There’s a way for everyone within earshot to know when Shabbat has arrived in the west side of downtown Montreal.
Chants begin almost every Friday evening as the crowd—varying from dozens to hundreds—heads westward slowly and loudly along Saint-Catherine Street towards Westmount Square, the sprawling commercial, office and residential block that houses the Israeli Consulate, which has been site of anti-Israel demonstrations including violent encounters with police and counter-protesters over the last several years.
While varying in size and scope, the ruckus has been relentless since Oct. 7, 2023—and some locals have had enough.
Westmount mayor Christina Smith and Westmount-Saint-Louis MNA Jennifer Maccarone feel the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) can’t adequately mitigate the impact of ongoing protests and are calling on local and provincial governments to step in.
The two wrote to Montreal mayor Valérie Plante and Quebec public security minister François Bonnardel on Oct. 4, a few days after anti-Israel and anarchist demonstrators marauded through downtown, breaking windows on boutiques and restaurants, damaging cars and throwing objects at police. Four people were arrested and released without charges.
They told Plante—and SPVM Chief Fady Dagher copied on the letter—that the situation is becoming increasingly volatile “with numerous demonstrations planned and increasing threats of violence,” calling the previous week’s unrest “alarming.”
They were particularly concerned about the daily impact on people living and working in the area surrounding the Israeli Consulate: “These communities are subjected to repeated disruptions, creating an atmosphere of fear and unease.”
Local businesses suffer significant financial losses they say, as clients avoid the area due to safety concerns and access restrictions while the area fills with chanting crowds blocking traffic, setting off smoke bombs and more. “The noise level alone is unbearable for residents, many of whom are seniors who are stuck in their homes or unable to return home safely.”
Maccarone, who is Quebec’s official opposition critic for Public Security, tells her own employees to stay home on Fridays. One merchant in Westmount told The CJN her employees only work mornings, “because there’s no way I’m asking them to leave directly into a crowd of masked screamers.”
Officials want better monitoring of protest routes, ensuring workers and residents have constant and unhindered access, urging “immediate and decisive action.” In more concrete terms, says Maccarone, that could be as simple as rerouting protests, or setting up an intervention force to manage disruptions, “allowing them to continue demonstrating and have their say, but not in a way that threatens or obstructs the lives of people living there.”
That was three weeks ago, and there has been no official reply other than a simple acknowledgement of the letter from the city.
“It’s frustrating” Maccarone told The CJN from her office, eight storeys above the weekly protest rallying point. The building also houses the U.S. Consulate, which had part of its entrance smashed during a recent demonstration. The lack of response to an island mayor and local parliamentarian on such an urgent matter “felt very disrespectful,” she says. “The silence speaks loudly.”
Israel’s consul-general Paul Hirschson saluted Smith and Maccarone “for taking the leadership not shown by Montreal municipality,” telling The CJN that “abuse of freedom of speech is a real threat to the democratic world we live in and want to live in.”
For him, the past year has been characterized “by an abuse of freedom of speech by a relatively small group of provocateurs, who have targeted Jews across Montreal, not least in Westmount, including very high-volume hate speech well beyond 11 p.m. outside residential buildings.”
Two weeks later, on Oct. 15, Plante did meet with Smith, and mayors of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough and Côte Saint-Luc, along with reps from Federation CJA and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs at a meeting convened by Mount Royal MP Anthony Housefather. Maccarone was not invited, and there was no provincial representation. Smith and Housefather were mum on substantive details of the private meeting, which Housefather highlighted on social media.
Housefather confirmed to The CJN that the nearly two-hour meeting focused on public safety. “What I can say is that I asked for the meeting and Mayor Plante and her team were kind enough to grant it,” adding it “included discussion of the specific situation at One Wood and Westmount Square.” He said Plante and her team were “deeply involved in the conversation and heard the message that we delivered.”
On the anniversary of the terrorist attacks, a demonstration billed as “All Out for Our Martyrs” carried on late into the night. There were some incidents downtown but no arrests. SPVM had a reported 500 officers—more than 10 percent of its entire force—patrolling the area.
Plante’s spokesperson Catherine Cadotte told The CJN the mayor was immediately in contact with the SPVM after receiving the letter and confirmed meeting with Housefather and others, “to find productive and practical solutions to the issues facing the Jewish community.”
She affirmed that the SPVM is listening. “All of us have full faith in their ability to handle the situation.” Maccarone and Smith however, say they have repeatedly asked the SPVM to consider alternative protest routes to minimize disruption, but there have been no significant changes.
The CJN queried the police chief about the complaint but received no reply. SPVM spokesperson Caroline Labelle said, “The vast majority of these events take place peacefully,” telling The CJN that more than 100 arrests were made during the nearly 400 events over the last 12 months throughout Montreal.
Labelle said in addition to a recent boost in visibility, the SPVM has deployed additional personnel around the clock, along with plainclothes officers and an SPVM mobile counter at various locations. “These crimes and offences are investigated and do not go unpunished… Communities’ respective concerns are important for us, and we are sparing no effort to restore their sense of security.”
Demonstrations where calls for ethnic cleansing of Jews from the Middle East, displays of terrorist flags and associated symbols, and obstruction of traffic, private and public property have become commonplace. Smith and Maccarone are suggesting more intergovernmental cooperation, namely, “provision of additional resources such as the Sûreté du Québec to manage security issues.”
Maccarone says provincial police may be better equipped to handle some of the challenges, especially given the SPVM’s current staffing deficit of some 200 officers as the city and police force are on a hard recruitment drive. (A recent string of arson and extortioncases and other criminal gang activity across the city, as well as many officers assigned to traffic duty due to a large number of road obstructions and construction sites, are further straining the ranks.)
Repeated explanations from public security officials and police assure that interventions and arrests with non-violent perpetrators are often made, calmly, after incidents so as not to provoke more aggressive reaction from demonstrators. “I understand that” says Maccarone. “But can we at least have a conversation about this? This has not stopped for a year.”
Quebec’s Public Security ministry did not respond to The CJN’s query about bringing in the provincial SQ other than to say the ministry “remains vigilant and in close contact with various police partners to ensure the safety of the population.”
The CJN has learned that residents in concerned neighborhoods, particularly in the area immediately surrounding Westmount Square, are considering legal action to force the city and SPVM to adopt a more robust posture in response to not only municipal bylaw infractions, but potential Criminal Code violations under definitions of unlawful assemblies and riots.
The Montreal Police Brotherhood, the union which represents the force’s officers, has communicated to SPVM brass that a more muscular response is precisely what is required during some of the more aggressive protests, which have included protesters spitting on and throwing objects at cops, even one tossing a Molotov cocktail at officers earlier this month.
Talking about the pressure on the force’s already strained numbers by the demonstrations, president Yves Francoeur told French-language radio last week “every time Mélanie Joly or Justin Trudeau call for a ceasefire in Gaza, it has as much impact as me asking to shut down Mount Royal. That’s the reality.”
The U.S. Consulate did not respond to a request for comment about disturbances outside its doors.
