MONTREAL — The president of a union representing Montreal police officers says it plans to defend the rule of law after seven officers were dismissed from the city’s police force on Monday over allegations of discriminatory and racist conduct.
Montreal police brotherhood President Yves Francoeur wrote in a message addressed to members that the officers’ alleged actions would profoundly violate police values if they are substantiated.
But Francoeur says the Montreal police force dismissed the officers through a method that’s never been used before and doesn’t appear to comply with existing rules.
Montreal’s police chief said Monday that the seven officers had been fired following allegations of criminal misconduct that involve racism, discrimination and treatment of vulnerable people.
Fady Dagher told reporters that the force consulted with the city’s lawyers to revoke the officers’ accreditation and security clearance through a process he called an administrative dismissal.
Francoeur wrote that an employer can’t simply rewrite the law governing the relationship with its employees, and said the brotherhood would take what it called appropriate measures to defend the law.
“From the standpoint of principles, the administrative dismissal of seven (Montreal) police officers raises fundamental questions of law,” Francoeur wrote Tuesday.
“This is a method that’s entirely unprecedented in our history of labour relations, which has never been used and does not appear anywhere. This approach appears to us to be clearly non-compliant and could prove harmful to you in the future.”
The union, he wrote, “will defend the rule of law, and will take appropriate measures to do so.”
Dagher told reporters on Monday that the force has submitted information from its investigation to the Crown prosecutor’s office, which will decide whether to lay criminal charges against the officers.
But he said Montreal police needed to act immediately to dismiss the officers in order to maintain public trust.
“It is a very sad moment and dark. But in the meantime, we needed to do it,” he said.
Dagher acknowledged that the officers could try to challenge the dismissals and be reinstated, but he said the force would then refer them to its disciplinary committee.
Montreal police said Tuesday afternoon that the force received no indication that the officers were contesting the firing, but that response appears to have been dated before Francoeur’s letter.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 3, 2026.
Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press