On July 14th 1966, the executive council of the city of Montreal, presided by mayor Jean Drapeau, decided to forbid the butchering, slaughtering, breeding, fattening, raising and the selling of poultry and game on its territory. After a meeting of the municipal council, this decision became law on October 5th of the same year, on the eve of the World Fair of 1967, and would forever alter Quebec’s food and cultural practices. Five years later, we would also forbid the practice in the cities public markets.
Some people would claim victory for social progress translating in
the exodus of "farm animals" to the country. Others would be relieved
by the improvement in sanitary conditions downtown, eliminating
droppings from the urban landscape. While others would denounce the
loss to food autonomy, an interference in individual and collective
freedoms and a blind generalization of the relationship between humans
and animals in an urban setting.
It is therefore that in 2010, multiple large north-American
cities, after public consultation reuniting citizens, experts,
scientists and elected officials, have reintegrated certain animals such
as laying hens into their city limits (Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver,
New York and Chicago). Ottawa, Toronto and Gatineau are not to be left
out and will start public consultations in the near future.
Considering that we have a legitimate and democratic right for
collective decisions regarding actual and future societal issues, the
signatories of this letter call on the executive council of the City of
Montreal to mandate, and in the shortest of delays, the Montreal Public
Consultation office to hold a public consultation on the future of urban
agriculture in montreal, most notably on the potential for
reintergrating laying hens
into our urban landscape.
It is noted that the Montreal Public Consultation office was
instituted in 2002 by article 75 in the City of Montreal Charter and
that no public consultation was held in 1966 to forbid the butchering,
slaughtering, breeding, fattening, raising and the selling of poultry
and game within the Montreal city limits.
Collectif de Recherche en Aménagement Paysager et en Agriculture Urbaine Durable