Montreal mayor issues emotional plea for help as another homeless person dies outside

A Montreal police cruiser is shown in Montreal, Nov. 9, 2023. (The Canadian Press /Ryan Remiorz)

After another homeless person died outside in Montreal, the city's mayor on Monday implored the provincial government to do more to help people struggling with homelessness.

"I'll be really honest, I feel like us, Montrealers, wish that our premier, François Legault, would be as interested in people that sleep in the street (as he is) for people that pray in the street,” an emotional Valérie Plante told reporters, referring to the premier's recent musings to outlaw prayer in schools, parks and other public spaces.

The death she was referring to occurred early on Sunday: a 55-year-old homeless man was found unresponsive outside in a public square in Montreal's Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough.

"He's not a number — he's the third person to die in the street this year," Plante said, offering her sympathies during a housing announcement in the west-end of Montreal.

"He was someone's son, possibly someone's brother, perhaps someone's father and certainly, the friend of someone."

A Quebec coroner will investigate the death of the 55-year-old, who police say might have succumbed to hypothermia. His death was confirmed in hospital.

Pierre Lessard-Blais, borough mayor of Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, called the death "an avoidable and sadly predictable tragedy," adding that it demonstrates the need for a provincewide plan to address homelessness.

"For months, municipalities and the community have been trying hard to say that things are going badly, that more emergency shelters need to be opened and a national plan established before the cold weather arrives," he wrote in a social media post Sunday.

"Without quick and concrete steps taken by the health-care network to open shelters, there will be more deaths in the streets, in the cold."

Lessard-Blais said Legault and the province's social services minister have both claimed that the worst of the homeless crisis is over, but the borough mayor disagreed, noting Sunday's death was a "reminder of the reality."

A spokesperson for Social Services Minister Lionel Carmant did not return a message seeking comment on Monday, but the minister said through his social media account over the weekend that he was saddened by the death.

Carmant also said the government was acting to quickly distribute $12 million in federal money announced last week for the City of Montreal and local community groups for such things as a new warming centre.

Plante said the tragedy reflects the lack of affordable housing in the city, and the fact that many people on the street are dealing with mental illness or addiction.

"It could have been avoided and it's unacceptable that it happens in a rich society like ours in Quebec," she said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 16, 2024.