It appears the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 212 in LaSalle will survive after all — thanks, in part, to a handful of hastily-organized fundraising events.
When the Legion was threatened with losing its Bouvier St. property because of a whopping $54,000 tax bill, people from across Montreal mobilized to set up two GoFundMe pages — the first one of which has raised a little more than $4,500 — and several sold-out fundraisers, including a benefit comedy show hosted by Joey Elias, which is slated to take place Friday night at the hall.
The LaSalle borough, meanwhile, is also planning to rent the space out to community groups looking to stage meetings and social events.
The LaSalle Legion lost its tax-exempt status in 2013, and the city had threatened to shut it down and put the property up for auction if the outstanding tax bill wasn't paid before Nov. 4.
Now, Branch 212's president Ray Cormie says the community's efforts mean it will be able to pay its outstanding $24,000 tax bill for 2017 — and its $30,000 bill for this year, too.
"We have commitments right up until at least 2020," Cormie says. "It's been almost overwhelming the amount of support and help we've been getting, and we appreciate every little bit of it."
He says the support has come from everyone from people off the street to politicians and people Joey Elias, a well-known Montreal comic who once travelled to Afghanistan to perform for Canadian troops.
"Joey Elias...I can't say enough about this man," Cormie says. "He's been a tremendous support in driving the fundraisers and getting a lot of the awareness out for us."
Last June, the Legion re-applied for its tax-exempt status, which it lost because of clerical error. Cormie says he's optimistic he'll be able to talk officials into regaining that status.
"I'm quite confident in filing this [new application] here that we should be able to get that reinstatement," he says.
In the meantime, Cormie says the Legion will be headquartered on Bouvier St. until at least 2020 — and, it can go ahead with its annual Remembrance Day ceremony, as scheduled, on Nov. 4.