The murder of young Thomas Trudel, 16, in the Saint-Michel district of Montreal, shocked Quebec. The teenager was walking on the sidewalk on his way home on Sunday night when a person shot him for reasons still unknown. This drama, which is added to others, raises the question of the ease with which firearms can be obtained, as the authorities try to control their traffic.
“Why are we here today, in 2021, with young people who buy weapons at 16, or 15, or 18? »Had launched in front of the journalists Tuesday the director of the Police Department of the City of Montreal (SPVM), Sylvain Caron.
Much of the answer lies with our neighbors to the south. “There are large networks called iron pipeline. It starts from the southern United States and goes up the main highways, and it is found among others in Quebec, observes Francis Langlois, specialist in firearms and associate researcher at the Observatory of the Raoul-Dandurand Chair. In Toronto, 80 to 85% of the guns seized come from the United States. “
Since the start of the year, 567 guns have been seized in Montreal. The SPVM is not in a position to give many details, for example what types of weapons they are.
The police department nevertheless specified by email to the To have to that, according to the observations of the National Firearms Law Enforcement Support Team (ENSALA), “the number of seizures on the Island of Montreal involving ghost guns made from parts printed in 3D would be marginal compared to other types of firearms since the appearance of this mode of manufacture ”.
According to speakers, several weapons arriving from the United States pass through native reserves, a delicate issue. “The police do not have the authorization of the federal government to intervene,” says André Gélinas, retired detective sergeant with the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM).
Lots of handguns circulate in the streets. Polymer Glock-type pistols, which are readily available and without a serial number, are gaining popularity. “These weapons are machined, but they are not assembled, and they are not finished. They are 80% complete, ”explains Francis Langlois. This means that, under US law, they are not considered weapons, and the number of people who produce them has jumped in recent years.
These “ghost weapons” cause headaches for law enforcement officials because they guarantee a certain anonymity. “We don’t know who produced it and who bought it first,” says the expert. Last March, a Quebecer was notably arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) with 249 weapons of this type near the American border.
André Gélinas adds that the networks illegally smuggle firearms through the least guarded areas of the border. “We have the largest border between two countries in the world, and it’s unguarded,” he says. It can go everywhere. “
Feeling of power
Obtaining an illegal weapon is then not difficult for the teenagers who know where to turn. “When someone gravitates into the world of organized crime, they know who to look and how to get them. And he has the money, it’s a lucrative world, ”underlines André Gélinas, who worked in the intelligence division of the SPVM. Violence fuels violence, and a gun has a fleeting life in the underworld, he adds, which fuels demand.
Pierreson Vaval, director of Team RDP, an organization that works with young people in the northeast of Montreal, mentions that violence is the tool of choice to walk and survive in certain communities.
“It is not natural for young people to have weapons, but it is not natural either for young people to evolve in marginal areas, because they do not have other solutions adapted to their needs. their situation, he believes. The marginal world opens its doors wide for young people who, since their childhood, have lived in precariousness and vulnerability, and who experience successive failures in the process of rooting in the community. “
Beverly Jacques, director of DOD Basketball in Saint-Léonard, adds that there is a “ trip to be able to “. “There are those who say it’s to protect themselves. And there are some that it is for the power, for the feeling that it can give to have the capacity to do things like that to people ”, he thinks.
Youth workers in Montreal note a greater presence of weapons in images published on social networks and argue that a greater number of situations of violence, often related to weapons, are reported to them.
More prevention
The tone has risen this week against the federal government to do more in the fight against the circulation of firearms, especially at the borders. And, last September, Quebec launched the operation Centaur, a provincial gun violence strategy.
However, the police response has its limits in countering the phenomenon of armed violence, many believe.
“The means are not up to par. A lot of means are deployed for repression, and not enough for prevention, ”notes Vanessa Sykes Tremblay, general manager of Vivre Saint-Michel en santé. Sunday’s drama shocked the neighborhood a lot. A meeting to discuss these questions took place on Friday with the neighborhood tables of the boroughs of Saint-Michel, Saint-Léonard, Montreal-North, Rivière-des-Prairies and Mercier – Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.
In early November, the Pozé Coalition asked for an investment of $ 90 million for prevention, the same amount invested by Quebec in the squad. Centaur. “We must put in place solutions for young people who sink into violence, develop corridors of opportunity so that they see that there is a way to take their place with dignity in society”, thinks Pierreson Vaval .