The Quebec police ethics committee resumed Monday its hearings surrounding the work of five police officers from the Public Security of Uashat mak Mani-Utenam (SPUM), who did not carry out an adequate follow-up of a complaint filed for the assault. sexuality of a minor.
The hearing resumed virtually with the testimony of France Boisvert, chief reporting officer at the Direction de la protection de la jeunesse (DPJ) of the North Shore, who was in post at the time of the events in 2011.
Ms. Boisvert was harsh about the work of police officer Guy Olivier who had conducted the interrogation of the alleged victim, criticizing him for the slowness of the investigation and his lack of training.
She also questioned her ability to conduct a non-suggestive interrogation of a child victim of assault, saying she was surprised at the short duration of the interrogation during which the child had been very explicit about the assaults. he would have been a victim.
The police officer’s attorney, Me Jean-François Bertrand, cross-examined this witness at length and was particularly interested in the steps taken by the DPJ to protect the victim from his attacker.
It was then shown that only voluntary measures were taken to prevent contact between the victim and the aggressor due to the collaboration of the victim’s mother.
The hearings will continue for the next two weeks, still in virtual mode.
We will discuss the procedures surrounding the analysis of a forensic kit by the police officers of the SPUM, the ethics committee having to determine whether this procedure was carried out according to the imposed rules.
The police had been accused of failing to intervene to protect a seven-year-old child after a complaint of sexual assault was filed in 2011.
Four days of hearings were then held in September 2019, followed by a request for a stay of proceedings that the prosecutor Me Jean-François Bertrand tried to obtain, without success.
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