New bill would give Quebec police information on people with mental illness

Public Safety Minister François Bonnardel wants to give police more funding to tackle organized crime. (Jacques Boissinot, The Canadian Press)

Quebec says it plans to deploy 20 new "liaison officers" to better monitor people found not criminally responsible on account of mental disorders.

On Thursday, Public Security Minister François Bonnardel tabled Bill 66, his response to the recent murders he describes as "random," including that of Sûreté du Québec (SQ) officer Maureen Breau.

Breau was murdered by a man with mental health problems during a police intervention in Louiseville in March 2023.

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Bill 66 would create a team of liaison officers dedicated to monitoring the conditions and assessing the risks of people found not criminally responsible.

It would also enable police forces to obtain the information they need from medical teams.

Some 2,000 Quebecers are under the jurisdiction of the Commission d'examen des troubles mentaux (CETM), of whom 1,153 are subject to conditions.

The Ministry of Public Safety estimates that about half of these 1,153 people could be monitored by a liaison officer.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on May 30, 2024.