$9M inquest into scandal kicks off
Five months after the bombshell revelations that Montreal police had obtained two dozen court warrants to spy on La Presse reporter Patrick Lagacé’s smartphone conversations, the Chamberland Commission kicks off hearings Monday to get to the bottom of that scandal and to learn about possible political interference into police investigations.
Justice Jacques Chamberland of the Quebec Court of Appeal will head the $9-million inquiry, which is to publish its report by March 1 next year.
The hearings will be followed closely not only by police and the news media but by Quebec’s political class as well, as the inquiry is expected to unearth details of questionable practices by some elected officials and investigators going back to 2010.
“I do hope that (the inquiry) will finally shed light on practices which should be frowned upon by a police force in a free and democratic society,” Stéphane Giroux, president of the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec, told the Montreal Gazette in an email Friday.
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard announced the inquiry in November following not only the revelations that police had snooped on Lagacé — despite the fact that he was not suspected of a crime — but that the Sûreté du Québec had obtained the phone records of six other reporters for a separate investigation into leaks to the news media years earlier.
“It is obvious that the SQ and the SPVM were not interested in knowing if reporters were committing crimes,” Giroux added, alluding to the Sûreté du Québec and the Montreal police department.
“What they wanted was to use us to achieve their own internal witch hunt. Our main concern now is that during the commission, the police forces will try to turn the tables around and hijack the commission to focus on how journalists do their job.”
Chamberland, a judge since 1993, will be assisted by two commissioners: veteran media lawyer Guylaine Bachand and Alexandre Matte, a former Quebec City police chief. The commissioners will hold both closed-door and public hearings.
The commission’s mandate will cover police activities as they pertain to journalists since May 22, 2010, when the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that despite freedom of the press, reporters do not enjoy a constitutional right to shield the identity of their sources during police investigations.
The inquiry will also make recommendations to the government “on best practices and concrete actions to ensure respect for the (reporter’s) privilege in protecting the identity of journalistic sources,” commission spokeswoman Anne Dongois said in an email.
“These recommendations may also address the practices of the director of criminal and penal prosecutions, the guidelines surrounding judicial authorizations (of search warrants) and the appropriateness of amending the relevant legislative and administrative frameworks.”
The commission will devote the next two weeks of hearings to learn about “the environment in which journalists, police and judges have evolved in a democracy such as Quebec,” Dongois added.
But Quebecers will have to wait until May and June to learn more about what has come to be known as “L’Affaire Lagacé,” as that is when the hearings will address the events that were reported last fall, including the allegations of political interference into police investigations.