What Social Dysfunction COVID Hath Wrought!

"It [COVID-19 restrictions] brought a climate of fear."

"Now, I tell my staff when we close [at night], we lock the doors and we don't open for anyone."

Fouad Filali, owner, Le Senateur restaurant, Old Montreal

 

"Over the past 14 months, there are many things that have surprised me."

"Normally, it is a tourist and family sector and we intend to keep it that way."

Jean=Phillipe Rochette, spokesman, Old Port of Montreal

 

"Modified cars, fights, crazy driving, garbage everywhere, lots of people who use our front doors as toilets."

"It's a little discouraging having to warn my children to avoid pee puddles."

"When I go out for a walk, there are groups of drunk young guys making rude comments and you don't feel like they're going to react peacefully if you tell them off."

Carolyn Pinto Cellere, 15-year Old Montreal resident 

 

"This is what happens when you deprive people for so long and then you give everything back at the same time."

"We are all much more worried than before, we avoid going home alone because we witnessed several fights."

Nelsy Raoul, 28, server, Comptoir 400 restaurant, Old Montreal

People walk in the Old Port on a warm spring day in Montreal, Saturday, April 24, 2021, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues in Canada and around the world. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

 Ms.Cellere, whose family has lived for a decade-and-a-half in Old Montreal, feels her neighbourhood was once the perfect place to live and raise a family even with the influx of tourists arriving every summer to look around the old City of Montreal. There was never an issue of safety and security. There was no all-night partying. All that has changed she says, with constant street partying ever since the bars closed as a result of COVID lockdown and restrictions imposed on non-essential businesses in an effort to control the rising rates of COVID transmission when Quebec was the hot-spot for infections in Canada.

And then the curfew that had been in effect since October of last year was lifted when the Quebec government announced on May 28 that restaurants would be reopened across the province. Ever since, videos have surfaced of violence linked to street parties in Old Montreal, posted to social media. Restaurant server Nelsy Raoul feels uncomfortable now, concerned over her safety at night when the restaurant she works at closes for the night.

The curfew at the Old Port remains in place, while it has been lifted elsewhere, until further notice. Carolyn Cellere see the situation of violent disturbances in the neighbourhood intensifying, and becoming more deeply entrenched in the neighbourhood, taking over residential streets. People are feeling increasingly unsafe, and some residents openly discuss leaving the neighbourhood, looking elsewhere for normalcy and peace and quiet.

 Fouad Filali misses the presence of families with children who once came to the historic district. They've been replaced by young people with a seeming tendency to violence and are known to obnoxiously harass women. Few tourist now show up in the iconic neighbourhood since the beginning of the pandemic leaving residents, business owners and workers with the distinct impression that the area is now dangerous, most particularly during the night. The  hope is that with the return of tourists, the disturbing element will retreat.

In September, the area saw a shootout, and in April rioters protesting against the curfew lit garbage fires around the neighbourhood, smashing store windows and fighting with police. Recently a man and a woman in their late teens were stabbed in altercations during an outdoor party celebrating the end of the curfew. The federal corporation that owns the Old Port of Montreal has imposed an overnight curfew.

Veronique Pascal recounts her impressions that though partying and loud noise have always reflected life in the district, all of the socially-disturbing activities of late have been exacerbated by the health crisis. "Old Montreal is normally fancy. We tell ourselves that we are protected by this feeling of luxury, but the pandemic changed everything."