A new unit of independent investigators who are charged with examining any deaths or injuries caused by police in Quebec will open on June 27.
“We have the mandate to investigate the death of a citizen, serious injury, or any injury with a firearm,” said Bureau of Independent Investigators Director Madeleine Giauque.
The formation of the bureau, whose headquarters will be located in Longueuil, comes after years of complaints of bias in investigations pertaining to police. Prior to its founding, incidents involving police violence were investigated by another of the province’s police bodies.
The new bureau is composed of 18 investigators, including seven civilians. Among them are a criminologist, a journalist, two lawyers and 11 former police officers.
“I’m sure that everybody will do his job correctly,” said Giauque. “The events that we will investigate are serious events and we want to be very independent and impartial about that.”
However, Civil Liberties League spokesperson Dominique Peschard said the presence of so many police veterans is cause for concern.
“That was one of the major problems we identified from the start and one of our main demands was that it would be totally independent from past police work,” she said.
She added that her group is pleased that new legislation expected in the fall will also permit the group to look into accusations of sexual assault.
In 2015, accusations that Surete du Quebec officers had sexually assaulted Indigenous women in Val-d’Or became public.
“We’re skeptical they’ll fulfill what the public expects and we’ll be watchful to see how it goes in practice,” said Peschard.
Giauque, a former Crown prosecutor, said she expects the public’s expectations will be met.
“It’s my last job before I retire,” she said. “I want to leave something that is well done and important for our society.”
