“I can be attacked anywhere for no reason. I am not a criminal,” said Dosa, who added that he had never been afraid of the police until Thursday’s incident. “I feel hurt. I feel like I’ve been humiliated and this is discrimination… Everyone I talked to said, ‘If you were white, this could have been [handled] different. They wouldn’t do that to you.” The Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) is opening an administrative investigation, the force said in a Twitter post on Saturday. WATCHES | Brice Dosha describes the moment he was unfairly handcuffed:
“I’m afraid of the police,” says Brice Dossa after being illegally handcuffed in Montreal
Brice Dosha describes the moment he was handcuffed by plainclothes officers who didn’t have the key to free him once they discovered his car actually belonged to him, an incident he says left him traumatized and humiliated. Dosa said he went to McDonald’s to get fries and, as he tried to return to his vehicle, plainclothes officers attacked him unannounced and handcuffed him. According to Dosa, as soon as he was handcuffed, they said his vehicle was stolen and asked for his name. Only then did they scan and identify the vehicle, confirming it was his, he said. Then, they were unable to get him out of the handcuffs as they did not have the key. Dosa said officers called the station for help and it took about 15 minutes for a colleague to remove the handcuffs. After his release, Dosa said, he asked officers for their ID numbers and photographed the license plates of junk cars. He said the officers tried to dissuade him from doing so, but he did not trust that they had given him the correct information. Dosa asked a bystander to record the incident to prevent the police from changing their story in case of legal action. The video was posted on social media and went viral. In a Post on Twitter, the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) said they had seen marks on the car, which led them to suspect it was stolen. He said officers handcuffed Dosa because he returned to his vehicle before they could search it. The CBC has independently confirmed that the car is new and unmarked. A video circulating online shows the handcuffed man insisting he is innocent and the rightful owner of the car. He asks the police if a white man would be treated this way. (Image Twitter/Reine Mère Bio/Facebook) “Even if there was a sign on the vehicle, for example, and I wanted to get into the vehicle — they could come up in a professional manner, introduce themselves and ask me to identify myself,” Dosa said. “I could give it to you and then you can see if it’s a stolen car or not. Not to hurt me. Or is it because I’m black that you treat me like this?”
Anti-racist groups apologize
Montreal’s anti-racism group Red Coalition said the city’s police should apologize to Dosa. Alain Babineau, director of racial profiling and public safety at the Red Coalition and a 27-year veteran of the RCMP, said he wonders if Dossa was handcuffed because police officers see black men as inherently violent. Babineau, who became a lawyer after leaving the police force, said officers can arrest someone if they have reasonable grounds to suspect criminal activity. But when someone is under police custody, they should be allowed to leave. While police can handcuff someone who poses a threat, Babineau said, the move escalates the interaction into an arrest. Fo Niemi, executive director of the Montreal-based civil rights group the Race Relations Action Research Center, agrees that the police should apologize. He said he hoped Dosa would file a complaint with the police ethics commissioner so an investigation could begin. “This incident shows once again that black drivers in Montreal cannot feel safe and free to drive their own car without being subject to some sort of police control and profiling,” he said. “That’s what all the people who came to us for help told us: it’s the violation of that sense of freedom and security that makes them lose confidence in the police.” Dosa said that neither the police officers who handcuffed him nor anyone in the SPVM apologized to him. He opened the case with the ethics department of the Montreal police and is considering taking further action.
Officials call video ‘troubling’
A spokesman for Quebec Public Security Minister Francois Bonnardel said the video “raises many questions” and that they will look into the circumstances of the filmed events. Alain Vaillancourt, a member of Montreal’s executive committee in charge of public safety, said he saw the “alarming” video on social media. Interactions like the one Dosha experienced erode trust between citizens and police, he said. “That trust is vital, not only for the police to do their job, but also for the pleasant character of our city,” Vaillancourt said. “As the first police force in Quebec to adopt an arrest policy, we have to do better,” he said, referring to the street checks policy adopted in 2020. In a Post on Twitter On Saturday, Quebec Liberal Party leader Dominique Anglade said the video reminded her of “several recent incidents” between Montreal police and black residents. “Getting to the bottom of things is the bare minimum,” he said. “Really changing things, that’s what needs to be done.” The union representing Montreal police officers said the politicians’ comments risked fueling a “police disengagement.” “In a society governed by the rule of law, elected officials should refrain from sharing their impressions of the nature of a police operation until all the facts are known,” Fraternite des policiers said in a tweet. et policieres de Montreal. Dosa said he had heard “many stories” of incidents between Montreal residents and police, but had never witnessed one until now. “This should be punished,” he said. “The police are there to protect us. We don’t need to fear them.” For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians – from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community – check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.
