Young people recruited by criminal groups — parents and stakeholders sound the alarm and call for government action

The tension is palpable in Montreal. Distraught parents, overwhelmed stakeholders, solicited police services: in recent years, more and more minors have been making the news. Whether they are victims, offenders, involved or not, adolescents serve as cannon fodder for older, more hardened criminals in the underworld.

Often compared to “child soldiers”, these teenagers, who are getting younger and younger, are seduced by promises of quick and easy money. This is what parents like Hocine*, who lost his son in a context of armed violence, fear the most: that their offspring will be lost, attracted by the lure of wealth. He also shares his fear: that young people, like his son, will become collateral damage of a phenomenon with a disturbing magnitude.

He and several other parents are asking for solutions: how long will the authorities let this ordeal continue? Will there be more stories like that of Yanis Seghouani, this 14-year-old young man who died last September while going to antagozie a biker gang in Beauce; of Mehdi Moussaoui, who also died at the age of 14 while driving a car in the middle of the night; or Meriem Boundaoui, killed by a stray bullet in a vehicle? La Converse looked at the issue.

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“I prayed for my son to be last on the list”

Hocine* arrived in Canada in 2007. Some time earlier, he left the city of Algiers with his wife and his first child, a young boy. The parents give up their jobs — he was a lawyer and she was a medical specialist — in order to offer a better future to their sons and daughters, who will be born in Montreal.

“We lived in a small piece of paradise”, recalls the 60-year-old. A few years after the family moved to Quebec, everything was going well: Hocine's small medical business was going like clockwork, his wife had found a job in the pharmaceutical industry, and his son was about to start university studies. All was well until he died.

At the age of 19, Hocine's eldest son was killed in a shoot-out in 2019. He was not targeted. “I don't want to go over the past and talk about my son's death again, but I want people to know how much pain I felt and that it wasn't alleviated in the least by the authorities,” he said. "My son was murdered cowardly because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

It took a year for the investigators responsible for the case to conclude that the young adult had no priors and had probably been the collateral victim of an attempted murder. “A year to clean up my son's name,” Hocine said angrily, rearranging his glasses on his nose. "A year to finally consider that his death was serious.”

Today, Hocine is frustrated. “I always prayed that my son would be the last in an already long list. Unfortunately, there are even more victims of youth violence,” he said, disconcerted. The death of his son finally made him realize that the system in which he lives has not been able to provide him with the security to which he is entitled, he judges. “I am a full citizen. I pay my taxes like everyone else; I also have the right to the security that I am promised. And all parents who lost their children under these circumstances also have this right. The system failed, the system let us down,” he says.

The 60-year-old believes that there will be no change until the authorities take real action. “Parents are not at fault, community organizations cannot do everything, police cannot constantly monitor our young people,” he concludes. According to him, sounding the alarm to warn elected officials, who have real power to act at the legislative level, is the only way to change the dangerous trajectory that some young people take.

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Tougher penalties for those who exploit young people?

When the tragic death of young Yanis was made public, the alarm sounded for several parents and stakeholders. “Let's take our young people back” — this is the slogan they came up with for the rally organized in Saint-Léonard by a few community organizations on September 28.

Two to three hundred parents from the Maghreb community, which is very present in the district, met that day around an immense concern: the recruitment of young people by criminalized groups.

On site, several speakers, parents and young people took the floor to launch a clear message. “We need concrete action from the government”, declares Nazar Saty, a volunteer lawyer for the Association de Sépulture musulmane au Québec (Quebec Muslim burial association), who participated in organizing the rally. He urgently calls for the “revision of laws against the practice of recruiting vulnerable young people by criminal groups.” “Violators who," he adds, "take advantage of and exploit the vulnerability of young people must be punished more severely.”

This request made by Saty was then taken over by Andrés Fontecilla, from Québec olidaire (QS). Member of the National Assembly for the constituency of Laurier-Dorion, located in the district of Villeray—Saint-Michel—Parc-Extension, Fontecilla is the spokesperson for the second opposition group on public security in the National Assembly.

At Wilfrid-Bastien Park, he is one of those who spoke out to denounce the situation. “It does not make sense for a 14-year-old to be sent to the slaughterhouse by criminals to do their dirty work,” he declares at the microphone, referring to the tragic end of young Yanis.

The Montreal deputy is aware of the distress that reigns among many parents and caregivers. “We see ordinary young people drifting into delinquency, being manipulated to commit very serious crimes,” he adds. "What we're asking the Ministry of Public Security first and foremost is to conduct a public consultation on the issues that concern everyone in connection with this phenomenon. We must be able to make a diagnosis of the situation, a diagnosis based on the words of the people concerned — parents, children and stakeholders. We need to hear their voices.”

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“The government is putting its head in the sand”

“There is a desire on the part of parents to better understand the situation,” he continues. “That is why parents' requests must be met. The government must have this same will." Over the past few months, the QS public safety spokesperson consulted several organizations working in his constituency, but also elsewhere in Montreal. “Some stakeholders I have met are calling for a commission of inquiry into armed violence, in particular on the recruitment of young people by criminal groups. Others, like Saty, call for heavier sentences for criminals who manipulate young people,” he explains.

However, Mr. Fontecilla is not completely convinced by this approach. “We can consider increasing sentences for perpetrators, but I don't think that will solve the problem. Even if the penalties are increased, there will always be crimes. Young people won't think about that," he believes. We may have results, but in the very long term.” He is also aware that a good part of criminals who send orders to the youngest are already behind bars.

While he is trying to convince the government to explore the options that citizens are asking for, he still believes that it is necessary to work beforehand with the police forces, who are already on the ground. “The police are an integral part of the solution,” he does not hesitate to say. “But we must not forget that their role is the repression of crime. Offenders must be locked up. However, I doubt that increasing police numbers will solve the problem,” he adds. “We need to work with peace officers beforehand. All the actors who surround young people who are on the path of crime must collaborate to properly supervise them,” he says.

More than anything, he believes that the government is “stubborn and turning a blind eye to an alarming situation”, he denounces.

He is convinced that, in order to prevent young people from taking the path of delinquency, intervention on the ground is one of the key solutions. “Beyond the measures that must be taken by the government, we must build a community that surrounds young people,” he explains. "This is done by parents at home, school employees, workers and police officers in the street, etc. We need to create a web around young people,” he concludes.

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In Quebec City, communication is bad

In a long email sent to La Converse, the Ministry of Public Security (MSP) said it was “very concerned about armed violence among young people.” “It monitors the evolution of crime, identifies vulnerability and protective factors and anticipates new criminal trends,” assures the ministry publicist.

In order to ensure the establishment of a concrete portrait of the situation, he must take the necessary measures. “The Quebec strategy to combat armed violence (called CENTAURE) targets gangs in particular. It brings together government initiatives to prevent and counter armed violence.” Among these initiatives, there is the creation of the Research Chair on Armed Violence in Montreal, of PREVARM, a living laboratory for the prevention of armed violence, or the formation of the Montreal Urban Security Strategic Committee. “In addition, the MSP and the Ministry of Education financially support the Centre for the Prevention of Radicalization Leading to Violence so that it can offer the RENFORT line service, a hotline and referral line for people who are concerned about armed violence committed or suffered by young people,” says the publicist.

The MSP explains that the objectives of the CENTAURE strategy are prevention, repression and knowledge development, and that 40% of the funds in this strategy are dedicated to preventive initiatives for youth.

“In 2023-2024, $40.5 million was invested to support 300 initiatives, mainly intended for community organizations to hire workers and implement support measures for at-risk youth,” it is also mentioned.

When we asked if the ministry was exploring options that did not involve police intervention, the MSP simply listed existing programs.

The MSP “encourages parents to remain attentive to their children's behaviours and to seek help if needed,” it says at the end of the letter. The Ministry recalls the existence of the RENFORT line and the other resources offered to support families.

*Fictional first name used to ensure the anonymity of the source and to protect his family.

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