MONTREAL – A suspicious white powder discovered in an envelope being processed at an east-end Canada Post distribution centre at 2:50 a.m. Monday was declared harmless, police said at 10:15 a.m.
“It was a white powder, it hasn’t been determined exactly what it is,” Constable Yannick Ouimet said in a taped bulletin to media.
But, he added, “it is a non-toxic substance.”
Five employees on the premises in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve district, had been monitored. “There is no danger whatsoever to their health” or for officers and other personnel who responded, Ouimet said.
Before 6 a.m., Constable Anie Lemieux of Montreal police had described the contents of the mystery envelope as “some kind of substance, something that looks like a white powder.”
The identity of the addressee “is not going to be revealed,” Ouimet added at 8 a.m.
At that point, he added, “the envelope has not been opened.” He did not explain why police had been able to provide media with the colour of an apparent powder contained in an unopened envelope.
Ouimet did say at 8 a.m. that it had not been determined whether the envelope contained any kind of message.
The incident mirrors a recent flurry of apparently similar instances, largely targetting offices of various members of the provincial Liberal government.
Most notably, such a powder was received – and subsequently determined to have been harmless – at the riding office of Quebec Premier Jean Charest, in Sherbrooke.
Several media outlets also received similar envelopes.
In many of those those instances, the powder was determined to be baking powder.
Some of those envelopes included letters, some of which mentioned anthrax, deadly spores which have been used as biological weapons.
The letters bore the signature of a mysterious group styling itself the “Forces armées révolutionaires du Québec,” which can be roughly translated as “the revolutionary armed forces of Quebec.”
Letter carriers reporting for duty at the distribution centre, on Ontario St. E. near Letourneux Ave., had gathered outside the immediate area, with their access barred by police tape.
The situation was returning to normal later in the morning.
Following standard protocol for such incidents, the response was carried out by Montreal police, the Montreal Island fire department and Urgences-Santé.
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