The SPVM has entrusted one of its biggest occupational health and safety files to an officer qualified as a “harasser” by the human resources department of the City of Montreal, learned The Press.
Chief Inspector Costa Labos, former head of internal affairs at the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), was the subject of a devastating report in 2020.
The defendant [Costa Labos] has failed in its most basic obligations and responsibilities in terms of occupational health and safety and, more broadly, respect for people. Not only did he not protect the targeted police officers, as a line manager, even worse, he is a stalker.
Report from the human resources department of the City of Montreal
The report looked at the behavior of Mr. Labos towards other police officers during and after the Squad investigation, on the media leaks to the SPVM. It was within the framework of this investigation that the police had obtained a warrant to spy on the columnist Patrick Lagacé.
“The reports for psychological harassment made against the respondent are founded, in fact and in law”, concludes the confidential document, of which we obtained a copy.
However, the same Costa Labos is today launching legal proceedings against the SPVM in an important case that opposes it to the Commission for Standards, Equity, Health and Safety at Work (CNESST) and the Fraternité police on the securing of dozens of neighborhood police station parking lots. Police officers worry about being attacked before the start of their shift or after.
The SPVM refused the request for an interview with The Press. The police force “will not make any public comment on a confidential document emanating from the Division of the respect of the person of the Service of human resources of the City”, indicates its service of the communications.
The Police Brotherhood denounces this apparent contradiction. “It’s absurd,” said President Yves Francœur in a telephone interview. We would never allow a police officer in the same situation to act like that. It’s double weights, two measures. »
A sworn statement
Costa Labos was suspended from duty for almost five years, from 2017 to 2022, in the wake of the Escouade file. He was reinstated last year in the organization’s corporate affairs department.
It is within this department that he leads the issue of securing police station parking lots, a long-standing demand of the Brotherhood of Police Officers. Chief Inspector Labos notably signed a legal proceeding filed last week before the Superior Court of Quebec in this case.
The SPVM is seeking to challenge a court decision that gives it only six months to assess the risks to which its police officers expose themselves by parking their personal cars in unprotected parking lots. The delay is “clearly unreasonable and insufficient”, pleads the City.
It was Mr. Labos who provided the affidavit in support of the proceedings. “I have read this application and all of the facts alleged herein are true to the best of my knowledge,” Mr. Labos swore in writing. As part of my duties, I am aware of all the steps that have been completed by the [Ville] in order to comply. »
Suspensions and Reinstatements
The investigation report of the Human Resources Department of the City of Montreal was signed on November 6, 2020 by Raynald Lamontagne, specialized adviser at the Respect for Persons Division.
His work followed a union grievance filed on behalf of five police officers suspended in 2016 in the wake of the Escouade investigation. They were reinstated in 2021.
The police alleged that “the SPVM management, with the concerted complicity of internal affairs, has chosen to use the judicial system for disciplinary and organizational purposes, if not for vindictive purposes, pure and simple”. By transforming their disciplinary investigation into media leaks into criminal investigations, Costa Labos and his men made it possible to obtain search warrants or electronic surveillance.
The way Costa Labos and some of these men behaved during and after the Escouade investigation is reprehensible, according to this report.
“We are also of the opinion that the respondent [Labos] failed in its obligation of loyalty to the employer by tarnishing the image and reputation of the SPVM and, more broadly, those of the City,” the letter states. “He placed himself in a situation of ethical conflict, thus contravening the Code of Conduct and other police standards provided for in the matter. »
“It should be noted that we were not allowed to have access to the explanations of the head of the internal affairs department, at the time of the alleged facts, namely the respondent [Labos]the latter having refused to cooperate in the investigation, ”says the letter.
With the collaboration of Daniel Renaud, The Press
