Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough mayor Sue Montgomery began Monday’s virtual council meeting by addressing the issue of police violence and racism, in light of the death of George Floyd.
Floyd, a Black man, died in Minneapolis after pleading for air as a white police officer pressed his knee onto Floyd’s neck for several minutes.
Anti-racism solidarity protests have been held in numerous American and Canadian cities including Montreal to denounce racist violence and police impunity.
Montgomery pointed out that the problem of police violence isn’t unique to the United States.
“It’s also a problem here,” she said. “We have a sad and tragic history of police violence against Black men.”
She pointed to several incidents dating as far back as 1987, with the death of an unarmed Black teenager named Anthony Griffin and, more recently, the 2018 death of Nicholas Gibbs.
In the current context, Montgomery laments the loss of the local police station 11 which is to be merged with Station 9 in nearby Côte Saint-Luc.
“Losing our local police station will certainly not improve things,” she said.
“Right now, many are angry at the police and many do not trust the police — I share your anger but the solution is not to have more police officers removed from our community.”
Montreal police have said that in recent years, fewer and fewer people have visited police stations in person, with more officers being sent to the street instead.
That has changed the way the force needs to operate, they argue, and having larger stations that cover more than one neighbourhood is more efficient.
Projet Montreal councillor Peter McQueen failed to see the logic in Montgomery’s comments linking the local police stations to tragedies in the area.
“We’ve had a station on Sommerled that has existed for years, for decades, and Mr. Gibbs was still shot,” he said.
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But Montgomery argued what is needed is more community policing.
“Community policing means police respond to ongoing problems in a proactive way rather than just reacting to incidents,” she said, adding it’s about “building trust” and “being with and from the community.”
“What we need is to end racial and social profiling which the SPVM (Montreal police department) has acknowledged occurs and is unacceptable.”
On the issue of police accountability, council was also set to debate a motion Monday evening requiring officers with the Montreal Police department (SPVM) to wear body cameras.
It was tabled by the mayor and supported by Ensemble Montreal’s Lionel Perez and independent councillor Lionel Perez.
Ahead of the vote, Projet Montreal Councillor Magda Popeanu defended the current administration at Montreal City Hall led by Mayor Valérie Plante.
“All citizens regardless of their status, origin or skin colour have the right to expect fair and equitable treatment,” she said.
“Our administration has embarked on an important project to combat racial and social profiling and will implement a series of measures to respond to these systematic problems.
She also said the SPVM will be adopting a street-check policy in the coming months.
In November, Montreal city council passed a motion for the Montreal police department to put an end to the practice of stopping and checking people without just cause.
The impetus behind the motion was an independent report, released in October, that showed visible minorities were being stopped by Montreal police officers more frequently than non-racialized people.
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