The Service de Police de la Ville de Québec (SPVQ) has been asked to reopen an investigation to “reconsider the 2014 sexual assault allegations involving four Gatineau Olympiques players.”
• Also read: Sexual assault investigation: Two Victoriaville Tigres players arrested
• Also read: Disturbing report of alleged gang rape victim in Quebec
Thursday night, TSN journalist Rick Westhead, who exposed the Hockey Canada scandal in late May, tweeted that Quebec police had launched an internal investigation.
New: Quebec City police have opened an internal investigation to re-examine allegations of sexual assault in 2014 involving four Gatineau Olympiques players, Bloc MP Sebastien Lemire told me.@seblemire
— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) August 11, 2022
The information provided by Westhead was reported to him by Bloc Québécois MP Sébastien Lemire.
However, the latter presented a slightly different version in a statement sent to the Journal at the end of the evening.
Lemire says he questioned Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (LHJMQ) commissioner Gilles Courteau about the alleged gang rape case during a House of Commons committee investigating the Hockey Canada controversy.
Gilles Courteau replied that an investigation had already taken place into this file, but that “if the police department shows an interest in reopening this investigation, we will certainly cooperate in the investigation,” said Mr Lemire.
“I then informed the SPVQ of this statement and subsequently received an acknowledgment of receipt confirming that the information had been sent to the relevant investigators for analysis,” said Mr. Lemire, spokesman for the Bloc Québécois for ports. Thus, nothing confirms that the investigation has actually been reopened.
The SPVQ confirms nothing
At the request of Le Journal en soir, the SPVQ did not want to confirm whether it would reactivate this investigation for reasons of confidentiality.
But in general, police say they have no hesitation in reopening investigations if new elements emerge, spokesman David Pelletier argued.
A sexual assault file review committee was set up in October 2017, and “any request for review in this area will be treated with rigor and care,” he says.
Alleged gang rape
This incident caused a stir in the media a few years ago. The attack allegedly occurred in January 2014 at the Hilton Hotel in Quebec City while the Gatineau team was in transit. A young woman from Trois-Rivières was reportedly gang raped in a bedroom.
It was only a year later that the applicant decided to file a complaint with the Trois-Rivières police force after hearing allegations of indecent behavior against Olympiques players, allegedly taking place in a restaurant: Boston Pizza from Gatineau.
The file was then forwarded to the Quebec police, but the investigation resulted in no charges. The complainant had criticized the work of the SPVQ investigators following this decision.
“The Quebec investigators dealt really badly with me. They didn’t take me seriously,” she denounced over the microphone of a radio station in the Old Capital.
The QMJHL will work together
“We are aware that the police could reopen the investigation and we will offer our full cooperation throughout the process,” replied QMJHL Managing Director Karl Jahnke.
To his knowledge, the SPVQ had not come into contact with the QMJHL. “If they contact us, we will work together throughout the process. »
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