François Legault’s government must stop “procrastinating” and launch the work of its special commission on young people’s screen time this summer, believes the Parti Québécois (PQ).
“We have already been mired in several months of denial. […] We won’t waste another year. […] The health of young people is at stake,” said PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon in an interview on Monday.
On Saturday, at the general council of his political party in Saint-Hyacinthe, Mr. Legault made a change of speech, describing social media as “virtual pushers”.
Since the beginning of the year, he had rejected and even ridiculed several proposals from the PQ, which was alarmed by the repercussions of screens on the health of young people.
Following a resolution passed by his party on Saturday, the Prime Minister proposed referring the subject to a special transpartisan commission. This would resemble the commission which looked into the thorny issue of medical assistance in dying, according to its vision of things.
Recommendations requested before January
However, transpartisan commissions “can last a year and a half,” worries Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon.
“We congratulate the Prime Minister for having made progress, […] but we would not like to see the subject dragged out while research has been done all over the world. »
“What we are specifically asking is that the commission be completed before the end of the next parliamentary session, that the recommendations also be completed,” he said.
The PQ leader is calling for new measures in schools in time for the return of the holidays, in January 2025. According to him, the commission should take no more than four months to complete its work.
Take inspiration from France
“Let us remember that in France, they held a commission of this nature in just one month and the changes were implemented immediately afterwards,” added Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon.
“If we had not procrastinated and laughed at the Parti Québécois when we brought up this subject at the start of the year, we could have aimed for changes for the start of the school year in September 2024,” he maintained. .
In any case, the special commission will not have to do any “clearing”; “work has already been done, notably a 142-page report in France which is very credible, very in-depth,” according to the leader of the PQ.
He suggests bringing in these French experts, “who have already done all the work, […] as in Quebec, doctors Mélissa Généreux, Jean-François Chicoine and chief scientist Rémi Quirion have already done work.”
More and more studies show that the use of screens by young people can have harmful consequences on their physical and mental health.
In May 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy claimed that social media is the “driving force behind a national crisis in youth mental health.”
In a letter he sent to the leaders of the opposition parties on Saturday, François Legault notes that “we are faced with two concomitant phenomena: […] screens and social media.
He suggests that the commission study young people’s screen time, supervision measures, particularly at school, access to social networks, cyberbullying and minors’ access to pornography on the Web.
“I believe that such an exercise would promote greater awareness among the general population,” he wrote.