Montreal groups call for systemic changes after 7 police officers fired amid racism allegations

Montrealers and community groups are reacting to what's been called an unprecedented announcement by the city's police chief. Seven police officers fired over allegations of racism and misconduct. Five of them were working here at station 39 in Montréal-Nord. Now those have spoken to say this is encouraging but more needs to be done towards a change of culture. They did get fired but it's not reassuring. Other residents from Montréal-Nord wonder if the problem extends beyond those officers. It's reassuring, but are they all gone? We don't know everything. Are they really all gone? There are things we don't know, she says. During his media tour on Tuesday, Faitz-Daguin repeated that the dismissal of seven officers is a rare gesture. It's historic what I mentioned yesterday, but it's never been done in Montreal. But among community groups, the reactions are divided. This community organizer says what's important is what comes next. What the community is expecting is this, is systemic changes. And the systemic changes, I give you an example, it's going to be impossible. Impossible. For people who have the profile of a racist individual to get in the police school. And the members of the Afro Youth Summit are asking for a public inquiry. It doesn't go far enough to deal with the problem because you're dealing with a problem that happened in a particular station. We also know that there are other situations pending. And that's why we believe that that's the first step, but definitely not the final step. Transformative change would be for them to quit trying to control the narrative and produce results that go by disclosing the names of the police officers that are involved. In a letter to its members, the police brotherhood says it will challenge the firings. While it says the acts alleged would be a violation of its values, the brotherhood argues the firings are clearly non-compliant.