(Quebec) The Liberal opposition wanted to correct the shot Thursday after having encouraged to denounce by video if necessary the brutality of certain teachers.
Education spokesperson Marwah Rizqy put an end to the confusion at the end of the day by correcting the comments of two of her colleagues made in the morning.
The opposition thus reacted to the filmed denunciations of teachers who yell in class while addressing their students, while using foul language.
Liberal MPs Madwa-Nika Cadet and Frédéric Beauchemin had called on students to denounce “in every way possible”, by filming if necessary, the brutality of the words and gestures of their teachers.
But Ms. Rizqy “does not endorse the recordings at all” and that is the party’s official position, she said.
“I understand that it may be the last resort (for some students), but it must not become the norm,” she explained in an interview with The Canadian Press at the start of the evening.
Instead, she suggests young people talk to a “trusted adult.”
In a press scrum on Thursday morning, Madwa-Nika Cadet spoke of “omertà” in the education sector and asked to end it.
“We can’t prevent young people from doing what they want, so if they want to record [their teachers with their phone], we won’t be able to control their actions all the time,” argued his colleague Frédéric Beauchemin. .
“It’s not a question of denouncing,” said MP Ruba Ghazal, of Quebec solidaire (QS). When students speak up, adults need to act, she says.
“It is a very bad thing that a parent was forced, despite himself, to think about this action. He had no choice because he felt something was wrong, a lack of leadership in the schools. »
If a teacher is doing their job poorly, a boss should act, not wait for parents to act, she said.
The Parti Québécois (PQ), for its part, considers that it is “very problematic” to come to have to film the actions of teachers to do justice.
“Starting to record in class without context, filming, that puts us in a very special situation and it also raises the question of the presence of smartphones in class,” said PQ MP Pascal Bérubé, who himself holds a patent. of teacher.
He predicts that there will be an increase in denunciations in the coming days. In addition, the PQ calls for a mechanism “to remove from classes teachers who are not able to teach and who need help”.
At the origin of this whole affair, the case of a teacher who was recorded overwhelming her students by screaming in a class at the Grands-Vents primary school in Saint-Marthe-sur-le-Lac. , in the Laurentians.
The teacher was suspended, while the principal was replaced for an indefinite period.
During question period, Ms. Rizqy indicated that the school service center lawyer knew not only of the shouting and screaming, but also of the assault, since at least February, according to a document provided in evidence to the Minister of Education.
She recalled that we have reached three police complaints for assault and one police complaint for intimidation in this case.
“All of Quebec was shocked at what is happening right now,” she summed up.
