The Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, announced the creation of a telephone line “which allows a witness or a victim to report any situation of sexual misconduct or violence in school settings”.
People who wish to do so can now call 1 833 DENONCE (1 833 336-6623) from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday. The line has a voicemail system available at all times and agents will return calls, said a press release issued Wednesday morning by the minister’s office.
Thanks to this line, Quebec hopes to follow up on reports. “It is important to mention that the Ministry of Education cannot replace police forces, particularly in cases of criminal offences, we write. We encourage anyone who has suffered a crime in a school environment, or who has witnessed it, to report the situation directly to the police. »
The multiplication of cases of sexual violence in schools prompted Bernard Drainville to launch a general inquiry on March 21. The complaint handling processes and the administrative management of problematic behavior will be particularly scrutinized. Hiring processes will also be analyzed. A final report is expected by July 31, 2023.
Québec solidaire’s spokesperson for education, Ruba Ghazal, has “serious doubts about the effectiveness of such a measure”. “Are young victims really going to report an assault by telephone? If we’ve learned one thing from MeToo, it’s that the process of reporting an assault can be very intimidating and complex. We must go further than a telephone line and adopt a framework law to combat sexual violence in our schools,” she said in a written statement.
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