Quebec invests $52 million in gun violence prevention
With the number of gun-related incidents in Montreal on the rise, the Quebec government announced Sunday that it will invest $52 million to step up prevention efforts.
The funds will be distributed to several projects, including $11.3 million over five years to the Prevention of delinquency through sport, arts, and culture (PDSAC) program. Another $20.2 million will go to a new program, over four years, for “community ‘travail de rue’ organizations in crime prevention,” according to a press release.
In the past year, four teenagers have been shot and killed in Montreal.
“We understand that people are worried and extremely upset,” said Public Security Minister Geneviève Guilbault, who said the announcement comes on top of an earlier promise to hire 107 police officers and experts to combat gun violence.
But crackdowns are not the answer to everything, according to Guilbault.
“We could have all the police officers in the world, but the day a gun arrives in the hand of a 15-year-old, it’s because something has been dropped before,” she said.
Quebec wants to prevent young people from being “seduced by unscrupulous delinquents” and recognizes that ‘travail de rue’ — efforts organized within a community — is a “major” prevention tool.
The program to fund the missions of community organizations represents a new way of doing business for the government, which usually funds projects. This method, Guilbault said, will help “eradicate the constant spectre of service discontinuity” that hangs over some communities.
At the press conference held in the St. Michel neighbourhood, where many shootings have taken place, some of them fatal, Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said she believes that “social, economic and urban conditions” must be improved.
The aim is to improve quality of life and allow for “winning conditions for living environments that are stimulating, interesting, and that keep young people away from organized crime.”
It is necessary “more than ever” to take “very concrete” actions to put a stop to the wave of violence, added Chantal Rouleau, Minister responsible for the Montreal region.
“We are facing a new phenomenon, especially because of the use of social networks that are too often used to glorify and trivialize the possession and use of firearms. And there, it is necessary to tackle it head on,” she said.
INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES
Among the measures funded, Quebec will provide $366,000 to Montreal police (SPVM) to create a position for an Indigenous community development advisor.
Specialization in this area of intervention represents a “considerable addition” to the police force, said SPVM Chief Sylvain Caron.
The Minister responsible for Indigenous Affairs, Ian Lafrenière — himself a former police officer in Montreal — said he knows “how important it is to build better mutual understanding and trust.”
Gun violence is currently “the priority of the department,” noted Caron, who said he has deployed “all the manpower required” to tame it.
Caron is asking young people who know of gun-related events taking place to confide in a trusted adult or community police officer so that authorities can intervene “upstream, rather than in response.”
The lion’s share of the funds announced Sunday will be spent in Montreal, where the problem is most prevalent, but money will also be available in other major urban centers.
“We don’t want to wait until it’s acute,” said Guilbault.
—This report was first published in French by The Canadian Press on Dec. 5, 2021.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Maple Leafs fall to Bruins in Game 3, trail series 2-1
Brad Marchand scored twice, including the winner in the third period, and added an assist as the Boston Bruins downed the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round playoff series Wednesday
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
New Indigenous loan guarantee program a 'really big deal,' Freeland says at Toronto conference
Canada's Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was among the 1,700 delegates attending the two-day First Nations Major Projects Coalition (FNMPC) conference that concluded Tuesday in Toronto.
'Life was not fair to him': Daughter of N.B. man exonerated of murder remembers him as a kind soul
The daughter of a New Brunswick man recently exonerated from murder, is remembering her father as somebody who, despite a wrongful conviction, never became bitter or angry.