Montreal forum on gun violence postponed, but former cops say issue is urgent

A forum on Montreal gun violence that was supposed to start Wednesday has been delayed because of the pandemic, but veteran police officers say there's no time to wait.

Police forces all agree the recent jump in gun violence is due to easy access to illegal firearms, and the situation is serious enough, they said, they decided to put their message out now.

“Right now, they don't respect the law, they laugh about the law -- this is the situation on the street,” said Stephane Wall, a retired Montreal police officer.

Wall, along with another former police officer and the former public security representative at the Montreal city executive, published an open letter describing what Montreal is up against — starting with the impunity of some criminals.

Among their proposals are increasing federal penalties for gun possession and giving police services easier access to Indigenous reserves, where they say some of the illegal guns come through.

Anti-gang laws brought in to fight the mafia and biker gangs also need to apply to street gangs, they say.

“I think that the new reality of the guns, the gangs, needs to be reflected in the eyes of the law,” said Wall.

Gangs, he said, purposely use teenagers to commit violent gun crimes.

“They're using that kind of cheap labour to perform their dirty business.”

As the gun violence issue worsened in Montreal last year, communities were shocked by the killings of young Montrealers that police described as simply caught in the crossfire, including Meriem Boundaoui, Thomas Trudel, and Amir Benayad.

But police say that fear of being accused of racial profiling has discouraged some in the SPVM from fighting crime the way they're expected to, according to Wall.

“A lot of police officers mention that they don't want to intervene anymore. They don't want to do prevention, they don't want to collect criminal information,” he said.

Last fall, Mayor Valerie Plante and the deputy director of police announced they would hold a forum to address all facets of gun violence, but the process was put on hold by the COVID-19 crisis.

But Anie Samson, the former Montreal city executive committee member responsible for public security, said a good tool that should be put in place right away is a hotline for parents of teenagers flirting with crime.

“We want to help people with a line where they can come and say, ‘I want to talk to someone who knows what’s going on on the street. My children act like this,'" said Samson, now a consultant on urban management.

"We want to work together."

The trio said they hope they get their voices heard, regardless of if and when the forum on gun violence takes place.