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SQ does background checks on KRPF members

Interim chief, most other members under scrutiny

JANE GEORGE

Unless Quebec allows Kativik Regional Police Force members to go back on the job for a four month special reprieve, the Sûreté du Québec provincial police force are unlikely to leave Nunavik anytime soon, because it will take weeks for background checks to be completed.

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And until their work is finished and their reports sent to Quebec’s public security department, the SQ will likely remain in Nunavik.

That process could take time, said Sgt. Gilles Mitchell, from the SQ’s division of relations with First Nations and cultural communities.

Mitchell is charged with handling the investigations required for the KRPF. Generally, his office handles 15 background checks a year for aboriginal police forces in Quebec. The quantity of files for the KRPF is “exceptional,” Mitchell said.

“I’d like to tell you that it would be done tomorrow, but I am realistic,” he said in a recent interview from Montreal. “I know we still have several individuals to meet, to make sure that they correspond to the requirements under the law.”

The SQ arrived in Nunavik on Sept. 29, after it turned out only six of the KRG’s 54 officers and special constables had all their paperwork in order and had been legally sworn in as police officers.

The SQ arrived two weeks after the KRG’s regional council moved to fire the KRPF’s chief Brian Jones and named Harvey as interim chief.

At the same time, Quebec’s public security department asked the SQ to take responsibility for doing the extensive background checks for the 19 members and interim police chief, whose paperwork had never been completed.

Mitchell said many SQ officers based in different regions of Quebec are handling the files. He said the background checks are exhaustive, with one investigator assigned to one candidate, or two, if they come from the same region.

Section 115 of Quebec’s police act cites four requirements police must fulfill.

To be hired as a police officer a person must meet the following requirements:

1. be a Canadian citizen;
2. be of good moral character;
3. not have been found guilty, in any place, of an act or omission defined in the Criminal Code;
4. hold a diploma awarded by the École nationale de police du Québec or meet the standards of another recognized police school.

The SQ has been charged with checking into numbers two and three of Section 115, dealing with the reputation of candidates and their legal history.

The background check looks at criminal records (if any); family background; schooling and professional history (checking with previous employers or teachers to establish what kind of individual the candidates are/were); financial history (including a thorough credit check with credit bureau); and social background (they meet with some of the candidates’ friends and inquire as to what type of individuals they are).

Mitchell said investigators generally meet or speak with each candidate’s references as well such contacts as their ex-spouses to see if they can meet the high personal standards of the Police Act’s requirements. There’s no minimum or maximum number of contacts spoken to, he said, or any specified length of time, which the background check can take.

“It goes as quickly as we can contact people,” Mitchell said.

Then, investigators produce a report, much like a police report, which offers a kind of snapshot of the candidate. This is submitted to the Department of Public Security.

“It is up to them to decide to see if the person meets the criteria,” Mitchell said.

Not one of those KRPF background checks requiring full investigation had been finished by last week.

Mitchell couldn’t speculate on why the public security department would refuse to proceed with an appointment, but he said a history including a criminal offence would be a good reason.

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