A decision not to charge a police officer who killed a five-year-old boy while d

riving over the speed limit has exposed a lack of transparency in the way Quebec
kers are informed about deaths involving police.
Justice officials in the province are under no legal obligation to explain why t
he Sret du Qubec officer will not be charged after he allegedly exceeded the posted
speed limit by 72 kilometres an hour while on routine business in a Montreal su
burb and struck a car, killing the child in the back seat.
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In other
ent body
involve
detailed

provinces, including British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario, an independ

investigates deaths, serious injuries and other high-profile cases that
police officers. If no charges are laid, investigators give relatively
summaries of facts and reasons.

In Quebec, neighbouring police forces investigate such cases and provincial Crow
n prosecutors decide on charges. The prosecutors declined to explain their decis
ion in this case on Wednesday. Late in the day, the prosecutors office said in a
statement that officials will meet the child s family in coming days and might rev
eal more details later.
The boy s parents, opposition politicians, advocates for police transparency, and
even the police union were united on Wednesday in calling for prosecutors or Jus
tice Minister Stphanie Valle to explain the decision.
Ms. Valle admitted prosecutors mishandled one portion of the case by sending poli
ce officers to tell the family no charges would be laid instead of doing it them
selves. But she said prosecutors followed their rules and the law in arriving at
the decision not to lay charges.
The situation is somewhat unusual in that a representative of the prosecutors offi
ce should have accompanied the police to inform the family, Ms. Valle told the Nat
ional Assembly on Wednesday.
Alexandre Cloutier, the Parti Qubcois justice critic, asked Ms. Valle to explain th
e circumstances of the crash and the rationale for the decision, as she is entit
led to do under the law. She declined.
Mike Belance was driving with his five-year-old son buckled into the back seat i

n a residential area on Feb. 13 when an unmarked police cruiser travelling at hi

gh speed crashed into their Kia sedan.
The 29-year-old officer was driving 122 kilometres per hour in a 50-kilometre-pe
r-hour zone, and was not responding to a call or other emergency at the time, La
Presse reported on Wednesday. The Sret du Qubec officer was on his way to relieve
a surveillance team, the paper said in the report, citing confidential sources.
The provincial prosecutors
tails.

office has refused to confirm that or provide other de

Stephanie Thorne, the mother of the child, said she does not question the qualit
y of the investigation conducted by Montreal police, but the family needs an exp
lanation and an apology. Ms. Thorne said authorities seem to think the way her s
on died was normal.
She said the family is asking that the name of their son not be published. We wan
t to let him rest in peace, she said in a brief conversation.
Several Quebec governments have promised to establish an independent investigati
ve unit for cases involving police, but it has been slow to get off the ground w
ith a quick succession of elections in recent years.
The Liberal government has promised Quebec will have an independent investigatio
n unit by 2016. The Justice Minister said the prosecutions office has additional
ly promised to review its communications policy for decisions whether or not to l
ay charges.
Police unions have called for more information to be made public on police-invol
ved investigations, said Paulin Aub, a vice-president of the Quebec police office
rs federation. We also want transparency, we are tired of being made to look croo
ked, Mr. Aub said in a news conference on another matter. We re not the problem. Queb
ec City is the problem. They ve told us the prosecutors office does not want to go
there.
Quebec prosecutors have occasionally shown more transparency after intense publi
c pressure or political intervention. After police shot 18-year-old Fredy Villan
ueva in 2008, triggering a riot, prosecutors held a news conference to explain t
he decision not to lay charges, saying the officer feared for his life.