1 arrested after social housing protesters barricade themselves inside vacant Jacques-Viger hospital - Action News
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Montreal

1 arrested after social housing protesters barricade themselves inside vacant Jacques-Viger hospital

A group of protesters barricaded themselves inside the old, vacant Jacques-Viger hospital complex Monday afternoon.

FRAPRU pushing for the vacant space be converted into social housing

Protesters barricaded themselves inside the vacant Jacques-Viger hospital complex Monday afternoon. (Radio-Canada)

Agroup of protesters barricaded themselves inside the old, vacant Jacques-Viger hospital complex for hours before police were finally able to clear the site Monday evening.

The demonstration was staged by Front d'action populaire en ramnagement urbain (FRAPRU), a social housing group, to kick off a week of protest in Quebec.

Protesters are asking that the empty space be converted into social housing. (Radio-Canada)

Nearly 100 protesters barricaded themselves inside the basement of the old hospital around 3:30 p.m., following a clash with police where they deployed pepper spray on the crowd.

FRAPRUwas demanding that the currently unused and deteriorating space, locatedat the corner ofRen-LvesqueBoulevard andSt-AndrStreet,be converted into social housing.

The hospital has been closedsince 2011.

As of 6:30 p.m., police were able to force the protesters to leave peacefully. Only one arrest was made on aunrelated, outstanding warrant. Two tickets were issued for contravening municipal bylaws.

With files from Radio-Canada