Quebec’s 300 traffic controllers could be carrying firearms after a government source revealed to Le Journal de Montréal that the province’s Transport Minister is preparing to authorize their use – an official announcement is expected in the coming days.
This would mean that these officers who monitor the road transportation of passengers and goods could be carrying firearms as early as 2026.
This comes as traffic controllers have been confined to roadside checkpoints since last March since the Administrative Labour Tribunal ruled that these workers face danger in the course of their work.
“We have four accidents that people rush with a vehicle and try to hit a member. We have some of our members seize fire arms, shotgun or something like that. We never got a deceased, but we have many, many injured,” said Jean-Claude Daignault, the president of Fraternité des constables du contrôle routier du Québec.
André Durocher, the director of road safety with CAA-Quebec, says, “Over the years having worked in the transport industry and also in the police. The work has evolved. We see that there’s a lot of, you know, there’s contraband, there’s people carrying. For example, we saw stolen vehicles being carried by a truck. So it’s important for these traffic controllers to be able to intercept these people that are not always law abiding citizens. It could represent some dangers for them.”
The president of the traffic controllers’ union suggests that it will likely take two to three weeks of additional training to use a firearm before they could return to patrolling Quebec’s highways and roads, and that their members could use a gun in situations where there is a threat to their safety from other drivers.
Concordia University professor Ted Rutland who studies violence in policing says that this is an unfortunate decision and that a society with more firearms is a more dangerous one.
“I think that we can point to many situations on our society where people are confronted with dangerous situations. We can think of security guards, teachers, nurses, and doctors, etc. And the principle that we operate by is that we don’t want everyone in our society to be armed. If you need a weapon, you can call the police. And so this, I think, is an unfortunate situation where we’re evolving from a situation where a street or traffic controllers used to have to call the police if they encountered a dangerous situation. Now they’re going to be armed,” said Rutland.
The anticipated announcement to allow traffic controllers to carry guns comes after it was announced earlier this month that Quebec’s chief coroner ordered a public inquiry into fatal collisions involving heavy trucks.
The CEO for Quebec’s Trucking Association (ACQ) is not opposed to traffic controllers carrying guns and suggests that their return to patrolling roads could improve safety.
“We want them back because we’ve all lived the last months with the far west that we’re living right now on the roads, with illegal drivers, with non-conform drivers, with unfit drivers to drive. So we think that obviously, contrôleurs routiers du Québec has to be back as soon as possible,” said Marc Cadieux, the CEO of ACQ.
“I’ve sincerely asked the minister to put this on a fast track. And his words were to me last week that this was a top priority for him on his desk.”