“Here we are always one second away from the apocalypse. »
Posted at 5:00 am.
This is the area of Neighborhood Station 21. Downtown Montreal. The one who speaks is one of the agents of this post, Jean-Simon Beauchesne. He speaks with his future colleagues, SPVM recruits participating in the Old Brewery Mission immersion program. At the heart of Montreal’s homelessness crisis.
In 45 full minutes, he and his colleague Philippe Roy gave the four recruits an intensive course on the Montreal police force, a course the likes of which they had probably never experienced before. Live from the 21st, a “Call Station”.
Here the police are constantly overwhelmed with calls and too few respond. “The city burns in summer! » Specifically, this means that officers Beauchesne and Roy didn’t have a minute to eat during 60 shifts last summer. They had planned the move: the “tactical pole,” firmly placed in the pocket of his ankle.
A demanding and difficult task.
If you experience six suicides in a week, you may not feel it. We think we’ve seen it all…until the next call.
Agent Jean-Simon Beauchesne of the SPVM
“In short,” says Agent Beauchesne, “we need the rest of you.” »
The recruits look at their two colleagues with wide eyes. Half of these 20 recruits we met are leaving the National Police Academy. They never patrolled. Some, like Olivier, have a few years of police experience. The 26-year-old worked for the Sûreté du Québec for four years. He spent two years in a tiny Innu community where there were so few police officers on duty that he was constantly on call and slept with the radio on.
Others have gained valuable experience elsewhere. Like Vicky, 22, who worked as a worker in a women’s shelter for abused women for five years. Or Charlie, 21, who was an intervention officer at a youth center in Quebec for three years.
Apart from two young Asian women, there are no visible minorities in this group of recruits. “There is no black person here!” exclaims host Varda Étienne, who has come to hold a conference. For what ? »
About a third of them were born in the Montreal region, but almost all now live in the suburbs. At the end of the program, the young police officers work at a police station in the neighborhood.
But for now they’re in hiding.
Healthy shocks
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Together with employees of the Native Friendship Center, the recruits roam the streets of the city center. While an overdose was reported just a stone’s throw from the organization, the street workers speak with their boss, Wayne Robinson.
“Did you get cocaine?” a homeless Inuit says to Alexandre, 25, and Loïc, 27, who are patrolling with Moses Aronson and Brendan Meawasige, two street workers from Montreal’s Native Friendship Centre. The recruits traveled with them on the circuit, which is frequented by the most vulnerable members of the Inuit community. Cabot Square, Milton Parc junction, Lionel-Groulx metro station.
The man calling the recruits has a black eye and a hip problem that makes it impossible for him to walk. He drags himself across the asphalt. A street corner away, a woman in a dirty winter parka lies on the sidewalk. Another search in the Guy-Concordia subway, shirtless and barefoot.
In their backpack provided by the organization, the recruits have clean injection equipment, condoms and granola bars. Not forgetting the naloxone kits.
The situation has really worsened in the last three years. There are a lot more mental health issues and open drinking.
Brendan Meawasige, street worker at the Montreal Native Friendship Center
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Road worker Moses Aronson knows the homeless Indigenous people he meets while on patrol by name and in some cases speaks to them in Inuktitut. An approach that manages to relax the atmosphere.
Moses, born in Nunavik and raised in Nunavut, knows his customers by name and can address them in Inuktitut. “It works wonders,” notes 24-year-old Anthony. The joint patrol has officially existed since 2020. It was launched in 2014 at the instigation of a police officer… from Quartierswache 21.
At the Native Friendship Center, the four recruits also realize that they are ignoring large parts of Indigenous history, such as the massacre of sled dogs by Royal Mounted Police officers in the 1950s and 1960s. I saw today, it was new for me,” he told Loïc.
Étienne, 22, and Charlie were sent to Accueil Bonneau. They also distributed injection devices to homeless camps. “It’s always a shock to see it,” says Étienne. Adèle, 22, and Olivier sprayed their shoes with insecticide to visit several almost unsanitary housing units in the Federation of Housing Organizations of Montreal. “When I opened the door, everything on the floor moved,” says Adèle.
One of the tenants, sick and helpless, is exploited by other homeless people who squat in his accommodation in exchange for crack.
In short, just by having a place to live, you can truly escape the lifestyle of homelessness. It’s just that you have a place to sleep.
Olivier, SPVM recruit participating in the immersion project
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Four recruits spent the day at the Old Brewery Mission.
And then four young police officers were sent to the Old Brewery Mission, whose five floors and 197 beds are the equivalent of Montreal’s Court of Miracles. “Here, it’s Louis-H. Lafontaine 2,” summarizes Junior Félix, who has been working there for eight years. His advice to recruits? “Patience and observation. This is the key to intervention. »
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
During the mission, the recruits quickly witness the human need that exists there.
By the start of the afternoon, recruits had already seen “the cavalry,” police, firefighters, ambulance drivers, arrive for a user who had overdosed. An event that has now become part of the life of the organization, regrets the coordinator of services, Mila Alexova. “At least once a week.”
While slaloming between the bunk beds, Olivier asks if consumption is permitted for the organization. No real choice, says Kenza Rougui, clinical director of the organization. Although the mission is not a supervised injection site, certain locations have been set aside for consumption.
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Kenza Rougui, clinical director of the Old Brewery Mission, explains to the new police officers the pragmatism that the organization must show, especially when it comes to consumption issues.
We want them to consume safely. There are syringes, crack pipes, meth pipes, filters.
Kenza Rougui, clinical director at Old Brewery Mission
Colleagues in action
In the morning, 22-year-old Charlotte was able to experience the calming effect the police uniform can sometimes have on a user in crisis. “As soon as the two police officers arrived, she calmed down. Two women made the difference. They were gentle and calm. »
Another observation: On the ground, the famous “safe distance” that police officers are required to respect when dealing with an issue in a crisis has really been lost. “I realized that sometimes it can create a barrier. »
PHOTO OLIVIER JEAN, THE PRESS
Speaker Nicolas Singcaster, who is part of the Old Brewery Mission mobile team, travels the streets in a van that has been transformed into a clinic on wheels. Its mission: to help homeless people who don’t go to emergency shelters escape homelessness.
In the evening, the line of homeless people waiting to enter the mission cafe stretches for an entire block. One of these “customers” is Suzanne. Dressed entirely in scarlet clothing, including smeared lipstick, Suzanne looks like a little Red Riding Hood who has been hit hard by life.
When she comes in, she smiles: Junior Félix is there, he is her favorite speaker. She hugs him. Every evening he works, Suzanne comes to serenade him. Tonight it will be “The Bird” by René Simard.
“OK, a little silence, Suzanne is going to sing,” Junior announces, beginning the song over the café’s speakers to an audience made up of Montreal’s most distinguished people. Then Suzanne begins, her voice trembling but clear, her almost transparent eyes fixed on Junior.
“It showed so well how much the speakers have a real relationship with the customers,” says Adèle, who was given the reception position at Café Mission that evening. “That was my favorite moment. »
THE SPVM in 2022
- 435,000 911 calls to the SPVM
- 29 Neighborhood contributions
- 4489 police officers and 1329 Civilians
- 529 vacancies, police and civilian
- 65% Police officers are men
- 5% belong to visible minorities
Source: SPVM 2022 Activity Report