Screen time for young people: Legault proposes creating a special transpartisan commission

The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) has found a way to respond to the concerns of its Commission for the Next Generation regarding the impacts of screens on the health and development of young people without banning social networks for those under 16 years of age. .

Its leader, Prime Minister François Legault, wrote to the leaders of the oppositions in the National Assembly on Saturday to propose the establishment of a special transpartisan parliamentary commission to look into the subject.

Said commission – if the PLQ, QS and the P.Q. accept its creation – could notably study: screen time among young people; supervision measures taken in schools; access to social networks (including through video games); cyberbullying; access of minors to pornography on the web, etc.

Such a mandate, which PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon wanted to entrust to the Health and Social Services Commission, would promote greater awareness among the general populationaccording to Mr. Legault.

It would also allow to rigorously document the potentially harmful impacts of screens and social media on the health of our children, to study what is being done elsewhere and to reach consensus that can quickly be put in place.

We all sincerely care about the future of young people in Quebec and I am convinced that by working together, we will be able to put in place the necessary conditions for them to grow up healthy.

This outstretched hand from François Legault to the opposition comes as 700 activists met in Saint-Hyacinthe on Saturday to participate in the general council of the CAQ.

In anticipation of this event, the party’s Succession Commission had indicated that it would try to convince members to ban social networks for those under 16 years old.

However, the proposal was heavily amended before being adopted, the activists having finally voted for the question of a numerical majority at an age to be determined be studied in parliamentary committee.

For his part, Prime Minister Legault said open to taking important actionsearlier, in a press briefing, even going so far as to compare social media to drug and to other substances. pushers virtual pushers”,”text”:”It’s a bit like they were virtual pushers”}}”>It’s a bit as if they were pushers virtualhe declared.

On Thursday, the government of CAQ had nevertheless refused to adopt a motion of the P.Q. relating specifically to the numerical majority. At the beginning of the month, Mr. Legault also ridiculed Paul St-Pierre Plamondon’s idea of ​​banning access to social networks for certain young people.

This is a significant turnaround in the CAQ on this issue, that his main opponent in the polls, the P.Q.had decided to place it at the heart of its political and media interventions at the start of the parliamentary session.

Its elected officials have argued for several months that these questions had already been the subject, in 2020, of a vast consultation, and that this had led to the implementation of the Quebec Strategy on the use of screens and health of young people of the Minister for Health and Social Services, Lionel Carmant.

Temporary immigration: Legault sounds the alarm (again)

At a press briefing on Saturday morning, François Legault also deplored what he considers to be a certain indifference regarding the scale of temporary immigration and its impacts on the government’s capacity to offering services to the population and the future of French in North America.

000temporary immigrants”,”text”:”Quebecers do not realize the impact of having 560,000 temporary immigrants”}}”>Quebecers do not realize the impact of having 560,000 temporary immigrantsdid he declare.

However, according to him, it is urgent to make one main issue in Ottawa, since the majority of temporary immigrants, including asylum seekers, come under federal jurisdiction. Especially since he and Justin Trudeau have agreed to meet again by June 30 to follow up on the issues they discussed face to face on March 15.

Quebecers need to see that this is an emergency, that we really put pressure on the federal government to act quickly, because it has an impact on French, it has an impact on our services.insisted Mr. Legault on Saturday.

The moment is also propitious to put pressure on Ottawa, he continued, to the extent that the Trudeau government, in the minority in the House of Commons, could fall at any time.

We must ensure that, during the next federal election, if this is not resolved, it will be an important issue. I understand that there are other issues, [comme] the environment, but we must be able, regardless of the government that is elected in Ottawa, to say: “We are no longer capable.”

Mr. Legault also recalled that he had invited voters to vote in 2021 for the Conservative Party of Erin O’Toole who, at the time, committed to transferring immigration powers to the Quebec government. However, Trudeau”,”text”:”there are many Quebecers who still voted for Mr. Trudeau”}}”>there are many Quebecers who still voted for Mr. Trudeauhe said, Saturday.

The situation, according to Mr. Legault, must not be repeated in the next elections.

000 [immigrants temporaires].”,”text”:”Quebecers really need to feel that this has an impact on their own services and that it has an impact on French, he repeated. If we care about French, we must be able to say [qu’il] The federal government must significantly reduce [les] 560000 [immigrants temporaires].”}}”>Quebecers really need to feel that it has an impact on their own services and that it has an impact on French, he repeated. If we care about French, we must be able to say [qu’il] The federal government must significantly reduce [les] 560,000 [immigrants temporaires].

With information from The Canadian Press