Several people dressed as Santa and a group of masked elves were filmed at a grocery store in Montreal on Monday night filling up carts with food.
While seemingly festive, the group left the grocery store without paying.
Montreal police spokesperson Caroline Chèvrefils confirmed an investigation is underway in connection with a “shoplifting incident at a large retail store” on Laurier Avenue, near Chambord Street in the city’s Plateau-Mont-Royal borough.
Chèvrefils said it happened at around 9:15 p.m. on Monday and involved several “masked and disguised individuals who would have left with food and without paying.”
On social media, an activist group calling themselves Robins des ruelles or Robins of the Alleys — a nod to Robin Hood — claimed responsibility for the heist.
The group says the stolen food, worth around $3,000, was redistributed under a Christmas tree at place Valois in Montreal’s Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve borough, with leftovers going to various community fridges.
The group described Monday’s raid as a “great food drive.”
In a statement posted on social media, the group justified its actions by saying that as people struggle to make ends meet, supermarket chains are using inflation as a pretext to raise prices all the while making record profits.
“A handful of corporations are holding our basic needs hostage,” said the statement, posted on the Instagram page of an activist group, Les soulèvements du fleuve.
“They continue to stifle the population, siphoning off as much money as possible, simply because they can. For us, that’s theft, and they are the real criminals.”
On Monday, Statistics Canada released the Consumer Price Index for November which showed that grocery inflation reached its highest rate in nearly two years.
The overall inflation rate came in at 2.2 per cent. But that rate has been largely outpaced by food since August 2024, and in November it rose 4.7 per cent compared to this time last year.
The reaction to the theft has been overwhelmingly positive on social media, but in a statement to CBC News, Geneviève Grégoire, a spokesperson for Metro, said it was important to remember that theft, for any reason, is unacceptable and constitutes a criminal act.
Marc-André Cyr a lecturer in political science at Université du Québec à Montréal, pointed to “discrepancy” between the institutions that say the stunt was a crime, and the public’s perception, “which ultimately finds it acceptable.”
Cyr told Radio-Canada’s Tout un matin, that in the current political context some people no longer trust institutions and rather than wait for things to change, they are taking direct action themselves.
“This type of action works in the sense that it creates debate,” he said, adding people are talking about poverty, food insecurity, inflation and grocery store profits as a result.
Cyr also said the fact the theft was “non-violent, festive, timely,” and had a direct impact, can also help explain why some people are praising the group’s actions.
“There are people this week who ate much better than last week,” he said.
Meanwhile, Grégoire responded to accusations made by Robin des Ruelles, explaining that as a retailer, Metro is the last link in the supply chain between the supplier and the consumer.
“Inflation in the food sector is largely influenced by external factors, including disruptions to the global supply chain, volatile commodity prices, and changes in international trade conditions,” she said. “Prices on store shelves directly reflect supply chain costs.”
Grégoire also defended the company’s philanthropic efforts, saying that in 2025, Metro donated $1.15 million to food banks, and provided millions of dollars worth of food donations to other organizations.
Montreal police said Thursday that they are reviewing videos of the incident but that no arrests have been made.
