Assaults drive rise in crimes against the person in Montreal: annual report

CTV News

5 hours ago

Montreal police (SPVM) are investigating after a man, 30, was stabbed in Saint-Laurent on April 17, 2025. Another man, 40, was arrested. (Scott Prouse / CTV Montreal)
The Montreal police service (SPVM) recorded a rise in overall crime last year, partly due to an increase of assaults and hate-motivated crimes, but say the force saw improvements when it comes to gun crime and vehicle thefts.
The overall number of Criminal Code offences rose by 3.4 per cent last year, according to the 2024 SPVM annual report released on Monday.
Comparing 2024 to the previous year, crimes against the person were up 7.3 per cent and property crimes rose slightly by 0.4 per cent. Compared to five years ago, the increase in crimes against the person is up nearly 28 per cent, while property crimes saw an increase of 19.4 per cent from levels seen in 2019.
The biggest category driving the increase in crimes against the person was assault, a trend that predates the pandemic and has continued upward. The report highlighted that the increase last year can be attributed to level 1 assaults, which means little or no injury to the victim.
Assaults rose another consecutive year in 2024, jumping to 19,159 (6.8 per cent) compared to the previous year.
'Although armed violence is still present in the Montréal landscape, it is contributing less to the current portrait than it did in recent years,' the SPVM noted in its report. 'One third of the homicides and attempted murders committed in SPVM territory in 2024 involved the presence or use of a firearm … while these weapons represented half of the homicides and 60% of the attempted murders committed in 2022.'
For the first time since 2020, the force recorded a decrease in firearm offences after seeing a drop of 12.9 per cent in 2024. Gun crimes had been rising steadily over the last three years, reaching a five-year peak (518 incidents) in 2023.
The SPVM report also showed that the number of crimes against persons involving the presence or use of a firearm in 2024 decreased 6.3 per cent compared to the average of the last five years, and 5.3 per cent compared to 2023.
Firearm discharge events also decreased by 5.2 per cent compared to 2023. The SPVM expanded its ant-gun squad, EMAF, last year to all four regions of the city.
'With the mission to prevent individuals engaging in high-risk armed violence behaviours from doing harm (repressive aspect) while offering individuals and their circles alternatives to violence, drawing on the collaboration of community and institutional actors (preventive aspect), the SPVM's Collectives strategy has now been extended across the organization,' the report stated.
Domestic violence, sexual assaults
According to the report, 21 per cent of all crimes against persons reported in Montreal were related to domestic violence, while homicides remained stable at 31 again last year.
Sexual assaults also increased 8.5 per cent from 2023, or 12.6 per cent compared to the average of the past five years.
'This increase is mainly related to an increase in cases of the non-consensual distribution of intimate images and sexual contact,' police said in the annual report.
'Interpreting the increase or decrease in the number of sexual offences is always difficult because they are among the offences least reported to police by the victims. The significant increase observed following the end of the pandemic shows that the population is more aware but also demonstrates a bond of trust between victims and the various players in the judicial system.'
More hate crimes reported
Meanwhile, there were more hate crimes and hate incidents last year, with increases of 6.2 per cent and 18.1 per cent, respectively, particularly those based on ethnicity, national origin, or skin colour, according to the report. Police noted that officers responded to 300 demonstrations and 630 'crowd control situations' related to the Israel-Hamas war.
Marc Charbonneau, deputy chief of specialized service, told CTV News that Montreal police have forwarded more than 70 files to the Quebec Crown prosecution office since the start of the war in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023.
Police also say they are coordinating their response to the rise in extortion attempts targeting local businesses owners, including visits to hundreds of businesses urging them to report all extortion attempts.
There has been a wave of firebombings and gun violence targeting restaurants in recent months, with gangs demanding protection money from owners. If the owners refuse to pay up, criminals threaten, firebomb, or shoot at their businesses.
On May 30, six suspects broke into a cafe in Old Montreal and set fire to it, causing significant damage. Investigators believe the intended target was a bar next door. last week, police made 13 arrests related to extortion attempts.
Charbonneau told CTV News that the SPVM has the resources it needs to combat this phenomenon, saying multiple units are involved in investigating this type of crime, from organized crime squads to patrol officers.
'We reach [out], we go to encounter, to meet all those [owners] that can be reached … and we ask them to talk to us,' he said Monday.
'We want them to be confident in us, and we will be with them to fight that. So what we ask for [owners] is not to answer the demands of those kinds of people.'
The annual report also highlighted success when it comes to combating car theft, noting a drop of 25 per cent.