Ménard's attempt to salvage the student crisis commission too late
Bernard St-Laurent | CBC News | Posted: June 4, 2013 5:28 PM | Last Updated: June 4, 2013
Provincial commission expected to start work soon
Serge Ménard is a highly respected public figure in Québec.
But his attemps to salvage the credibility of the commission which is looking into last year's Maple Spring is probably too late.
The main criticism against Ménard, when he was named to head the commission, was that he would be biased because he was a former Parti Québécois cabinet minister and Bloc Québécois MP.
The Parti Québécois, then in opposition, supported the student protests against university tuition hikes.
Yesterday Ménard spoke publicly for the first time about the commission. He tried to de-politicize the commision by saying its real mandate is to "look at the training of police officers in light of existing police training and the new tactics employed by agitators."
That's quite a jump from the original announcement made by Public Security Minister Stéphane Bergeron, who said the the commisson's mandate was:
- to analyze the circumstances of demonstrations and disruptions in Quebec in the spring of 2012.
- Identify factors which contributed to the deterioration of the social climate.
- Evaluate the impact those events had on the public.
Despite Ménard's changes, the Liberals, major police unions, and student groups are maintaining their original positions and will boycott the commission.
Ménard says he hopes individual officers will come forward privately to speak their minds.
I wonder if he expects that the masked demonstrators and vandals will want to tell the commission how they can be better kept under control during violent demonstratons.
If the Parti Québécois government wanted a serious look at the Maple Spring, perhaps it should have consulted more extensively with Ménard before announcing the commission's mandate, and not done so while he was on vacation.