You mentioned Lamine Foura, with whom we have worked on several cases.
As I said earlier, I think the RCMP's approach is very effective, because there is guidance given. In addition, from what I have seen, the RCMP sees the young people as victims. That is how we need to see them, not as a danger that must be neutralized. That is not the way an extremist idea can be combatted. An extremist idea has to be combatted using a different idea that is not extremist.
That brings us to another issue, the training of imams here in Montreal. When young people go to the mosque to deal with their stress, they find an imam who speaks Arabic. A young person who speaks French or English faces a language barrier. We have seen that this was one of the direct reasons why young people were radicalized. The effect of that language barrier is to send the young person to the imam called Google, and on Google, they become very easy prey. They will then fall into very extreme networks and ideas.
We have therefore talked about training imams. I have even spoken to Anie Samson, the mayor of the borough, and with Lamine Foura. We held a meeting with the round table on public security and civil protection, that I and other members organized.
On the subject of training imams, we do not want the government to interfere in religion. The idea is to have an approach like there is for Christians and Jews, who are recognized in university programs, for example. We need to start work on granting a diploma, to be earned in Canada by our young people here.
We do not want to import imams from outside. First, they do not speak the language. When they come here, they do not bring just religion; they also bring a culture, a form of culture. Language is a culture. On the other hand, a young person who is educated here will get training from a Canadian cultural perspective. From a Muslim point of view, that is well regarded, and is not contrary to the Muslim religion. So it is very important, in my view, that a young person be able to receive training to enable them to understand the person they are speaking with, to understand their language and culture. That is very important.