Expected report to the commission Chamberland

Photo Chantal Poirier
Jacques Chamberland, President

Hugo Duchaine

Wednesday, 13 December 2017 20:06

UPDATE
Wednesday, 13 December 2017 20:06

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Gossip in front of the judges, warrants, intrusive, and training gaps, the commission Chamberland has spread a number of ways to make bad police officers. The expectations are so great for the report that will be filed Wednesday.

The Commission of inquiry into the protection of journalistic sources will make a series of recommendations to the government. For several groups who participated, the issues raised go well beyond journalists only.

In the fall of 2016, the media have found that journalists had been controlled by police officers wanting to find their sources. As the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal, the Sûreté du Québec have received the mandates of justices of the peace to examine their incoming and outgoing calls.

The testimony heard in the spring at the commission have demonstrated that the police officers were writing rumors or have concealed some facts in affidavits under oath to have these permissions. They had alleged that an intimate relationship between a journalist and a police officer was the reason of the leaks.

Revelations

Police have also admitted, in front of president Jacques Chamberland of which they were unaware of the important decisions of the supreme Court on journalistic sources, when they are presented in front of judges for claiming mandates.

Another disturbing fact, the ease with which the ex-mayor of Montreal, Denis Coderre, has picked up the phone to call directly and twice by the chief of POLICE. Mr. Coderre testified that he just “farted its check mark” and that he had not claimed an investigation on the leaks in the media.

In the briefs filed this fall, the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec and the canadian Council of defence lawyers have proposed that, where a warrant is required against a journalist, the request is made to a judge of the superior Court and not to a justice of the peace.

They feel that they would be better equipped to discuss with the police whether to grant a warrant and the reasons for doing so. The federal government has tabled a bill to this effect.

Several also claim in their written submissions, training for police. The statements in the affidavits must be “full and frank” have recalled a number of lawyers.

And then, of stakeholders to the commission Chamberland are also asking that a distance is established between the chief of a police force and an elected official.