Montreal West has won a judgment in its favour concerning the whole Broughton Rd. Montreal West/Ville Saint-Pierre saga. Already Montreal West is being cheered by its residents and Lachine is vowing to appeal.
The dispute is over concrete barriers Montreal West put up at the border between the two towns in March. MoWest said it was to curb dangerous traffic that speeds through town as a shortcut to Highway 20 West. Lachine/VSP said it was class warfare, designed to separate the rich residents of Montreal West from the poor working class down the hill.
Of course, they’re both right.
The barrier will stay down until the appeal is decided.
As a resident of this area of Lachine I beg to differ with your comment that we’re both right.
A recent study showed that the average speed through that sector of Montreal West is 30km an hour.
That is not speeding by any stretch of the imagination. I can walk faster than that.
Furthermore, at last nights Lachine Council meeting (Feb. 11/08) the Head of Public Security for the Borough revealed
that 50% of traffic violations were perpetrated by Montreal West Residents using the hill to access the 20 West
via rue Norman. There is a forced right turn half-way down the hill onto Mount Vernon ave. to prevent motorists
from using this short-cut. Four years ago this traffic controlling measure was a compromise between the 300 residents of my neighbourhood and the 15 or so Montreal West residents who have been pushing their elitist agenda for almost 18 years.
When Campbell Stuart was recently elected as the Mayor of MoWest everyone of those people had one of his campaign signs in their front yards. The town council is run by several Pro-Barricaders and the Traffic and Safety Commitee has three of the most strident Pro-Barricaders from the fight 4 years ago.
In addition to theirs being a campaign of Dis-Information it has also been a campaign of intimidation. They publicly attack, insult and demean anyone, including their own residents, who oppose their greedy cause. A cause which is based solely on increasing their property values by creating a gated community while endangering our safety by forcing emergency vehicles, school buses and residents to use a hill that is difficult to ascend on a good day, never-mind during winter storms. A cause which imposes a single access route to an entire neighbourhood is not a just cause.
This is segregation, period, and they’ve actually had the gall to tell us to our faces that they don’t want us passing through their streets.
As I said, we are not both right because this is precisely an issue of rights. As it stands, it is the rights of the few over the rights of an entire community and a close knit, fighting mad community at that.
I am not sure if this is public knowledge yet, but the barricades went up yesterday, June 5th 2008.
People of Lachine are not allowed into Montreal West, nor can we access our homes even on Hillcrest via Montreal West.
There was a lot of emotion felt yesterday, as without any warning, and prior to Lachine’s case being reviewed on appeal, Montreal West Simply decided to place the barricade up in the middle fo the day.
People coming home were greeted by public security, the barricade with large signs telling us the passage was for emergency use only. We were forced to turn around.
It’s funny, I brought in my dry cleaning on Westminster yesterday afternnon, and then stopped for some Strawberries. And, for the first time, it felt odd to me. How is it I could fuel Montreal West’s economy on it’s little westminster strip, but, I am not allowed to drive through it’s streets to get home?
Pingback: Fagstein » Great Wall of Montreal West goes back up
You have some good stuff posted, but there is nothing posted here about the three hit-and-run incidents where two MoWet motorists drove through a crowd of Lachine protestors on an Ainslie Ave crosswalk on June 9, hitting three pedestrians. Two of the pedestrians were forced onto the hood of a car and driven some 50 metres before they could get off. Although one protestor went briefly to hospital, luckily nobody was seriously hurt. Montreal West public security officers then told the motorists to leave the scene of the accident before police arrived. Criminal charges are now pending with one of the cases but Montreal West is so far refusing to investigate the incident. The big irony is that despite Mayor Stuart’s frequent concerns for ‘traffic safetu’ here, this is apparently the only traffic incident where pedeestrians have been hit in this sector in some 20 years. Stuart has made no public comment about the incidents, suggesting that his concern for pedestrian safety only applies when it’s Montreal West pedestrians who are involved.