“It is better not to get lost” in the forest during the summer holidays if the SQ is already deployed on another search or protection operation, conceded a former retired officer as part of the public inquiry into the file. Carpenter.
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The restructuring in 2019 of the emergency measures division of the Sûreté du Québec again caused a lot of talk on Tuesday at the public inquiry into the deaths of Norah and Romy.
Ex-lieutenant Dany Boulianne, who was an emergency measures officer in 2020 during Operation Carpentier, admitted that certain times of the year have been more at risk since the cuts.
“During the summer period, with the holidays, if in addition we come to mix other events with all that, it is certain that we should not get lost [en forêt]“, replied the retired lieutenant when questioned about the fact that the Carpentier file occurs in mid-July.
“Under the circumstances, and it’s not fair on this research [Carpentier]we do what we have with the guys we have.”
22 officers for the entire province
Operations officer Claude St-Germain came to present the details of the staff in place at the emergency measures division in July 2020. After the restructuring, 45 police officers hold positions in the emergency measures intervention module. Of these, only 22 are available on the morning of July 9 for various reasons, including holidays. (See box)
These 22 officers are likely to be deployed to simultaneous events in the province and that is what is happening on June 9. Agents are required in Alma for the Prime Minister’s close protection and others are sent to Natashquan for an armed individual on the run in an Aboriginal community.
“So it’s 22 to cover the size of Quebec,” coroner Luc Malouin asked the witness.
“Effectively. […] And this is the time of year when holiday ratios are at their peak. On a team of 7, 2 agents can be on vacation at the same time. It takes people away,” explained Lieutenant St-Germain.
Call for reinforcement: only 1 police officer on… 43
And the height is that the SQ has provided for this reality in its restructuring by offering the possibility to non-specialized highway patrol officers to train. 43 agents were thus trained as “GPS-Compass walkers” in the months following the overhaul of the emergency measures department, but the response was more than timid when the bosses required their services in Saint-Apollinaire.
“We took steps and found a member of the highway component who came to support. The others were on vacation, on leave or refused to participate,” testified Claude St-Germain.
“Of the 43 that we had in surplus, only one returned,” asked Luc Malouin.
“Yes”, was content to reply the lieutenant.
Untrained reinforcements
The training of surplus agents also remains deficient, if not non-existent.
A first cohort of 175 police officers was trained in various specialties in 2019, but several have since left. As proof, of the 43 “GPS-Compass specialist walkers” who volunteered, there are only 19 left today.
And no other training has been organized since 2019.
“We tried to practice, but there was none Mr. Coroner. Every time we organized training and we invited them, he returned to a mission and we had to cancel,” said Mr. St-Germain, admitting that as of today, no other training had occurred.
Moreover, given this failure, the SQ has reviewed its ways of doing things, moving the staff of this “second basin” from the highway posts to operational support teams dispersed in all the regions. The training of these agents continues in 2023 indicated the witness, but “8 times out of 10, we are obliged to postpone”.
Specialized research staff in July 2020
Emergency Measures Division
- 45 total police officers within the units of Mascouche, St-Hubert and Quebec
- July 9: 9
- July 10: 9
- July 11: 15
- July 9: 6
- July 10: 9
- July 11: 8
- July 9: 6
- July 10: 5
- July 11: 3
- July 9: 19
- July 10: 18
- July 11: 16
- July 9: 2
- July 10: 1
- July 11: 1
- July 9: 2
- July 10: 2
- July 11: 2
- July 9: 1
- July 10: 1
- July 11: 0
Source: Presentation by police officer Claude St-Germain, SQ, coroner’s public inquiry
The crash on Highway 20 happened on July 8, 2020, and the bodies of Norah and Romy were found around noon on July 11.