Late last Friday night, Montreal police (SPVM) Chief Fady Dagher revealed that a police team within Station 39 in Montreal North had been dismantled following serious allegations of racist and discriminatory behaviour.
Two officers have been suspended, while others have been reassigned as both internal and potential criminal investigations move forward.
Related:
On Monday, Quebec Interior Security Minister Ian Lafrenière said he will appoint an independent observer to oversee SPVM’s investigations and that he may order a public inquiry depending on the findings.
CityNews caught up with SPVM Chief-Inspector David Shane to find out the latest on where the investigation stands.
CityNews: Can you explain how these allegations first came to light and when exactly?
SPVM Chief-Inspector, David Shane: “It was last March, that we received the allegations concerning, it started off more general. It was serious, but there were no real specifics. So the decision was made to launch an internal investigation to know more about it. And so we interviewed a lot of people and then last Thursday around lunchtime, we received information that brought the case to a level in which we were comfortable to have enough to take action.
“Now, normally we would always wait for the end of an investigation or decision made by the Crown prosecutors. But in this case, we decided that because of the severity of the allegations, in order to have a preventive measure to stop any new infractions from being committed and also to make the investigation more easy, we decided to take decisive action right away. So we took the next 24 hours to organize the intervention and then the next time that the team was on their shift, we met with them and we proceeded with the suspensions and in the next minutes, we called the press conference to tell everybody about it and be very transparent on how we were dealing with the case.”
CityNews: Are you able to clarify who exactly came forth with those allegations?
SPVM Chief-Inspector, David Shane: “Well, right now you mentioned, this is a criminal investigation, but there are different allegations of different orders. So you mentioned behaviors, some criminal infractions, but also disciplinary type infractions as well that we are presently investigating, sorry. And so we had enough to suspend two officers and then three of the others, we reassigned to administrative duties and the 11 others, we reassigned to other units where they will not be answering 911 calls. So we decided to take those measures, as I said, as a preventive measure to make sure that there’s no other infractions the time that we conduct the investigation, but we had enough for two individuals that the severity was enough for us to decide to suspend them. And at this time, we are still in the midst of the investigation.
CityNews: Are you able to tell us whether the commander of police Station 39, Elaine Mercier, who was in charge when allegations were made public, will continue in her role?
SPVM Chief-Inspector, David Shane: “This is all part of the investigation and all the verifications that are being led inside this case. But in our case, the commander of the Station 39 was already set for retirement, so there’s another commander that’s there since June 1.”
CityNews: Concerning the recent allegations, is the SPVM able to confirm that they found braids or dreadlocks and at least one locker of a police officer at Station 39?
SPVM Chief-Inspector, David Shane: “Well, very, very unfortunately, and I’m sorry for that, but I cannot go into specifics. It’d be very tempting to just talk about everything very plainly, but this is a criminal investigation and we cannot leave anything to chance. If we start talking about the specifics, then we’re at risk of losing parts of the case or parts of the evidence or the proof. And we open to different measures that eventually, if this case is brought in front of the court, we can be reprimanded for doing that type of thing.
“So, but what I can tell you is that, it is part of the allegations that we received and that part, if it is proven true, is totally unacceptable. And it’s very dehumanizing as a behavior and in the Montreal police, as in the city of Montreal, we do not tolerate any racist behavior and I think we demonstrated that we’ve taken action and I must mention that, it’s employees from the Montreal police that came forward with this information and it is employees from the Montreal police that are conducting the investigation and it is Chief Dagher and the staff, the higher rankings that made the decision, the swift decisions to make the, proceed with those suspensions and reassigning of employees during the investigation. Again, we’re not at the end yet, we’re just starting.”
CityNews: We know that there’s an internal investigation going on. Are there intentions to hand this off to an external party at some point?
SPVM Chief-Inspector, David Shane:“There’s no intention on our behalf because we have the expertise, we have the transparency as shown since the beginning of the handling of this case, but the Minister of Interior Security yesterday communicated his decision to appoint an independent observer and we will cooperate with that measure, we will welcome the observer once the person is named and we’ve done it in the past in other cases and again, we’re gonna be transparent since the beginning, we’ve been transparent and we will be until the end and we’re putting every effort to solve this case and shed light to all aspects of all the allegations that were made to us. We’ve heard our personnel and the community on different allegations, we’ve taken the swift and decisive action and since Friday night, Chief Dagher has been in the public eye like giving media interviews, nonstop all weekend and Monday and today I’m giving them because he’s on the road, he’s meeting with communities, meeting with personnel in the field and so we will maintain that open communication line with the media, with the public and we’ll cooperate with any measure that any level of government decides.”
CityNews: You mentioned that Chief Dagher is on the road meeting with communities. On Monday night, Haitian groups came together to call on a meeting to happen between them and the police chief. Has that been set up?
SPVM Chief-Inspector, David Shane: “He’s accepted to meet them. So both are the teams from the organization and us, we’re looking at when this meeting can happen. Chief Dagher, since he’s been here, he’s been open and very communicative and always in the field meeting with community organizations, the community. He’s brought a lot of change and he will continue to do the same.”
CityNews: How does the SPVM intend to reinstall trust with the public moving forward?
SPVM Chief-Inspector, David Shane: “That is a good question. It’s a priority for us and a priority for Chief Dagher to build the truth, to continue to build and solidify the trust. And it’s something that’s very important in Montreal police. I know that we face a lot of criticism and a lot of people are appalled with what they’ve been hearing and we are too. But what we’d like to say is that, we’d like for people to choose to see this as a spark of hope because what we’ve put in place in the last years under the leadership of Chief Dagher has created the conditions for employees, internal employees to denounce this behavior.
“This is something that might not have happened if you’d go back 10, 20 years. This is not something maybe that would have been brought in the public eye and it did. And when they did, we took immediate action, we took decisive action. And I think this is, at least this needs to be considered for what it is, is taking action. It’s not promises. We have different plans, programs we’ve done so much in the last years, probably not enough. We understand that and we have a long road ahead of us. But we’d like to see it as a spark of hope and a show of action.”
