The STM says they don't "socially profile" but advocates for the homeless are disgusted by fencing put up at Berri UQAM Metro station to keep people from resting out of the flow of foot traffic.
Alexandre Paradis with SOS Itinerance says the "gate of shame" near the St Denis exit at Berri is aimed at squeezing homeless people out of public spaces, one of the few places where they can rest out of the cold.
He says putting in fences or spikes to keep homeless people out is dehumanizing and by locking them out - we force them outside into uninhabitable cold and will have to face the consequences of that.
The STM took advantage of renovations to install the fences spokesperson Amelie Regis says it was a security measure.
"At this isolated spot in particular, we noticed a lot of criminal acts," she says. "So we secured it by the installation of doors."
The shady nook had been a good, sheltered space to rest or to buy and sell drugs.