{"id":63,"date":"2023-02-01T16:47:43","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T21:47:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chutesauxfifs.noblogs.org\/?page_id=63"},"modified":"2023-05-02T12:30:52","modified_gmt":"2023-05-02T16:30:52","slug":"gay-falls","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/chutesauxfifs.noblogs.org\/en-US\/gay-falls\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gay falls"},"content":{"rendered":"

LITTLE HISTORY OF THE GAY FALLS<\/h1>\n
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Map “des Vacances des r\u00e9gions de Montreal”, Brading’s Capital Brewery, 1948.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Located on unceded Anishinaabe and Mohawk territory, the Chutes-gaies\/chutes-aux-fifs\/gay falls are located on the Kiwetin River (rivi\u00e8re-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.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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BEFORE 19e century : traditional indigenous land<\/h2>\n
The Kiwetin River is recognized as traditional hunting territory for indigenous communities.<\/a> The territory around the falls is been recognized by the Anishnaabe and the Kanienkehaka (Kana:tso of the great river valley\/Ottawa and the Kahnaw\u00e1:ke further east) who are their protectors . As with much of colonial history, the history of the Kana:tso is particularly violent, with bloodthirsty attacks by the French in the 16th and 17th century, then with colonization, the destruction of ancestral cemetery in old Hull and the capture and land theft.<\/a> The surrounding area is little visited by settlers and old maps do not mention the falls. The falls are also not mentioned in current Anishnaabe-related toponymic document<\/a>s. However, it seems that several Anishnaabe and Kanienkehaka indigenous communities were very active on the North River. In particular, there are the Amicons, an indigenous clan in 1847<\/a> on what now seems to be the Val-Morin golf course. Near the falls, there is also possibly an unmarked Aboriginal burial. Although we do not know more for the moment, this element will be deepened in the next few months. <\/span>The different nations have inhabited these territories for undoubtedly millennias, which is formally reconize now by the Tiower\u00f3:ton reserve. Estabished by the Canadian government and the First Nations in 1850 the reserve is the second home<\/a> of Kahnaw\u00e1:ke and Kanesatake.<\/span>
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AFTER the 19e century: colonisation and creation of the park<\/h2>\n
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“The passage of Sauvage mount, between Sainte-Marguerite and Val-Morin”, Lapr\u00e9s et Lavergne, Le Monde illustr\u00e9, 8 juin 1895<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the colonization in the Laurentians comes bourgeois and then mass tourism<\/a>, 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,<\/a> by the wordly famous Jackrabbi<\/a>t. 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-Ad\u00e8le, 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Little piece of a 1939 map where we can see two trails going through the park : “trail alpine” et la “trail viking”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Past-2000: The Repression and the destruction of the park<\/h2>\n
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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-Ad\u00e8le, in collaboration with the MRC des Pays-d’en-Haut, the Parc Lin\u00e9aire le P’tit Train du Nord, the S\u00fbret\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec, and the security firms S\u00e9curit\u00e9 XGuard and Groupe S\u00fbret\u00e9 Inc., has been trying to remove people of sexual and gender diversity from places for over a decade now.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

2010-2018 : intensification of the repression<\/h3>\n
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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-Ad\u00e8le. This one writes on the card: \u201cRequest for the demolition of the bridge. Cause trouble with the gay community.\u201d 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.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Image from one of the police raids<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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In 2016, the Director General of the City of Sainte-Ad\u00e8le, Pierre Dionne, asked the S\u00fbret\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec to monitor the Falls, \u201cpopular place with the gays\u201d. In order to satisfy the request of the director general, the S\u00fbret\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec ensures increased surveillance of the site. On June 6, 2017, Councilor Nadine Bri\u00e8re submitted a homophobic complaint to Pierre Dionne, the Director General of the City of Sainte-Ad\u00e8le: \u201cHello 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 Bri\u00e8re’s complaint, the City of Sainte-Ad\u00e8le asked the S\u00fbret\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec to intervene. Following this request, the S\u00fbret\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec carried out police raids on the falls.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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During one of these raids, a police officer present on the scene declared to be sent by the mayor of the City of Sainte-Ad\u00e8le, Robert Milot: \u201cIt is the mayor of Sainte-Ad\u00e8le, he does not want any more naked people here, the gays have been coming for a long time\u201d. 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.<\/a> Following the raids and the announcement of the gate, a homophobe thanks Mayor Milot for having suppressed \u201cgays\u201d:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00ab Bonjour Monsieur le Maire de Sainte-Ad\u00e8le. Comme beaucoup de gens, j’ai suis le dossier des chutes Ste.-Margerite. Je suis r\u00e9sident de Montr\u00e9al et justement je cherche \u00e0 quitter ma ville \u00e0 cause qu’il n’y a pas un parc a Montr\u00e9al ou je ne peut me promener sans me faire presque harceler par des hommes pour ne pas dire des gais !!! Si vous n\u2019\u00eates pas capable de vous tenir devant une poign\u00e9e d’individus aux m\u0153urs douteux, bien laisse-moi vous dire que je ne choisirais pas votre ville comme lieux de r\u00e9sidence\u00bb.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Several dozen people will receive fines, which will subsequently fall due to procedural faults on the part of the police.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

2019-2022 : Failed attempts to “close the falls”<\/span><\/h3>\n
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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 Bri\u00e8re submits a second homophobic complaint to the director general of the City of Sainte-Ad\u00e8le, Simon Filiatreault. Bri\u00e8re accompanies his complaint with a press clipping in which the Falls are described as a place where \u201chomosexual men [meet] and [can] swim in Speedos and kiss, without anyone judging them\u201d. In order to satisfy Mayor Bri\u00e8re, 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 Bri\u00e8re and Director General Filiatreault asked the S\u00fbret\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec 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 \u200b\u200binstalling a gate at the entrance to the parking lot near the falls\u2014an 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 \u201cspotting, profiling\u201d and having \u201ca 6th sense\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The gate, as we could find it still in 2022.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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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:<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Ce deuxi\u00e8me commentaire devient d’autant plus absurde et violent lorsqu’on apprend que la MRC des Pays-d’en-Haut a volontairement retir\u00e9 les poubelles \u00e0 l’entr\u00e9e des chutes suite aux rafles polici\u00e8res cibl\u00e9es de 2017. La gu\u00e9rite repr\u00e9sente une continuation et une intensification ill\u00e9gitime et ill\u00e9gale des attaques anti-queers lanc\u00e9es pour la premi\u00e8re fois par Milot en 2017.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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Following the nudity roundups of 2020, Bri\u00e8re received a Facebook message from a resident thanking him for evicting the world of the Chutes:<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Bonjour Mme Bri\u00e8re je vous envoie ces photos qui ont \u00e9t\u00e9 prises le week-end de la f\u00eate du Travail en 2017 dans le bois\u00e9 adjacent aux chutes Glen Wexford, si vous les zoom\u00e9es vous constaterez que ces enveloppes contenaient des condoms et du lubrifiant . Une grande quantit\u00e9 des arbres en avaient \u00e9t\u00e9 d\u00e9cor\u00e9 par un organisme LGBT en fait il s’y pr\u00e9parait toute une partouze et c’\u00e9tait comme \u00e7a r\u00e9guli\u00e8rement les beaux week-ends chauds. Nous les gens qui habitons pr\u00e8s des chutes n’allions plus profiter de marche dans les sentiers bois\u00e9s les avoisinant, car nous y croisaient souvent des gays en pleine action sans g\u00eane d’\u00eatre vu. Comme les ch\u00fbtes sont devenus plus populaires avec les r\u00e9seaux sociaux toutes sortes de gens les fr\u00e9quentent maintenant et les gays s’\u00e9loignent un peu plus loin dans les bois\u00e9es pour faire leur affaires alors il \u00e9tait grandement temps de fermer cet endroit MERCI Le dossier est pas semblable a celui de Rawdon nous avons ici la communaut\u00e9 LGBT qui se pense chez eux et la SQ qui refuse d\u2019intervenir afin de ne pas faire de vague\u00bb.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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These condoms were distributed by Le Dispensaire as part of the “Pr\u00eat 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).<\/span><\/p>\n

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To conclude<\/h2>\n
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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-Ad\u00e8le. 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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To get involved with us, join our newsletter or write to us directly!<\/a> If you have any other relevant informations or notice a correction to be made, write directly to us.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 (rivi\u00e8re-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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18125,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"https:\/\/chutesauxfifs.noblogs.org\/?page_id=5","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-63","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","en-US"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chutesauxfifs.noblogs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/63","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chutesauxfifs.noblogs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chutesauxfifs.noblogs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chutesauxfifs.noblogs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chutesauxfifs.noblogs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/chutesauxfifs.noblogs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/63\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119,"href":"https:\/\/chutesauxfifs.noblogs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/63\/revisions\/119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chutesauxfifs.noblogs.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}