Police officers protest that a text published in the student agenda of a Montreal CEGEP, which offers training in police technique, promotes the abolition of their profession.
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“I think it’s a special message when the population has never needed the police presence so much,” says Dominic Ricard, president of the Association of Provincial Police Officers of Quebec.
Mr. Ricard is amazed to see that the General Society of Students of the Collège de Maisonneuve (SOGEECOM) has published a text entitled “Abolir la police, comment ça marche? in the 2022-2023 agenda.
This document written by an American activist association argues that “cops do not prevent crime”.
“On the contrary, they knowingly cause it through the violent destruction of our communities,” it read.
Student diary
This agenda is created and financed by the student association and the Collège de Maisonneuve has no right of inspection.
“The college dissociates itself completely from this editorial choice in relation to the article in question,” says Émilie Laramée, spokesperson for the Cégep.
SOGEECOM nevertheless believes it can continue to defend the rights of police technology students.
“We do not come to criticize the students in the program, we come to criticize the police institutions”, specifies Arthur Van Neste, delegate for external affairs of SOGEECOM.
However, the text mentions that “the ‘work’ of the police consists above all of unnecessary roadside checks, the arrest of non-violent drug users, the harassment of black and racialized people”.
In a Facebook post, the Federation of Municipal Police Officers of Quebec says that it “will not leave this situation as it is, in a context where we are experiencing police disengagement”.
For its part, the Association of Quebec Police Directors finds it “disappointing” to note that the article was published without even being able to give its point of view.
“[On] firmly believes that the police function is essential to the proper functioning of our society”, also supports the Association.