The police officers of the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) will take off their clown pants this Thursday morning, dissatisfied with the way negotiations with Quebec are going.
Published yesterday at 9:10 p.m.
“We have no choice but to resort to a means of visibility that conveys a message of dissatisfaction,” Association of Quebec Provincial Police Officers (APPQ) president Jacques Panchaud said in a statement.
The APPQ had already reached an agreement in principle with Quebec that provided for an increase in total police officer salaries of around 21% over five years. However, the members of the association fundamentally rejected this agreement with a majority of 59%.
It was the delay between this rejection and the resumption of negotiations that left the APPQ dissatisfied. A meeting between the two parties took place on Wednesday, but “the government was unable to demonstrate to us its willingness to reach an agreement by improving the first agreement,” the union said in its press release.
Result: “Police officers of the Sûreté du Québec are asked to wear camouflage cargo pants or jeans during their working hours.”
Last August, the courts invalidated the Couillard government’s law passed in 2017 banning the wearing of such clothing.
That ban violates the agents’ freedom of expression and association and is not justified by public safety concerns, said Supreme Court Justice Florence Lucas.
“The consequences of the attack on the fundamental rights of police officers turn out to be disproportionate to the likely positive effects of the controversial provisions,” it said in its ruling. “Neither empirical research nor evidence shows that replacing or changing the uniform can have an impact on public service and public safety. »