Montreal’s Muslim Maghreb community is raising the alarm about deadly gangs recruiting young people

MONTREAL — Members of Montreal’s Muslim and Maghreb communities gathered in a city park Saturday afternoon to criticize — and fight back — what they described as a “plague” of street gangs that recruit young people to carry out criminal acts.

Several dozen participants gathered in Wilfrid-Bastien Park in the city’s St. Leonard neighborhood, including children carrying blank, black signs suggesting mourning.

“The Muslim community is mobilizing,” said Hadjira Belkacem, president and founder of the Muslim Sepulchre Association of Quebec, a group that supports grieving Muslim families.

“We are fed up with seeing our children being slaughtered… We are outraged and we are in mourning,” Belkacem, who organized the event, told attendees.

Elected officials, parents and other community members took to the stage to raise the alarm following several recent incidents in the province, including the death of a 14-year-old boy of Algerian descent who was found near a Hells-related facility, according to media reports Angels linked bunker. in Frampton, Que., about 50 kilometers southeast of Quebec City.

Provincial police have not confirmed the boy’s identity or cause of death, but multiple media reports say the victim fled his home in St. Leonard, where the meeting took place, and was reportedly sent to attack the bunker. The Sûreté du Québec declined to comment on the case on Saturday.

Mayor Michel Bissonnet called on all levels of government to intervene.

“We need the help of downtown and the help of the provincial and federal governments,” he said.

Bissonnet said the additional funding is needed to get more intervention workers on the ground and provide more services to keep kids out of trouble.

Quebec Public Security Minister François Bonnardel has publicly acknowledged the issue of alleged gang recruitment in recent weeks, labeling organized crime groups that involve young people in their activities as “despicable.”

“Like many Quebecers, what I hear coming out of Frampton shocks me,” he posted on X on September 19. “It is despicable for street gangs to employ young people – children – to do their dirty work.”

Belkacem says she has heard from several parents, especially those with roots in North Africa, who fear their children will be targeted.

“It starts at 12, 13, 14 years old. Street gangs ask them to steal cars, go out and kill, things like that… They recruit kids to do their dirty work,” she said in an interview before the event on Saturday.

“We know this because we have received calls from several families asking for help and telling us that ‘my child has been recruited into a gang,’” she said, adding that Quebecers of Algerian and Moroccan descent have been particularly affected. “Unfortunately, there are many deaths of young people in our community.”

Nazar Saaty, a lawyer who volunteers with the Muslim Sepulchre Association of Quebec, works with young criminal offenders. He said young people are being recruited “at an explosive rate,” and families fear child protection services will take their children away if they speak up.

Saaty argued that criminal groups are exploiting vulnerabilities in Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act.

“They say, listen, I’m not going to commit a crime, I’m going to send a young person to do it. The worst that will happen is that I will be placed in a center… while I go to prison,” he said.

“My solution would not be to strengthen or crack down on young offenders. It would amount to introducing legislation into the Criminal Code so that adults who recruit these minors face very strict penalties.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 28, 2024.

Joe Bongiorno, The Canadian Press