Highlighting progressive voices reflecting on grassroots activism and the arts.

Through interviews and in studio discussions, Free City Radio gives a voice to alternative perspectives on contemporary political forces, focusing on underreported realities in Quebec society and global situations.

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November 20, 2024: Voices for housing justice - live from Parc Ex

Faiz Abhuani, Founder and director at Brique par brique
Sohnia Karamat Ali, organizer at Comité d'Action de Parc-Extension (C.A.P.E.)
Amy Darwish, organizer at Comité d'Action de Parc-Extension (C.A.P.E.)
Jason “Blackbird” Selman, poet and educator
Jonathan Villeneuve, Codirecteur général et artistique des Ateliers Belleville

This gathering aims to highlight the ways that the extreme wave of gentrification that is taking place in Montréal is having a particularly heavy impact on Parc Ex. and other low income districts in the city. The live broadcast will lift up the voices of community activists and artists who are both involved in movements for housing justice and also can speak to the tangible realities that countless thousands face due to the housing crisis in the city.

* Right now there are specific narratives surrounding the housing crisis in Parc Ex and beyond the area being simply a victim of the injustice of the housing crisis in the city people are organizing. For those who are involved in Parc Ex can you speak about the organizing that you are doing and the grassroots campaigns you are working on?

* Broadly speaking the Projet Montreal administration still claims a progressive mantel, orientation, this claim is very far from the realities that you are all dealing with in terms of housing, could you speak to this?

* One common proposal to address the housing crisis has been to fund developers to make "affordable" housing, this clearly isn't a solution, can you speak about why non-market housing and particularly social housing is important?

* Artists are often connected in public discourse to gentrification, this creates a lot of guilt in the arts community, but clearly guilty feelings aren't what is needed, it is needed for artists to be involved in struggles for housing justice and creating alternatives to market driven artists, to creative alternative community approaches in the arts that are linked to social movements, can you speak to this?

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