MONTREAL -- A union leader for provincial police officers started a campaign that has raised thousands of dollars for an officer found guilty in the dangerous driving death of five-year-old Nicholas Thorne-Belance.”
A description of the online fundraiser, which has raised more than $67,000 as of Thursday afternoon, stated it was created as "a gesture of solidarity and compassion" to officer Patrick Ouellet, "who took a bullet for the entire police community."
The boy's mother, Stephanie Thorne, declined to comment on the fundraiser, but a family friend, Danny Fortin, told CTV News the family is not pleased with it.
"People who write those comments don’t think about the family when they write that … seriously, that’s not normal," Fortin said in an interview Thursday.
"Nobody in the family and (none of their) friends are happy with that situation, but they don’t want to do anything else about that."
Others wrote on Facebook, saying they are also in shock about the amount of money that has been raised so far, calling it "ridiculous."
"Seriously the world is sickening me," wrote Noemie Lapointe in a Facebook thread about the fundraiser.
"Blue lives matter more, it seems," said Jean-Yves Roux in another comment.
An online fundraiser is raising money for Surete du Quebec officer Patrick Ouellet, who was found guilty in the 2014 dangerous driving death of five-year-old Nicholas Thorne-Belance.
Last week, Ouellet lost an appeal of the 2018 guilty verdict and turned himself in to serve an eight-month sentence in the boy’s death.
Thorne-Belance was a passenger in the back seat of his dad’s car when it was hit in the Feb. 13, 2014 collision. He died in hospital several days later.
Ouellet was on duty doing surveillance at the time of the crash and was travelling at an estimated 134 km/h on a 50 km/h residential street in St. Hubert, Que., south of Montreal, seconds before the collision.
Patrick Ouellet was sentenced to eight months in jail for the dangerous driving death of Nicholas Thorne-Belance, 5.
In its ruling last week, the Quebec Court of Appeal stated that while police officers are afforded certain permissions to deviate from traffic laws in performing their duties, the circumstances in the Ouellet case do not justify "driving in excess of 80 km/h over the speed limit, without sirens or lights, on a weekday morning in a residential neighbourhood."
Tommy Giroux, a director with the police union L’Association des policières et policiers provinciaux du Québec (APPQ), created the online fundraiser on March 12, the same day Ouellet went to jail.
Giroux declined an interview request from CTV on Thursday.
A description on the fundraiser website said the money would be a "small contribution" for Ouellet who is no longer being paid.
"I remind you that Agent Ouellet acted during the accident according to the teachings of his organization. It was the organizational culture of the time to never lose your subject during physical surveillance that contributed to this horrific accident," the description reads.
"We all feel helpless in the face of this situation."
A spokesperson for the Surete du Quebec said the police force is aware of the online fundraiser and that officers are free to support one of their colleagues.
"They are doing that on their own. If the members want to be supportive toward their colleague, then they can do it. It is not illegal to do so," Sgt. Ann Mathieu told CTV News.
"As an organization, we understand the feeling they can have toward their colleague."
The goal of the fundraiser was recently increased to $100,000.
