On October 23, 2024 I sent a letter to the Honourable Anita Anand, the newly appointed Transport Minister, appealing to her sense of fairness in making the final decision on the question of nighttime flights at YULMontreal-Trudeau airport. 

 The letter ends with a summary of 3 possible choices that are before Minister Anand and asks her to choose wisely : “ How will you define the provision of no aircraft flights during ‘ normal sleeping hours ‘ ? 

 * Will you be guided by an already existing precedent set as policy in 1960 when the then Minister of Transport  established that there would be no flights between midnight & 6:00am ? 
  * Will you accept the Airport Authority’s (ADM) present proposal before you, of setting it between 1:00a.m. and 6:00a.m. ? Essentially going backwards. 
 *  Will you consider the lived experience & proposal of over 400 ordinary local residents & citizens ( who signed our paper & on line petition) asking you to do better than 1960, and recognize that respect for ‘ normal sleeping hours’ means no less than seven continuous hours . Whether it be from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. or Midnight to 7:00a.m. Is secondary. What’s essential is that any new Policy follow present day Health- Science recommendation of a minimum of seven hours of sleep for the average adult and that subsequently, aircraft noise should not be allowed to disrupt that period of seven hours.

We are hopeful that Minister Anand will come down on this question on the side of the General Good and Welfare of people and not simply on the side of ‘ business as usual ‘ at Montreal-Trudeau airport .