Quebec City police caught on video violently arresting Black youth

The mayor of Quebec City, Bruno Marchand says he has full confidence in the local police force (SPVQ) to investigate the actions of some of its officers after disturbing footage of two young Black people beingarrestedwaswidely shared on social media this weekend.

"My sincere thoughts are witheveryone who was affected by these events, events that deeply upset some people ormaybe even caused someto feelfear," Marchand said ata news conference Sunday afternoon.

"Responsibility, courage and respect are the values of our city," he said. "We want to make surethat respect...is something that can befeltand lived by all our citizenson a daily basis."

Marchand was joined by SPVQ ChiefDenis Turcotte whosays the SPVQ is working to figure out exactly what role each of its officers played in the intervention. Turcotte says his organization took action to identify the officers involved andget to the bottom of what happened as soon as it saw the shocking images.

The video shows a police officerkicking snow in the face of a young man on the ground.Another officer can be seen landing several blows while the young manis lying on the ground and being restrained.

In a separate arrest, a young Black woman is heard screaming as police drag her through the snow, at one point pulling her by her hair.

"We now know that itstarted inside a licensed establishment," Turcotte said. "The incident transitionedoutside and that's when police were called."

WARNING |Video of arrest contains graphic images:

Quebec City police forcefully arrest Black youth

3 years ago

Duration 1:00

A man in a police uniform is shown punching a young Black man.

Turcotte says the incident spilled over into Grand-AlleStreet, a downtown strip lined with restaurants and bars,and led to several arrests. He says the SPVQ is working to determine exactly what happened inside the establishment leading upto officers interveningin the street.

"There were a lot of police officers who intervened, with a lot of citizens that night," said Turcotte. "We're looking at how each [officer] was involved...and if there are actions that need to be taken against certain police officers," he said Turcotteaddedthat none of the officers involved are currently on duty but says it's too early to know what sort of discipline they could face.

"I will never tolerate any discrimination," he said, "but I reiterate my full confidence in Quebec City police. There are thousands of interventions every year but this one has caught our attention...it's troubling and we're going to try to shed light on [what happened] and have concrete answers very quickly."

In a statement, the Quebec City police brotherhood (FPPVQ) urged the public to wait until more information surrounding the arrests is shared "before judging the police officers' conduct."

"The video edit only shows a small part of the intervention, as is too often the case, ignoring all the events that led to needing severalpolice officerson-site," the statement reads.

Liberal MNA Frantz Benjamin says he's satisfied with the mayor's response to the arrest, butan inquiry is needed to clear up the situation.

"The issue we're facing is not only the lack of diversity but also the training and competence of police officers," he said.

"The first scenes that I saw this morning, for me, were absolutely unacceptable."

Opposition leader and head of the Quebec Liberal Party Dominique Angladesays there should be anindependent inquirybut Marchand says in this case, the law dictates that it's the SPVQwho leads the investigation.

Officers actions 'embarrassing' says formerofficial

Retired Quebec provincial policedeputy director MarcelSavardsays the methods used in the arrests were highly questionable and "embarrassing."

"There are specific gestures made that warrant an investigation," he said. "We can't say pushing snow in the arrested individual's face isaccidental. That's onething. The person is on the ground, handcuffed, and there are two or three police officers around him."

Placing suspects on their back as officers are seen doing to the young woman, Savard says,is a technique that's rarely used.

Public Security Minister Genevive Guilbaultsaid images of the arrestwere"difficultto watch."

"Since the police force has launched an internal investigation to shed light on this event, I will wait for the findings before commenting further," she said.

Police have not said the reason for the arrests.

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.