In recent months, The North Star has been in contact with members of the group Off the Defensive (Offensive Populaire) and tenants of the Norgate apartments in Montreal. The tenants are currently being sued by the company that owns the apartments for $50,000 in retaliation for recent mobilization efforts carried out by the tenants. Here is a photo recap of the timeline of events over the past few months that led to this lawsuit.
Door-to-door
Starting in December 2025, members of the activist group Off the Defensive began conducting outreach to learn more about living conditions around the Côte-Vertu metro station in Montreal’s Saint-Laurent borough. After a few visits to public spaces and door-to-door canvassing in apartment buildings, their efforts turned to the Norgate complex. Virtually every tenant there was facing problems with building maintenance, in addition to facing steep rent hikes every year.
Many people have voiced their frustration with how the repair work is being handled. According to members of Off the Defensive who were going door-to-door at the time, tenants faced a twofold problem: it was extremely difficult and time-consuming to get issues resolved, and when the time finally came for the work to be done, the workers would show up without notice and leave everything in disarray, sometimes leaving walls open for months.
This is still the case today, according to a Norgate resident who spoke with The North Star. “Given the current situation, we don’t feel safe,” she says. A former tenant we met on the sidelines of an Off the Defensive event adds, “Some tenants are forced to install cameras in their homes because of this.”
Interventions at the borough council meeting
In December 2025, and again in the winter and spring of 2026, tenants from Norgate went to the Saint-Laurent borough council to seek support from municipal officials regarding their housing issues. Instead, borough mayor Alan DeSousa systematically referred people to the administrative tribunal for housing and to the borough’s housing committee. Ironically, funding for that very committee was cut by $31,933 in 2026 by the DeSousa administration.
Tenant assembly
In April, Off the Defensive organized a meeting for residents of Norgate and the Chameran neighbourhood. The event drew about 50 people, including the borough mayor (who was allowed to attend by those present). The assembly passed a resolution to create a “defence committee” for the two neighbourhoods. Tenants were elected to organize this committee.
In May, another meeting was held. About 50 people attended. This meeting of tenants from Chameran and Norgate is now the subject of a lawsuit filed by the owners of Norgate.
May 4 blockade
On May 4, tenants of three apartment buildings on Décarie Street blocked access to the construction company that had come to replace their heating system. This change would have shifted heating costs to the tenants (without reducing their rent). The residents also feared that the work could have harmful consequences, since asbestos was likely present in the building.
Negotiations took place with management and police, resulting in a partial work stoppage. Following this standoff, Norgate Québec Inc. sent a formal notice to the media outlets that had covered the event, as well as to Off the Defensive, through the controversial law firm Choueke Hollander.
Street food for the building cleaning workers’ union
On May 14, the Confederation of National Unions (CSN) arrived at Norgate to organize a rally featuring a food truck set up for the occasion. This joint mobilization with the recently formed defence committee stems from the fact that the Norgate building superintendents’ union has been without a collective bargaining agreement since September 2025. Their working conditions and the sheer scope of their duties (there are only six building superintendents for 1,112 apartments) prevent union members, in particular, from providing “world-class customer service” as stipulated in the collective bargaining agreement that had been signed with the former owners.
Solidarity action with the tenants on Ouimet Street
On May 27, members of Off the Defensive and residents gathered at 7 a.m. to observe construction work similar to that planned for May 4. This time, it was the apartments at 1305 Ouimet Street that were having their heating systems replaced, with the cost passed on to the tenants.
The dozen or so people present did not block access to the building but instead tried to talk with the construction workers on site. They also approached passersby to discuss possible legal remedies with them and made signs.
It is this act of solidarity that is described, in the current lawsuit against Off the Defensive and the tenants, as a second blockade.
Press conference
In mid-August, Nicholas Harvest, the coordinator of the Montreal chapter of Off the Defensive, learned that he was being sued in civil court by Norgate Québec Inc. The lawsuit, which requires swift legal action (a temporary injunction), targets Harvest personally, as well as Off the Defensive and the “Norgate and Chameran Tenants’ Assembly.”
The hearing, scheduled for August 26, was postponed by mutual agreement between the attorneys for both parties until November 20. Nevertheless, Off the Defensive had called a press conference on the morning of the original hearing date. Two members of the organization spoke before about thirty tenants from the building and activists who had come to show their support.
Lyn O’Donnell spoke on behalf of the Montreal chapter of Off the Defensive, offering the group’s perspective on the reasons behind the lawsuit:
[The tenants] began to organize because they were facing common problems and realized that they are stronger when they stand up to their landlord together, rather than acting individually. Off the Defensive supports their efforts. Norgate’s lawsuit threatens to limit our ability to coordinate this support, as well as the tenants’ ability to organize among themselves to secure better living conditions. We must call a spade a spade. We are facing an attempt to use the power of wealth to suppress collective political action and the tenants’ ability to bargain collectively.
The organization also launched a crowdfunding campaign following the press conference. The campaign has already raised more than $10,000.
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