Quebec Public Security Minister Geneviève Guilbault announced Wednesday the gradual introduction of electronic tracking bracelets as part of the province’s plan to cut down on violent crimes linked to conjugal violence.
Guilbault called the measure a “historic step” noting that only six countries in the world are using the technology.
The bracelets work through geolocation and are generally made of two parts: the bracelet is worn by the offender while the victim carries a small device.
An alert is sent to police if the offender comes near their victim, making it possible — when necessary — for officers to intervene quickly thus giving victims a greater sense of security.
It is also believed, the bracelets could lead to better compliance with the conditions imposed on offenders.
“The electronic tracking bracelets can save lives,” said Christine Giroux, an author and survivor of conjugal violence. “It is a great relief to think that many victims of domestic violence will now be able to feel safe and have peace of mind.”
Guilbault said the first tracking devices will be deployed in the spring of 2022, among defendants who are tried at the Quebec City courthouse and inmates at the Quebec City detention Centre, as part of a “pre-project.”
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Use of the trackers will then be expanded to various regions in the fall of 2022, including the Capitale-Nationale and Chaudière-Appalaches regions, as well as in Joliette and Salaberry-de-Valleyfield.
In the long-term, the goal is to have around 500 bracelets for use provincewide.
The cost of the project is estimated at $41 million over five years.
The initiative is one of many put in place in the last year as the province deals with a dramatic rise in femicides.
At least 17 women in the province have been killed as a result of intimate partner violence.
Montreal police are refusing to confirm that the case of a woman whose body was found with a man in an apartment on Fairmont Avenue in Montreal in early November was a femicide. That would push the femicide count to 18.
“Attacks on women and femicides have shaken us all over the past few months,” Guilbault said. “We have the power and the duty to reject this violence, collectively and individually.”
Tracking devices were a key recommendation of a coroner’s report into the death of Marylene Levesque, who was murdered in a Quebec City hotel room in January 2020 by a convicted killer out on parole.
— With a file from the Canadian Press
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