Saint-Henri Residents Take a Stand Against a Real Estate Developer

A poster on a lamppost referring to contractor Brian Slattery’s $48,000 lien on developer Dan Hassan’s property. PHOTO : Éanna Mackey

The yelling started like a crack of thunder on an otherwise quiet and peaceful November afternoon in Saint-Henri. 

It wasn’t the usual city noise — the hum from the nearby highway or distant squeal of sirens — just a man’s voice, raw with rage, cutting through the neighbourhood like a steel blade.

“Thief! Liar!” he bellowed.

Residents turned to their windows, drawn by the commotion at the back of a half-renovated triplex on St-Antoine St. A lone contractor stood by his truck, his face stiff with controlled anger as he loaded up the last of his tools. He refused to look at the man shouting at him. He hopped in, and as his truck’s engine roared to life, the screaming man lunged, reaching into the cab and grabbing at the driver as the vehicle moved away.

This was to be the first sign of trouble at the site, but for those who lived nearby, it wouldn’t be the last. The man shouting was Dan Hassan, a property developer with a growing reputation in the neighbourhood — not for his real estate projects, but for his aggressive tactics, legal battles, and an apparent disregard for the rules.

By the time the truck pulled away that day, Hassan had fired his contractor, Brian Slattery, leaving behind a half-finished building, a mountain of unpaid debts, and a neighbourhood about to go to war with its newest landlord. But this dispute goes far beyond a simple argument between a developer and an employee. 

According to Slattery, he and Hassan had an agreement: the contractor would receive a 20 per cent share of the proceeds from the sale of the building as part of payment for his labour. According to the contractor, it appears as if Hassan fired Slattery when the building was close to completion in order to get out of this arrangement. 

The Rover contacted Dan Hassan multiple times for his perspective on the dispute, but he did not respond to requests for comment.

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Slattery’s final bill amounted to $48,000. According to residents, it is also rumoured that Hassan did not believe that the work carried out by the contractor was worth that much. This would be reasonable grounds for dismissal and, while Hassan may be within his rights to fire his contractor, he cannot refuse to pay the bill he owes for the work already done.

“It was always very hard to get money from him; he would never pay on time,”  said Brian Slattery.“We had a deal where when we sold the place, we would get 20 percent of the profit off of the sale. As soon as we got close to finishing, all hell broke loose.

“He fired me, and we gave him his final bill, which was close to fifty thousand dollars, but he hasn’t paid me a penny of it,” he said. “He has all the money in the world (…), so he’ll drag it out for as long as he can.”

The back of Dan Hassan’s property. PHOTO: Éanna Mackey

Slattery is now suing Hassan for his unpaid bills with a $48,000 lien on the property, meaning that once it is sold, due to the alleged debt, he would be first in line to be paid. The lien also makes it highly unlikely that another contractor would agree to work on the building, as any payment they receive would first go toward settling Slattery’s claim.

Making things even more complicated, Hassan is countersuing Slattery, claiming  he removed windows and doors from the building, allowing snow to get in and cause significant damage. However, footage from Nov. 6, the day Slattery was fired, clearly shows the windows and doors were still intact, which suggests they were not removed by the contractor.

The end result of all of this is that Hassan is now operating illegally, without a general contractor, and is working outside of permitted construction hours — a strategy that allows him to avoid Commission de la construction de Québec (CCQ) inspectors despite being previously issued a stop work order.

A stop work order is posted on the property owned by Dan Hassan where residents say the developer has taken to working at night to avoid reprisal. PHOTO: Éanna Mackey

Ethan Cox, a long-term St. Henri resident, lives opposite the site and had a front-row view of the volatile altercation between Hassan and Slattery on Nov. 6. Since then he has paid close attention to Hassan’s construction practices and interactions within his neighbourhood.

“Since he fired Slattery, he’s been doing everything illegally,” said Cox. “He’s operating without a general contractor; he’s intentionally doing work in the evening and on the weekends when the CCQ inspectors aren’t working. He also had workers over the Christmas holidays when you’re not allowed to work, and you can be fined for doing anything, and several of them told me that they don’t have their cards.” (Editor’s Note: Ethan Cox is a former colleague of Christopher Curtis, Editor-in-Chief of The Rover).

Many have say they’ve been on the receiving end of his abuse and intimidation.

For Joanna, a local community and health worker in her 60s, Hassan’s presence in the area has been particularly difficult. Her home backs onto the rear of the property that Hassan is developing, and she has regularly encountered him and his outbursts.

“I tried to explain to Dan that he needs our cooperation to do this construction project, but he has just bullied his way here and disrupted our entire community. It doesn’t work that way,” said Joanna.

“He wants our help, but he abuses us. Initially, I was afraid of him because I thought that he could get aggressive and physical, but he’s just an entitled spoiled brat who’s used to getting what he wants whenever he wants it. He’s a bully.”

In a recording obtained by The Rover, Hassan threatened Cox with lawsuits, police intervention, and, most disturbingly, to spread rumours that he was a pedophile. 

“This is a working-class neighbourhood. We have a lot of sympathy for hard-working people not being paid right before Christmas,” Cox said. “And (Hassan) has just gotten increasingly aggressive and confrontational, calling the police and threatening his lawyers.

Ethan Cox. PHOTO: Éanna Mackey

“Clearly nobody has ever said no to this guy, and so somebody needs to stand up and say enough. You cannot just threaten your way out of every problem. You cannot just sue people, call the police on them, and spread rumours that they’re a pedophile like he’s threatened to do with me. None of that is going to stop us. You cannot get away with ripping off working-class people.”

For Slattery, the fight is less about principles or making a statement: it’s about survival, fairness, and getting long-overdue justice.

“I don’t really care if he’s reprimanded; I just want my money. He’s already been shut down as far as I know,” he said. “I just want to be made right. We’re the little guys here, and we need help against this bully.”

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