Business owners raise safety concerns around Cabot Square, while advocates urge compassion

Safety concerns around Cabot Square have sparked growing debate between business leaders and advocates who work closely with the homeless population.

Safety concerns in and around Cabot Square in downtown Montreal have sparked growing debate between business leaders and advocates who work closely with the city’s unhoused population.

For André Jude, vice-president and general manager of Canadian Forum Investments, the situation has become unsustainable. He manages the Montreal Forum, just steps from Cabot Square, and said he has seen crime in the area worsen since the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said he was attacked twice in recent months, with the first assault taking place inside the Forum in February. “Then, again in May, right outside on Sainte-Catherine Street, by someone who appeared intoxicated,” Jude recounted.

Police were called in both cases, but Jude said there were no arrests or follow-up. He added that over the past 14 months, three of his employees were assaulted in or around the Forum.

“They were all unable to return to work, some because they were just too traumatized,” Jude said.

He told CTV News that violent incidents happen almost daily near the square, and that: “20 to 30 per cent of calls to police go unanswered.”

“The city needs to instruct and support the SPVM to do its job,” he said. “Their primary responsibility is public safety, and they’re not living up to it. If you allow criminal behaviour to continue, it only gets worse.”

To keep the Forum secure, Jude said the property’s safety budget has doubled in five years, with more guards patrolling inside and stationed at entrances.

“We’ve basically had to turn the Forum into a fortress,” he said. “We have zero tolerance for people involved in street activity.”

While Jude placed much of the blame on the unhoused population living around Cabot Square, advocates denounce this behaviour.

David Chapman, who runs the day shelter Resilience Montreal, located beside the park, said that kind of finger-pointing is damaging.

“As a homeless resource, you’re always underfunded, and yet you’re blamed for every problem in the neighbourhood,” Chapman said. “Many unhoused people already live with the daily experience of being judged or looked down on. Wrongly accusing them of crimes only harms their dignity and their ability to move forward.”

Chapman acknowledged that crime does happen, sometimes involving unhoused people, but said context matters. He argued that more policing alone won’t solve the problem.

“Is it police driving in circles, or is it officers on foot who know people, who talk to them?” he asked. “We have relationships with the people here, and that makes a difference. If something happened, we can sit down and have an honest conversation — but that requires business owners to include us instead of just blaming.”

Glenn Castanheira, executive director of SDC Montréal centre-ville, which represents nearly 5,000 businesses in the sector, said concerns like Jude’s are far from isolated.

“We’re witnessing a rapid degradation of the overall feeling of safety in Cabot Square and across downtown — Place-des-Arts, St-Laurent boul., and beyond,” Castanheira said. “Year after year, for five years now, people are telling us they feel less safe. That includes merchants, their employees, visitors, and residents.”

According to Castanheira, some businesses have stopped reporting lower-level crimes because they don’t believe police will intervene.

“Many merchants open their shops and find someone blocking the entrance, or they see a drug deal happening out front,” he said. “They know police won’t show up quickly. For bigger emergencies, response is fast. But for day-to-day issues, presence on the ground is insufficient.”

He added that merchants report that conditions have made it harder to recruit and retain staff, especially for early morning and late-night shifts, and that revenues are suffering as customers avoid streets where they don’t feel comfortable.

“What’s worrying is that downtown has always included an unhoused population, and businesses were used to that,” Castanheira said. “But now, even people who have lived this cohabitation for years are saying it’s gone too far.”

While Jude and Castanheira focused on security, others emphasized compassion.

Rémi Fleurent, 80, has lived unhoused for the past eight years and spends most of his time at Cabot Square.

“What we need is for more people to listen and try to understand us,” he said.

Fleurent noted that police are already a regular presence in the park, often on foot. He said in recent years, officers have shifted toward asking more questions about people’s psychological state rather than using force.

“There are more mental health issues and more people here struggling with these issues, yes,” Fleurent said. “But very few of those cases ever turn violent.”

For Chapman, that’s where solutions should begin.

“It takes open conversations and a willingness to listen,” he said. “That’s how we move forward.”

The SPVM declined an interview request and did not provide a statement in time for publication.