Montreal protest over police humiliation of unhoused and racialized residents

Demonstrators marched Saturday near SPVM Station 21 after two officers were suspended for allegedly humiliating homeless and racialized people. One officer reportedly urinated on sleeping homeless people while on duty.

Montreal streets: protesters demand accountability after police suspension scandal

Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Montreal on Saturday to protest the alleged humiliation of unhoused and racialized residents by two Montreal police officers, CBC.ca reports. The march began outside SPVM Station 21 and moved through the eastern edge of downtown; an undisclosed number of participants were arrested during the demonstration.

The two officers, who worked out of the Berri Street station, were suspended with pay in August following allegations of abusive conduct directed at homeless and racialized people. One officer is alleged to have urinated on homeless individuals while in uniform — sometimes while his victims were asleep — and to have filmed himself doing so repeatedly over an 18-month period while on duty. According to Radio-Canada, investigators searched the officer's locker in mid-August. The internal probe has since been extended to private social media groups where the officer allegedly shared the videos in recent months.

A second officer allegedly posed for photographs in which he appeared to mock a suspect placed in a humiliating position during an arrest.

The allegations were originally reported by fellow police officers.

"We're here because we have new revelations about the police being extremely abusive and violent towards members of the unhoused community in Montreal," said Ted Rutland, a professor of social geography and urban studies specializing in policing. "This is a systematic issue that has been repeating itself for decades."

Rutland criticized the decision to suspend the officers with pay, calling it anything but a punishment. "Everyone that I know when we get paid to do nothing, we call that a vacation," he said. "So the idea that this is a punishment, it doesn't fly with us."

Protest organizers called for greater accountability from the SPVM and an end to what they described as a culture of impunity within the force. They also demanded that police stop being dispatched to situations involving people experiencing homelessness.

Rutland, a frequent critic of the SPVM, used the occasion to push for defunding the force. "If we spent some of the money that we're currently spending on the police to chase unhoused people around the city, and invested that in support and housing for unhoused people, there'd be less work for the police," he said. He pointed to examples in Toronto, Denver and Eugene, Oregon, where cities have redirected funding from police departments toward civilian responses to non-criminal 911 calls. "All the evidence suggests that we should do it," he said.

Montreal Chinatown resident Wawa Li echoed that position. "We need more money going into social resources," she said. "We can keep our neighbourhood safe by giving people material resources." Li added that broader access to housing and food would improve urban security in her neighbourhood.

In a written statement issued October 16, the SPVM said it was taking the allegations seriously. "We are determined to get to the bottom of things and take the required actions," the force said, declining to provide further details on the investigation and citing provincial privacy obligations.

Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada described the allegations as "extremely serious and undermine the dignity every person deserves" in a statement to CBC.

The Station 21 allegations are not the first misconduct case to shake the SPVM in recent months. In June, police Chief Fady Dagher disclosed that 16 officers at Station 39 in Montréal-Nord were under investigation for racist and hateful acts allegedly committed against Black and Arab people during police stops. Dagher subsequently announced the disbanding of that 16-member patrol.

Following the latest allegations, Montreal city council approved a motion requiring Dagher to appear before council. However, the Martinez Ferrada administration rejected the opposition's request for the hearing to take place within the following week, stating that investigations should be allowed to run their course before the chief answers councillors' questions.

Projet Montréal interim leader Ericka Alneus, the leader of the Official Opposition at city hall, said in a press release that her party has serious questions for Dagher regarding "organizational culture, internal oversight mechanisms, and the organization's ability to prevent and correct behaviours that are contrary to our city's values."

Source: Google News CA — Crime (EN)