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The federal government is investing $2 million to combat organized crime in Indigenous communities in Quebec. <\/p>\n
The funding is for the 2026-27 fiscal year and will allow for eight Indigenous police forces to integrate into various specialized S\u00fbret\u00e9 du Qu\u00e9bec (SQ) and intelligence\u00a0units. A provincial police officer will also be assigned to work with the\u00a0Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service.<\/p>\n
The announcement was made at a news conference in Wendake, near Quebec City, Wednesday evening. <\/p>\n
Quebec Domestic Security Minister Ian Lafreni\u00e8re, who is also responsible for relations with the First Nations and the Inuit, emphasized the need for collaboration to stop criminal networks. <\/p>\n
“We need to share intelligence, it\u2019s not going to happen just by itself,” he said. “We need to be united.” <\/p>\n
The teams will focus on addressing firearms and drug trafficking, and money laundering. <\/p>\n
Authorities have targeted certain regions for operations\u00a0including the\u00a0Abitibi, the North Shore, the\u00a0Gasp\u00e9 Peninsula, the\u00a0cities of Saguenay and Quebec City, and communities south of Montreal.<\/p>\n
“Our message is clear: Organized crime, this is over. We\u2019re going to work together to kick you out from those communities because you\u2019re not welcome, not welcome at all,” Lafreni\u00e8re said. <\/p>\n
‘Renewed hope’ <\/p>\n
Listuguj police Chief William Moffat welcomed the announcement. <\/p>\n
“Today\u2019s announcement gives me renewed hope for First Nations and Inuit police services,” Moffat said. <\/p>\n
“Far too many of our communities are facing a devastating addiction epidemic. Drug traffickers, organized crime, continue to exploit vulnerable individuals and families, profiting from addiction and undermining the safety and well-being of our people.” <\/p>\n
Pierre Simard, the executive director of the Association des chefs policiers premi\u00e8re nations et inuits, said this kind of investment is something Indigenous police forces have been asking for for years. <\/p>\n
“We need specialized tools, solid partnerships … but most importantly a response built by those who know the terrain. Indigenous police have to be at the heart of these initiatives,” he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":805167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-805166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=805166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/805166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/805167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=805166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=805166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=805166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}