Road traffic controllers are beginning the final sprint of an appeal to the courts to ultimately force Quebec to equip them with a service weapon, as they have been demanding for years.
“All our requests to the government have been in vain. It’s the last resort we have,” confides Jean-Claude Daignault, president of the Brotherhood of Highway Control Constables of Quebec.
For years, road traffic controllers have been asking for a service weapon and to have greater access to the Quebec Police Information Center (CRPQ). These peace officers make approximately 100,000 interventions per year on the road, “all of which are the result of chance”.
Without knowing it, they sometimes come across criminal drivers or even shipments of weapons, stolen cars, drugs, contraband cigarettes, lists Mr. Daignault.
Aggressive weapons and drivers
But these three events where controllers escaped the worst pushed the union to initiate an appeal for the first time before the Administrative Labor Tribunal (TAT):
- Around 2 a.m. in November 2021 in Chambly, a man who had just stolen a tractor attempted to drive several times into the vehicle of two traffic controllers who were trying to intercept him at the entrance to agricultural land .
- In Gracefield, tempers rose when two controllers wanted to seize in 2010 a rifle stolen from a driver declared a “violent person” and who did not have a gun license.
- In 2019, traffic controllers arrested an individual in Beauceville in a vehicle filled with several hundred rounds of ammunition, magazines and three firearms, including a loaded handgun that was within reach and an assault weapon. type AR-15. The police took almost 30 minutes before arriving as reinforcements.
The judge who hears the case must determine whether the employer Sécurité Routière Québec, which reports to the SAAQ, has taken the necessary measures to protect the health and ensure the safety and physical integrity of the worker and make recommendations if not. is not the case.
“We could have dropped off twenty [des dossiers devant le TAT], illustrates the president. Especially since dangerous events are getting closer and closer.”
Last month, The newspaper reported that a traffic controller was attacked and even pushed onto a highway lane by the driver of a commercial vehicle, who had two knives in his possession.
A knife found on the dashboard of a commercial vehicle after a controller was injured by an aggressive driver on March 21.
COURTESY PHOTO
The appeal before the TAT has been going on for years, but it reaches its final standoff this week. The final arguments begin Wednesday and are scheduled for three days in Montreal.
Surprise boxes
During the hearings, the union called on expert Mario Berniqué, retired captain of the Sûreté du Québec, who recommended the service weapon. He is also in favor of greater access to the CRPQ, a police database which would allow officers to know “who they are dealing with during their interventions,” he explains.
“Road controllers are even more at risk [que les policiers sur la route] because of their power to inspect a vehicle or open a load without a warrant. They may come across surprise boxes. We must react quickly. You don’t have time to manage a danger while you call the police for backup,” Mr. Berniqué told Newspaper.
In December 2021, two road controllers accidentally intercepted a trailer truck filled with hundreds of cases of contraband tobacco in Montérégie.
Courtesy
According to him, with the proliferation of firearms and the face of organized crime which has changed since the pandemic, “we have to adapt”.
Mandated by the employer Quebec Road Traffic Control, criminologist Rémi Boivin concludes that the request for an additional weapon is justified. According to the expert, an electric pulse weapon may be an interesting option.
“We can clearly see that the status quo is not recommended,” summarizes Jean-Claude Daignault. The other bodies of peace officers have practically all been armed following tragic events. We just want to avoid getting to that point.”