Public Safety committee  Yes, there is still a connection between drug trafficking and firearms possession or trafficking. We must remember that the more money or drugs people have, the more protection they need. We've been seeing this recently with drug theft. People want to protect themselves, they don

Public Safety committee  We believe that social media are indeed used for recruitment. Crime groups—I am talking about established groups—find that posting their actions on social media honours their colours. People want to protect their ego on social media, so any group threatened by another has to reta

Public Safety committee  Yes, that's correct.

Public Safety committee  I would tell you that, at the moment, we are working very well together. We talk to each other on a daily basis. SPVM members on secondment are part of integrated teams including people from the Sûreté du Québec, the RCMP and the CBSA. Communication is also excellent. We have se

Public Safety committee  I'm not aware of the task force's work. The tactics we are currently investigating are always shifting. As soon as we foil one, another crops up. They are using the same routes as they do with narcotics. The most common tactic now is people acquire guns legally in the United St

Public Safety committee  We think so. We also want to look into the issue of firearm parts. I'm talking about ghost guns here. Some individuals are illegally importing gun frames from companies like Polymer80, and then modifying them with parts they get delivered through the Canadian postal service. For

Public Safety committee  Yes, that's what we've been noticing for three years already: a strong sense of impunity and the trivialization of firearms usage. In other words, people no longer fear being seen with guns on social media or walking around with guns. We are more and more regularly seeing people

Public Safety committee  We've tried to explain this phenomenon in several ways. Over the past few years, prices have tripled, and even quadrupled. Guns that were selling for $1,500 five or six years ago are now selling for around $5,000 or $6,000. That's a huge increase. Consequently, because guns are n

Public Safety committee  According to our estimates, approximately 80% of the illegal weapons we seize have crossed the border from the United States.

Public Safety committee  We feel that is the right direction, yes. Basically, we want to ban the most widely used weapons. We often talk about sticking to the evidence and relying on the information we're given. Currently, the weapons most commonly used to commit crimes are handguns. So any ban in the fu

Public Safety committee  Yes, no problem. In conclusion, we believe that stronger legislation to ban handguns is needed. We also support better control at the border and investigation of firearms smuggling tactics. In addition, we believe that discussions about minimum sentences in certain gun usage and

Public Safety committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon. Thank you for the invitation to share with you some of the efforts of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal, or SPVM, has made to fight against gun violence. The city of Montreal is one of Canada's large urban centres. It

Public Safety committee  I'm sorry about that. In Montreal, the number of events involving the discharge of a firearm increased from 89 in 2020 to 129 in 2021. In contrast, there were 32 in 2019. The number of murders by firearm increased from five in 2020 to 19 in 2021. Nevertheless, Montreal remains