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Montreal transit officials and the city’s new mayor say they are taking steps to address growing concerns about safety on the city’s bus and Metro systems following data showing a rise in transit-related assaults in major Canadian cities.
“There are a lot of issues in terms of how people feel safe in the city. It’s not only one issue,” said Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada.
She was responding to a recent CBC News analysis showing the cumulative number of assaults reported on transit in eight of Canada’s 10 largest census metropolitan areas — including Montreal — doubled between 2016 and 2024.
Transit-related violent crime rates hit a peak in 2023 in Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge, but fell slightly in those regions in 2024, the analysis states. However, these rates still remain well above those from a decade ago.
Martinez Ferrada, speaking to reporters Wednesday, said this is not a big rise in numbers, but there is a sentiment of feeling insecure.
She said her administration has committed to increasing the number of constables patrolling the Metro, but it is not the sole solution.
“I think we also have to tackle the homelessness crisis, the drug crisis we have in our streets,” she said.
In a statement, Laurence Houde-Roy, a spokesperson for the city’s public transit authority, the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), said the public transit network has been facing, particularly since the pandemic, an increasingly difficult social context, leading to a rise in cases of alcohol and drug use in its facilities, as well as an increase in loitering.
“Over the past two years especially, we have observed that this situation increases the number of incidents of misconduct and deliberate vandalism in our facilities, affecting both the sense of safety for customers and our operations,” she said.
That motivated the June 18 renewal of the STM’s controversial policy requiring people to keep moving while in stations. This, Houde-Roy explained, is an additional tool for constables to maintain balance in stations and to “allow them to intervene more easily with people who have no travel purpose.”
The STM is also implementing a series of measures to ensure the sense of safety for its employees and customers, including a text messaging service for non-urgent safety issues (1-888-786-1119).
The STM has about 180 special constables and around 30 safety ambassadors patrolling the network, with increased staff visibility in 13 stations.
There are more than 2,500 cameras in the Metro network, Houde-Roy said, which allow for real-time monitoring of critical areas.
