North Montreal Riot

Montreal mayor Gérald Tremblay, and police chief, Yvan Delorme both made public statements regarding the violent riot that broke out of a peaceful protest in a northern, largely Haitian community neighborhood this weekend. Many residents, seen to be driven by their frustration over (what they see as) the belligerent police shooting and murder of fellow community member, Freddy Villanueva, 18, stormed the streets, tossing beer bottles at firefighters after setting fires and confronting the police in a display of violence.

Mayor Tremblay said he won't "tolerate what has happened on the weekend." Delorme, on the other hand, has said that he's willing to do whatever to make amends with the community, even though he believes that the tension is not necessarily as widespread as some press portray it to be. 

According to the Herald Tribune, "a lawyer and owner of a Montreal radio station popular among the city's ethnic minorities", Jean-Ernest Pierre "thinks some police officers are not well equipped to face what he calls the new-Quebec, a multiethnic society. He said some people feel targeted because of the color of their skin."

"About 25 percent of the residents of Montreal North are immigrants. Almost 15 percent are black [many Haitian} and 3.5 percent are Latino, according to census data."

Pierreson Vaval, head of a community youth group in the area, suggests the incident to be related to systemic problems. "If we didn't find racial profiling in society, then we wouldn't find it in the police force like this." He also said that the "shooting and subsequent riot was caused by a "miscommunication problem" that has bred mistrust towards police."  Vaval adds:

When you have a force that has by law the right to arrest you and kill you, you have to have confidence. If you don't have confidence, this force is an enemy for people at risk in that community. We have to create another dynamic.