Boutin v. Ville de Mercier

Executive Summary: Key Legal and Evidentiary Issues

• Steeve Boutin, director of the Ville de Mercier police service, was dismissed by municipal council resolution on January 17, 2023, following an external investigation into allegations of psychological harassment, denigration, and sexist conduct.
• Under articles 87 to 89 of the Loi sur la police, a municipality may only dismiss a police chief "for cause," with the burden of proof resting on the City.
• The Tribunal conducted a de novo review and found that while certain misconducts were proven — denigrating remarks toward the mayor and senior directors, sexist comments toward subordinates, and inappropriate remarks about female candidates — psychological harassment against Luc Martin was not established on a preponderance of evidence.
• Credibility was central to the case, as the Tribunal found significant issues affecting the reliability of key witnesses, including Luc Martin and Sébastien Fournier.
• Dismissal was found disproportionate to the proven faults, which did not engage Boutin's honesty, probity, or professional competence; the Tribunal substituted a 30-day unpaid suspension.
• Boutin was awarded $183,216.56 in lost salary, plus $186,556.36 in extrajudicial fees and other costs, for a confirmed total of $369,772.92, with the remaining post–August 23, 2025 salary amounts to be determined by the parties.

Facts of the case

Steeve Boutin joined the Ville de Mercier police service (SPVDM) as assistant director on April 11, 2017, and was appointed director on May 5, 2018. He had 24 years of policing experience prior to joining the City, including roles in major crimes, operational support, and professional standards at Trois-Rivières. His 2017 and 2018 performance evaluations indicated he met or exceeded expectations. During his tenure, several incidents occurred between the summer of 2019 and early 2022, including a COVID-19 outbreak following a training session in October 2020 for which the mayor and general director held Boutin personally responsible, and a disciplinary matter involving a traffic officer whose file Boutin referred to the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) without prior authorization — a step that created friction with the general director, René Chalifoux.

In June 2022, while Boutin was absent for two weeks attending a police directors' congress and recovering from COVID-19, a series of meetings took place at City Hall. The director of finance, Tania Tremblay, solicited the confidences of Boutin's executive assistant and, on June 17, 2022, filed a complaint through the City's anonymous "Alias" reporting line alleging a toxic work environment, denigrating remarks toward senior management, and misconduct by Boutin. This triggered a paid suspension on June 22, 2022, and prompted additional complaints from assistant director Luc Martin and others. The City retained the external firm Relais Expert-Conseil (Relais), led by Me Hubert Côté, to conduct an investigation.

Policy terms and contractual clauses at issue

Boutin's obligations were governed by several instruments. The City's Code of Ethics required employees to act with integrity, respect, and loyalty, and article 7 of that Code authorized the imposition of appropriate sanctions for breaches. The Workplace Harassment Policy, modeled on article 81.18 of the Loi sur les normes du travail, defined harassment as any vexatious conduct — whether repeated or, if sufficiently serious, a single act — that undermines a person's dignity or psychological integrity and creates a harmful work environment. The Policy required managers to proactively ensure harmonious working relationships free from harassment, and prescribed an informal resolution step before a formal written complaint. The Internal Discipline Regulations, particularly article 8, required police officers to act with dignity and to avoid any conduct likely to cause loss of confidence in or compromise the prestige of the SPVDM; paragraph 12 of that article specifically prohibited disrespectful or impolite conduct toward colleagues or City employees. Boutin was also subject to the general obligation of loyalty and good faith under article 2088 of the Civil Code of Québec.

Reasoning and analysis

The Tribunal conducted a full de novo review of the evidence without deference to the municipal council's decision, as required under article 89 of the Loi sur la police. Applying the three-step framework from Ledoux c. Ville de Mont-Tremblant — whether the alleged cause was proven, whether it warranted a sanction, and whether dismissal was proportionate — the Tribunal assessed both the credibility of witnesses and the substance of each allegation.

On the denigration allegations, the Tribunal found it probable that Boutin used contemptuous nicknames to refer to the mayor, general director, director of human resources, and director of finance during private discussions with his small circle of trusted colleagues, in violation of the civility obligations imposed by the Harassment Policy and Discipline Regulations. However, the Tribunal found the misconduct more limited in scope than the City alleged, noting that the individuals concerned were entirely unaware of it until they read the Relais report, and that Boutin had never been openly disrespectful toward any of them in person. The Tribunal also faulted Boutin for failing to intervene to stop similar language by his subordinates.

On psychological harassment, the Tribunal found the allegations — directed solely at Luc Martin — unproven on a preponderance of evidence. The credibility of Martin was found to be very seriously affected by multiple factors: his tendency to perceive slights as personal attacks, inconsistencies in his testimony (including a claim about an encounter that occurred while Boutin was verifiably absent), a prior harassment complaint filed at Châteauguay shortly after he left Mercier, and questionable motivation given he was already leaving for another position when he filed his complaint. The allegation of psychological harassment was therefore not retained.

On the sexist and sexual conduct allegations, the Tribunal accepted that Boutin made inappropriate comments about his pregnant assistant's breast size on at least two occasions in autumn 2019, and made a crude remark about two female officers' breasts at a pool party in summer 2019, both corroborated by witness testimony. It also accepted that Boutin made repeated comments about not hiring overweight female candidates, corroborated by three witnesses. However, it rejected the allegations regarding a digital picture frame displaying a photo of his wife, and the alleged use of a degrading nickname for the director of the Châteauguay police service. The Tribunal accepted that these sexual and sexist incidents were isolated and had no direct impact on hiring decisions, as Boutin was not responsible for hiring at the relevant time.

The Tribunal was also critical of the process leading to the dismissal. It found that the director of finance had not acted in a purely altruistic manner when initiating the complaint, given her prior professional conflicts with Boutin. The City bypassed the informal harassment resolution step, cancelled the disciplinary hearing after Boutin raised procedural objections, and proceeded to dismissal without ever meeting with him as the municipal council had resolved to do. The Tribunal further found that the decision to dismiss had effectively been made before the disciplinary process concluded, influenced in part by the COVID outbreak and the Agent de circulation file — matters in which the Tribunal found Boutin bore no formal blame. The investigation methodology was also criticized for seeking to confirm allegations rather than neutrally establishing the truth, including the failure to interview witnesses Boutin had identified.

Ruling and overall outcome

The Tribunal partially granted Boutin's contestation. It found that the proven misconducts — denigrating language toward senior management and sexist comments toward subordinates and candidates — warranted discipline, but that dismissal was disproportionate. The faults did not implicate Boutin's honesty, probity, or professional competence, and were not accompanied by threats or open aggression. The Tribunal modified the dismissal to a 30-day unpaid suspension, noting that the use of similar contemptuous nicknames by Sébastien Fournier had not prevented the City from promoting him to the position of SPVDM director.

Steeve Boutin was the successful party. The Tribunal ordered the City of Mercier to pay him $183,216.56 in lost salary for the period from his dismissal on January 17, 2023 to August 23, 2025 (after deduction of earnings from alternative employment and the 30-day suspension equivalent of $9,995.97), with salary from August 23, 2025 onward to be agreed upon by the parties. The Tribunal further ordered reimbursement of $186,556.36 in extrajudicial fees and eligible disbursements (comprising $186,220.15 in legal fees and $336.21 in taxi and parking costs), for a confirmed total monetary award of $369,772.92, plus legal interest and the additional indemnity under article 1619 of the Civil Code of Québec, as well as all costs of justice.