SQ to review 'significant' sample of unfounded sexual assault cases
Kamila Hinkson | CBC News | Posted: February 17, 2017 5:13 PM | Last Updated: February 17, 2017
Public Security Ministry will also review police investigation practices provincewide: Martin Coiteux
The Sûreté du Québec is reviewing a "significant" sample of sexual assault claims deemed to be unfounded, according to Public Security Minister Martin Coiteux.
The move comes two weeks after the Globe and Mail published a report that revealed one in five sexual assault complaints are labelled as unfounded by Canadian police forces — meaning no crime occurred or was attempted.
The investigation suggests that over a five-year period, the SQ dismissed 21 per cent of sexual assault allegations, or 337 of 1675 allegations, as unfounded. The national rate is 19 per cent.
Coiteux wouldn't specify how many cases will be reviewed, saying it will be up to the SQ to determine how big the sample will be.
"The questions raised by the Globe's investigation are serious, and I'm taking them seriously," he said.
The Globe analyzed data it obtained from police forces through freedom of information laws for 873 jurisdictions across the country.
Coiteux also said the Public Security Ministry's internal audit, investigation and inspections branch will be reviewing sexual assault investigation practices across all the province's police forces.
Coiteux rejected the notion that the SQ shouldn't be reviewing its own policies.
"They have to ensure quality in their investigations, and this is what they are doing. If they find problems, then there will be other conclusions and then we will see," he said.
No anomalies found
SQ Capt. Guy Lapointe said the issue isn't the quality of the investigations, it's the number of cases that have been classified as unfounded, which is an administrative designation.
As such, he said the force will look at whether the cases were properly classified and whether the administrative code reflects the steps the investigators took during each investigation.
"We have to make a distinction between what we're doing and completely starting over. We're not there," he told Radio-Canada.
He reassured anyone concerned about reporting sexual assault that the number of cases being assigned the administrative "unfounded" classification doesn't mean the victim's version of the events was not believed.
He said the SQ takes sexual assault complaints seriously.
"[Unfounded] doesn't necessarily mean the victim lied, it means that it wasn't a criminal infraction," Lapointe said.
Lapointe said the process of reviewing cases began Wednesday, and while it isn't impossible some cases will be reopened, no anomalies have been found in the cases that have been looked at so far.
Coiteux pointed out that in Quebec, police transmit investigations to Quebec's Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP). The DPCP then determines whether charges will be laid.
In other provinces, police can lay charges themselves.
Lapointe said in the majority of the cases that have been reviewed, investigators at least obtained an opinion from the DPCP, and even if an investigator decided to close the file, a manager must review the file before it is actually closed.
The provincewide review of police practices will start after the ministry completes its review of practices surrounding the protection of journalistic sources, Coiteux said.
In the wake of the Globe's investigation, a number of police forces across the country, including the RCMP and Ontario Provincial Police, have committed to review some of cases deemed to be unfounded.