Montreal police say they have suspended two officers from a station downtown and opened a misconduct investigation.
However, police said they could not provide further details due to their legal responsibilities to protect personal information about their employees and to avoid compromising the professional standards unit’s ongoing investigation.
Police say they take the allegations seriously.
According to a report by the daily newspaper La Presse, one of the officers allegedly urinated on an unhoused person while on duty.
The newspaper, which said it relied on several police sources, reported that fellow officers denounced their colleague.
The other suspended officer allegedly posed for photos in which he appears to mock a suspect placed in a humiliating position during an arrest.
The Canadian Press has not independently verified the allegations.
Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada reacted to the allegations online, saying that the alleged acts are “very serious” and “violate the dignity to which everyone is entitled.”
She also commended the officers who came forward.
In a statement, the police brotherhood described the allegations as “shocking” but did not comment further.
These allegations have surfaced hours before the “homeless night,” march in Montreal. The annual event is aimed at raising public awareness about the reality of homelessness.
The suspensions also come at a time when Montreal police and the city are trying to rebuild trust with the public.
In June, police dismantled a 16-member patrol unit at another station in a multicultural neighbourhood of Montreal due to separate allegations of racism and misconduct.
Four officers from the police’s Station 39 in the Montréal-Nord borough have been suspended and Crown prosecutors are reviewing the evidence to determine whether to pursue criminal charges.
Police have confirmed they reviewed a number of allegations of misconduct, including allegations that some officers kept locks of hair from racialized people as trophies.
In internal documents obtained by The Canadian Press in September, police described a “radicalization” among some of its officers as the force attempts to change its culture of impunity.
Alain Babineau, a former RCMP officer now working with a civil-rights group, said he was not surprised to read about the new allegations against the officers working downtown.
“We all knew Station 39 was not an anomaly,” Babineau said over the phone, referring to the allegations out of Montréal-Nord. “How do you rebuild trust when your officers are rogue?”
Babineau’s group, the Red Coalition, is calling for a public inquiry into Montreal police misconduct.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2026.
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