MONTREAL — A Quebec court judge has overturned the majority of the sanctions against two Montreal police officers who were suspended for lying about their interactions with an inmate who died in custody in 2017.
Judge Alexandre Henri ruled that police watchdog investigators had not informed the officers of their right to remain silent when questioning them on the circumstances surrounding the death of David Tshiteya Kalubi.
Quebec's police ethics board had suspended the officers for 22 days, but Henri invalidated 20 of those on the grounds that the board wrongly refused to exclude material provided to watchdog investigators.
The officers had not appealed the other two days of their suspension.
"In the circumstances, the court is of the opinion that the protection of the fundamental rights of the police officers must prevail over the search for truth, taking into account the nature of the ethical breaches they are reproached of," Henri wrote in a July 15 decision.
"The use of their reports and statements would bring the administration of justice into disrepute, particularly since there is no established link between their conduct and Mr. Kalubi’s death."
In 2023, the police ethics board found that officers Mathieu Paré and Dominic Gagné reported on an intake form that a 23-year-old man who had been arrested had no known medical conditions.
However, video of the interaction showed that Tshiteya Kalubi told the officer that he had anemia and took medication for it.
The board found the two officers then made false statements to investigators from the province's police watchdog after Tshiteya Kalubi died in custody the day after he was detained, on Nov. 8, 2017.
A coroner later concluded Tshiteya Kalubi's death was not related to the medical condition.
The officers appealed the suspension, arguing that their rights had been violated and their statements to the watchdog -- the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes, or BEI -- should have been excluded.
Henri upheld that appeal, citing a 2022 Superior Court ruling that found officers have the right to refuse to share their incident reports or speak with investigators from the BEI.
The higher court also ruled that officers have the right to remain silent — and must be informed of that right at the start of any BEI investigation.
That decision later upheld by Quebec's Court of Appeal in 2024.
Henri characterized the violation of the officers' rights as "serious." He also noted that the officers were "somewhat trapped" by BEI investigators, who waited until the officers had submitted written reports before showing them the video of the booking process.
The judge said he didn't question the ethics' committee's conclusions regarding the officers' "lack of credibility" during their testimony at hearings into the case. But he said that without being able to admit the statements made to the BEI, there is nothing to show they lied to investigators.
Lawyers for the officers and for the police ethics commissioner did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 14, 2025.
Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press
