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Montreal Police Brotherhood wants Bennis inquiry quashed
Muslim man shot dead by cop in Côte des Neiges in 2005
MONTREAL – Lawyers for the Montreal Police Brotherhood will be back in court Tuesday to quash a coroner’s inquiry into the fatal shooting by a Montreal police officer of a Muslim man in Côte des Neiges in December 2005.
Despite renewed calls from a coalition that an inquiry is needed to answer lingering questions about the death of Mohamed Anas Bennis, the brotherhood is not backing down.
The brotherhood, representing 4,500 employed in the Montreal police force, says the inquiry, ordered by Quebec’s chief coroner in June 2008, is “useless” and smacks of “procedural overzealousness.”
Four investigations – by a Crown prosecutor, the Quebec Police Ethics Commission, Police Ethics Committee chairperson (on appeal) and a judge who examined a private criminal complaint – concluded that Constable Yannick Bernier used his right to legitimate defence when he fired at Bennis, brotherhood spokesperson Martin Desrochers emailed The Gazette.
Salam Elmenyawi, chairperson of the Muslim Council of Montreal, joined other community spokespersons at a news conference Monday in challenging the brotherhood’s “shameful attitude.”
“An innocent man lost his life – why do they resist an inquiry in each and every case when someone is killed in a police operation?” he said.
“There are so many questions that have not been answered,” he said.
Bennis, dressed in the garb of a religious Muslim, was returning from a mosque when he was shot twice as Montreal police were helping provincial police execute a search warrant. Bennis was not a suspect.
It appears from videos that Bernier “collided” with Bennis, who was allegedly armed with a knife. A second officer said Bennis ignored repeated warnings to drop his knife when Bernier fired the fatal shots.
Among unanswered questions is why Quebec’s Public Security Department has refused to release the initial police report into the shooting.
If there are security issues in the report, these can be blacked out, Elmenyawi said.
Dan Philip, who heads the Black Coalition of Quebec, warned police will not improve their standing with the public if they behave as “a state within a state.”
Project Montréal leader Richard Bergeron said a coroner’s inquiry will be useful to get recommendations on changing its “methods of intervention.”
Mayor Gérald Tremblay has asked that the family get “full access to all information relevant to the case,” but has not taken a position on the inquiry issue, city spokesperson Darren Becker said.