SPVM transfers internal affairs investigations to SQ
With its internal affairs department under fire, Montreal police Chief Philippe Pichet has decided to transfer all ongoing internal affairs investigations to the Sûreté du Québec. In an email sent to the force’s 5,000 officers and employees, Pichet said he was transferring the investigations “for the sake of transparency.”
The force has been under the microscope since the TVA network aired interviews last week with former members of the Montreal police who allege they were victims of fabricated evidence generated by the department’s internal affairs division in order to silence them on allegations of internal corruption. Pichet’s move “was a good decision given the circumstances,” said Yves Francoeur, head of the Montreal police brotherhood.
Pichet had requested last week that the SQ investigate the allegations.
But on Friday, Public Security Minister Martin Coiteux revealed he had received several other allegations and expanded the investigation to include investigators from the RCMP and other police forces. The broadened investigation will be co-directed by SQ assistant director general Yves Morency and Madeleine Giauque, the head of the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI), an independent police-oversight agency that launched last year.
Coiteux also ordered a separate administrative probe into the force.
In the TVA interview, Jimmy Cacchione and Giovanni Di Feo said they had been ousted from the police service in 2014 because they were about to blow the whistle on corruption allegations that would have hurt the reputation of then-police chief Marc Parent and other high-ranking officers. They alleged that the Montreal police internal affairs division made up incriminating evidence to discredit them and justify their dismissal.
A third officer, Roger Larivière, told TVA his home and office were searched by Montreal police officers in 2014, shortly after he met with a journalist at a Montreal restaurant.
Pichet held an emergency meeting on Saturday with his senior officers to discuss the investigations into the internal affairs department. The police director said he has no intention of resigning. Pichet was not giving interviews on Tuesday.