The real influencers | The desire to do better

(Fady Dagher and Vincent Dumez) To change the world, some want to wipe the slate clean. Others rather set themselves the mission of improving what already exists, of forcing institutions to do better by getting involved within them. Fady Dagher and Vincent Dumez are among them. Driven by their convictions, they exert a great influence in the world of the police and health.

The more we dig, the more we discover common points between Fady Dagher and Vincent Dumez (besides the fact that they both immigrated to Canada in 1985!).

Their respective missions, first of all, are similar: they want to transform the culture of a large institution from within so that it better meets people’s needs.

For Fady Dagher, it is the police organizations. It builds the model of a “cooperation police”, which works with community partners to better intervene before crisis, before calling 911. Fady Dagher understood the importance of forging a bond of trust with the population when he was commander of the Saint-Michel neighborhood station in Montreal in the 2000s. This vision, this culture of proximity, he breathed it on a large scale into the Longueuil agglomeration police department (SPAL), of which he took the helm in 2017. The Immersion project allows plainclothes and unarmed police officers to live an experience of five weeks in the community, while the new RESO police officers, accessible, circulate on foot and focus on prevention. “Fady aims high and he dreams big. And that’s what we have to do to bring about change,” said former Montreal police chief Jacques Duchesneau.

Moreover, this week, we learned that Fady Dagher will become the next chief of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), Mayor Valérie Plante seeing in him “the future of the police”.

Vincent Dumez is less known, but his work is no less significant. After being contacted by the University of Montreal in 2010, he developed the concept of the “patient partner”. The principal objective ? Recognize that patients with illness have knowledge that is extremely useful, both for themselves and for the development of the healthcare system. A system which, he points out, has been defined for decades without the precious contribution of its patients. “Vincent’s vision and his leadership was to involve patients more in their care journey, but also in all spheres of the health and social services network and in the decisions that are made” , explains Mauril Gaudreault, president of the College of Physicians of Quebec.

Something is similar, too, in the engine of their involvement.

Vincent Dumez was the victim of one of the biggest mistakes in health systems. Severe haemophiliac, he must receive blood transfusions to allow his blood to clot. At the age of 12, in France, he was given blood products contaminated with HIV and all hepatitis. Vincent Dumez could have withdrawn into a feeling of anger towards the healthcare system (especially since the relationship between professionals and hemophiliacs was very tense), but he chose action. Quebec is today the place in the world where we mobilize the most patient knowledge, he says, both in hospitals (with partner patients) and in medical faculties (with patient trainers from students).

For Fady Dagher, awareness came gradually. He first understood, as a young double agent, that one is not born a criminal, but that one becomes one.

“I said to my children: ‘Dad is a VIP, at customs, everyone wants to talk to him'”, recalls the policeman. And if he, with his badge, was the victim of profiling, others were necessarily more so. “It became a cause,” says Fady Dagher. Instead of saying them and us, we will simply say us. »

An influence that radiates

The influence of Fady Dagher and that of Vincent Dumez goes far beyond the borders of their milieu. The SPAL welcomed police forces from Quebec and elsewhere in the world, curious about the Immersion and RESO projects. Vincent Dumez’s approach, now called the Montreal model, is spreading across North America and Europe.

By targeting the paternalism of the healthcare system and the conformism of the police approach, the two men question institutions that have a great sense of duty, rigor, but also tradition. Difficult to change things? The two men look at each other. Their look says it all.

“God knows that there were several failures during the trajectory, says Fady Dagher. Several times I tripped and the team tripped. I doubted, I continue to doubt, but there is a duty in us that bothers a lot of people, because we don’t accept the status quo. »

“We take hits, we fight against the wave, but at the same time, what we do, it works, and we will inevitably get there,” says Vincent Dumez.

Fady Dagher looks at him, impressed by his obstacle course. “It’s amazing what you’ve been through! “, he said to him. “I am privileged, lucky, very lucky”, answers Vincent Dumez, moved. The policeman also considers himself lucky. Lucky to have had this cause which he hopes will continue to be supported after his departure. “Causes are what bring meaning to life,” he concludes.