NEEDLING EXCHANGE

Cactus And The Borough Accuse Each Other Of Endangering The Community
Organization'S Future

Montreal needle exchange facility Cactus had $1-million in federal
funding with their name on it, and all they had to do was present a
relocation and acquisition plan by March.

The community aid organization and the downtown borough of Ville-Marie
agreed that the concrete park at Sanguinet and Ste-Catherine E.
constituted the ideal site. Last June, a public consultation called by
Cactus discussing the move saw little opposition. Then the bomb was
dropped.

The needle exchange had to look elsewhere, borough councillor Robert
Laramee informed them, citing a number of concerned residents and
business owners who had contacted him after the meeting, voicing their
opposition to the project.

Cactus intervention worker Darlene Palmer finds this hard to believe.
"I think [Laramee and borough mayor Martin Lemay] are playing a much
more active role in stimulating people's disapproval of us than
generally was present," she says. Statements made by the elected
officials linked Cactus with safe injection sites, she adds, something
Cactus has no intention of establishing in the foreseeable future.
Palmer feels things are being taken out of context, and says the
politicians are fostering an environment of general misinformation and
confusion that has had a detrimental effect on Cactus's endeavours.

With mould on the walls and fumes emanating from the neighbouring
Voyageur bus station, their present location in a cramped basement on
St-Hubert is no longer adequate. But if Cactus doesn't make a project
proposal this month, they risk losing the $1.1-million subsidy.

"We need room to grow," says Palmer. "I don't think that because we're
a needle exchange that we need, inevitably, to be ghettoized. I think
we're entitled to have clean and healthy workspaces."

However, Laramee would rather they just stay put, says Ville-Marie
press attache Isabelle Bedard. As Cactus already has a rapport with
its neighbours, the city councillor asked them to consider expanding
their current space instead of relocating.

But with 29 low-rent housing units above them, they would need to
evict individuals already in precarious financial situations in order
to expand. On top of that, a municipal bylaw that restricts the
location, relocation and expansion of community aid organizations
designed for marginalized groups like drug users was pushed through
council last December.

In a press release dated Dec. 13, three days before the council
meeting that passed the bylaw, Laramee was quoted as saying that he
was in favour of Cactus's expansion, but that their attitude led him
to believe they refused to follow the necessary steps to obtain the
public, and council's, approval.

"We're not sure what to do," she says. "We fought the war fair and
square. I think that's the part that is making me most angry - we
fought it fair."

While the coveted corner of Sanguinet and Ste-Catherine is off-limits
to Cactus, l'Universite de Quebec a Montreal has reportedly expressed
interest. "UQAM spoke up [at the public consultation] and said they
had first claim on this territory," says Palmer. "It was interesting,
because the residents said they didn't want more UQAM there."

Cactus is trying to work out an extension for the federal grant, and
Palmer and her co-workers are still battling it out. "I'm angry that
15 years after our opening, we still have to be fighting like this,"
she says.