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Anastasia Marcelin, a past mayoral candidate in Montréal-Nord, leads a rally in front of Station 39 on Monday. New allegations of racism are casting doubt on whether strides have been made to tackle discrimination by Montreal police. Andrej Ivanov/The Globe and Mail
In Montréal-Nord, there is anger but not surprise.
This is the borough where, in 2008, a Montreal police officer shot and killed an 18-year-old Honduran immigrant. Eighteen years later, disturbing new allegations of police racism are seen by some as evidence that nothing has changed.
The allegations, including claims that police officers in the city’s north end cut the hair of racialized citizens to turn into “trophies,” are also casting doubt on Montreal Police Chief Fady Dagher’s efforts to tackle discrimination by the force.
When he announced an internal investigation on Friday, Chief Dagher said he was “deeply shocked” by the situation. Two police officers have been suspended and 14 others have been reassigned for alleged racist behaviour at Station 39.
Black and Arab people overrepresented in police stops in Longueuil, Que., data show
But many of those who live in the area say there’s nothing new about police treating them as something less than human. “We find that we aren’t people, in a sense,” said local resident Andy Person. “The police are supposed to protect us.”
Montréal-Nord, a borough in the northeast part of the city, along the Rivière des Prairies, is one of Montreal’s most diverse neighbourhoods. Many of the streets are flanked by low-rise apartment buildings, with Haitian flags hanging from balconies.
People here tell similar stories, whether or not from personal experience. A Black person driving an expensive car can expect to be pulled over, they say. Even those who haven’t had run-ins with police themselves have acquired a certain mistrust. Mr. Person said he worries about being stopped whenever he leaves his house. “It’s stressful,” he said.
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Montreal Police Chief Fady Dagher in January, 2023. Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press
Chief Dagher was sworn in as Montreal police chief in January, 2023, vowing to fight racial profiling. In an interview on Tuesday, Chief Inspector David Shane, head of communications with the force, said the fact that the 16 officers were reported by other employees of the police service is evidence that things are shifting.
“Changing a culture doesn’t happen in just a few years,” he said. “It takes a long time.”
But that’s unlikely to satisfy residents of Montréal-Nord, many of whom still remember the 2008 shooting of Honduran immigrant Freddy Villanueva, which prompted a march that turned violent, with some protesters setting fire to vehicles and looters vandalizing businesses. No charges were brought against the officers involved. An independent public inquiry found in 2013 that the shooting was legally justified on self-defence grounds but unnecessary.
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A few hundred people marched through Montréal-Nord on Monday, overseen by a heavy police presence. Andrej Ivanov/The Globe and Mail
Mr. Villanueva’s memory was invoked repeatedly at a protest organized Monday evening in response to the new allegations. A few hundred people marched through the streets of Montréal-Nord, as residents watched from their balconies, filming and cheering them on. Their destination was the park where Mr. Villanueva was shot.
“We’ve been talking about racism for 18 years, and nothing has happened,” Cassandra Exumé, general co-ordinator of local advocacy group Hoodstock, told the crowd. “We’ve been protesting for 18 years.”
Stéphanie Germain, a community organizer, said she was about 19 years old when Mr. Villanueva was killed. It was after the shooting, she said, that young people in the neighbourhood realized they were “treated as second-class citizens.”
Anger and frustration were palpable at the event on Monday, which was overseen by a heavy police presence. James Bastien, who came to join the protest from nearby St-Léonard, said he’s been stopped 15 or 20 times over the years while driving. “I’ve never trusted the police,” he said.
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Protesters kneel with fists raised in Montréal-Nord on June 15. Andrej Ivanov/The Globe and Mail
Radio-Canada has reported that the new allegations include traffic tickets being issued to citizens solely on the basis of their ethnic background.
The Supreme Court of Canada is currently weighing the constitutionality of random traffic stops based on the case of a young Montrealer of Haitian descent who said he was repeatedly stopped by police for no apparent reason. Quebec’s highest court previously ruled that the practice leads to racial profiling.
The Montreal police force has long struggled to show it is taking claims of racism seriously. Alain Babineau, a police officer-turned-lawyer who was hired by the service in 2021 to tackle racial profiling, said Black communities in Montreal…
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