Centre for Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence officially opens

MONTREAL – It’s been operating for months but its official inauguration was only on Sunday.

Since it opened last March, the Centre for Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence (CPRLV) has been busy.

“Since the events of Friday and the events of Beirut the day before the phone has been ringing non-stop,” said Meriem Rebbani-Gosselin, liaison and community development worker.

READ MORE: Quebec’s fight against violent extremism includes anti-radicalization centre in Montreal

So far they’ve received almost 500 calls on their hotline. Out of those, 93 resulted in direct support for families. Eight cases were serious enough for police to get involved.

Although the centre wouldn’t specify the nature of the cases, they admitted many of those calls are related to Islamic extremism.

“It has been in the news lately, so we get calls about that,” said Rebbani-Gosselin. “We demystify a lot of things for people: religions, terms…”

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That volume of calls related to Islam is something that worries the Muslim community, they say more needs to be done to debunk myths about their faith.

“We see Islamophobia is high from coast to coast now. We used to feel it more in Montreal, Quebec. Now we’re feeling it everywhere,” stressed the president of the Canadian Muslim Forum, Samer Majzoub.

“Where are the programs to really address such issues?”

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The centre might expand its reach with a parole system for inmates who fit certain extremist profiles.

READ MORE: Montreal anti-radicalization centre mulling prison parole system for extremists

“These are just examples of future programs that we believe might help prevent violent radicalization,” said Rebbani-Gosselin.

“Radicalization in prisons is a concern world-wide and Quebec is not exempt.”

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But one of their main concerns now are youth who are interested in going to Syria to fight against the Islamic State.

“This is as concerning for us because for us, it doesn’t matter what group you join, it is radicalization leading to violence,” Rebbani-Gosselin said.

“We want to make sure people are educated in this phenomenon as well.”

The centre opened a new website featuring information on what radicalization is and how to recognize troubling behaviour.

So far, there are no plans to open any more centres of this kind in the province.