Allegations against SQ officers seemed credible, reporter testifies at defamation trial

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The reporter behind a story that is now at the heart of a defamation lawsuit filed by Sûreté du Québec officers against herself and Radio-Canada defended her work Friday at the Montreal courthouse.

Forty-two members of the SQ are seeking a total of nearly $3 million from Josée Dupuis, who is now retired, and Radio-Canada.

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The report in question, first aired in 2015 by Radio-Canada’s investigative series Enquête, alleged SQ officers based in Val-d’Or were paying indigenous women, with cash or seized cocaine, to perform fellatio on them while they were on duty. The report also alleged indigenous women were being left in remote areas in freezing weather so they would have to walk for hours to return home.

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The claims made by the women were later investigated by Montreal police and the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) and it was determined no criminal charges would be filed against any SQ officers based in Val D’or.

While testifying on Friday before Superior Court Justice Babak Barin, Dupuis said she considered the allegations made by the women she interviewed to be credible. Dupuis also said she made several trips to Val D’or to talk to other people who confirmed what the women claimed.

While answering questions from Radio-Canada’s lawyer, Geneviève Garon, Dupuis said she sometimes left research out of the report because she had doubts. In one case in particular, she said, she sought out and interviewed two sisters about alleged abuse by SQ officers.

Dupuis said she spent time looking for the sisters because other people said they would be key to the story, but she ultimately left them out of the report because what they said, in part, didn’t correspond with what other people alleged.

The names of most of the women Dupuis interviewed are protected by a publication ban.

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On Friday, the judge was shown a recording of an interview Dupuis did with a woman who alleged she had been forced to perform fellatio several times on SQ officers. The woman said this happened while she worked for an escort agency when she was between 18 and 22 years old.

“She was always clear when she spoke to me. She talked about her past as an escort,” Dupuis said after the video stopped. “She was very detailed in what she told me. She repeated the same things and didn’t change her version and she was honest about her past with the police.

“She never hid that she had violent problems with the police and that she herself had violent behaviour. Everything she said seemed to be true. I can add that she described precise locations, roads, hotels and residences. It was very precise.”

At one point, Radio-Canada’s lawyer asked Dupuis if she considered the former escort was making allegations to get back at the SQ because she had been treated with violence by their officers when arrested in the past.

“It did not strike me that she was trying to tarnish the reputation of police officers because she had been honest with us (on other subjects),” Dupuis said. “She had filed complaints and was not satisfied with the answers to her complaints. I didn’t sense that she was seeking revenge.”

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The retired reporter also said a claim another indigenous woman had performed fellatio on SQ officers was backed up “by several people.”

Dupuis also said after having made her third trip to Val D’or she received letters from people who had begun filing complaints against the SQ alleging past violence on the part of their officers. Dupuis also said she was informed the SQ had relaunched an investigation into the disappearance of Sindy Ruperthouse, an indigenous woman who disappeared in 2014 after she went to a hospital in Val D’or.

Ruperthouse had been assaulted and suffered broken ribs, but Dupuis said while talking to indigenous people in Val D’or she was told the SQ did not treat Ruperthouse’s disappearance seriously. The reporter was informed, after Radio-Canada’s visits to the community, the SQ searched the home of Lévis Landry, 62, a man considered to be a suspect in Ruperthouse’s disappearance.

Garon asked Dupuis how she reacted to this news.

“We had touched on something important. We had put our finger on something that was very sensitive and we were in the right direction to manage our investigation,” Dupuis said.

Ruperthouse has yet to be located, but, in 2016, Landry was charged with the death of a woman named Marie-Ève Charron. Her body was found in the basement of an apartment building in Val D’or. In 2018, Landry pleaded guilty to manslaughter and is currently serving a 16-year sentence.

Dupuis is scheduled to continue her testimony next week.

pcherry@postmedia.com

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