Uncovering fake news, verifying politician statements, finding the real numbers: Our Bureau of Investigation, based in Montreal, Quebec and Ottawa, specializes in the art of fact finding. Every Saturday, our journalists and researchers bring you their findings so you can see more clearly on the week’s news.
THE STATEMENT
On Thursday, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said in an interview with Paul Larocque on TVA’s Le Assessment: “There are 30% fewer gunshots than at the same time last year. »
FACTS
Ms. Plante is wrong. It is based on a report by La Presse reporting a 30% decrease in shootings in the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal area, but only for the months of June through September. If we take all the events of the first 10 months of 2022 and compare them to the statistics for 2021, the difference is 22% smaller. And the months of November and December of this year are not included.
The number of gunfire fatalities in 2022 is about 25% lower than in 2021. There are 17% fewer firearm homicides this year than last year and 12% fewer firearm homicides.
We’ll have to wait until January to do a full assessment and see if there’s any real downtrend for the last few months of the year.
Looking at the number of firearm incidents for previous years, we see that 2022 has already significantly exceeded the tolls for 2019 and 2020, which were 84 and 133, respectively.
Here is a summary of the number of homicides, attempted murders, and firearm disposals in Montreal.
2019: 84
2020: 133
2021: 213
2022: 166*
Source: SPVM.
*As of October 31, 2022