Voices are rising in the CEGEPs of the province to demand new emergency plans accompanied by training for the employees of these establishments, after three of them were the subject of police operations in one week.
Friday’s confinement of students from Lionel-Groulx College in Sainte-Thérèse raised the anxiety of CEGEP employees in the province, who were already shaken by the police operations that occurred on November 11 near the CEGEP. of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu and Montmorency College, in Laval.
“I think it’s high time for someone to stand up and give a sense of security to employees, but also to students who attend CEGEPs and universities,” insists the president of the Federation of higher education support staff, Valérie Fontaine, in an interview at the To have to Saturday.
Since the shooting at Dawson College in 2006, all higher education institutions have had an emergency measures plan. However, these are slow to be updated and the instructions that are listed there are not known to the students and “to the majority of the people who must apply them”, affirms Ms. Fontaine.
“The updating of security protocols and the dissemination to members of the community does not seem to be something that has been done on a regular basis”, also notes the president of the Lionel-College Teachers’ Union. Groulx, Denis Paquin.
Philippe Desrosiers, who teaches psychology at Lionel-Groulx college, also indicates that he has “never had any training” concerning the emergency measures protocol in force in his establishment. “And I’ve been here for a very long time,” he says on the phone.
Joined by The dutythe Fédération des cégeps, which brings together 48 public establishments in Quebec, did not want to comment on this file.
“We are obviously sensitive to the events that have occurred in higher education establishments in recent days,” responded in writing the Minister of Higher Education, Pascale Déry.
“CEGEPs and universities are responsible for ensuring the safety of the people who attend them and they are subject to the CNESST. I will make sure that we reiterate the importance of developing such a plan [de mesures d’urgence] and that it be updated, if it has not already been done, quickly,” added the Minister by email.
Confusion
Around 1:35 p.m. on Friday, the Régie intermunicipale de police Thérèse-De Blainville (RIPTB) received a call concerning a potentially armed individual who was traveling near the Lionel-Groulx college.
At the request of the local police force, the college then broadcast a message in its establishment giving two options to students and employees: leave the premises immediately or confine themselves to their class. A situation which created a certain “confusion” in the establishment, notes Denis Paquin.
“It’s a lot of people going out at once and we were in single file on the stairs,” recalls teacher Philippe Desrosiers, who deplores the “vagueness” of the directives issued on Friday, which were also difficult to follow. capture in certain classes.
A few minutes later, the police contacted the establishment again, this time asking it to confine all the people in the CEGEP. There were then between 100 and 150 people in the establishment, according to estimates by the RIPTB. After four hours of confinement, the first students began to drop out around 6 p.m., while the last left the establishment around 9 p.m.
Asked about the confusion that the RIPTB directives may have created in the context of this police operation, Sergeant Karine Desaulniers specifies that an analysis of the way in which this intervention took place will take place at the end of the investigation in course to find the suspect in this case.
“We will look at what has been done in feedback and if necessary, there are corrective measures and recommendations that will be made”, in collaboration with the college, assures Ms. Desaulniers, in an interview on Saturday.
Classes will also be suspended Monday at Lionel-Groulx College so that it is “dedicated to collectively taking a step back and taking stock of the events of the day on Friday”, wrote the establishment on its Facebook page. . Classes will resume on Tuesday.
“The situation happened on a Friday evening, so the reaction, the comments we were getting from the community, was that people needed to sit down” and take the time to reflect on what happened , notes the spokesperson for the college, Julie Loyer.
On the sidelines of the police operations that occurred in two other CEGEPs on November 11, the college had informed its employees in the last few days of its intention to organize discussion workshops and conferences to better inform them of the emergency plans. in force in the establishment, has learned The duty.
The establishment, which was taken aback by the police operation on Friday, also ensures the desire to hold these events when the holidays return. “It’s going to happen,” says Ms. Loyer.
A wanted suspect
As of Saturday afternoon, the suspect behind the police operation at Lionel-Groulx College was still wanted. The local police indicate that it would be the same individual as the one who is found on a video which has been circulating on social networks since yesterday. This shows an individual walking on a sidewalk, near the college, with an object in his hands which could be a firearm. The exact nature of the object, however, remains to be determined.
“We are trying to speak to this individual, to identify him and to understand the circumstances of his presence near the college” and what he then had “in his possession”, indicates Sergeant Karine Desaulniers. One thing is certain, the suspect “never entered the college”, she confirms.