A shopping mall and office complex in downtown Montreal is being criticized for using the popular children’s song Baby Shark to discourage unhoused people from loitering in its emergency exit stairwells.

Sam Watts, CEO of Welcome Hall Mission, which offers services to homeless people, says the “cruel and unusual” tactic by the mall displaces the problem of homelessness rather than address it.

Thursday at Complexe Desjardins, located on Ste-Catherine Street in the Quartier des Spectacles district, the children’s song was playing from speakers in the stairwells, on a loop and at various speeds.

Jean-Benoit Turcotti, a spokesperson for the mall, says it has been playing the song for about one year in some emergency exit stairwells because of “security issues,” adding that the situation has improved.

Turcotti says the mall is sensitive to homelessness issues and two social workers have been hired to “ensure a dialogue” with homeless people.

David Chapman, who heads the shelter Resilience Montreal, says the shopping mall may have become exasperated with a growing presence of unhoused people in the building, but he says the problem ultimately stems from a lack of shelter spaces in the city.