The SPVM Says A Viral Photo Appearing To Show An Officer Raising The Finger Was Edited
According to the SPVM, a viral photo that appeared to show a Montreal police officer raising their middle finger out a vehicle window was edited.
"It looks like 100% sure this picture was edited," SPVM spokesperson Emmanuel Anglade told MTL Blog. "Such a thing hasn't happened."
Editor's Choice: Powerful Photos & Video From Montreal's Protest Against Anti-Asian Racism
He said the area "around the hand is not the same colour as the background. It seems like the hand has been altered with a program such as Photoshop."
Anglade said the SPVM will be contacting its "partners in the Asian community [...] to address the facts."
The photo appeared on the Instagram page mychinatownmtl, which said it was taken at a protest against anti-Asian racism on March 21.
Xixi Li, director of the Chinese Family Service of Greater Montreal (SFCGM), meanwhile, tells MTL Blog that the organization still plans to file a complaint about the photo.
She said the organization is in contact with the person who took the photo and that this individual claims to have seen the gesture themselves.
"[They] said that it was [for] about two minutes [that the officer] did that position [...]. We checked it because we won't file anything that is not true," said Li.
