Often, a public inquiry is what the opposition demands when it has no ideas of its own to propose. And often, it’s the response of a government to pressure to Do Something.
There has been pressure on the Couillard government to hold a public inquiry into allegations of abuse of indigenous women by police in Val-d’Or since the Radio-Canada investigative program Enquête first reported them in October 2015.
The pressure, led by Quebec indigenous leaders, became more intense in the past month.
First, after receiving the report of an investigation of the police by other police, in this case from the Montreal force, prosecutors declined to press charges.
It wasn’t because they didn’t believe the women, but because, as is often the case concerning allegations of sexual assault, they doubted they had enough evidence to prove charges beyond a reasonable doubt, as required in criminal law.
At the same time, the civilian observer who oversaw the Montreal police investigation reported that, while it had been conducted according to “the highest standards,” it nevertheless was an “insufficient” response to “systemic racism” in the police.
Finally, last week, the federal commission of inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, created in September, said it could not conduct the investigation into the situation in Val-d’Or on which the Couillard government had been counting.
The federal commission suggested that instead, Quebec conduct its own “complementary” inquiry.
At that point, the Couillard government gave in.
When the government announced the terms of the inquiry this week, aboriginal leaders were pleased. They may, however, have got more than they bargained for — or less.
What they got was something like the Charbonneau inquiry into the construction industry that preceded it. That is, they got a commission with such a broad mandate that it may result in a watered-down inquiry that fails to live up to expectations.
The inquiry, whose terms were announced this week, is not the one narrowly focused on the treatment of indigenous women by police in Val-d’Or, including the provincial Sûreté du Québec, that indigenous leaders had been demanding.
Quebec governments usually treat the police with kid gloves, because police often know things that, if made public, might embarrass politicians. The present government has already had enough trouble with leaks from investigations by UPAC, the provincial anti-corruption squad.
In the case of the latest inquiry, the Couillard government has apparently tried to mollify police by making it look like anything but an inquiry into them in particular.
Rather, it is an inquiry into violence and discrimination against indigenous people, not only by police, but by other provincial public services, as well.
This doesn’t appear to have satisfied the police. The provincial police union had threatened possible pressure tactics if police weren’t excluded from the inquiry entirely.
What’s more, the inquiry’s mandate covers events across the province, going back 15 years.
The commission, whose chair is a retired Superior Court judge, Jacques Viens, must cover all this in only two years; its report is due at the end of November 2018.
The commission will have no time to waste duplicating the work of the federal inquiry, which would also be a waste of public funds.
There’s another possible problem with this inquiry.
Inquiries can serve a useful purpose by educating the public about a problem. And the Viens commission may hold hearings across the province.
It will hear some testimony, however, behind closed doors, to protect witnesses’ identities or privacy. And even the public hearings may not receive as much media coverage as those of the Charbonneau inquiry.
While that inquiry held its hearings in Montreal, the latest one will be based in Val-d’Or, in northwestern Quebec, and may also travel to indigenous communities.
So most of its hearings will take place far from the province’s media centres, which will make covering them expensive.
As a result, the issues to be covered by this inquiry may not receive the public attention they deserve.
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