An hour’s drive north of Montreal and at the doorway to Laurentian ski and cottage country, St-Jérôme, Que., seems an unlikely focal point for the debate over homelessness.
But a lawsuit against the town over its ban on makeshift shelters on public property could transform how municipalities across the province approach homeless encampments on their territory.
If successful, the lawsuit filed by a legal clinic that advocates for unhoused Quebecers, could bring about an end to the practice of forced tent dismantling in cities and towns where there is insufficient alternative accommodation, says University of Ottawa law professor Marie-Ève Sylvestre.