Using Fire to Fight Fire Could Backfire

On September 24, Quebec Deputy Premier and Minister of Public Security Geneviève Guilbault held a press conference to announce Operation Centaur, the Quebec government's strategy to combat gun violence. A $90 million budget is being allocated to projects in four areas targeted for intervention: 

1. "Rapid intervention with individuals who use or are at risk of using firearms;"

2. "Support for intervention and knowledge development;"

3. "Increased pressure and destabilization of criminal networks across Quebec;" and

4. "Prevent crime using community outreach initiatives."

Only later in the press conference did Minister Guilbault mention the "collaboration" of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations in a program "under the coordination of the Quebec Police (SQ)," in which "all police forces in Quebec [and] the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canada Border Services Agency, the Ontario Provincial Police, the City of Montreal Police (SPVM), the Quebec City Police (SPVQ), the Laval and Longueuil police services as well as the Aboriginal police forces under the direction of the Association of First Nations and Inuit Police Directors of Quebec" will be participating.

The Quebec government does not even bother to hide how little it opposes Canada's ever-increasing integration with the brutal police powers of the United States. The U.S. itself, "compared to 22 other high-income nations" has "the highest rate of gun-related murders ... 25 times higher than the average."[1]

The peoples of the world witness every day the crimes committed by the U.S. imperialists both at home and in the countries where they impose their presence. The people of Quebec, who want to hold the police powers accountable for their violence against youth, Indigenous people and people of national minority backgrounds, can only be insulted that their safety at home is to be placed in the hands of the same powers that brutalize them with impunity.

Moreover, to claim that Homeland Security Investigations will submit to the "coordination of the Quebec Police" is a morbid farce as everyone knows that the U.S. submits only to its own rules.

The people of Quebec aspire to live in safety and to end all forms of violence. They, their organizations and collectives, based on their broad experience, know that it is not weapons per se that cause violence. Rather, the use of weapons is a result of the chaos that results from an anti-social agenda that leaves everyone fending for themselves. There is an effort to create public opinion that every aspect of violence should be studied and proposals to humanize society be given prominence.

By calling on the police powers here and in the United States, the Quebec government is revealing the extent to which the Quebec people lack control over all decisions that affect our security.

To see the press release from the Office of the Deputy Premier and Minister of Public Security, click here.

Note

1. "Violences par arme à feu aux États-Unis," Wikipedia.

(Translated from original French by TML.)

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This article was published in

Volume 51 Number 10 - October 10, 2021

Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2021/Articles/M510105.HTM

Website:  www.cpcml.ca   Email:  editor@cpcml.ca