The mayor pf Montreal , embarrassed by police leaks to the media, calls the police chief. A police investigation ensues, during which a journalist has his phone tracked. There are few citizens in this city who have the police chief on speed dial; fewer still who sit on the municipal bodies that oversee the force. Not one but nine journalists were spied upon — a consensus broadened among politicians that police may have overstepped their boundaries. The bad city hall managers hire bad cops starting with the bad police chief now too.. as simple as that. Police surveillance scandal: Montreal’s public safety commission will study the issue of police spying on journalists.The future of the city’s police chief will also be determined by the commission. Montreal’s police brotherhood called on Philippe Pichet to resign as head of the city’s police force after it was revealed that the cellphones of at least four journalists including La Presse columnist Patrick Lagacé were being monitored by police, who were listening in to calls and tracking their location. Néron, a justice reporter at 98.5 FM since 2013, told the Montreal Gazette she had been tipped off months ago that her phone might be tapped by police. After she produced a column in June criticizing SPVM management for “muzzling” longtime police communications director Ian Lafrenière by transferring him to a new job, sources contacted her to warn her her phone might be tapped.Coderre’s “political meddling in the operational affairs of a police force” was an affront to press freedom and the police response was excessive
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Nearly three-quarters of Quebecers, or 72 per cent, believed it was unacceptable to monitor the cellphone of a journalist to obtain information about their sources. The poll also found 74 per cent of Quebecers believed there should be an independent inquiry into police methods with respect to journalists. The leaders of the city’s major newsrooms called the spying an attack on the freedom of the press. The head of the Montreal police union said police Chief Philippe Pichet should be fired for allowing his officers to spy on journalists, calling the decision to track the cellphones of La Presse columnist Patrick Lagacé and at least three other reporters “unforgivable.” He has lost all credibility and legitimacy.” They published an open letter calling on Pichet to reveal which other journalists have been or are being spied on by police. ” The police surveillance of Lagacé “constitutes a serious infringement of constitutional guarantees.”
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The SPVM is the second largest police service in Quebec and the fifth largest municipal force in North America, so we need a strong leader.” The courts have already established the principle that surveillance operations on journalists should be as rare as those on lawyers and judges, and can only be justified in cases involving serious crimes, when all other methods have been exhausted. With the Quebec premier saying journalistic freedom is a fundamental right, the provincial government is tightening the rules that allow police to obtain warrants to conduct surveillance of reporters. Public Security Minister Martin Coiteux has ordered inspections of Quebec’s main police forces including Montreal’s and the Sûreté du Québec to verify their investigation practices. Pichet’s future is also chiefly the responsibility of Montreal and its executive committee. Mayor Denis Coderre’s reaction to Monday’s revelation that Montreal police, with the approval of Quebec court judges, electronically monitored a journalist was unacceptable. Government responses to police spying on Montreal journalist fall short If Quebec is serious about preserving democracy and freedom of press, it will set up an impartial investigative body to shed light on the Lagacé and Nguyen affairs, independent of the province’s police forces and the government. It will also hold decision-makers in these cases accountable. Any public official — politician, prosecutor, judge or cop — who authorized or carried out the surveillance of journalists, or even remained silent as it was happening, is not deserving of the public’s confidence. We’re spied on more often than you think, journalists groups say. “This is just one case, but I guarantee there are dozens of others,” The bad city hall managers hire bad cops Canada wide still too
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Many continue to question the tactics used by Montreal police after it was revealed they obtained warrants to spy on a Montreal journalist. The fact that Montreal police chose to spy on Lagacé in the first place points to “the cultures that have been built up within policing or security services,” Montreal police Chief Philippe Pichet resists calls to step down. “Public confidence has been shaken in the SPVM [Montreal police service] as the result of this espionage. We find it … hard to understand how such espionage could help the SPVM solve allegations that a police officer fabricated evidence – which is the underlying criminal allegation in this case.” We’re spied on more often than you think, journalists groups say , the revelation that Montreal police had been spying on La Presse columnist Patrick Lagacé for six months is just the latest in a worrisome pattern. The Sûreté du Québec seized Journal de Montréal reporter Michael Nguyen’s computer in September after he reported on a Quebec judge’s questionable behaviour after a Christmas party.
Police in Quebec may be battling perceptions that their surveillance campaigns have run amok. Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau says police surveillance of journalists on Quebec ‘troubling’ in any free democracy. Trudeau’s remarks came as the Quebec government called an inquiry into a growing scandal over police spying on journalists. Montreal’s Mayor Denis Coderre as also troubled by news police were tracking journalist
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UNPROSECUTED BAD CRIMMINALS ABOUND IN QUEBEC CAUSE CLEARLY OUR BAD LEADERS, ADMINSTRATORS THEY DO NOT WANT TO PROSECUTE THEIR BAD ASSOCIATES. Ongoing Montreal Corruptions while the Police , RCMP and the Federal, Quebec Governments all still did nothing about it.. Exemplary Public exposure and prosecution of the guilty serves very ones best interest… too often still missing in the PROFESSIONAL BODIES, EVEN IN THE RCMP, police forces, churches, ALL GOVERNMENTS as well it seems too. HOUSE CLEANING IS STILL VERY MUCH IN ORDER.
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Two police forces in the provinces have admitted to telephone surveillance of reporters. Police with the backing of a Canadian judge tracked a prominent Montreal journalist’s movements and communications over several months, hoping to identify his sources . Montreal police spying on journalists through their phone in an intense way for the particular reason, a specified reason of uncovering sources behind their journalism, is a radical attack on journalism of the free press,” Revelations this week that two Quebec police forces spied on journalists by secretly monitoring their smartphones was widely condemned in Canada and abroad as an outrageous attack on press freedom.
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Montreal police department’s spying on a La Presse journalist through his cellphone is a violation of freedom of the press and is an “extraordinary example of overreach” by the authorities. The Montreal police department’s ill-fated spying on journalist Patrick Lagacé came to light after La Presse stumbled upon warrants allowing investigators to track Lagacé’s iPhone calls, texts and location.
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Regardless of the laws the police used to justify requesting the warrants, a justice of the peace falsely approved them. Usually police know which justice to go see . We are all being watched, regardless of whether we are doing anything right or wrong. Unlawful use of authority, obstruction of justice, home visits, bullying, false intimidation by the politician’s watch dogs the police is nothing new. But what is more troublesome, is that judges responsible for protecting Quebecers’ charter rights to privacy and freedom of expression have approved the related warrants — in Lagacé’s case, 24 times. “As the Supreme Court has said over and over again: a free press is a fundamental characteristic of a democratic society. Once we start infringing on freedom of the press, we’re infringing on democracy.”
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One thing you learn in Canada is there is no right of free speech here, especially if you exposes the sins of the cops. The police do too often lie, abuse their positions, authority, misrepresent themselves and try to stop you from posting the truth, the bad things about them.. they get especially upset when they find out you have been sending letters to the elected representatives about how bad the cops really are and they falsely try to intimidate you. But the Police are not the only one who hate public exposures of their wrong doings, so do some bad mayors, bad politicians, bad judges, bad guys, crooks, bad corporations.
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The same police can’t catch all of the social welfare frauds, drug pushers, drug users, real bad guys, tax evaders, child molesters, citizen abusers, crooked cops, drunk drivers, crooked civil and public servants, bad politicians but they found time to harass , to unlawfully use their authorities, those writing openly about the crooked too often cops too and the need of their rightful prosecutions..
The Quebec government has given the body looking into the police surveillance of journalists the power of a commission of inquiry, including the ability to call witnesses and hold public audiences. The announcement was followed Thursday by new revelations in the ever-widening scandal, when Quebec provincial police confirmed to Radio-Canada journalist Alain Gravel, former host of the network’s investigative program Enquête, that his cell phone call logs had been monitored for five years straight, from Nov. 1, 2008 to Oct. 1, 2013.
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Two members of the Montreal police department’s anti-gang squad are already facing criminal charges after an internal investigation alleged they lied to get search warrants and one of them traded for sexual favours.
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Too many police officers are now too often guilty of their most serious neglect of public trust and their duty. The related truth is that neither an independent police investigation, a new police commissioner, a promised provincial or federal investigation, or just more politicians promises too often still will not bring the much needed justice. “In the case of police, it is in everyone’s best interest that there is full, effective, independent, transparent and objective oversight. It goes without saying that an absence of effective oversight will inevitably result in the erosion of the community’s confidence in the police.” “To many police officer abuse the power given them by “we the people.”
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Needless to say police resources are often misused where even the mayors do instruct the police to find out all they can about their opposition members too. ” and it all is still unacceptable! Free speech is a right for bullies, crooks, abusers only it still seems in Canada now. LAZY, INDIFFERENT, IMMORAL, BAD POLICE, BAD JUSTICE MINSTERS, BAD SOLICITOR GENERALS is not a new aspect in Ottawa, Ontario and in the rest of Canada. SO NEVER EXPECT A FULL HONEST INVESTIGATION WHEN CLEARY THE RESULTS WILL SHOW BAD COPS, BAD ATTORNEY GENERALS, BAD MINISTERS WHO HAVE NOT BEING DOING A GOOD JOB. ALL UNACCEPTABLE.
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I was told years ago by a lawyer reporting directly to a municipal mayor that ot is was a normal practise of a mayor to use the police to investigate all potential opposition members.
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For decades the police have had a file on me and likely you as well especially if you write letters of complaint about city hall, police.. . All it takes for the bad guys to continue to do bad things is for the others wrongfully to do nothing about it.
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It is clearly established, accepted fact by most people that those in leadership civil and public servants cops, teachers, ministers, politicians included are always to be exemplary in behavior, conduct and they do need to maintain their high standards even out of their working hours, thus to do so they are also to be exemplary judged, prosecuted for their own wrong doings with a higher standard over those of us ordinary folks. The police themselves now rather too often are the bad guys where too many persons now they have more to fear from the police than from criminals! Why? Too many cops hired these days it seems are now still the bad guys, and not rather the citizens themselves.
http://postedat.wordpress.com/2009/10/12/supressed-right-of-free-speech-in-canada/.
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Montreal bagpiper Jeff McCarthy ticketed by police for wearing a knife, an accessory for men in traditional Scottish garb. The 48-year-old bagpiper was slapped with a $221 ticket and his knife was confiscated. Members of the local Scottish cultural groups were outraged by the ticketing of McCarthy.“There is no religious significance to the knife, but there is a cultural significance. I think that needs to be respected,” “Seriously, with all the crime and corruption rampant in Montreal, is this the best that our police can do?” “Next, will they be closing the Black Watch Armory, cancelling the Scottish games, stopping the Burns Suppers, etc. that require men to wear traditional Scottish highland dress?” Are they going to set up a paddy wagon in front of the Highland Games? “Are they going to be bring in the task force when they hold the annual St. Andrew’s Ball in a couple of weeks? Let me tell you, there are lot of people there wearing a sgian-dubh.”McCarthy, whose grandmother was Scottish, said he felt his ancestry was being targeted by police. “It’s sort of like crushing a culture, and it’s disrespecting a culture,”
The police forces are horribly corrupt and tainted with lies, criminality and scandals. The related Judges should be removed from the bench for signing the warrants , The Montreal police Chief, the other decision makers within the police, the judges who authorized the surveillance , plus the related police involved need to be dismissed and criminal charges need to be brought against them all. Canadians simply cannot be confident that security intelligence agencies are safeguarding and respecting our rights and freedoms.Canadians simply cannot be confident that security intelligence agencies are safeguarding and respecting our rights and freedoms. We need Elections and term limits for Police Chiefs, Crown Prosecutors and Judges too.
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