Resilience Montreal calls for permanent solutions for city’s Indigenous homeless

Following the death of 61-year-old Elisapie Pootoogook last weekend, a vigil will be held in her memory at Cabot Square this afternoon. The event will also serve to raise awareness about the plight of the homeless in Montreal as winter approaches — an issue of particular concern for the city’s Indigenous homeless population, as plans to turn the Place Dupuis hotel into a winter shelter again this year have fallen through.

Pootoogook, an Inuit woman, from the northern village of Salluit in Nunavik, travelled to Montreal regularly for health care. The Quebec coroner is investigating the cause of her death, which occurred last weekend in a residential construction site at Atwater and René-Lévesque. Resilience Montreal director general David Chapman told Le Devoir that had Pootoogook not been sent here for treatment, she would still be alive.

Resilience Montreal, the homeless service centre that co-organized today’s vigil with the Native Women’s Shelter, is calling for a permanent structure to replace the temporary heated tent they set up last winter to serve free meals and provide warming stations.

The vigil for Elisapie Pootoogook takes place at Cabot Square (Atwater & Ste-Catherine) today, Monday, Nov. 22, 1 p.m.

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