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Quebec cabinet child sex ring { September 27 2003 }

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   http://www.nationalpost.com/national/story.html?id=B2A702D5-D248-426A-9419-67EE0E99B2A2

http://www.nationalpost.com/national/story.html?id=B2A702D5-D248-426A-9419-67EE0E99B2A2

Police deny politicians snared in child sex ring
Media reports that PQ ministers involved refuted

Graeme Hamilton
National Post, with files from The Canadian Press

Saturday, September 27, 2003

MONTREAL - Quebec City police moved quickly yesterday to defuse a story of politics and sex that had swirled around the province all day.

In a statement issued late yesterday, police said a review of their evidence does not implicate any Cabinet ministers or politicians in a juvenile prostitution ring, as reported by the media.

"After having made new checks, the information that we possess from electronic listening, witness statements and surveillance does not allow us to implicate as clients or anything else any minister or politician in any prostitution networks which were investigated as part of Operation Scorpion," said Director Daniel Langlais in the statement.

A transcript of the taped telephone call cited in the statement suggested the involvement of high-profile personalities "like ministers" in the ring. Media reports indicated Cabinet ministers were involved.

Earlier in the day, the Parti Québécois called for police to reopen an investigation into an alleged teen prostitution ring after a published report said evidence presented in court implicated unidentified former Cabinet ministers.

"It's completely unacceptable to touch a young girl," Agnès Maltais, chairwoman of the opposition Parti Québécois caucus, told reporters at the National Assembly. "If any action was taken by a colleague, whether it's a friend or a minister or anyone, let him be charged, get to the bottom of things. But if not, we must clear people's reputations."

Since last December, when Quebec City police broke up a child-prostitution ring preying on schoolgirls as young as 14, many reputations have been tarnished as people speculated on the identities of the ring's clients.

Several high-profile residents were charged, including a popular radio host, former presidents and board members of Quebec's winter and summer carnivals and a real estate developer. But there have been lingering suspicions, at times fuelled by the police, that more big names escaped.

In the Quebec City courthouse on Thursday, the suspicious minds seemed to be vindicated when the senior police officer investigating the child prostitution ring testified in a related case. He quoted a wiretapped conversation between two sisters, one of whom has been charged with pimping.

"I have some ministers among my clients," Sgt.-Det. Roger Ferland quoted Nadine Gingras as saying in a conversation last Dec. 17, the day police made their first arrests. Speaking to reporters outside the courtroom, Sgt.-Det. Ferland said some names of ministers surfaced during the thousands of hours of electronic surveillance.

"But we did not have the time to investigate and we did not have witnesses to corroborate this information," he said.

Ms. Maltais, who was a member of the PQ Cabinet until the party's election defeat last April, called on the Liberal Justice Minister, Marc Bellemare, to reopen the investigation into the prostitution ring to erase any lingering doubts.

"Right now in this city, everyone is thinking, 'Maybe there are elected members involved, maybe there are ministers.' Let us reopen the investigation and either press charges or clear people's reputations," she said.

Michel Dorais, a professor at Université Laval in Quebec City who has written extensively on prostitution, agreed that reopening the investigation is the only way to end the rumours poisoning the atmosphere in the city.

After a final round of arrests last May, bringing to 17 the number of clients charged, the police announced the investigation was closed.

Dr. Dorais said it defies belief that a prostitution ring that employed about 30 girls had only 17 customers.

"It's distressing to see people attacked on the basis of hearsay and rumours. But I think that if the investigation had continued longer, we would not have rumours, we would have got to the end. There are police officers themselves who say they would have liked to go further," he said.

"There are so many rumours; it's as if almost everyone in town was in this network. Since it's a big ring, we know there are more than one or two clients who have not been named. Without a doubt, dozens of people slipped through the net because there was not enough evidence."

PQ justice critic Jean-Pierre Charbonneau said the comment quoted by Sgt.-Det. Ferland could have several interpretations. "I have met people in my career who mix everything up, who mix up ministers with members of the legislature and city councillors."

PQ politicians are not the first ones to feel the sting of Project Scorpion. In January, Jean-Paul L'Allier, the Mayor, denounced a lynch-mob mentality that prevailed among the citizenry.

"If you don't follow the crowd to hang people from the biggest branch in the village, then you are guilty by association," he said at the time. "It's up to a judge to decide, and no one will be more disappointed than me if the people who committed these acts are not found guilty."

ghamilton@mon.nationalpost.com

© Copyright 2003 National Post


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