Young people 'tortured' if stolen vehicle operations fail, Montreal police tell MPs
One day after a Montreal police officer fired gunshots at a suspect in a stolen vehicle, senior officers were telling parliamentarians that organized crime groups are recruiting people as young as 15 in the city to steal cars so that they can be shipped overseas.
In some cases, the youth are tortured if things go wrong, according to Yannick Desmarais, a commander with the Montreal Police Service (SPVM).
"For us, we see these young people of 15 to 25 years of age, and we've seen young people from Montreal [go] to Toronto to steal cars, and they get even tortured in Toronto if they aren't successful. So we feel it's very important to work as a team," Desmarais told the House Committee on Public Safety and National Security on Thursday.
MPs on the committee are studying the "Growing problem of car thefts in Canada" and invited officials with the SPVM, the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), the Montreal Port Authority and other witnesses to testify.
The SPVM commander said there is a link between car theft and armed violence, emphasizing that it is not a victimless crime.
"We know that people that are involved regularly, when they're caught, they have firearms. Our investigations and intelligence are showing that a lot of the money for firearms comes from vehicle theft operations," he said, adding that the weapons are used in violent crimes.
Yannick Desmarais, a commander with the Montreal Police Service (SPVM), speaks to members of the House Committee on Public Safety and National Security about the growing problem of car thefts on Thursday, April 18, 2024. (Source: House of Commons)
While the car thieves are the ones police are trying to target, what they really are hoping to catch are the exporters who are responsible for shipping the stolen vehicles overseas.
"The ones that have contacts with people on the ground. They're the ones pulling the strings. They're the ones that are hiring and recruiting the recruits," said Michel Patenaude, chief inspector with the SQ. "I think if we really want to have an impact and really want to dismantle and lower this crisis, we really have to go to the people pulling the strings and concentrate on the networks that are exporting and transporting and have the contacts with people overseas."
Stolen cars instead of fridges inside containers
Earlier this month, nearly 600 stolen vehicles were recovered at the Port of Montreal after 400 shipping containers were searched in a joint operation by the SPVM, the Canada Border Services Agency, and other partners. Most of the cars were from the Toronto area.
Between mid-December and the end of March, police inspected about 400 shipping containers at the Port of Montreal and found nearly 600 stolen vehicles, most of them from the Toronto area. A shipping container is loaded onto a container ship in the Port of Montreal on Tuesday, Sept.19, 2023. (Christinne Muschi, The Canadian Press)
A port authority official told the committee that sometimes what's on the manifest doesn't match what is inside. Félixpier Bergeron, director of port protection and business continuity, gave the example of the manifest describing refrigerators in the containers when they actually contained stolen cars.
"There's nobody that signs off saying what's in the container for real. It's all what's been submitted on paper. It's fraud. But how do you detect fraud? It's something that needs to be reviewed maybe in the regulations for accountability on the stuff that's in the container," he said.
The port authority is open to adding new technologies to track contraband, such as X-ray machines to see what's inside, but he said there are health considerations that need to be studied.
"It exists somewhere else in the world but in those places they don't have the same commitment in human life as we do in Canada," he said.
Currently, port authority searches on containers take time but Bergeron said he's open to new solutions.
"It takes between four and five minutes each container to scan," he said. "So if we have 2,000 trucks a day entering the port times four minutes, it doesn't work."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in hush money trial
Stormy Daniels took the witness stand Tuesday at Donald Trump's hush money trial, describing for jurors a sexual encounter the porn actor says she had with him in 2006 that resulted in her being paid off to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Susan Buckner, who played spirited cheerleader Patty Simcox in 'Grease,' dead at 72
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Former homicide detective explains how police will investigate shooting outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
Jeremy Skibicki has 'uphill battle' to prove he's not criminally responsible in Winnipeg killings: legal analysts
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
Alcohol believed to be a factor in boating incident after 2 men die: N.S. RCMP
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
Northern Ont. woman makes 'eggstraordinary' find
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Bye-bye bag fee: Calgary repeals single-use bylaw
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
CFL suspends Argos QB Chad Kelly at least nine games following investigation
The CFL suspended Toronto Argonauts quarterback Chad Kelly for at least nine regular-season games Tuesday following its investigation into a lawsuit filed by a former strength-and-conditioning coach against both the player and club.