Category: Latest News

Participation of the ICPC in the City of Montreal’s 2nd “Solidarity, Equity and Inclusion” event

The ICPC was pleased to take part in the Vers l’avant, le deuxième grand rendez-vous montréalais sur la solidarité, l’équité et l’inclusion event organized by the City of Montreal as part of the deployment of its 2021-2025 Solidarity, Equity and Inclusion Action Plan. 

Featuring several panels, the city presented the progress it has made, as well as the challenges, lessons learned, and success stories it has uncovered in promoting social inclusion in order to foster equal opportunities for marginalized and disadvantaged communities.  

Thank you to the City of Montreal for the invitation!  

Participation of the ICPC in a working meeting of the CPSU

On September 29, the ICPC was pleased to take part in a working meeting of the City of Montreal’s Communauté de pratique en sécurité urbaine (CPSU) on the issue of women and urban safety. The event was aimed at various players from the city’s 19 boroughs.  

Through the participation of various stakeholder from these boroughs, this meeting was an opportunity to explore and collectively understand the essential challenges, fundamental values, and good practices relating to the safety of women in the urban environment.  

The first activity consisted of an interactive group exercise session, during which participants were encouraged to explore different approaches and ideas for enhancing safety in public, private, and digital environments. Maxime Raulet, analyst and project officer at the ICPC, moderated this activity.  

The ICPC also presented the results of a quantitative analysis of the ten most common offenses in their respective boroughs, according to the age and gender of the victims.  

Thank you for the invitation! 

 

Participation of the ICPC in the Laval Synergie initiative

The ICPC was happy to take part in the Synergie Forum held in Laval from 27 to 28 September, the theme of which was “Urban Violence Dialogue”.   

Organized by the Pôle Lavallois d’enseignement supérieur en arts numériques et économie créative, the purpose of the Synergie Forum was to bring together members of the Laval community to examine the problems, challenges and best practices for reducing gun violence and juvenile delinquency in the city. 

During the two days, the ICPC participated in two innovative presentations. On the first day, which focused more specifically on the theme of urban violence, Michelle Côté, scientific advisor, took part in a panel to present the organization, its Urban Safety Lab, and examples of inspiring practices aimed at developing a shared vision in the combat against crime. Then, on the second day, with discussions focusing on prevention and intervention, Janny Montinat, analyst, discussed various possible issues linked to the glorification of firearms among young people on social networks and presented local and international approaches on how to prevent this phenomenon.   

This participation enabled the ICPC to reaffirm its mission to prevent crime with its partners in Laval and to learn more about prevention practices in the area of urban violence.   

Thank you for the invitation! 

The ICPC attended a conference on violent radicalization in Cégeps in Quebec, offered by IRIPII

The ICPC had the pleasure of attending a virtual conference organized on September 21, 2023, by the Institut de recherche sur l’immigration et sur les pratiques interculturelles et inclusives (IRIPII) on the current situation of violent radicalization in Quebec’s Cégeps (Canada).

In the current context of social destabilization caused by the rise of radicalization movements within societies, this conference was an opportunity to explore the tools and various means of raising awareness to combat this phenomenon of extremism in Montreal’s Cégeps.   

Visit from a Cameroonian delegation to the ICPC: towards closer collaboration for Urban Safety

On Tuesday the 26th of June, the ICPC had the pleasure of hosting the President of the RC3D (Réseau pour la Coopération Décentralisée et le Développement Durable), Ms Angèle Bagnia, and Mr Jean Bruno Tagne, Director General.   

An active partner of the ICPC for many years, the RC3D promotes international and inter-professional exchanges of experience and knowledge sharing, in order to create a platform for exchange that is unique in Africa and Canada.  

We were also honored to welcome a delegation of mayors from the Cameroonian capital Douala: Mr Jean-Jacques Lengue Malapa, mayor of the Douala 1st Disctrict, Mr Valentin Epoupa Bossambo, mayor of the Douala 3rd Disctrict, and Mr Richard Mfeungwang, mayor of the Douala 5th Disctrict.  

It was also an opportunity to discuss the ICPC’s participation in a session on urban safety during the 8th edition of the RC3D’s Forum for Decentralised Cooperation and Development (FOCODDEV), which will take place in Montreal from 27 November to 1 December 2023. In addition, this discussion focused on the aim of establishing ICPC’s Urban Safety Lab model adapted in Cameroon.  

The ICPC participated in the municipal summit on homelessness 

On September 15, 2023, we were privileged to represent the ICPC in the Municipal Summit on Homelessness organized by the Union des municipalités du Québec (UMQ), a member of the ICPC.   

Close to 400 leading representatives involved in the prevention and eradication of homelessness, including many of the region’s mayors and local representatives, gathered to put forward creative ideas on how to work together effectively to solve the problems associated with the situation of people living on the streets.    

In addition to funding needs, the importance of implementing innovative and sustainable solutions in Quebec, inspired on projects that have already proved effective internationally, such as the “Housing First” project in Finland, which has reduced homelessness by more than 50%, was highlighted.    

The management of urban spaces with the purpose of providing and developing resources and assistance programmes that are better adapted to meet the challenges posed by homelessness, particularly in terms of everyone’s sense of safety, is first and foremost a collaborative effort. 

The ICPC mandated to carry out a local safety audit in Pakua Shipi

Through the Ministry of Public Safety’s Municipal Support Programme, which provides funding to municipal organizations with populations of less than 100,000 in the province of Quebec, the ICPC has been mandated to carry out a local safety audit for the community of Pakua Shipi. This initiative, supported by the provincial government, aims to strengthen community safety and prevent crime through a range of preventive measures.  

A small Innu community on the Lower North Shore with a population of 350, Pakua Shipi’s geographical isolation makes it difficult to provide access to quality public services. This leads to challenges in hiring and retaining personnel and consequently impacts the socio-economic conditions of the population. What’s more, various historical events linked to colonization have resulted in the transmission of traumas down the generations, from which many social and economic issues arise.

In this context, the ICPC’s expertise in carrying out a local safety audit is an essential first step in assessing safety and violence issues in the community, before putting in place long-term solutions and an action plan for the community. 

This project was carried out in 2022 and completed in 2023.

2023 Summer School: a first edition to build tomorrow’s safe cities

From 24 to 25 August, 2023, the ICPC had the pleasure of hosting the first edition of its Summer School at the Centre St-Pierre in Montreal, which focused on the theme of “Urban safety in action: building tomorrow’s safe cities“.

The central theme of this first edition was to highlight prevention in urban travel and support competent management when it comes to the safety of urban areas.   

More than twenty people attended the presentations, which covered topics such as urban safety as an approach based on living spaces, as an approach based on decision-making spaces, and crime prevention strategies for urban mobility. Also, the participants discussed the recommendations suggested by the ICPC and its collaborators, as well as took part in a collective formulation of possible solutions to the difficulties they regularly encounter in their day-to-day work in and around Montreal.  

It was an honour to welcome Paola Porcelli, coordinator at the YMCA and specialist in mental health and intercultural approaches, as well as Sophie Paquin, director of undergraduate programmes in urban planning at the ESG at UQAM and member of the International Chair on the Uses and Practices of the Intelligent City, as speakers and guests for these two days. 

We would like to thank all the participants, as well as the guest speakers, with whom we had fruitful discussions and who contributed to the success of the event.  

We look forward to seeing you again next year! 

Two activities offered in summer 2023 by RÉSAL as part of its community of practice

As part of building the community of practice of the Réseau d’échange et de soutien aux actions locales (RÉSAL), of which the ICPC is a member and coordinator, two thematic training cycles were held in summer 2023. One cycle focused on “Restorative justice prevention with young people”, on 7 June, and the other cycle focused on the theme of “Preventing violence committed against LGBTQ+ youth”, on 14 June at the Centre St-Pierre (part 1) and on 31 August 2023 online (part 2).  

The RÉSAL community of practice brings together field workers, community organisations and institutions working with young people in the Greater Montreal area. The aim of these activities, relating to violence committed and suffered by young people aged 12 to 25, was to equip participants to deal with the various problems encountered in their day-to-day work.   

Prevention through restorative justice with young people, Catherine Lapierre, Director of Restorative Justice Services at Equijustice and Laurence Wauthier, Coordinator of Equijustice – Montreal West. .

The aim of this first training session was to provide people affected by crime (victims, perpetrators, witnesses, family members) or conflict with the tools they need to engage in a restorative and mediation process, and to highlight the principles of restorative justice and its importance in offering confidential, safe and respectful listening and discussion forums for all concerned.  

Preventing violence committed against LGBTQ+ youth, Julie-Maude Beauchesne, psychosocial counsellor and trainer, and Olivia Baker, head of the ProAllié programme at Fondation Émergence

For this second training course, in a context of increasing violence against young people from the LGBTQ+ community due to homophobia and transphobia, the workshops provided tools to help prevent such violence, by helping to create an environment where acceptance and inclusion are valued, and to develop the ability to detect problematic situations quickly as well as the means to provide support and assistance.  

A big thank you to the invited speakers and participants for these exchanges that contributed to the success of the events!   

A series of activities by the RÉSAL community of practice will be scheduled for autumn/winter 2023.