One year since Oct. 7: heavy police presence in downtown Montreal, isolated incidents of vandalism

There was a heavy police presence downtown on Monday as Montrealers gathered on the first anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel and some isolated incidents of vandalism.

Police say at around 4:20 p.m., some of the participants of a pro-Palestinian march started throwing paint, doing graffiti and breaking windows of a McGill building under construction near des Pins and Aylmer.

Officers that were already present and part of the intervention team were able to disperse them. No arrests were made.

Minutes before this, SPVM Police Chief Fady Dagher spoke on the day’s increased security measures.

“We’re making sure that we are visible to discourage if anybody has a bad intention, but also to be proactive to anticipate any action,” he said.

Officers from the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) and the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) were present as protesters assembled near Concordia University on Monday afternoon.

Concordia campus security was also on site.

About 1,200 people were killed in Israel during the Oct. 7, 2023, attack, and 251 people were taken hostage.

Nearly 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during Israel’s strikes and the war with Hamas, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.

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Montreal police vowed to step up security in the lead-up to the anniversary, saying their goal was to ensure the Jewish and Arabic Muslim communities felt safe.

A visibility plan was put in place on Oct. 1 that added officers in areas where there are more Jewish or Muslim places of worship and other institutions.

“What we’re trying to do today is to anticipate if there’s any desire of disturbing the peace in Montreal, we’re going to be able to arrest the people way before,” said Dagher. “But that that being said we cannot anticipate everything, we’re not the magicians but we’re trying to best with the partners to make a difference.”

Last week, five people were arrested, including three minors, for possession of incendiary material, as police believe they intended to use them at synagogues in Côte Saint-Luc and Côte-des-Neiges – NDG.

“Thank God we were able a few days ago to arrest those people because if we don’t do [those arrests], I don’t think we’ll be talking to each other today in a such a calm way,” Dagher added.

Since Oct. 7, 2023, Montreal police say there have been some 350 demonstrations in the city linked to the conflict in the Middle East, with officers making 106 arrests.