Mount Royal Cemetery considering legal action over closure of Camillien-Houde Way
The Mount Royal Cemetery is considering legal action against the City of Montreal as access to the site would be limited under plans to close Camillien-Houde Way to traffic.
In September, the city announced its plan to close the road to through traffic and convert it into a path for cyclists and pedestrians.
The 171-year-old cemetery is against the idea.
"We don't want that road to be closed because it's a significant impact for our customers," said Maxime Jacques, the cemetery's executive director.
Jacques had sent a letter from his lawyer to the city in September, claiming Montreal is acting illegally by ignoring a nearly century-old right-of-way agreement between the city and the cemetery. It was established when Mount Royal Park was being expanded.
"It was reinforced that we should always have access coming from east or west," Jacques said..
A traffic study by engineering company Cima+ also alerted the city to the 1928 agreement back in March.
The debate over traffic on Mount Royal goes back to 2017 after a cyclist was struck and killed. Camillien-Houde closed for several months as part of a pilot project, but the city's public consultation office found banning cars on the mountain just moved the traffic to surrounding streets.
Despite this, the city is forging ahead and plans to replace most of Camillien-Houde's asphalt with green space.
Jacques says it will limit access to the cemetery and too many cars will use it as a shortcut. To fix that, a gate at Camillien-Houde Way and Remembrance Road would have to be closed.
"Our roads are not meant to have an increased amount of traffic, we have multiple kilometres of scenic routes and that could just endanger more the population and visitors to our cemetery if we have added traffic in our roads," Jacques argued.
In a statement, the city says cemeteries are important institutions of Mount Royal and it is essential they are accessible.
"The cemeteries will continue to be accessible in the project as presented: by car or bus from the west, or via their entrances at the foot of the mountain on foot via this new road and the new paths that it will enable us to develop," reads the statement.
"We are very sensitive to the concerns of families and cemetery owners, and we remain open to their development proposals, which we will be able to take into account in the detailed design of the project."
The city declined to comment on the lawyer's letter.
"When you have an agreement in place, well, you should definitely respect it," Jacques said.
As the cemetery considers legal action, its lawyers are scheduled to meet with the city's lawyers in December.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Large numbers of New York City police officers begin entering Columbia University campus
Large numbers of New York City police officers began entering the Columbia University late Tuesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus.
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.