Police officers up in arms against a text published in the agenda of the Collège de Maisonneuve

Police officers protest that a text published in the student agenda of a Montreal CEGEP, which offers training in police techniques, promotes the abolition of their profession.

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“I think it’s a special message when the population has never needed the police presence so much,” says Dominic Ricard, president of the Association of Provincial Policewomen of Quebec.

Mr. Ricard is amazed to see that the General Society of Students of the Collège de Maisonneuve (SOGEECOM) has published a text entitled “Abolir la police, comment ça marche?” in the 2022-2023 calendar.

This document written by an American militant association maintains that “cops do not prevent crime”.

“On the contrary, they knowingly provoke it by the violent destruction of our communities”, can we read.

Student diary

This agenda is created and financed by the student association and the Collège de Maisonneuve has no right of inspection.

“The college dissociates itself completely from this editorial choice in relation to the article in question,” says Émilie Laramée, spokesperson for the Cégep.

Nevertheless, SOGEECOM believes it can continue to defend the rights of police technology students.

“We do not come especially to criticize the students in the program, we come to criticize the institutions of the police”, specifies Arthur Van Neste, delegate for external affairs of SOGEECOM.

However, the text mentions that “the ‘work’ of the police consists mainly of unnecessary roadside checks, the arrest of non-violent drug users, the harassment of black and racialized people”.

In a Facebook post, the Federation of Municipal Police Officers of Quebec says that it “will not leave this situation as it is, in a context where we live from police disengagement”.

For its part, the Association of Quebec Police Directors finds it “disappointing” to note that the article was published without even being able to give its point of view.

«[On] firmly believes that the police function is essential to the proper functioning of our society”, also supports the Association.