Hate crimes, domestic violence, homicides, extremism, street gangs: the indicators are red with regard to the increase in violence in Canada. For the experts gathered at McGill University on Wednesday, there is an urgent need to understand why, and to better train people accordingly.
In recent years, there has been a 30% increase in homicides, 28% in domestic violence and 30% in hate crimes in the country, according to Statistics Canada data.
If society is still safer than 30 or 40 years ago, this rapid increase is alarming, say two researchers and professors specializing in psychiatry.
They decided to act. “Phenomena change very quickly,” said one, Dr.D Cécile Rousseau, professor of psychiatry at McGill University. “The violence we experience today can no longer be imagined in the silos we had before: domestic violence, gang violence, extremist violence, or violence linked to major mental health disorders. All these things are getting mixed up,” adds the scientific director of the Research and Action Team on Social Polarizations.
Accelerator of this explosive mixture: social networks, the internet, and now artificial intelligence. This is supported by the research of Ghayda Hassan, professor of psychology UQAM and founder of the Network of Canadian Practitioners for the Prevention of Radicalization and Violent Extremism, met on site Wednesday.
In recent months, tragedies have shaken Quebec. Like the bus driver who crashed into a daycare center in Laval, killing two children and injuring several. Or the murder of Sergeant Maureen Breau, stabbed on duty by a suspect suffering from psychiatric problems.
“There are going to be more acts of violence, we are going towards a storm, warns the DD Rousseau. But we are able to come together and – to use the metaphor of the pandemic – to flatten the wave. »
Better training to deal with violence
Experts in various fields related to violence gathered at McGill University on Wednesday to share their knowledge. A first step, according to them, would be to better educate society.
“It’s quite amazing how [nos professionnels] are not equipped when they arrive [sur le terrain] says Anne Crocker, professor in the department of psychiatry and criminology at the Université de Montréal. She co-organized Wednesday’s forum with DD Rousseau.
“There are all kinds of specialized training, but you need something that is more general and that takes into account the social context, which is changing,” adds Ms.me Crocker, also Scientific Director of the Justice and Mental Health Observatory.
Such training could be offered in schools, at the DYP, in the health sector, for example.
Specialists also want to improve access to data on violence in real time. Another proposal: think about public discourse when there is a drama. “We have to reassure people, because when we say that there is a lot of violence, but we don’t know what it’s due to, that we don’t know what to do, it’s very scary for the public,” says the DD Rousseau. Finally, they want to document initiatives that work to reduce violence, here and elsewhere.