Quebec hopes to reduce the number of episodes of armed violence in Montreal by encouraging, one by one, young delinquents to get back on the straight and narrow.
The Minister of Public Security, François Bonnardel, was in the metropolis on Monday to announce an investment of $1.8 million over three years in the PIVOT project, which aims to fight against armed violence. Of this sum, $1.35 million comes from government coffers. The City of Montreal will inject $513,000.
The government’s plan, inspired by the “Glasgow approach”, is to support young delinquents to prevent them from falling into crime.
“It’s a fight that must continue to be able to bring out as many young people as possible [de la criminalité], who unfortunately find that carrying the weapon can be ”fun”. But it’s not cool,” Minister Bonnardel said.
According to René-André Brisebois, who is a speaker and researcher at the Young People in Difficulties University Institute of the CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, the approach recommended by the government has proven itself elsewhere in the world.
“In the places where it has been deployed, whether in the United States or in Scotland, what we see in the research are reductions of 33% to 50% in violent crime,” he said. he says.
The idea is to concentrate the efforts of law enforcement in the right place, and to achieve big results by taking “small steps,” François Bonnardel then explained.
“If with each small step, we succeed in saving young people and getting them out of this petty crime, which could become serious crime, we will have won,” said the minister.
Asked how many young people will benefit from support, René-André Brisebois replied that the project “does not target a large number”, but “very targeted individuals”.
“Maybe around thirty, around forty young people. If we succeed in making a difference in the lives of one, two, three, four, it will make a huge difference,” he added, specifying that letting a young person follow the path of crime can ultimately cost the company around $2 million, and therefore, the game is worth it.
For the moment, the PIVOT project will be deployed in the boroughs of Rivière-des-Prairies-Pointe-aux-Trembles and Montréal-Nord, where more events involving firearms occur.
Minister Bonnardel also wanted to point out that this new measure is part of a broader plan to combat armed violence, for which the Quebec budget provides a pot of $50 million.
“Between 2021 and 2022, there is still a drop of almost 40% in victims of armed violence. This year, we also have a slight drop since the start of the year. So it is a fight that is not won, but we are making progress,” maintained the minister.