Police chief invitation cancelled
SPVM police chief Sylvain Caron was invited to march in the protest against police violence planned for Sunday, but the invitation has been withdrawn. Le Devoir’s report still says he will march as does the CBC’s.
Some storefronts have been boarded up downtown after a police warning about this protest. It was only Saturday that I noticed this brief piece saying Valérie Plante had condemned the vandalism that came from a few casseurs at the end of an otherwise peaceful march last weekend.
The Gazette ran a high-minded and noble sounding op‑ed from Jacques Duchesneau about police brutality, but let’s not forget he was chief of the SPVM for four years and either didn’t or couldn’t put an end to racial profiling either.
david33 11:20 on 2020-06-06 Permalink
Why would anyone be opposed to the police chief getting onside to reduce police violence? What, you don’t want change, you just want to virtue signal?
Kate 11:43 on 2020-06-06 Permalink
CBC’s update says some protesters don’t want him there. It’s not virtue signalling.
Chris 11:49 on 2020-06-06 Permalink
They invited him, then disinvited him? Sounds like they were bluffing, and he called their bluff.
Kate 12:08 on 2020-06-06 Permalink
In a situation like this, who is “they”? More than one group is involved, and they wouldn’t necessarily be in agreement on all details. Someone gets the bright idea to invite the police chief, someone else says whoa, not cool. I don’t know that’s what happened but it’s probable.
NoDarnGood 12:15 on 2020-06-06 Permalink
The only “virtue signalling” in these cases is that of officials like Duchesneau who march, kneel, or offer platitudes and then effect no positive change.
Blork 15:03 on 2020-06-06 Permalink
According to the CTV article it sounds like they un-invited the police chief because they didn’t feel like his presence would be sincere and that him being there would “reinforce police impunity.”
Side note: I have no idea what Jacques Duchesneau’s record is as police chief, but I do know that you can’t completely change a police department’s culture in four years. You can change the policies (I don’t know whether or not he did that) but that doesn’t change the behaviour of individual cops who personally feel the need to racially profile unofficially because they’re basically racist (or at least ignorant, which in this context is defacto racist).
Douglas 16:14 on 2020-06-06 Permalink
Now its okay to gather in large crowds… I thought the expertz told me going outside and doing things is putting lives at risk. I guess not even the expertz care anymore.
The irony.
Kevin 18:24 on 2020-06-06 Permalink
In the 40 new public health directives issued in the second half of this week the core stays the same: wash your hands, stay 2 metres away from people, wear a mask if you can’t stay away from people.
Otherwise going to a demonstration is no different than going to a park, which never stopped being permitted.
Chris 21:21 on 2020-06-06 Permalink
Both the CBC and CTV articles manage to tell us there is a protest Sunday, but not where or when it starts. Why is that? For anyone wanting to join, seems it’s a Place Emilie-Gamelin next to the Berri-UQAM metro station at 11:00.
Michael Black 23:01 on 2020-06-06 Permalink
I’m sure the article I first read said he’d asked for an invitation, so they invited him. And then people objected, hence the invitation withdrawal.
Dialog is one thing. But this could just be public relations, or the delusion of someone who thinks racism and police abuse is bad, but can’t see that it’s partly his prblem.
Once again, in 1986 the Quebec Human Rights Commission had a hearing on racial profiling. I know this sort of thing goes back to at least 1976, not “racial” that I know of in my case, but it’s the same thing.
It’s still being talked about, so it’s not right that some top cop be part of a march. This isn’t about making him feel good, it’s about him and the force changing so it doesn’t happen again. If they stop someone because of the way they look, or because “they don’t belong”, then it’s way easy for the cops to continue to treat someone like a criminal, which then could lead to a beating or killing. I don’t know, but I think that’s the sequence, not abuse because the cops “don’t like blacks or natives” but a more subtle mistrust because someone is different. If they want to stop someone, they have to have a real reason.
Maybe in ten years it will be so rare that the occasional event can have cops protesting, but it’s too embedded now. They need to prove it first, before they can show “outrage”