City of Montreal has 'poor understanding' of public safety issues, says police brotherhood

MONTREAL -

With the municipal election just months away, Montreal's police brotherhood says it is concerned about the lack of manpower in fighting gun violence on the island.

In an internal letter sent to members by brotherhood president Yves Francoeur, the group insists it would not be aligning itself with any of the mayoral candidates.

However, Francoeur writes the current municipal government has a "poor understanding of public safety and has only supported police officers since it became an election issue."

The letter comes after two Montreal police officers were allegedly targeted in a possible shooting attempt outside the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC).

It happened at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday in what Montreal police chief Sylvain Caron called a "purely gratuitous" attack.

"This vicious attack on the justice system feeds insecurities surrounding the shootings, all in a context of pandemic fatigue," Francoeur notes, adding many "exhausted police officers" are being forced to do overtime in order to continue covering the territory.

In his letter, Francoeur advised members of the brotherhood to keep an eye on the "glaring" lack of staff, the shortage of equipment due to "a lack of funding," neglected training for personnel, as well as public disengagement "fuelled by untimely and free accusations of racism."

"We have been through a lot and we will certainly go through more," he notes, asking officers to increase their level of vigilance on the streets.

CLASHING CANDIDATES

Due to the recent rash of gun violence in the Greater Montreal area, the metropolis' four mayoral candidates have spoken out about whether or not to defund the police, argued about body cameras and discussed racial profiling.

“I'm against defunding or disarming [the police], like [Mayor Valérie Plante's party] Projet Montréal,” Coderre said, adding he would make body cameras mandatory for police officers. “Police are not the problem, they are the solution.”

This is something Plante has said she also wants, though her administration was initially opposed to the idea of body cameras, following a pilot project in 2016 and 2017.

The mayor has since stated she plans to work with the Quebec government on a province-wide initiative starting next year.

Movement Montréal candidate Balarama Holness has stated he wants to divert money away from the police to support social services.

“Right now, Denis Coderre wants better funding for police and we think that's going in the wrong direction,” he said. “Body cameras are not a solution. Solutions are better housing, more support for infrastructure and green spaces.”

Meantime, candidate Marc-Antoine Desjardins has accused both Plante and Coderre of trying to "reassure the population with a nice, sugary speech in the face of an outbreak of gun violence because of their respective negligence."

He goes on to say the "cycle of gun violence must stop with concrete short and medium-term measures," but does not elaborate on what those are.

The Montreal municipal election is set to take place on Nov. 7.