Historic setback for complainants against police abuse in Québec

 

Rollback of the ethics regime will undermine collective oversight of police actions

Remember 2020? That year, the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer sparked a protest movement across North America, and far beyond. Justin Trudeau kneeled as an empty gesture of solidarity at a public demonstration. It felt as if suddenly politicians discovered the existence of racism and police brutality.

Did anything change for the better after this momentum died away? In Québec, the answer is a definite no. In fact, the situation for those who feel targeted by police has only gotten worse since the province’s only police ethics complaint system is now being significantly weakened.

Québec’s police ethics complaint system was established in 1990. The Police Act provides that anyone has the right to file a complaint to the police ethics commissioner even if they are not the direct victim of an alleged abuse. This made eminent sense: if officers are supposed to use their powers for the public good, it follows that any member of the public should be permitted to report inappropriate behaviour by a police officer—these are known as “third-party complainants.”

When a case has a strong evidentiary basis the officer against whom the complaint is lodged must stand trial before the police ethics committee, an administrative tribunal that has the power to impose sanctions ranging from a simple warning to permanent removal from police functions. The latter punishment is rare, so a guilty officer typically ends up with a suspension without pay in the most serious of cases, including police killings.

Previous provincial governments did “reform” the police ethics system. In 1997, conciliation between plaintiffs and the police was made mandatory while the window of time to file a complaint was cut in half to be only one year after the offense took place. At that time, the provincial government said it wanted to save money. But these new rules seriously weakened the police ethics system. Year after year, fewer than 10 percent of complaints are investigated. Meanwhile, the remaining 90 percent of complaints are rejected outright without even being investigated.

The police ethics commissioner has therefore become a machine whose function is primarily to dismiss complaints and effectively minimize the concerns of people who feel they are victims of police abuse or profiling. As a result, only one percent of officers end up being disciplined or charged by the police ethics committee.  (more...)

Historic setback for complainants against police abuse in Québec