Montreal mayor open to municipal bylaw against insulting police officers

Montreal mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada says she would support the creation of a municipal bylaw against insulting police officers.

Her comments come after a recent Léger survey found that 70 per cent of respondents support a regulation against insults towards police.

The survey polled 600 people and was conducted from April 8 to 14. It was commissioned by the Montreal Police Brotherhood (FPPM), the largest municipal police union in Quebec.

Ferrada told CJAD 800 Radio that while she is in talks with the union’s president about the bylaw, she has concerns that it could burden the courts if individuals choose to contest it.

“My worry is making sure that it is clear that you cannot be able to contest it in court,” she said Tuesday.

“If you (can) do that, we’re going to be swamped in the court, and that’s not what we want.”

Ferrada also says defining what type of language can be fined is another challenge.

“What’s your definition of an insult?” Ferrada asked. “How are we going to make sure that because you get a ticket and you get mad at a police officer that gives you a ticket that you tell them the F word and then you have another ticket.”

In March, a video went viral showing Mohamed Bekkali shouting misogynistic insults at a Montreal police officer (SPVM), prompting the police, its union, and the mayor to condemn the man.

CTV News contacted the police union for comment on Tuesday, but they declined.

Ferrada says while this incident is an “extreme” example of the type of conduct that could be addressed under the proposed bylaw, she emphasized that she would not want the measure to be frequently contested.

‘Disproportionately affecting vulnerable communities’

Alain Babineau, the director of racial profiling and public safety at the Red Coalition, told CTV News that his concern with the bylaw is that it could disproportionately affect vulnerable communities.

“This is a tough job. There’s going to be some very unpleasant people that are going to say unpleasant things to you, but at the end of the day police officers have a myriad of tools and capabilities to do their job properly,” he said.

“We all know that the use of bylaws are disproportionately affecting vulnerable communities, whether it be homeless communities, racialized communities, young people … and so if you run the same kind of survey amongst the racialized communities, you’ll get a very different result.”