Teens will learn in school how to interact with police officers

Photo archive
This photo shows the police intervention that ended with the death of Fredy Villanueva in Montreal in 2008.

Dominique Scali

Saturday, December 23, 2017 01:00

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Saturday, December 23, 2017 01:00

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Secondary students will be educated in class about how to act in the presence of police officers, an initiative of the ministry of Education following the death of controversial of Fredy Villanueva.

A committee led by the ministry of Education is preparing an “awareness tool” that will be used in schools for young people to learn what behaviors to adopt in the presence of police officers, learned The Newspaper.

The tool will include a video and a companion guide.

Photo courtesy

Fredy Villanueva

On August 9, 2008, Fredy Villanueva, 18 years old, is located in the parc Henri-Bourassa in the company of his brother Dany, and a group of youth playing dice. Stopped by two police officers, Dany is struggling when they are trying to stop it.

Fredy walks towards one of the police officers, and leans over to grab him away from his brother. The policeman made a fire, reaching mortally Fredy, who is not armed.

In its report published in 2013, the coroner is critical to both the job of the police officer who shot and attitude of Dany Villanueva, who had a criminal record of violence.

The coroner recommends that the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) better training of the police and the ministry of Education to teach high school students how to behave in case of arrest by the police.

Good initiative, but…

Contacted by the Newspaper, The Ministry did not want to specify who will lead these workshops or if they will speak to all high school students.

All stakeholders contacted by The Newspaper found that these workshops are a good idea. Several critics, however, the fact that the police sit on the committee that designed the tool, but not the agencies that work with young people living in racial discrimination.

“We can’t bear all the responsibility [of the slip] at the children,” responds Sophie Laquerre, at the youth Centre L’escale.

According to Ghayda Hassan, professor, UQAM, there is still no study that shows raising the awareness of young people works or doesn’t work.

“However, it is known that to increase the cultural competency of police officers has beneficial effects. “

The police officers of neighbourhood station 39 in Montreal North, have in particular received training of this type since 2009.

“For the past three years, there has been good efforts made by the police,” says Ms. Hassan.

Despite this, the number of complaints of racial profiling there has been little declined since the SPVM has developed a strategic plan in this sense, according to a report published in November.

“Human “

Remains of workshops that cater to young people or new arrivals from countries where the citizens fear the police already exist. “We can see that it bears fruit “, said Miguël Alston, head of neighbourhood station 39. Often, people mistakenly believe that the agent does not have the right to ask them to identify it, which makes the arrest confrontational, ” he says.

“Rubbing shoulders with police officers makes them realize that they are human beings. They are not their enemies “, abounds Ousseynou Ndiaye, of the body A route for all.

– With the collaboration of Annabelle Blais