“RFK Jr. helped me out a lot,” says the creator of the 2020 anti-fluoride petition in Pointe Claire.
West Island mayors say that Montreal’s consultation on water fluoridation was triggered by a 2020 petition submitted by Ray Coehlo — a man they describe as a “far-right” extremist.
“There are a lot of parallels between what’s going on in the United States with Trump, and I don’t think that is a model that we should be adopting in our country,” said Baie-D’Urfe Mayor Heidi Ektvedt. “Picking and choosing elements, talking about fluoride as a chemical, instilling fear in a population where our health authorities have said there is no reason to be fearful.”
Coehlo was a candidate for the far-right Canadian Nationalist Party in Oct. 2019 for Lac-Saint-Louis. The party, which was registered with Elections Canada from 2019 to 2022, stated on its now-defunct website that “representing the interests of the ethnic majority in Canada is a priority.” Coehlo told The Gazette he is no longer associated with the party.
In an interview with The Gazette, Coehlo said his anti-fluoride campaign follows in the footsteps of Robert Francis Kennedy (RFK) Jr., the Donald Trump-nominated secretary of health and human services, whose campaign to end water fluoridation in the U.S. is a major part of his platform. RFK Jr. has regularly referred to fluoride as “industrial waste.”
Coehlo claimed RFK Jr. “has helped me out a lot” with his mission to stop water fluoridation in the West Island and “congratulated me by text personally” after Montreal proposed to end fluoridation in the region. Cohelo provided The Gazette with RFK Jr.’s personal number; reached by phone, the Trump Cabinet pick refused to comment.
Following these allegations, Montreal city councilor Maja Vodanovic responded, “there’s been a debate on fluoride since it was first introduced,” adding that the city’s decision “is not just because of one individual who wrote a petition.”
But in a PowerPoint presentation on fluoride made by the city in September, there is a timeline starting in 2020 titled “Élément déclencheur de la réflexion” (Trigger for reflection) with a photo of Coehlo at the top and an accompanying media headline about his petition. In the Nov. 21 city council agenda, the “2020 citizen’s petition” is referenced four times.
Georges Bourelle, the mayor of Beaconsfield, finds it questionable that the city would open this file “on the basis of a petition from an extremist” made by someone “from the very much far-right, and who has made his career out of contesting everything,” before consulting any elected officials. “If somebody comes to your door and says, ‘I’m going around because I’m putting together a petition’ … I’m not going to argue with them, because I don’t have the expertise. And that’s exactly how petitions are done.”
“I just find that the lack of due diligence that has resulted in this is not just amazing, but even disgusting,” DeSosua told The Gazette. “It’s a rather disconcerting example of how people who are associated with the far-right have been able to influence a left-leaning administration, such as Projet Montreal, and the two find it to be an arrangement of convenience.”
“The administration needs to do their homework,” DeSousa asserted, to ensure that there are “no devious agendas that might be behind what might appear to be a simple petition.”
All three mayors echoed that Montreal’s end to fluoridation felt like a unilateral decision, claiming that the city failed to consult public officials from the affected towns.
“If Montreal thinks that they can make a decision to remove a service that has been in place for 79 years without any factual reason to remove it, then what happens the next time?” said Ektvedt. “It’s not transparent, it’s not democratic. And I think that Montrealers should be concerned about this pattern.”