Montreal won't fight to renew calche moratorium, Coderre says

Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre said Wednesday that he won't fight aQuebec Superior Court injunction against the City of Montreal's year-long ban on horse-drawn calches.

The injunction was granted Wednesday afternoon andis effective immediately, meaningcalchedrivers can return to work until June 3, when the injunction will be revisited byJusticeKirklandCasgrain.

However, Coderre said the city won't fightto see the moratorium renewed.

"Clearly, the moratorium was not the rightdecision, and I won't spend the summer battling one injunction after another."

"There will becalchesthis summer in Montreal."

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Last week, Coderresuddenlyannounced themoratorium on the horse-drawn vehiclesin the city. The bantook effect Tuesday.

Coderrehadcited viral videos showing horses colliding with cars andapparently suffering in the heat as justification for a one-year break, to give the city time to come up with new rules.

In his ruling,Casgrainsaid the city didn't have authority to introduce such a moratorium.

If the city was concerned about the security of thehorses, he said, thencalche drivers should not have been issued operatingpermits inMarch.

Moratorium 'cruel'

Calcheoperators and drivers welcomed Casgain's decision, with one saying he can now "breathe."

"[The moratorium] wasn't justified, it wasn't correct it was a cruel measure," said LucDesparois, the owner of Lucky Luc Stable in Griffintown.

"It's business as usual tomorrow," he said.

Audi Gozlan, the lawyer for the calche operators, said the moratorium was "unreasonable" to begin with.

"Permits had been issued, and then three months later, Montreal unilaterally decided to take them away with no notice," he said.

The city's stated reasons for enacting the moratorium, including concern for the welfare of the horses,did not outweigh the damage it would do to the calcheoperators in terms of lost income, he said.

"They have mortgages, rents to pay," he said.

"The message here for the city is that you can't take away someone's livelihood for a year," Gozlan said.

Earlier,Gozlanargued before the courtthat the city exceededits authority in imposing theone-yearban.

• Nocalcheson Montreal streets this summer, Mayor DenisCoderresays
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Coderresays concerns remain,new policy needed

Coderreremainedunapologetic, sayingthe moratorium was declared out of concerns for public security and the well-being of the horsesconcerns that remain.

"My bureaucrats said the moratorium was the quickest solution, and we don't have time to lose when public security is at risk," he said.

"The problem hasn't changed.I won't let the situation remain as is we need a horse policy in Montreal."

Video of stable conditions, injured horse

In theirdefence of the moratorium, lawyers for the City of Montreal showed a video to the courtof aninspection of a stable where calche horses are kept. The date thevideo was taken was not clear.

It showed uncleanstableswith visiblepiles of excrement and floors caked with soiled hay.

It also showedone horse with an open, unbandaged wound on its leg.

Gozlanargued that the city has the power to do inspections and imposefinesand that it's not necessary to put dozens of people out of workwithout warning or compensation in order to address what he called isolatedproblems.

SPCAwants city to fight on

SophieGaillard, a lawyer with the MontrealSPCA'sanimal advocacy department, said what'sneeded is a total ban on horses by the City of Montreal.

"We're satisfied with the moratorium in terms of a first step towards revisiting the whole existence of horse-drawn carriages in Montreal, but we stress that our position is that we need a permanent ban."

In the meantime, she said the summer-like heat that Montreal is experiencing will require city inspectors to keep a close eye on the healthofcalchehorses as they head back to work in Old Montreal.