Montreal will Not Contest Postering Decision

The City of Montreal will not contest the decision made last July by the Quebec court of appeal, which deemed their anti-postering bylaw violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“Sur le plan légal, nous pouvons vous confirmer que la Ville ne portera pas en appel le jugement rendu par la Cour d’appel dans l’affaire Sing,” wrote Gonzalo Nunez, a communications officer for the City of Montreal this morning.

“The decision of the court is forcing the city to change its ways,” says Mile End district councillor, Alex Norris. “It was kind of a ridiculous situation where groups that didn’t have the money to buy extensive ads weren’t afforded the same opportunity to express their rights of freedom of expression.”

Norris says that the City is planning to install several hundred dedicated postering collars around hydo poles in the Plateau borough. “It’s a Central City initiative that we’re supportive of,” said Norris. The merchants’ associations representing Blvd Saint-Laurent and Avenue Mount-Royal are also in favour of the initiative, he added.

Plans for postering columns in the Ville Marie borough are being discussed but are apparently meeting more resistance, and no decision has been reached for the other rest of the city.

But beware: postering in unauthorized places will continue to be subject to a fine:

“Il est important de noter que le statu quo est maintenu par rapport à l’émission de constats d’infraction et que l’ensemble de la réglementation pertinente continue de s’appliquer,” wrote Nunez.

“I think that we might be more severe on cracking down on people who post in other places,” Norris said. He pointed out that the Plateau currently spends about $100,000 per year scraping poster remains off the street furniture. In contrast, posters stapled to the rubber poster columns would be easier to clean up.

Photo by Christopher DeWolf.