Amélie Lemieux, the mother of Norah and Romy Carpentier, who disappeared in tragic circumstances in July 2020, is starting legal proceedings against the Sûreté du Québec (SQ).
The announcement of these civil proceedings, begun in August, comes the day after the publication of a report from the deputy chief coroner scathing the police force. On several occasions in the document, Me Luc Malouin writes that the SQ did not obey the “rules of the art” in matters of investigation and research.
It is precisely on this point of the Civil Code that Amélie Lemieux’s legal approach focuses, underlines one of the lawyers, Ms.e Jean-François Leroux.
“Article 14.57 of the Civil Code tells us that everyone has the duty to comply with the rules of the art in all kinds of areas,” explains the lawyer. In medicine, for example, we know that there are rules that will dictate how to act in certain circumstances. It’s a bit the same thing with the SQ: there are ways of doing investigations and research and these rules of the art, according to several experts heard during the public inquiry, have not been respected. »
The claim of the request, continues Me Leroux, is that without the delays caused by the SQ’s mistakes, we would have found the two little girls. “Is this an absolute certainty? No, continues Me Leroux. Is that our burden of proof? Neither. We do not have to establish that it is a certainty that the children would have been found. What we have to establish is that it is probable that we would have found them. »
Amélie Lemieux and her representatives sent a formal notice to the Attorney General of Quebec, who represents the SQ, in which they formulate “a certain number of complaints. »
“What follows is what is called a pre-judicial protocol,” explains M.e Red. Over the next six months, there will be an investigation which will make it possible to better assess the merits of the complaints made and, at the end of this exercise, in the event that the parties are unable to agree, a formal prosecution would be initiated. »