Kids exposed to crime and drug use at downtown Montreal daycare near homeless shelter, say parents
Parents at a daycare in downtown Montreal say they're worried about their children's safety because of rampant crime and drug use in the area.
At CPE Le Petit Palais, interactions with the local homeless population are a daily occurrence.
"They come around, they smoke near the yard, they're always on the fence," says daycare educator Alexandra Gareepy.
"There is a lot of windows, and they pee on it, they wash themselves … it's chaos," she said.
During the pandemic, the city opened an emergency overnight shelter in Complexe Guy-Favreau, a few hundred metres from the daycare.
The shelter will be relocated at the end of October, but the city hasn't yet said where it will go.
When CTV News visited the daycare, there were human feces in one of the window wells. Parents say that's not all their kids are seeing through the windows.
"Drug dealers basically selling drugs in the windows in front of these kids," said parent Phil Chu.
"We've seen people who take drugs basically smoking crack in the windows. I mean, these are things that kids should not be seeing at all," he said.
The city's head of public security, Alain Vaillancourt, says he met with the daycare community on Wednesday to find solutions.
"It was a good meeting. We're still in the phase to see what else could be put in place, but I really want to get the message out that the people there need the assistance," says Vaillancourt.
In 2020, Welcome Hall Mission was asked to run the Complexe Guy-Favreau shelter, but turned it down.
"That facility itself is simply not suitable for that kind of an end use," said Welcome Hall Mission CEO Sam Watts.
The shelter is only open overnight, which is likely contributing to tensions in the community, says Watts.
"If you design a place in such a way that you're delivering services 24/7 and it's the right size, the right shape and the right type of building with the right type of facilities in it, then you can avoid a lot of conflict in the neighbourhood," he said.
The city agrees and is asking for more funding from the province to make it happen.
"All the mayors last week at the UMQ [Union of Quebec Municipalities] summit asked for the same thing. It's not just Montreal," said Vaillancourt.
In the meantime, some parents are at a breaking point.
"This is not a cohabitation whatsoever. I mean, we just have to accept that this is the behaviour that they are exhibiting," said Chu.
But there needs to be solutions for both sides, says Watts.
"Kids shouldn't be exposed to this, and the person shouldn't be left in such a vulnerable position that that's the only option that they've got," he said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
DEVELOPING Slovakia's populist prime minister shot in assassination attempt, shocking Europe before elections
Slovakia's populist prime minister, Robert Fico, was shot multiple times and gravely wounded Wednesday after a political event in an attempted assassination that shocked the small country and reverberated across Europe.
U.S. intelligence officials wanted to meet with Transport Canada's UFO 'lead'
Canada's transportation department had a UFO 'lead' who tried to 'quell' media interest and planned to meet with U.S. intelligence officials.
'Very expensive lunch': Sask. driver says he got a cell phone ticket for using his points app in McDonald's drive-thru
A warning from a Saskatoon driver about using your fast-food app while in the drive-thru line — a trip to get some free lunch cost him a lot more than he bargained for.
'The Fly' has become notorious in France after a brazen escape. What's his criminal history?
A prisoner nicknamed “The Fly” has become notorious in France overnight after a daring and bloody escape from a prison convoy in Normandy that left two guards dead.
Ontario's 'Crypto King' Aiden Pleterski arrested
Of the $40-million Pleterski was handed over two years, he invested just 1.6 per cent and spent $15.9 million on himself – parking a fleet of supercars outside of an $8 million mansion on the waterfront of Lake Ontario and regularly private jet setting south of the border – according to a bankruptcy report.
Person responsible for 1996 drugging of 'Titanic' crew likely not a local: Halifax police
Halifax Regional Police believe a non-resident could be responsible for the infamous drugging of numerous crew members of the 'Titanic' movie with a hallucinogenic in 1996.
Why the speech by Kansas City Chiefs kicker was embraced at Benedictine College's commencement
Kansas City Chiefs' Harrison Butker may have stirred controversy in some quarters for his proclamations of conservative politics on Saturday, but he received a standing ovation from graduates at the Benedictine College commencement ceremony.
Barge hits a bridge in Texas, damaging the structure and causing an oil spill
A barge slammed into a bridge pillar in Galveston, Texas, on Wednesday, spilling oil into surrounding waters and closing the only road to a smaller and separate island that is home to a university, officials said. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Latest updates on the biggest wildfires burning in Canada
Thousands of people in Western Canada remain displaced from their homes as wildfires threaten their communities, triggering evacuation orders and alerts.