Francois Legault and three opposition party leaders to visit Amqui on Thursday

QUEBEC CITY -

Premier François Legault and the leaders of the three opposition parties will travel to Amqui on Thursday as a "gesture of comfort."

The small community in the Lower St. Lawrence is in shock after several pedestrians were hit by a driver, who police allege committed the act deliberately on Monday.

The tragedy left two people dead, a 65-year-old and a 73-year-old. Nine other people were injured, three of whom are still in critical condition in hospital.

In a press conference at the National Assembly on Tuesday, Legault said the event—the second of its kind to occur in Quebec in less than two months—was "discouraging" and "shocking."

He said he wanted to meet residents to "tell them that all of Quebec ... is with them."

"You have to be courageous and be tighter than ever," he said, thanking first responders, health care personnel and police.

Legault advised people not to hesitate to seek psychological help if needed.

Attacks with vehicles "occur more and more often in the world; the situation is not unique to Quebec," he said.

Last month, a 51-year-old bus driver crashed into a daycare building in Laval's Sainte-Rose district. Two children died.

Legault is asking Quebecers to quickly report people "who show worrying signs."

"We must find a way to intervene," he said.

Police officers investigate the scene of a fatal crash, Tuesday, March 14, 2023 in Amqui Que. Two people were killed and nine others were injured Monday afternoon when a pickup truck plowed into pedestrians who were walking beside a road in the eastern Quebec town of Amqui. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

DRIVER LICENCE SUSPENSIONS?

Earlier in the day Tuesday, Minister of Public Safety, François Bonnardel, had raised the idea of suspending the driver's licence of some people diagnosed with a mental health problem during an interview with Radio-Canada. 

During the interview, he questioned whether the suspect, a 38-year-old man, was suffering from a mental disorder.

"If they have mental health problems, have the doctors followed up properly? And after that, can they get a driver's licence?" he asked.

Bonnardel back-peddled on that point later at a press conference in Amqui.

"You know, when you're a minister, you try to find solutions, and often my team doesn't like it when I think out loud. I was thinking out loud this morning," he said.

While open to discussing the idea, the Quebec Liberal Party (QLP) was concerned about the risk of "ostracizing" people.

"When I saw that this morning, I said to myself: 'How do we determine, how do we say that this morning, O.K., you don't have your permit because we assume that you are a danger?'" said QLP interim leader Marc Tanguay.

"That's the whole question ... We must really help them and not ostracize them, but if Minister Bonnardel puts forward this idea, we are ready to discuss it," he added.

Members of the legislature including Premier Francois Legault bow their heads in recognition of the tragedy in Amqui, Que., Tuesday, March 14, 2023 at the legislature in Quebec City. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Karoline Boucher

POLITICIANS SHAKEN

Throughout the day, politicians said they were deeply saddened by the tragedy in Amqui.

In a press conference in Montreal, the co-spokesperson for Québec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, described the event as a "total nightmare."

"I want to say, especially a few weeks after the tragedy in Laval ... two events like that in such a short period it is disturbing. It hurts the morale of Quebecers," he said.

The PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon denounced "gratuitous hateful acts." It is the role of MNAs "to study the solutions," he said. 

-This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on March 14, 2023.