The City of Montreal will pay $350,000 to the man who made a noise complaint against his neighbour, Cabaret La Tulipe, ending the ongoing legal saga. The Quebec Superior Court ruled in favour of Pierre-Yves Beaudoin in 2023 and ordered the dance hall on Papineau Avenue in Montreal’s Plateau-Mont-Royal borough to close after he said the vibrations and noise were causing him “substantial harm.” Plateau-Mont-Royal borough mayor Cathy Wong said the city learned some valuable lessons during the ordeal about the importance of nightlife venues in the city. “One of the biggest lessons that we have learned is that nightlife is very important and that we need to protect it, that it is part of the cultural vitality of the Plateau and of Montreal, and that we need to take concrete actions to protect our cultural venues and performance spaces,” she said. “We still need to work in collaboration with our nightlife partners, for example, to modernize our noise regulations.” In addition to the concert hall, set in a historic building constructed in 1913, the strip on Papineau Avenue and Généreux Street also includes Mediterranean and Indian restaurants, a co-op and the Espace Locatif bar. After La Tulipe was closed, protests erupted, forcing the borough to amend a bylaw to allow showrooms, bars and cultural establishments to make some noise, as long as their decibel levels were not excessive. The Quebec Court of Appeal overruled the original ruling in 2024, confirming the establishment could reopen. The injunction was officially lifted in November 2025. Permit error For his part, Beaudoin had acquired the building adjacent to La Tulipe and converted the ground floor to residential use in 2016-2017 after receiving a permit from the borough, according to city documents. “On Aug. 4 2021, the borough sent Mr. Beaudoin a formal notice informing him that permit no. 30000565453-16 had been issued in error, that residential use was not authorized at 4518A Papineau Ave., and that he had to cease this non-compliant use within 90 days,” the document reads. Plateau-Mont-Royal urban planning bylaws prohibit residential premises from being adjacent to a performance hall or bar. On Feb. 2, 2022, Beaudoin filed an application for $860,000 in damages if he were required to cease using the space residentially. The city filed a motion in Sept. 2022 to “cease the exempt residential use” of the space. “In his defence and in a counterclaim, Mr. Beaudoin argued, among other things, that the residential use of 4518A Papineau Ave. was not non-conforming and, as a result, refused to cease this use; that the uses exercised by Théâtre La Tulipe were illegal; and that the borough’s behaviour was abusive and that he should be compensated accordingly,” the document reads. The document says that an out-of-court settlement would avoid the first phase of a 10-day trial and the second phase of proceedings, as “it avoids the legal fees and expert costs associated with challenging the expert evidence announced by Mr. Beaudoin in the second phase of the proceedings.” In addition, the settlement avoids the risk of an appeal and grants the city’s request that Beaudoin cease using the space for residential purposes. “It irrevocably ends Mr. Beaudoin’s challenge to the legality of the uses of Théâtre La Tulipe,” the document explains. Need to live with the noise Wong said that the city’s approach is to find a balance between densely populated areas such as the Plateau and cultural or performance spaces. “We will be testing different approaches before finalizing any regulatory changes. We will be looking into mediation,” she said. “We have a unique borough on the Plateau, and we need to find solutions that are adapted to the Plateau, and my intent is to find them with the partners and also with the residents.” She said that since 2021, different protections have been put in place for venues in city bylaws and programs, including a sound-proofing program. “I believe that we have evolved since the closing of La Tulipe,” said Wong. “There’s still work that needs to be done, for example, with our noise bylaw, but I think that we are at a point where we understand that on the Plateau, that there is a balance to be found, and that when we choose to live on the Plateau, that we also choose to live in a place where cultural vitality is really strong, and that we need to find way to cohabit together. And this is important for me as a mayor.”
