By Barett Poley
Montreal, Quebec — April 26, 2017 — Montreal’s towing industry is coming under fire after an investigation by the city’s Investigator General found the industry to be plagued by gangs and organized crime influence. According to Investigator General Denis Gallant, organized criminal operations have stakes in the vast majority of the towing districts in Montreal. In fact, Gallant says that 18 of the city’s 19 districts have felt the impact of criminal influence.
Gallant conferred with more than 100 tow operators during his investigation. His report makes it clear that these tow truck operators are by and large honest operators, but they have been threatened with violence, and sometimes beaten, so criminal gangs could reap the rewards.
The criminal groups are incredibly territorial about the area that they work in, according to the report, and will intimidate anybody who tows a car in “their” territory. Gallant says that it will start with thinly veiled threats, such as voicemails saying things like “it’s difficult to eat steak if you have no teeth.” The threats allegedly escalate from there, and include arson perpetrated on tow trucks and actual violence perpetrated against operators, until the company being intimidated stops working in a certain area.
Gallant says that an increase in regulations across the board will help to get the problem under control.
“We’ll have more regulations, and organized crime will say, ‘I don’t want to go in that business anymore because there’s no value for us,’” said Gallant in an interview with the CBC. Gallant also says that regulations are absolutely integral to fixing the problem. Just a few years ago, Montreal’s tow operators had a price cap limiting what they could charge. The cap is no longer in place, and Gallant says customers are now being charged as much as $400 per tow.
“Honest people don’t want to continue business in Montreal because they’re scared,” said Gallant.
The new proposed regulations will have to go through a provincial “Pass Decree” according to Montreal’s Mayor Denis Coderre. However, he has indicated that the government is aware of the growing problem, and believes the Pass Decree shouldn’t take too long to go through, allowing the new regulations to be put into effect.
