Quebec is currently the only province in Canada that treats its police watchdog reports like state secrets. While families in Ontario or British Columbia can read exactly what happened when a police interaction turned fatal, Quebecers are left with vague press releases and a "trust us" from the government. That might be about to change.
Public Security Minister Ian Lafrenière recently admitted he's open to the idea of making these reports public. It's a small admission, but for a province that has lagged behind the rest of the country on police transparency for a decade, it’s a massive shift in tone. If you’ve been following the news about the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI), you know this isn't just about paperwork. It's about whether the public has a right to know how the state uses lethal force.
The lone holdout in a transparent country
Every other province with a dedicated police oversight body—Ontario’s SIU, BC’s IIO, and similar agencies in Manitoba and Nova Scotia—publishes summaries of their investigations. They redact names to protect privacy, but they lay out the facts. Quebec? The BEI sends its report to the prosecutor, and that’s essentially where the trail goes cold for the public.
Lafrenière, a former police officer himself, noted that he'd "look into" changing this. But he quickly followed up with a warning. He's worried that if the reports are heavily redacted, it might cause more frustration than they solve. Honestly, that feels like a weak excuse. A redacted report is still more informative than a total blackout. The professional order of journalists in Quebec has been shouting about this since 2021, arguing that the current wall of silence "seriously undermines" trust in both the police and the watchdog itself.
The Nooran Rezayi case brought things to a head
The catalyst for this sudden openness is the tragic shooting of 15-year-old Nooran Rezayi last September. Longueuil police responded to a call about armed youth. They ended up shooting and killing a teenager. Just this week, the BEI finished its investigation and handed the file to the Crown.
The details that have leaked so far are messy. We know the only firearm found at the scene belonged to the officer. We also know, thanks to documents released by Longueuil Mayor Catherine Fournier, that the BEI was furious with how the Longueuil police handled the aftermath. The police allegedly waited over an hour and a half to call the watchdog. During that time, they were busy interviewing witnesses and grabbing video footage—tasks they are legally forbidden from doing once the BEI is triggered.
When the police investigate themselves before the independent body arrives, the whole "independent" part of the watchdog starts to look like a joke.
Why the "silent treatment" makes it worse
Transparency isn't just about the reports at the end of the day. The entire investigation process in Quebec is currently under fire because of what people are calling the "silent treatment."
A 2022 court ruling suggested that officers involved in these incidents have a constitutional right not to incriminate themselves. Since then, many officers have simply stopped talking to BEI investigators. Data from late 2023 showed that in some municipal forces, 100% of officers refused to answer questions during investigations.
While the government is appealing that ruling, the optics are terrible. You have a watchdog that can’t get officers to talk, and a government that won’t let the public see the final results. It’s a recipe for permanent skepticism.
What a "better" system actually looks like
If Lafrenière is serious, he doesn't need to reinvent the wheel. He just needs to look West. In Ontario, the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) publishes "Director’s Reports" that include:
- A detailed timeline of the incident.
- Evidence from witness statements (anonymized).
- Forensic findings like ballistics or CCTV analysis.
- The legal reasoning for why charges were or were not laid.
Quebec’s current argument—that these reports might be "too redacted"—doesn't hold water when you see it working elsewhere. The goal isn't to dox officers or witnesses; it's to show the public the work was actually done. Without the report, we only have the prosecutor’s final "yes" or "no" on charges. We don’t get to see the evidence that led them there.
The administrative inquiry hurdle
Lafrenière mentioned he’s also waiting on an administrative inquiry into the Longueuil police's conduct in the Rezayi case. He says he doesn't want to "rush" it and interfere with the prosecutor’s work. That's a fair point legally, but it doesn't help the family of a dead 15-year-old who want answers now.
The minister’s "openness" needs to turn into a concrete timeline. Quebec’s Bill 14 already tried to modernize policing by addressing racial profiling and police stops, but it stopped short of fixing the BEI’s transparency problem. If the government wants to prove they aren't just protecting their own, making these reports public is the easiest win they have.
Check the status of the BEI’s current investigations on their official site. If you're in Quebec, write to your MNA and ask why our province is the only one keeping these files behind closed doors. Transparency shouldn't be a "maybe"—it should be the default.
