Housing advocates are questioning the decision by a downtown Montreal shopping centre to use the theme song from a popular kid’s TV series to keep people from loitering in some parts of the building.
The Complexe Desjardins in Montreal has been playing the Baby Shark theme song in some stairwells beneath the building in order to keep the people from loitering in those places.
“About a year ago, music was installed on some of the fire escapes in the Complexe Desjardins because we were having problems in these areas,” Complexe Desjardins spokesperson Jean-Benoît Turcotti said in an emailed statement.
The mall is not the first one to come up with the strategy as it has been tried elsewhere including the city of West Palm Beach, Fla. while the Montreal transit service STM has also been playing the earworm in some subway stations.
Turcotti says the non-stop drone of “doo, doo, doo doo” on loop and at various speeds in the fire escapes has been an success at the building thus far.
“Since the installation of this sound solution, we have noticed an improvement in the situation,” the spokesperson noted, saying there are not plans to stop having the song echo throughout the building’s stairwells.
Not far down the road from the mall is the Old Brewery Mission, which is the city’s largest homelessness support organization.
A spokesperson for the 125-year-old charitable organization believes the move wreaks of NIMBYism.
“It’s alarming to try and put people outdoors who are already coming from outside,” Mila Alexova said.
“It’s another clear example of not in my backyard. A toddler’s song to vacate the premises … there are better ways.”
She said local institutions should be searching for “more humane” solutions to deal with the problem.
“I think the big players in our society have to do better. There are much more humane ways of intervening if there is a problem around their establishments,” Alexova offered.
Sam Watts, CEO of Welcome Hall Mission in Westmount, which offers services to homeless people, says the “cruel and unusual” tactic by the mall displaces the problem of homelessness rather than address it.
David Chapman, who heads the shelter Resilience Montreal, says the shopping mall may have become exasperated with a growing presence of unhoused people in the building, but he says the problem ultimately stems from a lack of shelter spaces in the city.
However, Turcotti noted that the Desjardins Group, which owns the mall, has not turned a blind eye to the homeless situation in Montreal.
“We are very sensitive to the situation of people experiencing homelessness, and the Desjardins Group has pledged $1.2 million for homelessness in Montreal in 2023,” he stated.
“Our goal is not to coerce these people, but to support them. That’s why we have two social workers working at the Complexe Desjardins to ensure a dialogue with these people.”
*With files from The Canadian Press