The variety of assaults reported in Montreal’s metro system rose by 15 per cent in 2025 in comparison with the 12 months prior, in keeping with newly launched police knowledge.
Montreal police say there have been 726 instances of assault in 2025, up from 631 in 2024 and 652 in 2023. The rise in instances was pushed by a spike in reported assaults in January 2025 for causes that aren’t completely clear, Cmdr. Angélique Beaudet mentioned in an interview Wednesday.
“I haven’t got a really exact clarification for the rise, apart from it was actually concentrated in January,” Beaudet mentioned, including that the remainder of the 12 months was largely steady.
The variety of assaults in 2025 was greater than at any level for the reason that begin of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which led to a significant drop in ridership. Police say the information earlier than 2020 was collected another way and subsequently not akin to later years.
Transit officers have expressed concern over the variety of folks combating drug dependancy and psychological sickness who use the metro stations as unofficial shelters.
In June, Montreal’s transit authority — Société de transport de Montréal (STM) — reintroduced a no-loitering rule within the metropolis’s subway tunnels. Officers mentioned on the time the measure had helped lower assaults on workers and elevated customers’ sense of safety when it was applied as a pilot challenge earlier within the 12 months.
Nonetheless, Beaudet famous there’s not essentially a hyperlink between the inflow of marginalized folks within the metro system and criminality.
Particular examples of behaviour that represent an assault embody spitting, pushing, punching or kicking, Beaudet mentioned. She famous lots of the incidents contain people who know one another.
Montreal’s transit authority mentioned in an announcement on Wednesday that it’s working with police to “preserve a way of safety in our stations.”
Beaudet mentioned that regardless of the spike in reported assaults, the Montreal metro is protected.
“Sadly, there are a couple of (assaults) all year long … however they continue to be remoted,” Beaudet mentioned.
This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Feb. 25, 2026.
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