.
TrentStories
NO! 
NON!
Back to Westmount Home Page
© 1997 by David T. Nicholson
Please phone (514)934-0023 for a human
or e-mail us your thoughts.
Villeneuve likes Mayor Trent.
