Suspensions Are Not Accountability
AI-generated image · Bay Street Wire
The SPVM's decision to sideline officers after a stomach-churning abuse of power is a slap on the wrist for a department struggling with a culture of dehumanization.
OPINION: When the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) confirms the suspension of two officers from Station 21, it frames the move as a serious response to a horrific allegation. But let's be clear: a suspension is not accountability. It is a procedural pause.
As first reported by CBC News, these officers are under internal investigation following reports that one officer urinated on a person experiencing homelessness. This isn't just a breach of professional standards; as Annie Savage, executive director of the advocacy group RAPSIM, told Radio-Canada's Tout un matin, it is nearly impossible to imagine a more violent or degrading act.
To treat this as an isolated lapse in judgment is to ignore a documented pattern of targeting the city's most vulnerable. A joint report released last June by RAPSIM and the legal aid organization Clinique Droits Devant paints a grim picture of the relationship between law enforcement and Montreal's unhoused population. That study found that 66 percent of surveyed unhoused individuals reported they are rarely or never treated like other members of the public, while 40 percent felt they were heavily ticketed or targeted. The report further documented unjustified searches, verbal and physical abuse, and a climate of surveillance that leaves many too terrified to call 911 during emergencies.
This is the context in which the Station 21 incident occurred. It is a context where the dehumanization of the poor is not an anomaly, but a feature.
Furthermore, this is not the only red flag emerging from the SPVM's ranks. CBC News reports that another officer from Station 21 was suspended in recent weeks for allegedly mocking and posing with a suspect who had been placed in a humiliating position during an arrest. Other precincts show similar systemic issues; for instance, a unit at Station 39 in Montréal-Nord was dissolved last June following allegations of racial profiling.
Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada stated to CBC that these allegations are "extremely serious" and undermine human dignity. The Montreal police brotherhood has also issued a statement "firmly condemning" behavior that violates professional standards.
But condemnations and suspensions are the tools of a department trying to manage its image, not a department trying to purge a toxic culture. When officers feel emboldened to treat a human being as a urinal, the problem isn't a few "bad apples"—it is a failure of leadership and oversight. Until there are permanent consequences and a fundamental shift in how the SPVM views the unhoused, these suspensions are nothing more than a slap on the wrist.