Minister Geneviève Guilbault wants to take another step in the government’s fight against the arms trade, which is causing major social problems in Montreal, with her performance on the St. Lawrence River off the shores of the Aboriginal community of Akwesasne.
As a result, the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service will receive $6.2 million over five years to hire five additional police officers and purchase ATVs, snowmobiles and a water patrol boat.
The money invested is part of the already planned budget of 90 million to implement the Ministry of Public Security’s CENTAUR strategy.
Since its deployment, CENTAURE has increased the pressure on criminal networks in Quebec. Numerous interventions have resulted in arrests and confiscations of firearms. And it continues, said Public Safety Minister Geneviève Guilbault, surrounded by Akwesasne Police Chief Shawn Dulude and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ian Lafrenière.
With the addition of a second patrol boat, Mohawk Police will patrol the community’s shores 24 hours a day. Most firearms are stored before being transported by criminal organizations by boat, in the summer, or on snowmobiles on winter roads.
These two patrol boats will help fight the proliferation of illegal weapons.
Photo: Radio Canada / Pascal Robidas
Akwesasne Mohawk Police will therefore have additional tools given their modest resources given the scale of the arms smuggling network.
Thank you to all law enforcement officers who work tirelessly to keep our citizens safe, including Akwesasne’s Mohawk Police Service, for their participation in the concerted effort to stop firearms smuggling,” she added.
The majority of illegal guns escape the police
For firearms-related issues in the United States, Francis Langlois, the announcement of the day is a message to organized crime that the hiatus is coming to an end.
Of course, we can always bypass the Quebec portion of the St. Lawrence River by choosing the Ontario portion, or wait until the nautical patrol isn’t there. Funds remain limited. Above all, however, it shows the political will to fight established criminal networks, believes Francis Langlois, a member of the United States Observatory of the Raoul Dandurand Chair.
According to the specialist, police authorities manage to seize a small percentage of guns that enter Canada illegally. Between 2017 and 2018, Canadian customs officials seized around 700 guns at the border. But there were many of these guns left in cars by American citizens. They are not criminals. They’re distracted people, explains Francis Langlois.
During the same period, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the United States had managed to determine the American origin of nearly 5,000 illegal firearms found at crime scenes by Canadian law enforcement officers.
This tells us that Canadian authorities are unable to confiscate that much. So attacking large networks is one of the most effective methods. They have more infrastructure because of the amount of guns crossing the border. The specialist concludes that there is no point in restricting oneself to small networks that contain only small quantities of weapons.