Second Montreal forum on armed violence

The City of Montreal and police (SPVM) are holding a two-day forum with different institutions, community organizations, and youth representative – to combat armed violence – especially among the young. This is the second forum on this topic in two years.

One of the forum’s main objective is prevention.

“One aspect that is there to me that I’ve been speaking about to other stakeholders present at the forum is really the importance of school and how the design of school and how we support kids at school,” said forum participant Fabrice Vil. “So the school system is a huge component of it.”

Just this week, four teenagers were stabbed in the Montreal-area in two separate incidents. Each happening in the middle of the day — one was near a school in Laval.

“We have to find a way to talk about the difficulties that our youth at-risk that are involved or are in the environment where we see all these violence are taken care of,” said Pierreson Vaval, who also participated in the forum. “And we propose alternatives so they can find their way in the community.

“We need to understand what are their needs, what is the cause of their thirst for the violence.”

To address prevention, the City of Montreal has recently put in place a number of programs including a free gun violence prevention support line and a new integrated neighbourhood policy that aims to identify disparities within different neighborhoods that can have an impact on someone’s path.

“It goes back to the systemic reasons why maybe a young person might decide to join you know get into trouble,” said Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante. “So we’ve decided now our budgets and the way we’re thinking about the city and how investment will be done also have that criteria in mind. Is there any differences between neighbourhoods? So, that’s huge because we’ve never seen that within the City of Montreal to have this orientation, this mindset of systemic issues regarding the funding to different projects.”

The city has also partnered with the Montreal police to create another program that looks to help young people who are the most at risk of committing gun violence.

“When they identify a young person that… maybe they’re worried that they could get in trouble, well they will surround them in a positive way with the right resources, working with this school, with the communities, with the community organization,” said Plante.

SPVM Insp. David Shane gave a real-life example of that.

“We identified a youth, we went to meet the youth in a preventive manner, not in a repressive or not an investigation manner, just try to meet with the person and then eventually their parents,” Shane described. “And the youth said, ‘well I’d like to get out of this but I don’t know how.’ So we put up a plan and we managed to extract that person from their criminal environments.”

Violence down overall, but up among youth

Firearm-related crimes committed in the first nine months of this year in Montreal were down nearly 30 per cent compared to 2022, according to recent statistics shared by police.

From January until the end of September, Montreal police say there were eight murders using a firearm – down from 14 over the same period last year (44 per cent decrease). Police data show there were 28 attempted murders using a firearm – down from 40 in 2022. And there were 73 incidents of a weapon being fired – down from 101.

Overall, it’s a drop of 29.7 per cent all incidents combined.

The SPVM is crediting its policing strategies – such as teams combining officers with “civilian personnel with varied expertise” – for the downward trend.

But the force says there has been a slight increase among youth aged 12 to 17.

“Well what we’ve seen is an increase, a little increase in violence in schools pertaining to youth,” said Shane. “Obviously youth are one of the main focuses of all the organizations. We want to be there for them. We want to help them get out of the bad situations in which they are.”

“It certainly shows the importance of prevention, right?” added Vil. “When we’re talking about kids who are 12 to 17, the sole solution is about repression. I mean, we have a problem as a society. It’s really about how… long before they get involved in these situations, we’re there to support them at a very, very young age.”

Second forum: more on prevention, cyberspace

Wednesday’s forum went into the context and current situation when it comes to armed violence in Montreal and reviewed the 2022 organizational commitments presentation of projects by and for young people.

Panellists also explored cyberspace, as well as a round table presentation of concrete initiatives.

They will also touch on public health approach to violence and prevention.

“Parents have lost their children, young people fear for their safety and walk around armed. There are families who are struggling to get by, either because they live in poor conditions, because they have no jobs, no housing, because they are oppressed with health problems that limit their ability to learn, to handle situations, because they are simply not equipped to deal with the reality in which their young people find themselves. A lot of parents just can’t do it anymore. They work days and evenings, and the child at home knows how hard it is for their parents, and is very aware of it. They want to be part of the family solution…they becomes vulnerable, at risk of being cruelly abused to make money more easily. That’s how it starts. It’s misfortune that leads to violence. It’s not just a police problem, it’s a societal problem. There are people who have lost, who have been lost, but there are still many who can be saved.”

Montreal police chief Fady Dagher

First forum (2022)

The first forum held in February 2022, was put together after four Montreal teens were killed:

• Lucas Gaudet, 16, stabbed Feb. 8 near a Pointe-Claire high school, dying from his injuries days later
• Amir Benayad, 17, shot and killed while walking in the Plateau in January
• Thomas Trudel, 16, fatally shot in St-Michel in Nov. 2021
• Meriem Boundaoui, 15, shot and killed in St-Leonard in Feb. 2021, as she sat in a car chatting with her friends

The first forum concluded that a more integrated approach to tackling gun violence might be the solution and all community and institutional partners involved agreed on four common commitments to ensure safety in Montreal neighbourhoods and reduce gun violence:

• Constant consultation with each other;
• Share useful information in a timely manner to prevent violence;
• Adopt and promote a global and integrated approach to prevention and train and equip workers accordingly;
• Prioritize initiatives that strengthen a sense of belonging to a community — as well as prevention and interventions with high-risk youth.