Two days after the bloody attack on a court interpreter in the Longueuil courthouse, a bag search was ordered at the courthouse until further notice.
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“Caution will also be required when it comes to clothing [des visiteurs]for example, by opening coats for a visual inspection,” said an email to justice employees.
This announcement is intended to reassure them, 48 hours after interpreter Hai Thach was stabbed in the neck by a madman who entered the building with knives hidden in his pocket.
For the president of the Quebec government's Union of Special Constables, this is a “step forward”, but he hopes there will be more, since the searches will only be visual and quite summary.
“It's better than nothing, but we expect more,” he commented to the Journal.
He also requested an emergency meeting with the Minister of Public Security in connection with this issue.
“What is worrying is that the wave of violence currently occurring coincides with a decline in the number of special police officers in courthouses,” we read in the letter, which reports several incidents of violence in courthouses in Quebec.
As an example, he cites an event that occurred on November 23 in Valleyfield, where a person managed to gain entry with a chain twisted around their head while threatening court personnel. A month earlier, in Quebec, a person cut his own throat with a blade hidden on his body, but he survived.
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