MP Pierre Dufour aroused outrage by publicly calling the show Investigation, which exposed the abuse of Indigenous women, “a show full of lies that attacked very honest police officers”. The Assembly of First Nations Quebec-Labrador (AFNQL) demanded his resignation on Monday.
The CAQ MP for Abitibi-Est, Pierre Dufour, spoke about homelessness in Val-d’Or before the municipal council on the evening of May 15, in these terms: “You have worked, since your arrival in office, with a bunch of shit that has 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 police officers of Val-d’Or racialized the natives by giving more tickets to the homeless. Once again, the municipality did not defend the police force. »
These remarks aroused the ire of local and national First Nations chiefs, in the first place 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 AFNQL Chief 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. […] You have to be careful in general, and when you’re an elected official, you have to do more. »
The government defends itself
MP Pierre Dufour also pleaded on May 15 for more “repression” against this homelessness.
“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.
Asked by THE Duty, the Legault government supported its deputy. “My colleague recognized that he had spoken under the emotion and that some of his words exceeded his thought”, defended Ian Lafrenière, minister responsible for Relations with the First Nations and the Inuit. “Although Aboriginal people were involved in certain events, the current situation is not a problem of relations between Aboriginals and non-Aboriginal people, but a problem of crime and homelessness”.
Some 200 million dollars have been invested by his government to support the recommendations of the Viens commission, he pleads again. “The job is far from done and we can’t correct 400 years of history in a few months, but we are still as determined to work together. »