Stacks of tickets are 'psychological weight' on marginalized itinerants, advocates say

He's got no proof, but StphanePerreaultthinks it would be no exaggeration to say he's received $30,000 in tickets from Montreal police officers for various minor offences.

A frequent visitor to the Open Door drop-in centre at St. Stephen's Anglican Church just west of downtown, he had no tickets in his pockets the day he spoke to CBCNews. However, hesaid, police have handed him tickets for everything from sleeping on the Metro to panhandling.

"You only have to go walking down Ste. Catherine, and they're on you,"saidPerreault."The car is pulling up next to you:'What's your name?'"

David Chapman, the acting director of the Open Door, said many of the drop-in centre's clients have unpaid tickets amounting to thousands of dollars.

"Wecertainly do see people who get numerous tickets in the same day," he said.

There's no question in Perreault's mind that he's ticketed for being an itinerant.

"You, you're nicely dressed," he said. "Me, just because I'm dressed like a homeless person, they come and harass me," gesturing to his patched jeans and shoelessfeet.

Call for greater police sensitivity

Chapman and other advocates for the homelesssay police continue to issue too many tickets to people such as Perreault,for minor offences fromjaywalking, tosmoking too close to bus shelters, to carrying open liquor.

This is despite the City of Montreal's own recommendations to fight socioeconomic and racial profiling,released last June, which called for greater police sensitivity.

"It does makes me wonder ifoften the emphasis is more on public appearance and the appearance of looking out for the homeless, and whether the average police officer is actually making the effort to do that," said Chapman.

"We're always teaching our children that you can go ask the police for help, that you can go ask people for help.I always say that people in these positions of authority are to protect and serve," said Kristin McNulty, who works with homeless andvulnerable youth at Dans la Rue.

"I don't see their techniques as helping."

'Stack of tickets'

McNulty said that he frequently sees the young people with whom he worksshowing up on Monday mornings with a lot of tickets.

"I never sat there and counted when they're showing me their stack of tickets, but we're talking about a stack of them," he said, holding his fingers several inches apart to imply a big pile.

"It's a psychological weight as well, because already a lot of these youth have grown up marginalized."

Owing hundreds or thousands of dollars to the city's coffers only results in further alienation.

"If you get $400 or $500 worth of tickets, there's no way they have the means to pay them," he said.

Ticketed for riding on the sidewalk

Last week,CBCNews spoke with HerbertMaguire, an itinerant manwho was handedfive tickets totalling $240after police saw him riding his bike on the sidewalk. He got one ticket eachfor missing front white and back red lights on his bike, andmissing white and redreflectors, and a ticket for biking on the sidewalk.

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"SinceI've gotten these bogus tickets, I'm a littlenervous now," saidMaguire."When I see a cop coming, I jump off my bike."

AfterMaguire'sstory was published, defence lawyer and cycling advocate AlainDeschampsemailedCBCNews to suggestpolice may have been in violation of the Highway Safety Code.

DeschampssaidthatMaguireshould have been issued a single ticket for the missing lights and one for missing reflectors.

"Theoretically, someone could end up with five or six different tickets just for reflectors," he said."And if you read theactual language of the act, it says very clearly that it's one infraction for the totality of it."

In an email toCBCNews, police spokespersonSandrineLapointesaid theSPVMwouldn't comment onMaguire'scase directly, addinghe could challenge the tickets in court if he felt the tickets were unjustified.

However, an anonymous donor hasalready paid forMaguire'stickets, so he won't be contesting those tickets in court.

He did tellCBCthat if he had had to pay for the tickets himself, they would have taken up nearly a quarter of his next welfare cheque money that he needs for food and that hehopes will help him find a place to live for a month.

Cityworking on plan

In a study releasedin 2012, researchersat the University of Ottawa andUniversitdeMontralfound that overa 15-year period, homeless people in Montreal owed the city over $15 million in outstanding fines.

The studyfound 21 people who had each receivedat least 150 tickets.One unfortunate man, who had been issued the most tickets of anyone in the study, got 390 tickets over a six-year period.

It's such a frequently raised complaint that MayorValriePlantecommittedto worktowardending the practicein thehomeless action planthat she touted in her electoral platform last October.

Plantepromised to get police to release biannual reports on socioeconomic profiling, as well as to provide training to police andSTMemployees on how to interact with homeless people and to avoid criminalizing them.

CBCNewstwice requested an interview with SergeLareault, the city's homeless advocate, but he has not been available.A city spokesperson said the city is working on the recommendations released last June.

CBC also asked Montreal police for more recent data on the number of tickets issued to itinerant people, however, police said they do not keep those figures.