Montreal police Chief Fady Dagher came out swinging on Friday against corruption and misconduct within the ranks of his department, saying he feels humiliated by all of the revelations that have rocked the force.
“I promise you two things: the truth, and the fact that unacceptable acts will never, never go unpunished,” he said at a news conference at police headquarters. “I’m not promising you that what we’re about to reveal is pretty. There’s more to come — I’ll tell you that right now. It’s not pretty, not at all, what you’ll see, what you’ll hear.”
Dagher’s comments follow a series of scandals that have prompted harsh criticism from politicians and members of the public who say they have lost confidence in police.
The scandals include allegations of criminal misconduct and racism by some officers, including members of a patrol unit in a multicultural neighbourhood of Montreal that police dismantled in June.
Police have suspended at least six officers over various misconduct allegations since the summer.
But Dagher said that the vast majority of officers are doing a good job and feel betrayed, lied to and ashamed about the behaviour of a small group of officers.
“It’s a very dark moment,” he said.
Dagher addressed the ongoing controversy after the force announced in a news release that an officer was facing a criminal investigation over allegations of obstruction of justice in a domestic violence case in 2025.
Radio-Canada reported on Thursday that an officer responding to a call in connection with conjugal violence allegedly erased evidence on a smartphone that was provided by a complainant. The report suggested the officer knew the alleged perpetrator.
The Canadian Press has not independently verified the allegations in the news report.
But Dagher noted that police were in contact with the complainant.
“It’s absolutely disgusting on the part of this officer,” said Dagher. “I have no pity for that police officer … I’m going to make sure that if it’s true, they’re going to pay for it. Justice will be done.”
Deputy Chief Marc Charbonneau told reporters the suspect in the domestic violence case was also under investigation for a breach of conditions, but did not provide further details.
“We took charge of the file rapidly and we have everything to go further,” he said.
Dagher said police also asked public prosecutors to review the actions of two supervisors in the case, but the Crown decided there was no evidence they had committed a crime.
Dagher added that the police would still find another way to hold the supervisors accountable over what happened.
Friday’s news conference came more than four months after Dagher dropped a bombshell about officers in the northeast part of the city who have been accused of racism and criminal behaviour.
Dagher had held a news conference late on a Friday evening in mid-June to announce police had disarmed and disbanded a 16-member patrol unit following an investigation triggered by complaints from officers who blew the whistle on misconduct. Four officers from the patrol unit at the station were suspended.
Dagher said five of the 16 members of the unit have since been cleared to return to regular duties, but three are on leave.
Police have said others from the patrol unit were reassigned to other duties or administrative tasks.
The police chief also said the officer connected to the alleged domestic violence incident was placed on administrative duties in June as a result of information that emerged during that probe.
Dagher noted that the initial investigation into the officers began in March and that the probe was underway before the allegations surfaced in the media.
He suggested this shows that members within the force are breaking free of a code of silence that used to shield police officers who acted with impunity.
Dagher described the behaviour of police officers who disgrace the uniform as an embarrassment, while maintaining that 99 per cent of the force do an “admirable” job of serving the public.
“On one hand, I am very, very proud of my police officers who denounce,” he said. “And on the other hand, it’s so humiliating for my uniform, for the pride of my police officers, for their daily work,” he said.
Two officers from a downtown station were also suspended, on Aug. 19 and Sept. 8.
The first officer was suspended for alleged “discriminatory acts,” police said on Friday. The second, who was suspended for “derogatory” acts, is under criminal investigation, the force said.
One of those officers allegedly urinated on homeless people, while the second officer allegedly posed for photos mocking suspects under arrest in humiliating positions. Those allegations were first reported by the Montreal daily news outlet La Presse.
Dagher said Friday that the alleged urination incident was being investigated by the province’s police watchdog, the Bureau des enquêtes independantes, and not his force.
“I have to let the BEI decide what they have on it, but it’s not a file that I have,” he said.
A second report by Radio-Canada suggested that the two officers from the downtown station were suspended after the RCMP flagged the images to the Montreal police force.
But critics are pushing back against Dagher’s claim that the police culture is changing.
Former RCMP officer Alain Babineau, who now works with a civil rights group called the Red Coalition, wants Dagher to “take off the velour gloves” and take a strong-armed approach to officer misconduct.
“(Montreal police) has been dysfunctional for decades. Fady has come along and tried to effect changes in a nice way, but that is clearly not working,” said Babineau. “There’s a network of radicalized officers that don’t want anything to do with Fady’s changes.”
Ted Rutland, an associate professor at Concordia University who has researched policing in Canada, said “the only thing that’s new is that internal investigations and suspensions are occurring.”
“Abuses like these have been happening for decades, and they are much more widespread in the present than the stories that are coming to light,” he said.
A protest against police misconduct was scheduled to take place downtown on Friday evening. It is the third major protest organized since the allegations against the officers from the downtown station were made public.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 30, 2026.
By Erika Morris | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.