Quebec’s public security minister says he’s open to publicly releasing the reports by the province’s independent police watchdog, as is the case with police oversight bodies in other provinces.

Ian Lafrenière, himself a former police officer, was questioned on the matter Thursday, the day after Quebec’s watchdog submitted its report to the prosecutor’s office about the police shooting of a 15-year-old boy last September on Montreal’s South Shore.

Lafrenière told reporters he would “look into” whether to release those reports, but he said doing so would raise other issues.

To increase transparency in policing, he said, the Quebec government created the watchdog — Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes, or BEI — in 2016. It investigates cases in which a civilian is seriously injured or killed by police.

“So, is there a need to increase transparency? I’ll look into it,” he said. But he added that those reports would likely be significantly redacted.

“If we submit a report that has been largely redacted, it will raise issues,” he said.

The police oversight body in Quebec is the only one in Canada that doesn’t make its investigation reports public, according to a briefing document submitted in 2021 to a policing reform committee by Quebec’s professional order of journalists. “Equivalent bodies in Ontario, British Columbia, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia all publish comprehensive summaries of their investigations, with certain information anonymized.”

The professional body representing journalists said the lack of public reports “seriously undermines” trust in the police and in the BEI itself.

The watchdog’s report into the Sept. 21 shooting of Nooran Rezayi is with prosecutors, who will decide whether there is enough evidence to charge the officer who shot and killed the teenager.

Rezayi was killed by Longueuil police after they responded to a 911 call about a group of allegedly armed youth in a residential neighbourhood. The BEI has said the only gun seized at the scene belonged to the officer who shot the teen. Police did seize a baseball bat, a backpack and ski masks, but no sharp-edged weapons.

Lafrenière has also said his department would investigate allegations Longueuil police acted inappropriately in the aftermath of the shooting. Those allegations surfaced after Longueuil Mayor Catherine Fournier released correspondence between the BEI and Longueuil’s police chief about the shooting.

In the documents, BEI director Brigitte Bishop criticizes police for waiting too long — 1 hour and 36 minutes — to inform the oversight agency about Rezayi’s shooting. As well, Bishop reveals police officers interviewed witnesses and attempted to collect video footage after the shooting, with Bishop stating bluntly that the Longueuil police should not have investigated the shooting death of a civilian at the hands of its own officers.

Lafrenière said he was waiting for prosecutors to confirm that they had all the information they needed before launching his department’s investigation. “Often, during an investigation, they may request additional information. The last thing I want to do by rushing an administrative inquiry is to interfere with that process.”

“So, as soon as it’s confirmed, we’ll conduct an administrative inquiry to determine what led to the initiation of the investigation.”

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