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The head of the Montreal police union said police Chief Philippe Pichet should be fired for allowing his officers to spy on journalists, calling the decision to track the cellphones of La Presse columnist Patrick Lagacé and at least three other reporters “unforgivable.”

“It was a serious error in judgment and it is unforgivable,” Yves Francoeur, head of La Fraternité des policiers et policières de Montréal told the Montreal Gazette Tuesday. “The SPVM is the second largest police service in Quebec and the fifth largest municipal force in North America, so we need a strong leader.”

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La Presse reported Monday that police requested 24 search warrants to track Lagacé’s iPhone since January, which allowed police to access the numbers Lagacé had called or received calls from and track him by activating a GPS mechanism on his phone. At least three other journalists have since learned they were under similar surveillance by police — Félix Séguin of TVA, Monic Néron from 98.5 FM, and freelance journalist Fabrice de Pierrebourg.