If Minister Ian Lafrenière were to designate the “winner” of Printemps érable, he would not be able to do so. The former head of communications for the Montreal police himself almost left the profession because of the events, he says ten years later.
“I just see losers”, launches in interview with The duty the police officer who became elected from the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ). A decade after the events, he remembers the student spring as a period “ tough “, marked by the injuries and insults suffered by colleagues, even by separations in their families.
“For many police officers, it was extremely difficult times. It was a lot of hours, it was physically demanding, he recalls. There are many students who wanted to go to school and lost moments [importants]. »
In 2013, the newly elected government of Pauline Marois partially followed the arguments of activists opposed to the reform of the financing of higher education: the increase promised by the government of Jean Charest would be canceled and tuition fees would be indexed to median income Household. But Ian Lafrenière maintains his speech.
“When I look at what it has brought as a burden for several individuals, I am not able to qualify anyone as a winner. It was heavy, ”he says. For him too, by the way. In 2012, the threats he received as the main face of the Montreal police almost led him to give up the job.
“It would be a lie not to say so. We thought about moving. We have considered everything, everything, everything. But, you know, we had these discussions with my wife: no matter where we went, I would have been recognized the same, ”he raises.
The Wounds of Spring
The elected caquiste ended up leaving the police for another reason: his political adventure. Today, despite the numerous riots and tough interventions that punctuated the spring of 2012, the Minister responsible for Aboriginal Affairs does not see the student crisis as a confrontation between police and demonstrators.
“It’s so not that,” he retorts. Several of his colleagues had children among the protesters, notes the deputy for Vachon, and, in the ranks, the police never took a position, he assures us.
When I look at what it has brought as a burden for several individuals, I am not able to qualify anyone as a winner. It was heavy.
According to Mr. Lafrenière, the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) quickly learned of this spring when demonstrations were frequently budding all over the city. “After each demonstration, we questioned ourselves, then after each week, we questioned ourselves,” he says.
If certain demonstrations have turned sour, it is because rotten apples have mingled with the crowd, believes the former agent, who, “as a father”, would not go to a demonstration with his children. “There are people who joined the student demonstrations who were rather anarchist people, he analyzes. They wanted to take advantage of this platform to advocate anarchism. »
In this “big black hole” that is for him the spring of 2012, the member for Vachon remembers the demonstration which turned into a riot near the Palais des Congrès on April 21st. “There, I have [collègues] who were injured, projectiles that were thrown. The tension rose enormously,” he recalls.
That day, 17 people were arrested in the streets of the city center, can we read in the pages of the Homework. Four police officers were injured. “We invite students to remain peaceful, and the government could do the same with the police,” said at the time the president of the Quebec Collegiate Student Federation, Léo Bureau-Blouin.
New ?
In 2014, former MP Serge Ménard signed a report of more than 450 pages on the events of spring 2012. Of his 28 recommendations, about twenty concerned the work of the police. “Encirclement and mass arrest strategies should only be used as a last resort,” reads the imposing document.
Asked about the fears that certain protesters had vis-à-vis the police in 2012, Ian Lafrenière maintains that “we all had fears”. “From the moment you are in a demonstration – my answer will be very flat – there is always a semi-danger. On both sides, we had fears that it would get out of hand, ”he says.
After 2012, certain police “strategies” in the demonstrations changed, observes Mr. Lafrenière. The equipment used too, he says. Social networks have become an indispensable tool, according to him.
Even “in the way of making regulations [et des lois] “, there is a” chance to learn from what happened “, launches the one who is today a legislator.
Adopted in May 2012, the “law 78” of the government of Jean Charest – which obliged, among other things, the protesters to provide an itinerary to the police before the event – was partially shelved by the government of Pauline Marois in the fall of that same year. The City of Montreal’s controversial P-6 by-law, which, among other things, prohibited hiding the face in a crowd, was officially repealed in 2019.