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Formerly homeless, Frank Sthilaire recounts his 14-year journey on the streets of Montreal

The stories in this series are products of the Inclusive Journalism Project, a research initiative that seeks to develop a new way of reporting about poverty and homelessness. Whereas conventional articles speak about the poor and the homeless and address readers outside those communities, the stories produced by this project are written as dialogues, or conversations, with their subjects, and are intended to speak to their communities.

When you walk into your one-room apartment and take a seat in front of your small television, can you say that, at 51 years old, this is all you need—a single bed with warm sheets, a kitchen with a stove and a few dishes, a tiny closet space for storage?

Is this your slightly chubby cat lying here peacefully on the blanket? By the way, I couldn’t help but notice that you’re missing some fingers when you pulled your right hand out of your pocket to stroke her head.

To be honest this cat was with me the whole 14 years I was living on the street. Right up to the night this happened to my hand last year. Fell asleep under a bridge in minus 40 degree weather. When you’re drunk you don`t feel how dangerously cold it is. At some point in the night, the right hand slipped out of its glove, and got badly frostbitten.

You told me that at the hospital they tried to restore circulation to the fingers, but it was too late—they had to amputate. I would expect someone who had most of his fingers on one hand removed would feel a sense of loss, but you tell me you gained from the experience. Remember when you said, “losing my fingers was a wake-up call … It made me put the past behind me, and look ahead to the future?”

You see, Matt, the trouble started in 2000, when family issues forced me to move out of my home. This happens to lots of people in the street. We try living with different family members, but often we find them not to be much of a long-term fit. Eventually, I stocked my backpack with supplies and spent my first night living on the street. And when you end up on the street, your heart weakens. There’s no love there—you’re completely demolished and no longer part of society.

The shock of ending up on the street must take its toll, struggling to find stability.

I tried setting up a tent at Place Émilie-Gamelin, but was eventually forced to take it down by police. Viger Park is even less welcoming; city officials routinely call on firefighters to hose you down.

I fell into a depression around that time. I didn’t have anyone and I didn’t know where to go. I drank more, and eventually, I got hooked on crack to cope.

After several years, I learned how to survive on the street. I reached out to Le sac à dos, an organization set up to assist Montreal’s homeless. There, you can set up a mailbox where you can have social benefit cheques sent. There are plenty of shelters where you can get a warm meal, too: La maison du père, Old Brewery Mission and Acceuil Bonneau, among others.

You say you can eat six times a day if you know where to go?

Yeah, but unfortunately, a lot of people don’t know about these places—and even worse, some people know, but are too shy to reach out for help. I know this first-hand.

At first, I resorted to eating out of garbage cans because I was too ashamed to go to a shelter. After a while on the street, I became closed off, and the shame is accompanied by fear and paranoia.

‘Cause when you sleep on the street, you’re always checking your things. You’re worried about being beaten or stabbed by someone trying to rob you. I only ever had a toonie on me—I buried all of my money in the park to be safe.

Living like this takes its toll. Over the 14 years I spent on the street, I attempted suicide three times.

But you’ve persevered, and you told me that one day you met someone who changed your life. A social worker from Acceuil Bonneau named Tommy, who told you that with some effort, paperwork and perseverance, you could pull yourself out of the street and into a government-subsidized apartment. This place.

Tommy gave me the papers and showed me all the places I needed to bring them. He was willing to help me, but I had to be willing and ready to help myself.

It took several years, but eventually, I found out that there was this one-room apartment available here near Berri Square. Not long after, I spent the night sleeping under a bridge in the dead of winter, and my hand slipped out of its glove.

I would have hesitated to make the change if my hand was still normal. But the doctors who amputated my fingers asked if I had a place to stay to keep warm—the whole situation woke me up. Now, after a year, I am settled into this new life, spending free time volunteering with organizations like SOS Itinérant, and handing out sandwiches to people living on the streets that I have come to know so well.

If you live the life I once lived, you should know that there’s a way out. I did it, and I believe with all my heart that you can too.

If I go out into the street and reach out to people, maybe they’ll think, ‘I know that he went through the same thing—I can make it out too.’ They just need a helping hand, and it’s my pleasure.

Canadian Journalists for Free Expression among groups present for talks

Journalists advocating for better treatment of reporters during protests are feeling confident after a closed meeting between local journalists and the Montreal police Monday morning.

The meeting was moderated by Tom Henheffer, executive director of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, and attended by members of the Canadian Association of Journalists and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

“We cannot change what happened in the past, but today we met to ensure the police and the independent press could cooperate with a mutual respect for each other’s work and each other’s safety,” said Henheffer at a press conference across the street from Montreal police headquarters on St. Urbain street. “This meeting is the start of an ongoing conversation we plan to have with the police.”

Henheffer said the members of the independent media pledged to obey police orders and not obstruct police during protests. In return, the Montreal police agreed to recognize the rights of the independent press and allow them to cover protests.

Henheffer also said the SPVM is working to create guidelines for journalists, giving reporters an idea of how far back they should be from arrests or police lines and even an idea of police tactics to ensure journalists remain out of the way of any maneuvers. While the guidelines haven’t been created yet, Henheffer said he feels the SPVM will be reasonable.

“It’ll be an ongoing conversation,” he said. “I’m sure that they will be willing to talk about them at the very least. Whether we can get them to move on [any rules], I’m not completely sure on that.”

Matt D’Amours, a journalist with The Link and 99% Media who has been covering Montreal protests for years, feels confident about the new understanding between journalists and Montreal police.

“Nobody is under the illusion that change is going to happen right away,” he said. “But we have taken a very important step towards starting a dialogue with the [Montreal police] to make sure the situation and conditions of journalists—whether they be independent, mainstream or otherwise—will improve, and also the police can do their job without us interfering.”

D’Amours said he hopes conditions for journalists improve so independent and student journalists can cover protests without the fear of retribution.

The Concordian received an e-mail alleging similarities between Kalina Laframboise’s original article for Canadian University Press and a later article by Tim Weynerowski which appeared in The Concordian. Upon examining the claims, The Concordian‘s editor-in-chief Amanda Shore apologized on behalf of the newspaper to Ms. Laframboise and promised a notice would be run in our next issue.

The Concordian printed a statement of regret in our January 21 issue, the first published since the allegations arose. Additionally, Ms. Laframboise’s original article was published in full next to the statement, alongside the relevant paragraphs in Mr. Weynerowski’s later article, so that our readers were as well informed as possible as to the nature of the similarities.

It has become clear however that the Canadian University Press and Ms. Laframboise require us to clarify our language, as our initial statement did not explicitly use the term plagiarism. We accept this and fully recognize that the similarities amounted to plagiarism, and accept that our January 21 statement was not clear enough in this regard. We apologize to Ms. Laframboise, the Canadian University Press, and our readers for having having allowed plagiarized material to appear in The Concordian.

In addition to launching efforts to better educate staff about plagiarism, we will be conducting a full review of The Concordian‘s policies and procedures to make sure that measures are in place to prevent future incidents of plagiarism and to create a clear policy so that any future incidents of plagiarism are handled in an appropriate manner.