By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban
Montreal police chief Fady Dagher enthralled students at Gardenview Elementary School in St. Laurent last Friday, telling them about his life in Montreal and with the SPVM.
Dagher, a longtime resident of St. Laurent, pointed out that his three children attended Gardenview. The police chief was joined at the school by St. Laurent Mayor Alan DeSousa and councillors Vana Nazarian, Aref Salem and Jacques Cohen, and from the English Montreal School Board, Director-General Nicholas Katalifos, Board Vice-Chairman and St. Laurent Commissioner James Kromida; Demetrios Giannacopoulos, Regional Director (West), and Assistant Director-General Pela Nickoletopoulos.
Dagher told the students and staff that returning to Gardenview was an emotional experience.
“Gardenview was always in my heart, and will always stay in my heart,” he said to much applause. “This is also the first time I’ve come to an elementary school and met with the kids.”
Dagher was first interviewed by Mike Cohen, manager of marketing and communications at the EMSB, and then answered very intelligent and perceptive questions from the students. The police chief, who speaks five languages perfectly, told Cohen that when he was growing up, he aspired to be an architect.
“But to be honest with you, I wasn’t good in mathematics. Then I wanted to be the manager of a big store in Montreal. But one day, a police officer in uniform came in to a store to buy a pair of glasses.”
Dagher then asked about the officer’s work, and was invited to join him on a ride-a-long, and the future chief’s career path was set. He also went back to school at the age of 42 to get an Executive Masters degree in Business Administration at McGill and HEC.
“I remember sitting in our dining room doing my homework and my three kids, who were here at Gardenview, were doing their homework at the same time as me. They said, ‘Dad, why are you studying?’ I told them ‘I didn’t finish what I wanted to finish when I was 20 years old.’”
Now, he leads more than 5,000 police officers, and a total of 6,500 people in the SPVM. He advised the students to pursue their dreams and not give up.
The students were then asked what a police chief does. One student said, “he tells every other officer what to do, like he’s the king.”
“Are you the king?” Cohen asked.
“No, I’m not the king,” Dagher said. “But yes, you’re right, I tell my police officers what we are to do, where we’re going. I guide my people, but I’m not the king.”
Another student asked why Dagher wanted to become police chief.
“In 2009-2010, I was the commander of a police station, and I saw what we were able to do with the community, and I didn’t just want to do that in one neighbourhood.”
One student asked, “what is the coolest part of your job?”
“It’s a tough job,” Dagher said. “But the coolest part of my career was when I was undercover, buying drugs to get them off the street, so that kids wouldn’t have any access to them. I loved that period of my life, because I was able to make the city safer. That was a great time, from 1992 to 1996, one of the best times of my career.”
Then came the most provocative question. “Do you ever use your gun?” asked a student.
“I’m surprised that question didn’t come earlier,” Dagher joked. “Yes, I used it, but I never fired it. I took it out, but I never shot anybody, and thank God.” n