An article in a Montreal police department internal newsletter has garnered negative reaction from the Montreal Police Brotherhood and surprise from the Jewish Orthodox community it purports to be respecting.

The article, recommends female police officers defer to their male partners when dealing with male Chassidim, out of respect for a religious culture that discourages fraternization between males and females.

The article suggests that if a female officer is having difficulty speaking with a Jewish man, she should not take offence but simply call over her male partner to conduct the interview.

No such problems have been reported by members of the Police Brotherhood, said its president, Yves Francoeur, and management ought to apologize to the department’s 1,200 policewomen who have been insulted.

“They’ve crossed the line this time by recommending that a female police officer is inferior to a male officer,” Francoeur said.

Mayer Feig, president of the Montreal Jewish Orthodox Community Council, says the advice is nonsense because there has never been any problem dealing with police officers, male or female.

“Having lived in this community for many decades, it has never been an issue,” Feig said of the directive in the police newsletter. “We never requested this (from the police), and we have nothing more to say.”

For the past three issues, the monthly L’heure juste has been profiling cultural communities to better inform police officers about the customs and practices of Montreal’s many ethnic groups.

In the National Assembly in Quebec City, Public Security Minister Jacques Dupuis said yesterday he had contacted the Montreal police department and stated his position that the fundamental rights of police officers, both male and female, are of utmost importance.

TG