Roger-Luc Chayer
A few days ago, having parked in front of a building where I only had to enter and exit to pick up the mail from a friend outside the country, I noticed behind me a parking agent for the City of Montreal who gave tickets to other parked cars. Quite simply, I go to see him to ask him for permission to hurry up to take the mail and he replies: « It’s your decision, sir ». I ask him again, surprised at his answer, if I could just walk in and out less than 30 seconds, he repeats: « it’s your choice, I can’t answer yes or no ».
I told him that I had a lot of respect for his profession, but that this kind of response is not appropriate when you live in society. So I decide to move my vehicle and when I come back, I decide to talk to him since he was still there. For 20 minutes we talked. I told him that throughout my life as a Montrealer when I asked a policeman or a parking lot officer if I could make a quick entrance, the answer was always positive, because people like to be respected, we ask them for permission.
It was the first time I had come across such a disrespectful parking attendant. He replied that he could not give such authorization, because he had no right to do so, but that he would not have given me a ticket. Even more surprised and grateful, I told him that his reasoning was wrong. For example, if I parked to resuscitate someone passed out on the sidewalk, would he give me a ticket? No answer.
That’s when I decided to tell him the truth, because I had just recognized him, he was the infamous agent of death, who has been flooding the Village with tickets for a few years, sometimes for no reason or illegally. I said, “Do you know why everyone in the Village hates you personally?
It’s because you give tickets to delivery people at 11:15 a.m., even though deliveries are authorized until noon. He replies that he does this because you need a commercial plate F to be able to use these spaces. False! That I answer him by telling him that through his fault, during a delivery of the magazine, I had been obliged to go to Court to contest his ticket and that the judge had asked the Crown to indicate to him where in the law he was mention of an F plate?
The judge added that I could deliver by sailboat if I wanted, but only if I could prove my status as a deliveryman. In the Business Registry, Gay Globe is also registered as a delivery tool, the judge was furious that the Crown had not canceled my ticket before.
I also added to the agent that his habit of hiding at the corner of Champlain and Ste-Catherine to fine the customers of the bistro La Mie Matinale who are only going to get a coffee, or the customers of the office post office who only put an envelope in the box, that his behavior was despicable.
And finally, I reminded him of the time the parking meter wasn’t working last summer and when we asked him if he was going to fine us, his response was « it’s your choice to park or not, even if you paid for nothing”. Rather than phoning his superiors to let them know the device wasn’t working, he was simply waiting for us to leave our car to give him a ticket. I reminded him that he had the right to use his judgment on occasion. And he left, to continue to trap people!