The police learned from the attack in the Metropolis, but “they still have to improve” believes François Bonnardel, who considers that the Superior Court’s finding on the work of the police that evening is “hard”, but “lucid “.
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“I think the police learned a lot from this event, said the Minister of Public Security Friday morning. Ten years later, it is an observation that could not be clearer, of an evening, of moments of coordination, which were missed by the various police forces in terms of protection for the Prime Minister at the time (…). So the finding is clear in the judgment.
“You have to learn from all of this and improve,” he added.
Deploring an “upsurge in cyberbullying” targeting elected officials at all levels, Minister Bonnardel maintains that the protection of public figures is important, and that the context ensures that the police “learn” and “improve their methods” of intervention.
The SPVM and the Sûreté du Québec, which provided security at the Métropolis during the election night of September 4, 2012 when the attack took place, are blamed by the Court and ordered to compensate four stage technicians who were on site. The two police forces provided security at the Metropolis on the evening of Pauline Marois’ election as Premier of Quebec.
Richard Henry Bain, since convicted of unpremeditated murder and attempted murder, showed up behind the establishment and opened fire, killing technician Denis Blanchette and seriously wounding technician Dave Courage.
The Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, was present that evening with his wife and daughter.
“We had a narrow escape that day. Personally, all I hope is that the police services have learned lessons from what happened that day, so that it never happens again, regardless of political party, regardless of gathering,” he said at a press conference on Friday.
The “right decision”
Parti Québécois MP Joël Arseneau said that the Superior Court’s decision to award compensation to the victims “is the right one”. “And the harsh reprimands towards the police services, I think are self-evident,” he added.
“To turn the page on this event, I think we have to accept the judgment and, I think we also have to accept, on the part of the police forces, to swallow the pill. We know that, during the trial, they wanted to camouflage, for a certain time, the reports, the reports which were quite summary, the investigations which were dubious”, continued Mr. Arseneau.
Evolution
The leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, nevertheless underlined the “evolution” of police practices in terms of security during election campaigns. “I think there has been a whole evolution that in this campaign, all the security devices seemed perfectly in place to me,” he said.
The solidarity deputy Vincent Marissal shares this observation. “There is a lot more security than before. I think some lessons have been learned,” he said.
The Liberals, for their part, believe that the Metropolis attack was an attack on Quebec democracy and they hope that police practices have evolved since the event.