Worried about the rise in violent crimes in Quebec, Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon wants to recruit more police officers and improve prevention mechanisms.
Seven murders in ten days, worrying events involving young people, a society where violence is increasingly frequent and trivialized: this is the sad observation made by Paul St-Pierre Plamondon during a press scrum Thursday morning.
He is particularly concerned about the lack of police and prevention personnel while, according to him, society is gradually facing an increase in violence. “I don’t want us to play ostrich. Quebec has always been peaceful and non-violent and we are facing a broader phenomenon: the increase in violent crimes,” maintains the politician.
A PQ government would recruit 800 new police officers in Quebec, including at least 250 for the metropolis, he said. According to him, the City of Montreal is seriously lacking in police personnel to carry out prevention and repression on the ground. “There is a severe shortage of police officers. According to the Brotherhood, there is a shortage of 170 police officers in Montreal,” underlined Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon, adding that the national police academy does not have the resources to train enough police officers to compensate for the future shortage linked to departures from retirement.
“I observed in my constituency that we do not work horizontally with schools,” he notes. The education system could work together with the police and community organizations to curb the culture of violence among adolescents and young adults, according to him.
“We are in the process of taking the measure of a change in society,” he added, speaking of a “worrying trajectory. »
In reaction to the exit of the PQ, the Minister of Public Security, François Bonnardel, affirmed Thursday on social networks that there would be more than 1,100 new police officers in Quebec in 2024 thanks to the increase in cohorts at the School national police force of Quebec.
He also argued that the government had increased municipal funding for police forces.
“We have already implemented and carried out for several months the proposals put forward by the PQ today,” he argued.
With The Canadian Press