A massive squat for the Centre Social Auto-géré’s new digs tomorrow will send an anti-gentrification message to Pointe St-Charles’s private developers. The CSA, an autonomous, self-managed collective, is without a physical location since its inception in 2008. The action will try to put an end to that, says the CSA, though the actual spot is in a purposely top-secret location “in the Point.”

“What we’re doing on Friday is a citizen’s re-appropriation. We are residents of the neighbourhood and we’re going to take over a building abandoned by owners who have no use for it,” says CSA spokesperson Ivan D. Grandmaison (an alias used to avoid arrest). “Developers only understand the language of money and profit, and we’re fighting against that.”

The CSA requested a building in the CN yards during public consultations in October—land covering about 14 hectares—but the developers refused.

Grandmaison says arrest or expulsion from the building is not at the forefront of the takeover, but admits there is a risk of police reaction. “We’re not going there to fight with police, really not. We’re doing a community event.”

The squat begins Friday, May 29 at 5:30 p.m. Meeting point at Parc St-Gabriel, two blocks south of Charlevoix metro. Contact the CSA at centresocialautogere.org.

LINA HARPER