Temporary carports are a familiar site in Montreal but for some west islanders, they aren’t allowed.
Dollard-des-Ormeaux resident Charlotte Gibson is fighting to keep hers for several reasons. She has been using a tempo and her garage to build a Halloween maze for her neighbours for many years.
“I have been collecting for 38 years and my husband, for a while, built a structure that we could do a maze in and then three years ago I had the ‘tempo’ and I did it with the tempo,” said Gibson.
It takes about two weeks for her to set up and it’s jammed packed with everything scary.
“The kids in the neighbourhood have permission to just go around and around, they don’t touch anything they are great and they have a good time,” added Gibson.
But having a Halloween-themed tempo is just a small part of her fight to keep it. Gibson has been pleading with the city for nearly a decade to allow her an exemption during the winter months because she lives with a disability. She and her husband have been requesting reasonable accommodation and a permit every year since 2018.
“Every year I am denied,” she said. Her husband Peter Buchanan said it’s been a frustrating fight.
“We’ve gone as far as going to human rights. In the meantime the city continues to give us tickets,” said Buchanan.
The couple has accumulated over $15 thousand worth of tickets.
“Normally they let Halloween pass and this year they decided that they would give us a seven day warning which expires in advance of Halloween,” added Buchanan.
They don’t plan on dismantling the tempo because according to the couple, they would disappoint too many neighborhood kids. But, at the same time, they will continue to fight for a medical exemption.
“Our choice is to really end up with an understanding on this or have to move and we really don’t want to,” said Buchanan.
The city of Dollard-des-Ormeaux did not respond to Global News’ request for comment, but in 2018 city council told residents it would debate the pros and cons of lifting the tempo ban for exceptional circumstances. Nothing has changed since.
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