LITTLE HISTORY OF THE GAY FALLS
Located on unceded Anishinaabe and Mohawk territory, the Chutes-gaies/chutes-aux-fifs/gay falls are located on the Kiwetin River (rivière-du-Nord), on the historic territory of the Anishinaabe Weskarini First Nation (now the Kitigan Zibi) and the Kanienkehaka. The long story still remains to be done (For example, we have not found the ancestral name of the falls). Here is a short one, made by a settler person from the collective.
BEFORE 19e century : traditional indigenous land
AFTER the 19e century: colonisation and creation of the park
With the colonization in the Laurentians comes bourgeois and then mass tourism, coming with the train. Ski slopes and cross-country ski trails are laid out everywhere on the territory. We thus find the “Viking” and “Alpine” tracks passed on the future land of the park in the 1920s, by the wordly famous Jackrabbit. While the territory was largely colonized in the surroundings, the falls and its forest seemed to have been protected by private owners. If it remains unknown the continuation of the successions during the history, we know that the falls were given during the Fifties by a rich English-speaking family to the government of Quebec. The government then cedes the park to the city of Sainte-Adèle, which has the requirement of maintaining and organizing the vocation of the park. Sainte-Marguerite Station, where the Petit train du Nord stops, is close by.
Its historic layout included a linear park, bridge and stairs. There was also a cross-country ski trail, which you can find the remains here and there on both sides of the Kiwetin river. The Petit train du nord stops nearby and allows people from Montreal and the region to come and bathe there for the day. The 2SLGBTQ communities are very present there for the next decades, the place being a gay cruise spot.
Past-2000: The Repression and the destruction of the park
As a meeting place for many communities, the repression and control of the falls goes hand in hand with its history. Although this history of repressions longer and can be found in several documents in our possession, we can at least tell here the facts of the last years, collected by a comrade. Indeed, the City of Sainte-Adèle, in collaboration with the MRC des Pays-d’en-Haut, the Parc Linéaire le P’tit Train du Nord, the Sûreté du Québec, and the security firms Sécurité XGuard and Groupe Sûreté Inc., has been trying to remove people of sexual and gender diversity from places for over a decade now.
2010-2018 : intensification of the repression
Several events have led to the destruction of public property and various structures in the park. In the past, there were garbage cans, staircases and a bridge, in addition to two maintained cross-country ski trails that met close to the river. In 2010, a citizen sent a homophobic complaint to Pierre Dionne, director general of the City of Sainte-Adèle. This one writes on the card: “Request for the demolition of the bridge. Cause trouble with the gay community.” In order to satisfy the complainant, the city complied and demolished the bridge, which had existed for several decades. This will be the first destruction of the long sequel, a visible element of the repression on the site.
In 2016, the Director General of the City of Sainte-Adèle, Pierre Dionne, asked the Sûreté du Québec to monitor the Falls, “popular place with the gays”. In order to satisfy the request of the director general, the Sûreté du Québec ensures increased surveillance of the site. On June 6, 2017, Councilor Nadine Brière submitted a homophobic complaint to Pierre Dionne, the Director General of the City of Sainte-Adèle: “Hello Pierre, Subject for the next plenary [sic], photo taken Sunday at Glen Wexford Falls. Men in full action in front of everyone’s eyes.” On June 7, 2017, in order to satisfy Councilor Brière’s complaint, the City of Sainte-Adèle asked the Sûreté du Québec to intervene. Following this request, the Sûreté du Québec carried out police raids on the falls.
During one of these raids, a police officer present on the scene declared to be sent by the mayor of the City of Sainte-Adèle, Robert Milot: “It is the mayor of Sainte-Adèle, he does not want any more naked people here, the gays have been coming for a long time”. A few days after these police raids, Mayor Milot publicly announced, in a Radio-Canada report, his intention to install a gate to control access to the Falls. In the wake of the descents, the stairs Coup-de-Pierre connecting the Linear Park to the Falls are barricaded and then removed. Following the raids and the announcement of the gate, a homophobe thanks Mayor Milot for having suppressed “gays”:
« Bonjour Monsieur le Maire de Sainte-Adèle. Comme beaucoup de gens, j’ai suis le dossier des chutes Ste.-Margerite. Je suis résident de Montréal et justement je cherche à quitter ma ville à cause qu’il n’y a pas un parc a Montréal ou je ne peut me promener sans me faire presque harceler par des hommes pour ne pas dire des gais !!! Si vous n’êtes pas capable de vous tenir devant une poignée d’individus aux mœurs douteux, bien laisse-moi vous dire que je ne choisirais pas votre ville comme lieux de résidence».
Several dozen people will receive fines, which will subsequently fall due to procedural faults on the part of the police.
2019-2022 : Failed attempts to “close the falls”
The repression of the last decade having not been conclusive, the pandemic makes it possible to try a new strategy: completely closing access to the falls and making it “private land”. Mayor Nadine Brière submits a second homophobic complaint to the director general of the City of Sainte-Adèle, Simon Filiatreault. Brière accompanies his complaint with a press clipping in which the Falls are described as a place where “homosexual men [meet] and [can] swim in Speedos and kiss, without anyone judging them”. In order to satisfy Mayor Brière, a new by-law against nudity, Article 58 Indecency, is introduced in the By-law concerning traffic, parking, peace and good order. During a second descent to the Falls on June 19 and 20, 2020, Mayor Brière and Director General Filiatreault asked the Sûreté du Québec to apply Article 58 Indecency. At the same time, claiming an emergency situation related to COVID-19, the City and the MRC are reviving the idea of installing a gate at the entrance to the parking lot near the falls—an idea which, let’s remember, is born not in a pandemic context, but indeed in a pre-pandemic context, i.e. in 2017 during the first homophobic police raids. The MRC will grant discretionary powers to the guardians and one of them will boast of doing “spotting, profiling” and having “a 6th sense”.
These security guards, posted at the entrance to the Sainte-Marguerite-Station parking lot leading to the falls, refused anyone suspected of wanting to make queer use of the trails, while allowing people practicing activities to pass which, in this particular context , were considered cis and heteronormative, such as the bicycle. According to testimonies received by a homophobic committee, security guards turn away LGBTQ+ people saying things like “walking is illegal”, “I can’t let you through because people are littering”, and other blatant nonsense. Indeed, this committee is organized during this period in order to fight against the obvious discrimination of the practices of the city. As the campaign message points out:
Ce deuxième commentaire devient d’autant plus absurde et violent lorsqu’on apprend que la MRC des Pays-d’en-Haut a volontairement retiré les poubelles à l’entrée des chutes suite aux rafles policières ciblées de 2017. La guérite représente une continuation et une intensification illégitime et illégale des attaques anti-queers lancées pour la première fois par Milot en 2017.
Following the nudity roundups of 2020, Brière received a Facebook message from a resident thanking him for evicting the world of the Chutes:
Bonjour Mme Brière je vous envoie ces photos qui ont été prises le week-end de la fête du Travail en 2017 dans le boisé adjacent aux chutes Glen Wexford, si vous les zoomées vous constaterez que ces enveloppes contenaient des condoms et du lubrifiant . Une grande quantité des arbres en avaient été décoré par un organisme LGBT en fait il s’y préparait toute une partouze et c’était comme ça régulièrement les beaux week-ends chauds. Nous les gens qui habitons près des chutes n’allions plus profiter de marche dans les sentiers boisés les avoisinant, car nous y croisaient souvent des gays en pleine action sans gêne d’être vu. Comme les chûtes sont devenus plus populaires avec les réseaux sociaux toutes sortes de gens les fréquentent maintenant et les gays s’éloignent un peu plus loin dans les boisées pour faire leur affaires alors il était grandement temps de fermer cet endroit MERCI Le dossier est pas semblable a celui de Rawdon nous avons ici la communauté LGBT qui se pense chez eux et la SQ qui refuse d’intervenir afin de ne pas faire de vague».
These condoms were distributed by Le Dispensaire as part of the “Prêt pour l’action” program, a campaign organized by the Gay and MSM (men who have sex with men) Committee of the Coalition of Quebec Community Organizations for the Fight Against AIDS (COCQ-SIDA).
To conclude
We, friends of the falls, also notice that this public land, intended to be a park since the 1960s, no longer deserves to be in the hands of the city of Sainte-Adèle. Far from being “private land”, this jewel must be protected and be able to remain a space for our communities who have taken care of it for several generations. The city has removed the gate, to the delight of friends of the falls. Now we want the park to be back.
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