There are still a ton of unanswered questions following the arson that killed two people in an Old Montreal inn on Friday.
But what is leaking out of the file at this stage does nothing to reassure Montrealers.
The blaze was apparently started around 2:40 a.m. by a Molotov cocktail. The device was allegedly launched by a masked individual towards the Loam restaurant, located on the ground floor of the building. This crime could be linked to a wave of extortion targeting restaurateurs and merchants in the metropolis.
I’m talking about a wave, but it looks more like a breaking wave. At least three other Molotov cocktail attacks carried out Since that of Friday.
Three !
A convenience store in Verdun, a bar in Pointe-Saint-Charles and a pastry shop in Saint-Léonard were targeted during the weekend. A 15-year-old boy was arrested in this latest case.
Journalists from The Press and of Montreal Journal revealed on Saturday the modus operandi of the disturbing terror operation which has now lasted for months1.
Basically: we are witnessing a war of pizzathis “tax” traditionally demanded of traders by the Italian mafia to protect their establishments.
This extortion scheme is nothing new, except that there are now three criminal groups fighting among themselves to bleed Montreal tenants. The old rules of the game, if we can use that expression, no longer hold water.
It’s “at the strongest the pocket”.
A particularly brutal attack took place on September 12, at the MAÜ restaurant, in the city center. A hooded individual, armed with a hammer, showed up while several customers were inside. He broke everything by yelling at the manager that he had to pay $100,000.
Difficult to make a more explicit threat.
If the extortion thesis is confirmed, the attack perpetrated Friday at the Loam restaurant would represent the height of horror in the current wave. Two French tourists, Léonor Geraudie, 43, and her daughter Vérane Reynaud Geraudie, 7, died in the blaze.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY A PRESS SOURCE
An image of the hooded suspect, just before the flames appeared
When is the next drama?
I spoke at length on Monday to Fady Dagher, director of the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM).
On the arson attack in Old Montreal, he calls for extreme caution before jumping to conclusions. The extortion “hypothesis” is one among others at this stage of the investigation.
But yes: Fady Dagher confirms that there is currently a wave of this type of crime, similar to that observed in 2022 and 2023, when Molotov cocktails were thrown in a short time at several businesses.
PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
The director of the SPVM, Fady Dagher, last June
We had noticed a moment of calm that was quite long, and there it started again. We have never closed these files. On the contrary, we kept them open, because we can make lots of connections between what happened in 2022-2023 and what is happening now.
The director of the SPVM, Fady Dagher
Several SPVM units, including the arson unit and the anti-gang squad, work together on these investigations. So far there has been “a good resolution rate” and several arrests, says the police chief.
The suspects arrested are at the bottom of the food chain, for the most part. We are talking here about young budding criminals, often teenagers, paid a few hundred or a few thousand dollars to launch incendiary devices.
“Where it gets complicated is when you want to rise to the level of management,” admits Fady Dagher. It’s a little more complicated, but we have medium and long-term investigations which could bear fruit soon. »
Montrealers are eagerly hoping for a resolution sooner rather than later.
When there are injuries, or worse, deaths, as was the case on Friday, the sense of security of all citizens, already damaged, becomes downright shaken.
I reported on the “little Wild West aspects” of the metropolis in a recent column. Crimes against the person jumped by 51% between 2018 and 2023 in Montreal. Business owners told me that they no longer call the SPVM police officers when they experience criminal acts, such as theft of alcohol bottles, because it has become so common2.
Fady Dagher, on the contrary, urges all victims of a crime, including extortion attempts, to communicate “quickly” with 911. “They have no idea how the little innocuous information they can give us can come solve other crimes currently being investigated. »
Coming back to the fatal fire in Old Montreal, the head of the SPVM confirms to me that the police investigation, in addition to looking for the culprits, will look into the compliance of the building itself.
SCREENSHOT OF A VIDEO PROVIDED BY HATIM BENALLOUANE
The fire at the youth hostel, at the corner of Notre-Dame and Bonsecours, last Friday
Since Friday, the Fire Safety Service (SIM) and the administration of Valérie Plante have repeated that all the non-conformities which had been noted in 2023 in the building were corrected in 2024. That all the inspections had been carried out in the rules of the art. That the heritage building was deemed safe.
It’s hard to believe, given the many lousy reviews this hostel has received from guests worried about their safety.3
A public coroner’s inquiry, like the one suggested on Saturday by the Minister of Public Security, François Bonnardel, could also help to shed light on the inspection process for tourist buildings. It could be combined with another investigation into a fatal fire that occurred in Old Montreal in March 2023.
Either way, it will take time. The Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) was recently informed of the SPVM’s conclusions in this first case, Radio-Canada revealed Monday evening.4 The DPCP could take more than 18 months to complete its analysis.
The families bereaved by these two tragedies will have to be patient.
1. Read the article “Fatal fire in Old Montreal: victims of an extortion war? »
2. Read the column “Rise in crime in Montreal: a touch of the Wild West”
3. Read the article “Building burned: a youth hostel with windowless rooms”
4. Read the Radio-Canada article “The case of the fatal fire at Place D’Youville in the hands of the DPCP”
“Difficult choices” for the SPVM
Faced with a lack of staff and increasingly complex situations, the SPVM will have “difficult choices to make,” Fady Dagher told me. The police force is in the process of “reviewing its service offering” to determine which mandates it will have to put aside in the future, in order to concentrate on its primary mission. He cites the example of court orders affecting people with mental problems. “If they are in a crisis or in some form of danger, yes, we will go there, of course. But if this person is not in crisis, why do the police have to escort them to bring them back before a judge? Why don’t other services, which are already planned at the level of the Ministry of Health, play this role? »