Interim Director General, Johanne Beausoleil will retain her position as head of the Sûreté du Québec for the next seven years.
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The National Assembly proceeded on Wednesday to his appointment as director general of the provincial police. Ms. Beausoleil’s candidacy was supported by the government, the Liberals, the solidarity and the PQ.
It should be noted that the three independent deputies, namely the former police officer Guy Ouellette, the conservative Claire Samson and the former PQ member Sylvain Roy, opposed this appointment, which nevertheless garnered the support of two-thirds of the parliamentarians. .
Johanne Beausoleil, a civilian, was the first choice of the Legault government among the three names submitted to it by the selection committee formed several weeks ago.
Guy Ouellette voted against this appointment because he disapproves of the selection process put in place by the Minister of Public Security, Geneviève Guilbault.
Contrary to the other elected members of recognized political parties, the independent deputies are not consulted. “I was not able to ask any questions to Ms. Beausoleil, I still have a little expertise, having done 32 years at the SQ!”, Said the member for Chomedey to our Parliamentary Office.
“I was not impressed”
For her part, the curator Claire Samson was authorized to meet the candidate. However, she regrets not having been able to meet with other aspirants to the post of DG. “I was not convinced during the interview that she was the best candidate we could find in Quebec, she confided. I was not impressed”.
The Member for Iberville also regrets that, as a reference, she was given the name of the current Deputy Minister of Public Security. “It’s very difficult to ask the deputy minister to ask for a neutral opinion on this candidate, she’s the ministry’s candidate!”, she insists.
Recall that Johanne Beausoleil has been running the SQ on an interim basis since November 2019, following the suspension of ex-DG Martin Prud’homme. The latter finally retired last August.
She becomes only the third civilian to lead the Quebec National Police, after Guy Coulombe in 1998 and Florent Gagné between 1998 and 2003.