Tent community under Ville-Marie Expressway gets to stay for 10 more days, Quebec judge rules

A small community of people experiencing homelessness has scored a legal victory over the province, temporarily delaying the Quebec Transport Ministry's plans to move in and dismantle an encampment under the Ville-Marie Expressway in Montreal.

On Tuesday, a Quebec Superior Court judge agreed to delay the eviction of the people living under the expressway for 10 more days.

The small tent community is located on a stretch between Guy Street and Atwater Avenue.

The lawyers representing the people at the encampment filed an injunction request and wanted the eviction to be delayed until mid-July. The ministry wanted to move in as early as this week.

During court proceedings earlier this month, lawyers at the Mobile Legal Clinic (MLC) who represented the people living under the expressway said the eviction should wait until the weather improves.

The Transport Ministry has said the eviction of the camp under the expressway was necessary in order to carry out major repairs on the structure.

In Tuesday's ruling, Judge Chantale Masse acknowledged that removing the encampment is "inevitable," but added that the ministry failed to proof that it needed to get started right away.

The judge ordered the ministry to refrain from contacting anyone who lives at the site about dismantling the tents for the next 10 days. The ministry must also halt any preparatory work that would disrupt the encampment site. She also said both parties should try to come up with a plan to relocate the people who will inevitably be displaced.

Lawyers for the ministry had argued that delaying the work further would not only make it more complicated but traffic mitigating measures would be harder to implement, making it more likely that the repairs would cause headaches for drivers.

Late Tuesday, the ministry said it would not comment on the ruling since the case is still before the courts.