Legislature guards in voyeurism scandal
MONTREAL • They were supposed to be overseeing the security of Quebec’s National Assembly, the legislature that in 1984 was the scene of a gunman’s deadly attack.
But a group of provincial police officers and special constables stationed at the legislature are alleged to have considered it a “running gag” that one of their colleagues regularly used a security camera to zoom in on hotel windows in search of nudity and sex acts.
The voyeuristic Sûreté du Québec sergeant, Stéphane Demers, pleaded guilty to two charges under the provincial police ethics code, leading to the 27-year veteran’s dismissal last month.
On Wednesday, an ethics committee hearing is set to begin into allegations that four SQ officers and two National Assembly constables neglected to intervene to stop Demers over the nearly two years he was peeping into hotel windows in Quebec City.
According to an agreed statement of facts in Demers’ case, he frequently aimed one of the legislature’s security cameras at the windows of the Hilton hotel across the street between 2010 and 2012.
He would zoom in on rooms that were lit up and had the curtains open. His colleagues told investigators Demers “was looking for nudity or sexual activity by the hotel guests,” the ethics committee’s decision says.
One security guard told investigators Demers used the camera to scan “all the floors. When there was light and movement, he stopped and zoomed in on this place.”
Demers was the highestranking officer on duty during the night shifts he worked. His behaviour first came to light when a coworker tipped off Le Soleil newspaper, which led to a formal complaint to the police ethics committee from the speaker of the National Assembly, Jacques Chagnon.
Chagnon wrote that Demers had “violated the (hotel guests’) privacy and integrity.”
In a joint submission, lawyers representing Demers and the police ethics commissioner recommended that he be given a 16-day suspension. Demers’ lawyer filed a DVD to show that the video of the hotel guests was of poor quality, showing only silhouettes.
But ethics committee chairman Pierre Gagné called Demers behaviour “scandalous” and noted that he disregarded warnings from his underlings to stop. Three National Assembly security guards who joined in the voyeurism had already been fired.
“Clearly, Sgt. Demers dishonoured the post he occupies,” Gagné wrote.
The news comes as the National Assembly undergoes major renovations to improve security. Chagnon said in June that the legislature is vulnerable and could be the target of terrorist attacks. In 1984, Denis Lortie killed three workers after storming into the building.