(Gatineau) The Bureau of Independent Investigations (BEI) is investigating allegations that a Senegalese diplomat was arrested and beaten by Gatineau police last week.
Posted at 2:19 p.m
Guy Lapointe of the Office of Independent Investigations confirmed this Monday to The Canadian Press. Investigating these allegations begins by requesting copies of reports made after the incident.
The Quebec Ministry of Public Safety confirmed on Saturday that Minister Geneviève Guilbault had asked the BEI to investigate the actions of police officers from the Service de Police de la Ville de Gatineau (SPVG) towards a Senegalese diplomat.
Acting Minister for International Relations and La Francophonie, Andrée Laforest, reported that the Senegal Embassy’s Senior Counselor in Canada was the subject of a police operation raising questions.
According to the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, this person enjoys diplomatic immunity, the ministry adds.
“Brutally Beaten”
Senegal has accused Canadian police of “savagely beating” one of its diplomats earlier this week. Rather, the Service de Police de la Ville de Gatineau stated that they were confronted with “an aggressive person” who allegedly injured two police officers.
In a Thursday press release issued on Friday, Senegal’s Foreign Ministry reported “a rare violence raid by Canadian police on March 2.
The document states that she was “handcuffed and brutally beaten until she had difficulty breathing, which led to her evacuation by ambulance to the hospital.”
In a press release published on Friday evening, the SPVG explains that the police were “helping a bailiff with an enforcement order” on Tuesday around 1:30 p.m.
The person was “aggressive and refuses to cooperate”, the police intervened to explain the process. A “police officer was hit in the face and injured,” it said.
“The police then decided to arrest the person in order to stop the crime for the protection of those present. The person resisted arrest and bit a second police officer. The person was then brought to the ground to be checked, »explains the SPVG.
The bailiff was then able to give his order while the person was “held under the supervision of a policewoman in the back of the squad car.”
“At no time did the person mention when asked that they had been injured or were in pain,” adds the SPVG.
The paramedics intervened at around 3 p.m. with the same person and called the SPVG for assistance, the police department said.
Senegal accuses the police of “degrading physical and moral violence”. [sur la diplomate]before witnesses and in the presence of his minor children”.
The country said it summoned the chargé d’affaires from Canada’s embassy in Dakar to the Senegalese foreign ministry on Thursday. “A protest note has been served on Canadian authorities,” she added.
The Senegalese government is calling for an investigation and prosecution of the perpetrators of this attack. He claims it is a “blatant violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.”
For its part, the SPVG emphasizes that it called the state and federal authorities. A file was “received by the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) to bring charges of assault against an officer and obstruction of police work.”
Due to the First Counsel’s diplomatic immunity, the DPCP has closed the file on the police officers’ complaint, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement released on Saturday.
Concerned global affairs
Global Affairs Canada says it is “extremely concerned at the alleged treatment of a Senegalese diplomat by the Gatineau Police Service”. The agency considers the incident “simply unacceptable”.
“We are diligently cooperating with the various levels of government concerned and awaiting a thorough investigation. Minister Joly is in contact with her Senegalese counterpart. Canada will continue to work fully with Senegal to remedy this deplorable situation,” The Canadian Press was told in an email on Saturday.
“Canada takes its obligations under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations very seriously. »