The general council of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) is being held in Saint-Hyacinthe on Saturday.
Among the 21 proposals included in the congress notebook, the party’s youth wing proposes the establishment of a virtual majority at 16 to be able to access social networks.
In a morning press briefing with journalists on site, the Prime Minister showed himself open to such a possibility.
“The way social media works is to make readers addicted. It’s a bit as if they were pushers virtual, like drugs, like other substances and it is worrying. That scares me! “It creates significant mental health problems among young people,” he commented.
Mr. Legault immediately recognizes that the use of social networks can be as addictive as that of alcohol, cannabis or games of chance.
Three areas where the Quebec government imposes a minimum age of legality, i.e. 18 years for alcohol and games and even 21 years for cannabis.
“I am open to taking important actions for social media,” said Prime Minister Legault, not going so far as to specify what actions he is talking about.
“We are going to have debates. There are pros and cons. If we make this decision, we will look at how we can do this legally,” he said.
Temporary immigrants again
Mr. Legault once again hammered home his message on the overflow of temporary immigrants.
According to the Prime Minister, the presence of 560,000 temporary immigrants in Quebec prevents our public services from improving in housing, education and health.
Same thing to protect French, when a third does not speak French. The regions of Montreal and Outaouais are particularly affected, he said.
Mr. Legault now makes it his mission to make Quebecers realize “the urgency of the situation.”
He is asking Quebec voters to make it a central issue in the next federal election campaign, scheduled for next year.
“Everyone must understand and send a very clear message to Mr. Trudeau [premier ministre au Canada] : Mr. Trudeau, we must act quickly. […] Regardless of the government that is elected in Ottawa, we must be able to say: we are no longer capable,” summarized Mr. Legault.
