Quebec sets up radicalization hotline
Online patrol unit also part of response to the rise of extremism in province
The Quebec government is launching a radicalization hotline and a dedicated police unit to patrol the Internet as part of its plan to tackle extremism — a worrying phenomenon in which more than two dozen young people in the province have been implicated in the last year.
A major part of the plan involves funding and training for municipal and provincial police forces.
This will include better communication about the latest trends, special help that will be made available to local forces that lack experience, formal partnerships to share information and techniques with officials in France and Belgium, and specific training about how officers should deal with ethnic communities.
The government has also set up a radicalization hotline to be staffed by social workers. The service will give families and friends of suspected extremists an expert answer to their questions and provide advice to those who see troubling signs of religious fundamentalism, hate or looming violence.
Callers could be referred to support networks, local police or to national security officials depending on the situation. A similar service run by the Montreal police received 128 calls in three months.
Investigators probing terror cases already rely heavily on social media websites to monitor contacts and communications between individuals and to spot signs of radicalization.
But the Sûreté du Québec is striking a team this fall dedicated exclusively to monitoring social media with the goal of “increasing the capacity to detect and anticipate threats” as well as allowing authorities to quickly identify individuals who present a security risk.
Eleven of the 21 individuals linked to suspect terror cases since January have involved students at Montreal’s Collège de Maisonneuve, a school in the province’s CÉGEP system. Experts say it’s proof that radicalization doesn’t occur only after an individual consults jihadi websites and the Quebec government is funding a study that will look at the environments in which radicalization can occur.
The government plan, which involves nine ministries and carries a cost of about $10 million, also involves training for teachers to raise the issues with their students.
Ever since January’s deadly terror assault on the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo by a gang of extremist ex-cons, prison officials the world over have been fretting about jails as a breeding ground for radical ideas. Quebec’s radicalization plan calls for a new emphasis on ensuring that guards, social workers, chaplains and other workers are aware of the telltale signs of extremism.
As well as the government measures unveiled Wednesday, legislation was tabled in national assembly that will give the provincial human rights commission new powers to police hate speech.
The bill would allow the commission to take complaints from the public, carry out investigations and issue fines and other penalties as well as to order the removal of hate speech that is judged to incite violence or to target a group of individuals sharing a common characteristic such as religious belief, gender or ethnic background.