By: Karen Alassaf
A video that has been shared on social media shows a man in a police uniform shoving snow in the face of a Black young person who is on the ground being arrested in downtown Quebec city.
A pic from the video that is showing police officers into a black person on the ground.
A spokeswoman for the Service de Police de la Ville de Québec (SPVQ) stated the officers were suspended with pay as part of a “developing investigation” into an incident that occurred outside the Dagobert nightclub on Grande-Allée Street early Saturday morning.
Pacifique Niyokwizera, 18, has been identified as the young man who was seized by police. Fernando Belton, his lawyer, told Radio-Canada that he believes his client was subjected to racial profiling.
Geneviève Guilbault, the province’s the Minister of Public Security, has ordered Quebec Police Ethics Commissioner Marc-André Dowd to look into the acts of the officers involved.
While several political officials and community leaders have requested an independent investigation, Guilbault says Dowd is the ideal person to figure out what happened. Guilbault described the commissioner as an “independent, expert resource” who is well-versed in the standards that regulate police conduct in Quebec.
Jo-Kirby Olongbo is the Vice-President of Entrepreneurship at Le Forum Jeunesse Afro-Québécois (FJAQ), a Quebec City-based non-profit that works with Black teenagers across the province.
She expressed her delight with the suspensions but insisted that an independent, unbiased investigation be conducted.
“It’s a great first step,” she remarked, “but we want more.” “We want to make certain that the police and all other parties [involved] conduct an unbiased investigation. We want to make sure that Pacifique and every other victim of Saturday are going to be treated the right way.”
The SPVQ said on Tuesday that three of the policemen involved in the incident were also involved in a violent altercation earlier that evening at an Italian restaurant.
The SPVQ says a separate internal investigation was opened into that event.
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