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Six years of impunity:
Vigil and speak out to honour the memory of Anas Bennis
Come out to support the Bennis family in their struggle for truth, justice and dignity
4PM, Thursday, December 1st, 2011
Park Kent, corner Kent and Côte-des-Neiges
Métro Côte-des-Neiges, bus #165
On December 1st, 2005, Mohamed Anas Bennis was returning home after morning prayers at a neighborhood mosque in Côte-des-Neiges when he was shot twice by Montreal police officer Yannick Bernier. Anas was pronounced dead on arrival to the hospital.
Since Anas’ death, the Bennis family, along with the Justice for Anas Coalition, has waged an epic battle to find out what happened to their loved one, who was described as a mild-mannered and sensitive person. In June 2008, Quebec's chief coroner ordered a coroner's inquiry into Anas' death, doubtless a result of the public pressure brought to bear by the Justice for Anas Coalition and others. However, in August 2008, the Montreal Police Brotherhood filed a motion to have the coroner's inquiry canceled. Two years later, in September 2010, the Superior Court issued a clear judgment unequivocally calling for the coroner’s inquiry surrounding the death of Anas Bennis to proceed. This judgment came on the heels of a scathing Quebec Court of Appeal decision rejecting the Brotherhood’s motion to cancel the coroner’s inquiry into the death of Michel Berniquez (who was killed by police in Montreal-North in 2003). The inquiry into Anas’ death finally took place on April 27th and 28th, 2011, at the courthouse in Laval.
Like so many so-called independent inquiries before this one, the truth was never allowed to surface. Coroner Catherine Rudel-Tessier unquestionably accepted the police version of Anas’ death and maintained the status quo of police impunity. The only lessons to draw from this inquiry are that the Coroner’s office cannot be relied upon to expose the inherent injustice of police investigating other police and that it cannot be counted on to shed light on what happens when people are killed under nebulous circumstances by the police.
Meanwhile, the role that racial profiling plays in police interventions was ignored altogether. This despite the fact that, in June 2010, the Police Ethics Committee found officer Jonathan Roy -- who was Yannick Bernier's partner and involved with the scene when Anas was shot and killed -- guilty of five infractions of the Police Ethics Code in an incident of racial profiling and brutality in Côte-des-Neiges that occurred in 2008, for which Roy subsequently received a cumulative suspension of 23 days.
The farce of a public inquiry compelled the Justice For Anas Coalition to file a complaint against the Coroner Rudel-Tessier, submitted on November 3rd, 2011.
Police impunity can only be challenged when communities affected by police violence stand up and fight back. Just a few weeks ago, the Bennis family, along with the families and friends of several other people killed by police, did just this. They came together, once again, to hold a vigil and a march (October 22) in the second annual event that sought to commemorate the victims of police killings while uniting their struggles for truth, justice and dignity.
Since December 2006, there has been an annual event to commemorate the death of Anas Bennis. This year, to mark the six-year anniversary of Anas’ death, the Justice for Anas Coalition is calling for a vigil and speak out at Park Kent, near where Anas was killed, in the neighborhood of Côte-des-Neiges. We are inviting all of our supporters, and all those who oppose police violence and impunity, to come out in solidarity with the Bennis family.
In solidarity,