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Quebec takes over Kativik Regional Police Force

“It doesn’t look good. It says we can’t manage our affairs.”

JANE GEORGE

Quebec shipped provincial Sûreté du Québec police officers from Montreal and Abitibi-Temiscamingue to Nunavik last Friday, as Nunavik’s policing crisis deepens in the wake of a KRG decision to fire the popular chief of the Kativik Regional Police Force, Brian Jones.

This means that when Nunavimmiut now call the police for help, a Kativik Regional Police Force officer answers the phone, but SQ officers respond if necessary.

For at least 30 days, the SQ will be in charge of policing in Nunavik, rather than the Kativik Regional Government or the KRPF.

The KRG chairperson, Maggie Emudluk, spoke on the Taqramiut Nipingat Inc. radio network last Friday afternoon to explain why SQ officers came into Nunavik.

“It doesn’t look good. It says we can’t manage our affairs,” said one listener.

“This is very embarrassing. I had always thought we would be autonomous, but it seems that we cannot,” said another.

The SQ may remain in the region through Christmas.

It’s a “back-to-the-future” situation for Nunavik, which has not been policed by the SQ since the creation of the KRPF in 1995.

Quaqtaq’s mayor, Johnny Oovaut, a former policeman during the early 1990s, wants to see an independent inquiry into what led to the current crisis within the KRPF.

“I don’t think they should take it lightly, and I wish a neutral person would investigate this,” Oovaut said.

Quebec’s move to bring in the SQ came on Sept. 28, exactly two weeks to the day after the KRG’s regional council passed two resolutions, the first firing the KRPF’s police chief Brian Jones and the second replacing him with the KRG’s assistant general director, Luc Harvey.

The sudden transfer of responsibility for policing came about after it turned out only six of the KRPF’s 54 officers and special constables had been legally sworn in as police officers.

In a news release sent out last Friday, the KRG confirmed “very few of its officers and special constables” had been named according to the requirements of the Police Act and the Kativik Act. These include character references and record checks, appointment by Quebec’s minister of public security, and an oath in front of a Quebec court judge.

Some within the KRPF maintain that since the transfer of hiring from the KRPF to the KRG’s human resources department in March, 2003, the paperwork needed to legalize the hiring of officers and special constables hadn’t been completed.

They say police were mandated to do police recruitment, but that all paperwork with respect to hiring and firing was supposed to be done by the KRG after that date.

Last week, members of the Nunavik Police Association and the KRPF management, whose paperwork was incomplete, were told not to use their guns or carry pepper spray.

“We had no power to arrest, no power as peacekeepers. We only had the powers of a citizen. It was troubling, especially for the police in the smaller communities,” a KRPF officer, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Nunatsiaq News.

The workers compensation board of Quebec, la Commission de la santé et de la securité des travailleurs, and the union of Quebec municipal police advised KRPF union members not to put themselves in immediate danger, which meant they should no longer respond to calls.

Faced with few police officers willing or able to work, the KRPF then asked the SQ for assistance, at least 11 SQ officers to help out with arrests, criminal cases and court liaison operations.

But Quebec wanted to send three officers to each community and even more to Inukjuak, Puvirnituq, Salluit and Kuujjuaq. In the end, a smaller number of SQ officers arrived in Nunavik to work with the KRPF until the status of its members is resolved.

Nine more officers were to have been sworn by the end of this week as Quebec sorts through each case file by file.

The legal impact of any arrests carried out by KRPF officers whose paperwork may not have been in order is not clear at this time.

The SQ is expected to produce a comprehensive report on their policing experience in Nunavik. This report will help the KRPF and the KRG when they sit down to negotiate a new collective agreement, said a member of the Nunavik Police Association.

And the police agreement with Quebec City and Ottawa, which provides the KRG with money to operate the KRPF as a native police force, is also up for re-negotiation. Many police officers say the events of the past several weeks will influence the new funding agreement.

Meanwhile, members of the KRPF are still wearing jeans to work as a way of protesting their working conditions, although officers whose legal status has been sorted out plan to wear KRPF uniforms when court is in session in their communities.

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