Philipe Tomlinson, the mayor of the Montreal borough of Outremont, said he will create a committee, composed half of Hasidic residents, tasked with coming up with solutions to the conflict between the Orthodox Jewish community and some other residents.
Tomlinson, a member of Projet Montréal who became mayor after last November’s municipal elections, is trying to ease tensions after a small number of residents wore yellow patches to protest the proliferation of school buses used by the Hasidic community.
He believes dialogue is the answer.
“Whether or not their intention was to be hurtful, it was offensive and unacceptable to wear the yellow squares in our political dialogue, or anywhere else,” Tomlinson said in video posted on Facebook, titled, Let’s work on what unites us and we will diminish what divides us.
He stressed that those who showed up at a March 5 borough council meeting wearing the yellow pieces of fabric pinned to their clothing represent “a small group that has decided once again to contest the Hasidic way of life in Outremont.… This time their actions have gone too far.”
The “good neighbours” committee he proposes will include a round table where each side can gain an understanding of the other group’s needs and concerns, particularly relating to municipal regulations.
READ: YELLOW BADGES USED TO PROTEST HASIDIM IN MONTREAL
The recommendations the committee makes will be “based on expert opinion and consensus,” he said. “We will put an end to these tensions in the next months or years.”
Tomlinson said the “high intensity and friction” that has characterized complaints against the Hasidim have gone on for too long and that he regrets the international media attention the yellow-patch incident attracted.
“We are much bigger and better than that. We live in one of the best areas, best neighbourhoods in the world. We are in a very privileged situation,” he said.
One of the issues that should unite residents, he continued, is that Outremont is home to a growing number of young families. Twenty-three per cent of the population is under 14 years of age, noted Tomlinson, an Outremont resident for 13 years who has two young children.
Tomlinson believes things will change now that Projet Montréal has a majority on the borough council. The party holds four of the five seats, including the one held by Mindy Pollak, a Hasidic Jew who is currently serving her second term in office.
The tone of the current borough administration is much more conciliatory than the previous one. Pollak was the only Projet Montréal member on council at that time and is the only incumbent who was re-elected. Previously, there were three independents, including then-borough mayor Marie Cinq-Mars, who had been in that office since 2007, and one who ran under the Equipe Denis Coderre banner.
Dialogue with some people is a total waste of time.
– Alex Werzberger
Longtime Outremont Hasidic community leader Alex Werzberger welcomed Tomlinson’s initiative, but is skeptical about how effective it will be in changing the minds of those who he believes want to see the Jews leave the borough.
“This is more than a goodwill gesture,” Werzberger said. “The new administration is much more friendly to the Jews, much less antagonistic.
“Having said that, dialogue with some people is a total waste of time.… The committee will help those who want to listen, but the hard core (critics of the Hasidim) just doesn’t care.”
The protesters who wore the yellow patches denied that they were trying to evoke the yellow stars that Jews were forced to wear during the Nazi era. Rather, they maintain the colour refers to that of the school buses that they claim have become too numerous on residential streets, causing congestion, noise and pollution year-round.
The growing Hasidic population now represents close to quarter of Outremont’s population.
The committee Tomlinson proposes is set to be officially launched at the April 9 borough council meeting.
Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, Projet Montreal’s leader, has said that “the symbol chosen showed a great lack of sensitivity.”
We will put an end to these tensions in the next months or years.
– Outremont Mayor Philipe Tomlinson
The wearing of the yellow patches has been criticized as thoughtless, even by those who see the school buses as a problem.
Some residents have proposed three measures that might alleviate the problem: pick up the children at street corners, rather than at their doors; use one bus for several schools, rather than running numerous busses that aren’t filled to capacity; and opt for less noisy and polluting vehicles.
Werzberger thinks these suggestions are impractical.
“Our kids start school age three or four. You can’t have them waiting at a corner in the cold or rain. As for people’s quality of life, this is only an hour or so in the morning and evening,” he said.
“We are here to stay. We are 25 per cent now. In 10 years, we will be 35, or 40, or even 50 per cent. We’re growing every year. Almost every house sold in lower Outremont is to a Jew.”
