Police officer fired for ‘liking’ photos of Hells Angels blonde

A Saint-Eustache police officer could indeed be fired for having maintained links with individuals associated with the Hells Angels on social networks, ruled the arbitration tribunal.

“[Elle] showed genuine recklessness amounting to a flagrant lack of judgment. The most elementary prudence should have led him to sort through his Facebook contacts and no longer feed those [qui sont] obviously compromising, from the moment she becomes a police officer”, underlined the arbitrator Andrée St-Georges, in a recent decision.

Police officer Tanya Larivée was fired in October 2019 because of the “breaking of the bond of trust necessary for the function of police officer” with her employer, for several reasons, including the fact that she was friends on Facebook with the spouse of a Hell’s Angels.

The fall of the policewoman began in April 2019, when she was on loan for two months to the Service de police de la Ville de Laval for Project X, an operation to collect information on the places frequented by people who revolve around organized crime.

Problematic “likes”

On April 4, accompanied by colleagues, she meets an acquaintance with whom she had already worked in a bar. She tells the other police officers that the woman is in a relationship with a “big bandit”. This is the spouse of Michel Lamontagne, now a member in good standing of the Hells of the Montreal chapter.

“She even knew her well enough to remain her Facebook friend. […], to the point of being able to resort to this tool to carry out an investigation on it. Also to the point of like his contemporary photos displaying in particular Michel Lamontagne, his spouse, then hang around among the Hells Angels, like other people linked to the criminal milieu. Let’s not forget that during all this time, she is a police officer at the SPVSE, ”was surprised the referee.

The woman in question was one of ten women of honor at the very popular wedding of Annie Arbic, in December 2018, daughter of a drug trafficker from Kanesatake, Sharon Simon. She then married Martin Robert, a member in good standing and one of the most influential Hells Angels in Quebec.

A photo of the event was prominently displayed on the police officer’s Facebook profile, when the latter “liked” a family photo showing Lamontagne, whose face was masked by an emoji. Concerned, the Laval police no longer wanted policewoman Larivée in their Project X squad, and an investigation began.

Disturbing Findings

The Saint-Eustache police immediately put their agent on paid leave, the time to carry out an investigation, which led to disturbing findings.

The service learned in particular that she had tried to “obtain masking products in order to be able to be admitted to Police techniques in order to camouflage [sa] drug use,” reads the decision.

Indeed, as part of one of its investigations, the Sûreté du Québec had intercepted a communication from the former police officer with a trafficker with the aim of buying speed and clenbuterol, a kind of steroid, and products to mask his drug use.

Also, during the hearings at the arbitration tribunal, it was revealed that, in the past, Tanya Larivée’s candidacy had been refused to the Montreal police as well as to the Laval police, “for security reasons […] either the fact that she has links with criminalized people even though she failed to declare it in her job application, ”we read.

Also, she had omitted to declare that she obtained an income by being a physical trainer. “The employer had serious grounds for terminating the complainant’s employment. He succeeded in proving this as well as in demonstrating that the faults revealed had the effect of causing an irremediable breach of the bond of trust, and this, with regard to a police officer from whom we must s expect exemplary probity at all times. So dictates the very nature of the function,” concluded arbitrator Andrée St-Georges.

Hiring criteria have since changed

To avoid any unpleasant surprises, the method of hiring agents for the Saint-Eustache police has been modified since the dismissal of Larivée, in particular with much more exhaustive questionnaires.

“With a view to tightening the criteria in terms of security, the said form is now much more elaborate. It contains about twenty pages including questions on gambling habits, drug or alcohol consumption and questionable associates, in short, a series of very personal questions”, can we read in the decision of the arbitrator Andrée St. -George.

When the police officer was hired in 2017, the process consisted of sorting CVs, analyzing the forms filled out by the candidates, the selection interview accompanied by psychometric and medical tests, as well as only through a security check on the candidates and their families.

Since then, the Police Department of the City of Saint-Eustache has also added a polygraph test and a screening test.