The two largest police forces in Quebec, the Montreal Police and the Sûreté du Québec, have lost a total of four weapons since 2020, according to an access to information request.
CBC Montreal asked 12 police forces in Quebec, including Laval, Longueuil, Quebec City, Montreal and the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), how many service weapons were lost between 2020 and the fall of 2024.
All but two police forces reported zero service weapons lost.
Montreal police reported three missing guns since 2020.
He Police Service of the Ville de Montréal (SPVM) declined an on-camera interview but said a gun was stolen in 2021 after SPVM officer Sanjay Vig was attacked during a traffic stop.
Ali Ngarukiye disarmed Vig and fired his service weapon before fleeing. Ngarukiye was arrested in Toronto two months later, but the gun was not recovered.
A gun was cheated at a shooting range in 2022 due to a data entry error that was corrected in 2024 during the annual inventory. It was not a police officer’s service weapon, but a weapon in the SPVM’s inventory.
A third gun was also incorrectly classified in the computer system. The error was later corrected, said SPVM spokesperson Caroline Labelle.
In the SQ case, a Glock 17 pistol went missing during an officer’s medical leave in 2022. It has yet to be located.
While experts say mistakes can happen, critics believe police should be held to a higher standard when it comes to how guns are handled, especially at a time when many police forces are arguing for more funding to combat what they characterize such as increasing crime, violence and gangs.
Was the protocol followed?
There are strict rules and standards for how police manage, store and secure service weapons. There are also internal operating procedures.
The missing SQ pistol was taken by a supervisor and was supposed to be logged and locked in the station vault, spokesman Lt. Benoit Richard said.
After 90 days, it was supposed to be transferred to the armory at SQ headquarters in Montreal.
But when the officer returned from leave, the gun could not be found. It was reported immediately and the serial number was shared with the Center Delaware Renseignements Policiers du Québec (CRPQ), so if the firearm is located elsewhere in Canada, it will be identified.
“At this point, we don’t know where the firearm is,” Richard said. “Is it in a box in the vault? Is it somewhere else?”
Richard said there were quite a few different supervisors at the station where the gun went missing. The SQ does not know if the gun was brought to the gun shop or if there was a mistake in signing it.
“Then why didn’t the officers know what he was doing before?” Richard said.
There was an internal investigation to examine whether proper protocol was followed. So far, nothing out of the ordinary has been brought to investigators’ attention, he said.
While a gun should never disappear, Richard said there are thousands of weapons issued to SQ officers in Quebec, as well as specific firearms in the SQ arsenal.
“Maybe in the next few months there will be a vault check that’s going to be done and maybe we’ll find it in one of the vaults,” Richard said.
The SPVM said a police officer who loses his firearm must complete an incident report, which is sent to his unit manager.
The unit manager will determine whether “negligence has occurred and may initiate administrative or disciplinary action,” SPVM spokesperson Labelle said in an email to CBC.
The serial number of Officer Vig’s gun is recorded in North American police information banks and will be flagged if it is found or used in a crime.
With the exception of that gun, LaBelle said no guns have “actually” been lost in recent years because the other guns were in the possession of the SPVM.
She would not go into further detail about whether directives were issued after the data entry errors, as the processes in place are internal. The SPVM would also not say whether an officer had been disciplined in the past for losing a weapon, since that information is confidential.
“Rest assured, however, that firearms tracking under the responsibility of the SPVM is rigorous and functional,” Labelle wrote.
Police must be ‘beyond reproach’
This is not the first time a police force has been called out for missing weapons.
Last fall, CTV reported that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) had lost more than 200 firearms, including shotguns, rifles and firearms.
Although the number of guns lost in Quebec is much lower than the RCMP, it should be zero across the board, said Tari Ajadi, an assistant professor of political science at McGill University who studies movements to reform or defund the police.
This is especially critical at a time when municipal Police budgets They are going up, he said.
“This is the most lethal thing we have in our society and it is what they themselves claim they are trying to eliminate on the streets,” Ajadi said. “When we talk about a weapon that can kill people, we are talking about lethal force. [police] The forces must be beyond reproach.”
Ajadi also doesn’t understand how there couldn’t be consequences for the SQ officers who were in charge when the gun went missing in 2022. He questions the systems that are in place to hold officers accountable.
“What is happening in internal affairs in such a way that they do not see damned, because by definition, being lost is irregular,” said Ajadi. “Regardless of whether it was malicious or done by accident, this is what you are paid to do.”
Matt Torigian is the former Deputy Attorney General of Ontario and the former Chief of Police of the Waterloo Regional Police Service.
He said any time a firearm is not counted, whether it is a gun or citizen police, it should be taken seriously and everything should be done to find it.
Police leaders must determine whether this was a mistake, an exceptional circumstance or whether misconduct was involved to help ensure necessary changes are made, he said.
“Do we have the right policies? Torigian said.
Sometimes it can take some time for internal investigations to develop and for a change in policy or procedure to be implemented, he said.
If it was an administrative error, that can be addressed internally. But if misconduct or negligence is found, Torigian said any changes in policy or procedure would be reported to the oversight body, which is important for transparency.
“That’s what builds public trust,” Torigian said. “That’s what will give the public confidence that we are, in fact, holding our own.”
Quebec’s Ministry of Public Security did not return CBC’s request for comment.
