I’ve been saying it, screaming it for ten years: The SQ failed in its mission on September 4, 2012 at the Metropolis when Pauline Marois gave her victory speech1.
Posted at 1:03 p.m
It’s not normal that a guy in a dressing gown could park his car behind the Metropolis that night, get out with a long gun in hand, approach the building, shoot at technicians from the scene, and start a fire near the back door … WITHOUT EVER BEING INTERCEPTED BY A POLICE OFFICER.
Yet that is exactly what happened, with tragic consequences for Denis Blanchette (killed), Dave Courage (severely injured) and so many other people (traumatized).
But in the purest tradition of Quebec government opacity, the reasons for this fiasco have apparently remained secret. Hush, we don’t make waves. The state simply allowed the SQ to investigate on its own.
And of course the report remained top secret in the safe of the Sûreté du Québec. In the name of protection… the security measures the SQ uses to protect the dignitaries (read the last few words while imagining Symphorien’s laughter).
It is amazing: a gunman in a dressing gown had just carried out a political attack, sowing death and blood, he wanted to assassinate the prime minister designated for violating sovereignty, the carnage could have been even greater had it not been providential for his weapon…
But the state never investigated this SQ fiasco!
No parliamentary commission, no public commission of inquiry, nothing. The attack was not subject to fact-checking, self-criticism. The State of Quebec has never attempted to figure out how its (very) provincial police could screw up to this point, if only to force the SQ to investigate its practices.
It took Metropolis employees traumatized by the mad gunman’s attack – Guillaume Parisien, Audrey Dulong-Bérubé, Jonathan Dubé and Gaël Ghiringhelli – to decide to call the government of Quebec (SQ) and the city of Montreal (SPVM) to sue the agony that has rotted her life since September 4, 2012 will be recognized and compensated. They won their case in a decision handed down on Wednesday.
The Sûreté du Québec could not play hide-and-seek for long in court. Officers (current and retired) were required to testify under oath. Documents had to be submitted as evidence… Like this mysterious report from the SQ analyzing the work of the SQ on the evening of September 4, 2012.
It’s shockingly stupid: the report is seven pages long (!), it doesn’t blame the SQ (lol), no witness was encountered during the “inquiry” (!), the signer of the report, Louis Bergeron, couldn’t confirm in court After I wrote the whole report (re-lol) and the SQ started investigating the work of the SQ…four months after the attack(!).
I would like to add that the judge admitted to the official Denis Rioux responsible for writing the said report that his conclusions were dictated to him by his boss (stick laughing here again).
With the process, we understood why the Sûreté du Québec fought so hard to keep this “report” secret (the use of quotation marks is now required): it is the equivalent of research produced by a 6th grade student on zoo animals. And we understand why the Quebec Attorney General’s attorneys fought so hard to keep this document away from the judge: It proved that the SQ acted negligently.
The judge found that the SPVM bore some responsibility for the debacle: the SPVM, through the voice of a high-ranking person – Philippe Pichet, who would become Montreal Police Chief three years later – had promised that the SQ would assess the needs of staff, necessary for the protection of the perimeter of the metropolis…
The judge determines what has never been done before.
Yes, the SPVM was to blame, but it was still the SQ who were responsible for the security of Pauline Marois, who was elected to form government on September 4, 2012.
It was up to SQ to ensure that the SPVM was indeed protecting the Metropolis perimeter, and to call for reinforcements when the perimeter was poorly protected (it was poorly protected).
The SQ did none of that.
It was ten years before this monumental failure was recognized in black and white in the methodical and unrelenting decision of Judge Philippe Bélanger of the Supreme Court, who was undeceived by the smoke screens multiplied by attorneys for the Attorney General and the City of Montreal.
Attorney Virginie Dufresne-Lemire has used attorneys from the City of Montreal and the Attorney General of Quebec, who were paid for out of our taxes, to defend the untenable.
Ten years later, allow me to salute those who allowed the SQ to expose its incompetence from 4 former Deputy CEO Jocelyn Latulippe who commissioned this “report”.
I add former Minister of Public Safety Stéphane Bergeron and the PQ government, who decided not to impose the SQ with a necessary public inquiry into the Metropolis fiasco because…
Why exactly? We will never know.
Has the SQ learned from its September 4, 2012 debacle?
no
Indeed, during the April trial, four months before the start of the October 3 election campaign, Pierre Bertrand, in charge of protecting SQ dignitaries, testified: “The basic security plan will be the same. […] The recipe is the same from 2012 to 2022.”
Question for Quebec’s elected officials: Are you sure you’re well protected?
Finally, allow me to quote paragraph 124 of Judge Philippe Bélanger’s decision: “All plaintiffs were surprised to see the absence of police officers behind the auditorium. Ghiringhelli testified that during certain concerts, including the concert given by the artist Prince in this performance hall, there were peace officers outside the Metropolis…”
In Judge Bélanger’s decision, it’s (literally) the detail that kills.