N.B. still has no independent police watchdog agency

New Brunswick will likely close out the year without a local independent police watchdog office.

In October of 2021, the province announced it would be partnering with Nova Scotia to expand its Serious Incident Response Team, known as SIRT, to New Brunswick, with its own investigators and resources. At the time, the province said the partnership was expected to start in 2022. 

As of the end of November, the two provinces are still finalizing the expansion agreement.

In the meantime, SIRT in Nova Scotia has been the go-to agency to investigate serious incidents that stem from police actions, including death, serious injury, sexual assault, domestic violence and "other matters of significant public interest." 

This year, SIRT has taken on five New Brunswick cases, three of which are still pending. It closed three cases, where investigators cleared two RCMP officers after a shooting, cleared another RCMP officer after he tried to help a teen in mental distress and recommended charges against another.

The pending cases include one where a man died after being arrested. Another investigation started after a a person in mental distress and an officer were injured during an altercation. The last involves an officer who was injured while restraining a man being arrested under the Intoxicated Person Detention Act.

John Scott, SIRT interim director, said the agency doesn't always have the capacity to investigate both New Brunswick and Nova Scotia cases. The agency declined to take on one case this summer, he said, but did offer to give advice.

"What I was really worried about in July and August is that, you know, everybody seems to be off on vacation," he said. "It does put a little strain there on saying yes to taking on more things."

Calls for New Brunswick to have its own independent agency became loudest when Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation woman Chantel Moore, and Rodney Levi of Metepenagiag First Nation, were both shot by police within days of one another in June 2020.

Former SIRT director Felix Cacchione has said it didn't have the resources to take on those two cases, so they were referred to the Quebec-based bureau des enquêtes indépendantes, or BEI, which sent eight investigators and its own forensic team.

Travel makes things more difficult

Scott said a New Brunswick team would be better suited to handle local cases, because right now his investigators have to travel to get information, and that takes time and money.

Nova Scotia's SIRT has three or four investigators, most of whom are retired police officers. They typically each lead three to four investigations at any given time, Scott said.

Scott said he's been in regular contact with provincial representatives. No local investigators have been hired, but he said he expects the process will start soon.

"New Brunswick is putting together, I'm sure, a location," he said. "And the matter of getting people together … That doesn't usually take that long once you advertise, do your interviews and have those people in place."

The province has had to change the law to pave the way for the local agency.

The Police Act first had to be amended to allow SIRT officers to be considered peace keepers in New Brunswick.

Those amendments received Royal Assent in June, and took effect on Oct. 1, said Department of Justice and Public Safety spokesperson Sarah Bustard.

Then an agreement for the expansion and who pays for what has to be signed, and that's where the process stands right now.

"The department continues to work with the Government of Nova Scotia to formalize an agreement," she said.