(Bécancour) A bill to avoid the repetition of a tragedy like the murder of police officer Maureen Breau will soon be tabled in the National Assembly, Prime Minister François Legault announced Monday.
Quebec will allow police officers to obtain information on the files of individuals who have been judged not criminally responsible for their actions due to mental health disorders and who have been released under conditions set by the Commission for the Examination of Mental Disorders (CETM). ) of Quebec. This was the case of the murderer of police officer Maureen Breau, Isaac Brouillard Lessard. The tragedy occurred on March 27, 2023 in Louiseville during a police operation that went wrong.
At the National Police Academy on Monday, François Legault participated in a ceremony paying tribute to police officers who died in service, including Maureen Breau. He then declared that the government would table a bill to help police officers during their interventions by allowing them to have access to information on the file of a person suffering from mental disorders and judged not criminally responsible for an act that ‘she committed. These people are released under conditions set by the CETM. The Prime Minister subsequently spoke with the family of Mme Breau.
“We were told that more needs to be done to provide information to the police, among other things about people who have been released and who have mental health problems. Obviously we know that what happened in this case was someone who was known, who had reoffended a few times,” he explained later during a press scrum in Bécancour. . The objective is to “give police officers more tools to better understand the situation of the people they are going to arrest”, so that “information circulates well between the police officers and the health network”.
The bill will be tabled by Public Security Minister François Bonnardel by the end of the parliamentary session on June 7. The government would therefore move forward before the submission of the report from coroner Géhane Kamel scheduled for this fall. The hearings at the public inquiry into the death of Maureen Breau concluded on March 21. They focused, among other things, on the work of the CETM.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Minister of Public Security François Bonnardel
François Legault held a short press scrum in Bécancour, after a visit to the Ultium CAM factory, the joint venture formed by the American automobile manufacturer GM and the South Korean multinational POSCO.
The project is estimated at 600 million, according to the announcement made a year ago. It is entitled to loans of nearly 300 million from governments (152 million from Quebec and 147 million from Ottawa) of which a portion of 200 million will be transformed into a subsidy if GM-POSCO respects thresholds in terms of maintaining jobs in the during the decade following the commissioning of the plant.
The two partners claim that 200 jobs will be created. Production is scheduled to begin in 2025. This factory will manufacture cathode materials, that is, the positive pole of a lithium-ion battery used in electric vehicles. They will be found in batteries for models like the Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC HUMMER EV and Cadillac LYRIQ.
Still in Bécancour, the construction of the cathode factory for Ford and its two South Korean partners (EcoPro BM and SK On) is on hold. Technological issues would be involved, but the three partners also face significant financial challenges. The electric shift of the three multinationals is costly.
“They are reviewing their technology, adjusting their technology. But I am told that there is no worry, the factory will be built. […] The stop at Ford should be for a limited time,” said Mr. Legault. He does not know when construction work on the factory will resume.
Ford and its partners announced in August 2023 the project in Bécancour, then estimated at $1.2 billion, of which $640 million came from Quebec and Ottawa.