Chinese community fights for its shuttered centre

Chinese community fights for space What used to be a Chinese community center is now a music school – and members of the community aren't happy about it.

Members of Montreal’s Chinese community are protesting the closure of a community centre, the result of zoning changes this past winter.

The centre was born in 2004 after over three decades of negotiations with the federal government over financing. But a decade later, the building was repossessed after mismanagement forced the centre to shut down, sparking a years-long fight to reopen the facility.

In December, the city changed zoning laws, allowing the building to be used for non-cultural purposes. As a result of the changes, Musitechnic, a non-profit music school opened in the building in 2017. While the community is allowed to use 1000 square metres of the facility, May Chu, a spokesperson for the Progressive Chinese of Quebec, said that’s not enough.

“We have 5,000 years of cultural and social history and you give us 1,000 square metres to display that?” she said.

Chu said that while the past four years have been a struggle and the building has been empty during much of that time, the community was close to raising the money necessary to reopen it.

“This centre would be dedicated for the use of the public for social and cultural activities,” said Chu. “With the stroke of a pen in December 2017, we lost the use of the centre.”

“We were just looking to get some loans from the bank. While we were negotiating, the city changed the bylaw.”

Montreal officials declined an interview request but said in a statement that the Chinese community will benefit from meeting rooms, an upgraded auditorium and access to the community hall for a certain number of days per year.

Chu said the Chinese community isn’t asking for anything that other cultural groups in Montreal don’t already have and that Montreal is the only major Canadian city without a Chinese community centre.

“The Black, the Italian, the Jewish people have their institutions to preserve Jewish history. Quebecers have Law 101 to preserve language and so many institutions to preserve French Quebec history. I think it’s normal that every people value their identity. We need to preserve our history.”