QUEBEC CITY - The era of police investigating police shootings in Quebec may be coming to an end.
Public Security Minister Robert Dutil said he is ready to introduce legislation that will establish some civilian oversight of police officers.
Currently, every time a firearm is discharged in Quebec, or police hurt an individual, the government orders another police force to perform an investigation.
Now Quebec appears ready to follow the lead of Ontario's Special Investigations Unit, which sees a mix of retired police officers and civilians investigating all police shootings.
Alberta also uses civilians for its investigations and Nova Scotia and British Colombia are planning to adopt some form of civilian oversight as well.
"We are working on that point also. It's an important point and as I said last spring we'll have a solution this autumn," said Dutil.
Montreal police chief Marc Parent spoke about the matter on Wednesday, and said he sees no significant problems with the current methodology, but acknowledges civilian oversight could be useful
"We know that we have to change the perception of police are investigating police, but I still believe that we can have a mixed team where you have civilians working with police officers that are, in my mind, the best people to do those kind of investigations," said Parent.
The debate about police investigations was rekindled this summer, when Montreal police officers shot and killed two people in downtown Montreal, one of them an innocent bystander.
