Montreal police boost patrols before anniversary of attack on Israel, start of latest war in Gaza
SPVM increases presence near places of worship
Montreal police announced on Friday morning an increased presence across the city to ensure the safety of Arab-Muslim and Jewish communities ahead of the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and Israel's latest military campaign in Gaza.
In a press conference, deputy chief Vincent Richer and chief inspector Mohamed Bouhdid with the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) announced that a "visibility plan" was put in place on Oct. 1 to "strengthen the sense of security."
Additional staff have been deployed for this purpose, with police focusing on areas where there are sites of symbolic importance to the Jewish and Arab-Muslim communities.
Bouhdid said reports of events related to the war have dropped significantly in Montreal over the past three months.
"We encourage people to not change their habits and to keep up the planned activities," said Richer.
He says the SPVM arrested five suspects, including two adults and three minors, in possession of incendiary material in the municipality of Côte Saint-Luc and the borough of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce overnight Tuesday.
With protests expected to take place in the city over the weekend and next week, Bouhdid stressed the "importance" of demonstrating in compliance with the law.
"The vast majority of these events have taken place peacefully. Montreal is a safe city and we call everyone to work together to keep it that way," said Bouhdid.
Since Hamas's attack on Israel on Oct. 7, the SPVM has recorded 345 Montreal-area demonstrations in connection with the war.
Montreal police say they will not hesitate to intervene and arrest people if violent or criminal acts are carried out.
They say they have made more than 100 arrests in connection with the latest Israel-Gaza war.
Other security measures in place
McGill University has put in place special security measures to restrict access to its campuses between Saturday and Monday.
Concordia University said it had also increased the presence of its security guards and would make attendance on Monday optional. Professors will also be able to deliver their classes online.
Montreal synagogues have ramped up security before some of the Jewish community's most important holidays began this week.
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas carried out an attack on southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people. Some 250 hostages were taken to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
As of last month, Israel had killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, displaced 90 per cent of Gaza's 2.3 million people from their homes and caused heavy destruction across the besieged territory, leaving more than a million Gazans starving with a collapsed health-care system.
More than 680 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank — most by the Israeli army and some by Israeli settlers.
In March, UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese said there were "reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide" has been met.
The violence in the Middle East continues to rise with Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon claiming the lives of more than 1,000 people and injuring 6,000, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry, and the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah by Israel.
In the last few months, the exchange of rockets between the Lebanese militant group and Israel has increased. Iran also launched a series of ballistic missiles at Israel less than a week after the assassination of Nasrallah.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from CBC's Margaret Evans, Antoni Nerestant, The Associated Press and Reuters