MONTREAL — He sat stoic and reserved but admitted mistakes were made when police officers did little to stop the ransacking of city hall by municipal workers, including firefighters, on August 18.
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Montreal Police Chief Marc Parent testified before the city’s public security commission Monday morning.
“In terms of severity, it was the second mistake because the first was allowing people inside the building,” Parent said inside the same chambers that were turned upside down that fateful summer day.
“For a significant amount of time, we (officers) didn’t know what was happening inside,” he told commission members.
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Four police officers at the managerial level have been suspended and another four unionized cops are facing disciplinary measures for not intervening.
But Parent insisted changes have been made to the way officers will react to future demonstrations that have the potential of turning violent.
“We change our approach with all demonstrations. We had some of that last week and two weeks ago also and I can reassure you that we were more than prepared to do the job adequately,” he told reporters in the foyer of city hall.
The attacks on the building led to several firefighters being fired and many others suspended.
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The riots are considered one of the worst acts of vandalism on the democratic institution in recent memory.
“Never we can imagine that it can be here in Montreal at city hall with employees,” Anie Samson said.
The chairperson of the Public Security Commission and borough mayor of Villeray-St-Michel-Parc-Extension said she’s confident police officers won’t idly stand by if similar acts of destruction occur in the future.
“What happened the 18th of August, we have to learn from that and to make sure we are more prepared,” Samson said.
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