SEVERAL QUEBEC POLICE OFFICERS ENGAGED IN SEXUAL MISCONDUCT WHILE WORKING
AS UNITED NATIONS PEACEKEEPERS IN HAITI, BUT THEY HAVE RETIRED RATHER THAN FACE DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS.
MONTREAL • Two Quebec provincial police officers escaped disciplinary hearings for alleged sexual misconduct during peacekeeping missions in Haiti by taking early retirement, an outcome a United Nations watchdog says is all too typical.
“This kind of impunity for sexual offences by UN personnel involved in peacekeeping is no longer surprising,” said Paula Donovan, codirector of AIDS-Free World, which has a campaign targeting sexual exploitation by peacekeepers. “In fact, it’s become business as usual.”
The names of the two male Sûreté du Québec sergeants were not made public. One had a hearing scheduled for July 12, but retired shortly before. He allegedly had consensual sex with local women — in violation of the rules of the Canadian mission prohibiting fraternization — while serving in Haiti in from September 2014 to January 2015. He was assigned administrative duties after returning to Canada.
The second sergeant allegedly visited a Haitian bar in January 2013 that was offlimits to Canadian personnel and attempted to hire a prostitute. Once he was back in Canada, the SQ referred his case for possible criminal prosecution, but charges were never laid.
“Unfortunately, Canadian courts do not have any jurisdiction over events which have occurred in Haiti,” SQ spokesman Capt. Guy Lapointe said.
After the criminal case was closed, the matter was referred to the SQ’s internal disciplinary process, but the officer, who had been suspended with pay, retired in April 2015 before a hearing could be held.
Lapointe said once officers retire, they no longer fall under the jurisdiction of the SQ’s disciplinary process.
“Obviously, you want officers facing consequences,” he said. “But at the same time, when you think that the most serious (disciplinary) consequence they could face is to get fired, and they retire, the end result is the same. These officers are no longer police officers.”
News of the SQ officers follows a Radio-Canada report in April revealing two Montreal police officers fathered children with local women while they were serving with the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti.
In one case, the mother was the officer’s housekeeper. After being reported by work colleagues, he was suspended for nine days by the police force and subsequently retired.
A report on sexual exploitation and abuse by UN personnel published last February by the UN secretary-general — the first such report to identify offenders by nationality — noted two Canadians were accused of “exploitative relationships.” One was the Montreal officer suspended for nine days.
Samantha Powers, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, cited the incident as an example of the lenient treatment of offenders during debate at the Security Council last March.
RCMP spokesman Sgt. Harold Pfleiderer said one RCMP officer faces allegations of sexual exploitation or abuse for actions during a peacekeeping mission. He said he could not provide further details “for privacy reasons.”
During international policing operations, “the RCMP strictly prohibits intimate or sexual relations with members of the local population, due to the difference in real or perceived power and authority,” he said.
Donovan said even a consensual relationship between adults in a peacekeeping environment where “people are just scrambling for survival” is a form of exploitation.
“There is no way that a soldier or an armed police officer or an international civil servant working for the United Nations can be flown into that situation and have a consensual, equal relationship with any of the people that they are supposed to be serving,” she said.
Lapointe said cases of alleged abuse are isolated.
“We’re talking about two cases, one of which is not criminal, out of nearly 300 officers who have been deployed during the UN mission,” he said.