Quebec's public security ministry says thousands of items that can be considered weapons are seized at the checkpoints at the Montreal Courthouse every year.
Back in 2016, the courthouse installed airport-style metal detectors at its front doors and began searching visitors. Since then, anywhere from 4,000 to 6,000 dangerous items were found on visitors every year — things like scissors, razor blades, knives of all kinds, kitchen cutlery, corkscrews, and even some fake guns.
Since 2016, the ministry reports no less than 67 crack pipes were also taken from visitors. Among some of the other items found on people entering the courthouse, rocks, prison-style shanks, fake police badges, aerosol cans, oversized lighters, and at least one sword concealed inside someone's cane.
A spokesperson for the union representing security staff at the courthouse tells the Journal de Montréal that while many of these items are technically legal, they could cause damage in a courthouse setting.
The spokesperson says the courthouse deals with a wide range of people and cases, including people going through a divorce, or who have psychological issues. In the past, there has been at least one case of a person who tried to gouge out his landlord's eyeball inside the Quebec Court of Appeal.