Inquiry to probe police surveilling of reporters
Revelations are ‘unprecedented crisis,’ Quebec MNA says
• In the National Assembly Thursday, revelations police spied on seven Quebec journalists in an attempt to identify their sources were described as “an unprecedented crisis” by one opposition MNA.
Premier Philippe Couillard agreed to a public commission of inquiry into the scandal, declaring that freedom of the press and the protection of journalists’ sources are fundamental principles of a democratic society.
The legislature held a rare emergency debate at the request of François Bonnardel, a Coalition Avenir Québec MNA, who said this week’s news is reminiscent of the former Eastern Bloc “when an authoritarian government was checking (on you), Big Brother monitoring almost all the comings and goings of its citizens.”
Even Martin Prud’homme, head of the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), the provincial force that admitted Wednesday to obtaining phone records of six investigative reporters, said he was “saddened” to learn the spying had taken place. “I cannot be proud,” he told Radio-Canada. In Ottawa, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was quick to stress “there is nothing of this sort happening at the federal level ….
“Not only is freedom of the press important, it’s one of the foundational safeguards of a free democracy, of a free society.”
The broad denunciation of the police actions is heartening for Quebec’s journalists and the public, to whom many of the targeted reporters are household names. But it would be a mistake to take all the indignation at face value. It was not long ago some of the same reporters were being hailed as guardians of democracy.
Radio-Canada’s investigative program, Enquête, played a major role in uncovering corruption in the construction industry. Its work, along with that of La Presse and other Montreal newspapers, sparked an outcry that forced a reluctant Liberal government to call the Charbonneau inquiry.
In the commission’s final report published last year, lead commissioner France Charbonneau outlined how investigative journalism had sparked an inquiry that exposed ingrained corruption, which enriched organized crime while robbing taxpayers of millions.
“In order to have a more honest and ethical Quebec, it is now up to Quebecers to get actively involved, especially in reporting any attempt at collusion or corruption, and any ethical irregularity,” Charbonneau wrote. “Reporters must continue their important work as watchdogs of democracy.”
Clearly not everyone was as pleased. Quebec’s two largest police forces — the SQ and the Montreal police department — seem to think investigative journalism is more a nuisance than a public service. They have gone to unprecedented lengths to compromise reporters’ ability to do their work.
The Charbonneau commission was in full swing when the SQ obtained warrants in 2013 to access the phone records of former and current Enquête reporters, Alain Gravel, Isabelle Richer and Marie-Maude Denis, and Denis Lessard and André Cédilot of La Presse and Éric Thibault of the Journal de Montréal.
In some cases, police obtained five years of records, dating back to 2008.
With Quebecers glued to televised hearings of an inquiry born of investigative journalism, the SQ saw fit to sniff out reporters’ sources after union president Michel Arsenault complained to then-public security minister Stéphane Bergeron.
The first warrant obtained by Montreal police to monitor the calls of La Presse reporter Patrick Lagacé was issued in January, two months after Charbonneau published her report.
Montreal police said Thursday they had uncovered a case similar to Lagacé’s, bringing the number of reporters spied on to eight.
Like Lagacé, the latest case dating to 2014 involved an investigation into a police officer suspected of criminal activity. The reporter was not immediately identified because the file against the officer is in the hands of the prosecution office.
Gravel, Enquête’s former host, told Radio-Canada, “It makes me feel sick. The police had their noses in our phone records.”
Cédilot, an organized crime expert who retired from La Presse in 2010, said police obtained his phone records for 17 months in 200809, and he is worried for his sources.
“We never imagined that the police could conduct surveillance on us,” he said. “I feel like my house has been broken into. I feel like they invaded my personal and professional privacy.”
The indifference shown by police and the judiciary toward a lesson from Charbonneau is not reassuring. Serious damage has already been done. By raising the possibility they are monitoring journalists’ phones, police may have discouraged the next whistleblower from coming forward.
“I can guarantee that the next person is going to think seriously about it,” Ken Pereira, a former union official who alerted the media to corruption in his union, told Radio-Canada. “It’s like a warning: Watch out. We are listening to you.”