(Quebec) Specialized personnel from the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) will be made available to the Quebec City Police Department (SPVQ), while the capital is the scene of a bloody war for the control of narcotics.
Many details remain to be finalized, but the SQ is willing to “lend” police officers specialized in organized crime, firearms control, intelligence specialists or even investigators. The two police forces had a meeting last Friday and others are on the agenda.
“I am pleased to note that we now share the same concern regarding the recent demonstrations of armed violence in the National Capital and its surrounding areas,” said Mayor Bruno Marchand in a letter addressed to the Minister of Public Security, François Bonnardel, on Monday.
Mr. Marchand has made an about-face on the SQ’s outstretched hand. The mayor had been demanding provincial funding for his police force for months, citing the $250 million over five years granted by the Legault government to Montreal to curb the explosion of armed violence on the island.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Bruno Marchand, Mayor of Quebec
In eastern Quebec, a war has broken out between the Hells Angels and Dave “Pic” Turmel’s Blood Family Mafia for control of the drug trade. The conflict is raging most fiercely in Beauce and the capital.
The Minister of Public Security has repeatedly refused this additional funding for the SPVQ, because according to Mr. Bonnardel, the situations in Montreal and Quebec cannot be compared.
On Friday, the minister sent a letter to the mayor of Quebec City reiterating the idea of offering SQ personnel to help the SPVQ calm things down in the capital. The minister’s offer was communicated to Mayor Marchand’s office just 10 minutes before the start of a press conference.
Asked to react, Mayor Marchand, who had not even had the opportunity to read the minister’s letter, gave a lukewarm reception to the idea of assistance from the SQ, as he has done for months. He changed his mind on Monday.
“After analysis and discussions between our teams, I asked that we quickly explore the form that the offer of collaboration that you sent me could take, in concrete terms,” wrote the mayor.
Bruno Marchand, however, insists on the need to “respect the autonomy of the SPVQ.” He adds that this openness to collaboration with the provincial police does not change his request for more funding, and commits to increasing the budget of his police force in 2025.
Minister Bonnardel clarified that this agreement did not mean the massive arrival of police officers in green and black uniforms in Quebec City. “It is not the SQ that is visually coming to the city’s territory. We call these supplementary loans, service loans,” he said on the airwaves of the program Première heure, on Radio-Canada. The number of police officers loaned remains to be determined.
The minister once again closed the door to additional funding for the SPVQ. “I tell the mayor if you want to have additional police officers, it’s up to you to invest a little more.”
Meetings are planned in the coming days between the two police forces to coordinate the new collaboration.