Montreal police corruption scandal: Pichet expects arrests in internal affairs division
BY PAUL CHERRY, MONTREAL GAZETTE
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: APR 1, 2017
It’s possible that factions within the Montreal police used the force’s internal affairs division as a tool to settle scores against each other, Chief Philippe Pichet conceded on Friday.
Pichet made the comment after a lengthy appearance before the city’s public security committee at city hall, where he presented an action plan to deal with the crisis within the force. In February, former police officers alleged investigators in the internal affairs division lied and fabricated evidence while investigating them. Since then, three officers have been suspended by Pichet in recent weeks and a mixed squad led by the Sûreté du Québec is investigating criminal complaints against members of the internal affairs division.
Some are alleged to have falsified evidence to investigate police officers. In the introduction to the plan presented to the committee, Pichet mentioned that he expects arrests will be made.
While presenting his plan, Pichet said the culture within the force needs to change. He said that when powers were decentralized more than a decade ago, it created “kingdoms” that did not share information. In the document presented to the committee, Pichet said the structure created “unhealthy competition” between factions. He said he realized the extent of the problem when he took over as chief in 2015.
“What did I see? I saw different teams (who worked on criminal) investigations in different factions maybe using internal affairs to resolve different problems,” Pichet said. “What I wish for the Montreal police right now is that we work as one team.”
Pichet did not place an estimate on how long it will take for the culture to disappear. He told the committee such cultural change normally takes between five and 10 years to implement. But he later noted that he was merely speaking theoretically and expressed disappointment that some reporters quickly posted on Twitter that he said it would take a decade to bring about change.
“It won’t take 10 years,” he said “We’ll do everything we (can) to make it (sooner rather than later).”
“What we want is that these modifications be done quickly, that we see changes, that the public regains confidence in the Montreal police and vice versa,” said Anie Samson, chair of the public security committee. She added it is possible the Montreal police will no longer conduct internal investigations.
“Perhaps a different model will come along. The door has been opened to find the best way to conduct internal investigations in the Montreal police. We all agree that with what happened we have to do a serious cleaning.”
Projet Montréal councillor Alexander Norris, who sits on the public security committee, said it will take “immediate steps to restore the public’s faith.”
During the hearing, Norris asked Pichet why Chief Inspector Costa Labos, the head of the internal affairs division until he was transferred out last year, wasn’t suspended without pay while he was recently investigated by the Sûreté du Québec for allegedly lying in order to obtain a warrant in an investigation. Labos was not charged when the investigation came to an end last year but it has reportedly been reopened.
“Mr. Pichet responded that it depends on the case,” Norris later told reporters. “If we want to restore the public’s confidence and a manager is under a criminal investigation, that person should not stay on the job. It was an error in judgement to leave him on the job.”
Pichet’s plan calls for, among many other things, nine changes to the internal affairs division. On March 20, the department started to put in place a new supervisory program developed by an outside firm. The plan also calls for a change of the police force’s disciplinary code, “which no longer holds up to today’s reality.”
Pichet will appear before the public security committee again in June.
pcherry@postmedia.com
twitter.com/PCherryReporter
https://www.google.ca/amp/montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-police-chief-pichet-outlines-new-anti-corruption-plan-for-his-force/amp
Montreal police chief remains confident as corruption allegations swirl
PAUL CHERRY, MONTREAL GAZETTE
Published on: March 4, 2017 | Last Updated: March 4, 2017 10:31 AM EDT
As allegations of corruption continue to mount against the Montreal police force, including new questions about whether some of its members were receiving bribes from the Mafia, the SPVM chief reiterated Friday that he’s confident the situation is being handled properly.
“Of course, it’s not a good time for the SPVM,” Montreal police chief Philippe Pichet said in an interview from the force’s downtown headquarters. “We have a very serious situation to handle right now. I want to be informed about everything, and if I have any information that leads me to think I need to take action, I will.”
Asked about the public’s confidence in the force amid recent scandals and if he would be willing to step aside in order to ensure it — something political leaders have called for — Pichet said resigning wasn’t being considered.
”I’m in charge of the SPVM right now,” he said. “I’m here to stay.”
Pichet’s comments came at the end of a day that saw new allegations of potential bribes from the Mafia being accepted by SPVM officers and one of the force’s highest-ranking officers being suspended indefinitely — a decision the chief said he had no choice but to make.
The allegations related to organized crime were revealed in a small, yet troubling part of an affidavit prepared by police investigators during an investigation into the Montreal Mafia.
On Feb. 17, 2015, two alleged members of the Montreal Mafia, whose names cannot be published at this time, were recorded while they had a conversation with Loris Cavaliere, a defence lawyer who was under investigation at the time.
One of the alleged Mafia members asked Cavaliere where “all the heat” they were experiencing was coming from. The man said the heat was brutal and was apparently referring to pressure the police were applying to the organization at the time. The three men had no idea their conversation was being secretly recorded as part of an investigation led by the Sûreté du Québec.
The author of the affidavit noted that André Thibodeau, then a sergeant in the Montreal police, had been arrested less than a month before. He was charged with being the leader of an illegal bookmaking operation that was tied to the Mafia. (Early last month, the Crown announced it was no longer able to prosecute the case and a stay of proceedings was placed on the charges he faced.)
The alleged Mafioso made an apparent reference to Thibodeau’s arrest before the conversation took a disturbing turn. The author of the affidavit summarized the alleged Mafioso as having said: “The police are worried about leaks in the case and that’s why internal affairs is involved.” The investigation into Thibodeau and several other men was done exclusively by the Montreal police internal affairs division.
Cavaliere then asked the alleged Mafioso if he was concerned.
“(The alleged Mafioso) replied no that’s what we pay them for,’ the author of the affidavit wrote.
Asked about the information revealed in the affidavit, Pichet called it “very preoccupying” but said it hadn’t been corroborated. He said he was informed on Friday that the alleged bribes had been investigated once before and that there was “nothing concrete about it.”
”Now that we’ve heard it again, we will look into it once again,” he said.
Quebec calls for 'patience' as new allegations rock Montreal police force
Montreal police transfer internal affairs investigations to SQ
Police corruption scandal: Montreal appears light-years behind on oversight measures
Earlier Friday, Pichet’s deputy chief, Bernard Lamothe, was suspended in the wake of serious allegations concerning the SPVM’s internal affairs division. Pichet would not comment on the reasons for Lamothe’s suspension.
In interviews aired on the French-language network TVA last week, former members of the Montreal police alleged they were victims of fabricated evidence generated by the force’s internal affairs division in an effort to silence them before speaking out about internal corruption.
Pressed to explain Lamothe’s suspension, Pichet said only that it came after he received “precise” information from the Sûreté du Québec Friday morning. It was announced earlier this week that all Montreal police internal affairs investigations would be turned over to the provincial police.
On Friday, Quebec’s public security minister, Martin Coiteux, asked the public for “a bit of patience.”
Coiteux announced last week he would expand the investigation into the force’s internal affairs division to include investigators from the RCMP and other police forces and that it will be co-directed by SQ assistant director general Yves Morency and Madeleine Giauque, the head of the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI), an independent police-oversight agency.
Coiteux also ordered a separate administrative probe into the force, which he announced Friday will be headed by Michel Bouchard, a former deputy minister of justice. Bouchard is to complete a public report by mid-September detailing any problems within the SPVM’s internal affairs division and address the “more systemic issues” within the force that could affect the public’s confidence in it.
Pichet repeated several times that the SPVM isn’t taking any of the allegations lightly and that it will fully cooperate with provincial police during the investigation.
He wouldn’t say if he envisions more suspensions following Lamothe’s, and urged the public not to jump to conclusions, despite the whirlwind of recent allegations undermining the force’s reputation.
“There’s so much information coming from all sides, I just want people to be very careful about what they hear,” he said. “They can be sure that we will do everything possible to shed light on all these cases.”
In the meantime, Pichet said, the SPVM is still serving the city and providing the public with the services it expects from the force.
”We’re doing investigations, we’re patrolling every night and every day in a professional manner,” he said. “Since I’ve been here, I’ve made big structural changes. I’m working on the culture of the SPVM. But that takes times. It takes years.”
jfeith@postmedia.com
pcherry@postmedia.com
http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-police-chief-remains-confident-as-corruption-allegations-swirl
BY PAUL CHERRY, MONTREAL GAZETTE
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: APR 1, 2017
It’s possible that factions within the Montreal police used the force’s internal affairs division as a tool to settle scores against each other, Chief Philippe Pichet conceded on Friday.
Pichet made the comment after a lengthy appearance before the city’s public security committee at city hall, where he presented an action plan to deal with the crisis within the force. In February, former police officers alleged investigators in the internal affairs division lied and fabricated evidence while investigating them. Since then, three officers have been suspended by Pichet in recent weeks and a mixed squad led by the Sûreté du Québec is investigating criminal complaints against members of the internal affairs division.
Some are alleged to have falsified evidence to investigate police officers. In the introduction to the plan presented to the committee, Pichet mentioned that he expects arrests will be made.
While presenting his plan, Pichet said the culture within the force needs to change. He said that when powers were decentralized more than a decade ago, it created “kingdoms” that did not share information. In the document presented to the committee, Pichet said the structure created “unhealthy competition” between factions. He said he realized the extent of the problem when he took over as chief in 2015.
“What did I see? I saw different teams (who worked on criminal) investigations in different factions maybe using internal affairs to resolve different problems,” Pichet said. “What I wish for the Montreal police right now is that we work as one team.”
Pichet did not place an estimate on how long it will take for the culture to disappear. He told the committee such cultural change normally takes between five and 10 years to implement. But he later noted that he was merely speaking theoretically and expressed disappointment that some reporters quickly posted on Twitter that he said it would take a decade to bring about change.
“It won’t take 10 years,” he said “We’ll do everything we (can) to make it (sooner rather than later).”
“What we want is that these modifications be done quickly, that we see changes, that the public regains confidence in the Montreal police and vice versa,” said Anie Samson, chair of the public security committee. She added it is possible the Montreal police will no longer conduct internal investigations.
“Perhaps a different model will come along. The door has been opened to find the best way to conduct internal investigations in the Montreal police. We all agree that with what happened we have to do a serious cleaning.”
Projet Montréal councillor Alexander Norris, who sits on the public security committee, said it will take “immediate steps to restore the public’s faith.”
During the hearing, Norris asked Pichet why Chief Inspector Costa Labos, the head of the internal affairs division until he was transferred out last year, wasn’t suspended without pay while he was recently investigated by the Sûreté du Québec for allegedly lying in order to obtain a warrant in an investigation. Labos was not charged when the investigation came to an end last year but it has reportedly been reopened.
“Mr. Pichet responded that it depends on the case,” Norris later told reporters. “If we want to restore the public’s confidence and a manager is under a criminal investigation, that person should not stay on the job. It was an error in judgement to leave him on the job.”
Pichet’s plan calls for, among many other things, nine changes to the internal affairs division. On March 20, the department started to put in place a new supervisory program developed by an outside firm. The plan also calls for a change of the police force’s disciplinary code, “which no longer holds up to today’s reality.”
Pichet will appear before the public security committee again in June.
pcherry@postmedia.com
twitter.com/PCherryReporter
https://www.google.ca/amp/montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-police-chief-pichet-outlines-new-anti-corruption-plan-for-his-force/amp
Montreal police chief remains confident as corruption allegations swirl
PAUL CHERRY, MONTREAL GAZETTE
Published on: March 4, 2017 | Last Updated: March 4, 2017 10:31 AM EDT
As allegations of corruption continue to mount against the Montreal police force, including new questions about whether some of its members were receiving bribes from the Mafia, the SPVM chief reiterated Friday that he’s confident the situation is being handled properly.
“Of course, it’s not a good time for the SPVM,” Montreal police chief Philippe Pichet said in an interview from the force’s downtown headquarters. “We have a very serious situation to handle right now. I want to be informed about everything, and if I have any information that leads me to think I need to take action, I will.”
Asked about the public’s confidence in the force amid recent scandals and if he would be willing to step aside in order to ensure it — something political leaders have called for — Pichet said resigning wasn’t being considered.
”I’m in charge of the SPVM right now,” he said. “I’m here to stay.”
Pichet’s comments came at the end of a day that saw new allegations of potential bribes from the Mafia being accepted by SPVM officers and one of the force’s highest-ranking officers being suspended indefinitely — a decision the chief said he had no choice but to make.
The allegations related to organized crime were revealed in a small, yet troubling part of an affidavit prepared by police investigators during an investigation into the Montreal Mafia.
On Feb. 17, 2015, two alleged members of the Montreal Mafia, whose names cannot be published at this time, were recorded while they had a conversation with Loris Cavaliere, a defence lawyer who was under investigation at the time.
One of the alleged Mafia members asked Cavaliere where “all the heat” they were experiencing was coming from. The man said the heat was brutal and was apparently referring to pressure the police were applying to the organization at the time. The three men had no idea their conversation was being secretly recorded as part of an investigation led by the Sûreté du Québec.
The author of the affidavit noted that André Thibodeau, then a sergeant in the Montreal police, had been arrested less than a month before. He was charged with being the leader of an illegal bookmaking operation that was tied to the Mafia. (Early last month, the Crown announced it was no longer able to prosecute the case and a stay of proceedings was placed on the charges he faced.)
The alleged Mafioso made an apparent reference to Thibodeau’s arrest before the conversation took a disturbing turn. The author of the affidavit summarized the alleged Mafioso as having said: “The police are worried about leaks in the case and that’s why internal affairs is involved.” The investigation into Thibodeau and several other men was done exclusively by the Montreal police internal affairs division.
Cavaliere then asked the alleged Mafioso if he was concerned.
“(The alleged Mafioso) replied no that’s what we pay them for,’ the author of the affidavit wrote.
Asked about the information revealed in the affidavit, Pichet called it “very preoccupying” but said it hadn’t been corroborated. He said he was informed on Friday that the alleged bribes had been investigated once before and that there was “nothing concrete about it.”
”Now that we’ve heard it again, we will look into it once again,” he said.
Quebec calls for 'patience' as new allegations rock Montreal police force
Montreal police transfer internal affairs investigations to SQ
Police corruption scandal: Montreal appears light-years behind on oversight measures
Earlier Friday, Pichet’s deputy chief, Bernard Lamothe, was suspended in the wake of serious allegations concerning the SPVM’s internal affairs division. Pichet would not comment on the reasons for Lamothe’s suspension.
In interviews aired on the French-language network TVA last week, former members of the Montreal police alleged they were victims of fabricated evidence generated by the force’s internal affairs division in an effort to silence them before speaking out about internal corruption.
Pressed to explain Lamothe’s suspension, Pichet said only that it came after he received “precise” information from the Sûreté du Québec Friday morning. It was announced earlier this week that all Montreal police internal affairs investigations would be turned over to the provincial police.
On Friday, Quebec’s public security minister, Martin Coiteux, asked the public for “a bit of patience.”
Coiteux announced last week he would expand the investigation into the force’s internal affairs division to include investigators from the RCMP and other police forces and that it will be co-directed by SQ assistant director general Yves Morency and Madeleine Giauque, the head of the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI), an independent police-oversight agency.
Coiteux also ordered a separate administrative probe into the force, which he announced Friday will be headed by Michel Bouchard, a former deputy minister of justice. Bouchard is to complete a public report by mid-September detailing any problems within the SPVM’s internal affairs division and address the “more systemic issues” within the force that could affect the public’s confidence in it.
Pichet repeated several times that the SPVM isn’t taking any of the allegations lightly and that it will fully cooperate with provincial police during the investigation.
He wouldn’t say if he envisions more suspensions following Lamothe’s, and urged the public not to jump to conclusions, despite the whirlwind of recent allegations undermining the force’s reputation.
“There’s so much information coming from all sides, I just want people to be very careful about what they hear,” he said. “They can be sure that we will do everything possible to shed light on all these cases.”
In the meantime, Pichet said, the SPVM is still serving the city and providing the public with the services it expects from the force.
”We’re doing investigations, we’re patrolling every night and every day in a professional manner,” he said. “Since I’ve been here, I’ve made big structural changes. I’m working on the culture of the SPVM. But that takes times. It takes years.”
jfeith@postmedia.com
pcherry@postmedia.com
http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/montreal-police-chief-remains-confident-as-corruption-allegations-swirl
