Sixteen Montreal police officers have been suspended or reassigned over suspected coordinated racist behaviour, in a case that has shaken the city. Police officials announced the investigation at a news conference held late the previous night.
According to the city's police chief, the 16 officers allegedly committed racist and hateful acts against Black and Arab citizens during police stops. The officers are said to be from a specific station in the borough of Montreal North.
The allegations, first reported by a Radio Canada source, include disturbing details. Some officers are accused of collecting pieces of locks, sometimes called dreadlocks, that had been cut from citizens during police interventions.
The same source indicated that tickets were allegedly issued to people solely because of their ethnic background. The accounts point to conduct that appeared to go beyond isolated incidents and toward a pattern within the station.
Most of the officers involved are young men with less than five years of service, making them relatively new to the city's police force. That detail has added to concerns about the culture taking hold among newer recruits.
The police chief condemned the behaviour during the news conference, saying the officers had tarnished the force's uniform and reputation. He described himself as deeply hurt, saying he had not seen it coming at all.
The mayor of Montreal also addressed the case, urging citizens to remain calm while expressing how disturbed she was that such allegations could surface in the city. Officials noted that an internal investigation had been launched two months earlier, after colleagues at the station reported the behaviour.
In the days since, the case has escalated. Two of the officers are now being investigated for potential criminal charges, while the wider group remains part of the internal probe. Calls have been mounting for a fully independent investigation, and the province has hired an independent observer to follow the case, while saying it is not ruling out doing more.
Protesters gathered outside the police station at the centre of the case, angry over the allegations. For many in the borough, one of Montreal's most diverse, the accusations come as no surprise and feed a deep-seated distrust of police. Residents pointed back to the 2008 police shooting of teenager Fredy Villanueva in the same neighbourhood, and to the case of Samuel Bunch, who said he was pulled out of his car by his hair during a 2020 stop in Laval and later reached a settlement with the city after suing.
Quebec Premier Christine Frechette called the alleged conduct unacceptable, but stopped short of describing it as systemic racism, a refusal that has become a major source of frustration for residents and community organizers. Montreal's police chief said action was already being taken, telling reporters that the force had moved on Friday night to dismantle the group and that there would be consequences.