Quebec shopping centre bans unaccompanied minors following merchant complaints

A shopping mall north of Montreal has taken the controversial step of banning people under the age of 18 unless they are accompanied by a parent.

Le Carrefour du Cap shopping centre in Trois-Rivières, Que., refused to comment on its decision.

But police and the local school board said today the mall banned unaccompanied minors from its property after receiving complaints that students from two nearby high schools were disturbing merchants at lunch time.

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Trois-Rivières police spokesman Luc Mongrain says officers were called to respond to loitering complaints at the mall about 10 times in the last year.

Mongrain says crime isn’t higher at that mall compared to elsewhere in the city, despite the presence of numerous students.

A spokeswoman for the local school board says complaints about bad behaviour are limited to the conduct of a small handful of teens and the vast majority of students behave respectfully.