Did a Radio-Canada journalist do her job well in a 2015 report, by giving voice to Indigenous women who said they had been attacked by Val-d’Or police officers? The lawyer for the 42 police officers who are suing the state company highlighted numerous contradictions in the testimonies of one of these women on the events.
In addition, we learned that one of the police officers targeted by complaints of physical and sexual violence had no longer worked for the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) for several years at the time of the facts alleged in the report.
The 42 Val-d’Or SQ police officers sue Radio-Canada and journalist Josée Dupuis, from the show Investigation, because of the report “Abuse of the SQ: women break the silence”. They are asking for 2.9 million.
The trial continued Thursday at the Montreal courthouse, before Judge Babak Barin.
After the broadcast of the report, the government formed the Commission of Inquiry into Relations between Indigenous Peoples and Certain Public Services in Quebec, chaired by Jacques Viens. A criminal investigation was also entrusted to the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM), but no charges were ultimately laid.
Summer or winter?
Thursday, investigator Brigitte Dufresne, from the SPVM, testified about the contradictory versions given by one of the alleged victims, whom she met on several occasions.
“In the report, she talked about an event that occurred in winter. When we met, she was talking about the month of October, referring to the birthday of one of her children,” explained M.me Dufresne.
Later, a friend of this woman, in whom she had confided, however told the investigator that she was certain that the event had occurred in August 2014, because that was the only time when she was in Val-d’Or.
Throughout Brigitte Dufresne’s testimony, it was repeated that the complainant herself said she had memory problems, particularly because at that time, she consumed a lot of alcohol and drugs.
The police lawyer, Mr.e Marco Gaggino also raised the fact that the woman had first said she had been assaulted and abandoned in the parking lot of a Walmart, only to later change her mind and claim that it was instead in the parking lot of the police station.
The lawyer for Radio-Canada and its journalist, Me Geneviève Gagnon opposed the opposing party’s questions by emphasizing “that we cannot compare a journalistic investigation to a police investigation.”
“Therefore, this testimony is not relevant because Mr.me Dupuis did not have access to M’s investigationme Dufresne, which was made after the report, moreover. »
Me Gaggino retorted that the journalist should also have met the complainant’s friend to get her version. “This was not unknown information. She just had to do the exact same thing. It’s not because she’s a police officer. It does not change anything. We didn’t even try the approach,” lamented the lawyer.
The names of two police officers or former police officers targeted by the allegations of indigenous women were mentioned during the investigator’s testimony, but a publication ban prevents the media from revealing them for the moment. These names were not mentioned in the Radio-Canada report.
The trial is expected to continue for 13 weeks.