Justice committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good morning and thank you all. I would like to point out that I am also the director of the Service de police de Laval, a city with a population of about 440,000. I will first give you a few examples of cases that have occurred very recently. We have

Justice committee  I think that would send a very negative message to the public. As I said earlier, this is the third year that there has been an increase in violence, so it is not a one-off. We think it will continue, because a gun culture has developed. People are starting to use guns at an inc

Justice committee  Actually, I'm concerned about both. As you know, Canadian society does not favour the use of firearms. We have a great culture in this area, but it is changing unfortunately. That's why I'm concerned about the message that we would send. I am also concerned about some of the

Justice committee  Most of the time, they are illegal weapons.

Justice committee  As police chiefs, we are very much aware that drug use is more of a public health issue than a public safety issue. For this reason, we believe that drug possession and use should not be trivialized. That said, both the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and the Association

Justice committee  Actually, that was the second part of my answer. First of all, I wanted to make it clear that we do not want to penalize people for the possession and use of drugs. As far as drug trafficking is concerned, we do not think that the penalties should be reduced in this respect. W

Justice committee  As chief of the Service de police de Laval, I experienced a crisis related to sexual exploitation a few years ago. In Quebec, we are making the fight against sexual exploitation a priority, because many minors are taken and exploited by unscrupulous individuals. It is obvious tha

Justice committee  Yes, the number of offences and the severity of the offences in the bill concerns us. In my opening statement, I wanted to focus on guns because they are very much a problem right now. However, if the measures were applied in human trafficking or sexual assault cases, the reperc

Justice committee  No, I have nothing to add. I got my message across, in other words, we have major concerns when it comes to gun violence. I want to thank you, for that matter, on behalf of Quebec's police chiefs, for giving me the opportunity to convey that message. We have to put a stop to gun

Justice committee  I think the bill addresses a symptom of a much more troubling issue—the socio-economic hardships that certain groups face. I don't think this bill will achieve the goal. Above all, I think it will lead to serious offences being downplayed, when the perpetrators of those offences

Justice committee  Laval has a very small indigenous population. Nevertheless, visible minorities are overrepresented when it comes to certain types of crimes, for instance, involving gangs.

Justice committee  It comes back to what I was saying earlier. We have to do the groundwork, and that means focusing on prevention and social development, and helping marginalized communities. That is how we find the real solutions to major problems that have existed for years. The answer isn't sim

Public Safety committee  Good morning, everyone. I would like to thank the committee for inviting the Association des directeurs de police du Québec to take part in this discussion. The Association des directeurs de police du Québec groups together 34 police services working in Quebec. They include the

Public Safety committee  I think that increasing the maximum penalty will work in exceptional cases, like for people charged with several counts of high-level arms trafficking. It is important to get this message across. With respect to Bill C‑5, I testified before another parliamentary committee. As we

Public Safety committee  In the case of the border, we should obviously consider having mixed teams and dedicate more resources to addressing arms trafficking. That's crucial. Otherwise, there will always be far too many firearms. It is true that we are part of the working table on street gangs. We are