Montreal community group Radisson Centre facing eviction

The Radisson Centre is being forced out of its location in Montreal after the regional health board — which owns the building — opted not to renew its lease.

Two hundred Montrealers with physical disabilities will have to leave the centre by the end of the year. They are issuing a heartfelt plea for help.

“Immediately after they learned the news, they came to us, and asked us, what can we do to help? What can we do actually to keep our space? We’re going to fight,” said Benoit Verger-Demers, youth program coordinator at the Radisson Community Centre.

“There’s also a lack of transparency of the CIUSSS. They told us at the beginning that they needed them for their own people. Afterward, it was for the homeless crisis. And now it’s for the mental illness, for their own services. So what they’re saying actually is that we need to go so that their clientele can move in, assuming that we are not their clientele, which to me seems like kind of nonsense.”

Aware of the difficulties faced by the organization in relocating, the CIUSSS agreed to extend the lease until December 2024. They also tried to find a space in their own property holdings, unsuccessfully due to the specific nature of Radisson Centre’s needs.

“Again, it’s important to say that we have the mission as a health-care establishment to offer health-care services. And we need this space to offer specific services to a population that lives there, especially with mental illness,” said Jean-Nicolas Aubé, a spokesperson for CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal.

“Mental illness crisis, those are important things too,” Verger-Demers added. “We’re not saying that we’re more important than that. But what we’re saying is that, of course, kicking us out to make a priority of another thing is not the way to move. It’s not the way that this should be doing things. That’s what we are denouncing right now.”

The Radisson Community Centre is a 25-year-old institution that offers a wide variety of activities, enabling people with physical disabilities to contribute to find a community and contribute to society.

“I don’t understand CIUSSS’ attitude. A place like the Radisson community complex isn’t easy to find for someone with a physical handicap,” said Norma Susane Amicone, a Radisson Centre member.

“I had cerebral palsy at 14 months. Here, I’ve found lots of activities. I love to dance. Since January, we’ve been dancing in the Espace Libre theatre.”