Montreal police obsessed with leaks
MONTREAL • Denis Mainville had served more than 30 years with the Montreal police and was head of the major crimes unit when in 2014 he made a mistake that would bring an early end to his career: he met with a journalist.
Another investigator noticed the meeting — hard to miss considering it took place in Mainville’s glassdoored office — and reported it to police internal affairs, suspecting Mainville was the source of a La Presse scoop about the case of a speeding undercover police officer who crashed into a car, leading to the death of a fiveyear-old child.
Mainville was investigated criminally for breach of trust but never charged. He denied leaking any confidential information but was suspended 10 days for disregarding internal policy concerning contact with the media. After being shuffled to a different job, he took early retirement, referring in a letter to the police chief to the “hysteria” created by his meeting with the reporter.
The incident is part of the picture emerging at a Quebec public inquiry into the police surveillance of journalists in Quebec, revealing a Montreal police force obsessed with hunting down the sources of embarrassing leaks.
The province called the inquiry, headed by Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Jacques Chamberland, last November after revelations that Montreal and provincial police had obtained warrants to access phone records of at least seven journalists.
The inquiry has heard that Mainville was not alone in having internal affairs sent after him for meeting a journalist. Roger Larivière came under criminal investigation in 2014 and had his home searched after he was spotted having lunch with a judicial affairs analyst for Radio-Canada.
Larivière, who has retired from the police force, was never charged, and he has alleged that internal-affairs investigators fabricated evidence to obtain the warrant against him.
Not long ago, it was routine for investigators to talk to reporters without fear of reprisal. Patrice Carrier, the investigator who reported Mainville’s meeting with the reporter to superiors, told the inquiry Friday that times have changed. What used to be considered “normal discussions” are now considered “leaks,” he said.
The inquiry heard last week that 37 officers were investigated as possible sources of the 2014 leak concerning the child’s death, but the leaker was never identified. Montreal police had been called in to investigate the fatal accident because the driver was a provincial police officer. The leak came as Crown prosecutors declined to charge the officer. The Justice Minister intervened following a public outcry, and the officer was charged with dangerous driving causing death in 2015.
Concern about leaks from within the Montreal police persisted, and in January 2016, the internal affairs unit crafted an investigation plan to root out the culprits.
The plan, filed as evidence at the inquiry, was named “Project Spy,” and it set the table for the police to track the cellphone of La Presse reporter Patrick Lagacé later that spring. The investigation was prompted by stories in La Presse about a briefcase stolen from a police commander’s car and about defective bulletproof vests that were hobbling the tactical squad.
Lagacé had not written either story, but a warrant was obtained to monitor his phone after police learned he was in frequent contact with one of their suspected leakers, Fayçal Djeledi.
The internal affairs investigators intended to plant false information with police officers to see whether it was leaked to the media. They also planned to enlist an RCMP undercover officer. Under a section on obtaining warrants for electronic surveillance, the report notes that journalists use applications to encrypt data. “The use of wiretapping will be evaluated in this context,” the report says.
The report talks of “serious infractions” and envisions criminal charges against those responsible, but the inquiry heard that the internal affairs officers’ investigative skills were lacking at times.