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Ms. Beaumont, 63, suffers from a degenerative bone disease and lives on welfare, the ruling notes. She says she has to beg to survive, adding that she was able to earn about $15 to $30 a day begging from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. “She said she was always very polite and never bothered anybody,” the tribunal judge wrote.

‘She could not believe that a human being could say things like this. She cried, and is still crying’

But her presence infuriated Mr. Delisle, who suggested in his complaint that beggars come to Montreal’s suburbs from downtown “because it’s more profitable.” In his letter, reproduced in the tribunal’s decision, he invents four macabre “solutions” to rid his city of these beggars.

“Solution No. 1: We could burn all this with napalm or flame-throwers (Americans used that technique for much better people than this.)”

“Solution No. 2: Pick up these walking microbes in a garbage dumpster and burn them in the Carrières incinerator.

“Solution No. 3 (Chinese solution): a bullet in the back of the head, and send the bill to the welfare-collecting family of the dead.”

“Solution No. 4: Drop all these people and their dogs over James Bay. Their chance of re-offending is quite slim.”

When an employee in the liquor store’s complaints department received Mr. Delisle’s complaint about Ms. Beaumont, he was “disgusted, worried, and afraid” for the wellbeing of the panhandler, according to the human rights commission’s decision. He took the letter to police. But police told the liquor board that they could not receive a complaint from a third party. The SAQ then decided to give a printout of the email to Ms. Beaumont.