A woman has been arrested as police in Montreal investigate the vandalism of an office of the Quebec artificial intelligence institute Mila, with authorities saying it appears 10 people were involved.
The SPVM said at about 11:45 p.m. Tuesday, police officers on patrol discovered a building had been vandalized on Saint-Urbain Street, near Saint-Zotique Street West, in the city’s Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie borough.
Initial findings found several windows of the building had been smashed and numerous graffiti tags were spray painted on the building’s walls, according to SPVM spokesperson Manuel Couture.
Through its investigation, police determined a group of about 10 individuals were involved in the vandalism.
Couture said a 25-year-old woman was arrested near the scene of the incident and taken to a detention centre where she will be interviewed to determine the extent of her involvement.
The investigation is ongoing and police will be attending the scene to check for any surveillance cameras and to collect relevant evidence.
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Tuesday night’s vandalism comes as one of Canada’s largest AI and tech summits gets underway in the city.
Yoshua Bengio, the founder of Mila, said during the summit that violence would not resolve concerns from the public.
“Violence is not an answer to these risks and fears, which I can understand,” he said.
Mila itself issued a statement, condemning acts of violence and intimidation.
“While we respect the fundamental right to express differing opinions and social criticism, we strongly condemn any use of violence, property damage and tactics aimed at intimidating our staff and researchers,” the research institute wrote in a statement Wednesday.
Evan Solomon, the federal Minister of Artificial Intelligence, was asked about the incident at the All In summit on Wednesday and stressed the importance of safety for researchers and students.
“There are going to be real questions about technology and we welcome them in our democracy. We have conferences like this where people can ask questions peacefully, protest if they want, but we will always protect the safety and security of our researchers, our educators, our workers and our communities,” Solomon said.
The minister did not comment further, pointing to the ongoing police investigation.
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