On Friday, the governments of Quebec and Canada announced $19 million in funding over six years to the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), to support the provincial police force in its fight against the sexual exploitation of children on the web.
Public Security Minister François Bonnardel made the announcement alongside federal Transport Minister Pablo Rodriguez and SQ director Johanne Beausoleil, at the SQ’s headquarters in Montreal.
Bonnardel indicated that the funding would be used, among other things, to hire more staff and provide psychological support for responders.
“We have to go back four years ago when we started tackling this phenomenon of child sexual exploitation. In 2019, we built a team of 10 resources for $11 million and now we’re going to put $19 million – $13 million coming from the Quebec government, $5.6 million coming from Ottawa…This funds will help us to process more reports, maintain close monitoring of high-risk repeat offenders, increase the number of police resources, it will be four more in this team, and purchase equipment and computer software.”
Since 2019, Bonnardel explains that they have seen results: 15,687 reports that have been processed ,resulting in 1,100 arrests and 1,200 searches.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews