Quebec officer found guilty
High-speed chase resulted in death of boy, 5
LONGUEUIL, Que. • A Montreal-area police officer was found guilty Thursday of dangerous driving causing the death of a five-year-old boy in 2014.
Patrick Ouellet was tailing a suspect in an undercover police car and driving at 134 km/h in a residential zone when he crashed into a car being driven by the father of Nicholas Thorne-Belance.
The child was pinned inside the car before first responders arrived. He died days after he was taken to a hospital. The boy’s sister was also inside the car and was injured.
Ouellet, a provincial police officer, looked impassively at the floor as Judge Éric Simard read his decision. Simard said that there was no justification for the risks Ouellet took that morning in 2014 when he and two other police officers sped down Gaétan-Boucher Blvd. near a daycare and a bus stop.
The officers were taking part in a corruption investigation that morning. The three men, in separate cars, were on their way to a surveillance operation at a suspect’s workplace at the time of the accident. All were driving over the speed limit. Ouellet, then 29, had been following a former director general of Quebec’s Liberal party as part of an investigation by the province’s anticorruption unit.
According to the car’s airbag data, Ouellet was travelling at 134 km/h when he saw a car turning into his lane.
He applied the brakes. Two seconds later, the cars collided. At the moment of impact, Ouellet’s Toyota was travelling at 108 km/h. The speed limit for that part of the boulevard was 50 km/h.
“It can certainly happen that a police officer must take some risks when driving his vehicle,” Simard said in his judgment. “But what circumstances could justify driving over 80 kilometres per hour over the speed limit, without sirens or lights on a weekday morning in a residential area?”
In a report released after the incident, an expert concluded that the accident could have been avoided if Ouellet had been driving 80 km/h.
Outside the courtroom, prosecutor Geneviève Langlois said that the Crown was happy with the verdict and the victim’s family was satisfied that justice was being carried out.
Thorne-Belance’s family was emotional: they embraced each other and some wiped tears from their eyes.
The boy’s parents were initially told that no charges would be laid against Ouellet, but a public outcry convinced Justice Minister Stephanie Vallée to order an independent committee review the case. In May 2015, Ouellet was charged with the Criminal Code offence of dangerous driving causing death. The offence carries a maximum 14-year sentence. There is no minimum sentence.
Richard Rompré, an observer in the courtroom, was driven to tears by the guilty verdict. His son died in a similar accident in 2012.
Eric Rompré was 25 years old when he was killed in an accident involving a police officer travelling 180 km/h while responding to an emergency call. The officer was found guilty of dangerous driving causing death, but the case is still going through the appeal process.
Rompré said these types of incidents happen all too frequently because there’s no system in place to monitor Quebec police officers who drive too fast. He cited an incident that happened on Jan. 3, 2018 when two people were killed in a collision with a Sûreté du Québec vehicle. That incident is being investigated.
“I feel really sad because this should have never happened,” he said. “It’s not (Ouellet’s) fault. He was trained that way.”
Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 22. Ouellet’s lawyer, Nadine Touma, said she plans to appeal.
IT’S NOT (OUELLET’S) FAULT. HE WAS TRAINED THAT WAY.