2023-05-09 23:00:00
The wave of threats, extortion and arson targeting merchants in Greater Montreal is not letting up.
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Early Tuesday morning, a spa in Saint-Léonard was the target of vandals and in an interview with TVA Nouvelles, the owner of the premises, Hocine Khadir, declared that he was thinking of arming himself once morest these criminals who have been targeting his business for two years.
“We get vandalized every week. […] Now they’re starting to come in broad daylight, they’re putting in gas and trying to burn the trade! It’s someone who is attacking our business. Is it competition, someone trying to take over our business, putting us out of business? We don’t know!”, says Mr. Khadir in an interview with TVA Nouvelles.
Twice last night as well as in the early morning, suspects showed up at the Hammam and Spa Sources d’Orient business on Boulevard Provencher to commit acts of vandalism.
In a video captured by the surveillance camera of the business around 5:30 a.m., we see a car parked in one of the spaces reserved for customers.
A man gets out of the vehicle with a can of gasoline and pours the contents onto the shop windows. A cigarette will be thrown on the ground, but fortunately the fire did not spread to the establishment.
screenshot | VAT News
Plywood was also installed on the facade of the business. This is in connection with other acts of vandalism where individuals wanted to smash the windows.
It’s been going on for two years and the owners have strangely received no message from criminal groups or threats. Nobody asked them for the famous Pizzo, this illegal tax that you have to pay in exchange for protection from criminal groups.
screenshot | VAT News
“I never borrowed from the mafia, or pawnbrokers. We don’t know what else to do! Do you have to arm yourself? Assuring our own defence? Ourselves shoot people who approach us? wonders the shopkeeper at the end of his tether.
Mr. Khadir asks citizens who have information to contact the police in order to advance the investigations.
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