Movement to defund the police holds strong in Montreal

The City of Montreal is providing the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) with a $63 million boost in their budget. This is a record high for the SPVM in the city’s entire history. 

Last February, Local 514 reported on the city giving the SPVM a $45 million increase. In July 2020, Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante stated that she would “look into defunding the police” during worldwide protests in support of Black Lives Matter and defunding the police. That same year, a poll showed that 73% of Montrealers voted in favour of defunding the police. 

Some Montrealers still support defunding the police. 

In this episode, Local 514 reporter (CUTV) interviews Titas Banerjee, a volunteer for the Coalition to Defund the Police, about why he and his organization support the movement to defund the police and oppose the recent historic increase to the police budget. 

Banerjee says that there's no question that this budget increase reinforces the institutional power of the  police in our society.

He said that for several years, organizations and the public have expressed the needs of communities that are not being met, but instead, money is increasingly going towards the SPVM.

Banerjee said that how the movement to defund the police goes is dependent on how the public responds to the SPVM  budget increases. He says that defunding the police is a longterm fight.

The SPVM and the city rationalize the budget increase on the basis of increasing crime in Montreal. Banerjee says crime hasn't gone up and that people who study this, who are active on ground, see a criminalization of people with mental illness, addiction, and of those who are experiencing homelessness. 

He said also that racialized people are targeted by law enforcement.

Instead of prioritizing police, he said money should be put into organizations who care for communities.

There is a history of police bias in race-based capitalism, to protect capital and property for the reigning elite, according to Banerjee.