Aboriginal police force will take over in Lac-Simon, public security minister says

The Quebec government will support the return of Aboriginal police to Lac-Simon and will invest in crime prevention after deadly shootings involving the Sûreté du Québec shook the community earlier this year.

The Minister of Public Security, Martin Coiteux, and Minister for Native Affairs, Geoffrey Kelley, met the Anishinabe Nation council of Lac-Simon on Sunday.

Quebec will hire a consultant, retired SQ police officer Réjean Hardy, to support Lac-Simon's police force in policing and administrative tasks for one year.

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As of June, the Aboriginal police force will gradually take over.

"The Sûreté du Québec did a great job, but it does not replace our police force that is close to the community," said deputy chief Pamela Papatie.

The community is seeking more funding to hire more officers. But the provincial government can't act on that now, Coiteux said, because the agreement on Aboriginal policing with the provincial and federal governments expires in 2018.

"Meanwhile, we will see if we can do other things that help the police force, which will help the community of Lac-Simon," Coiteaux said.

Youth crime prevention 

Quebec announced $625,000 over five years for crime prevention among youth in the community.

An amount of $30,000 is earmarked for security systems in schools, including cameras.

"The events of recent months have made staff a little nervous in relation to security, and these are requests that I've heard repeatedly," said Luc Létourneau, the director of the elementary school on the reserve, Amikobi.

In February, police officer Thierry Leroux was killed by a Lac-Simon resident, Anthony Raymond Papatie, who then took his own life.

Barely two months later, in April, a policeman shot and killed Michael Sandy, a 25-year-old member of the community.