‘This incident triggered alarm bells that cannot be ignored’
Unions at the psychiatric emergency department of Quebec City's Centre hospitalier de l'Université Laval (CHUL) want specialized security officers restored, saying the loss of a dedicated security role has left workers exposed to patient violence for nearly two years.
The CSN-affiliated unions spoke at an Oct. 23 news conference outside the hospital, CBC News reported. They said the specialized security intervention worker position was cut in November 2024, leaving staff unable to safely intervene with patients who may endanger themselves or others.
Just two weeks before the news conference, a psychiatric patient hit a hospital porter, said Frédéric Saint-Hilaire, a union agent with the Syndicat des travailleuses et travailleurs du CHU de Québec.
August injuries sharpen concerns
That assault followed a more serious one. Julie Tremblay, vice-president of workplace health and security with a regional CSN health union, said an employee injured on Aug. 17 still suffers psychological and physical consequences. "This incident triggered alarm bells that cannot be ignored," she said.
The same month, Patsy Van Damme, a nurse in the CHUL psychiatric ER, told Noovo Info she was attacked while helping a colleague subdue an aggressive patient, CTV News reported. It is unclear whether hers is the Aug. 17 case. She said staff rely on panic buttons that work only intermittently. "I've never seen anyone check those buttons," she said.
Union leaders tie those risks to budget choices. In a news release, Xavier Isabelle, president of the SPTSSS-CSN, said patients in severe crisis sometimes arrive escorted by police, only to be left with care teams and no intervention officer. "When the only lens through which we view the network is financial performance, we expose our members and make them vulnerable," he said.
The unions also want better incident documentation and in-house security to improve co-ordination of emergency responses. Guillaume Clavette of the FSSS-CSN health federation said talks have stalled. "It's time to wake the government up, it's time to wake Santé Québec up," he said.
Employer points to alarms and patrols
Hospital management says protections are in place. In a joint statement reported by CBC News, the CHU de Québec-Université Laval and Santé Québec Capitale-Nationale – Universitaire cited portable panic buttons, cameras and improved protocols, and said guards cover the entire facility.
Responding to Van Damme in August, the hospital told Noovo Info that guards "aren't assigned to specific units but make regular rounds through all departments," and that panic buttons summon help within 15 seconds, with a dedicated team responding within one minute, CTV News reported.
Further changes may follow. "Following the incident in August 2026, we have undertaken a joint risk analysis to identify the main improvements to be made," the joint statement said. A provincial workplace safety report on the unit is also in the works.
Legal duty and sector data
That review falls under a legal duty Quebec tightened in October 2021, when section 51 of its Act respecting occupational health and safety began requiring employers to take measures to protect workers exposed to physical or psychological violence at work.
The risk falls heavily on health care and social assistance, which accounted for 47.4% of Quebec's 5,395 accepted workplace violence injuries in 2024, according to the Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST). Patients or residents of health facilities were the source in 40.2% of cases, and violence injuries rose 79.4% from 2020.
Other employers have faced similar gaps. In 2022, Canadian Occupational Safety (COS) reported that a Sudbury hospital hired 22 dedicated security guards and that WorkSafeBC issued orders to a B.C. psychiatric hospital after a patient injured three workers. This year, safety leaders warned in a COS report that workplace violence in children's hospitals often goes unreported, a gap the CHUL unions also want closed.
