Laurent Commission: SQ investigation managers in Sept-Îles testify

José-Marcos Viégas, head of investigations at the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) in Sept-Îles, recalled, in a short sentence, the reason why the current commission on the DPJ was set up. Because a little girl, in Granby, died last spring.

In his testimony, Mr. Viégas had just recounted the case of a young girl who was sexually assaulted with penetration after her cousin had lured her into watching a porn movie with her and "doing it like in the movie." That time, Mr. Viégas said, the Sûreté du Québec was notified 15 days later, much too late for the attacker's DNA to be taken from the victim or for the electronic tablet to be seized.

Mr. Viégas also recounted the case of another little girl, a victim of abuse, whose burns on both arms were so severe that, from the Côte-Nord, she had to be transferred to a hospital in Quebec City. The report to the DPJ was made at the emergency room on a Friday evening. It was the doctors who notified the SQ on Monday morning. "And we still hadn't had a call from the DPJ," regretted Mr. Viégas.

But these cases are exceptional, aren't they? Has there been any improvement since what you reported? the commissioners asked him.

This is where José-Marcos Viégas responded that we should not be satisfied with improvements. Yes, there are some, but there are still too many delays between the reporting and the opening of an investigation by the police. Such delays risk causing charges to be dropped, especially in sexual assault cases that are already so difficult to have recognized as such by the courts.

Mr. Viégas also dwelt at length on the difficulties that police officers have in conducting their investigations, since DPJ officers systematically refuse to provide them with essential information, claiming that the files are confidential. "A recast is needed to distinguish between information that must be kept confidential and information that can be transmitted to the police," he argued.

Marlène Gallagher, director of the Côte-Nord DPJ, agreed with him when it was her turn to testify.

The law, she explained, says that "necessary and relevant" information can be transmitted, which is vague, she noted.

It is worth noting that Ms. Gallagher was the first director of a DPJ to testify at the Laurent Commission, which entered its ninth day of hearings on Wednesday.

She explained that she could not say too much because the message that the DPJ want to convey will be recorded in a future memorandum.

She was still able to say how the Barrette reform — which led to the merger of social services and health — forced everyone "to manage chaos." "Nobody wanted this transformation. Today, it's a fact," said Ms. Gallagher, adding that it was now time to look forward.

And above all, she concluded, the Commission must establish where the social consensus lies on the most important question: do we want to keep children in their families as much as possible or do we consider it more prudent to remove them from their environment more often?

See the article: https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/justice-et-faits-divers/2019-11-13/commission-laurent-les-responsables-des-enquetes-de-la-sq-a-sept-iles-temoignez