ENGLISH COURTESY TRANSLATION - ORIGINAL TEXT IN FRENCH
The Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes du Québec (Quebec Bureau of Independent Investigations) (BEI) has accepted, at the request of the New Brunswick authorities, the establishment of an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of a 48-year-old man in Miramichi during a police intervention by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
Although outside its usual jurisdiction, the competent authorities have been informed that the BEI intends to apply its regulations, including the Regulation respecting the conduct of the investigations of the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes, which exhaustively lists the rights and obligations of the police force involved, the police officers involved and witness police officers. All of these regulations can be viewed on our website.
In accordance with these regulations, it is the responsibility of the BEI to inform the public about the conduct of this investigation, and the RCMP has been asked to ensure that any communication made to the public is not likely to harm the BEI investigation.
It is the responsibility of the BEI to ensure communications with the family members of the deceased and to communicate any relevant information relating to the investigation process to the extent that this does not interfere with the investigation. An investigator is thus specifically assigned to this function and the latter is required to maintain, throughout the investigation, a communication link with a member designated by the family and to be available to answer questions from that person. The information thus transmitted remains confidential to the BEI, but the representative designated by the family is free to share this information or not.
At the end of its investigation, the BEI will submit its report to the coroner responsible for the investigation in New Brunswick as well as to the New Brunswick Public Prosecution Services who will determine whether to lay criminal charges against the police officers involved. It will be up to these authorities to make the BEI report public or not according to the applicable legislation.
The BEI is required to comply with the rules, principles of law and laws regarding the disclosure of the information it has. In order not to compromise the integrity and the impartiality of its investigation, the BEI keeps confidential the facts and information it deems sensitive and does not comment on the events that it is responsible for investigating.