The president of the Fraternité des policiers et policières de Montréal, Yves Francoeur, has called out Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante and her comments regarding the case of Mamadi III Fara Camara, saying in a statement published on February 5 that her "reference to racial profiling in this case is an extremely unfortunate allusion."
On Thursday, Mayor Plante demanded an independent inquiry into Camara's wrongful arrest.
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It was astounding to hear you [...] jump to conclusions on a complex, sensitive and still very ongoing police investigation.
Yves Francoeur, FPPM president
According to the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions, police officer Sanjay Vig was "attacked while delivering a statement of offence for an infraction of the road safety code" on January 28.
"Based on the information obtained from Officer Vig and the various circumstantial elements," the SPVM arrested Camara. He was in custody for six days.
On February 3, "new evidence submitted to the DPCP" led officials to conclude that "it was no longer possible to support the charges against Mr. Camara."
"Above all else, Mr. Camara is a man who is innocent," the mayor said at a press conference in front of city hall on Thursday.
Calling his arrest a mistake, Plante said an investigation into what happened is a matter of maintaining public trust.
"It's necessary to shed light [on the incident] quickly so as to not tarnish the work that is done every day but also the relationship of trust that is essential in a big city like Montreal [...] between the police service and citizens," the mayor said on Thursday.
She encouraged listeners to avoid putting "everyone [in the police force] in the same basket," but added, "we can't deny that what happened with Mr. Camara but also other incidents of potential social and racial profiling lead us to ask questions as citizens."
The president of Montreal's police union said that he hopes that the mayor will "behave more responsibly" and not allow "ideological biases to interfere with your necessary duty of impartiality."
"You are adding fuel to the fire, damaging the social climate and complicating, even more, the task of those who are responsible for ensuring the safety of Montrealers."
This article's cover image is used for illustrative purposes only.
