After the defense lawyers, it is the turn of the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) to express his concerns about the broadcast of the documentary The perfect victim on ICI Télé Tuesday evening. He asks that corrective measures or a warning be made. A request rejected by Radio-Canada.
“The DPCP is concerned that certain inaccuracies found therein reinforce the prejudice according to which it is difficult for a victim to obtain justice and that the exercise leads to further discourage victims from filing a complaint”, one can read in a statement. letter sent by the DPCP to the senior management of Radio-Canada, including the To have to got copy.
The DPCP gives as an example the rate of authorization of cases of sexual violence transmitted by the Police Department of the City of Montreal which would amount to 18% according to the documentary. “The deputy chief prosecutor in charge of the sexual violence team in Montreal, Mr.e Rachelle Pitre, herself carried out the manual census of all the files and confirms that it is rather 7 files out of 10, that is to say 70%, one specifies one.
Contacted by The duty, directors Émilie Perreault and Monic Néron referred the daily to a message posted on social networks in July in which they detailed their efforts to arrive at this controversial statistic.
At the start of the research process in 2019, they explain, the DPCP told them that no data on the subject existed. A year later, having finally obtained the latest statistics available through access to information requests, they met again with the DPCP. “If different numbers were to exist, it was essential that we were able to access them. If our understanding of these data was not correct or sufficiently precise, it was up to the DPCP to clarify. It did not happen. Radio silence ”, they indicate in their message, specifying that it was not until the day after the film’s media premiere for the data to be made public.
Other reviews
On Monday, four associations of Quebec defense lawyers also transmitted to Radio-Canada and its ombudsman their concerns about the broadcast of The perfect victim, asking outright its withdrawal from programming. The documentary contains several other falsehoods, they argued.
“If its demonstration is not flawless, this controversial film provides the opportunity for a discussion that is essential in our society”, had indicated in the wake of Radio-Canada, refusing to remove the documentary from its programming.
The state-owned company also refused on Tuesday to make any corrections or a warning – as requested by the DPCP – when the documentary aired on Tuesday evening.