10,000 bureaucrats given time off over G7 security concerns
Provincial legislature will be closed Thursday, Friday amid protest fears
QUEBEC If the politicians are getting time off because of G7 summit security fears, so are the bureaucrats.
Treasury Board officials confirmed Tuesday that 10,000 provincial bureaucrats who normally work in and around the legislature will be given Thursday afternoon and Friday off because of security risks.
The decision came only an hour after the speaker of the house, Jacques Chagnon, announced the legislature, which is in full intensive session, will be closed as of noon Thursday and all day Friday for the same reason.
Opening question period Tuesday, Chagnon said after consulting with all the parties, the decision was to take a “responsible and preventive” approach.
The real issue is location. The legislature campus, which includes a number of buildings, is directly across the street from Quebec City’s Centre des congrès, which will serve as the G7 summit’s international media centre.
About 2,000 journalists will be working in the centre, which has been equipped with a media feed to La Malbaie, 150 kilometres northeast of Quebec City, where the world leaders will be meeting Thursday and Friday.
The La Malbaie site has been transformed into a fortress surrounded by a $4-million three-metre-high fence, so anti-capitalist and anti-G7 summit groups are shifting their demonstrations to the neighbourhood around the legislature.
On Monday, municipal workers were seen moving large concrete blocks around the convention centre as a precaution. Fences were added Tuesday.
At the same time they insisted Quebec City’s risk level remains “moderate,” police said they expect troublemakers to infiltrate peaceful demonstrations in much the same way they did in 2001 at the Summit of the Americas summit here.
Daycares and schools in the downtown area have already announced they will close Thursday and Friday as the city braces for the worst.
Some of the summit measures are extraordinary, including orders to farmers to not spread manure around the area of the summit lest a leader get a whiff.
Earlier in the day, Premier Philippe Couillard said it would be “regrettable” if the legislature were to close, but safety has to come first.
“What will we say if someone gets hurt?” Couillard told reporters. “It is a bit regrettable because it introduces the notion that we can interrupt democracy with demonstrations, but above all we have to be cautious.”
Couillard said he still hopes the area is spared vandalism and violence, but the government has to place the safety of people first.
“If my grandchildren were here, I would hope their parents would not bring them there (to the zone),” he said.
He also pledged to support any business or restaurant owners who wind up with damages as a result of the summit, but noted the federal government has offered to cover the costs.
The legislature will sit extra hours Monday and Tuesday to make up for the lost time. The session is scheduled to recess Friday, June 15.
Not everyone is happy with the shutdown. Québec solidaire MNA Amir Khadir described the move as “exaggerated, hyper-security delirium.”
“It’s as if the National Assembly is scared of its people,” Khadir told reporters.