The official opposition to the City of Montreal on Wednesday called for the establishment of a “web patrol” before the end of the year by the Montreal Police Service (SPVM). Together Montreal intends to file a motion to this effect at the next city council, but an expert denounces a measure that he considers counterproductive.
Updated yesterday at 1:48 p.m.
The person in charge of public security on the executive committee of the City of Montreal, Alain Vaillancourt, welcomed the exit of the opposition “which seems to really adhere to our action plan”. Without saying if he was going to support the motion, he promised an announcement “within a few weeks” on this subject.
The motion, proposed by the official opposition spokesperson for public security, Abdelhaq Sari, asks that the municipal council “mandate the SPVM to put in place by the end of 2022 its commitment […] to create a “web patrol”, a collaborative tool where several stakeholders would be mobilized to monitor social networks”.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, ARCHIVES LA PRESSE
Abdelhaq Sari
The motion also asks that the City and the SPVM “undertake to make adolescents aware of the dangers of social networks and the issues of cybercrime, cyberbullying and cyberstalking, and to support measures aimed at reducing them”.
The proposed measures include the promotion of existing prevention, information and support tools, as well as the development of “safe spaces for expression” for victims of cybercrime or online harassment. An awareness campaign in municipal spaces, schools and community centers is also advanced, in addition to the creation of an “awareness week for the proper use of social media”.
Mr. Sari stressed at a press conference that it is however important that young people do not perceive these measures as surveillance. To do this, it relies on trusted messengers who have experienced the consequences of violence.
“Many disputes arise online and then take to the streets,” said Philippe Thermidor, borough councilor for Ensemble Montréal, quoted in the press release and present at the opposition press conference on Wednesday. “It requires constant awareness and prevention. »
The right target?
Neither Mr. Thermidor nor Mr. Sari were able to substantiate the asserted causal link between online violence and gun violence, or give examples of it. Instead, they relied on the SPVM, which had not responded to questions from The Press at the time of publishing this text.
Professor Ted Rutland, a public safety expert from Concordia University, however, believes the motion misses the mark. ” [Ils] try to make us believe that violence is caused by online interactions, and that is absolutely not the case,” he said in an interview. “All studies on violence, including armed violence, talk much more about the social and economic context of individuals. »
While he approves of awareness-raising measures by community groups, Professor Rutland denounces the idea of a “web patrol”. Instead, it would focus on creating good jobs for marginalized youth, providing psychological support for victims, and hiring street workers to fight gun violence.
“It’s decades of research that show it’s things like that that make the difference,” he said. “More police surveillance and more repression makes very little difference. »
“The SPVM is already doing a lot of action on the web, cybercrime […]but we are going to strengthen them in relation to what we have seen at the Forum,” assured Mr. Vaillancourt, of the executive committee.
In the wake of the Montreal Forum for the Fight Against Armed Violence in March, the SPVM said it was considering “developing a structure to monitor social networks and exchange platforms used by young people involved in groups criminalized”. The watchdog “would aim to occupy the digital space thanks to a principle of ‘web patrol’” made up of police officers, social workers, or community stakeholders.
“Social media are playing an increasingly important role in firearms investigations,” says the SPVM in its 2021 Activity Report. “In 2021, there was a 68% increase in files of this type processed by our Cyber Investigation Module. »