Quebec coroner to lead public inquiry into deaths of homeless people in Montreal
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Quebec’s chief coroner has ordered a public inquest into the deaths of several people experiencing homelessness in Montreal, the coroner’s office announced Wednesday.
The aim is to issue recommendations to better protect homeless people and prevent future deaths, a news release said.
Coroner Stephanie Gamache will lead the investigation, which will focus on the deaths of five people over the past seven months – 30-year-old Jennifer DeNobel, 46-year-old Marie Soleil Nantais, 71-year-old Valmont Brousseau, 55-year-old Alain Paris and 57-year-old Serge Martin.
His death occurred between September 2025 and March this year. The coroner’s office says other deaths under similar circumstances may be taken into account to inform the final report.
“The investigation will provide an in-depth analysis of the causes and circumstances surrounding these deaths, uncover contributing factors, and lead to broader reflection on the specific issues related to this incident,” the coroner’s office said in the news release.
The announcement comes nearly a week after Montreal’s mayor condemned the deaths of two people in the city in a 24-hour span between March 24 and 25. The mayor’s office confirmed to CBC News that she was speaking about Brousseau and Martin.
A news release from the coroner’s office Wednesday shows a third person, Paris, also died during that period.
Gamache was previously responsible for investigating the 2021 death of Rafael “Napa” Andre, an Innu man who died while homeless in Montreal during the COVID-19 pandemic when a curfew was in place.
In their final report, they concluded that his death was preventable and issued 23 recommendations to strengthen the safety net.
A spokesperson for the coroner’s office says that while that investigation focused on the specific circumstances surrounding Andre’s death, this new investigation will allow Gamache to look at the homeless situation in Montreal more broadly.
‘People age faster on the street’
According to coroner’s office data, 123 people experiencing homelessness are expected to die in Quebec in 2024, compared with 38 in 2022 — but that may not tell the whole picture.
Lizette Flores, executive director of the Fondation de la Maison du Père, says there is currently no unified system to count the number of deaths. The investigation could potentially access such equipment.
“But prevention, minimum health care and minimum care and coordination is more important,” Flores said.
Since the pandemic, the quality of street drugs has declined significantly and Montreal’s homeless population has aged, making health an especially important issue among those who care for and are part of the community, said Duane Mansveld, deputy director of clinical services at men’s shelter Maison du Père.
“Too often homeless people are so focused on surviving that they don’t focus on their physical health or get their health checked,” she said.
Through her research at the Institute on Dependencies of the Université de Sherbrooke, Léonie Archambault has found that living on the street puts people at higher risk of living with two or more chronic diseases and premature mortality.
“People age faster on the street,” he said.
“They face a lot of violence, they face a lot of disease. They face very harsh living conditions and it’s not surprising to see that these people have more need for health care at a younger age.”
She describes the coroner’s inquest as essential to deepening our collective understanding of the situation and preventing avoidable deaths.
For his part, Mansveld said he hopes the investigation will establish minimum standards of care for the homeless population. He points to the standards set for refugee camps established by the UN Refugee Agency, which among other things guide what services a person should have access to.
“We need the same thing with our homeless community in Montreal, a minimum standard of care, just to make sure people are treated with respect and get the care they need,” he said.
