2 Montreal officers who lied to watchdog appeal suspension

Two Montreal police officers who were sanctioned for lying to investigators are appealing the disciplinary ruling, saying evidence against them should be inadmissible.

Officers Dominique Gagné and Mathieu Paré were given a 22-day suspension for being reckless toward a detainee's safety and giving the police watchdog information they knew was false in early June.

David Tshiteya Kalubi, 23, was arrested during a traffic stop in 2017 and told the officers he had sickle cell anemia and needed medication while in custody, according to video evidence. But when Kalubi was later transferred to a holding cell, Paré and Gagné never told guards about his condition and he died a few hours later.

A coroner ruled Kalubi didn't die due to the lack of medication, but rather from cardiac arrhythmia. Still, the officers never documented his condition on the inmate control sheet, and there would have been no way for officers at the municipal court to know about Kalubi's condition.

The Quebec police ethics committee ruled in January that the officers did not respect Kalubi's rights by being careless with regard to his health and safety during the remand procedure.

During an investigation by the independent watchdog, both officers told the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI), which was looking into the circumstances surround Kalubi's death, that he had not mentioned any medical condition.

The officers don't deny lying to investigators, but say the statements should not be admissible as they were not told they could be used against them.

"The BEI is a specialized police force meant to investigate other police officers and holds no commissioner-investigator power," the appeal documents say.

"Criminal investigations must be carried out in compliance with the strict guidelines of fundamental rights established by law."

'Not a criminal case'

But, spokesperson for the Coalition Against Police Repression and Abuse, Alexander Popovic, says the officers are "playing the victim."

"Those two officers have been caught lying, and now they want to get off [on a technicality]," he said.

"The problem with their defence is that we're not in a criminal case, we're in a police ethics case. And, the constitutional protection against self-incrimination doesn't apply to administrative justice like the police ethics case."

The officers want their declarations excluded from the investigation, have the police ethics commissioner's decision annulled and have their suspension reduced to five days without pay.

Popovic warns that absolving the two officers could deepen a lack of trust between the public and the police.

Montreal police said it is responsible for enforcing sanctions imposed by the ethics committee, and officers may appeal a decision within 30 days, which will be heard by a judge of the Court of Quebec.