A few days before the poll, the leader of Mouvement Montréal is opposed to Denis Coderre and Valérie Plante’s promise to add 250 police officers to the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM).
This promise to add police officers testifies to the “flagrant lack of vision” of its adversaries, since it is made without addressing “the major concerns” of Montrealers in this regard, can we read in the press release of Mr. Holness , aired Wednesday. Among the issues raised by the addition of 250 officers, the latter points to the composition of the police force, the training methods, as well as “the social problems resulting from police interventions”.
Tuesday, Valérie Plante promised the hiring of 250 new police officers by 2022, in order to better ensure security in the metropolis. According to her cabinet, the outgoing mayoress had promised 220 additional agents last September, during the announcement of a public security plan of 110 million. It is therefore really about the hiring of 30 police officers more than what had been announced. At the end of October, Denis Coderre also pledged to hire 250 more agents at the SPVM, in order to restore the calm disturbed by the number of shootings of recent times.
Balarama Holness believes that the visions of public security of Valérie Plante and Denis Coderre “ignore the root causes of police interventions”. Mouvement Montréal is proposing a “cohesive and progressive” plan by focusing on community involvement, de-escalation and police training, continues Mr. Holness. “This plan will provide the safety and quality of life that Montrealers deserve,” read the press release.
The head of Mouvement Montréal affirms that during Valérie Plante’s last mandate, “visible minorities and the poor were much more likely to be profiled or involved in a police intervention”. Mr. Holness cites the example of the dismantling of the homeless camp on Notre Dame Street last winter, which he describes as lack of compassion.
With Henri Ouellette-Vézina, Press