Class action lawsuit to fight Montreal airport noise pollution gets go-ahead

A group of homeowners who live along the flight paths of Montreal's Trudeau International Airport say they're thrilled the class action lawsuit request they filed has been authorized to go forward.

"The noise is intolerable," said PierreLachapelle, president of the citizen groupLesPollusdeMontral-Trudeau. "The people have had enough."

The lawsuit targetsthe airport authority,thefederal Ministry of Transport and Nav Canada, the company that runs Canada's civil air navigation service.

Lachapelle, wholives inAhuntsic,says when aplane flies over his home, it sounds like a home invasion.

"It fills your space for a short period of timebut it's awful. It's awful to hear," he said.

The lawsuitwas filed on behalf of residents in as many as nine neighbourhoods who live along the airport's flight paths,including Saint-Laurent, Ahuntsic, Saint-Michel and Villeray.

The group says the noise made by airplanes flying over their homes is ruining their quality of life.

"During the summer, if yourwindows are open on a Friday evening, planes can come as [often as] once every two minutes," said Michel Dion, whose name is on the lawsuit alongsideLachapelle's, on behalf ofLesPollus.

The group hasn't yet set a dollar amount for compensation. Dion says the priority is to reducethe noise. Still, he says he would like to be reimbursed for the triple-pane windows he installed in some rooms because of it.

Planes louder and flying lower:homeowner

Roger Trottier has lived in Saint-Laurent since 1994. He says he and his wife bought their home when most flights to Montreal were to be redirected to the Mirabel airport.

But since then, Trottier says, the planes have gotten bigger, louder, more frequent and seem to fly at lower altitudes.

"I bought and I'm sorry to have bought because things started to change slowly, year after year after that. And now, we find that we have some 60 to 70 flights between 11 p.m.and 7 a.m.," Trottier said.

According to airport authority Aroports de Montral, the highest noise level in 2015 was 63 decibels, recorded in Dorval.

Other neighbourhoods, including Saint-Laurent, Town of Mont-Royal, Pointe-Claire and Ahuntsic, had readings ranging from 38 decibels to 59 decibels.

A 1st in Quebec, lawyer says

The class action go-ahead, granted by JusticeChantalTremblay, means the airport and the ministry must hand over information, including takeoff and landing practices as well as statistics on airplane noise.

GrardSamet, the lawyer representing the group, saidhe considers Tremblay's decision a big victory afirst in Quebec for an airport the size of Montreal's.

"This judgment is an extremely new development. Before aeronautical activities were strictly overseen by the federal government," said"Now, they can no longer be ignored by [civil] law."