In an unprecedented move, Quebec’s justice minister has ordered a second independent prosecutor to look into the death of a five-year-old boy killed by a speeding police officer in Longueuil.
The case was ordered by Justice Minister Stephanie Vallee to reopened by the director of criminal and penal prosecutions in light of witness statements made in recent days.
Making a brief statement from Quebec City, Vallee said she felt the time had come to ask a group of independent prosecutors, which will include a retired judge, to review the evidence.
"It's important to maintain the public's faith in this important institution (the Crown) and that's why we've come to the conclusion it would be appropriate to submit the file to independent prosecutors," she said.
The group will decide whether to recommend charges against the officer and will make any recommendations public.
"As a minister and a mother, I am very sensitive to the plight of victims," she said.
Nicholas Thorne-Belance died Feb. 17, four days after an SQ officer in an unmarked car travelling more than double the speed limit slammed into his father’s car at the intersection of Gaetan Boucher Blvd. and Davis Blvd. in Longueuil.
Belance was driving his children to school and making a left-hand turn when he was rammed by an unmarked police car speeding at 122 km/h.
The police car’s lights were not flashing, nor were its sirens blasting. The officer slammed on the brakes, hitting the car at 90 km/h. The speed limit in that zone is 50 km/h.
La Presse reported the car was one of four unmarked vehicles working for the province's anti-corruption unit UPAC, and that the officer who caused the deadly collision was following former Liberal Party director Robert Parent.
His lights were off and sirens turned off to avoid detection, an accepted practice, the Crown revealed Friday.
The child's father told investigators he made a left-hand turn on a solid green light and did not wait for the flashing green light. He attempted to slow down after noticing the fast-moving car hurtling toward them one second before impact.
Witness Madeleine Noiseux was interviewed as part of the investigation and, according to the Crown, said the father should have waited for the blinking light before performing the turn, billed as a “risky manoeuvre.”
Following the police investigation, the Crown prosecutor decided not to lay charges. A key factor in that decision was the notion that the father was at least partly in the wrong.
But Noiseux, who was waiting for the bus at the intersection where the crash took place, has told various media outlets she believed the police officer was at fault, prompting the Crown to ask police to re-interview her and take the necessary steps to continue the investigation should they uncover any new information.
With files from The Canadian Press
