Countering the Colonial Gaze and Gentrification

Response to Globe and Mail Article, “Why you should eat in Parc-Ex, Montreal's ungentrified ethnic food paradise” by Adam Leith Gollner

Countering the Colonial Gaze and Gentrification

Written by: Vanessa Shanti Fernando, Sidara Ahmad, Nailasada Alidina, Nadia Sheikh and Farha Najah Hussain

Following in the footsteps of a long tradition of predatory colonialist writing, food critic Adam Leith Gollner writes on an “ungentrified food paradise”, reducing a complex area in Montreal (Globe and Mail, April 2nd). As he writes, Parc-Ex is not a neighbourhood but a “habitat” and those that frequent a given restaurant are not customers but “wildlife”.  Gollner goes beyond offering insight into Parc-Ex’s gastronomical landscape; rather, he echoes colonialist tropes in presenting this neighbourhood and its inhabitants as commodities.

Amongst the transphobic and sexist observations he makes are that of a “sixty-something transsexual with a cubist face” and a “woman with Cleopatra eyes”. For those of us yearning for a description of people that extends beyond the superficial, he goes out of his way to provide us the insightful observation that the “transsexual” has “painted fingernails and long, blond, Pantene-perfect hair”. Gollner chooses a dehumanizing narrative, rather than identifying the people he observes as three dimensional human beings with aspirations. He commodifies Parc-Ex’s residents by presenting them as sensationalized Others. For Gollner, Parc-Ex is the home of “cultural communities” and “new arrivals” who run “weird driving schools”, sell “exoticisms”, and give the impression of living “on an altogether different planet”. In contrast, the “creative class” of “encroaching bohemians”, who live in the Mile End and elsewhere, are granted full humanity: they are “[a]rtists, activists, documentary filmmakers, and musicians”. Gollner places us in their vintage wingtip shoes by explaining the rise of real estate prices and interviewing people who are thinking about moving to or opening boutiques in the neighbourhood. Why aren’t Parc-Ex’s residents granted the same nuanced portrayal? Instead, Gollner brushes aside residents’ discomfort with “gentry” outsiders and encourages readers to venture into this mysterious place, to uncover this “hidden gem” and enjoy a “pre-gentrified frontier”.

Furthermore, in attempting to “other” the residents of this area, Gollner wistfully remarks that Parc-Ex is “raw, gritty, almost un-capitalist”. Except that this neighbourhood is not un-capitalist in the slightest. Life in Parc-Extension is deeply embedded within, and affected by, a capitalist system that pushes racialized communities to the margins and forces them to face layers of systemic and state violence – including poverty, racial profiling and police violence by the SPVM, and the brutality of Canadian Border Service Agents (CBSA). To qualify this area as “un-capitalist” only adds insult to injury with respect to the harsh realities people face.

We question why the article’s headline quickly changed from its original title, “Montreal’s Park Ex, an edgy hidden gem ripe for gentrification”? Was the original title too blunt about the piece’s ideological positioning? For Gollner, Parc-Ex is “a candidate for gentrification” because of its “cheap rents and central location”. Because Parc-Ex has “always been a landing spot for new arrivals”, Gollner frames increased gentrification as simply “a significant new wave”. His failure to understand the process and impact of gentrification, and ultimately support it by stating that it happens in the “best of places,” is promoting an act of systemic aggression.

Gentrification is a dynamic and violent economic process in which inhabitants of poor and working class neighborhoods are displaced from their homes and neighborhoods. This is primarily due to the fact that developers – with support of municipal politicians and governments as is the case with Parc-Extension - seek profit from relatively cheap property by constructing or converting real-estate in that area (e.g condominiums).

Gollner’s call-out to hipsters and others outside of Parc-Ex is not a harmless rallying cry. Gentrification is a very real process in Parc-Extension, as can be seen by le Projet d'aménagement d'un nouveau campus universitaire sur le site de la gare de triage d'Outremont. As stated in the “Rapport de consultation publique (2007)” by the Office de Consultation Publique de Montreal, the plan is to construct student residents, teaching and research buildings for l'Université de Montréal.  A private development of 800 units will be built, in which only 30% will be for social housing.  As Fred Burrill states in his response to Gollner's piece (Maisonneuve, April 6) Parc-Ex is “. . . a neighbourhood where almost 20 percent of the population pays 50 percent of its monthly income in rent, and where 81 percent of the total population are tenants, facing a high risk of displacement with the encroachment of condo projects and university residences”.  The displacement that Parc-Ex residents face is very real, and no laughing matter.

Gollner's piece on food is no a harmless folly. It is one that is embroiled in racist ideology and at the very least ignores the pernicious impacts of gentrification on human beings. 

As individuals who are committed to the communities within which we organise, and from which we draw inspiration in our quest for social justice, we acknowledge with great humility the creativity, strength and determination of communities and neighbourhoods who have and continue to fight against racism and gentrification.

The authors are part of the South Asian Youth (SAY) collective, in Montreal occupied Kanienkehaka (Mohawk) Territory.