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Bennis coroner's report must be public and thorough

Editorial
Source: Montreal Gazette June 6, 2008

Thanks to Quebec's chief coroner, Louise Nolet, maybe we'll finally see an end to all the secrecy, obfuscation and buck-passing that has clouded the killing of Mohamed-Anas Bennis. This week, Nolet named coroner Catherine Rudel-Tessier "to clarify the circumstances of the death and, if appropriate, make recommendations to better protect human life."

It's about time someone did something to clear up this mystery. Bennis was killed in a police shooting in December 2005, and it's a scandal that his family has had to wait more than two and a half years to find out how and why he died. In fact, their waiting isn't quite over yet. Rudel-Tessier isn't expected to start her inquiry until late August or early September. Still, at least the end might be in sight.

Bennis was gunned down on a street in the Côte des Neiges district as he walked home from evening prayers at his local mosque. The police officers who shot him - twice in the torso - claimed Bennis had attacked them with a knife and managed to stab one of them in the leg. Why Bennis, a 25-year-old man with no criminal record and no history of violence, would do such a thing has never been explained, either to his family or the community.

Bennis's death was investigated, mind you, by officers from the Quebec City force - it's standard procedure to assign officers from another force to investigate any shooting involving law-enforcement officers - and the findings were turned over to crown prosecutors. But, again for reasons that were never explained, the crown declined to press any charges.

And the police report? Under Quebec's ludicrous rules, it has remained a secret ever since, and no one has explained to Bennis's parents or his sister, Khadija, or any of his other friends and relatives how he came to be out on the street after prayers that night stabbing police officers in the leg.

This really is unacceptable. If the law imposes secrecy on reports on police shootings, the law should be changed. Bennis's family is certainly entitled to an explanation about how and why their loved one died. But beyond that, and perhaps even more importantly, so are we. Whenever the police kill anyone - whether justifiably or not - they do so as our agents, and we have a right to know whether they're acting responsibly.

In that spirit, Rudel-Tessier's inquiry should be thorough and public. Anything less would be a travesty.