The report of the Special Commission to examine the events of spring 2012 has borne fruit, even if it has been “tablet” by the government of Philippe Couillard, considers against all odds its main co-author, Serge Ménard.
Ten years after the events, the former Minister of Public Security is “convinced” that his report “had good effects”. “There are police methods that we have discouraged”, launches the former elected official, his gaze fixed on the pile of papers which he has already named his “will”. “The police followed him. They take it into account. There are no more mousetraps. »
The person who commissioned the Commission in 2013, former PQ minister Stéphane Bergeron, agrees. During the emergency debate held after the demonstrations last February in Ottawa, the elected official, now under the banner of the Bloc Québécois, praised the work of the Sûreté du Québec, which, in his view, draws a share of its practices in the work of Mr. Ménard and his colleagues.
“I like to think that the exemplary behavior of police officers in Ottawa to put an end to this illegal occupation of downtown streets was greatly inspired by the findings of the Commission […]as to the use of force in situations of demonstrations and public disorder,” he said inside the walls of the House of Commons last month.
In interview with The duty in 2014, after submitting his extensive report, Serge Ménard said he was “saddened” by his reception. “I find it appalling. Did they at least read the report? he then launched with regard to the newly elected government and its Minister of Public Security, Lise Thériault, who had rejected the recommendations contained in the document.
“It was purely a reaction of partisan politics,” replied Serge Ménard years later. Because you were elected under the banner of the Parti Québécois? we ask him. ” Yes ! “, he replies tit for tat.
Lise Thériault maintains her version of the facts. Ten years later, she still considers that the 450 pages of the Ménard report were “a political response to a political order”, as she said when she took office in 2014. “You have to remember that this report had been ordered by the [Parti québécois] “, she said in a statement to the Homework Monday.
If he also believes that the Couillard government has rejected a good part of the commission’s recommendations, Stéphane Bergeron has the intimate conviction that “at the Police Academy”, he had echoes. “It is clear that there are changes that have been made,” he says in an interview.
“Not enraged”
According to Serge Ménard, those who were to read the report followed it. Police institutions and student groups in the first place. “That’s why I’m not enraged. Its detractors, on the other hand, it is obvious that they have not read it, ”he maintains.
The Couillard government is not alone in having torpedoed the “Ménard report” following its publication, says its co-signer. The population was looking for “culprits”, according to him. “People were exasperated and expected convictions. Students or police,” he says.
“We condemned what was condemnable. Detaining people for four hours and preventing them from going to the bathroom, I mean…”
In his report, Serge Ménard repeatedly praises mediation as a key way out of a crisis. “In order to prevent conflicts from degenerating into social crisis, the Commission reiterates the importance of negotiation and mediation”, indicates the first of the 28 recommendations of the small group of commissioners.
” [Le premier ministre Jean] Charest based himself on the following principle: the State does not negotiate with its subjects. However, mediation would have succeeded. Maybe we wouldn’t have experienced that, ”he analyzes today. If he hesitated to distribute blame when writing his report, Serge Ménard is now pointing the finger at the Charest government, which had tabled the proposal to increase tuition fees that set fire to the powder.
A decade later, “the wound has closed,” says Mr. Ménard. However, he is surprised that the government of Jean Charest has maintained its intentions to review tuition fees in 2012. A decade later, Serge Ménard declares: “We’re freezing. By freezing, we arrive, with inflation, at free. »