If the Mayor won't listen, maybe the Prince will

If the Mayor won’t listen, maybe the Prince will

When the public supports you, but the Mayor’s against you and the federal government isn’t doing anything to help protect their own historic site, where do you turn? Well, for members of the Dead Doll Dancers, the answer is simple: Prince Charles.

For months, the Dead Dolls and other members of the Save The Main coalition have been trying to protect Café Cleopatra where they perform as well as the Red Light District in general from Christian Yaccarini’s Angus Development Corporation, who want to replace historic buildings and active performance spaces with an office tower.

Despite public outcry and a ruling against the project by the Office de Consultation Publique de Montreal, mayor Gerald Tremblay insists on ramming the project through. Now that he’s been re-elected and Parks Canada still shows no signs of wanting to protect a part of our history that they even designated a heritage site, there’s one hope left.

Prince Charles is a heritage buff. The Dead Dolls along with their supporters including Optative Theatrical Laboratories have sent an open letter and video plea asking the prince to do something to save Montreal’s Red Light District:

A group comprised of the Dead Dolls’ Velma Candyass and other opponents of Tremblay and Yaccarini’s forced evictions (the author of this post was among them) went to deliver the Prince the message in person when he visited the Black Watch yesterday. They weren’t the only ones, though. Quebec separatists and anti-monarchists were there to tell the prince that he wasn’t welcome in Quebec and the Montreal Police riot squad were there to tell the crowd to move down to de Maisonneuve just west of Bleury.

Riot squad move protestors and everyone else down the street (photo Domenic Castelli)

While Dead Doll Velma Candyass did have a chance to speak with one of the guards before the whole crowd was moved down the street, the chance to meet the Prince face-to-face wasn’t going to happen. While media as varied as The Gazette, La Presse and Paris Match picked up the story, the Prince himself has yet to comment on the request.

Dead Doll Velma Candyass and riot cops (photo Domenic Castelli)

The group is hoping he does before he returns to England.

7 Comments »

Erica said:

Good job folks! keep it up!

# 12 November 2009 at 10:14 pm

Joseph said:

can I have a lap dance?

# 18 November 2009 at 10:29 pm

Forget The Box » 2009: The year in theatre, sort of… said:

[...] performance about their conflict with a developer and the city as part of Contre Courant and brought some theatrics to Prince Charles when he came to town. Meanwhile, in one of the bigger theatre scandals of the year, former Theatre [...]

# 28 December 2009 at 3:40 am

Demolition in a box! | Forget The Box said:

[...] They’ve appealed to the courts and don’t know the result yet. They even tried appealing to Prince Charles but were prevented from seeing him by riot [...]

# 7 April 2010 at 5:58 pm

2009 on Forget The Box | Forget The Box said:

[...] criminal past to a secret letter he wrote to supporters to an attempt by the artists to appeal to Prince Charles, this story has generated quite a bit of reporting from us and this post is as good a place to [...]

# 8 April 2010 at 11:47 pm

Win in one court, try the other | Forget The Box said:

[...] court of public opinion, the OCPM ruling confirmed their victory and the recent attention paid to the Dead Dolls appeal to Prince Charles reinforced it, but now they’re taking the case to a court of [...]

# 8 April 2010 at 11:59 pm

OTL Blog » Blog Archive » Burlesque dancers ask Prince Charles to Save the Red Light District said:

[...] “If the mayor won’t listen, maybe the prince will” by Jason C. McLean, Forget The … [...]

# 9 May 2010 at 4:03 pm

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