(Drummondville) The national convention of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) is taking place under a strong police presence this weekend in Drummondville.
Posted at 10:15 a.m.
Updated at 12:51 p.m.
A journalist from The Canadian Press on site noted very early Saturday morning that there were fences everywhere and very strict security checks to access the event, like what we see at the airport. There were also mounted police.
At the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), it was recognized in the morning that the police department was preparing for the arrival of many demonstrators in Drummondville. As always, the goal is to maintain public order and safety, whether around the CAQ convention or in parks and other public places where protesters might congregate.
Hundreds of members of the Syndicat de la fonction publique et parapublique du Québec (SFPQ) were among the first to loudly express their discontent as Premier François Legault and several members of his cabinet met with their supporters in an atmosphere festive at the Centrexpo Cogeco.
“Our members who are part of the Quebec public service are angry with the CAQ government. He has been preventing any significant progress at the bargaining table for months. However, our demands are reasonable: fair salary conditions that take into account the job market and galloping inflation,” said Jean-François Sylvestre, vice-president, responsible for mobilization at the SFPQ.
Tenants from several cities also made their voices heard at lunchtime in front of the Centrexpo Cogeco in Drummondville, at the call of the Front d’action populaire en réménagement urbain (FRAPRU), to draw attention to the lodging.
Photo taken from the FRAPRU Twitter account
“There is nothing to be proud of when hundreds of households are on the verge of becoming homeless during the moving season, when rents have become unaffordable for a growing number of tenants, when households still more are being evicted and that the construction of social housing is being done in dribs and drabs,” lamented Véronique Laflamme, spokesperson for FRAPRU.
According to FRAPRU, the city of Drummondville, where the CAQ convention is taking place, has an unoccupied housing rate of 0.2%, which is 15 times less than the percentage considered balanced. Last year, 34 tenant households found themselves homeless there; 760 households used the housing search assistance service set up by the Office d’Habitation Drummond.
Demonstrations on other subjects, such as opposition to the health measures that had been put in place in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, are also circulating on social networks, but nothing official has been announced.