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On January 28, Mamadi III Fara Camara was arrested by police officer Sanjay Vig. He is fined for using his phone while driving. A few hours later, he was arrested at home and accused of assaulting the police officer during a confrontation by seizing his service weapon and shooting at him. Several charges, including alleged murder of a police officer, were then brought against him.
The engineer by training maintains his innocence — he only witnessed the incident before calling 911. After six days in prison, after the authorities viewed images filmed by a surveillance camera and analyzed DNA evidence, the young man was released. The police apologized a few days later, while the real author of the crime was still at large. “He is relieved, but overwhelmed by the events,” said Ms. Virginie Dufresne-Lemire, Mr. Camara's lawyer. There are so many decisions to make, it's a lot of things that he did not ask to manage, he did nothing to live through it.” For many experts and community stakeholders, this case raises questions and concerns.
Lessons That Have Not Been Learned
“I woke up this morning with a bitter taste,” says Stephanie Germain, a member of the Hoodstock collective. In the wake of these events, she returned to the images of the demonstration on May 31 last year, held following the death of George Floyd, killed by police officers in the United States. “It's only been eight months — what have we learned? She asks, before recalling that we are in the middle of celebrating Black History Month. “It is not a question of bad apples, it is a question of culture that must be changed here and now, because there will be other victims,” she adds. Despite everything, Stephanie Germain notes that a change is taking place in communities.
“The beautiful thing is to see how people organize themselves,” she says. Several initiatives are being put forward to support Mamadi Camara, but also to help the next victims in the event that similar incidents occur in the future. “The problem of racial profiling is not solved by institutions; therefore, people create things outside the system in order to survive,” she says. According to Ms. Germain, the opening of numerous legal clinics in recent years proves this. The youth worker also notes that several young people decide to study law.
“They understood that they could not change the system if they were not part of it.” At the Saint-Michel Legal Clinic, Me Fernando Belton wants to promote accessibility to justice for people in the neighborhood. He also believes that the current climate shows that the collective awareness after the death of George Floyd did not last. “There is still a lot of work to be done, as shown by the various cases we hear about in the media,” he believes. He is concerned that tensions such as those that arose following the death of Fredy Villanueva could soon be repeated in Quebec.
“Some oppressed groups are fed up with it, and there are police officers who are on edge as well because of how citizens react with them,” he says. The Camara Case Brings Back Bad Memories for Ms. Belton. The criminal and criminal lawyer tells us that he himself was arrested in downtown Montreal, because he matched the description of a suspect. “The description was that of a black man,” he recalls. “In the opposite situation, when the description is that of a white man, when the description is that of a white man, people are not called out in the same way,” he declares.For the latter, as for Ms. Germain, this incident is part of a series of incidents that have gone on for too long. “I am trying to find out what has changed and I can't see it..
There were several commissions, and I don't see that the recommendations of these commissions have been implemented,” regrets Stephanie Germain. At the demonstration in support of Mamadi Camara, Rito Joseph analyzed things from a historical point of view. “It is part of a historical continuity in Quebec. We are clinging to colonial remains, he believes. You have to make an effort; if people don't want to, you will be caught in the situation you are in right now, that is, with voices that are being extinguished.” “Why must the black community be suffering from this pressure? I ask. I am not sure I know the solution. But it's not a problem we created. It is not up to us to find a solution.”
Picture: Pablo Ortiz
The Flaws in the Justice System
Mr. Fernando Belton does not have access to the information that was used to identify Mr. Camara as a suspect before he was excused. It was this information that determined the charges that were brought against him. “It should be understood that in Quebec, the power to file charges or not lies with the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions, which is an independent body,” he explains. Ms. Belton believes that the government body should explain how it came to the conclusion that the wrong individual should be detained and that he had to spend six days in prison before being exculpated, when evidence of his innocence was available.
“One thing we've noticed over the last few years is that the presumption of innocence seems to be something you can take and throw in the trash as soon as you talk about serious offenses,” explains the lawyer. Mr. Belton points out that, without the video that exculpates him, Mr. Camara could have been incarcerated for the rest of the legal proceedings — which can last for years! — or that he could have been found guilty when he is innocent. When an individual is charged, an interim release investigation determines whether or not the individual remains detained. Often, this investigation can be carried out the day after the arrest. It may also last longer if the charge is serious.
It was at this stage that Mr. Camara was at the time the proceedings were stayed. The disclosure of the evidence also takes place at this time. It was this evidence, available from the beginning, that allowed Mamadi Camara to be innocent. An investigation by the Quebec Superior Court will shed light on this case. Mamadi Camara said he was disappointed. Her lawyer, Ms. Virginie Dufresne-Lemire, objects to the fact that this investigation is not public. “I am afraid that we do not have more information with the conclusions of a report.” She is in the process of examining the evidence.
In Defense of the Victims
The lawyer defends several victims of police abuse and racial profiling. “These are often trivial cases that completely get out of hand, with victims who are racialized people.” She says she is disappointed with the current judicial system. “We don't have a system that helps people who are victims of abuse of authority,” says Ms. Dufresne-Lemire. “It's David versus Goliath,” she summarizes.
Victims and victims' families often have to pay significant amounts of money for legal remedies, amounts that they often do not have and have not asked to pay. On the other hand, members of the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) benefit from the support of the Fraternity of Police Officers of Montreal. The City of Montreal is suffering from their resources. Me Dufresne-Lemire represented members of Pierre Coriolan's family during the public investigation into the death of the 58-year-old man, shot dead by police officers in 2017. She had to pressure the government to have their lawyer fees paid to them.
“The League of Rights made requests for access to information, and the four lawyers who represented the police officers were paid nearly $200,000. I received $10,000 from the government for the first two weeks,” she said. In many cases, however, victims must defend themselves by relying solely on their resources, which are generally not very important. Legal aid is not offered in the event of a lawsuit, says the lawyer, who confides that she sometimes has to abandon proceedings, as the families she serves lack the resources. Several lawyers are currently working on this issue. On the other hand, in Montreal's black community, people are organizing to raise funds for victims of police abuse. A $25,000 fundraiser was launched by lawyer Farrah Auguste to support Mr. Camara. Ms. Dufresne-Lemire believes that attention should be paid to the creation of public assistance for this type of business.
“Juripop offers free consultations; it's funded by the government. We should have this type of service for cases of police brutality and cases of abuse of institutional authority,” she said.
Between Racial Profiling and Personal Error
According to a 2019 study on police stops, black people are stopped by the SPVM 4.24 times more often than white people. And that number rises to 15 in some neighborhoods. Although many believe that there was racial profiling during the arrest of Mamadi Camara, the legal experts with whom La Converse spoke cannot comment on this, as they do not have sufficient information on the incident.
The criminologist Massimiliano Mulone, who contributed to the study on racial profiling, believes that, in the case of Mr. Camara, the question is: How do you make mistakes during a police investigation? “Why are indictments coming in too quickly? This is what is often called “tunnel vision,” when investigators are convinced that they have found the truth,” explains the specialist. This vision takes shape when we look at the evidence that confirms our suspicions and dismiss those that disprove them.
“The job of the investigator is to prove that a person is guilty. The search for the truth stops quickly when you think you have reached the truth,” he said. Mr. Mulone's team was commissioned by the SPVM for a second study on arrests. Investigative studies are not planned at this time. With regard to the analysis of the organization's culture and its sensitivity to the issue of systemic racism, the sociologist Frédéric Boisrond works as an independent strategic advisor. He recently submitted an initial report to the director of the SPVM. “Some say that the incident cannot be racist because the police officer is of Indo-Pakistani origin. Systemic racism is not individual racism,” he recalls. “That doesn't prevent a person — regardless of their ethnic origin — from behaving racist when dealing with a black person.
It's not about the individual, it's about the culture of the organization they work for. If racist behaviors are naturally or valued within the organization, or if people are invited to engage in such behaviors, they are likely to occur during an interaction,” he says.
Journalistic practices to be reviewed
And, beyond the judicial error, several people denounce the media coverage of the arrest of Mamadi Camara. “This is the first time that I have seen police sources disclose so much information to the media,” continues Mr. Dufresne-Lemire. His photo and identity were widely broadcast in the media. They will always be associated with the story of a police officer being attacked,” said Van Harry, a citizen he met during the demonstration in support of Mamadi Camara last Sunday. “When a person from a marginalized community is accused, one wastes one's life. The police, on the other hand, are protected; we have very little information when they are involved,” adds Stephanie Germain. She deplored the fact that Mr. Camara had been portrayed as a criminal even before more was known about him.
“We are not entitled to the presumption of innocence. He was immediately presumed guilty,” she said, hoping that the Quebec media could learn a lesson from this story. In the United States, a reflection on the coverage of crimes and news stories is also emerging in the journalistic world. Kelly McBride has a lot to say, having worked for 15 years as a journalist assigned to crime stories. She believes that reporting practices need to change. “We're hurting our audience by publishing too many crime stories; we're hurting individuals by making their lives a lot more difficult,” she said during a crime coverage course we attended. The professor at the Poynter Institute reveals sensationalist topos, which are preferred over reports on public safety, or which hold institutions to account.
The former reporter believes that when news is released based on a press release, journalists often amplify the biases that the police already have, and that these biases cause harm to the community. According to Ms. McBride, publications should also have a content removal policy. Journalists should also pay attention to their own biases and to the photos published to show the people concerned, as well as to the terms used to refer to them.