This is not normal, it is even frankly revolting. It took ten years to learn the extent of the police incompetence that made possible the political attack against Prime Minister Pauline Marois. It is not thanks to the courage of our parliamentary institutions or that of the police. The former did nothing the day after the Metropolis attack to demand accountability for this tragedy, placing their naive confidence in the Sûreté du Québec (SQ). And this one took care of sheltering his negligence in a relationship of convenience kept secret until very recently.
We owe the truth to four brave citizens and their lawyer, Virginie Dufresne-Lemire. Guillaume Parisien, Audrey Dulong-Bérubé, Jonathan Dubé and Gaël Ghiringhelli, survivors of the attack perpetrated by Richard Henry Bain on September 4, 2012, have won their long battle against the SQ and the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) . Judge Philippe Bélanger on Friday ordered the two police forces to pay a total of nearly $300,000 to the four stage technicians, traumatized by the attack which claimed the life of Denis Blanchette, and seriously injured Dave Courage, two of their coworkers. These sums represent very little compared to their combat journey and the trauma they have suffered.
The judgment of the Superior Court is a devastating condemnation of the methods of the SPVM and the SQ. The two police forces “failed in their obligation to ensure the safety of the public”, including that of the four applicants, confirmed Judge Bélanger. Numerous errors and omissions in the preparation of the security plan by the SQ and poor coordination with the SPVM allowed Bain to sneak into the back of the Metropolis, while the new (and first) Prime Minister was preparing to deliver his victory speech. There was no perimeter security behind the Metropolis, and the door through which Bain entered was unguarded. It is a glaring blunder that the survivors pointed out in broad strokes to the police officers responsible for investigating the case. The police cavalierly ignored them.
Not to mention this bogus report, written four months after the attack. The SQ investigated the SQ in the greatest opacity, to supposedly preserve the confidentiality of its methods of protecting dignitaries. This report of convenience, the conclusions of which were guided by the staff of the SQ, has never been the subject of a study, not even behind closed doors, in a parliamentary committee. Me Dufresne-Lemire had to fight against the SQ and the Attorney General to have the document entered into evidence during the civil lawsuit brought by his four clients.
Interviewed during the 10e anniversary of the Metropolis tragedy, Pauline Marois had expressed regret for not having qualified the attack as a political attack. Many dismayed commentators and politicians did not see it that way in the stupor of the moment. Bain, an English speaker, was against the sovereignists.
The minority Marois government not only downplayed the symbolic importance of the attack. He also evacuated the examination of the conduct of the SQ and the SPVM. This modesty is still present today, when political leaders jostle at the microphone, following the decision of Judge Bélanger, to affirm that the police have learned from their mistakes, and to declare themselves satisfied with the protection system for dignitaries. . And this is how we lose sight of the importance, in a democratic society, of policing the police. This task cannot rest on the shoulders of courageous citizens alone, although they have done us an invaluable service.