Pepper spray – the weapon of choice: A new breed of criminal has emerged in Quebec, ……
……, armed not with guns and knives, but with an eye-swelling irritant…..
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PUBLICATION: Montreal Gazette
DATE: 2004.02.17
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
PAGE: A8
BYLINE: BRENDA BRANSWELL and SIDHARTHA BANERJEE
SOURCE: The Gazette
ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo: JOHN KENNEY, THE GAZETTE / “Usually, it’s used to fight off bears, at least that is what my customers tell me,” said Pierre Laliberte of La Cordee, a popular outdoors store on Ste. Catherine St. E. that sells bear repellent.
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Pepper spray – the weapon of choice: A new breed of criminal has emerged in Quebec, armed not with guns and knives, but with an eye-swelling irritant
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When three people wearing masks breezed into her Laval jewelry store last week, the owner initially thought it was a joke.
“The next thing I knew they were breaking glass and they were spraying this stuff,” said the owner, who did not want her name published.
The “stuff” was pepper spray – a mucous membrane irritant that can swell eyes and cause a burning sensation on skin.
The thieves smashed seven display cases, snatched $50,000 worth of jewelry and fled. But the lingering fumes sent some shoppers into coughing fits.
“I’m asthmatic, so it wasn’t pleasant,” said a clerk at a nearby lingerie store, who complained of breathing problems and itchy eyes.
A teenage male, no older than 18, she said, squirted spray in her direction when she ventured into the mall to check out the commotion.
The trio’s mode of operating is not unique. A new breed of criminal has emerged in Quebec, armed not with guns and knives, but with pepper spray.
Those who cannot get their hands on the stuff – its use is prohibited under the Canadian criminal code – make do with bear or dog repellent, which can be easily purchased at camping and outdoors stores.
A few days after the jewelry store heist, two young men pepper-sprayed an employee outside a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop in Laval and stole the afternoon deposit.
In the spring of 2002, Laval police also saw a rash of closing-time robberies at bars where pepper spray was used to ensure no one would be able to identify the suspects.
“It’s become a weapon of choice and it’s not just in Laval,” said Constable Marc Morel, a Laval police spokesperson.
In Quebec City last August, at least five robberies in homes, businesses and banks were committed using pepper spray. The most famous of those was at a Birks jewelry store on Aug. 16, 2003, where two brazen thieves in their 20s sprayed throughout the Place Ste. Foy shopping centre, making sure none of the mall patrons could follow them.
By all accounts, pepper spray is highly unpleasant. “When we get trained on (pepper spray), they shoot us with it in the face,” Morel said. “The feeling is that your eyes are going to melt … it’s like two rusted ice picks in your eyes and the guy is twisting them at the same time.”
While the sting subsides, Morel said it lasts just long enough for robbers to make a getaway – and it ensures witnesses don’t see them because their eyes are burning.
“Young adults and kids seem to be able to get it quite readily,” Morel said. They don’t just threaten to use it, either. “They really shoot up the place even before they do anything so that people don’t even know what is going on.”
It’s so readily available a Laval teen forced the evacuation of her high school last week when she unleashed a canister in a stairwell and it got into Marie Curie High School’s ventilation system. No one was seriously injured, but about 25 had to be treated at the scene by Urgences Sante.
“We’ll be investigating whether or not to lay charges,” said Sgt. Andre St. Jacques, a Laval police spokesperson. “It’s not illegal to possess it, but using it for any other purpose than what is marked on the can is. That’s how contradictory the laws are.”
A can of bear repellent can go for between $39 and $50. It is less potent than the formula used by police.
“Usually, it’s used to fight off bears, at least that is what my customers tell me,” said Pierre Laliberte, who works in the accessories department at La Cordee, a popular outdoors store on Ste. Catherine St. E., near the Jacques Cartier Bridge. “People who go to the Adirondacks or go camping in areas where there’s a danger of bears attacking usually buy it, and it sells pretty well.”
Laliberte said there aren’t any specific rules about selling such repellents, because the products are legal – if used for their designated purpose – in Canada.
“The problem with this is when a customer comes to buy the stuff, I can’t tell from looking into his eyes whether he’ll be using it for bears or not,” Laliberte said. “I don’t know how I would react if I suspected they were using it for any other purpose.”
One manager at an outdoors store in Montreal’s north end, who didn’t want his name published, said the bear repellent is locked behind a counter and buyers must be 18 years old and show photo identification. It is typically sought out by hikers and people who do a lot of outdoor activities, he said.
“We have forms that the customers have to fill out from the company that sells them. It states that the use of the product is intended for bears only. And any other use of the product on anything else would be a criminal offence,” he said.
The store keeps a signed copy for the company’s records. “We’re not going to sell it to just anybody,” he said. “If the person doesn’t look what we judge as fit then we don’t sell (it to) them.”
Police say the product is also available at flea markets.
The ease of access in obtaining the product bothers the lingerie store employee who didn’t want her name published.
“That’s the part that really
irritates me,” she said.
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Products Out There
What’s prohibited: Any liquid spray, powder, gas or other substance designed to injure, immobilize or incapacitate is prohibited under the Canadian criminal code.
What’s legal: Products clearly designed to be used as animal repellents are allowed in Canada.
Ingredients: Bear-spray products contain between 0.75 and one per cent capsicum, the active ingredient in pepper spray. The minimum size of a canister is 225 grams, but some products are available in 400-gram format.
Dog sprays contain 0.35 capsicum; canisters are typically between 20 and 22 grams.
Source: Pest Management Regulatory Agency, a division of Health Canada
