N.B. Police Act changes don't include creation of long-sought police watchdog agency

Amendments to New Brunswick's Police Act the province says would increase transparency and accountability avoids establishing an agency that could investigate police actions resulting in injuries or death.

For years, the province has said it is examining creating an agency like Nova Scotia's Serious Incident Response Team, known as SIRT, or Quebec's Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes, known as the BEI.

Without such an agency, RCMP and other police forces have turned to the agencies in those provinces to investigate recent shootings by police in Moncton, Dieppe, Edmundston, Fredericton and Boom Road.

The aim is to have investigators independent of police and government who can examine police conduct in order to maintain public confidence in the police force. Seven provinces have such agencies.

But the Police Act amendments in Bill 53 introduced last week don't address the issue. 

Alain Lang, president of the New Brunswick Association of Chiefs of Police and chief of the Edmundston Police Force, says chiefs support creating an independent New Brunswick agency. 

"The association is all for police not investigating police," Lang said in an interview. "The association is all for clarity and transparency to the public."

He said it's his understanding the province is still contemplating a New Brunswick agency but had no indication how long it could take for that to be introduced and wasn't expecting it to be part of the Police Act changes.

The province has not answered questions about its plans.

CBC News requested an interview with Public Safety Minister Ted Flemming starting Tuesday morning and again Wednesday. A reporter also tried to speak with Flemming at the legislative assembly. No interview was provided.

Instead, the province issued a statement that echoed previous statements about being in favour of creation of such an agency, but consulting with other jurisdictions. The latest statement left it unclear if there has been any progress since then.

Green Party MLA Kevin Arseneau, the party's justice and public safety critic, says it's not often the province opens up legislation for major amendments.

"With the information that we have available to us today and the fact that the Police Act is being opened and changes are being made, and that's not in it, it doesn't look good," Arseneau said. 

The Liberals did not provide an interview. Liberal MLA Éric Mallet, the party's public safety critic, said in a statement that having a New Brunswick SIRT could be beneficial.

"It is important to keep people to account in all fields, and having our own SIRT in the province would provide increased accountability and would make us less reliant on other provinces when incidents occur," Mallet said in the statement.

A 2019 report by Alphonse MacNeil into civilian oversight of policing in New Brunswick recommended New Brunswick create its own agency, or create a two-person team in New Brunswick that would work under the direction of Nova Scotia's SIRT director.

There are problems relying on outside agencies. 

Nova Scotia's SIRT investigated two Moncton-area shootings in 2019. Once its investigations in Nova Scotia are complete, it issues news releases and a summary of its findings. 

But SIRT's director has said a memorandum of understanding signed when the agency is called in for a New Brunswick investigation leaves releasing information up to the police force. 

In the case of the Moncton shootings by RCMP officers, the force wouldn't release the results to the media without requiring access to information requests. Those requests have resulted in the force claiming it can't find the reports.

"It's a clear conflict of interest for the RCMP to first ask for this investigation, and then not to release the findings," Michael Boudreau, a St. Thomas University criminology professor, said in 2019.

Beyond the transparency issue, there's a staffing issue. 

As outlined in MacNeil's 2019 report, relying on Nova Scotia's SIRT means long travel times.

"SIRT investigators must have scenes secured and delays in attending a scene can impact the investigation negatively or unreasonably inconvenience the public," the report states. 

It also says investigators from Nova Scotia need to be appointed as peace officers in New Brunswick and need to be bilingual.

"The reality is they do not have adequate resources at this time to ensure they would be available if called upon by New Brunswick or any of the other Atlantic provinces," MacNeil's report says.

Quebec's watchdog agency has also been criticized for its record and number of Indigenous investigators.

Both Nova Scotia and the Quebec agency have investigators that are current or former police officers. MacNeil's report says SIRT has a civilian director and four investigators who are either former or seconded officers. Last year, Quebec's BEI had 45 investigators, with 23 being former police officers. 

Arseneau said any New Brunswick agency should be civilian-led.