Another wave of gun violence hits the greater Montreal-area

The greater Montreal-area has been experiencing an especially violent period, with five shootings in 72 hours – and several victims.

Among them, a man gunned down in broad daylight on Wednesday afternoon in St-Michel.

A drive-by shooting outside of a birthday party early Sunday in Chomedey, in Laval, left a 28-year-old man dead and a 14-year-old injured.

And another man shot in Chomedey on Tuesday afternoon in another drive-by.

At least one person has been arrested and two vehicles were seized Thursday as Laval police carried out raids related to the recent gun violence on their territory.

The multiple shootings have citizens worried and many wondering what, if anything, is being done to curb the violence.

Repression of criminality without community oppression

“It’s concerning, obviously,” says former RCMP officer and community activist, Alain Babineau. “But you have to remember that this is not a Montreal phenomenon. Gun violence has been happening pretty much right across North America and certainly right across Canada in major urban centers.”

He says everyone is concerned about fighting criminality.

“I don’t think there’s any debate around that. I’m a strong believer in the repression of criminality, without the oppression of the communities.”

A gun-violence forum back in February and March, organized by the City of Montreal, the SPVM, and various community groups actively focused on solutions – with a more concrete report to come.

Lack of clarity on gun violence

Concordia professor Ted Rutland, whose research focuses on urban politics, planning and policing, says it’s important that we maintain perspective.

“I think that we’re looking at a very small timescale there,” Rutland says. “So it’s been a particularly deadly week, but this year, so far, has been a particularly undeadly year.”

Rutland believes there is an overemphasis on gun crime, but little clarity on how gun violence is reported – that there are different categories of it.

“I think the overemphasis on this category, gun crime, has convinced us it’s increasing,” he says, “and it leaves us really unable to understand the very different kinds of things that are happening in our city and what we might do to respond.”

The professor says that gunshots with no victims in some neighbourhoods – and a mafia or biker gang-related hit – are all lumped together.

“They are fundamentally different things,” he says. “And then we’ll end up excluding things like a man stabs his partner to death. Or violence among youth that has resulted in death. To really respond to violence in our communities, we need to understand the different kinds of violence that are occurring. And therefore, to be able to understand what’s causing it and what we can do about it.”

Confidence in policing

For his part, Babineau remains confident in the local police force.

“I have a lot of confidence in the police that they’re going to be able to do just as well as when I was in the game myself,” he says. But cooler heads must prevail.”

He says it’s understandable that people get emotional about the issue because they sense the safety in their community is being assaulted. Babineau believes the media also has a responsibility not to create panic among the population with sensationalistic reporting.

“I’m very confident that the police will do the best they can with what they’ve got and things will get back to a reasonable level,” he says. “But none of this is unique to Montreal. We’ve got to remember that.”