The mayor denies being inactive in Saint-Roch and maintains that the police department has been tackling “for weeks and months” the problem of violence and drug sales.
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“We are already doing it. It is not because Mr. Villeneuve goes out on a Thursday afternoon saying: “We need more patrols” that we are starting to do more patrols. It’s not the mayor who decides either.
Mayor Bruno Marchand reacted to an outing by Official Opposition Leader Claude Villeneuve, who last week called for action to end the neighborhood’s “open-air drug market” and violence stakes. Mr. Marchand recalls that the mayor cannot “tell the chief of police what to do”, otherwise “we are in trouble”.
Results
“We are taking this problem head on.” Other actions will be announced “imminently”, he said. “There are actions that we are taking, in particular with community groups and the CIUSSS, which will yield results” and which will be revealed soon.
MARC VALLIÈRES/QMI AGENCY
He says he is letting the election period pass and then intends to tackle the goal of zero homelessness in due form with the next Minister of Health. “I call him and I ask him to go on an outing where he and I, with the CIUSSS, commit to zero homelessness.”
For Claude Villeneuve, it is not unthinkable that a mayor calls the police chief to ask him to pay particular attention to a problem in a neighborhood. He is pleased with his exit which, according to him, has made things happen.
“Dilettante”
He describes the reaction of the district councilor, Pierre-Luc Lachance, as a “dilettante” reaction.
“I’m going to California to play the harp while watching St-Roch burn”, he imagined, in reference to a mission abroad in which the vice-president of the executive committee participates these days. this.