BRING THE SQ TO HEEL

After 21 months of hearings, 65,000 pages of evidence and $20 million in
costs to the taxpayer, the Poitras Commission report on the Surete du Quebec
has at last been made public. Certainly the most exhaustive examination of a
police force in Quebec history, it is also a sobering judgment on the SQ's
incompetence, arrogance and lack of professionalism.

The three-member commission headed by former judge Lawrence Poitras has
produced 175 recommendations, many of them far-reaching.

Most important is that the force be brought under civilian authority through
the appointment by the provincial government of a seven-member control
board. The board would be empowered to monitor the force's performance and
make recommendations to both the director-general of the SQ and the minister
of public security.

This is a necessary step in Quebec, where all too often the provincial
police are isolated and divorced from the communities they serve. With
greater civilian scrutiny, the SQ will have to become more accountable for
its behaviour and will be less inclined to act as a law unto itself. At
present, the force is more intent on preserving its image than investigating
its own misconduct.

The Poitras report makes it clear that the prevailing culture within the SQ
has allowed many of its officers to act irresponsibly, if not illegally. "It
is obvious to the Commission that the Surete du Quebec neither recognizes
nor acknowledges its own deviance," the report says. "The result is a
feeling of immunity and impunity on the part of its members regarding
deviant behaviour of all kinds, a feeling reinforced by a law of silence and
the rumour mill."

The inquiry was sparked by an ill-fated drug bust in the Port of Montreal.
In May 1994, the SQ, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Montreal
Urban Community police struck what appeared to be a major blow against
organized crime when they were tipped off to the presence of 26 tons of
hashish valued at $360 million in a Norwegian container ship.

But when no one showed up to claim delivery, the evidence to prosecute
suspects was slim. Arrests were made and charges were laid against seven
people, including suspected drug-runners Richard and Gerald Matticks. But
the Matticks case was thrown out after the presiding judge ruled that
incriminating evidence had been deliberately planted by the SQ.

Attempts by the SQ to investigate the bungled case proved disastrous.

An ad hoc committee of three investigating officers received almost no
co-operation from other officers and higher-ups and was pressured to drop
its investigation. Four SQ officers were eventually acquitted on charges of
obstruction of justice while the three internal investigators left the
force.

The Poitras commission has rightly recommended that any future criminal
investigation of a member of the SQ be referred to another police force. The
SQ cannot act as its own judge and jury when it stands accused of
wrongdoing.

The lessons from the Matticks affair are clear. No police officer can
disregard the law, in any circumstance. Police may be frustrated with the
workings of the justice system and the constraints imposed on them by the
Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But as Public Security Minister Serge Menard
remarked yesterday, that is the price of living in a free and democratic
society.

The report has made many useful suggestions to improve management of the
force and upgrade recruitment, education, training and research. There is
considerable evidence that the SQ has fallen behind other police
organizations on the continent.

The insular culture at the SQ will no doubt be hard to change. The process
must begin by the force acknowledging its own failures and its
responsibility to the rule of law.