OTTAWA – Canada announced yesterday it will open an investigation into police conduct after Senegal lodged a formal complaint that one of its diplomats in Ottawa was handcuffed and “savagely beaten” in a recent incident.
Senegal’s Foreign Ministry in Dakar summoned the Canadian embassy’s charge d’affaires this week, accusing Canadian police of having “raided” the diplomat’s home and exercised “humiliating physical and moral violence, in front of witnesses.”
It said it had summoned the Canadian representative to “vigorously denounce and strongly condemn the racist and barbaric act.”
The identity of the diplomat has not been disclosed.
Late yesterday, the government of Quebec, the province where the incident occurred, announced the police watchdog Bureau of Independent Investigations (BEI) was opening a probe following a federal report that the “First Counselor of the Embassy of Senegal in Canada” was the subject of “a police intervention that raises questions.”
A response issued late Friday by the police department of Gatineau, an Ottawa suburb, described a different scene, saying the woman had violently attacked two police officers.
The police said they had been called on Tuesday when a bailiff encountered problems while executing a court order – which was not described.
They said police determined the court order was valid and that the official who issued it had been told of the person’s diplomatic status. The bailiff then proceeded to carry out his order, they said.
But they said the person became “aggressive,” refused to cooperate and struck one officer in the face.
When they moved to arrest her, police said, the woman resisted and bit a second officer.
At that point, she was handcuffed and then placed in the back of a patrol car – “for the safety of those present” – while the bailiff carried out his order and matters calmed down.
At no time, according to police, did the woman complain of any pain or injury, though later in the day police were called back by paramedics seeking “assistance when they were working with this person.”
The Gatineau police statement said provincial prosecutors had been asked to review whether officers should face a criminal investigation.
It also requested a review of whether charges could be brought against the woman for attacking officers and interfering with police work.
The Senegal Foreign Ministry has demanded that the incident be investigated and proceedings brought against “the perpetrators of this inadmissible aggression.”
It called the incident a “flagrant” violation of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
Ottawa said in a statement it would “continue to cooperate fully with Senegal to remedy this regrettable situation,” and that it takes its Vienna Convention obligations “very seriously.”
“We are working diligently with the various levels of government involved and look forward to a thorough investigation,’ the Canadian government said, adding the foreign affairs minister was in contact with her Senegalese counterpart. – AFP, August 7, 2022
