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The Anas Bennis Case: complaint filed against coroner following public inquiry

The Justice for Anas Coalition denounces the lack of objectivity of the coroner’s inquiry into the death of Anas Bennis.

Montreal, November 7th, 2011 — The Justice for Anas Coalition has filed a complaint against coroner Catherine Rudel-Tessier highlighting her infringement of seven articles of the Code of Ethics for Coroners, most notably through her lack of objectivity and failure to prioritize what should have been the main focus of her investigation: the protection of human life.

The coroner’s inquiry to determine the causes and circumstances of Anas Bennis’ death was finally held in April, 2011, following a protracted struggle against the combined efforts of the Montreal Police Brotherhood and the City of Montreal to quash it. Unfortunately, the inquiry held was nothing more than a masquerade that served only to discredit the Coroner’s office in the eyes of the public.

Coroner Rudel-Tessier compromised her objectivity and independence by refusing to suspend proceedings until the Bennis family would be able to participate fully in the inquiry by benefitting from the same access to legal counsel as the City of Montreal and the police officers involved. Her decision was all the more disturbing following the precedent set by Judge Robert Sansfaçon, in the public inquiry into the death of Fredy Villanueva, when he refused to proceed until all victims of the incident had their legal fees covered, citing his duty to maintain the fairness and credibility of the inquiry.

Moreover, Coroner Rudel-Tessier intentionally did not question the police investigation into Anas’ death that was carried out by the SPVQ, therefore accepting their findings as empirical evidence. Such a premise is problematic in the current context in which the practice of police investigating police has time and again been called into question for its lack of independence and impartiality, most notably by the Quebec Ombudsperson and through the Ligue des Droits et Libertés’ recent campaign to change government policy pertaining to the investigation of death or injury resulting from police actions in Québec.

Many questions raised by the SPVQ’s investigation remain unanswered, including those about the knife said to have been used by Anas against SPVM officer Bernier. The knife, mentioned by only one civilian witness, and only in his second statement to police, never underwent any form of forensic testing.

Aside for specific questions pertaining to the details of this case remaining unanswered, this inquiry also failed to address serious concerns about transparency: did the SPVM interview at least one key civilian witness following the incident, despite the case having been turned over to the SPVQ? Were the officers involved isolated and their statements taken separately? Why was Officer Bernier’s statement dated February 6th, 2006, more than two months after the incident? Why were his injuries only photographed on February 16th, 2006? Why were the histories of the officers involved never addressed, such as the fact that Jonathan Roy received a suspension by the Police Ethics Commission in relation to a case involving racial profiling against a black man in Côte-des-Neiges?

“Ultimately, the fundamental conclusion we can draw from the way this inquiry was carried out is that, in Quebec, there is a double standard when it comes to the use of violence: police, who already have a great deal of power, including the power to use force against or even kill a citizen, benefit from preferential treatment when they are the focus of an investigation. A term to describe this is impunity,” says Samir Shaheen-Hussain from the Justice for Anas Coalition.

Mohammed Anas Bennis was killed by Officer Yannick Bernier on December 1st, 2005 when returning from morning prayer, near the Kent and Côte-des-Neiges intersection. He was 25 years old.

In solidarity,

The Justice for Anas Coalition