APTN National News
Quebec’s investigation into police abuse in Val d’Or resulted in charges against two police officers, but not from allegations against officers in Val d’Or.
Québec’s prosecutor held a media conference Friday afternoon to explain why there is no charges against a number of officers in Val d’Or, located 530 kilometres northwest of Montréal.
“We feel the evidence is not enough to move forward,” said Alexandre Dalmau, Québec prosecutor.
In all, 37 cases were brought forward by a number of Indigenous women from the community and surrounding First Nations. Québec said there was a lack of evidence to support charges in the other 35 allegations.
Dalmau said the investigation was held in two phases, the first focusing on the original allegations in Val d’Or, while the second phase spread to additional jurisdictions where they found enough evidence to lay charges.
Jean-Luc Vollant is charged with two counts of sexual assault based on allegations from the 1980s. Vollant was an officer with the Indigenous police service in Schefferville
Vollant was arrested this week, along with retired provincial police officer Alain Juneau on allegations of sexual and armed assaults also stemming from Schefferville in the 1990s.
Both are to appear in court in January.
The news wasn’t welcomed by Indigenous women in the province.
“Once again, it is made clear that the criminal justice system is ill adapted to the needs and experiences of sexual assault victims, even less so when these victims are Indigenous women,” said the Québec Native Women association in a statement Friday. “QNW believes and supports the women who reported. Their courageous acts have triggered an unprecedented wave of further reporting and solidarity, and were instrumental in breaking the silence around such injustice.”
Dalmau said one case is still under investigation.
Very,very unusual for retired cop to be charged with assault,imagine that, how many people have these ‘above the law police ‘been charged with garbage charges,hopefully, even if he gets off, life will be miserable for him from now on .KARMA is great