A Sûreté du Québec officer was fired for favouritism toward a fellow officer, letting him go without a ticket and falsifying a report to cover his actions.
The dismissal is the most severe punishment the Police Ethics Committee can hand out.
It was imposed on officer Guy Bélanger, a member of the Sûreté du Québec of the MRC of Rivière-du-Nord.
The case dates back to March 2013 in Prévost. Bélanger, who had 20 years of experience at the time, was conducting a radar operation and stopped two motorcyclists for speeding. When one of the riders turned out to be a police officer, Bélanger kept the ticket he had issued and let him leave, while ticketing the other motorcyclist. The man who received the ticket, a friend of the police officer spared from the infraction, filed an official complaint. Bélanger made a note in the file to justify letting the other motorcyclist go, by saying it was the “wrong vehicle.”
Upon examining the case, the Ethics Committee came to two conclusions: First, the offending officer did not exercise his discretion legitimately and favoured a policeman. Second, the officer wrote a report he knew to be false or inaccurate. Bélanger admitted to these facts, testifying that he wrote something other than the truth “because it would have seemed wrong” and would have got the other police officer in trouble.
In the eyes of the committee, the misconduct was “akin to the criminal offence of obstruction of justice.”
Furthermore, the event was not isolated. The committee noted the policeman testified to often acting this way. Bélanger testified to doing the same for secretaries, doctors, lawyers and judges.
He had already been sanctioned twice by the committee for other offences. In the first case, he pointed his gun at a vehicle because he suspected there was a radar detector within. In the other, after a man complained about him and his conduct, Bélanger issued two tickets without justification, one of which contained complete falsehoods, the Committee said. He was punished for that, but the decision is under appeal.
Taking into account all these factors, including past behaviour of the officer, the Committee ruled that Bélanger’s misconduct “calls into question his integrity and directly affects public confidence.” The Committee added that he does not appear able to adequately fulfill his police duties properly and ensure public safety. Thus he was fired from the force.
