Montreal police Chief Fady Dagher has put transparency at the centre of his public response to a months-long misconduct scandal that has rocked the force and raised broader questions about public trust and accountability, as the force investigates allegations of racism, discrimination, criminal misconduct and the mistreatment of vulnerable people.
He has appeared before reporters, on television and in radio interviews while promising consequences for officers found to have committed wrongdoing. This week, the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) took its most significant action yet, announcing at once the unprecedented firing of seven officers.
But researchers and community advocates interviewed by Global News say the firings and Dagher’s public visibility raise fundamental questions about the force’s response. They argue that making misconduct public and punishing individual officers does not necessarily address the conditions that allowed it to occur, while some are also questioning how the SPVM is managing its message as the scandal unfolds.
“There’s transparency, which they’re great at as part of their PR, but then there’s also accountability, which I think they skirt around,” said Daniele-Jocelyne Otou, executive director of Montreal’s Black Healing Centre and co-founder of New Room.
Ricardo Lamour, a community worker, human rights advocate and former fellow of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights program in Geneva, was more pointed in his criticism.
“For me, it’s a push to control the narrative at all costs,” Lamour said.
He said the response should be viewed in the context of Dagher’s public image as a chief who has emphasized his proximity to Montreal communities.
“The proximity brand is cracking,” he said. He believes the chief and the mayor are now presenting what he described as a shared narrative of “a reforming chief against a resistant culture.”
The criticism comes after the SPVM announced Monday that seven officers had been fired over allegations involving racism, discrimination and the mistreatment of vulnerable people. Five were based at Station 39 in Montreal North and two were from Station 21 downtown.
Dagher called it an “unprecedented and historic” day, and said the seven officers, both men and women, had turned in their guns and badges.
“Some people say there are never any consequences at the SPVM. Today we are announcing exceptional measures,” he said. Dagher said the cases involve about one per cent of the force and praised the work of the other 99 per cent of officers. He also said the “culture of silence” within the SPVM had been broken.
Others have described the dismissals as a significant step.
Sonia Para Jordan of Action Plan Against Intimate Partner Violence called the firings a good start.
“This is a big step forward and sets a precedent of more definitive consequence to misconduct from police officers,” she said, adding she hopes criminal charges will be laid.
For Otou, however, the firings do not by themselves answer questions about whether broader problems within the force are being addressed.
“Announcing that seven officers have been fired is not in and of itself evidence that the underlying institutional conditions that allow the misconducts to occur in the first place have changed or are being dealt with,” she said.
The allegations involving Montreal police first surfaced earlier this year. Police began investigating a patrol team in Montreal North in March after receiving internal complaints about alleged racism and criminal misconduct. Those allegations included reports that officers cut the hair of racialized citizens and kept it as trophies. The team was later dismantled.
At Station 21 in downtown Montreal, separate allegations emerged involving the mistreatment of people experiencing homelessness, including one claim that an officer urinated on an unhoused person.
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Police also announced last week that an officer could face criminal charges after allegedly concealing evidence related to a 2025 domestic violence case. Other allegations that have surfaced in recent months include an officer who allegedly posed for photographs mocking suspects under arrest in humiliating positions.
Dagher said Monday the cases have been submitted to the Crown prosecutor’s office. Prosecutors will determine whether criminal charges should be laid.
‘Controlling the conditions of the conversation’
The way the SPVM has announced major developments has also drawn criticism.
Several news conferences throughout the scandal have been called on short notice, often late in the day and just before the weekend. The first, back in June, was announced just over an hour before it was held at 9 p.m. on a Friday.
Asked about the abrupt scheduling, the SPVM told Global News, “In certain situations that are exceptional in nature or of particular importance, the Montreal police service may call a media availability on short notice in order to quickly communicate information that is in the public interest.”
Ted Rutland, an associate professor at Concordia University whose research focuses on policing and public security in Canadian cities, said the immediacy makes it more difficult for journalists and others to prepare.
“It seems to me that the way that these press conferences are called late, that makes it very hard for journalists to prepare their questions and very hard to get responses from organizations,” he said.
Rutland said he believes it fits within “an overall public relations and communication strategy that seeks to control how we talk about the problems that we see with the police department.”
Otou raised a similar concern. “When an institution announces a press conference an hour before it happens, on a Friday, it influences who has the opportunity to prepare and participate,” she said.
“It really dictates and controls the conditions of the conversation.”
Otou said the timing can affect whether journalists have time to independently investigate and verify information, challenge what is being presented and seek perspectives beyond the institution’s own framing.
Anne-Marie Livingstone, an assistant professor of sociology at McMaster University, whose research includes racism in policing, said she agrees with criticism of the SPVM’s response.
Livingstone said her research has found a lack of political will to address racism in policing across Canada and described police unions and rank-and-file officers as major opponents to change.
She characterized the SPVM leadership’s approach as a public relations and “damage control” strategy aimed at satisfying public concerns without alienating the union and rank-and-file officers.
Police union challenges dismissals
The Montreal police union, La Fraternité des policiers et policières de Montréal (FPPM), also referred to as the Montreal Police Brotherhood, said this week it intends to challenge the seven dismissals.
Union president Yves Francoeur said in a message to members this week that the officers’ alleged actions, if substantiated, would profoundly violate police values.
But he said the administrative process used to fire them was unprecedented and raised “fundamental questions of law.”
“This is a method that’s entirely unprecedented in our history of labour relations, which has never been used and does not appear anywhere,” Francoeur wrote Tuesday. “This approach appears to us to be clearly non-compliant and could prove harmful in the future.”
Francoeur said the union “will defend the rule of law, and will take appropriate measures to do so.”
The police union did not respond to a request for additional comment.
Dagher said Monday that Montreal police consulted city lawyers before revoking the officers’ accreditation and security clearances through what he described as an administrative dismissal.
He acknowledged the officers could contest their dismissals and seek reinstatement. If they return, he said, the force would refer them to its disciplinary committee.
Dagher said immediate action was necessary to maintain public trust.
For Otou, however, rebuilding that trust requires more than managing how an institution presents itself publicly.
“If anything, it reinforces the lack of trust because the emphasis is placed on their image as opposed to addressing the actual root of the problem.”
Calls for broader accountability
Lamour said he believes the public also needs more information about police misconduct, including the names of the dismissed officers.
“There’s been a slow erosion of the information we need when it comes to police misconduct,” he said, referencing past documented incidents of racism in policing and cases of police brutality in Montreal.
He also called for outside oversight when public trust in local authorities has been seriously damaged.
“There should be some form of state oversight when there’s such a rupture of the trust that people have in regards to police,” Lamour said.
Alain Babineau, a McGill jurist, retired RCMP staff sergeant and Red Coalition racial profiling director, told Global News earlier this week that he welcomed Dagher’s efforts to address racist behaviour, but believes accountability should extend further up the ranks.
“I want to see more,” Babineau said. “I want to see some sergeants, some inspector, lieutenant, and if need be, some assistant commissioner or assistant director that takes the fall for this.”
Babineau also criticized Dagher for using part of Monday’s news conference to praise officers who were not implicated. “It was not the time to give the good cops flowers. It was a time to hit on the head of the bad cops and to also reassure the community,” he said.
Questions turn to City Hall
Questions about accountability have also extended beyond the SPVM to Montreal City Hall.
Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada said Monday the SPVM had taken “an unprecedented step to rebuild public trust.” “No one is above the rules,” she said. “This work is demanding and necessary, and it must continue.”
Rutland, however, said focusing primarily on Dagher risks overlooking the responsibility of the municipal government that oversees the police service.
“Fady Dagher is not a problematic police chief. The problem is not him.”
“Our mayor has continually [been] asked whether she has confidence in the police chief or not, but she’s not asked, ‘What are you gonna do about this police force that is harming people?’” he said.
“To what extent is this [her] responsibility and how [is she] going to take up those responsibilities?”
Rutland said he believes the problem is broader and includes successive municipal administrations that have relied on police to address public safety issues.
When Global News asked the mayor’s office to respond to Rutland’s criticism about the city’s accountability, it said it would not provide further comment.
Quebec’s newly minted internal security minister Guy Lapointe Jr. said the allegations against Montreal police officers are extremely troubling and unacceptable.
“This is not the kind of behaviour that can be tolerated under any circumstances by police officers, who must have the public’s trust,” said Lapointe. “The premier has given me a very clear mandate: to work on the public’s sense of security.”
For Otou, the question now is whether the consequences announced by the SPVM will be accompanied by changes that go beyond the seven officers who were fired.
“If they don’t have anybody who’s holding them accountable, then how are we supposed to trust that actual systemic change is being done internally?” she said.
