Réaménagement de l’hôpital chinois dans Villeray

Rarely does an abandoned Chinese hospital no one’s cared about for a decade incite this much commotion. The proposed plan to convert the building into a hospital for Inuit patients from northern Quebec has got everyone in Villeray/St-Michel/Parc Ex chattering, particularly after some racist literature describing the Inuit as drug addicts and alcoholics was slipped in residents’ mailboxes in early June.

“When I received that horrible little red piece of paper, I was [scandalized],” says Geneviève Beaudet, a Villeray resident whose home faces the hospital. Since then, she says some residents’ knee-jerk scaremongering has revealed a more deep-seated xenophobia that Beaudet and a new neighbourhood committee hope to dispel. “If we live here, it’s because we like [the multiculturalism].”

The pro-hospital group is now circulating a petition that makes four suggestions, including creating a cultural space in the hospital to help integrate the Inuit and the neighbourhood, as well as having a resident on the planning committee to voice neighbours’ concerns.

The hospital would cater to the medical needs of Nunavik’s sick and suffering who can’t get specialized care in the north.

The committee’s first meeting is Saturday, July 3 at 10 a.m. at 660 Villeray. Call (514) 509-0829 to RSVP.