Montreal police department monitored journalist’s cellphone to get numbers, track his movements

MONTREAL — For several months this year, the Montreal police department was monitoring the iPhone of La Presse columnist Patrick Lagacé to determine the identity of his sources, the __news organization says.

The Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) was also able to determine Lagacé’s location using the cellphone’s GPS.

At least 24 surveillance warrants for the phone were granted by the court in 2016, at the request of the special investigations section, La Presse has learned. This section is responsible for tackling crime within the SPVM.

Three of the warrants allowed investigators to obtain incoming and outgoing numbers on the phone, be it for phone calls or text messages. A tracking warrant also allowed the SPVM to activate the GPS chip in the iPhone to know exactly where Lagacé was, admitted two investigators in charge of the file.

The vice-president of information at La Presse, Éric Trottier, strongly denounced the operation, which he said “constitutes an attack unequivocally against the institution of the press and against the journalistic profession.”

The controversial boss of internal affairs at the SPVM, Costa Labos, said in an interview that he gave the green light to the investigation. He declined to reveal whether police chief Philippe Pichet was informed of the surveillance of the iPhone. Labos also said that “to his knowledge” no other journalist had been under SPVM surveillance in recent years, but could not “guarantee” that.

The SPVM announced Friday that Labos was transferred to the internal affairs division for operational communications and police information, which manages the police force’s telecommunications. There is no evidence that a link exists between that decision and the surveillance of Lagacé’s cellphone.

This summer, Labos was himself the subject of a criminal investigation in connection with media leaks. No charges were filed against him.

Judge Josée Carufel of Montreal authorized the majority of the surveillance warrants. The warrants were requested and obtained in the framework of Projet Escouade, which involved allegations of fabricating evidence by investigators specializing in street gangs and drug trafficking. Five police officers were arrested this summer as a result of the investigation, and two were charged.

One of the officers targeted by Escouade was Faisal Djelidi. By monitoring his cellphone, the Special Investigations Section of the SPVM detected contact between the police and Lagacé, said investigators Iad Hanna and Normand Borduas.