How did this happen to us?

Allion School Campus on 5th Avenue

In 2007, the Allion elementary school was moved from these premises to another campus a few blocks away.  Immediately after the students were moved, the school board accepted an offer to purchase this site from a Montreal housing organization called Regroupement des Organismes du Montréal Ethnique pour le Logement (ROMEL).  At the same time, the same organization made an offer to buy the Cecil Newman school site in Lasalle.

When public outcry caused the cancellation of the Cecil Newman Condominium Project, plans for the sale and development of the Allion site were kept secret from the residents of the neighbourhood.  However, work on the architectural plans and financing of the Allion project continued.

Until, on the afternoon of Good Friday, 2011, residents living around the Allion school site received an inconspicuous envelope in their mail box inviting them to learn about the transformation project, inconveniently scheduled at the same time as Game 6 of the Habs v Bruins playoff.

Seven residents attended the meeting at City Hall, and they were shocked by what they heard.