Montreal woman violently arrested in 2014 demands police ethics commissioner reopen her case

If MajizaPhilip'scomplaint about the circumstances of her2014 arrest isn'tre-examined by the police ethics commission, the integrity of the entire police ethics system will be put in jeopardy, says a prominent Montreal anti-racism group.

In November2014,Philipwas arrested outside the Olympia Theatre, after she tapped on the window of a police cruiser to get the attention of a friend being held there.

She said one of the four officers grabbed her and forcibly restrained her, breaking her arm.

Philip was charged with assaulting twopolice officersand obstruction of justice. She was acquitted last month in municipal court.

In her ruling, municipal court judgeKatiaMouscardyfound multiple "intrinsic contradictions" in the police officers' accounts of what happened the evening Philip was arrested.

"Ms. Philip's version of the events was deemed to be very credible and believable by the court," Fo Niemi, executive director ofMontreal'sCenterfor Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR), said at a news conferenceWednesday.

"Her same version of the facts was deemed to be not credible" by the police ethics commission, he said.

The commission threwout Philip'scomplaint, filed weeks after her arrest, in January 2015.

In reviewing Philip's case, commissioner Marc-Andr Dowd didnot interviewthe officers involved, because section 192 of the Police Act allows officers not to co-operate with the commission.

The clause "can in practice deprive a citizen complainantof his or her right to procedural fairness and to be effectivelyprotected from police misconduct," Niemisaid.

Hoping for justice

As well as seeking areview of her file, Philip wantsto see the Police Act changed, compelling police officers to co-operate with the ethics commission in the event of a complaint.

"If I don't follow this through, I'm letting down countless other people who have also been through this,"Philip said.

"I know that I have the grounds and I have the right, as a human being, to be treated fairly."

Philip's mother, Suzanne Bruneau, said her daughter's acquittalrenewed her hope that Philip could still find justice.

"I don't want to ever see a mother, family, daughter, son, child, go through the ordeal that we've been through for the last three years," Bruneau said.

Philip bears physical evidence of that ordeal: along surgical scar remains visible on the back of her arm. When her arm was broken, doctors had to insert six pins and a steel plate to help it heal.

If the police ethics commission doesn't re-open the file, Niemi said he wants the minister of public safety to appointindependent counselto evaluate it.