Montreal police violated woman's rights by removing hijab in search, says human rights commission

Aicha Essalamasaid she feared for her life after sheand her son found themselves surrounded by police, who handcuffed her and removed the outer robe and headscarf she was wearing, without her permission.

The November2014 incident is described in detail in a briefsubmitted by the provincialhuman rights commission to the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal, recommending the Moroccan woman be awarded $19,000 in damages for the way she was treated.

The Center for Research-Action on Race Relations (CRARR) brought the complaint tothe human rights commission, whichis calling on the Montreal police service to modernize their search procedures, in order to better respect religious minorities.

In the legal brief, the commission says that Essalama was in Montreal visiting her adult sonat the time of the incident. The pair had just left a mosque in Laval when hersongot a call from police informing him that there was a warrant for his arrest for having missed a court appearance the previous spring.

The man arrangedto drop his mother off at his home in Montreal's Ahuntsic neighbourhoodfirst, asking thathe be arrested on a nearby street corner afterward.

Visors down, batons out

According to the brief, the officer agreed to that plan, but before they arrived at home,Essalama and her son found their car surrounded by police cars. More than 10 officers got out of their vehicles, their visors down and batons in hand.

The briefdescribes how Essalamagot out of the car and ran towards her son's home, in fear. A police officer used a megaphone to order her back to the vehicle. Her son, meanwhile, was handcuffed and put in the back of a police vehicle, wherehe watched what happened to his mother.

Though Essalamastopped when ordered to, the document says, officers then seized her and handcuffed her hands behind her back.

Searching her, a femaleofficer, Const. Annie Brazeau, demanded to know if she had a knife or other weapon. Essalama said she did not.

The legal brief alleges that Brazeauthenremoved the Moroccan woman'sshoes, the robe she'd wornover her clothing, called an abaya, and her headscarf, in front of male officers and onlookers and without Essalama's consent. She is also alleged to havesearched through Essalama's hair and lifted her sweater,exposing her bare stomach and bra.

Several minutes later, having found nothing, the police officer removed Essalama's handcuffs, gave her back her abaya and her hijab and apologized.

As she was searched, a second officer pointed a gun at her, while a third searched through her purse, the legal documentalleges.At no time, said the commission, did police explain to the alleged victim why she was being detained, and they did not read her her rights.

The brief contendsthe officer violated the victim's right to freedom of religion, "by removing the victim's hijab in a way that exposed her hair to the public, and particularly to the men present, and in lifting the victim's sweater in the middle of the street."

Essalama was left humiliated and so frightened, she was unable toleave her son's house for the duration of her trip to Montreal. She had to be medicated andtreated by a psychiatrist upon her return to Morocco.

The human rights commission is recommending that the SPVMpay a total of $16,500 in damages to Essalama, to cover the cost of her medication and her suffering. It recommends Brazeau, the police officer who conducted the search, pay $2,500 in punitive damages.

The SPVM declined to comment on the case, saying they do not want to interfere with the legal process.