Fady Dagher

Montreal police chief defends handling of Cavendish anti-Israel protest

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban

Montreal police chief Fady Dagher responded to The Suburban about the SPVM’s handling of the April 7 anti-Israel protest at Quartier Cavendish in Côte St. Luc.

While the police moved the protesters away from the CineStarz theatre where a special showing of the documentary October 8, about the rise of antisemitism since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel, took place, the agitators were allowed to stay in the mall for more than two hours.

Côte St. Luc Mayor Mitchell Brownstein and the mall ownership had called on the police to eject the protesters, citing Criminal Code provisions against intimidation, and Brownstein and Mount Royal MP Anthony Housefather reinforced this point in a letter to the Plante administration. Police on the scene said they could not take this action unless the protesters committed a crime, and that they could stay in a public access on private property.

Dagher was asked about this by The Suburban following his April 25 visit with students at Gardenview Elementary School in St. Laurent.

“It all depends on the situation, every situation is different,” the police chief said. “We have lawyers who work with the police department and they let us know when it is the time to act. We have some events where the police act right away during those demonstrations and in the last year and a half, we made more than 120 arrests.”

Dagher said police actions depend on the timing and the rules officers follow — each situation is different, and sometimes non-intervention is appropriate.

“It’s always depending on the circumstances. The police department never wants to start something, we want to resolve the issues, so we have to find the right time.”

Housefather and Brownstein had also written to the Plante administration that the SPVM’s decision not to eject the anti-Israel protesters “stands in stark contrast to the police response in other jurisdictions where trespassing on private property has led to prompt enforcement. It also underscores a broader and deeply troubling inconsistency in how public safety is being ensured on the Island of Montreal.”

Dagher acknowledged to The Suburban that different cities in Canada have different policies emanating from the rules of their municipality.

“But for the Criminal Code, we always get assisted by our lawyers. The Criminal Code is for everyone in Canada, but again, we have to find exactly the right moment, the needs for what is happening and when we have the right tools — then we intervene. Sometimes it feels very frustrating for the people to see that the police are not acting, but it’s not because they don’t want to. They have to make sure they have the right legal argument to be able to advance.” n

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Montreal police chief enthrals St. Laurent elementary students

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , ,

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

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SPVM responds to The Suburban on hate crimes after Rotrand letter

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , ,

By Joel Goldenberg
The Suburban

Marvin Rotrand, formerly head of B’nai Brith Canada’s League for Human Rights, and now interim director of the new United Against Hate organization, is calling for clarity from the SPVM on hate crimes committed against the Montreal Jewish community.

Rotrand, whose new organization’s goal is to “promote dialogue and understanding within our diverse population to strengthen anti-hate efforts,” wrote to Montreal police chief Fady Dagher, pointing out that there has been a major increase in hate crime incidents in Canada in general, especially against Jewish communities since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.

“Montreal was not spared from the wave of hatred targeting Jews,” Rotrand wrote. “Jewish schools were shot at and arson attempts were perpetrated against Jewish community buildings. Hateful gatherings openly incited violence against the Jewish community, Jewish students were attacked at Concordia University and calls for boycotts of businesses were launched simply because their owners are Jewish.”

Rotrand wrote that even after all of these incidents and the concerns expressed by the Jewish community, “there have been very few arrests.

“The lack of application of our laws gives the feeling that the authorities have not allocated the necessary resources to solve the major crimes we have witnessed in our city.”

Rotrand asked Dagher:

• “How many hate crimes and incidents have been recorded by the SPVM since Oct. 7, 2023? Of these, how many specifically targeted the Jewish community?”

• “With regard to incidents occurring since Oct. 7, 2023, when shots were fired at Jewish schools, and there were arson attempts against Jewish community buildings and acts of vandalism, are these incidents being investigated as probable hate crimes?”

• “What is the role of the SPVM’s Hate Crimes unit in these investigations? Does the unit lead the investigations? If not, what is its role?

• “On Nov. 24, Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw said that his department’s hate crimes unit had increased from a team from six people to 32. He said that since Oct. 7, the expanded unit made 22 arrests and laid 58 charges. What is the current number of police officers assigned to the hate crimes unit of the SPVM?

• Are there plans to increase the unit’s capacity to deal with the current epidemic of antisemitic incidents?

Rotrand wrote Dagher that the Montreal Jewish community “appreciates the statements you have made in recent months that anti-Semitism is unacceptable, and the increased visibility near Jewish institutions last October and November.

“However, the fact that there have been no arrests for these major crimes fuels a strong feeling that the SPVM must allocate many more resources so that investigations result in arrests and indictments of criminals.”

Contacted by The Suburban, the SPVM’s media representative said Dagher will respond to Rotrand in due course. They also provided the most recent statistics regarding hate crimes and incidents against members of the Jewish and Arab-Muslim communities from Oct. 7 to Feb. 24 — 42 hate crimes against Jewish individuals, 19 against Arab-Muslims; 32 hate crimes against Jewish properties, seven against Arab-Muslim properties; 56 antisemitic hate incidents, and 17 anti-Arab-Muslim incidents, for a total of 173 incidents — 130 against the Jewish community and 43 against the Arab-Muslim community.

The SPVM added that “there is no offence identified as a ‘hate crime’ in the Criminal Code.

“The hateful character is in fact a constitutive and aggravating factor of a given criminal act, a factor which must be nuanced depending on the context. For example, if a person is the victim of an assault motivated by hatred towards their religion, the suspect will be charged with assault and the hateful nature will be taken into consideration when determining the sentence, if convicted.”

The police added that although the SPVM’s hate crimes unit (MICH) processes them, hate incidents “do not lead to arrests or charges, because they are not criminal offences. The MICH takes care of this in order to prevent these incidents from potentially becoming hate crimes.” n

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