Proposed Gatineau police HQ near homeless shelter raises eyebrows

A group of protesters gathered Monday night outside Robert-Guertin Centre in Gatineau, Que., worried bythe prospect of anew citypolice headquarters being built near a homeless shelter, supervised injection site and soup kitchen.

The proposalwould see theheadquartersbuilt on the parking lot of the centre, which will eventually be torn down after largelybeing replaced by another multi-use complex.

It would house officers from the Hull sector after their post is expropriated for theconstruction of a new regional hospital andGatineau sector officerswhose building is now considered obsolete by the police force.

The emergency shelter Gte Amiand a supervised injection site sit across the parking lot from the proposed site, with a soup kitchen a short walk away.

A heightened police presence in a neighbourhood frequented by people who use these servicesincreases their risk of being finedand overly monitoredand could further displace them, saida civil law professor at the University of Ottawa in a recent interview with Radio-Canada'sLes matins d'ici.

Emmanuelle Bernheimsigned a letter fromthe university's social law cliniccalling for adifferent location for the headquarters.

Social services targeting the homeless were strategically placed in that areafor a reason, Bernheim said. Shealso holdsthe Canada Research Chair in mental health and access to justice.

The clinic's lawyer co-ordinatordecried what she called a lack of consultation on the proposal.

"I do still have hope in democracy. I certainly hope that the democratic process will be respected," Anne Thibault told CBC.

She also said there doesn't seem to have been any research or studyon the impact of building a police headquarters wheremany people access resources and basic needs.

Frederick Habel, fromAssociation des Rsidants de l'le de Hull, said a police headquarters will not make the community safer andwill push struggling people elsewhere.

"It wouldn't help really to bring the police. The security matter is strictly an illusion."

"[Police] can be anywhere else and they have cars," said protester Jacques Demers, who said he was shocked to hear of the proposal.

"[They] don't have to be [in the]centre of the city all the time."

Gatineau's city council, which will have to approve any location,is set to discuss the proposalNov. 22.

The city'spolice service said itwouldn't comment as the proposal's before council.