Community voices against Bill 31 and for housing justice

Join us to listen to voices of artists and activists opposed to Bill 31, the new so-called "housing legislation" from Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), that includes a serious attack on the capacity of tenants in Québec to do lease transfers, one point in Québec that has really worked to keep housing costs down through acts of solidarity between renters.

A conversation with Stefan Christoff and his guests:  

• Bengi Akbulut (From Concordia's Social Justice Centre / Centre de justice sociale)
• Sandra Wesley (Executive director of Les ami(es) de Stella)
• Hubert Gendron-Blais (Convenor of the Réverbérations d'une crise: une enquête sonore sur le logement project)
• Moh Abdalreza Zadeh (Community researcher)
• Pierre Parent (Indigenous street outreach worker)

For aditional background on this proposed legislation and the importance of artists standing up, read the opinion piece by Stefan Christoff in Cult MTL. 

The proposed legislation aims to seriously attack the capacity of tenants in Quebec to express solidarity through the practice of lease transfers. Community groups and networks in the city have been vigorously opposed to this proposed violent neoliberal legislation that aims to benefit the corporate real estate sector and landlords.

Speaker bios

Bengi Akbulut is an associate professor at Concordia University and co-directs the Social Justice Centre. Her academic work is at the intersection of political economy, ecological and feminist economics. She has written extensively on the political economy of development and critiques of developmentalism, with particular reference to the contemporary development regime in Turkey. Her more recent work focuses on economic alternatives, including economic democracy, commons and degrowth. Before moving to Tiohtià:ke/ Montréal in 2017, she was closely involved in urban and ecological movements in Istanbul, as well as numerous non-capitalist economic initiatives, both in Turkey and Kurdistan.

Sandra Wesley is the executive director of Stella, l’amie de Maimie, an organization by and for sex workers based in Montreal since 1995. Stella aims to improve living and working conditions of sex workers through direct services, education, advocacy and mobilization. Stella is involved in many ways in the fight against gentrification, for the right to occupy public space and, of course, for the full decriminalization of sex work.

Moh Abdalreza Zadeh is a passionate researcher and activist designer imagining a world where everyone feels at home in their cities regardless of their gender, race, worldview, and social status. He is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Individualized Program at Concordia University. His research is about the role of art in empowering unhoused people. He has diverse experience in design, Art Hive facilitation, and community outreach.

Hubert Gendron-Blais is a sound artist, musician and community activist based in Montreal. Hubert convened the Réverbérations d'une crise: une enquête sonore sur le logement à Montréal project that explores the ways that the housing crisis in Montreal is expressed in sound and the ways that housing rights activists can articulate demands in sound and music. https://www.reverberationscriselogement.org

Pierre Parent is an Anishinaabe street outreach worker working with frontline Indigenous peoples struggling with housing precarity and addiction.

Moderator: Stefan Christoff is a Montreal based musician, community activist and media maker. 

More info: Visit the Facebook Event.