The SPVM Says A Viral Photo Appearing To Show An Officer Raising The Finger Was Edited

But a local organization still plans to file a complaint.
The SPVM Says A Viral Photo Appearing To Show An Officer Raising The Finger Was Edited
Michel Bussieres | Dreamstime
Staff Writer

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. 

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  • Teddy Elliot
  • Teddy Elliot
    Teddy Elliot was a Staff Writer for MTL Blog. He was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec and has a B.A. in Literature. Teddy has been a journalist for three years and was once an English teacher. His creative work has appeared in The Blasted Tree and Parenthetical Magazine. When he's not chasing scoops, Teddy can be found cheering on Aston Villa and listening to 80s power ballads. He was shortlisted for a Digital Publishing Award in 2021.

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