First witnesses testify in defamation lawsuit against Radio-Canada

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The first witness in a trial in which dozens of members of the Surété du Québec are suing Radio-Canada over reports that Val d'Or police officers abused local women began testifying in a Montreal court on Wednesday.

42 members of the SQ are seeking a total of nearly $3 million in defamation. The report, first aired by the Radio-Canada investigative series Enquête in 2015, alleged that SQ officers based in the Val d'Or were paying local women with cash or cocaine to perform fellatio on the job. The report said local women were stranded in remote areas in freezing weather and had to walk for hours to get home.

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Maxim Baril, the first plaintiff called as a witness, said that he experienced various emotions when he watched the report with his wife in 2015. He said the SQ squad heard about the report months before it aired.

“A lot of emotions. Very angry,” Baril said, adding that although he was not named in the report, he felt the allegations were aimed at him and other officers who worked in downtown Val d'Or.

Baril said the allegation that the officers received fellatio from the women was “impossible.”

“I couldn't believe it. I've never heard a police officer talk about receiving fellatio in my career,” Baril said. “There were things I had never heard of in my life: we took people into the woods and made them walk for two hours.”

Baril said that as he continued to watch Enquête that night, he began to think about its impact on the Val d'Or. She said her concern grew when she turned to her husband and noticed tears welling up in his eyes as he watched the report.

“I knew Radio Canada had a certain credibility. It is not alternative media,” said an SQ officer. “I didn't know how I was going to deal with everything that came out.”

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According to Baril, it didn't take long to hear reactions from people he saw often while working in Val d'Or. She said one person called her a “sexual abuser.”

“I've never been called a sexual abuser before,” Baril said.

The second plaintiff, Benoit Fortier, who testified before Supreme Court Justice Babak Barin, appeared via video conference. He testified from Val d'Or that he still works as a patrol officer for the SQ, although he feels unmotivated and is not proud of being a police officer.

“(Enquête) talked about the police in Val d'Or. I am a police officer in Val d'Or. Everyone at the (SQ) post was targeted in this report,” Fortier said.

Although he was not named in the report, Fortier said he received a call from his parents in Trois-Rivières the next day, and one asked if he was “involved in all of this.”

“It wasn't fun,” Fortier said, recalling how he told his mother he didn't drive around with “24 cases” of beer in his patrol car or pay women to perform fellatio. “You have to explain this to your parents, it hurts in a way.”

Fortier said he was called a variety of names while working after the report aired. He said he was called a “rapist” and a “wife beater.”

“Abusing is not a police officer. This is the person inside the uniform,” he said.

The trial is expected to take more than three months to complete.

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