(Montreal, September 22, 2016) – The request for class action filed today by Les Pollués de Montreal-Trudeau is the latest action of the citizens’ committee to lead the public authorities to intervene and restore the quality of life to thousands of Montrealers affected by low-level aircraft overflights.
The citizens’ committee, whose origins date back to the early 2010s, has established a non-profit organization in June 2013. Our first action was to issue an alarm to draw attention to the significant increase of air noise and denounce the statistical manipulation of Aéroports de Montreal (ADM) which delimited that 2836 people were living below the noise footprint of the airport!
In no time, many citizens of the districts of Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Saint-Laurent, Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension and the City of Mont-Royal, mainly, echoed the issues raised by Les Pollués de Montréal-Trudeau and have added their voices to the committee to denounce the situation.
The first action of Les Pollués de Montréal-Trudeau was to file a petition with over 3,000 handwritten signatures calling for measures to mitigate all forms of pollution associated with the air transit, was filed by a triumvirate of opposition MPs in the House of Commons.
Disappointed by the lack of serious discussions with the airport authorities on the claims of citizens, Les Pollués de Montréal-Trudeau initiated a fundraising campaign in 2014 to install 11 noise unit stations at its expense, in four districts and one city.
Despite the denial of ADM, which challenged the noise levels recorded on the territory by the newly installed noise units, Les Pollués de Montréal-Trudeau continued its media offensive to stimulate a real debate that the current management of the airport does not do.
The organization has written many papers over the years as a basis for further reflection during public consultations. It argued in particular the desirable takeover of the Montreal-Trudeau airport by the the City of Montreal, sound air climate management by an independent body, and the production of a map noise levels in the sectors concerned.
Les Pollués de Montréal-Trudeau managed to obtain resolutions from the municipal council of the city of Montreal, district of Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension and the city of Mont-Royal in order to bring more transparency to ADM while claiming a curfew and higher flight levels. The pressure on the elected from the district of Ahuntsic-Cartierville also culminated by creating an exceptional public meeting with representatives of ADM in June 2015.
Alas, in the absence of concrete results, Les Pollués de Montréal-Trudeau continued their mobilization under the leadership of the founding president and businessman Antoine Bécotte. The organization begins in 2015 the legal steps of a class action, for which the filing of the request is made in September 2016.
Great to hear that you are all working on bettering our quality of life. I’ve lived in Dorval north for ten years now and have noticed a steady increse of noise pollution in my neighbourhood, most recently in the last few months, supposedly due to construction work being done on the runways, again. My 21 month old daughter wakes in the night more often than most her age and I am positive that it is due to the overhead noise. Her night waking directly affects me and then the rest of the family as well. Our beautiful backyard is often rendered useless because of the heavy airtraffic and like many in my neighbourhood, I long for summer nights of being abel to sleep with my windows open and hear the chorus of singing crickets.
Thanks to all of you involved.
Good work. I just moved into a great apartment in Ahuntsic but the frequency and loudness of the air traffic is ridiculous . Please keep me posted on what I can do,
Good day Mr. Crochetiere,
You just registered to our newsletter and we thank you. This is the first step to stay informed about our actions. We know exactly what you are experiencing in terms of noise and it is sad in such a perfect neibourhood as Ahuntsic. Talk about us to your friends and neighbors. It is a very good way to help us. The more members and sympathezers we have, the better it is.