Police spying inquiry hears of another targeted reporter
Investigation focused on journalists’ communications to get careful consideration
MONTREAL— The head of Quebec’s largest police department, who declared himself a defender of journalistic sources, was aghast to learn his force had obtained reporters’ phone records while probing a leak of confidential information.
But while Sûreté du Québec (SQ) Director General Martin Prud’homme talked up his actions after the scandal began last fall, he waited until the end of a long day of testimony at an inquiry into the confidentiality and protection of journalists’ sources to mention that it wasn’t the only case.
The revelation was a rough start for a process that began in earnest Monday with the aim of restoring public trust in the police following a series of problems that have spilled out into the open. In addition to the SQ, the Montreal police force has also admitted to monitoring journalists’ telephone communications while probing one of its own officers — a practice that has been denounced as an attack on press freedoms.
Prud’homme, who took leadership of the provincial force in 2014, has tried to stay above the fray, which has pitted both media commentators and his political masters against the SQ. His testimony emphasized that he placed restrictions on the practice within hours of learning on Nov. 1, 2016 at 2:30 p.m. that investigators probing a leaked wiretap recording had obtained a search warrant for the call logs of six reporters in 2013, going back as far as five years.
From that day, anyone seeking to target a journalist in their investigation would have to first obtain Prud’homme’s approval, which he suggested would not come easily.
“I am a fervent protector of sources and I also believe in journalistic sources. I think the media needs information to work,” he said.
Yet Prud’homme revealed he has been sitting on information for al- most four months about another reporter who had fallen into his force’s crosshairs — this time in 2012. He was informed of the case on Dec. 20, 2016 after a search of investigations going back to 1995. The name of Journal de Québec reporter Nicolas Saillant has been added to the list of reporters, with the dubious distinction of having been spied on by Quebec police. Many more have now been added to the list of those doubting the sincerity of police in the province.
“This is important information. This means there is a journalist who, since 2012, has been the subject of surveillance and didn’t know before right now,” François Fontaine, a lawyer for Quebecor Media, told the head of the commission, Jacques Chamberland. “We don’t know the context or the reason.” That information could come Tuesday when the examination of Prud’homme continues. But the head of the SQ said no journalists in Quebec have been targeted by his investigators since the initial revelations.
In the past, it appears investigators were relatively free to seek search warrants for journalists’ communications so long as they could draft a convincing application that would sway a justice of the peace.
Since last fall, the Quebec government set new standards requiring investigators to first have the approval of the crown prosecution service for such search warrant requests.
Chief Insp. André Goulet, head of the SQ’s criminal investigative section, also testified that officers have been told to treat journalists that may become involved in a criminal probe in the same manner lawyers, judges or politicians who may be in possession of sensitive information or have confidential relationships would be treated.