Lawyer for owner of Old Montreal building speaks out after deadly fire
Lawyer for owner of Old Montreal building speaks out after deadly fire
For the first time, the owner of a building in Old Montreal has responded to questions about the deadly fire — through his lawyer — addressing allegations that the building was unsafe.
In the hours after the fire, questions began to emerge about the building's safety. The family of 18-year-old Charlie Lacroix, one of the seven presumed dead, says she was trapped in a windowless room.
"She made two 911 calls. The first one was to tell them we're stuck, there's a fire everywhere, but there's no windows, so there's no way to escape," said Kelly Ann Seguin, Lacroix's friend.
But Alexandre Bergevin, the lawyer for the owner of the building, Emile-Haim Benamor, told CTV News that the building was up to code.
"He bought this place like that, it was like that. The city came and it was, you know, conform. What can I tell you?" Bergevin said.
ROOM WITH NO WINDOWS
A video posted to Reddit in 2020 shows a windowless room in the building that Lacroix was likely staying in. Bergevin said the unit was near two interior fire escape routes.
"For her, it was possible to get out on the left and on the right," he said, acknowledging there was no window to escape from.
"No," he said, "but if you're living in a building in Montreal, in a tower, you cannot jump out your window if there is a fire alarm. You need to get an escape trail to get out."
As the fire raged in the building, others managed to escape out windows. Some survivors told CTV News they did not hear a fire alarm.
"I did see a fire alarm, like the round tablet, physically, two of them in the unit, but none of them had actually went off," claimed Alina Kuzmina in an interview last Saturday.
A police officer hugs a woman near the site of a building that was gutted by a fire in Montreal, Thursday, March 23, 2023. The heritage building went up in flames last week. Four bodies have been recovered and three people remain missing. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
SMOKE ALARMS WORKED, LAWYER SAYS
According to Bergevin, "All units were supposed to have smoke detectors."
He said his client, Benamor, replaced the central alarm system in 2019 and insists maintenance workers checked it was working the morning of the fire.
"It is also the obligation [of] the leasee to have one and to make sure it's working," he added.
Bergevin confirmed Tariq Hasan was renting multiple units in the building and then renting them out on Airbnb. The city, however, does not allow short-term rentals in the area.
A worker is shown next to a building that was gutted by a fire in Montreal, Thursday, March 23, 2023. The heritage building went up in flames last week. Four bodies have been recovered and three people remain missing. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
Bergevin said Benamor was trying to shut him down. He said two notices were sent in August of last year but the listings stayed up. One former tenant of the building told CTV News that Benamor allowed the operation to continue.
"No, no, that's completely false. I didn't see any evidence. I see only evidence against the assertion," he said.
Hasan and his lawyer both declined to comment on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Bergevin says it's not the time to assign responsibility.
"There is a public trial going on without evidence, that the media is doing against the client, and I just want everybody to be careful, to be relaxed and to wait until the authorities determine what happened there," Bergevin said.
Both Montreal police and the coroner are looking into the cause and circumstances surrounding this deadly fire that has so far left four people dead and at least three missing.
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is pushing for special rapporteur David Johnston to 'step aside' from his role examining the issue of foreign interference before he embarks on public hearings.
New Democrat MP Jenny Kwan said Monday that Canada's spy agency has confirmed her long-held belief she is being targeted by the Chinese government, as the prime minister granted the NDP's wish to allow more party members to review top-secret intelligence.
William Karlsson, William Carrier and Jonathan Marchessault are finally getting another chance in the Stanley Cup Final, after the first one that came so quick for the Vegas Golden Knights.
Eastern Conference finals Most Valuable Player Jimmy Butler scored 28 points, and Caleb Martin had 26 points and 10 rebounds to help the eighth-seeded Miami Heat beat the Celtics 103-84 in Game 7 on Monday night and advance to the NBA Finals for the second time in four seasons.
Canadian political leaders and parliamentarians are denouncing a new law passed in Uganda that imposes harsh penalties, including the death penalty, for certain cases involving homosexuality.
There's a heightened risk of wildfires across the country during what has been one of the earliest fire seasons on record. From British Columbia to Nova Scotia, here's where the risk is highest.
New research from Penn State University found certain factors can contribute to reducing what’s known as the 'urban heat island' effect, and that climate knowledge can contribute to better city planning and design.
The body of a Winnipeg boy who fell into Sturgeon Falls on Saturday has been found following a desperate underwater search that lasted more than a day.
One long-time electoral tradition came to an end on election day, when Postmedia announced there would be no printed newspaper announcing the winner in Calgary.
The rural Oxford County intersection where an OPP officer and a school bus driver were killed Monday was less than a month away from becoming a four-way stop when the deadly crash happened.
It was a night of indecision at Waterloo region's catholic school board as trustees went back and forth trying to find the best approach to fill a vacant seat.
On Monday, Fraser Health provided two senior leaders to address the latest letter outlining risks to patients, allegations of muzzling, and pleas for help from emergency physicians in the health authority's hospitals.
The president of the BC Trucking Association is issuing renewed calls for safety after a trailer truck smashed into an overhead pass Monday morning in Langley.
Over 170,000 elementary and high school students weighed in on the Alberta election and the NDP had to hope the real voters were listening, because they won the kids' vote.
Windsor city council voted Monday in favour of adopting a master plan with high hopes for City Hall Square and a so-called civic esplanade stretching down to the river
A united front was on full display Monday as community leaders, politicians, business people, unions and educators gathered together at Windsor City Hall to ensure the NextStar Energy battery plant deal gets closed.
Doctors in their final year of training, called residency, can choose to do a one-month rotation at the Shelter Health Initiative (SHI) caring for Windsor’s homeless population.
The first twister of 2023 in the country touched down near Regina over the weekend, according to an analysis from the Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP).
One person from Estevan, Sask. is dead and another is seriously injured following a collision between a pickup truck and a motorcycle on May 28 near Fortuna, North Dakota.
It's the end of an era for one sporting goods store at Bank Street and Laurier Avenue. The owner says a lack of foot traffic downtown is behind the decision to close a store that's been operating for 41 years.
The Sandy Hill Child Care Centre has an extra two weeks to get its new home up to code months after a fire destroyed its original site on Wilbrod Street.
In a province where there are vast distances between cities and towns, one local group is hoping to get public support for an idea to bridge those gaps with a rail line.
A police officer hugs a woman near the site of a building that was gutted by a fire in Montreal, Thursday, March 23, 2023. The heritage building went up in flames last week. Four bodies have been recovered and three people remain missing. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
A worker is shown next to a building that was gutted by a fire in Montreal, Thursday, March 23, 2023. The heritage building went up in flames last week. Four bodies have been recovered and three people remain missing. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
