Compliance with the Montréal Charter of Rights and Responsibilities

In effect since 2006, the Montréal Charter of Rights and Responsibilities sets out the City’s principles, values, and commitments, which are binding on all staff members and elected officials. 

The Charter also recognizes citizens’ rights and responsibilities, such as helping to keep the City clean, participating in democratic processes, and safeguarding the environment, among others. 

The rights and responsibilities of the public, as well as the City of Montréal’s commitments, fall under seven main themes: 

• Democratic life (e.g., citizen participation) 
• Economic and social life (e.g., access to safe drinking water, measures to prevent and combat poverty and social exclusion) 
• Cultural life (e.g., accessibility to arts and cultural venues) 
• Recreation, physical activity, and sports (e.g., the creation, renovation, or improvement of parks to meet neighbourhood needs) 
• Environment and sustainable development (e.g., recycling and waste management) 
• Safety (e.g., safe urban planning) 
• Municipal services (e.g., providing municipal services in a competent, respectful, and non-discriminatory manner)

The commitments in the Charter that are most frequently raised in our investigations involve the quality of municipal services, universal accessibility, citizen participation, safe land-use planning, compliance with health and safety standards, and the mitigation of noise and traffic nuisances.

We are the sole recourse for ensuring compliance with the rights, responsibilities, and commitments set forth in the Montréal Charter of Rights and Responsibilities. Citizens cannot ask the courts to enforce compliance. 

City of Montréal’s staff members and elected officials are required to comply with the Montréal Charter. We can intervene not only with the City’s administrative structure but also regarding decisions voted on by the City Council, Executive Committee, or a Borough Council when a commitment under the Montréal Charter is called into question, unless such decisions are primarily of a budgetary nature. This is an exception to the general rule that we have no jurisdiction over these entities. 

Here are examples of cases involving commitments under the Montréal Charter (all published in French only): 

• Accessibilité et sécurité des trottoirs de la rue Brébeuf (Accessibility and safety of sidewalks on Rue De Brébeuf)
• Processus d’adoption d’un projet particulier de construction (Process for approving a special construction project)
• Rapport d’enquête sur les VAS (Investigation report on VAS)
• Rapport d’enquête Ne pas détourner le regard (Investigation report: Don’t look the other way)

The Charter was amended in 2021 in order to, among other things, address the recommendations of the summary report by the Office de consultation publique de Montréal on systemic racism and discrimination within the jurisdiction of the City of Montréal. The amendments reinforce the City’s commitment to combating all forms of discrimination, including racial and social profiling as well as other forms of discriminatory profiling: poverty, social exclusion, sexism, racism, ageism, ableism, homophobia, lesbophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia, which may be direct, indirect, systemic, or cross-cutting in nature and which undermine the foundations of a free, just, and democratic society.

The staff of the Ombudsman de Montréal has the training and the necessary tools to deal with complaints and conduct investigations regarding discrimination.