FORMER POLICE CHIEF FACES CORRUPTION CHARGE

Quebec Police Investigated -Allegations Against Brian
Jones

Brian Jones, the former chief of the Kativik Regional Police Force,
has been charged with fraud and corruption after a complaint by the
Kativik Regional Government.

Jones is alleged to have misused money seized by police during drug
busts carried out in Nunavik during his tenure as police chief,
according to information obtained by Nunatsiaq News.

The laying of the charge follows an investigation by the Quebec
provincial police force, the Surete du Quebec, into the complaint made
by the KRG.

Lawyer Michael Solomon represented Jones in court in Kuujjuaq Feb. 2
to hear the charge. The next court appearance, which will determine
how the case proceeds, is scheduled for April, also in Kuujjuaq.

The KRG regional council fired Jones in Sept., 2006, ending his 14
years of service with the KRPF.

Before he was fired in 2006, Jones told Nunatsiaq News that he
regularly paid informants for information about drug and alcohol
traffickers.

Jones has been charged under Sec. 122 of the Criminal Code of Canada,
which says: "every official who, in connection with the duties of his
office, commits fraud or a breach of trust is guilty of an indictable
offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five
years, whether or not the fraud or breach of trust would be an offence
if it were committed in relation to a private person."

Conflict between Jones and the KRG escalated and became increasingly
public, from early 2006 until he was fired, with the KRG voicing
concern over the KRPF's budget overruns, its administrative problems
and focus on fighting drug trafficking and bootlegging in the region.

In the spring of 2006, the KRG executive asked its police force to cut
costs by stopping involvement in the anti-drug Aboriginal Combined
Forces Special Enforcement Unit, which is based out of Montreal, to
focus more on community policing.

But the KRPF said cutting drug operations wasn't the way to save money
or fight crime, because southern Quebec is the main pipeline for
narcotics into Nunavik; possession of drugs and trafficking are
crimes; and they are the biggest cause of social problems, unrest and
poverty in the region.

The SQ arrived in Nunavik to maintain order after the firing of Jones
and the revelation that few members of the KRPF had been properly
sworn in. The SQ remained in Nunavik until early in 2007. Jones is now
a special investigator with the Cree police in Whapmagoostui.