One morning, you learn in the media that there was a new arson in Montreal overnight and you say to yourself that this is practically a daily occurrence? You are not wrong.
Posted at 12:00 a.m.
Between 1is January and October 31, 407 arson attacks were set in Montreal, according to statistics provided by the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), an average of 1.3 per day and 40 per month.
Despite these spectacular figures, fewer arson incidents were recorded this year than last year, when 468 such crimes were recorded for the first 10 months of the year – 61 more than in 2024.
The statistics for 2023 and 2024 are far from being a record: on average, during the decade 2000-2009, 885 arson attacks were recorded each year.
On the other hand, the statistics for 2023 and 2024 are the highest in 10 years (see table below).
Protection paymentconflicts, debts, fraud, etc.
Of the 407 arson attacks recorded this year, 151 targeted real estate, 96 targeted vehicles, and 160 targeted other property (trash cans, waste containers, park benches, etc.).
Nearly half of these arsons, 196, were set between the beginning of July and the end of October alone.
Some of the 151 fires that targeted real estate this year were committed against Montreal restaurants and bars as part of a wave of extortion – war of protection payment – which intensified in June and in which at least three different individuals and criminal groups are said to have taken part.
Some of these establishments have even been targeted on more than one occasion.
The protection payment is a criminal activity traditionally associated with the mafia; this demands money from restaurateurs or other merchants in exchange for protection which, in reality, is a form of extortion.
The SPVM has not recorded any other arson committed as part of this wave of extortion since the one that killed a French mother and her 7-year-old daughter in Old Montreal on October 4.
Another wave of extortion, particularly targeting Lebanese establishments or hookah bars, also took place in Montreal and Laval in 2023.
In interview with The Press in May 2023, Inspector Karine Paquette and Detective Lieutenant Christian St-Pierre, of the SPVM, explained that various motives constituted the backdrop to the arson attacks: attempted extortion, conflict between criminal groups, gambling debt or other, dispute between vehicle theft networks, fraud against an insurance company, competition, revenge, etc.
To contact Daniel Renaud, call 514 285-7000, ext. 4918, write to [email protected] or write to the postal address of The Press.
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