The owners of the Norgate apartment complex, which comprises 1,108 apartments in Montreal‘s Saint-Laurent neighbourhood, are seeking an injunction against the “Norgate and Chameran Tenants’ Assembly” (an entity that does not exist), the group Offensive Populaire (known in English as Off the Defensive), and an activist who has spoken out against the Norgate owners in the media. The landlords are also seeking $50,000 in damages. The North Star spoke with tenants to better understand the situation.
The conflict between the complex’s tenants and Norgate Québec Inc. began after the company announced to tenants in April 2026 that renovations would be carried out to replace their central heating system with individual electric baseboard heaters in each unit. This would shift the Hydro-Québec bill to the tenants. In addition to announcing this additional cost for tenants, the management company simultaneously sent out notices of rent increases ranging from $80 to $151 per unit.
The construction work would inconvenience the tenants, and, more importantly, several residents were concerned about the possible presence of asbestos in the building. A tenant who wished to remain anonymous explained: “They were the ones who made it clear to us that there is asbestos […] As proof, where I live, there’s a building next door. When there was a fire in just one apartment, they closed down the entire building. Their excuse was that there was asbestos present.”
A fire that occurred in September 2025 had indeed rendered 1520 Décarie uninhabitable, as asbestos tiles had been damaged during the fire. A report prepared at the time by the company Analysair concluded that the walls and ceilings of the building “are considered asbestos-containing materials (ACM),” thus requiring additional protective measures for workers entering the building.
Delphine, another tenant, confirms that many residents were concerned. “If all the buildings were constructed during the same period, how can we say that one building contains asbestos while the others do not?” she asks in an interview with The North Star.
Photo of the post-fire inspection at 1520 Décarie obtained by Offensive Populaire following a freedom of information request
Tenants fight back, and Norgate responds through its lawyers
On the morning of May 4, with the help of the Montreal chapter of the group Offensive Populaire, tenants from three apartment buildings on Décarie Street blocked access to their apartments for the construction company that had come to replace the heating system. They demanded a formal commitment that there was no asbestos in the walls that the workers were going to open up.
Delphine explains: “We said to ourselves, OK, before the work continues, we’d like to have a statement assuring us that we and our families won’t be at risk. That’s why, on the day of the blockade, we told the landlords: ‘We’d like you to temporarily halt the work until we can confirm that the apartments we live in do not contain asbestos.’”
Following police intervention and in light of the tenants’ refusal to end the blockade, the landlords reportedly agreed, through the police, to suspend the construction work and address the residents’ concerns. However, a formal notice was then delivered to the participants in the blockade. On May 13, the law firm Choueke Hollander served Offensive Populaire and two of its members with a formal notice demanding that they cease blocking construction work and stop making “defamatory statements” against Norgate Québec Inc., the media Pivot and the Journal de Montréal also received a cease-and-desist letter demanding they remove statements by tenants and activists from their websites.
Tenants occupy the entrance to their apartment building on May 4, 2026.
On August 12, however, Norgate’s legal pressure escalates as “The Norgate and Chameran Tenants’ Assembly,” Offensive Populaire, and activist Nicholas Harvest are targeted by a request for a restraining order and a lawsuit seeking $50,000 in damages. Norgate alleges, among other things, that tenants and activists orchestrated a second blockade in May 2026—a claim that everyone interviewed by The North Star categorically denies. A preliminary court hearing is scheduled for August 26 at 9 a.m.
According to Delphine, the purpose of this lawsuit is to intimidate the tenants and silence them in order to dismantle the movement they launched to find solutions to their problems. The tenant, who prefers to remain anonymous, adds: “Not only is this intimidation, but they think that by cutting off the head, the rest of the train will stop. But they need to know that the way they’re acting won’t stop anyone.”
Indeed, the tenants do not seem intimidated by the lawsuit. “Frankly, I’m very disappointed by their tactics. If this is how they’re trying to silence us, they’re sorely mistaken. We’re not about to back down,” says the same resident.
Who are the owners of Norgate?
The current owners of the housing complex—Jean-Philippe Claude, Frédéric Aubry, William Lande, and Nicolas Luna—purchased the 1,108 units for $197.5 million in 2024. The complex has changed hands many times, but according to the anonymous tenant, the four men—nicknamed the Norboys—are “the worst landlords we’ve ever had.”
To finance the purchase, they secured a $140.8 million loan on very favorable terms with the help of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), a federal government agency. The CMHC agreed to guarantee repayment of the loan if the owners could no longer make payments, which allowed the bank to offer a low interest rate. In exchange for this favour from the CMHC, the owners committed to maintaining 444 “affordable” housing units for 19 years. This does not prevent the owners from requesting rent increases of 6% for 2026—nearly double what Quebec’s Administrative Housing Tribunal recommends.
Jean-Philippe Claude is somewhat well known in the real estate investment world, as he is a “coach” in the field. He speaks at events hosted by the Quebec Real Estate Investors Club and co-authored a book in 2020 titled *Turn Overpriced Multi-Unit Properties into Opportunities*.
As the book recommends for “generating passive income,” Claude and the other owners hire a subcontractor to manage operations at Norgate. “This way, you can enjoy the appreciation, loan capitalization, and cash flow without having to deal with it yourself.” Here, management is delegated to the company of one of the partners, Frédéric Aubry—Gestion Capital Montréal.
Unacceptable management practices
On the ground, a man named Nicolas Sima manages the complex’s affairs on behalf of Gestion Capital Montréal. He has a history of several questionable practices. In 2018, he boasted on Radio-Canada that he had “managed to get a tenant to leave in exchange for a pack of cigarettes.” Sima is also the author of recent letters aimed at dissuading Norgate tenants from going to the Administrative Housing Tribunal. In these letters, he implied that going to the tribunal would harm their ability to find housing in the future.
According to the anonymous tenant, this type of practice is widespread among large landlords like this one, as they seek to take advantage of more vulnerable residents. “As you know, the majority of the building’s occupants are immigrants. So they exploit our status and our lack of information. Unfortunately for the landlords, however, the people living in these units are well aware of their rights. People are informed. […] We’re not willing to put up with all these abuses.”
Who are Offensive Populaire and the “Norgate and Chameran Tenants’ Assembly”?
Offensive Populaire is a political group launched in 2025 with chapters in Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia. It brings together activists who are fighting for change in working-class neighbourhoods. The Montreal chapter has drawn attention for its interventions at the Saint-Laurent borough council, as well as for its criticism of a public housing manager in Mercier-Ouest.
The assembly targeted by Norgate’s legal action, however, is not a real entity. According to a member of Offensive Populaire, the name comes from a poster announcing a public meeting intended for all tenants in the Montreal neighbourhoods of Norgate and Chameran. Chameran is a neighbourhood located more than a kilometre and a half from the Norgate apartments. Residents of this neighbourhood recently won a long-running battle against another real estate company that wanted to evict them.
Offensive Populaire is working with them, as well as with the residents of Norgate, to help them build democratic committees dedicated to defending their rights and negotiating with the landlords. It is a committee of this kind that, for example, could negotiate the terms under which construction work can be carried out without inconveniencing the tenants.
The tenants are clear that if the landlords’ strategy is to portray members of Offensive Populaire as outside agitators manipulating the tenants, it won’t work. “Offensive Populaire—they didn’t come looking for us. On the contrary, we ended up at the [borough] meeting because we went there to complain about the abuses by these new landlords and were wondering what to do,” explains the anonymous tenant. She adds, “It’s everyone’s frustration that’s bringing people [into the struggle].”
Last June, Offensive Populaire secured public access to a soccer field in the Chameran neighbourhood by organizing a game there with local youth.
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