Internal Montreal police documents obtained through an access-to-information request indicate there was an element of radicalization among officers at a Montreal North police station that became the focus of an investigation into alleged racist and discriminatory acts.
The documents, first obtained by The Canadian Press, describe the existence of what was characterized as a radicalized subculture among officers at Station 39 in Montreal North.
The documents are linked to an investigation launched after allegations of discriminatory and racist behaviour involving some officers at the station.
The revelations have raised concerns among experts, some of whom say it is unclear how the term “radicalization” is being used in this case.
“You don’t know to what extent they can contaminate not only the organization but the immediate workplace,” said Fo Niemi, executive director of the Centre for Research-Action on Race Relations.
The investigation became public in June after officers came forward with allegations involving members of a patrol team at the station. In response, a team of 16 officers was removed from duty and several officers were suspended.
Among the allegations were claims that officers in the unit kept the hair of racialized citizens as trophies.
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The allegation prompted psychiatrist and McGill University researcher Dr. Myrna Lashley, who has worked closely with police on anti-racism initiatives and has conducted research on radicalization, to raise concerns with police officials.
“I was talking to a senior officer and I said to that person, you should look and see if you’ve got supremacists or something akin to that in your department, because this doesn’t make sense to me,” Lashley told Global News.
She said the alleged act of collecting hair as trophies was particularly troubling.
“That’s an act that people who really are into setting up hierarchies of superiority and inferiority. That’s something that I would expect them to do,” she said.
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When Montreal police Chief Fady Dagher publicly disclosed the allegations and internal investigations in June, he made no mention of radicalization among officers.
Asked by Global News in August whether the officers under investigation had any connections to white supremacy, Dagher declined to comment. “This is criminal behaviour that we’re talking about, so I gotta be very careful not to contaminate the evidence,” he said.
Attention is now shifting to Quebec prosecutors, who received the results of the Montreal police force’s internal investigation on Monday for review.In a release Monday, the SPVM said evidence has been sent to the Le Directeur des poursuites criminelles et pénales (DPCP), which will determine the appropriate next steps.
Niemi said authorities must handle the matter transparently.
“(Authorities) must be transparent and must act, because it’s their credibility in the eyes of many people in Quebec and the rest of the country that is on the line,” he said.
Quebec’s Crown prosecution service would not say how long it could take to determine if criminal charges will be laid.
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