Half of the investigators on the team responsible for finding the person who started the arson attack in Old Montreal have asked to be assigned to other investigations, due to internal conflicts surrounding the management of the case.
• Read also – Deadly fire in Old Montreal: police blunders complicate the investigation
Our Bureau of Investigation learned that four of the eight investigators could no longer bear the difficult climate within the main team which is looking into the deadliest fire in nearly 50 years in the metropolis.
This team is working on possible homicide charges. Other groups of police officers are also mobilized, particularly on the angle of criminal negligence.
Two investigators left in the weeks following the tragedy of March 16.
Two others then left the ship in mid-October, according to sources familiar with the matter. All have been replaced.
“It was a toxic work climate that led the four investigators to change teams,” says one of our sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because she is not authorized to speak to the media.
“They asked to change teams because things were going so badly,” says another informant.
Surveillance camera
One of the people who asked to change teams had around fifteen years of experience in major crimes, including almost 10 years in homicide.
According to our information, it is very rare for a police team to become empty in such a way in the middle of a major investigation.
Photo QMI Agency, Erik Peters
Yesterday, in response to our questions, the Montreal Police Service (SPVM) indicated that it “does not confirm or deny such movements within its organization.”
Our sources indicate that one of the elements at the heart of the conflict is the management of a video captured by a surveillance camera on the evening of the tragedy. We see a suspect leaving the building on Place D’Youville in the moments following the start of the fire.
Within the SPVM, some wanted to quickly arrest him for questioning, while others preferred to use various investigative techniques before questioning him.
Sunday, guest on the show Everybody talks about it on Radio-Canada, the director of the SPVM, Fady Dagher, nevertheless suggested that the investigation was going well. “In this case, I see no, no blunder. […] The people who are on the file have a lot of experience,” he said.
Relaunch the investigation
Mr. Dagher was reacting to a report published last week, in which we revealed that the investigation was floundering due to certain choices made by police officers.
Fady Dagher
Archive photo, Jonathan Tremblay
We wrote in particular that a suspect was arrested, then released without charge. The police officer who arrested him did not have an arrest or entry warrant. Police also seized and searched a cell phone without having a search warrant at the time.
We also learned that to relaunch the case, investigators notably explored judicial decisions from Western Canada, where the courts are sometimes less restrictive in the admissibility of certain elements of evidence.
Last week, the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante, assured that she had “full confidence” in the police for this matter.
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