(Montreal) Restaurant terraces were emptied of their customers Friday evening by the Montreal fire safety service (SIM) while the Grand Prix was in full swing and customers were flocking.
That’s what happened Friday night at Ferreira Café on Peel Street. In a video posted on social networks, the establishment’s operations director, Sandra Ferreira, recounts the ordeal she experienced after a “dozen firefighters” asked her to empty the terrace of her restaurant, even though full of customers.
“The firefighters came to tell us that the terrace is not compliant,” explains Sandra Ferreira in her video. They wait until the Friday of the Grand Prix to come, even though we have a full restaurant. And in front of everyone, they ask us to evacuate the terrace.”
“I ask them what happens if I don’t do it [evacuate the terrace] and they tell me it’s the terrace or it’s the restaurant,” she says. I find it so cruel to have waited to tell us that [to make] a scene in front of lots of people, with me bursting into tears. »
The fine she allegedly received states that she “did not take all necessary measures to remove a dangerous condition. »
“[For] all the restaurants on Peel Street, it was months of relentless effort [to get the terraces],” adds Sandra Ferreira. This weekend, I am ashamed for my city, I am ashamed that this is happening in front of our customers […] Everyone arrives and the disappointment is that nothing happens on the street [Peel] . »
The event sparked the reaction of many people, including elected officials from the metropolis.
“Apart from the question of bad timing, I question the lack of leadership in the Ville-Marie district led by Valérie Plante,” writes the Official Opposition spokesperson for public security, Abdelhaq Sari, on X. Where is the consultation with all the stakeholders that the mayor is talking about? »
The office of Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said it was “shaken” by Sandra Ferreira’s testimony. It assures that the SIM teams have “confirmed the compliance of the Peel Street terraces” and they will all be able to reopen today.
“The SIM must ensure constant dialogue and continue the search for solutions to ensure the safety and vitality of the businesses that we all love,” adds the mayor’s office.
The SIM explains that it closed four terraces on Friday evening which were not compliant. This procedure took place as part of Operation Sentinel, which aims to ensure the compliance of establishments which welcome the public. This operation takes place four times a year during important festivities.
“We met the owners a week and a half ago to tell them that it is not the terrace, but the marquise which must be three meters away,” explains SIM communications division head, Guy Lapointe. We asked them to move it, but we found [last night] that they had not followed the instructions. »
He refutes accusations from the operations director of Café Ferreira that the firefighters came without warning. Guy Lapointe explains that Operation Sentinel also aims to verify that traffic limits are respected, which is why they intervened in the presence of customers.
The general manager of the Montreal Centre-ville commercial development company, Glenn Castanheira, expressed his “deep concern” about the measures taken by the SIM with regard to the terraces.
“This approach, initiated on the first day of the festivities, during a period of high tourist influx, raises serious concerns about its consequences on the economic vitality of certain merchants in our city center,” declares Glenn Castanheira.
The Montreal Firefighters Association reacted immediately to the accusations against its members. She was “irritated and deeply disappointed” to see her members “wrongly and intensely taken advantage of” by several restaurateurs whose terrace was closed by the SIM.
She said that the firefighters “had nothing to do with these interventions by the Montreal Fire Safety Service, the SIM. »
“The confusion comes from the fact that this spectacular operation, called Sentinel, was carried out by prevention agents, civilian employees, who, unfortunately, wear a uniform similar to that of firefighters,” declared the president of the Firefighters Association , Chris Ross.
Marie-Pierre Burelle is the manager of the Ryu restaurant on Peel Street. His establishment is the only one not to have installed a marquee on its terrace this year.
And yet, two agents from the morality squad stood in front of the doors of his establishment for almost half an hour while the customers were present.
“The customers were wondering what was happening […] why they would come in if there were two police officers in front of the [restaurant] doors,” explains Marie-Pierre Burelle. It emptied the terraces. »