Montreal adds police patrols, limits loitering to boost sense of security in metro
Global News
Montreal's metro system will see more police patrols and a crackdown on loitering, transit officials said.
Montreal’s metro system will see more police patrols and a crackdown on loitering, transit officials said Thursday, citing the fact the network has become a last-resort shelter for people struggling with drug addiction and mental illness.
Executives with the transit agency told reporters that vulnerable people who have slipped through the cracks of the social safety net are spending all day in its tunnels to keep warm. In response, the Société de transport de Montréal will fence off problematic gathering places in metro stations and implement an “obligation of movement” policy until April 30.
Éric Alan Caldwell, head of the transit agency’s board of directors, said the skyrocketing number of people struggling with drug addiction and mental illness in the stations has led to a decreased sense of security among transit users and employees, as well as a hike in complaints regarding safety, incivilities and drug use.
While the metro tunnels have always been a gathering place for people who are homeless, he said the situation has become unsustainable.
“The metro is not a shelter,” he said. “It’s not a place that offers care.”
Marie-Claude Léonard, transit agency CEO, said employees and transit users are increasingly seeing open drug use, human waste, used syringes and disruptive behaviours. The metro is not a safe place for people who need care, Léonard said, noting it doesn’t have bathrooms and the tracks are electrified.
The announcement was quickly criticized by Opposition politicians at city hall and the head of a homeless resource centre, who pointed out that the people taking shelter in the metro have nowhere else to go.
Nakuset, who uses one name and is executive director of the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal, said people who are displaced from metro stations will just go to other public places, such as malls, and some might die outside.
Montreal is increasing police patrols and cracking down on loitering in the metro system in response to a massive rise in people struggling with drug addiction and mental illness.
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