Montreal English-speaking community groups denounce disparities in crime prevention funding

Groups that serve the English-speaking Black community and other minorities in Montreal's west end say they're being left out when it comes to government funding for crime prevention.

Community group leaders spoke at a virtual conference organized by the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) Wednesday to criticize the Quebec government and the city for disproportionately allocating crime prevention funds to organizations that serve French-speaking communities, located predominantly east of St. Laurent Boulevard.

"The west gets less, and it's not equitable," said CRARR executive director Fo Niemi, referring to boroughs such as Côte-Des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-De-Grâce, Lasalle, Ville Saint-Laurent, Pierrefonds-Roxboro and other municipalities

An analysis of data recently released by the Ministry of Public Security shows that of the $1.65 million set aside for the island of Montreal through the ministry's four main crime prevention programs, 68 per cent went to 14 community groups east of St. Laurent Boulevard while 32 per cent went to four organizations west of it. 

"We have never been contacted by Quebec or the city to inform us of this funding," said Joan Lee, president of the West Island Black Community Association (WIBCA), which has been serving parents and youth for 40 years.

"Being left out of programs that are fundamental to the West Island Black community's well-being because we're Black and English-speaking is morally wrong and socially counterproductive."

Auvril Edwards of the Lasalle Multicultural Resource Center (LMRC) says this chronic underfunding communicates to English-speaking young people of colour and their families that they don't have a right to equal treatment.

"It's as if we don't exist or that our needs and rights … are not important," she said. "We are tired of this blatant exclusion as English-speaking Quebecers."

The groups, including the Filipino Parents Association of Quebec and Dare Every Soul to Achieve (DESTA) in Little Burgundy, also criticized their exclusion from a recent summit on gun violence, organized by the city of Montreal and its respective police force. 

The forum, which began in February and continues on two separate dates this month, is intended to find concrete solutions to curbing the surge in armed violence Montreal has seen in recent years.

"There's no active or any outreach to the English-speaking organizations to ensure a fair representation and adequate representation of these groups at the summit on violence," said Niemi. "[It's as if] half of the city is being written off or being left out of an important city-wide initiative."

Of all the groups that attended the conference Wednesday, not one was invited to participate in the summit. 

Mark Henry, president of the Jamaica Association of Montreal in Côte-Des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-De-Grâce, said organizers had done a disservice to the community he serves by leaving them off the invitation list

Shaheen Ashraf, who is on the board of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women, said she believes west-end groups weren't invited to the forum because "they only invite people that will add voices as a 'yes man' or a 'yes woman.'" 

Monique Barling from DESTA says she'd like to give parents concrete answers when they ask her what's being done to fight armed violence, but she can't do that if the government keeps "placing band-aids [on the problem] when it needs to be stitched."

"We wouldn't be here today if what was meant to be working was in fact working," she said. 

Niemi said CRARR wrote to the city and the Quebec government in January, demanding anglophone groups be included in crime prevention discussions, but they never got a response.

In a written statement to CBC News, the city said prevention is at the heart of its urban security strategy and that these efforts include the entire population without distinction. It says more than a dozen young Montrealers, including some from Anglophone communities, will attend the March 17th forum on the fight against armed violence. The final date of the forum is March 31.

The groups are demanding their communities be included in all measures aimed at combatting systemic racism and youth violence.

They are calling on the city to include them immediately in all consultations on crime prevention, to review and overhaul the funding criteria and to put in place procedures to make sure race, language and geography are given fair consideration.