MP Pierre Dufour aroused outrage by calling the show Investigation which exposed the abuse suffered by Aboriginal women in Val-d’Or as a “show full of lies that attacked very honest police officers”. The Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador (AFNQL) is calling for his resignation on Monday.
The Caquiste deputy for Abitibi-Est, Pierre Dufour, spoke about homelessness in Val d’Or before the municipal council last Monday evening in these terms: “You have worked, since your arrival in office, with a bunch of shit that’s been created particularly since 2015 when there was the show Investigation, a show full of lies that attacked very honest police officers. I’m not saying that maybe there weren’t a few crooked policemen thirty years before. They were attacked. This report won awards, but on the other hand, it created a split between the police force and the Municipality, which did not protect these police officers afterwards. They were off work between 10 and 12 months without really having the chance to discuss their situation. Once again, the Viens commission said that the Val d’Or police officers were racializing the natives by giving more tickets to homeless people. Once again, the municipality did not defend the police force. »
These comments arouse the ire of local and national First Nations chiefs, first and foremost Savanna McGregor, Grand Chief of the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council. “Homelessness is not a lifestyle choice. Our women who end up on the streets are victims, not criminals. What we need from the government and its MPs is help, not racist attacks. »
This kind of speech breaks the thin bonds of trust between Aboriginal people and Quebecers, she explains in an interview with the Duty. “When you walk and you see these people, you don’t know if they are allies or they think like Dufour of us”.
Such “unacceptable” public statements add fuel to a still-burning fire in Abitibi, adds the head of the AQPNL, Ghislain Picard. “It’s often difficult in the region. It just takes a spark for it to turn into a black smoke, ”he illustrates. “Things were stirred in Val-d’Or in 2015.”
Deputy Dufour also pleaded last Monday for more “repression”.
“We are more in management by tenderness, we are in management where serious measures must be taken. When we say serious measures, it means repression, to lock up the core of 25-30 individuals who are feared by everyone, “he told the municipal council to the applause of the public present in the room.
Pierre Dufour partially retracted a few days later. “The situation in Val-d’Or is worrying. This is a sensitive and complex file. I expressed myself under the emotion and certain words exceeded my thought”, he posted on Facebook without apologizing.
The office of the Minister responsible for Relations with First Nations did not respond to the interview request of the Duty at the time these lines were written.
More details will follow.